A/N:WOOT I HAVE 100 STORIES!

Another one of my Christmas lead-up stories, this one for InyrilJace. This was meant to be submitted yesterday but I got carried away with Snamione instead... ^^; Ahem.

Something you should know about this story is that it's a crossover between FF7 and InyrilJace's stories about Taiit. You can find these on fictionpress. h t t p : / / w w w . fictionpress . com/u/703295/InyrilJace

Disclaimer: I do not own FF7. Taiit and Fenrir belong to InyrilJace.

Taiit let a growl bubble up in his chest as he raced on all fours, his ears flicking back and forth as they caught the sounds of his enemy, Fenrir, up ahead. It wouldn't be long until he reached the other wolf and was able to attack.

Darting around a tree, he did a double-take to his left as he saw a stream appear, its clear waters sparkling innocently. Taiit focused his eyes ahead of himself again, ignoring the small voice in his head that told him he needed a drink. What he needed was to catch Fenrir before he got too far.

Besides, the water in this stream was poisoned – or so they say. For as long as he could remember, Taiit had always heard stories about the stream in these parts which was poisoned and would draw in anyone who got too close. Looking at it now, he honestly doubted the stories, although it was still possible that the water was poisoned.

But a stream drawing him in? Impossible.

So he continued to run, following the sounds of Fenrir who crashed loudly through the forest up ahead in a way that almost begged for him to follow. Wasn't the other wolf trying to be quiet at all? Did he want to be found?

Gradually, the sounds grew closer as Taiit covered more and more ground, advancing on his enemy while keeping the sounds of his paws on the ground to a minimum. He wanted to sneak up on Fenrir and then pounce, scaring him so that he could see the fear in his eyes.

Just as he thought he was five metres away, a growl from his right startled him and he yelped, turning to see the wolf leaping out from the trees towards him, teeth bared. Desperate to escape, Taiit jumped backwards, hoping he'd get far enough away so that he could then regain his footing and race back in to fight with full force.

But that was when he realised he had jumped right into the stream. It wasn't even a shallow part of the stream, either, as before he had time to blink he had disappeared under the water and began spluttering, quickly shifting to human form so that it would be easier to grab onto something in order to pull himself back out.

The irrational fear of being poisoned or trapped by the stream made Taiit's movements urgent and thrashing as his arms flailed for something to hold, despite himself repeating over and over in his mind that there was nothing to be afraid of except for Fenrir, who was probably waiting above for the chance to pounce and kill.

Just as he began to near the surface again and could see a rock which would be good to hold onto, the water began to surge faster and he was flung sideways, the rush of water against his eyes obscuring his view. He opened his mouth to yell and bubbles tore out, heading to the surface. What frightened him the most was the fact that the new surge of water was pulling him downwards in a whirlpool.

Almost an instant later Taiit found himself falling and able to yell, as the sound erupted from his lungs and reached his ears. With a thud he fell onto a dirt ground and lay still for a moment as he caught his breath and tried to figure out what had just happened.

Where had all the water gone? How could he be on dry land if he had been heading down, not up?

Lifting his head, he slowly looked around at his surroundings to try and get a better grip on the situation. With a yelp, he then sprung to his feet and spun around in a circle, eyes wide as he observed the new terrain. Nothing looked familiar! Where was he?

The sound of a twig cracking to his side had him shifting to wolf form out of instinct and he crouched low, preparing to growl at whatever came for him. It was a few more tense moments before a figure emerged from the shadows, but the sight stunned Taiit enough to stop him from attacking right away. Instead, he slunk back slightly to watch.

The man had an enormous sword in his hands, but he was grinning up at the trees as if he'd never seen anything like them before. Just to check, Taiit glanced up at the threes as well. They looked fairly normal, although come to think of it there was definitely something different about them.

Fixing his gaze back on the man, he wondered what he was doing out here.

"Seriously Angeal," the man called over his shoulder loudly, startling Taiit. "There are no monsters here. Can we head back now?"

There was no response for a moment before Taiit saw another man walk up beside the other, his hands on his hips as he addressed him. "Not until we check a bit further ahead where they were sighted previously. And will you keep your voice down? At this rate you're going to scare them all off before we get anywhere near."

Taiit slowly crept backwards, keeping silent as he tried to put as much distance between himself and these men as possible. They sounded harmless, but he could tell that they were dangerous by the weapons they carried. And if they were looking for monsters, he certainly did not want to be found by them or else he would have to engage in an unnecessary battle.

Managing to slink back far enough so that he was out of sight, Taiit found himself standing in front of a small stream which wound through this new forest quietly. It didn't look much like the one he had fallen into before, but it had to be the same one since it was the only one nearby. Unless, of course, he had somehow been transported far away from where he ran into Fenrir. All the stories he had heard about the poisoned stream came back to him but he pushed them away, refusing to believe them.

Sighing and staring at the stream awkwardly, he wondered how he was going to get back to where he had been before. Should he follow the stream along and hope he found something that looked familiar? What if he went one way but was supposed to go the other way?

"Hey, Angeal," a whisper came from behind him and he tensed, turning in shock to see one of the men from before watching him carefully. The other man came up next to him again and took a breath at the sight before him.

"You don't often see one of those around here," the man replied in a murmur just as quiet as the first man's voice had been.

"Yeah," the other man agreed. "Should we do anything? I mean, it could be dangerous, but it's not what the people described to be attacking their village."

"It doesn't seem to be doing any harm to anyone," the man frowned slightly and took a cautious step forward. "Hey-"

Taiit wasn't about to stick around and wait for these men to attack him. Turning to bound across the stream and away from them, he suddenly felt himself pulled down and let out a yelp as he was dragged beneath the water again. It hadn't appeared very deep when he looked down at it, but now that he was under it was obviously much deeper than he had thought.

He was thrown about under the water despite how calm it had been from above and he could feel more breath leaving him every moment. Was the stream really poisoned? Was he hallucinating because of it?

Just like before, Taiit suddenly found himself thrown onto dry ground. He lay there heavily for a moment without the energy to drag himself up, but finally managed to get to his feet again. This time he recognised all the scenery and he felt hugely relieved to know that he was back where he had been before. It didn't seem like Fenrir was around any more and as Taiit sniffed around he caught the other wolf's scent leading away from the stream.

Good. As much as he wanted to find and kill the other wolf he really needed time to recover from what had just happened. He still couldn't quite wrap his head around it, but perhaps in a few hours things would be clearer.

Heading away from the stream and through the forest, Taiit shook water off of himself and wondered whether he was finally going truly mad from everything that had happened to him.

It wouldn't be surprising.