The next time Cassia was up to stretch and eat, Nico came in and rearranged the bedding so she and Huck could stay together more comfortably. Over the next few days, Cassia met the rest of his family living in the clay house. First it was his mother, Agatha, although her husband called her Aggie. Agatha was at least middle aged but it was hard to pinpoint how old she really was because of how happy and lively she was. Everyday at least once she would swoop into their room and give Cassia and Huck a thorough checking over. She was a rounder woman with brown hair she always had pulled up in a messy, drooping bun on the top of her head. She was very quick and somewhat scattered, which fit with her animal, a large brown rabbit. She had told them that was her shifted animal almost immediately, laughing and joking how in that form she could've made a hearty meal for either of them. Cassia immediately liked her and she could tell Huck did too. Her warmness was infectious and she usually had them doing their strange animal version of chuckling.
The next person they met was not so warm. Ivan, Nico's father, was a tall, muscular man with the same dusty brown hair as his son and brown eyes that didn't have the matching kindness. That Nico inherited from Agatha. The mates were as opposite as you could imagine but as soon as they were together you could easily see how much they loved each other. Ivan, the stony figure, would melt like butter when his giggling wife came in the room and gave him some task she wanted him to complete. With a little grumbling Cassia knew was probably more for show, Ivan would be on his way. He had only come to see them twice. Once, the first day Cassia had woken up to see the state they were in and again a few days later when Agatha deemed Cassia should be well enough to shift to her human form in a day. Ivan had gruffly informed the bear and the wolf that they could stay as long as they needed to get better. After that, he would see what he could do to help them. That little spark of kindness had been enough to show Cassia what it must have been that made Agatha love him. Beneath his tough exterior he must have had a good heart.
The last two people that Cassia and Huck met were Nico's two little sisters. The twins both had dirty blonde hair pulled back in a braid and excited blue eyes that matched their Mothers. There was Jules who was the taller of the two and had a barely noticeable half moon scar on her cheek she excitedly told them was from a time she had gotten in a fight with a friend who had shifted into a weasel. The shorter one was Mabel who was a little rounder than her twin and happily declared she had fought the same friend and come out without a scar. The girls were eight and had quickly become their most frequent visitors, bringing in little violets in water they had picked while playing or stones they had thought were pretty. Nico and Agtha would shoo them out when they caught them but the girls were sneaky and would find ways back in. Cassia, feeling better, would walk around the room and let them ride on her back which made them squeal with excitement. They also loved sitting and petting Huck's thick black fur. Even though they couldn't talk back, it didn't stop the girls from asking a string of questions.
After a few days of letting her polar bear body heal, Cassia agreed with Agatha that she would be alright to shift back. It was important to let what ever body you were injured in heal properly. If she was a human with a cut on her hand she could shift into a bear because the cut on the bear paw would be hardly noticeable. If she had a gash across her bear paw though and shifted to a human, the gash would be a huge life threatening would. After letting her bear form heal and assuring herself her ribs hadn't been cracked by the battering against the rock and the pain in her head had completely subsided, she knew she didn't need to stay a bear any longer.
She waited until it was night and the house was dark and quiet, everyone but she and Huck asleep. She moved away from him and in the warm light of the fire, let herself slowly shift back into her human form. After being a bear for so long it was like finally being able to relax in a way she hadn't been able to for so long. She stretched stretched everything, from her back to her fingertips and smiled like a happy cat. Huck lay with his wolf eyes drooping, tired still from the long, hard road of healing. She pulled on the clothes she had brought in her sack, black breeches and a tightly woven lavender tunic which hung loose, slipping down one shoulder. Running her hands through her silver hair she winced at how tangled it was. She dug out her comb from the bottom of her bag and began working it through the long locks. Huck watched her, eyes sparkling in the flickering firelight. When she finished she braided her hair and tied a strip of cloth around the bottom to keep it up.
Smiling happily at Huck, Cassia crawled over to their bed and collapsed on it, giggling. She propped herself up on an elbow and gave him a kiss on his nose then the top of his head. He burrowed his big head into her middle, something like a whine coming from the back of his throat. "Hush," she whispered, giggling again and hugging him, "I'm not ready for questions just yet. I wonder if I shouldn't wait for you and make you answer them all." A groan came from the wolf and she covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. She turned around then to lay against him, using his side as a pillow. The blanket that had been too small for her as a bear was now big enough to cover them both. Cassia laid it over she and Huck and yawned. "Being a polar bear was fine. But I'm so happy to be human again for a while. I start to get anxious being stuck for so long in one shape." She blinked heavily and felt Huck's warm fur against her skin. "You'll be able to shift again soon. You're getting better every day." Huck yawned and closed his eyes, settling in for the night. "I'm so glad you're alright. As soon as you can shift again we can make our plans on where we go from here."