“Hello, Adam,” Ros Myers greeted him cheerfully. “Was there a problem this morning, you’re a bit later than usual?” Then she looked at the werewolf who had entered by Adam’s side. “Oh!”

“Oh, indeed,” Adam said. “The knife wound Lucas had in his arm hasn’t fully healed, and if you thought he kept fiddling with the dressing in his human form, now he’s ten times worse.”

“Ah, so you resorted to the traditional sock over the dressing.”

“Except it couldn’t be any old sock. It had to be one of mine. And once I’d finally got that on, he insisted on the pair for his other leg.”

“Can’t he use Lucas’ socks? Surely that would make more sense.”

“You’d think, wouldn’t you? But no. In searching for the second sock he painstakingly separated the pile of clean socks, then ignored all Lucas’ socks – and he was quite correct in whose was whose – and hunted through mine to find the one he wanted.”

“But he’s wearing four socks, one on each paw.”

“Having got the front legs sorted, he sat down and started to chew one of his back legs, until I agreed he could wear socks on them, too.”

Ros laughed and Adam pulled a face. The werewolf grinned and wagged his tail.

***

The following morning, when Adam and the werewolf arrived, Ros said, “Those socks look rather more flamboyant than ones you usually wear.”

“They are. We had to stop on the way home to buy some socks for him. Clearly my taste in socks isn’t acceptable.”

***

The next morning, Ros said, “Isn’t his leg better yet? He normally heals very quickly.”

“The leg is fine, but it appears the current werewolf fashion is for socks, preferably the brighter the better. He now has his own sock drawer. I just hope he’s forgotten all about it by next month.”

***

The three days being over, Adam and Lucas were prompt on the Grid.

Ros followed them in and stared at Lucas’ ankles. Then, when she noticed him giving her a curious look, she said, “Is the arm all right now?”

Lucas nodded. “Oh yes. I always heal rapidly during the transformation. No problem at all.”

Ros bit her lip and pointedly didn’t look at Adam.