"No, I suppose you hadn't.." she mused with a twist of her lips, her eyes following his hand as he waved it over the little fire. She wasn't sure whether she should feel afraid. She didn't, nor as wary as she knew she should, but whether it was the charm about him that piqued her curiosity or whether she was still in shock, she didn't know, and right now all she cared about was getting warm.
Her gaze flicked upward to his face as he mentioned interesting company.. "Yes you do." she agreed with a light smirk, and huddled over the fire to watch the flames as she listened.
The timbre of his voice seemed to resonate straight to her very bones, easing the tension in her muscles and soothing the raw pain that'd wracked her with tears only minutes ago. She tried to find meaning in the words, but couldn't. She tried to understand what the song meant by the way he sang it. Whatever it meant, it would have shaken tears from her had she any left to shed.
She breathed deeply and cleared her throat after a brief silence had fallen, the firelight warming her pale skin as she turned her face toward him again. "It's beautiful." she smiled. The song and his voice. She laughed awkwardly under her breath..
"Likely worth a story and a trinket, but a deal is a deal.." she grinned.
"Some years ago we were travelling the outskirts of
the spine. There was something hunting us there, and something protecting us too. I saw it..
Molly did too. It was a creature as tall as a house, claws like short swords and antlers with sharp points. Before it could attack us, there were wolves who chased it off, and a woman with them. She told us that the wolves were Garou, and she shared their story with us. So I'll share it with you." she smiled, her hands splaying above the fire to soak in the heat.
"The story was of the Lupa, the Wyvern and the
Basilisk. The three were known as the Triad.. They are not gods, nor men - but are said to be great beasts larger than all lands and oceans.. The Garou believe that it was these three who created the worlds together, and each had a very vital part to play in making it work.."
"The Lupa, the great wolf who creates and watches over the lands. The Wyvern, the great dragon who creates energy and changes and moves the lands that the Lupa created, and the
Basilisk - the great serpent, who destroys things so that new may be created.."
"Lupa was so good at creating and taking good care of the world, but everything he created was either being changed by the Wyvern or destroyed by the Basilisk and so he grew more and more frustrated every day.. One day he went insane, and he dug and dug and dug until he came to the great fires in the very centre of the the world, and tricked the Wyvern and the Basilisk to fall into it. The Wyvern fell, but he took flight just before he hit the flames, and he took off into the skies and was safe. But the great Basilisk fell long into the depths and was trapped there, and he thrashed and roared so loud that it shook the mountains and rose up the seas..."
"The Basilisk was so angry that he could no longer destroy the great Wolf's world, that he opened his mouth and spilled out all of his darkness, and the demons climbed out of the pit and plagued the world with evil. And so Lupa and the Wyvern created the Garou, the strongest of warriors, and sent them to drag those dark beings back through the gauntlet, and save humanity from the Basilisks' destruction.."
Anais smiled, and her head tilted as she fell into thought..
"Perhaps those Garou are still looking out for me.." she huffed a laugh.
