Private Tales The Cost of Survival

[Fallon]

"He thought he was in love.. But she never returned the sentiment. Her father wasn't too keen on his daughter being courted by a wolf.." Caspian explained. The wolf huffed, and leaned into Anja's ear scratches.

"Snowflake..?" Nadya's brow arched, and she looked at her two children who beamed proudly. The girl must have had a name before, but Nadya simply nodded and accepted that perhaps she wasn't ready to open up quite yet. She shared a look with Fallon who offered a gentle smile in thanks. The boys however, were not as good at reading idiosyncrasies.

"So where are you from?" Caspian asked..

"Do you have a family?.." Tyr questioned..

Fallon cleared her throat, and they each looked to her with a quizzical expression. "I think we should let the girl get comfortable before we start with the inquisition.." Fallon's brow rose in a way that said she was not inviting argument on the subject, and they each nodded.

"Of course.. Make yourself at home, lass. Don't mind us.. We don't get many visitors up here.." Caspian, the Beta wolf, smiled to her and flopped back down onto his pelt to stretch. Tori returned with a warm smile to their guest.

"I've left you some fresh clothes by the pools.." she gestured to the rear of the cavern. "The water is hot today." she added in a thick accent far foreign to the spine.

 

[Isodel]

Absent-mindedly she nodded once more to Snowflake when the women queried it, though her mind was on the explanation of 'girlfriend' and what that had done to the young wolf. There was an odd sense of... kinship she felt towards him when it was explained; heartbreak drove people like them into hiding themselves in the form that didn't feel emotional pain. Wild animals were all about primal need and survival. Emotions never came into the question and sometimes that was best. Sometimes cutting them off was what you needed to do to survive.

Isodel came crashing back to reality with the onslaught of questions about who she was though. Her eyes widened and she half turned as though to run for the door. They were tapping on a locked chest she didn't want to open just yet, not when she was still finding her feet in this form, remembering what it was like to taste and smell and talk like... All she could managed with a quick shake of her head but was spared attempting to come up with an answer by the announcement of the bath being ready. The young girl let out a relieved breath and all but fled in the direction she was shown.

Loneliness was comforting, even with the sounds of voices drifting to her. Slowly she let the cloak fall and she stepped into the warm waters. It took a while to adjust her sensitive skin to the sensation but in the end she sunk into it with a blissful sigh and let the waters whisk away grime and fatigue. Once she was washed and had lingered in the pool until her stomach snarled at her, she got dressed in the strange clothes provided and padded back to the fire.

Everyone was mid conversation so she quietly slipped into a space besides the two children and eyed up the deer.

 

[Fallon]

The pack of wolves laughed and shared stories by the fire, and now and then Fallon's gaze drifted toward the pools, ensuring that the girl was alright. The children were, as always, a good source of entertainment as they squabbled and gave everyone a nostalgic insight into the minds of children. How vast and wonderful the world seemed to them, how innocent their views.

"I saw her first so she's my cat.." Anja said, matter-of-factly.

"Nuh-uh." Cohr countered. "I smelled her first so she's my cat."

"No you didn't! Dea smelled her first!" she frowned.

"Well Dea can't have a cat, she's a wolf cabbage brains." he growled.

"Alright enough." Fallon cut in with a chuckle of her own. "Can you image if you were lost and people squabbled over who would own you?" The children looked at her, wide eyed as their little heads shook. "We are not owned, nor do we own anyone. She is not a 'cat'.. She is just as special as you both, and we will treat her as a friend, and guest. And if she chooses to stay here with us then we will treat her like a member of this pack and family like everyone else. Am I understood?.." she asked, her brows risen but the small smirk of amusement remained curled on her lips.

"Yes Aunt Fal.." they responded in unison to the ambience of chuckling laughter.

By the time the girl returned to the fire, Yorik had butchered enough meat to feed everyone and Tori was happily cooking. The smell of roasting meat filled the caern, and Caspian was pouring ale from a cask.

"Feel better?.." Fallon asked, and the children curled up close to their new friend as she was first to be offered a plate of meat.

 

[Isodel]

"Yes," Isodel smiled faintly as the children curled up against her side.

Pack.

That was the word. The feeling it conjured was of warmth, of people who loved one another and cared for them. People who would die for one another. Now she had put a name to it it brought back a memory.

"Come in from the cold, little cub," her mothers laugh warmed her more than the fire possibly could. She stripped of mittens and a coat on her way to the table where a steaming plate of cookies waited. Her two brothers were already stuffing their faces. She pulled herself onto a chair and tucked in, warm chocolate running down her chin, and watched as her father kissed her mothers cheek and spun her in their little kitchen, dancing to a tune only they knew...

With a blink she was back by the fire leagues from home. The nice, mothering woman was holding out a plate of food to her but she looked concerned. Heat coloured her cheeks for a moment and then she took the offering. The smell made her stomach growl and she tucked into it with all the manners of a feral beast.

"My pack are further North," she said in between bites, suddenly answering one of the questions from earlier. "In the Blightlands."