{oOo}
They called her Thora, though the name had always sounded wrong for some reason. Still, she couldn't think of the right name to call herself. She was alone in the crowd: too strong and too eager to fight to fit in with the other women, but the wrong gender to join the hunting and the fighting, unless the situation was truly dire.
Now, clan Russ had a new member, the wild boy, to whom their head had taken a liking. It was his unbroken spirit that the old man had found admirable, but the very same spirit had all the other women frightened. The youth was big, strong and aggressive. Thora was the only one brave enough to bring him food.
She carefully pushed the door open, balancing the tray on one hand. The boy was sitting in the furthest corner, golden eyes watching her intently. Thora placed the tray on the floor and took a step back, waiting for the youth to start eating. By now, he was used enough to her company to do that, but it took quite a lot of convincing.
As she had expected, the boy rose soon enough and ate the whole meal in two gulps. He remained on the spot that time, watching her with a frown. Then, to her shock, he grinned, displaying worryingly sharp teeth. It was almost a miracle she didn't flinch.
"You could try thanking me, you know?" she said, smiling cautiously back.
Naturally, she did not expect him to answer. While children rarely survived alone in the wilderness, there had been cases similar to his. As far as Thora knew, none of them had managed to learn to speak once found. Nevertheless, she thought she'd try.
"If I get more," the youth replied and this time Thora didn't manage to stay composed. True the sentence sounded like a growl, but the boy had spoken. Thora gaped at him, shocked.
"Will I?" the youth asked, clearly not realizing that he was doing something out of ordinary.
{oOo}
"You want me to pierce your ears?" Thora asked, looking up at Leman. She put away her knife and wiped her hands against her apron, looking at the newest addition to clan Russ.
Leman, quite unabashed, used his size and reached past her to fish out a herring from the plate she had been preparing. He took a bite, knowing full well that she was not going to chide him for this act of kitchen thievery.
"Mhm," he nodded, before fishing out a pair of newly-made ear-rings with his free hand.
Thora blinked: the two pieces of jewelry had been made from fangs of some beast. She had heard Leman had slain one of those enormous white bears recently, but she had not been aware they had such large teeth.
"They're from the she-wolf that…um… fed me?" he attempted to explain. There was a lot left unsaid, but Thora thought she understood. She wore a necklace that had once belonged to the woman, who had adopted her, after all.
"Well, you'll have to wait until I wash my hands," she said, pushing another herring in Leman's direction.
He looked around, before leaning down and placing a rather clumsy kiss on her cheek. Thora blinked, wondering why she thought he wanted to do something else.
{oOo}
