Forest Murmurs
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.
Chapter 2
" Milord Vanyel?" Someone knocked on his door, and he sleepily rose to answer it.
It was a short girl in pale green Healers robes, obviously the page that had had ordered. But he had gone and gotten the girl no less than half a day past, how could she be awake now?
" I suppose you've guessed why I'm here." The girl said, a no nonsense attitude about her.
" Yes, but what I can't understand is why so early." Vanyel grinned as he put his boots on and stood up, following the girl to whatever room his guest had been put into.
She was awake and looking more healthy than she had the night before, which was saying alot. She was sitting up, and kind of leaning over a little, so he guessed that they had to stitch up a few of the cuts. Her hands were bandaged and laying in her lap. When he tapped the door frame, she looked up, an unhappy look on her face.
" I had forgotten how much fun getting hurt isn't." She said, biting her lower lip a little.
" Funny how that works, isn't it?" Vanyel asked cynically as he took his seat at the foot of the bed, setting his elbows on his knees and looking at her.
To anyone else, she would have been attractive, but to Vanyel, she was merely pretty. Her hair was long and it looked like it had a bath and a trim. She didn't look old enough to have soft grey hair, but she did. Another question rose in his mind, but he waited until his analyzing was over to ask anything. Her face was sort of oval, her ears stuck out of her hair like they should have been pointed like an elfs. Her eyes were soft and an eerie dark green. Her mouth, at the moment, was pointed down in an unhappy frown and she bit randomly at her lips. Her skin was tanned and her arms and what he could see of her torso was covered with a few scars.
" Do you remember your name?" He asked, pouring a glass of water and handing it to her, giving her something to concentrate on other than her lips.
" Li- Eleece." She cursed herself for forgetting what her human name was, but then again, had it been so long since she last used it? It must have been.
" How old are you?" Eleece didn't know if she made the right choice in calling to this man to help her, he seemed cold and hardened.
" Seven and ten years, born on Winter Solstice." She repeated calmly, taking little sips of water to calm her stomach.
Vanyel's eyes seemed to match the color of her hair as they bore into hers. " Do you know how you got those wounds on your back?"
Eleece nodded and hoped that she could keep her story straight. " I was attacked by wolves in the woods. You saved me." She said, now leaning back as the pain drugs took over.
" The wolf that was there, was that the one?" He asked, and Eleece felt a stab of pain through the drugs.
Brightfang had been stupid enough to let himself be seen, he could ruin everything! She steeled her emotions and shook her head. " There was no wolf that I saw, but then again, I was face down in the dirt at the time, so he could have been there or not and I wouldn't have noticed."
Vanyel nodded. " Why did the wolves attack you, do you know?"
" Could have been the rabbits on my game tack, or the scent of blood on me." She spread her hands and shrugged. " I don't know about the wolves, they are wild and unpredictable animals and you ask me to figure out why they attacked me. Truly, I do not know, but what I do know is that you probably have better things to do than sit around and interrogate me."
Eleece truly did know that it was a wolf that had attacked her, but it was a wolf as she had never seen before. Nearly as big as the hunting cats that shared the forest with them, but something in his mind did not feel right to her, not the way the pack felt. He felt bad, like he was poisoned meat. He didn't touch any of the pack, just her. And his voice in her mind, it had not sounded like a wolf voice, but human almost. He'd told her that he was going to kill her, and he was going to enjoy it greatly. Then she had somehow gotten a hold on his tail and let the rest of the pack do their work, but it had been too late for her.
She knew that he had gotten away, and that was why she needed to stay away from the pack for a while, so he did not threaten the pack if he came looking for her.
" You know, you are right. I also happen to think that you are not telling me the whole truth to me. There was a wolf, wasn't there?" Vanyle asked, and she meekly nodded.
" But not the one I saw, a different one." She nodded to that too and Vanyel sat back, pleased that he was getting somewhere. " I tell you what, I am going to leave for a few hours and then when I come back, I'll have my dear Aunt Savil with me. She can help you more than I can maybe. We'll just have to see."
Vanyel seemed to be speaking more to himself than to her as he bowed politely to the Healer on his way out. Eleece wondered what had just happened here, and lay back and let the drink that the Healer gave her put her to sleep.
Little dashed through the dream forest, seeking news of her pack from the other woodland animals. They were alive and healthy, the pups had been taken over by Snowheart, a pure white female that Little was friends with. Her own litter had grown and was now old enough to eat meat, so her leftover milk would go to Little's pups. Brightfang would make it so they knew who their mother was, that Snowheart was not, as little tiny pups were likely to belive that Mother was whomever gave them milk.
Brightfang no longer hunted the small ground grouses that shared the caves with them, something that Little used to hate. She didn't know why he was doing it now instead of when she had asked him on numerous accounts. She turned her nose to the sky and howled, hoping that in their dreams they would hear and know that she was well and alive. But when she lowered her muzzle, he was there.
: I knew you couldn't resist me. Your dreaming calls to me like the scent of fresh meat.: His thick grey fur was wet, like he had just swam in the river, and strings of drool hung from his open mouth.
She would not look in his eyes, not again. That was what had captured her last time. They were large and human, and bright green, like a poisonous wound not healed. They had sucked her into a storm of pain and hate and angry desire.
: Now I have you, right where I want you,: He leapt at her and she stood fast, putting up her hands as if she could sheild him off with those alone.
His great heavy body passed right through her, like she was nothing more than mist or a spirit! He landed, turning sharply on his heel and growling.
: This should not happen! I should be able to touch you!: Little started to pull herself out of her sleep, or maybe someone was waking her up, but she could hear his voice as her eyes opened. : You will not get away when you enter the forest next!:
Vanyel had been watching Eleece sleep for a few minutes. Savil was there also, his second opinion. Eleece was calm for the most part, but then something happened and she thrashed about as if she had been tossed into a nightmare unawares. She had put her hands put in front of her and screamed, and Vanyel had grabbed her hands to keep her from doing more damage to herself, and something happened that he never thought was possible.
Her wrists started growing fur, soft and golden. Her wrists seemed to be growing smaller, the bones becoming stronger and lighter. Her eyes opened, and they glowed a bright gold once, then she blinked and they were normal again, the fur under his hands gone as if it had never been there.
He called to her, for she seemed to have gone comatose again. " Eleece, can you hear me?"
She stirred, her dark grey hair shuddering around her. " Let go of me." She whispered, looking up at him through the curtain of her hair.
Vanyel released her wrists and rubbed his own hands against his breeches, trying to rid himself of the feeling of the bones forming under his hands, the silk of new fur. Savil took residence by Vanyel and something sparked in Eleece's eyes when she saw the woman.
" I know you." She said, amazed at something. " You ride in the forest with your snow-horse and your sparkles."
" Sparkles?" Savil asked, obviously not expecting this conversation to have started like it did.
Eleece seemed to shy away a little, smiling hesitiantly and spreading her hands over her body. " I see magic. Yours sparkles, like some of the Healers. Vanyel does also."
" What you are seeing is our shielding!" Savil looked to Vanyel. " Where did you find her?"
" In the forest. Somehow she send me a Sending, only I was asleep so it came as a dream. I got there barely in time, almost got eaten by a wolf too." Vanyel said, reclining in his seat.
" Brightfang would never!" Eleece retorted angrily, then clapped her hands over her mouth and sat back in her bed, her eyes wide and darting from Savil to Vanyel.
" You knew him? You knew the wolf in the forest?" Vanyel hissed, sitting forwards angrily, though he would not take his anger out on her, even if she had been keeping secrets.
Savil put a hand on Vanyel's shoulder and eased him bach, taking the seat by Eleece's bed and spearing her with a glare that no one had yet to escape from. " You have alot of explaining to do, and you had better do it soon."
Eleece threw back the blankets, suddenly finding it too hot to bear in the small room. She stood unsteadily on two feet, something she couldn't remember doing of late. She clutched at a wall and stood, supporting herself by placing one hand against the wall and the other weaving up and down to help her gain her balance as she tried to get the knack of standing again. The long tunic was old and a little small, but long enough to cover her knees and opaque enough that they would not see anything interesting through the fabric.
" As you well know, the small forest has a wolf pack." They nodded and she went on. " Ever since I ran away from home, about six years past, I've run with them. They've been my family since my human one scorned me."
" Brightfang was the first to find me, I had been wounded by a bear and lay in the stream where they usally drank, that was when they spotted me. He licked my wounds when no one else would help me and stayed with me for a few days. He defied his pack by saying that if they did not help me then they would have to find another leader for the pack. That was when they finally helped me. I showed them which herbs to bring me, so I could heal myself, and they brought them." Eleece stopped, thinking about how to phrase everything else.
Vanyel took advantage of her pause and caught Savils eye. : Animal Mindspeech perhaps?:
: I can't think of anything else that would explain.: Savil barely nodded, but he caught the motion.
" What happened after that, after they saved you?" Savil spoke softly, not wanting to upset her now.
" Brightfang brought me into the pack, and Brightfang's word is law in the pack, no one questions the alpha male unless fighting him for the leader position. Few wolves have tried that, and for good reason too." She smiled at a distant memory. " Then I lived with them since now. I would still be with them if it weren't for the monster-wolf."
She shuddered and Vanyel saw things coming together. " The monster- wolf is the one that attacked you then? Not Brightfang."
Eleece nodded and frowned. " Never have I seen a wolf so large. Almost as big as those mountain cats that scream at night. And he thinks different than the pack. The packs thoughts are all jumbled like a tangled rope, but his, his are like humans. Ordered and shelved neatly. He is not a natural wolf." She wrung her hands, now having gained enought control over her balance to not need any support.
" You saw inside his mind? Do you know why he attacked you then?" Savil spoke, concern lining her forehead.
" He wanted something from me, like I had wronged him and he was coming for revenge. I tried not to stay in his mind, it was all wrong. Wolf minds are coppery and golden, but his was blue and streaked with red and black, like he was infected with something." She looked at them from under the curtain of her soft grey hair. " You don't know me well, but the one thing you should know is that not many things scare me enough for me to shiver and shake when I think about them. This wolf, no, this beast, he truly has my fear."
Disclaimer: I own Little/Eleece, the Collegium wolf pack, and the rogue wolf. Vanyel and company are copyright and property of Misty and them peoples.
Chapter 2
" Milord Vanyel?" Someone knocked on his door, and he sleepily rose to answer it.
It was a short girl in pale green Healers robes, obviously the page that had had ordered. But he had gone and gotten the girl no less than half a day past, how could she be awake now?
" I suppose you've guessed why I'm here." The girl said, a no nonsense attitude about her.
" Yes, but what I can't understand is why so early." Vanyel grinned as he put his boots on and stood up, following the girl to whatever room his guest had been put into.
She was awake and looking more healthy than she had the night before, which was saying alot. She was sitting up, and kind of leaning over a little, so he guessed that they had to stitch up a few of the cuts. Her hands were bandaged and laying in her lap. When he tapped the door frame, she looked up, an unhappy look on her face.
" I had forgotten how much fun getting hurt isn't." She said, biting her lower lip a little.
" Funny how that works, isn't it?" Vanyel asked cynically as he took his seat at the foot of the bed, setting his elbows on his knees and looking at her.
To anyone else, she would have been attractive, but to Vanyel, she was merely pretty. Her hair was long and it looked like it had a bath and a trim. She didn't look old enough to have soft grey hair, but she did. Another question rose in his mind, but he waited until his analyzing was over to ask anything. Her face was sort of oval, her ears stuck out of her hair like they should have been pointed like an elfs. Her eyes were soft and an eerie dark green. Her mouth, at the moment, was pointed down in an unhappy frown and she bit randomly at her lips. Her skin was tanned and her arms and what he could see of her torso was covered with a few scars.
" Do you remember your name?" He asked, pouring a glass of water and handing it to her, giving her something to concentrate on other than her lips.
" Li- Eleece." She cursed herself for forgetting what her human name was, but then again, had it been so long since she last used it? It must have been.
" How old are you?" Eleece didn't know if she made the right choice in calling to this man to help her, he seemed cold and hardened.
" Seven and ten years, born on Winter Solstice." She repeated calmly, taking little sips of water to calm her stomach.
Vanyel's eyes seemed to match the color of her hair as they bore into hers. " Do you know how you got those wounds on your back?"
Eleece nodded and hoped that she could keep her story straight. " I was attacked by wolves in the woods. You saved me." She said, now leaning back as the pain drugs took over.
" The wolf that was there, was that the one?" He asked, and Eleece felt a stab of pain through the drugs.
Brightfang had been stupid enough to let himself be seen, he could ruin everything! She steeled her emotions and shook her head. " There was no wolf that I saw, but then again, I was face down in the dirt at the time, so he could have been there or not and I wouldn't have noticed."
Vanyel nodded. " Why did the wolves attack you, do you know?"
" Could have been the rabbits on my game tack, or the scent of blood on me." She spread her hands and shrugged. " I don't know about the wolves, they are wild and unpredictable animals and you ask me to figure out why they attacked me. Truly, I do not know, but what I do know is that you probably have better things to do than sit around and interrogate me."
Eleece truly did know that it was a wolf that had attacked her, but it was a wolf as she had never seen before. Nearly as big as the hunting cats that shared the forest with them, but something in his mind did not feel right to her, not the way the pack felt. He felt bad, like he was poisoned meat. He didn't touch any of the pack, just her. And his voice in her mind, it had not sounded like a wolf voice, but human almost. He'd told her that he was going to kill her, and he was going to enjoy it greatly. Then she had somehow gotten a hold on his tail and let the rest of the pack do their work, but it had been too late for her.
She knew that he had gotten away, and that was why she needed to stay away from the pack for a while, so he did not threaten the pack if he came looking for her.
" You know, you are right. I also happen to think that you are not telling me the whole truth to me. There was a wolf, wasn't there?" Vanyle asked, and she meekly nodded.
" But not the one I saw, a different one." She nodded to that too and Vanyel sat back, pleased that he was getting somewhere. " I tell you what, I am going to leave for a few hours and then when I come back, I'll have my dear Aunt Savil with me. She can help you more than I can maybe. We'll just have to see."
Vanyel seemed to be speaking more to himself than to her as he bowed politely to the Healer on his way out. Eleece wondered what had just happened here, and lay back and let the drink that the Healer gave her put her to sleep.
Little dashed through the dream forest, seeking news of her pack from the other woodland animals. They were alive and healthy, the pups had been taken over by Snowheart, a pure white female that Little was friends with. Her own litter had grown and was now old enough to eat meat, so her leftover milk would go to Little's pups. Brightfang would make it so they knew who their mother was, that Snowheart was not, as little tiny pups were likely to belive that Mother was whomever gave them milk.
Brightfang no longer hunted the small ground grouses that shared the caves with them, something that Little used to hate. She didn't know why he was doing it now instead of when she had asked him on numerous accounts. She turned her nose to the sky and howled, hoping that in their dreams they would hear and know that she was well and alive. But when she lowered her muzzle, he was there.
: I knew you couldn't resist me. Your dreaming calls to me like the scent of fresh meat.: His thick grey fur was wet, like he had just swam in the river, and strings of drool hung from his open mouth.
She would not look in his eyes, not again. That was what had captured her last time. They were large and human, and bright green, like a poisonous wound not healed. They had sucked her into a storm of pain and hate and angry desire.
: Now I have you, right where I want you,: He leapt at her and she stood fast, putting up her hands as if she could sheild him off with those alone.
His great heavy body passed right through her, like she was nothing more than mist or a spirit! He landed, turning sharply on his heel and growling.
: This should not happen! I should be able to touch you!: Little started to pull herself out of her sleep, or maybe someone was waking her up, but she could hear his voice as her eyes opened. : You will not get away when you enter the forest next!:
Vanyel had been watching Eleece sleep for a few minutes. Savil was there also, his second opinion. Eleece was calm for the most part, but then something happened and she thrashed about as if she had been tossed into a nightmare unawares. She had put her hands put in front of her and screamed, and Vanyel had grabbed her hands to keep her from doing more damage to herself, and something happened that he never thought was possible.
Her wrists started growing fur, soft and golden. Her wrists seemed to be growing smaller, the bones becoming stronger and lighter. Her eyes opened, and they glowed a bright gold once, then she blinked and they were normal again, the fur under his hands gone as if it had never been there.
He called to her, for she seemed to have gone comatose again. " Eleece, can you hear me?"
She stirred, her dark grey hair shuddering around her. " Let go of me." She whispered, looking up at him through the curtain of her hair.
Vanyel released her wrists and rubbed his own hands against his breeches, trying to rid himself of the feeling of the bones forming under his hands, the silk of new fur. Savil took residence by Vanyel and something sparked in Eleece's eyes when she saw the woman.
" I know you." She said, amazed at something. " You ride in the forest with your snow-horse and your sparkles."
" Sparkles?" Savil asked, obviously not expecting this conversation to have started like it did.
Eleece seemed to shy away a little, smiling hesitiantly and spreading her hands over her body. " I see magic. Yours sparkles, like some of the Healers. Vanyel does also."
" What you are seeing is our shielding!" Savil looked to Vanyel. " Where did you find her?"
" In the forest. Somehow she send me a Sending, only I was asleep so it came as a dream. I got there barely in time, almost got eaten by a wolf too." Vanyel said, reclining in his seat.
" Brightfang would never!" Eleece retorted angrily, then clapped her hands over her mouth and sat back in her bed, her eyes wide and darting from Savil to Vanyel.
" You knew him? You knew the wolf in the forest?" Vanyel hissed, sitting forwards angrily, though he would not take his anger out on her, even if she had been keeping secrets.
Savil put a hand on Vanyel's shoulder and eased him bach, taking the seat by Eleece's bed and spearing her with a glare that no one had yet to escape from. " You have alot of explaining to do, and you had better do it soon."
Eleece threw back the blankets, suddenly finding it too hot to bear in the small room. She stood unsteadily on two feet, something she couldn't remember doing of late. She clutched at a wall and stood, supporting herself by placing one hand against the wall and the other weaving up and down to help her gain her balance as she tried to get the knack of standing again. The long tunic was old and a little small, but long enough to cover her knees and opaque enough that they would not see anything interesting through the fabric.
" As you well know, the small forest has a wolf pack." They nodded and she went on. " Ever since I ran away from home, about six years past, I've run with them. They've been my family since my human one scorned me."
" Brightfang was the first to find me, I had been wounded by a bear and lay in the stream where they usally drank, that was when they spotted me. He licked my wounds when no one else would help me and stayed with me for a few days. He defied his pack by saying that if they did not help me then they would have to find another leader for the pack. That was when they finally helped me. I showed them which herbs to bring me, so I could heal myself, and they brought them." Eleece stopped, thinking about how to phrase everything else.
Vanyel took advantage of her pause and caught Savils eye. : Animal Mindspeech perhaps?:
: I can't think of anything else that would explain.: Savil barely nodded, but he caught the motion.
" What happened after that, after they saved you?" Savil spoke softly, not wanting to upset her now.
" Brightfang brought me into the pack, and Brightfang's word is law in the pack, no one questions the alpha male unless fighting him for the leader position. Few wolves have tried that, and for good reason too." She smiled at a distant memory. " Then I lived with them since now. I would still be with them if it weren't for the monster-wolf."
She shuddered and Vanyel saw things coming together. " The monster- wolf is the one that attacked you then? Not Brightfang."
Eleece nodded and frowned. " Never have I seen a wolf so large. Almost as big as those mountain cats that scream at night. And he thinks different than the pack. The packs thoughts are all jumbled like a tangled rope, but his, his are like humans. Ordered and shelved neatly. He is not a natural wolf." She wrung her hands, now having gained enought control over her balance to not need any support.
" You saw inside his mind? Do you know why he attacked you then?" Savil spoke, concern lining her forehead.
" He wanted something from me, like I had wronged him and he was coming for revenge. I tried not to stay in his mind, it was all wrong. Wolf minds are coppery and golden, but his was blue and streaked with red and black, like he was infected with something." She looked at them from under the curtain of her soft grey hair. " You don't know me well, but the one thing you should know is that not many things scare me enough for me to shiver and shake when I think about them. This wolf, no, this beast, he truly has my fear."