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 3
Savil and Vanyel left Eleece to herself for a few hours, trying to sort out what they had heard from the girl. After they had heard about the wolf that was not right, They both assumed what any other sane person would: that there was a rabid wolf near the Collegium, and not just near the Collegium, but close enough to the stables and weapons training salle that anyone who went around there was in danger.
Vanyel was sort of starting to see why it had been so important, and not just because of the girl. In some roundabout way, the girl was just the instrument to let them know that there was danger. You could even say that she had nearly sacrificed herself so that others hadn't gotten hurt along. For that, he supposed, he could trust her a little more.
" What I want to know is how the wolf got infected in the first place." Savil growled. " You know the curcuit I just came back from? Well, that was to go around checking livestock and any other animals to make sure than there were no signs of rabidness."
" What if an animal that you had checked became rabid after you left and infected the wolf?" Vanyel offered.
Savil shook her head. " That Healer that came along, she did something to the animals to keep them from contracting any diseases that could be passed on to other animals. No, it was something else entirely."
Vanyel handed her a goblet of wine and took one himself. He felt that they both needed it, and had for a long while.
: Van, love?: Yfandes soft voice broke through his thoughts.
He sensed a wearyness to her that she had not had for a long time, and he supposed that it was either the heat or the effort from bearing her foal. She deserved rest, but he didn't understand why she was not taking it.
: What's wrong, if anything?: He asked calmly, letting waves of love and comfort resound across their link.
: Eleece came looking for you, but she found me. The girl has no shielding whatsoever and she practically pushed information at me before her sleep potion kicked in.: Vanyel's interest picked up and he listened to what Yfandes had to say.
When at last he stopped conversing with her to let her take her rest, his eyebrows felt as if they would never come down from his hairline and his mouth was set in a grim line. Savil had taken notice and waited until Vanyel spoke.
" It seems," Vanyel said slowly. " That we have not been asking the right questions of our little foundling."
" Oh?" Savil asked archly over the rim of her cup.
" Eleece not only has a powerful Animal Mindspeech Gift, stronger than any I have ever seen or read about, but she can Heal them also!"
" So? Anyone with the Healing Gift can heal animals." Savil pointed out.
" It's not like that! She can only heal animals, even if they've been nearly ripped apart by something. Yfandes got a memory of her bringing a dead wolf pup back to life after it had been borne still." Vanyel's hands nearly shook as he poured himself another cup of wine. " Have you ever heard of something like this occuring?"
" Maybe in the Tayledras records, but not anywhere around here. Maybe that's where she ran away from, one of the nearer Vales." Savil mused, and grabbed a peice of paper to write a short explanation of what had happened and asking if anyone was missing a girl.
She sent it off with a page to the pigeionry to have it sent to Starwind and Moondance. They would know.
" We also have to consider things that would be totally impossible." Vanyel said while Savil returned from sending the letter off.
" Like what?"
" Like if she is from around the Vale area, no I should phrase it differently. It would be better to say if she is not what she seems, as many things are out in Tayledras territory." Vanyel nodded, satisfied with the wording.
" You mean what if she's a Changewolf?" Savil sat straight up. " But that's near impossible! As far as I know, they can't Heal other animals, and we would have sensed something from her by now."
" Right, but what if she does not know that she is one? She's like a wild child, only the opposite. Where she was meant to live in the wild, she was raised in civilization." Vanyel didn't know where the idea had come from, but like he had said, think about the impossible.
" That's complete bullshit and you know it. Changewolves cannot Heal like she does, they cannot be capable of the things she does, cannot contain the fear that she does!" Savil shook her head and stood up, walking out of his room while muttering to herself about her crazy relatives.
Vanyel chuckled to himself and downed some more wine, then looked at how much less wine there was in the bottle. He was crazy to have thought of it, his better side agreed with Savil, but there was that nagging side that still held firm in his crazy ideas. He drank some more to drown that voice out. But as much as he drank, he still could not block out the feeling of her changeing her arm underneath his hands, nor the glow of her golden eyes. She was not what she appeared to be, and he would find out just what she was.
A few days later the reply from the k'Treva Vale arrived, and Savil had to read it a few times before she could believe it. " They say that they want to come here and study her!" Savil nearly shrieked at Vanyel. " The damned crazy bird brained fools want to come here and study Eleece! Like she's some kind of new animal or something!"
Savil threw the letter down on the table and sat huffily in her chair. " Well, they better do something constructive to make up for their horrible wording." But she grinned all the same, knowing that something like this would have drawn her freinds out of their eternal hothouse.
Meanwhile, there had been another attack in the woods. The boy had been put in Eleece's room, since there was nowhere else to put him except in the burn unit, and thanks to a odd fascination with leaving candles burning while they were sleeping, there were quite a few trainees there. Eleece was awake when they brought him in, as the Healers had judged that she no longer needed to sleep when they worked on her.
As soon as Vanyel and Savil heard about it, they rushed to the room to see how bad it had been, also to question Terick if he was consious, which he was. The Helaers gave him some pain numbing drugs as they stitched some cuts up, but it was mostly brusing and one long scratch across his face, starting underneath the jaw on the left side of his face and crossing diagonally up to his right eyebrow. It was deep, and he had lost the eye, but he had not been infected with whatever the wolf had.
Eleece took one look at him and burst into tears. Terick did not burst so much as let the tears out in a thin trickle and sniffle from time to time until the stitching was done and the Healer had gone, knowing that the two Herald-Mages could deal with things from there.
" It's all my fault!" Eleece keened, hiding her face in her hands. " If I had let him take me, this would not have happened!"
" What do you mean? He's rabid, anything is prey for him." Vanyel was confused.
" If he's so rabid then why has he not touched my pack? Why has he not come out of the forest to attack? Why is it only the people that go into the forest get attacked?" Eleece was no longer crying, but her face was ashen and fey.
Savil nodded to herself, thinking that the girl had brought up questions that she herself had asked as soon as she learned about Terick. " How do you know that your pack has not been-" Savil did not know a kind way to put it, but the girl got the gist.
" They would have gotten word to me somehow. They know that I run with them in my dreams, they know how to reach me by their speech. If someone had gotten attacked, they would have howled long into the night in mourning. There are too many of them for him to kill all at once." Eleece was so sure about it, and yet there was something in the back of her head that told her differntly. " But it is my fault that he attacks those that venture into the woods. He promised me he would, and now you see he makes good on his words."
She motioned to Terick, who sat upright, listening to them tensely. Vanyel remembered that he had wanted to ask the boy some things.
" Terick, I know that you are here for Herald training. What are your Gifts?" He looked at the boy calmly, recognizing him as the one that had delivered a fair many letters for him and Savil both. He was a good boy, and would make a promising Herald.
" Mindspeech, small amount of Fetching. Mostly Mindspeech." He shrugged.
" Did you hear anything from the wolf when he attacked you?" Vanyel exerted a little of his Empathy, because he knew that Terick was also a very stubborn boy. " Did he say anything to you?"
Terick looked to Eleece and she nodded, so he went to answer. " He did. At first it seemed that he wanted to kill me, then he sniffed at me and said something." Terick scrunched up his face, as much as he could with the new stitches in. " He said that I wasn't her. I wasn't what he desired. Then he seemed to maul me merely for pure spite."
Eleece sagged under the weight of guilt. Now she knew that she was the monsters one and only target, that it was her flesh that he hungered for.
" I would have died had it not been for the other wolves." Terick said, snapping Eleece out of her stupor.
" What? There were other wolves?" She asked in a breathy hiss, excitement and happiness in her eyes.
" Yeah, normal sized ones too. That monster, he isn't a normal wolf, not even a half breed either. But after he knocked me across the face there was this wave of wolves, and they all set on him, tearing and ripping and the like. He must not have expected it, because they got him pretty good before he finally gave up and ran off. I still might have died, but this one wolf, a huge black one; he dragged me to the edge and left me there. That was when some of the other Trainees found me."
Eleece did something odd. She rolled back onto her bed and lay on her back, drawing her limbs in on herself and keening a little howl that sounded almost happy. Then she sat up and smiled widely. " Brightfang knows! He knows that I am alive and that I am safe! I just hope he knows that I will come back to him, someday." She seemed to be speaking to herself, and then she turned to Terick. " I wish I could heal you, but I only work for animals."
Terick flushed a little and smiled shyly. " Aw, tis nothing. Either way I wouldn't get my eye back and I'll just end up with this great beauty."
Eleece giggled a little and found she was enjoying this human's company very much. She supposed that she had the beast to thank, and that would be the only thing she ever thanked him for.
Savil and Vanyel exchanged glances and made similar faces. : I don't know what to think. If they did pair, would that be a good or bad thing?: Vanyel asked his aunt, who merely shrugged and responded that they should leave the two alone.
Vanyel agreed. Maybe they could heal each other better than any potion or salve. He sure hoped they would.
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 3
Savil and Vanyel left Eleece to herself for a few hours, trying to sort out what they had heard from the girl. After they had heard about the wolf that was not right, They both assumed what any other sane person would: that there was a rabid wolf near the Collegium, and not just near the Collegium, but close enough to the stables and weapons training salle that anyone who went around there was in danger.
Vanyel was sort of starting to see why it had been so important, and not just because of the girl. In some roundabout way, the girl was just the instrument to let them know that there was danger. You could even say that she had nearly sacrificed herself so that others hadn't gotten hurt along. For that, he supposed, he could trust her a little more.
" What I want to know is how the wolf got infected in the first place." Savil growled. " You know the curcuit I just came back from? Well, that was to go around checking livestock and any other animals to make sure than there were no signs of rabidness."
" What if an animal that you had checked became rabid after you left and infected the wolf?" Vanyel offered.
Savil shook her head. " That Healer that came along, she did something to the animals to keep them from contracting any diseases that could be passed on to other animals. No, it was something else entirely."
Vanyel handed her a goblet of wine and took one himself. He felt that they both needed it, and had for a long while.
: Van, love?: Yfandes soft voice broke through his thoughts.
He sensed a wearyness to her that she had not had for a long time, and he supposed that it was either the heat or the effort from bearing her foal. She deserved rest, but he didn't understand why she was not taking it.
: What's wrong, if anything?: He asked calmly, letting waves of love and comfort resound across their link.
: Eleece came looking for you, but she found me. The girl has no shielding whatsoever and she practically pushed information at me before her sleep potion kicked in.: Vanyel's interest picked up and he listened to what Yfandes had to say.
When at last he stopped conversing with her to let her take her rest, his eyebrows felt as if they would never come down from his hairline and his mouth was set in a grim line. Savil had taken notice and waited until Vanyel spoke.
" It seems," Vanyel said slowly. " That we have not been asking the right questions of our little foundling."
" Oh?" Savil asked archly over the rim of her cup.
" Eleece not only has a powerful Animal Mindspeech Gift, stronger than any I have ever seen or read about, but she can Heal them also!"
" So? Anyone with the Healing Gift can heal animals." Savil pointed out.
" It's not like that! She can only heal animals, even if they've been nearly ripped apart by something. Yfandes got a memory of her bringing a dead wolf pup back to life after it had been borne still." Vanyel's hands nearly shook as he poured himself another cup of wine. " Have you ever heard of something like this occuring?"
" Maybe in the Tayledras records, but not anywhere around here. Maybe that's where she ran away from, one of the nearer Vales." Savil mused, and grabbed a peice of paper to write a short explanation of what had happened and asking if anyone was missing a girl.
She sent it off with a page to the pigeionry to have it sent to Starwind and Moondance. They would know.
" We also have to consider things that would be totally impossible." Vanyel said while Savil returned from sending the letter off.
" Like what?"
" Like if she is from around the Vale area, no I should phrase it differently. It would be better to say if she is not what she seems, as many things are out in Tayledras territory." Vanyel nodded, satisfied with the wording.
" You mean what if she's a Changewolf?" Savil sat straight up. " But that's near impossible! As far as I know, they can't Heal other animals, and we would have sensed something from her by now."
" Right, but what if she does not know that she is one? She's like a wild child, only the opposite. Where she was meant to live in the wild, she was raised in civilization." Vanyel didn't know where the idea had come from, but like he had said, think about the impossible.
" That's complete bullshit and you know it. Changewolves cannot Heal like she does, they cannot be capable of the things she does, cannot contain the fear that she does!" Savil shook her head and stood up, walking out of his room while muttering to herself about her crazy relatives.
Vanyel chuckled to himself and downed some more wine, then looked at how much less wine there was in the bottle. He was crazy to have thought of it, his better side agreed with Savil, but there was that nagging side that still held firm in his crazy ideas. He drank some more to drown that voice out. But as much as he drank, he still could not block out the feeling of her changeing her arm underneath his hands, nor the glow of her golden eyes. She was not what she appeared to be, and he would find out just what she was.
A few days later the reply from the k'Treva Vale arrived, and Savil had to read it a few times before she could believe it. " They say that they want to come here and study her!" Savil nearly shrieked at Vanyel. " The damned crazy bird brained fools want to come here and study Eleece! Like she's some kind of new animal or something!"
Savil threw the letter down on the table and sat huffily in her chair. " Well, they better do something constructive to make up for their horrible wording." But she grinned all the same, knowing that something like this would have drawn her freinds out of their eternal hothouse.
Meanwhile, there had been another attack in the woods. The boy had been put in Eleece's room, since there was nowhere else to put him except in the burn unit, and thanks to a odd fascination with leaving candles burning while they were sleeping, there were quite a few trainees there. Eleece was awake when they brought him in, as the Healers had judged that she no longer needed to sleep when they worked on her.
As soon as Vanyel and Savil heard about it, they rushed to the room to see how bad it had been, also to question Terick if he was consious, which he was. The Helaers gave him some pain numbing drugs as they stitched some cuts up, but it was mostly brusing and one long scratch across his face, starting underneath the jaw on the left side of his face and crossing diagonally up to his right eyebrow. It was deep, and he had lost the eye, but he had not been infected with whatever the wolf had.
Eleece took one look at him and burst into tears. Terick did not burst so much as let the tears out in a thin trickle and sniffle from time to time until the stitching was done and the Healer had gone, knowing that the two Herald-Mages could deal with things from there.
" It's all my fault!" Eleece keened, hiding her face in her hands. " If I had let him take me, this would not have happened!"
" What do you mean? He's rabid, anything is prey for him." Vanyel was confused.
" If he's so rabid then why has he not touched my pack? Why has he not come out of the forest to attack? Why is it only the people that go into the forest get attacked?" Eleece was no longer crying, but her face was ashen and fey.
Savil nodded to herself, thinking that the girl had brought up questions that she herself had asked as soon as she learned about Terick. " How do you know that your pack has not been-" Savil did not know a kind way to put it, but the girl got the gist.
" They would have gotten word to me somehow. They know that I run with them in my dreams, they know how to reach me by their speech. If someone had gotten attacked, they would have howled long into the night in mourning. There are too many of them for him to kill all at once." Eleece was so sure about it, and yet there was something in the back of her head that told her differntly. " But it is my fault that he attacks those that venture into the woods. He promised me he would, and now you see he makes good on his words."
She motioned to Terick, who sat upright, listening to them tensely. Vanyel remembered that he had wanted to ask the boy some things.
" Terick, I know that you are here for Herald training. What are your Gifts?" He looked at the boy calmly, recognizing him as the one that had delivered a fair many letters for him and Savil both. He was a good boy, and would make a promising Herald.
" Mindspeech, small amount of Fetching. Mostly Mindspeech." He shrugged.
" Did you hear anything from the wolf when he attacked you?" Vanyel exerted a little of his Empathy, because he knew that Terick was also a very stubborn boy. " Did he say anything to you?"
Terick looked to Eleece and she nodded, so he went to answer. " He did. At first it seemed that he wanted to kill me, then he sniffed at me and said something." Terick scrunched up his face, as much as he could with the new stitches in. " He said that I wasn't her. I wasn't what he desired. Then he seemed to maul me merely for pure spite."
Eleece sagged under the weight of guilt. Now she knew that she was the monsters one and only target, that it was her flesh that he hungered for.
" I would have died had it not been for the other wolves." Terick said, snapping Eleece out of her stupor.
" What? There were other wolves?" She asked in a breathy hiss, excitement and happiness in her eyes.
" Yeah, normal sized ones too. That monster, he isn't a normal wolf, not even a half breed either. But after he knocked me across the face there was this wave of wolves, and they all set on him, tearing and ripping and the like. He must not have expected it, because they got him pretty good before he finally gave up and ran off. I still might have died, but this one wolf, a huge black one; he dragged me to the edge and left me there. That was when some of the other Trainees found me."
Eleece did something odd. She rolled back onto her bed and lay on her back, drawing her limbs in on herself and keening a little howl that sounded almost happy. Then she sat up and smiled widely. " Brightfang knows! He knows that I am alive and that I am safe! I just hope he knows that I will come back to him, someday." She seemed to be speaking to herself, and then she turned to Terick. " I wish I could heal you, but I only work for animals."
Terick flushed a little and smiled shyly. " Aw, tis nothing. Either way I wouldn't get my eye back and I'll just end up with this great beauty."
Eleece giggled a little and found she was enjoying this human's company very much. She supposed that she had the beast to thank, and that would be the only thing she ever thanked him for.
Savil and Vanyel exchanged glances and made similar faces. : I don't know what to think. If they did pair, would that be a good or bad thing?: Vanyel asked his aunt, who merely shrugged and responded that they should leave the two alone.
Vanyel agreed. Maybe they could heal each other better than any potion or salve. He sure hoped they would.