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 4
The wolfen one sat in the forest, licking his wounds. Twice he had sought flesh for the taking, but the second time he had not known that the human was not the one he wanted. He'd assumed that it was the girl coming back to her pack, because he knew she had been healed in that building that roiled with so many other humans. He could not get near the building itself, it was protected by something that would not let him pass. If it wasn't, he would have been done with his duty and been away.
He would have gotten it done if those damned wolves had not interfered the first time! He growled and his eyes burned at the thought of the pack. They were becoming a nuisance, and as such could not be tolerated. If they got in his way again, he would not listen to his master, and he would kill them all, then go for the girl.
The beast yawned and settled down in the bear cave that he had stolen, because after all, even monsters need to sleep.
It had been a week since the ban on the forest had been put into effect, and there had been no more attacks, something that Eleece was glad for. She knew that the beast was still out there, but had learned from Vanyel that he had been seen prowling the edges when there was no one to see him but the Companions, and he always dashed into the forest when any hint of alarm was sent up. The Collegium's own sheilds were keeping him out. Vanyel and Savil had made the two of the children to promise that they would not go outside, because now he was becoming desperate enough to come out of the forest.
Terick and Eleece bonded fast over their expeirinces with the wolf, then with other things. Terick loved animals of any kind, and was often repremanded for trying to raise babies in his room. Eventually he had petitioned to raise a few select ones, and he got a good response. According to him, he had a nest of baby starlings, a litter of housecats, and a few small lizards.
Terick lowered his voice and whispered to her. " I have a wolf pup also, but that wasn't one of the animals I asked for, and they wouldn't have said yes anyway. I have to hide him."
Eleece scooted forwards on her bed, leaning over until thier faces were near touching. " You have to show me." She said, and Terick didn't quite understand the urgency in her voice or the sad look in her eyes.
During his short stay with her, he had become something akin to infatuated with her. It didn't help that he could look at her when she was sleeping, a persons most vulnerable moment. But Eleece didn't seem so vulnerable at any time, even when she slept. It was as if she glowed in the moonlight, turning into a thing of steel and emeralds. The things that he had told her, at least some of them, were things that no one else knew, not even Manie, the boy that he had known since his fifth summer of life. He was afraid to admit it, but he thought he was in love with her.
Eleece had something of the same dilemma there also. She liked him well enough, and she had been thinking about him in the way that normal human girls think about boys. He was handsome, with night black hair that curled slightly after he had been sleeping on it. His eyes were a clear dark blue, wide and inviting. The wound across his face did nothing to steal his beauty, and among the wolves it would have been seen as a mark of battle, something that was always respected.
" When do you want to see him?" His calm voice filtered through to her and she nearly gasped.
In her haste to find out about the pup, she had put him dangerously close to her. She could smell the sleepiness in him still, the sweet musk that all males seemed to have, but his was richer, like the soft loam under her feet when she ran free with the pack, throwing back her head and howling. She saw the glow of the candle on his skin, could feel the warmth rising and disspating from him. Something in him called to her, and she let her breath out in a soft rush against his cheek.
She slowly moved away from him and stared at him, wide eyed and in a slightly defensive crouch. Terick looked at her like he had just been struck, and his hand reached up to touch where her breath had touched him. " What did you just do to me?" He asked softly, his face relaxing into a small smile.
" I think, in a strange way, that I just kissed you." She thought to herself. Yes, it was something she did, when she did not want to get a mouth full of fur, but still tell the wolves that she loved them.
Terick barked a short laugh and rose from his bed. " Well, I'm not complaining."
Eleece smiled up at him and stood also, even though she only came up to his shoulder. She did know that he was tall, taller than Vanyel, but she also knew the she was short and a little younger than Terick. She reached up and touched the scar that ran across his face. Terick grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him. " Please don't do that." He whispered into her hair. " I can't stand it."
Eleece drew back and clasped his face in her hands gently. " Among a pack, that would mark you as one of the bravest wolves. Wounds are not things of guilt, but of bravery and valor." She pulled his face down and laid a series of kisses up the scar, starting where it did. " And I think that you see that I do not mind."
Terick broke away from her, a sad smile on his face. He held her hands in his own, dwarfing them almost. " Tell me something."
" Yes?"
" That I am not just some peice of meat to you, to be played with when you feel like it. That I do mean something to you, despite the short amount of time we've had together." His face was serious and there was no teasing in his voice.
Eleece tried to meet his eyes but couldn't. She had to search deep inside herself. She felt something for him, but she didn't know just what it was yet. Many wolves were very affectionate with each other, coming near to mating behaviour, yet purely friends. She couldn't remember if humans were like that, but the way Terick was acting, she didn't think they were. She didn't know what to do....
Yes, she did.
" Terick, this is what I feel for you." She took his hand and touched it to her face, rubbing like she was trying to scent him. She blew her breath across his palm and heard the pack in the movement, thier howling chrous spiraling up and out of her, into her actions.
She stood up against him and rubbed her face into his shoulder, bringing his arms to rest around her waist. She nipped at his chin like she was letting him be the leader, and when she caught the scarred side in her mouth, he jumped and gasped. He tried to let go of her, but she had clasped him to her, trying to make him hear the sounds of the forest in her. She wanted to run in that moment, run and never look back, but she knew she couldn't. Not here, not now.
He stopped trying to fight her, now just stood still and silent. She thought she had scared him and backed away, but when she saw his face, it was shining with tears and a smile appeared. He reached out his hands to her, but she was sad that she had made him cry.
" I don't know what you did Eleece, but that was the most amazing thing in the world." He sat on his bed as if his legs wouldn't support him anymore. " It was like I was running with wolves, like I was one of them. There was a feeling of such intense, deep love, like iron that could not be bent or shattered; no matter how hard anyone tried. It was-oh."
Eleece didn't have the hear to tell him that he was feeling the bond between Brightfang and her, but it was something akin to what she felt for him, and it had been the best example she could have given him.
" Is that what you were trying to tell me?" Terick asked, and Eleece could feel the tears start in her eyes as she nodded.
" I don't know if I could ever feel something that fierce, that wholesome!" He tipped his head back as if in ecstasy, then looked solemnly in her dark green eyes. " But I will try my hardest."
The dam broke in Eleece's heart and the tears slipped out of her eyes as his arms came around her in a tender embrace and he kissed her for real, just the touch of lips and bodies.
Vanyel whirled around to meet the group that were waiting to see Eleece. He shook his head and he tried to stammer something while closing the door and making a shooing motion with his hands. " They, ah, they aren't ready for company." He managed to get out while shaking his head to clear it.
" Are they doing what I think?" Moondance asked archly. " Because only something such as that could make you flustered like this."
" No, they still have their clothes on. It's not them that's doing it, it's their spirits." Vanyel explained. " I think we just unknowingly brought a lifebond together."
Savil's jaw dropped and the mages eyes sparkled with humor as he clapped Savil on the shoulder. " I have known you to be many things, my dear Wingsister, but a matchmaker was never among them!" Starwind smiled graciously. " Now let us break up this tension and introduce ourselves, hm?"
Vanyel opened the door, trying not to smile when Eleece and Terick leapt away from each other with an ungainly squawk as he let everyone in. He let something else in also.
Moondance tripped on the something, letting out a most un-Tayledras- like bellow as he fell to the ground and moored there, trying to figure out what just happened. Everyone stared at him, Vanyel, Savil, and his lover struck at the idea that he could be put into such a position. Eleece felt a tug at her tunic and looked down, as did Terick.
" Ash!" Terick roared, slamming the door shut and trying to catch the pup.
" Skysong!" Eleece scooped the pup up into her arms and settled him like a baby, stomach up and paws out, then started sniffing him avidly. " I thought you were hurt! You scared the pack so!"
: I sorry I ran. Big man saved me from a trap and brought me here. I was scared, and then I felt you, just a few sniffs ago. I ran to you and here I am!: The small wolf-pup sat up in her arms and sneezed at Moondance. : He smells like deer. I'm hungry. Can I eat him?:
Eleece managed to keep a straight face. " No, you cannot eat him. Humans are not food silly, even if they do smell like deers."
Now Vanyel knew how non-Heralds felt when Heralds spoke to their Companions aloud. He wished he could hear the pups side of the conversation, especially after Eleece's reprimand.
" Deer indeed. It's the dyheli that he's smelling on me." Moondance said as he got up, eyeing the pup strangely.
" How do you know Ash?" Terick asked, petting the pup on the head, but snatching his hand away when he turned is head around and nipped at Terick's fingers.
" His name is Skysong, Sky for short." She said sternly. " But he went missing a day before the beast showed up. We thought that the beast had gotten him."
: Hungry.: Sky whined, pawing at Eleece's stomach softly. : Feed me.:
Eleece held him out, hands under his arms. " For Great Dark, will someone please get him some milk!?"
Savil laughed as she was picked for candidate to get the little wolf some food. " Only if I get to feed him!"
Eleece had a pained look on her face. " Might we move somewhere more comfortable? I tire of being inside, and Sky will want to run around." She pleaded with Vanyel, and he supposed that with Savil and himself, and the two Hawkbrother mages, they would do alright if they stayed near the Collegium. He nodded and led the way out to the gardens.
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 4
The wolfen one sat in the forest, licking his wounds. Twice he had sought flesh for the taking, but the second time he had not known that the human was not the one he wanted. He'd assumed that it was the girl coming back to her pack, because he knew she had been healed in that building that roiled with so many other humans. He could not get near the building itself, it was protected by something that would not let him pass. If it wasn't, he would have been done with his duty and been away.
He would have gotten it done if those damned wolves had not interfered the first time! He growled and his eyes burned at the thought of the pack. They were becoming a nuisance, and as such could not be tolerated. If they got in his way again, he would not listen to his master, and he would kill them all, then go for the girl.
The beast yawned and settled down in the bear cave that he had stolen, because after all, even monsters need to sleep.
It had been a week since the ban on the forest had been put into effect, and there had been no more attacks, something that Eleece was glad for. She knew that the beast was still out there, but had learned from Vanyel that he had been seen prowling the edges when there was no one to see him but the Companions, and he always dashed into the forest when any hint of alarm was sent up. The Collegium's own sheilds were keeping him out. Vanyel and Savil had made the two of the children to promise that they would not go outside, because now he was becoming desperate enough to come out of the forest.
Terick and Eleece bonded fast over their expeirinces with the wolf, then with other things. Terick loved animals of any kind, and was often repremanded for trying to raise babies in his room. Eventually he had petitioned to raise a few select ones, and he got a good response. According to him, he had a nest of baby starlings, a litter of housecats, and a few small lizards.
Terick lowered his voice and whispered to her. " I have a wolf pup also, but that wasn't one of the animals I asked for, and they wouldn't have said yes anyway. I have to hide him."
Eleece scooted forwards on her bed, leaning over until thier faces were near touching. " You have to show me." She said, and Terick didn't quite understand the urgency in her voice or the sad look in her eyes.
During his short stay with her, he had become something akin to infatuated with her. It didn't help that he could look at her when she was sleeping, a persons most vulnerable moment. But Eleece didn't seem so vulnerable at any time, even when she slept. It was as if she glowed in the moonlight, turning into a thing of steel and emeralds. The things that he had told her, at least some of them, were things that no one else knew, not even Manie, the boy that he had known since his fifth summer of life. He was afraid to admit it, but he thought he was in love with her.
Eleece had something of the same dilemma there also. She liked him well enough, and she had been thinking about him in the way that normal human girls think about boys. He was handsome, with night black hair that curled slightly after he had been sleeping on it. His eyes were a clear dark blue, wide and inviting. The wound across his face did nothing to steal his beauty, and among the wolves it would have been seen as a mark of battle, something that was always respected.
" When do you want to see him?" His calm voice filtered through to her and she nearly gasped.
In her haste to find out about the pup, she had put him dangerously close to her. She could smell the sleepiness in him still, the sweet musk that all males seemed to have, but his was richer, like the soft loam under her feet when she ran free with the pack, throwing back her head and howling. She saw the glow of the candle on his skin, could feel the warmth rising and disspating from him. Something in him called to her, and she let her breath out in a soft rush against his cheek.
She slowly moved away from him and stared at him, wide eyed and in a slightly defensive crouch. Terick looked at her like he had just been struck, and his hand reached up to touch where her breath had touched him. " What did you just do to me?" He asked softly, his face relaxing into a small smile.
" I think, in a strange way, that I just kissed you." She thought to herself. Yes, it was something she did, when she did not want to get a mouth full of fur, but still tell the wolves that she loved them.
Terick barked a short laugh and rose from his bed. " Well, I'm not complaining."
Eleece smiled up at him and stood also, even though she only came up to his shoulder. She did know that he was tall, taller than Vanyel, but she also knew the she was short and a little younger than Terick. She reached up and touched the scar that ran across his face. Terick grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him. " Please don't do that." He whispered into her hair. " I can't stand it."
Eleece drew back and clasped his face in her hands gently. " Among a pack, that would mark you as one of the bravest wolves. Wounds are not things of guilt, but of bravery and valor." She pulled his face down and laid a series of kisses up the scar, starting where it did. " And I think that you see that I do not mind."
Terick broke away from her, a sad smile on his face. He held her hands in his own, dwarfing them almost. " Tell me something."
" Yes?"
" That I am not just some peice of meat to you, to be played with when you feel like it. That I do mean something to you, despite the short amount of time we've had together." His face was serious and there was no teasing in his voice.
Eleece tried to meet his eyes but couldn't. She had to search deep inside herself. She felt something for him, but she didn't know just what it was yet. Many wolves were very affectionate with each other, coming near to mating behaviour, yet purely friends. She couldn't remember if humans were like that, but the way Terick was acting, she didn't think they were. She didn't know what to do....
Yes, she did.
" Terick, this is what I feel for you." She took his hand and touched it to her face, rubbing like she was trying to scent him. She blew her breath across his palm and heard the pack in the movement, thier howling chrous spiraling up and out of her, into her actions.
She stood up against him and rubbed her face into his shoulder, bringing his arms to rest around her waist. She nipped at his chin like she was letting him be the leader, and when she caught the scarred side in her mouth, he jumped and gasped. He tried to let go of her, but she had clasped him to her, trying to make him hear the sounds of the forest in her. She wanted to run in that moment, run and never look back, but she knew she couldn't. Not here, not now.
He stopped trying to fight her, now just stood still and silent. She thought she had scared him and backed away, but when she saw his face, it was shining with tears and a smile appeared. He reached out his hands to her, but she was sad that she had made him cry.
" I don't know what you did Eleece, but that was the most amazing thing in the world." He sat on his bed as if his legs wouldn't support him anymore. " It was like I was running with wolves, like I was one of them. There was a feeling of such intense, deep love, like iron that could not be bent or shattered; no matter how hard anyone tried. It was-oh."
Eleece didn't have the hear to tell him that he was feeling the bond between Brightfang and her, but it was something akin to what she felt for him, and it had been the best example she could have given him.
" Is that what you were trying to tell me?" Terick asked, and Eleece could feel the tears start in her eyes as she nodded.
" I don't know if I could ever feel something that fierce, that wholesome!" He tipped his head back as if in ecstasy, then looked solemnly in her dark green eyes. " But I will try my hardest."
The dam broke in Eleece's heart and the tears slipped out of her eyes as his arms came around her in a tender embrace and he kissed her for real, just the touch of lips and bodies.
Vanyel whirled around to meet the group that were waiting to see Eleece. He shook his head and he tried to stammer something while closing the door and making a shooing motion with his hands. " They, ah, they aren't ready for company." He managed to get out while shaking his head to clear it.
" Are they doing what I think?" Moondance asked archly. " Because only something such as that could make you flustered like this."
" No, they still have their clothes on. It's not them that's doing it, it's their spirits." Vanyel explained. " I think we just unknowingly brought a lifebond together."
Savil's jaw dropped and the mages eyes sparkled with humor as he clapped Savil on the shoulder. " I have known you to be many things, my dear Wingsister, but a matchmaker was never among them!" Starwind smiled graciously. " Now let us break up this tension and introduce ourselves, hm?"
Vanyel opened the door, trying not to smile when Eleece and Terick leapt away from each other with an ungainly squawk as he let everyone in. He let something else in also.
Moondance tripped on the something, letting out a most un-Tayledras- like bellow as he fell to the ground and moored there, trying to figure out what just happened. Everyone stared at him, Vanyel, Savil, and his lover struck at the idea that he could be put into such a position. Eleece felt a tug at her tunic and looked down, as did Terick.
" Ash!" Terick roared, slamming the door shut and trying to catch the pup.
" Skysong!" Eleece scooped the pup up into her arms and settled him like a baby, stomach up and paws out, then started sniffing him avidly. " I thought you were hurt! You scared the pack so!"
: I sorry I ran. Big man saved me from a trap and brought me here. I was scared, and then I felt you, just a few sniffs ago. I ran to you and here I am!: The small wolf-pup sat up in her arms and sneezed at Moondance. : He smells like deer. I'm hungry. Can I eat him?:
Eleece managed to keep a straight face. " No, you cannot eat him. Humans are not food silly, even if they do smell like deers."
Now Vanyel knew how non-Heralds felt when Heralds spoke to their Companions aloud. He wished he could hear the pups side of the conversation, especially after Eleece's reprimand.
" Deer indeed. It's the dyheli that he's smelling on me." Moondance said as he got up, eyeing the pup strangely.
" How do you know Ash?" Terick asked, petting the pup on the head, but snatching his hand away when he turned is head around and nipped at Terick's fingers.
" His name is Skysong, Sky for short." She said sternly. " But he went missing a day before the beast showed up. We thought that the beast had gotten him."
: Hungry.: Sky whined, pawing at Eleece's stomach softly. : Feed me.:
Eleece held him out, hands under his arms. " For Great Dark, will someone please get him some milk!?"
Savil laughed as she was picked for candidate to get the little wolf some food. " Only if I get to feed him!"
Eleece had a pained look on her face. " Might we move somewhere more comfortable? I tire of being inside, and Sky will want to run around." She pleaded with Vanyel, and he supposed that with Savil and himself, and the two Hawkbrother mages, they would do alright if they stayed near the Collegium. He nodded and led the way out to the gardens.