"She's upstairs, Addy. Be careful, will you?"
The house where she had been taken was warm and well-kept when it came right down to it. It didn't help her mind any, to wake and feel fur on the soft linen. It was a nightmare all over again, one she didn't want to relive in the least. Brinella sorely wished, for just the smallest moment, that she had died instead of been made to see herself like this.
When the door opened a crack, she made no move to turn over. Somewhere along the line, she had lost her sense of modesty. Probably when the fur started to grow in places it never had before. There were many things that seemed beyond pointless at that moment, and her laying in a bed was one of them. She had never been a small girl, built just a bit taller and a little thicker than most of them, but it had never bothered her.
Now she was... Brinella's lips curled, revealing teeth that would make most mastiffs jealous. "A monster. A monster who knows she's one, now." Yes, that was what she was, and would always be. Her fingers curled in the sheets, and she briefly heard the rip of fragile cloth before she stopped and sighed.
"I know you're awake, Brin-Brin."
Her golden eyes shot wide, leaving the comfortable fire as her head turned to look over her shoulder. The girl that met her eyes was the same as she had been forever, with the same gentle smile that seemed to extend clear up to her clear blue eyes. Golden hair fell in soft waves to frame her face, though Brinella knew all too well that the bulk of it was tied back in a thick braid. Her mouth moved, a strange sound halfway between a whine and a growl leaving her furred maw.
"Give it a little bit." Adeline bumped the door open with her hip, a platter of lightly cooked meat on a tray in her hands. The smell made Brinella's stomach growl, and the way she licked her lips reminded her strongly of her pet fox when it had seen a treat it couldn't get to. "Get some food down first, and this..." Her hand dropped into her apron pocket, pulling out a small vial of fluid. "I got the mandrake for you. You've been sleeping nearly a week, and I was worried. You..." The blonde's eyes dropped as she settled the tray on the bed, and Brinella scooted slightly over, looking between the two.
There was the shame. There was no more ravenous hunger, not like there had been in the woods. Eating was a messy business, and even though the sheets fell away to show her furred body, it didn't bother her nearly as much as the possibility of frightening someone she had once been close to. Brinella knew that there was fear in her reluctance, fear that would have any pack member at her throat for a moment, but to her surprise, Adeline only smiled.
"It's alright, Brin." Delicate fingers slid her left sleeve up, showing the bite scar around her wrist. The woman's voice was full of a hollow laughter, so very different from how she always was. "I dropped three of them with one of those old, heavy skillets Ma Bayer had at her restaurant. Maybe I got a bit cocky, because I didn't hear the one behind me. It got me around the wrist when my arm was raised, and I'm not sure if I fainted from the pain, or when the skillet hit my head. I turned, but I wasn't that way long. Not as long as you were... so..."
She tapped the plate, pushing it with a finger closer to the shivering worgen. "I promise, Brin. I won't be scared. It's just eating. The elixir won't turn you back like me, but it'll keep your head on straight. You won't feel so hungry, at least not in... not in the way you did. I know that hunger, and it scares me, too. Sometimes, when we get a man traveling through who thinks I'm an easy woman, I get really, really anxious to kill him. It just bubbles up, and I have to force it back down, or Tray will come and rescue me in his cute little way. But I know..." She stopped speaking as her childhood friend pounced the platter of meat, a small smile on her lips.
"No one has seen Clyde, not since the attack started. Most figured he ran off to find you, since you'd always been so close. I suppose it's a good thing we haven't found him. Your father..." She stopped as the eager ripping of meat halted, catching Brin's haunted gaze. Too haunted, too guilty. "You already know. Oh, Brin. I'm so sorry. Who – who turned you? If you remember?"
"Of course I remember. How could I not?" The answer flicked through her mind, and with her hunger somewhat sated, she tried to speak again. When young, she had often wanted the farm dogs, Blair and Soot, to talk to her like she felt they could if they just tried. Now she realized just how foolish that would have been. Canine mouths just weren't made for speech like hers was. Had been. A series of soft whimpers and rough growls left her, but Adeline never once flinched. If there had been any doubt, had been any thought that the blonde would have run at the first sound, it was gone now. It was that alone which made her try harder, until at last she managed it.
"Cor." Rough, as if she had spent time screaming beneath a torturer's blade, a mere rasp of what it once had been. Even so, it was an achievement, and Brinella's pride in herself was enough to temper the shock shown by her friend. "We were running. I didn't know he had been bitten. I didn't know he was changing." She gave a hoarse laugh that translated to a sharp bark. "I don't know if I'd have cared, even now. We ended up cornered, and that changed him. While the others closed in on us, he bit me as he changed."
Brinella shifted slightly, showing the scar on her right shoulder, and then the claw marks along her lower back. "He didn't mean to hurt me. I thought it was supposed to be a kiss goodbye, something romantic before we... died." Long, clawed fingers brushed over the bite mark. "I fainted, as you did. When I woke, I was at the farmhouse, and..." A mournful whimper left her, her hands going to her eyes as the images flooded her mind again. "My father had a gun pointed at me, and I snapped. I killed him, Addy. I killed him, and then I ran after sating my hunger."
The blonde watched Brinella, knowing that no other person could watch a humanoid wolf cry like she was doing, and not find it amusing in some way. There was nothing funny about what had happened, not to any of them. Most tried to make the best of it, knowing they'd possibly never be normal. Few of them managed to stay sane. Her fingers reached out, gently brushing Brinella's ears and ragged mane. "It's okay. I know that seems silly to say, but it's okay. Your father's instinct was to kill what was a danger. So was yours. He's safe, Brin. He's away from all of this, and I know the Light holds him close. He was a good man, who raised two beautiful children after your mother passed."
"You're going to remember these things, even if you don't want to. They're going to haunt your waking hours, and you'll hear the screams of your victims in your sleep. Don't let anyone try to disillusion you to that fact. They try to say there's a cure, and maybe that's true. It isn't here, though. You don't have to like what you've become, my friend. Light knows there's very few of us here who do like it. We accept it, though. Keep that in your mind, and you'll stay just a little bit more sane." Adeline moved slightly, just close enough to drag the woman nearly twice her height against her in a tight hug.
"There's some benefits to it. The bad parts aside, like the hunger and the fur in some very uncomfortable places, we have incredible hearing and sense of smell. I can even see better in the dark than I've ever been able to." She pulled away, looking up into Brin's eyes. "I haven't smelled Clyde or Cor in any of the corpses, human or worgen. They're out there, Brin. Somewhere, they are out there. Keep that thought in mind, and things will be better."
Brinella nodded, looking to the platter of half-eaten meat and the vial that had been set down with it. With care, she picked up the small item and held it out to Adeline. The blonde chuckled. "Decent for tearing, but not really for opening." With delicate teeth, the stopper was pulled off and the vial handed back. "All at once. It tastes like... well, there's a lot of things it doesn't taste like, 'good' being one of them."
The wrinkled muzzle as the draft was downed only echoed the sentiment, Brinella smacking her lips and moving her tongue like a dog that had gotten a spoonful of peanut butter. "Ugh." The long tongue came out, her padded fingers raking along the pink muscle as she tried to get the taste from it. Dirt, weeds, and possibly excrement all had better flavor.
"It's not meant to taste good, just keep you as yourself. I'll leave the plate here." Addy took the tray, setting it on a small table near the fireplace. "It's a few hours past midnight now, but in the morning, we can wander about. Get you some clothes and the like, if you'd want that. Even if you're fur is very pretty, you don't want to turn human and be naked, do you?"
Brinella blinked, looking down at herself. "I was... I had been..."
"Only for a few minutes. They don't know why that happened. Maybe the potion reacted funny since you'd been turned for so long, or something. You aren't the first it's happened to, but it won't happen again. By the time they got you to the bed, you were sprouting fur again." Adeline shrugged. "It means there is hope for you, at least. Which is a good thing. Hope is always good."
"Yeah." Brinella looked away as the door closed behind the blonde girl, eyes back on the fireplace and the flames that danced within. "I guess."