Fox's Glade have thrice disturbed the quiet of our streets

@Hella
Although only a few days had passed since she'd last seen Wardruna, Sif was beginning to want for his company. Her trip to the coast had been long and fruitless, although she had managed to snatch a little game hen on the way back. It was now a little less than fresh - and covered in saliva, dirt, and puncture marks from her frequent games of catch - she thought it would still be a good token of her good faith toward him when she saw him again.

When she drew near to the area she'd met him in the last couple times, she caught wind of another shewolf in the area, with Wardruna's scent mixed oh-so-subtly with hers. Curiously, Sif began to follow this to its source, and ended up in a nice little wood, nearer to Easthollow's borders than she'd been before, but not too near that she felt unsafe.

Giving a warbling little call, Sif ventured further into the sphere of the shewolf's scent, wondering (nervously) if she would be well-recieved by the unfamiliar wold.

also making wild assumptions i can edit out later

the doe-eyed shewolf had been waiting with increasing impatience at the absence of the man who'd brought her to his borders and kept her there.  although her angular form was filling out a little more with the meals she was able to catch and what she was brought, it was not enough to satisfy her.  in addition, he was beginning to smell like other women, which while in theory did not bother her in practice it did because she had not been able to find any of them.

so she was entirely alone.  she'd thrown a couple of hissy fits, ripping open the flesh on her forelegs once more and dousing herself again in the blood and feathers of her prey.  it was a look she was suited for, one she quite liked for herself.

she was drawn from these thoughts at the wavering howl of another girl and something pitter-pattered in her chest, an excitement of sorts.  her long stilt-legs carried her swiftly to where the other had called as she raised her own maw to the air in response.

and as the smell of the woman drew closer she slowed, leaving a large berth of space between them.

Another voice responsed; an invitation, Sif thought. The dark girl padded further still into the wood and found her pale counterpart. They both paused. Sif took in her pretty face and long, tooth-torn legs. They were both thin, but the pale girl was thinner.

Sif gave a hopeful wag of her tail and laid the hen on the ground. "Do you are hungry?" she asked, taking a little step back in a clear offering. She'd find something else to give to Wardruna. Perhaps this girl could help her. "Friend with Wardruna, yes?" she added, fairly certain she knew what was going on, but wanting to verify, just in case. It was a bit disappointing to know that Warduna had gotten to yet another girl before Sif had; but perhaps it had to happen that way. Perhaps Sif could not recruit for his cause, and Wardruna alone could chose women to join together with them. Sometimes, Fen had said, there were things that only men could do.

She could understand that. But there was always something a woman could do as well. She'd have to see what Wardruna wanted her to do. Perhaps this wolf could help her with that.

as the woman's gaze lingered upon her she felt defensive but resisted the urge to express it, instead taking the other thrall in. she was a striking girl with a plush palisander pelt, deep orange eyes beautifully staged upon hues of cream and ash.

hella, if anything, felt even less sure of herself.  the woman in front was angular but in a less starved way, gamine in the fashion women are supposed to be.  honestly she cared little to hold the gaze of man yet she could not help but feel both ashamed and vaguely threatened.

but as the thrall dropped the hen she'd been carrying (that hella had completely missed even in her hunger by the way she stirred for the girl herself) it dissipated, and instead she gave a small chuff and a full-body wag, visibly piquing at the name of the man who'd brought her here.

she gave a soft nod, ghosting closer to sniff the woman over before ripping into the flesh laid before her, beat up as it was.  there wasn't much and she was hungry so it took no time to demolish the entire creature.

she motioned questioningly at the girl, prying for a name.

Sif politely (nervously) averted her eyes from the hungering girl, taking a few steps back to give her space. She was accustomed to being the low wolf wherever she went, and that almost always meant that she was not allowed around others when they were eating.

But the girl ignored her, and Sif gradually regained her confidence. She'd acted nicely before (she thought), and as soon as she was done, Sif felt much more at ease. She padded a few steps closer at the girl's silent gesturing, and then realized - with no small amount of embarrassment - that she was being asked a question in the language she was least fluent with - body language.

"Name of Sif," she said softly, hesitantly. Had that been the girl's question? "What is your name?" she asked, trying to subtly tell the other wolf that she did not speak this language. Please, please let her speak...

she could not help but notice the unease that was rolling off the girl and into the air between them.  it was her turn once the girl simply moved closer at her beckoning and her stomach twisted at the thought that she'd been misunderstood —

but just as quickly as the thought comes to her, the woman's name tumbles from her lips.  sif, she notes in her mind, and for some reason she takes quite a liking to it.

sif asks hella for her name with an air of urgency, or desperation, perhaps.  she hesitates, the first syllable catching in her name unceremoniously before she can get it out, resulting in kind of a gacking noise.

so she tries, again, enunciating more specifically, h-hella, before she moves in closer, leaning up to the other girl's ear if she would allow and whispering as well, her true name. pha-aaaae-dra.

the pale femme was not sure if it was a name she was particularly inclined on keeping as she quite liked the name that wardruna had chosen for her.. yet still, she figured that someone should know.

Sif stifftened when the other drew nearer, but accepted the heightened proximity with a quiet sigh and a notable lowering of her body; you are boss, she said in the girl's tongue. And then, "Hella. Phaaae-draaa," she repeated, feeling strange and shy once more. Both are pretty names, and Hella - Phaedra? - is a pretty wolf. (All Wardruna's friends are pretty. Sif wonders if she has been chosen - in part! - for her beauty. It is a comforting thought.) "Pretty," she added, hoping that Hella would know that Sif was speaking of her names and appearance both. She just couldn't find the words to say it.

"Hungry more?" she asked, feeling - suddenly - quite desperate to please. "I hunt. Or - clen hurt? Fix?" she suggested, gesturing to the woman's forelegs. She did not know anything about medicine, but Fen had found it soothing to have her clean his wounds all the same.

[align-justify][/small]

cue the cutest interaction, wherein hella lets sif clean her wounds.

although the wisp understood what the girl's body language conveyed, she did not understand why the woman curled in upon herself as she drew near.  perhaps she had been hurt before but that kind of neurotic anxiety had always caused hella's stomach to twist and knot in ways she was not fond of.

yet still — this woman was the only other who she'd had contact with since being claimed, and as the same man had decided to keep both of them as his thralls, she figured that she must make an effort to get along.  sif had done nothing to warrant unkind behaviour from hella and the ghost did not dislike the other woman (in fact, the opposite) yet she could feel herself feeding off of her anxiety.

she tucks her snipy maw to her chest when the other makes a note that her name is pretty — or perhaps that she is pretty — a heat creeping up in her cheeks as her throat tightens.  it is not something she has ever been considered, with the lightning-strike scar that'd singed down her side and the tooth-marked forelegs.  yet still she doesn't deny it.  at least someone or two someones (if that is why wardruna chose her) think so.

she realizes she has not responded in turn and quickly gestures at sif, you, pretty too.  

the woman falls over herself to please hella and it puts her between a rock and a hard place.  god, she is still hungry but she might be too weak, at this point, to hunt for herself.  so she settles instead for the second offer, laying on the ground with her legs in front of her, motioning at them.[/align]

[/small]

They were both pathetic; Sif saw this, somewhere in the back of her mind. They were two young, thin women, waiting in the woods outside a pack where there lived a man that has offered them something better - and has yet to provide it. But she had nothing else, and Sif knew that to give up hope now would be more effort than she had left.

So she laid on her belly across from Hella and scooted - tentatively - so that their forlegs laid parallel. And slowly, she inclinced her head, ears flicking back to show that Hella was still the boss, that she could tell Sif to back off or go away or do anything, and she would listen. But for the time being, Sif began to gently bathe the woman's bloody forelegs with her warm tongue, tail sweeping the ground behind her as she grew accustomed to - and then, quickly, enamored by - this intimacy she shared with the pale girl across from her.

When she was done, she lifted her head, and on a whim, gave Hella's cheek an awkward nuzzle. "Alt bedre," she said. "All better."

her lips raise as sif's warm tongue first touches her wounds but she dare not make a sound lest she scare the other woman off.

ever since the incident she'd never had someone who'd been so kind to her — even wardruna — to share such intimacy that she nearly wanted to wretch in happiness-terror.  it would be just her luck for this to be ruined somehow, for something to happen

but it didn't.  sif's tail gently brushed the ground and she stared at it, mesmerised, as she paid attention to the warmth on her forelimbs and the gentle swish-swish of sif's tail instead of the thoughts that dare take this kindness from her.

once sif had finished, she leaned into the woman's head as she nuzzled close and rested her own down between them on the ground.  thank'y.

rolling over onto her side, she decided to use her newfound voice a little more. where.. wher'you from?

Sif's ears flicked back against her head at Hella's thanks, and then forward in curiosity when a warm head was laid on her forelegs. Instincts carried over from her time with Fen bade her shift her legs and and lift her head, creating a space for Hella's head to rest comfortably against her chest. Fussily, she began to groom at the girl's soiled pelt, ears still quirked toward her to pick up the soft, sweet sound of her voice.

"I im from... from ocean," she replied, flashes of a cold beach and Doe's yellow eyes stilling her for a moment. But she was far from those memories, and far bigger than Doe had ever been. "Then move to... grass. Wide, big grass. Stay with Fen, but he... he utløpe. Died. Then here, and fine Wardruna. Hella." The sentence was punctuated with another, more confident nuzzle. "You? From where?"

she burrowed her head into sif's warm chest, allowing for the first time since her arrival in the teekons for her pelt to be cleaned.  underneath lay a bright and rather unmarred alabaster.

the words she used to describe her previous dwellings brought forth the most vague memories.  she knew not of an ocean, but fields of tall grass were familiar.  as for her traveling companion, she is sorry to hear of his death.. but if not for it, sif would not have been led here.  she nuzzles closer.

you? from where?

hella reaches back as far as she can remember, to the searing white bolt of lightning that'd struck her.  perhaps she came from nowhere.  perhaps she was created, not born.  she simply offers a shrug in response, unable to give an adequate answer.

you laike't here?

Hella didn't answer; that was fine. Sif knew better than anyone what it was like to be unable to find the right words. And when she was asked about how she liked this land, she found herself in one of those situations. How was she supposed to explain her feelings to this place? She liked it because it was pretty, and because it was here that her companions could be found.

But she needed a home, and wolves to share it with. Just one or two would be fine - Wardruna, Hella, Poet... but he was in his pack, with his Noma, and Sif and Hella were out here on their own.

"We need a place," she said in a rush, but after that, words abandoned her once more. She laid her head on the ground, curled around Hella's. "I like it," she said after a long moment of silence. "I like you."

not sure where to go from here!

sif's hesitance led hella to believe that she was simply okay with the place — and to be honest, it's all hella was, too.  she had expected the man to bring her back with the other woman in his pack, yet instead she was cast out to stay alone in the borders.  

at least one good thing had come of it though, that that was sif.  she had someone who needed few words to be satisfied, and who enjoyed her company. 

she buried her own face into the side of sif's and drank in the day.  I like you, too.  perhaps that would be enough. 

Maybe we can close up here and have another one sometime soon? Also, lemme know if I should change anything, as I PP'd Hella a bit.

In the comfort of her new friend's presence, Sif quickly fell into a lingering snooze. She was not quite asleep; her lashes fluttered whenever Hella shifted or sighed. A few times, her own body shifted, until her larger body was curled around the pale girl's in a loose but protective half-moon.

It was hours before she regained any significant amount of awareness. The day was waning when she lifted her head and whined through a wide yawn, looking around the wood that she and Hella still occupied.

"Hunt," Sif suggested, wondering if Hella would come along or stay behind. This forest seemed like as good as place as any to set up camp for the time being, and her new friend looked as though she would need a few good meals before they moved on to find someplace better.