Wheeling Gull Isle screaming meemies

Abel reached back and some paternal instinct compelled Caracal to close his foreleg around the boy’s small body and tug it close to his chest. He nuzzled at the top of his head, drawing in that distinctive puppy smell. Abel wasn’t his the same way Simeon, Malakai, Judah and Dina were his, though he felt a great measure of affection wash through him as he cradled the little harlequin.

I’ll tell you a story to help you fall back to sleep, hmmm? Maybe something extremely boring, Caracal mused, his voice a whisper against the cup of the child’s ear.

He lapsed into thoughtful silence for a while—long enough, perhaps, that Abel fell asleep in the interim—trying to come up with a tale to tell. Caracal thought of some of the ones Heda had shared with him over their time together. His eyes drifted over each snoozing inhabitant of the den as he deliberated, settling thoughtfully on the slumbering Judah and triggering the perfect recollection.

Ah, what about David and Goliath? It’s actually not boring at all, he said. Let’s see if I can remember it… ah… right, there was this pack and it had an Alpha called Saul. A giant warrior named Goliath threatened to kill him and all his followers, then take over their territory.

Saul was afraid, so he sent one of his subordinates, David, to deal with Goliath. David was a kind and gentle wolf, kind of small—some might even say he was weak—but he was devout and knew God would lend him strength and protect him.

He marched out to the edge of Saul’s claim and tried to reason with Goliath. When that didn’t work, he threw a stone at Goliath’s head, nailing him right between the eyes and killing him, he declared sotto voce.

Okay, so maybe bible stories weren’t the best way to soothe a child after a nightmare…