Blacktail Deer Plateau to the moon and back

lol, Crete just kind of zoned out, so this is just like fluff, basically. Crete's a lot like Aether - even though that was totally unintentional. xD

It still seemed measurably odd to Crete that Hawkeye was so willing to accept them without rigorous interrogation. Would they be loyal? Would they abandon when the harsh of winter had passed? What skills did they possess? Why had they left their previous homes in the first place? Why did they choose Blacktail Deer Plateau (there had been a brief flush of embarrassment in Crete’s cheeks when he had realized that he had been thinking the wrong name for a few days now - luckily, he could not speak so it wasn’t as if he had spoken the incorrect name) out of the other two packs that inhabited these lands? Granted, Crete understood that he should have been grateful that she was so accepting - if she had interrogated him she would have been morbidly disappointed. Which had brought Crete to another absent point as Hawkeye and Peregrine exchanged quips about Redleaf-DiSarinno male genitalia - that there had been the uncertainty that any other pack would take a mute. Atticus breaking the surface of his thoughts when he mentioned about Peregrine living vicariously through him and Crete. A sneer tugged at the edges of Crete’s lips in response, but it faltered a bit when Hawkeye addressed Atticus in the matter of being useful ‘as your brothers’ she had spoken, but Crete felt a stab of shame. Sure, he had done some patrols, had helped to fill some of the caches with Peregrine…and while it was contributing he hardly considered it useful.

His talents had, like Aether’s own, lain in the heavens - mental mapping of the stars positions, reading them, and predicting weather patterns. He also wasn’t half bad at being a medic, either. Despite that being born mute had given Crete the ability to adapt to his disability with skill and ease having known nothing else, however, there were still times when verbal communication would have been simpler and he was filled with frustration - mostly when wolves who were not adapt at reading his body language misunderstood. Wolves were good with body language by nature, but he supposed that perhaps his, since he was rely solely upon it, dependant upon it as he was, had made it more complicated depending upon what he was attempting to communicate. Being around siblings and wolves whom had known him since his birth had spoiled Crete a fair deal, and he knew it. The only way to break it would be to venture out of the circle of his siblings and socialize in the only way Crete knew how with other wolves - strangers.

It occurred to Crete in that moment, feeling as it someone had shoved a rusted, jagged knife in his heart and twisted, his brow furrowing, sea-green eyes growing dark, that maybe Tyrannus hadn’t exiled him because he perceived the mute as a threat, but maybe because he had perceived him as useless. Hadn’t Peregrine himself say, in a more vague manner, that Crete wasn’t a threat. Dispelling those painful thoughts, he shifted, anxious, wanting this meeting to be over so he could go brood alone - though slipping away from his brothers, no matter how much joy their presence brought him, might prove to be something of a challenge.

table by houkie