Heron Lake Plateau the burning bed

Camilla did not like being separated from Phox for long periods of time, or really at all, but she'd have to get used to being on her own for longer and longer moments. The first few were agonizing—which is probably why she'd kept herself sequestered under the tree back when Bat had found her—however, since then she'd been shown around a few times and knew she had to keep away from the borders if she was going to stay safe. The thought of someone finding her, stealing her away again, was beyond mortifying.

Still, Camilla was unsure about her place here. She felt much better when Phox was nearby and able to give her orders, although he hadn't decreed anything yet—leaving her to wander aimlessly. The occasional moment of impasse where she'd cross another wolf made her pause, duck, avert her eyes or scamper for cover (which, on a plateau, meant she was awkwardly avoiding everyone and without any place to really hide). It wasn't until she'd found a small island jutting out in the lake that Camilla felt more secure; it didn't seem like many wolves frequented it (although there was a curious scent all over it that she couldn't identify as male or female in particular), and it was here that she chose to hide out.

As she settled, coiling up in the same manner as when Phox had found her in the woods, she felt marginally better about the way the events of previous days unfolded. She curled up tightly and burrowed her nose in to her tail and waited, hoping that when Pho re-appeared from wherever he was, he'd provide her with a direction and a task. Without men to guide her, what was she to do?

By now, the freezing cold water had actually frozen, which meant Towhee could probably venture out to The Roost. But she didn't dare test the ice's treachery, at least not until she stood and watched from a distance as someone else made the trip first. After watching the figure disappear into the island's small forest, the Beta padded in the stranger's wake, tentatively tiptoeing across the glazed lake.

Tracking down the interloper only took a few moments. Towhee rolled to a stop and snorted loudly upon finding the she-wolf curled up near Orca's grave. As her nostrils flared, she took in her scent, which was incredibly familiar. Phox came home smelling like it just about every night. With a loud stamp of her foot, Towhee moved closer. She didn't prohibit others from utilizing the island, though she was rather possessive of the area immediately surrounding her sister's final resting place.

When she heard someone approaching she sat up, but didn't unspool herself. Her first instinct was to curl in to a tighter ball and try not to be seen, but it was obvious by the direct manner of the approaching sounds that she had been found-out already. Hiding wouldn't help matters. When the stranger drew nearer their steps became particularly loud, and Camilla read in to the stranger's intent with each crash that reverberated across the small isle; she thought they must be angry, that maybe she'd done something wrong. That thought made her peer through the dark with eyes bright with fear, and it compounded with every thundering beat of her heart until the figure materialized.

At first, she thought the dark face belonged to Phox; it was familiar enough, similar enough, and she relaxed a little bit. When they got a little closer she realized with some horror that it wasn't Phox at all — this stranger was similar in size and build, and dark-cast, but not entirely. There were flashes of autumn shades across their coat, and white patches turned grey by the shadows. Upon noticing these not-so-subtle differences, she instinctively coiled a little tighter and dropped her eyes away from them.

Towhee liked to think she cut an imposing figure, yet it was rare that another wolf cowered before her like this. She peered down the line of her snout, wondering if she was really that frightening or if the stranger was simply predisposed to fearful reactions. Probably a little of both, she surmised.

"You must be Camilla," the Beta rumbled, seating herself with a muffled thump. "There's some sort of joke here," she added, talking to herself and peering upward now, "about how it was my brother who asked if you could sleep with us, but instead you're sleeping with—or on top of, rather—our dead sister..." Her orange gaze dropped back to the Iota, wondering what kind of reaction this declaration would elicit.

The stranger's voice was... Odd. It was slurring a little, like they didn't quite know what sounds to make, and because of the impediment Camilla was further confused about the stranger's gender. She listened because she couldn't avoid the voice, and was nodding her chin slightly as they identified her. Maybe Phox had explained what she was doing here — perhaps this was another of his wives — but she had to push that thought aside. So far nobody in this place appeared familiar with The Company or its deceitful practices.

—you're sleeping with-or on top of, rather-our dead sister, they explained. Her ears went from foreward-facing intently, to slicked back against her grey head. She was — on a grave? Oh. Oh no. What a horrible, horrible mistake!

The information made her unspool and stand up so fast, her reflexes might've been impressive. Except that once Camilla was up she was catching herself on her own feet, and her body came crashing back down within moments. She spilled forwards and collided with the earth chest-first, bopping her chin on the ground with a loud click of her teeth. It was her most graceless performance to date, and she wasn't done. Her jaw was quite sore because of her fall but she wasn't about to lay down in the same place, and with quaking steps she removed herself, her tail plastered curling between her thighs and plastered across her belly.

W-O-W, Towhee thought, each letter an individual sign in her head for emphasis, as Camilla proceeded to jump to her feet, come crashing down just as promptly and then army crawl her way into the nearby underbrush. The Beta's eyes followed her first, then her feet carried her after the retreating subordinate as well.

"Hey, hang on a minute," she barked, trying to grab the other girl's attention and get her to stop. "It was a joke." Towhee huffed, still a little bewildered by the overreaction.

Hang on a minute, commanded the stranger, although the tone wasn't as stern in reality, she heard it and halted immediately. Camilla's gaze swept the earth in the manner of a child who had just been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. She had no idea what a joke was, making the situation a little bit more complicated. Her understanding of language was based entirely on the orders that the men would give her — their demands, their various gutteral sounds as they "appreciated" her, but nuances such as jokes were not familiar to her.

S-sorry, she murmured, but her mouth was tilted away from Towhee and there was no way for her to know of their deafness; oh, how she wished that Phox was here! Where was he? Her ears popped up again, one and then the other, slowly adjusting so that she could listen for orders. So far the stranger had told her to stop and she had, but she didn't know what else to do. She'd do anything to make this moment reach a positive conclusion.

She needn't have even added that last bit, for the stranger froze just as immediately as Towhee issued the "command." Feeling more perplexed by the moment, Towhee slowly padded over to the Iota, her forelegs even with the prostrate woman's shoulder. She looked down at the top of her head for a moment, then moved to stand in front of her, more so she could see Camilla's face than the other way around.

"Look, I'm not sure what's going on with you," the Beta began, then realized how unkind that sounded and tried to course correct. "I mean, there's no need to be so freaked. I was only kidding. Although you really were sleeping on my sister's grave." She huffed again. "It's really not that big a deal."

Anticipating some sort of new conniption fit, Towhee wondered if she could stave it off with an introduction. "I'm Towhee. Are you Camilla...? My brother mentioned you." And comes home every night smelling like you, she added silently, wondering where on earth Phox had found this lady.

No further orders came, but she was ready for them. The stranger kept speaking and the more she did, the more Camilla had to focus on and to translate mentally; most of it made sense, and when they finally mentioned Phox again, things clicked a little bit in to place. She relaxed as soon as the boy was mentioned, and lifted her head just a little bit. Her eyes glanced over the other wolf swiftly as she hunted for signs of irritation but there was nothing, just a little bit of concern really, and the stranger didn't seem like they were going to attack her outright — but she was still a bit startled, still expectant.

Yes, answered the girl, and her eyes briefly matched with Towhee's — which meant her face was a little more visible. I'm Camilla, and.. and Phox, he's... the best thing that's happened to me so far, she would've said if she had the lexicon for it, but instead she ended that thought with something that she considered to be an off-handed comment: —my husban, blink, blink, blink. It sort of just, came out.

The mention of Phox had a visible effect on the woman, something which Towhee observed perhaps more astutely than another wolf might've, given the sharpness of her vision and ability to pick up on silent cues. But she must have misunderstood the next part somehow, surely, because she thought the woman's lips had formed the words, "my husband."

"Come again? And look right at me. I'm deaf and trying to read your lips."

When he couldn’t find Towhee or Camilla, he set off to find one or the other. Instead of finding that, he found both of their scents mingling across the frozen lake. Ohhhh boy. He hoped that Towhee wasn’t giving her a hard time. Surely his sister would want to terrorize whatever friends he had made. He was protective of Camilla though, and he did not want anything to go wrong between them. He had hoped he could introduce them to each other once Camilla had gained some confidence, but it didn’t look like that was going to work out in his favor.

What he heard when he approached blew him right out of the water. Uh... he interrupted, coming up from behind Towhee, then remembering that might startle her, so he side-stepped so he was approaching slightly more from the side. -I think she’s confused,- he said, glancing back at Camilla, then remembering he was excluding her from the conversation by reverting to ptero.

Camilla, I’m not your husband. I’m your friend. He gave her a concerned, sympathetic look. The two of them had done nothing to indicate that they were anything beyond that. Phox had no intentions of shacking up with somebody who was still so clearly suffering from whatever had happened to her before. He wanted to heal her... and maybe then... when she was of sound mind... but that hadn’t even really crossed his mind until she claimed him as her husband.

When Towhee admitted to being deaf, Camilla was surprised — but she obeyed, and lifted her nose so that she was almost eye-to-eye level with them. When she opened her mouth to confirm what she had said, there was suddenly no need. Phox arrived; seeing him made her pause, and her tail uncurled from its spot across her belly and gave a small twitch, but she was shocked by his correction. If he wasn't her husband, what was he? For all Camilla knew, men were always husbands -- it had been true for Sif and Wardruna, and it was true for herself and Keen, and Lukja, and Goran — thinking of them made her tail curl again and she ducked her head, eyes closing briefly as if his words had been meant to cause harm.

She felt them like a fresh wound, and murmured again — I.. I sorry, I... she didn't know what to say. It hurt her though, deep down. If Phox wasn't her husband -- he said he was a friend, but what did that mean? Camilla couldn't remember having a man for a friend before. The poor thing tried to think of something to say to fix it, something to do, but her eyes misted over suddenly with hot tears — and she shrank back from the two of them. I don't understan, Phox, Phox safe me, I... I thought...

It was stupid. She was stupid. The girl sniffled, wanting nothing more than to calm down and hide, but she couldn't move until they let her.

Despite his efforts to avoid startling her, Towhee jumped slightly when Phox appeared. She had been concentrating so hard on the fraught Camilla—and begging her pardon—that she had grown oblivious to the rest of the world. She licked her lips as her brother signed something to her, abruptly realizing she hadn't misunderstood. Camilla had referred to Phox as her husband.

Orange eyes incredulous now, Towhee turned to catch some of the woman's muttered apologies and submissive behaviors. She sidestepped a bit, signing, -What the actual fuck?- at Phox. Towhee sincerely didn't know what to make of Camilla, or this situation, and she was left to wonder why on earth Phox had gotten involved with someone who was glaringly socially crippled. And to think, he'd wanted her to live with the two of them!

Clearly, the siblings had different opinions on how to handle Camilla’s social ineptitude. Phox wanted to heal her bit by bit, but it seemed Towhee did not even begin to understand. He should have known better, but he did his best to keep his calm and explain as best as he could. I don’t know exactly what happened, but clearly she’s been through some shit, again, he glanced back to Camilla. He gave her what he hoped was a comforting smile before turning back to Towhee so she could read his lips. Towhee had given him a second chance, so he had thought it important to pass on that generosity.

I was hoping to introduce you two at some point, but fuck. Phox didn’t often curse, but he was frustrated and felt put on the spot. Maybe he should have just stayed out of it. Then again, if he had, Towhee probably would have torn him a new one for going off and grabbing a wife from the wilds. Not that he had done that, of course. We’re not involved. She’s just a friend, and she clearly needs some rehabilitation, but I couldn’t just leave her out there on her own. She would have died. If she hadn’t been captured by her stalker, she would have frozen to death, too afraid to move from that spot where he’d found her.

She just needs time, he reiterated, then moved toward Camilla to soothe her with a lick on her cheek. If this put space between Towhee and himself, he wasn’t sure what he would do. He had promised to protect her, to keep her safe, and he could not do that if Towhee kicked her off the plateau. Phox felt like he had put himself between a rock and a hard place, but he didn’t want to have to choose between the two of them. It wouldn’t come to that, would it? He hoped that would not be the case, but he could see Towhee spitting an ultimatum at him right here and now, forcing him to make a choice he did not want to.

She shouldn't have said anything. She should've kept her stupid mouth shut, with her stupid ideas, and things would've been fine. But Camilla couldn't help it; being tricked off of her sleeping spot was one thing, the fact she couldn't tell if this wolf was someone she should fear or not was another, and now they were looking at her like some kind of freak — she didn't know what to do but feel sorry for herself and her body curved in to an apologetic slump of worrisome posturing. Camilla leaned towards Towhee and finally looked them over with a fleeting glance, reaching for them and trying to show with a bunt of her nose against the intimidating wolf's chin that she was sorry, so sorry.

Thankfully Phox could talk them down; his voice was level as he spoke, and then he moved to intercept Camilla - who pulled back from the both of them for just a second, gathering her bearings. She just needs time, he said, and Camilla's ears perked up and swiveled to catch his voice. When he gave her a lick on the cheek she felt her face flush.

A part of her thought, maybe, the two of them would strike her for her comments. Maybe try to correct the mistake with new lessons - but neither wolf struck at her, and the tenderness of that momentary connection with Phox further confused the girl. She was so happy to have his attention - to have him or her side! - but it still didn't make sense. He wasn't her husband, but he treated her like one of the good ones. Camilla basked in his presence and leaned in to his warmth, but kept her wits about her because she wasn't sure about Towhee.

Towhee didn't understand. Phox did his best to explain that Camilla had been through some shit—I mean, obviously, she deadpanned in her head—and that she just needed some time. When Towhee caught the swear word, she lifted a brow. He seemed to be really hot under the collar about this. Suddenly, that shifted Towhee's entire mood about the situation.

-Um, okay, are you sure she's not your wife?- she signed, a teasing edge to her fiery orange gaze even as Phox moved forward to place a comforting lick on Camilla's cheek. -And did you just call me 'butt fuck'? Unkind.-

Either his explaining had worked, or Towhee had decided it wasn't worth the argument. Whatever the reason, Phox breathed a sigh of relief and gave Camilla a smile. It'll be okay, he assured her. He realized he hadn't explained his connection to Towhee. Towhee is my sister. The yearling turned back to the aforementioned sibling right as she began the second half of her comment. He furrowed his brow, trying to figure out what she was talking about. It hit him a second later, and he rolled his eyes and smiled at the same time. If she was teasing him now, maybe that meant he was in her good graces again. Maybe things would be okay between them after all.

-And what if I did?- he asked, keeping Camilla in his peripheral vision. -Is the big bad beta gonna beat me up?- He gave her an impish grin. He knew that, in a real fight, Towhee would kick his ass from here to the coast. Phox had never been interested in sparring, and while he could probably fend off anybody who tried to cause him any harm, he would probably not do so unless he had to. He highly doubted he would need to fight Towhee in the near future.

She was listening to them talk until there wasn't any more spoken word, at which point she was looking back and forth between them as they did their motions. None of that made sense, so the perplex Camilla stopped trying to follow along and nosed about in Phox's fur. Once she'd settled a little bit, things were better. Camilla didn't know what to do though, and she felt very awkward while standing there with Towhee watching her - or not really watching her, but present, because so far she'd been super intimidating. The girl was silent, finding comfort in the presence of Phox, which she focused on the most. Her ears were slicked back for now, but if she heard any more voices - specifically his - she'd be listening intently for directions on what to do.

-You're not worth the energy, crapbag,- Towhee signed with a sneer. But there was no heat whatsoever behind the jab. Hell, one might even call this banter. -I'll leave you two alone,- she added, gesturing suggestively at the she-wolf cuddling ever closer to her brother. -Just don't bone on Orca's grave. Seriously.-

After giving them both a look, Towhee sidled away to the edge of The Roost, then picked her way across the ice, carefully walking in in the footprints they'd left behind earlier in the thin crust of snow.

-We're not gonna— but he was cut off when Towhee turned away, unable to even shout at her as she turned tail. Funny how being deaf meant she always got the last word. He gave Camilla an apologetic look. -We ta— again, he cut off, realizing he was still speaking ptero and she wasn't versed in it even one little bit, beyond what she had just seen. Since Towhee can't hear, sometimes we talk with our movements, he explained. I'll try and teach you sometime. It'll put you on her good side, which—believe me—is the only side you want to be on with her.

Phox had been on her bad side, and he never, ever wanted to go back there again. He was always waiting for it to happen, bracing himself for those horrible feelings all over again, but he had hope that things would be all right this time around. He seemed to have redeemed himself on some level, and he could think of no reason that he would fuck it up again... but who really knew?