Subject: Somewhere in the backwoods of Texas 2,181 views

[adminarot3p]

Percival soon returned with an armload of firewood, thick dry logs and a handfull of sticks and moss. He let these drop, and picked out a long log. It was jagged at one end, and still very green. It was as thick around as a normal human arm, and had a crotch at one end, all together about five feet tall. Some shoots still sprouted green leaves along the shaft. He handed it to her, along with a dirty rag, for padding.

" I couldn't find anything i liked that was dead, so i broke this one for you." He gave it to her, and paused.
" There is a pair of wolves, not my kind, but wolves, in the brush, i acted like they were not there, and they did not bother me. I will mark a tree at the other side of the clearing, this will ward them off, do not touch the food, or go near it. Place a rock atop it, for if they go after anything it will be that, or your cat." His eyes darted to the feline.

" If they approach, then throw fire at them. But it would be best if they did not even enter the clearing." He moved away from her and over to a tree, several yards away. He lifted a leg and expelled a stream of pungent yellow liquid, spattering gently against the oaks bark.

[Genevieve Locklie]

Her stomach was growling loudly. "So I cannot eat until they leave?" She questioned. She didn't have a whiny tone to her voice, more of a determination to ward off the wolves that so threatened her meal. She grabbed the baseball bat and the lid from her pot. "May I make noise to scare them?" She asked his permission, knowing that such noises would probably only irritate him. She wanted to badly to eat, and she wanted so badly just to glutton herself full and sleep the rest of the night. But she knew it wasn't going to happen and she knew that it was being greedy. It's not being greedy if it's only me though is it? She asked herself deep in thought. No one was going to be eating any of this cooked food but her. Aldrid was not here to... Aldrid... She looked down at the ring she wore, and hoped that he was wearing his. "I miss you..." she whispered quietly, not really realizing she had whispered it quietly to herself.

[adminarot3p]

He finished and returned to her. He picked up a few pieces of the man and brought them into the lean to, placing them on the pine needles.

" Here, eat in here, i will cook the rest, and watch for the wolves. The equinox is soon, and the nights are slowly getting longer. Eat, for soon it will be dark, i will fetch water to be drunk in the morning." He exited, and offered his arms for her to either climb into or take as stabilizers. He wanted her in the leanto, so he could make sure the back was well blocked off and guard the only way in or out.

[Genevieve Locklie]

She knew she had lost at least fifteen pounds, she felt so much lighter . She moved into his arms holding him lightly. She wasn't hurting her leg, but she had to keep using it or it wouldn't heal properly. She kissed his nose gently. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned onto him. She rested against him for a few moments, she was so tired, but he was so warm.. After a few moments she released him of her affection. She sat down on the pine needles and picked up the meat and despite it being hot she began eating it. She felt like an animal as she stuffed the food into her mouth. She had to slow her eating so she wouldn't get sick. She watched Percival as she sat crouched on the pine needles hunched over her food.
After finishing the food she took off the jacket and laid it over her nude body. It was the only way to fight off the cold from the night. She curled up under the jacket with only her head poking out. She took in aldrid's scent off of the jacket and cooed sleepily. Oden came to her and curled up around her toes that stuck out from under the jacket. He licked himself and purred gently. She yawned and rested her head. She was on he left side facing the fire. Her vision became blurry and she drifted into sleep. The smell of the fire surrounding her and mixing with Aldrid's scent.

[adminarot3p]

He stiffened at the contact, a....hug, he remembered. People gave them to those they cared for. She was a very loving person. The thought of breeding with her totally skipped his mind. His brain was not made for such thoughts anymore. His natural drive to reproduce had been quashed by the removal of the necessary parts to produce such urges. He was geared only twards finding and consuming food. He, as a tier 2 could distinguish what was and was not food with reasoning, unlike the tier 1, which relied on instinct. He went to return the gesture, but she was already out of his arms. He swept over to a pile of pine needles placed when clearing the fire, scooping them up handfull by handfull and piling them onto her, making her a cocoon. He dug around and found more, which he piled at the back of the lean to, adding bark scraps and fresh plucked needles. Soon she was sealed in on one side, naught but a butterfly could get thru the vent hole he left in the top. He banked the fire, so i would not die in the night, and ate the rest of the cooked food, caking the front of the rock with dirt. He could see a pair of shining eyes observing him in the near dusk, and he stood, teeth bared, a light snarl touching his lips. The eyes blinked once, and there was a slight rustle as thier owner slipped away. He picked at part of a bone as he lay curled at the entrance of the lean to, his heat flooding the ground around him. He waited, watched the stars appear, the moon rise. In the distance, far away, he heard two howls. The wolves. But closer than he wanted, answering those howls, was another voice, deeper, more lonely, desperate. There was another werewolf in his woods. He would have to wait until Her mate was back to hunt it down. Even then, he would probably use it as bait. At this he chuckled, and watched the sun rise.

[Genevieve Locklie]

Her dream was rather unpleasant. It started out like most of her dreams and it was of him holding her by the fire. She was sitting in front of him. He kept rubbing her stomach and she couldn't figure out why until she looked down. She was pregnant. It shocked her but she wouldn't show it. She was very far along, she had to be only a few days away from giving birth, if even that.
She felt the baby kick and she looked down at her stomach again watching closely. Aldrid chuckled as he felt the baby kick. The baby kicked again but this time it hurt. She yelped and her eyes widened as she watched the surface of her stomach lift up to the shape of a foot. She stared wide eyed. "What?" he asked her, afraid she was going into labor. "It really hurt." was all she could say.
It progressively became worse in a matter of minutes. She was laying on the floor and Aldrid was crouched in between her open legs. She was screaming with tears rolling down her face. She was begging for him to get it out of her. Her stomach then ripped open and blood splattered in every direction. She was screaming as a Demon looking child ripped its self from her insides and began attacking Aldrid. The child was one of them.
She woke up sitting up and standing leaning against the Lean to as she frantically flung her hands around her trying to block some invisible attacker. She then stopped and touched her stomach rubbing it. It was flat and sunken. Just as when she had fallen asleep. Oden looked up to her mewing at her. He had dropped a fish in front of her. She wiped the dream from her thoughts and knelt down and picked up the fish. It flopped in her hands and opened it's mouth gasping for water. She startled and looked down to her faithful cat. She smiled at him and he mewed back at her. She took the fish in her hands and contorted the fish snapping it's neck and quickly ending it's life. She set the fish head down for Oden to eat and went to the opening of the lean to. "Percival, do you eat fish?" she asked

[adminarot3p]

He was on the other side of the clearing, releiving himself on a series of trees. He worked methodically, and the scent of his urine wafted gently across the clearing. It was acrid, but with a hint of sweetness to it, like brown sugar. He finished and scratched a tree trunk, leaving white scars to bead with sap. A chunk of the man lay in a bloody heap, next to a small smokeless fire, individual from the existing fire. He looked to her as he stalked twards it on all fours. Within the past few days, it had become easier for him to do so, so he pushed his body, stretched it, making it easier for him. He used this talent now to reach the man faster. He tore chunks out of it and placed them to char on the fire, ash making it slightly salty.

" You are awake. You cried out in your sleep, so i stayed and guarded you. When you quieted i went and pulled the man from the tree. He is crow pecked, but he is edible. We should work on preserving him in some way. The wolf i killed is covered in ants, if you feel like braving it you can later. Where is our crutch? You should use it."

[Genevieve Locklie]

"No, eat your fish." She said handing it to him. "It will give you some energy. I do not need the crutch. It's sore but it isn't hurting as bad. I can even stand on it." She said lifting up her left leg and balancing on it. Not even a wince passed her face. She set her left leg down and shifted her hips. "I will be fine. The more I use it and stretch it, the less it hurts." she said smiling at him. I also have a lot of things that I need to do. "Percival, is there anyway you can skin the wolf so I can use the fur?" she asked hoping to be able to make some coats for her and Aldrid. "And anything else we kill I would ask for the skin. and the bones. I wish to use all of the animal. If we soak it in the cold water for a while, the ants will drown, and it will help stop the progression of the decaying meat." She smiled at him again.

[adminarot3p]

He looked to her and thought.

" The ants will not drown, thier bodies will keep the natural high tension of the water and float, but they will float away if the stream of the water is strong enough. As for the skin and bones, the skin you may have freely, but i get to pick out the bones i want. Thier marrow is high in energy, and tasty. But yes, you may have the beast." He took the fish and popped into his mouth. It slipped, unchewed, down his gullet. He frowned at the use of her leg.

" I dont like you using it. I dont like it at all."

[Genevieve Locklie]

"I will be fine percival, now show me where this wolf carcass is so that I may drag it to the river and tie it off. After I do that I am going to set some traps so that we may catch some animals. Oh, and I only wanted the bones so that I could make some tools. You can eat the marrow, I know you need it. I would like to use the fur to make some clothes. So any animals, a deer or raccoon, or whatever, I would like to keep the skin intact as much as possible." She stepped around the fire. "Okay show me the wolf carcass." She said waiting for him to lead.

[adminarot3p]

He listened to her speak to him like a soldier, and harrumped. He crouched on his four legs, and baed her mount.

" I am training my muscles, and your weight will be appreciated." He looked up to her, for the first time. He furrowed his brows, is this how they fealt when he stood over them? Intimidating. He would remember to stand taller.

[Genevieve Locklie]

"I will allow you to carry me to the carcass, but when I am setting the traps your scent can not be there, for they animals don't like the scent of a predator." She walked towards him and held her hands out to allow him to pick her up.

[adminarot3p]

He chuckeled and lifted her onto his back with the opposite arm. He waited for her to situate herself, as he situated himself with her weight. He looked up and around to her, waiting for some kind of all clear signal.

[Genevieve Locklie]

"okay, lets do this." She said waiting patiently for him to carry her where she needed to go. She was thinking about how she was going to skin the wolf, because Aldrid had taken the only knife they had... She wondered if Aldrid was okay, he seemed to be her every thought. She did her best to keep the bad thoughts out of her head.

[adminarot3p]

He carried her a few yards to the place in the brush where a less than peasant odor radiated from. A trail of ants marched its way under a small thorny shrub. Percival wrinkled his nose at the mess, and leaned down to the great wad of flesh. He was challenged immediately by a badger, that huffed and hissed and stomped at him. He brought a great fist down onto it, getting a strangled squeak as the badgers life was swiftly ended. He handed her the six pound animal, still leaking blood. He craned his head, and reached in. With a grunt he pulled out a severed limb. He frowned, and then pulled out the rest, piece by piece. The ants attacked at the joints, biting and stinging. He licked them up, covered as they were with rotting flesh, and licked the ones off his hands and arms. Piece by piece he drug them to the river side. He drug the last piece, a leg, down to the river and surveyed their haul, still on all fours. Wasn't there another arm? or did he forget it? He shrugged, if she wanted it so bad she could crutch over to the spot and get it herself. Yes, he was attached to her, but he also had common sense, and a sense of self preservation. He crouched by the waterside and let her get off.

[Genevieve Locklie]

She got her footing and set the badger down and ripped some sturdy vines from a near by tree. She began tying off the parts and wiping the ants off of her arms. She hoped the cold water would loosen up the meat from the fur. She finished tying off the parts and picked the badger back up. She walked up the bank and back up towards the camp. Her leg was feeling a lot better since the good soaking. It looked terribly injured but she knew she had to keep moving it, she didn't want it to get stiff and her risk getting a blood clot or something worse. She carried it back up to the Lean to and she plopped it down to the ground. She moved around snapping little saplings before she had one break the right way. It broke at and angle and had a nice point to it. It was the best she would have to start cutting the badger up. She sat down in the lean to, figuring Percival would be happy she was sitting. She pulled the badger over to her and she began tearing the flesh from it's muzzle. Normally, she wouldn't be doing this. But she needs clothes, and they are going to need warmth.

[adminarot3p]

He watched her work with the pieces of werewolf, noticing her movement. She should really be using her crutch . He lifted a lip to this, knowing she was strong willed she would not be swayed easily. He could not outright threaten her with death, he did not want her to die. He wanted her to live, and reproduce, and make plenty of little babies for him to eat, and to find him food. Heh, he was the leader of a human pack. What was it? Oh yes, president. President Percival. He liked it. He looked to her and saw that she was again gone. He checked on the wolfmeat and then stalked her. He made his own way up to the campsite, round about, popping up on the other side. He crept in and surveyed the site, a hodgepodge of things strewn about. They needed to organise this. He started to clear away debris, putting sticks and wood in a pile, spread pine needles over thin patches, fill in holes. He looked around for rocks, and plucked them up also. These he piled differently, in a cairn of sorts. He looked around for other things to do, and began piling rocks around the two fires, edging them from infection by stray pine needles. He looked to the clearing, it was vaguely oval in shape, sloping slightly twards the water. The clearing was dotted with small saplings, which he went around and systematically eradicated, giving the ground a cleaner look. He piled these in a place close to the lean to, for later use. It was about nine feet across at its first bulge, then six at its next, lending it a slight figure eight shape. A little to thier southwest, was a middling sized live oak, growing straight and strong. It would make good timber, if they could cut it, and firewood. He returned to his ablutions of the campsite, grumbling about the things he did for love.

[Genevieve Locklie]

She looked to him with frustration. "Percival, Aldrid has taken the only knife. Your claws are sharp, can you get the skin started for me, and I will do the rest? Oh, and when I remove the Skull, will you crack it open for me? I need the brain." She said hoping he would help. She thought back to when her brother had taken her camping. It was the time where they spent a whole month out in the woods by themselves. He had taught her everything she knew today. How to hunt, and how to skin the animals, and how to tan them. Back at her apartment she had at least a hundred furs that they had done over the years. She had made them into miscellaneous things, such as coats and furry boots, and purses. She remembered when he told her that she could use her pee, she hoped she wouldn't have to, and that the brain tanning would work.
She thought of her brother. He had always been a military man, loving the survival training that they had given him. She wondered where he was, if he was okay, and if she would ever see him again. She sent up her silent blessings to The Great Goddess and prayed for his safety. I love you Corey, she thought to herself. You have saved me more than you could have imagined...

[adminarot3p]

He snuffled at the corpse in her hand, going over it with his eyes. He took it from her and tore out the throat with two of his fangs. He broke the things neck, and using the flat of his thumb he popped the skull out of the skin. He popped a thumbnail into the young badgers skull, starting a crack, and pushed thru it. He handed her the skull, and proceeded to break the paws, separating them under the skin. He handed her the bleeding carcass, and licked his fingers.

" Pull it off, like a sock." His gruff voice was edged with humor. He found this funny, for some strange reason. The change from human to werewolf was tough on the brain, so they usually didnt retain many of their past characteristics. He was not human he was, other. His humanity lingered scantily, emerging occasionally to say hello, but is then shredded by some inhuman act he commits. He was most certianly something not with which to fuck. He watched her actions, interested in what she was doing.

[Genevieve Locklie]

She worked on pulling with her hands and pushing with the stick. After a half hour had past she had gotten about half way down the animal. She was more or less again covered with blood. She was proud that the animals had retained it's innards and not spilled out just yet. She continued working the fur down and over its legs and had ripped the fur around the feet. She wasn't sure if she could properly preserve the hide with the feet still on it. So she opted out and continued pushing with the stick and pulling with her hand until she got to the tail. She did her best to gently rip down the tail in a straight line until she pulled it from around the bone. She laid the skin fur down on the pine needles and moved to her pot. She poured out the contents of her bag onto the floor of the lean to and arranged them neatly. She poured the gasoline into her bag. It was water proof so she hoped it would hold the gasoline well. She went down to the river and washed out the pot well and filled it with a little bit of water and made her way back to the camp. She poured out some of the water seeing that it would be too much for the amount of brain she had, she scraped out the brain into the pot and mashed it up with a little bit of water and set it by the flames of the fire on some coals to warm it up a bit.
While she waited for the brain to heat up a bit she moved back into the lean to and began scraping the flesh and fat from the skin. She put the fats in one pile and put the flesh by Oden so he could eat it. She continued scraping making sure that there was nothing but the skin left.

[adminarot3p]

He watched her in her chores, and picked at the scraps set down for the cat, competing with it for choice morsels. He didnt need to, he could go chew at the carcass of the man, but he felt part of her routine this way, connected to her. It was the dog part of his brain working, loyalty was its common trait. He watched boredly, but attentive to her.

[Genevieve Locklie]

After completely scraping the hide she removed the pot from the coals and began working the mush into a good paste with her stick. She took the paste and began rubbing it all over the skin of the fur. Making sure to completely cover every part. She worked the paste around with her stick. She was hoping to get done before noon so that she could go begin setting traps. She focused on the now and made sure to completely cover the skin in the mush, using every last bit.

[adminarot3p]

He looked at the pot, sniffing at it for remnants. He looked up to her as he sniffed at it, watching to see if he was to be reprimanded. He watched her work the hide with the stick, wondering about it.

" How does it work?" He asked, his voice gaining a metallic echo from its proximity to the pot.

[Genevieve Locklie]

"Oh, don't eat that, you might get sick. Or go crazy." She wasn't sure if they really could, but she would rather he not take the risk. "What happens is the brain has tanning chemicals in it. So when I mush the brain up and spread it over the hide, it reacts with the skin and preserves it and makes it water proof and easily worked with. It wont be stiff. So I mushed up the badger's brain with a little water and I spread it over the skin. So now I have to leave it sit out for a night. Then tomorrow in the morning when I wake, I will have to make a separate fire that only smolders. I will suspend the Fur above the fire so that to smoke is on the fur. It will have to stay like that for half a day. I will add green leaves to the fire and some fresh oak saplings to help give it some more smoke to it. So we will need to save all of those little saplings you were ripping up earlier. I can do this with any animal we get. I can even make you coats so that during the winter you can be outside. If we had a bear hide I could make you and entire body cover for you. So you will stay warm." She hoped he would think this would be a great idea. "But for now I am going to put together a little stew from this badger. Would you like all of the intestines and such? I will only be using the muscle and some fat I removed from the skin. Anything else you may have. But the stew will need to cook all day. So I will try to get that started now so that I can go about all of my business today. Maybe I can show you a few things that you might like. Oh, and would you like me to make you some coats after I make ours? I say after I make ours because you can hibernate, Aldrid and myself can not... If we could find a bear, oh Percival, you would love to chew on a bear leg. It would be so delicious for you. Rich with marrow. and I could make you a coat, or if you don't want a coat. I could make A blanket for us to use in the winter so that we do not freeze." She seemed her hopes were much higher. She handed him the Badger's tongue and eye balls she had already removed. "Those are tough, but good for you."

[adminarot3p]

He licked up the scraps she doled out to him, swallowing them without chewing. On what he did chew, was the idea. He mulled it over in hid head. A bear, that would be a very big ontaking. Bears were not common around here, they would have to travel to where they foraged most frequently, a cluster of berry bushes and fruiting trees, an orchard, was it? It was what was left of a farm that had stood long before the outbreak started. They grew in thickets, and the black bears came to gobble the delicious berries. He frowned at her. She would be sufficient bait, if she made enough noise, or tempted a cub. He furrowed his brows at her.

" A bear is a very powerful, very dangerous animal Sparrow. You need more than my claws to kill it."

[Genevieve Locklie]

"I know sweetheart. I was thinking of waiting until just before winter. When they begin their sleep. You could enter a den and silence it with a single strike. That is the only thing I could think of. Unless we want to outright lure one with me so you have the advantage of surprise. But Bears can run at thirty miles an hour and I in my peak shape would maybe be able to run half of that..." She contemplated the thought. "I would have no problem being a lure for you. As long as I know that you are safe, and that I may still be able to hunt for you and provide food for you during the winter." She was growing very fond of Percival. She would have to think of a nickname for him. Nothing cute, but something lethal sounding.
She stretched the hide out letting it get some air while she traveled down to the river to wash out the pot. She knew he would follow, so she continued talking. "If we get a bear, we could have a lot of food for a while, for all three of us. I would just need to make a smoke house or something to preserve it..." She cleaned out the pot in the water and wiped it clean of any remaining brain matter. She filled it with water and made her way back to begin working on the stew.

[adminarot3p]

He listened to her, following her as she went. He used all four of his limbs, his joints beginning to ache. Hearing her out he considered her plan, in the beginning of winter, find one that had denned, and slay it. But they were not always asleep, they were more in a half sleep state, giving birth to their cubs, which would also be a treat. Any fetal meat was tender and succulent. He once caught a deer who was carrying a fawn. It was almost as good as the meat of the children the stupid human females toted with them, whining and screaming for food and attention. They were easy to spot, and lure away. He drooled slightly at the thought. Maybe she would make him some children to eat. He would like that. He decided to return to his normal posture, towering over her. He felt better now, being tall. He didn't mind being on all fours around her, but when her mate came back, he would stand straighter. He scowled at the thought. He was brash, irresponsible. What she saw in him, he could not fathom, but what did he are what she saw in him? If he did something stupid, he would kill him, and give her a new one. Yes, a new and better one, one more worthy of His Sparrows love. His? He mulled this in his feral brain, tearing at it and digesting it. Yes, his. That would do. She was a source of fresh human meat, not herself, but the children she would produce. He would live with claiming her, but it had to be well known that she was his, and not with whom to fuck. He groweled in his throat at the thought.

[Genevieve Locklie]

She turned to look at him, startled she spilled some water. "What is it? Is Aldrid back?" She asked her voice raising in pitch with her anticipation. She knew that he didn't like Aldrid, so she turned to see if he was coming through the clearing.. "Oh, sorry..." She kept walking her hopes dropping a bit. She wished he would come back soon, for she hoped that he would be here tonight so that another nightmare wouldn't haunt her. She went back up to the camp and set the pot down and began removing the innards from the carcass. She put them in a pile for Percival to eat and set aside the liver especially for him. She removed the thin layer of shin from over the limbs and its back and began stripping the muscle from the badger's body. She began cooking them on a stone in the fire. She kept turning the meat making sure it wouldn't stick. She took the fat that she had gathered and put it into the pot to let it separate.
When the meat had finished cooking she threw the chunks into the pot and some more fat. She did not care how unhealthy the fat would be, it added flavor to and and would help them gain some weight for the winter. After putting the lid on the pot she went out to set traps. But first she had to look around for some wire or some fishing line by the river. She found a bobber caught in a tree by some fishing line a few yards down and quickly got it down by using a stick. She removed the bobber and the hook and set them back at camp by her gasoline filled bag. She made her way to a small clearing where she could tell where the rabbits beat at. The beat is where the rabbits travel everytime they leave their nest, the small trails that they have lead through tall grass. She set up some hoop snares biting through the line with her teeth. She attached them to branches she knew a hare could not drag and placed them by the beat path. She made sure not to disturb more than she had to and hoped that her scent would disappear eventually. She set three in that area and moved farther down to set two more before she ran out of twine. After setting the traps she went back to the camp and began working on bending the hook straight. She could use it to sew. Especially if she found some more fishing line later. After bending the hook straight, acidentily stabbing herself a few times, she went out to fix the lean to. She thought about moving it to make it bigger, but decided not to. She replaced a lot of the branches with fresh saplings compared to the dead wood she had been using. She was able to set a few longer branches in between two larger branches in the trees she had used for the frame of the lean to.
She worked on weaving in some palm frawns and some other brush to make it water proof in case a storm rolled through. Hours had passed since she had made the stew and she went about checking on it. It was smelling good and she stirred it and put the lid back on. She set some more of the wood she had taken from the lean to into the fire to make sure it kept lit. She wasn't sure if she would be able to start another fire... After doing that she finished straightening up the camp site. She knew it looked messy, but they really weren't worried about it's cleanliness at the moment... She decided to get some frawns and hold them together and sweep with them to make it look a little nicer. She removed the pine needles that were dirty and set them in the burning pile for tomorrow's hide. She took the saplings that Percival had ripped up earlier and put those in that pile as well. She began setting up some stones in a circle and outside of that circle she began setting up a contraption. There were four sticks shoved in the ground around the circle. She made sure these four sticks had splits at the top to support a frame for her hide. She put sticks on it to make a square and moved the hide to it so it could soak up in peace. She set it fur down, but tomorrow it would be fur up so that she could seal it. She moved back to the lean to and paced around a bit. Before she opted to go scrounge for some more fishing line so that she could so a jacket tomorrow. She hoped that the hook and fishing line would do the trick. After finding a few pieces snagged on rocks or in branches she came back to them camp and rested. Oden had brought her a gecko and sat it in her lap. It was still alive just badly injured. She pet him and told him thank you and snapped it's neck to end it's suffering. She used her nails to pry him open and set the Gecko down for Oden to enjoy. Oden had been an inside outside cat. And would frequently bring her gifts when they lived in the apartments. She would always accept the gifts and use as much of them as possible. She knew that he had brought it to her as a gift, but she hoped he understood that he needed to eat it, for she could not. He mewed at her and picked up the gecko and moved to her other side before he began chomping down on the Gecko's skull. It made a popping sound and then all that was heard around her was the sound of purring, crunching, birds chirping, crickets being obnoxious and the usual water sounds.

[adminarot3p]

He walked with her for a time, beside her. He would keep her company as long as she needed him. He walked beside her, feeling the pine needles slipping gently under his feet, squishing into the dirt. The rich loamy soil provided nourishment for all of the many trees that grew so tall in the forest. They blotted the sun in some places, killing all life under them. Fungus could flourish here, on dead things and the like. He could not flourish on dead things. He needed meat, human flesh. His stomach, shrunken from long days without food, was currently full up from the leg he chewed off of the human male while Gen was asleep, getting a good amount of flesh into his belly. He had taken the liberty of shoving it beside the beaver under the snag. He would leave it to chill in the cool running water, refreshing. He arrived at camp, to watch her go about her chores, stripping and dressing the flesh on the stone. He consumed the proffered organs noisily, his slurping powers currently out of order with his missing upper lip. He finished in a few seconds, a few little chunks left. He would leave them for the cat, ragged little thing it was. If he ever had to resort to eating it he wanted it to be fat, and fatty. He looked to her, intent in her own work, and decided to leave her on her own for once. He had faith in her, and wanted to test it. He slipped away, still on all fours, and wound his way through the pines, inhaling their sweet fragrances. He did so love the smell of unadulterated nature. Humans smelled bad enough on their own, a sickly sweet scent that inspired rage in him, but when mixed with fresh earth and pine, it was enough to make him gag. He ran his claws through a small mound of dirt, raising his hand to his face. There were a plethora of different scents, dead tree, living sap, moulding leaves, wet rocks, even earthworms. He loved the smell, and looked around. This, this was his, and only his. The other wolf he heard the other night, he would not let it forget who's woods these were. He stood to his full height and inhaled, his thick ribs stretching his sickly looking flesh taught. The sound that emanated from his wretched jaws was one that made your hairs stand on end. It was the perfect mixture of a wolfs howl, and a mans cry of grief. It was liquid sorrow, tempered with silken gold threads of loneliness, braided in such a way that it ensnared the heart and pulled up memories of your own sorrows. Times when you would have howled like that. It echoed through the trees, ceasing the chattering of the birds in the area. A hare froze in its tracks, long beige ears perked, shaking lightly. Animals, they knew. This was not merely a human, nor an animal. This, this was.../other/ This was like nothing that had been seen on earth before. The sound faded away, whisping from his lips like smoke in the breeze. He opened his eyes and perked his ears, waiting for a reply. He heard, very faintly, another howl, the throat it was made from smaller than his, and the pitch suggested it was female. The wolf of the east ridge. She was not soft and frail like most human females. He had fought her hard to claim this patch of land, and instead of expanding to the east, he did so to the uninhabited north, little by little. He made his home bigger, and not so big that he couldn't control it. He knew his own strength, and would use it in the smartest and most unexpected ways possible. He walked a few more meters, sniffing the trees and the air, searching for the rogue werewolf scent, but to no avail. Mayhaps it was a loner, skirting pack boundaries. Or it was too weak to attack him. He grinned. Yes, too weak. He was strong, but he was also smart. His heard of people would feed him, and that would strengthen him. He would protect them, and discover new ways of thinking. He could listen to their conversations and figure out how they think, enabling him to better track his prey items. He was a good wolf, and proud of himself. He approached the first border, his eastern one. He scented the first tree. It was covered with wolf urine, and he growled. He hiked his leg, spattering the trunk with a pungent yellow liquid, more water than hormone, but still thick with them. He had to lift his leg, lest he piss on it. He didn't really have a penis anymore, is was more of a miniaturized version of a dogs outer sheath. Lacking the webbing that connected it to the dogs body, but it retained the same general build. The same for his anus. It was shaped similar to a dogs, but tucked under his tail, like if a human was born with a tail. He lacked nipples, being metabolized along with his testicles and all other sex related organs, glands et cetera. He was built for survival,and he would do just that. He walked away from that tree, to the one beside it. He scored it with his claws, marking it as his. He would proceed to do this for the next half hour, weaving along his territory border marking where he needed to, pissing in others. He had to stop along the way to refuel, sipping from a stream, and continued on. He found a few other places the wolves had marked, and was disappointed to find a pilfered fawn. He slung the carcass over his shoulder, naught more than bone and tendon, and paced on. His nose wiggled at the smell, annoyed by the wolfs entrance in his domain. He would have to keep his borders better in the future. He found the tributary that led to the campsite, and followed it leisurely, promising to mark the rest of his border on the morrow. He wanted to get back and show her what he had found. He hopped from rock to rock, sometimes a good eight feet. He did not stray from the river, lest he become thirsty again. He smelled her on the breeze, and ascended an ash, older than him by centuries. He clamped the carcass in his mouth, and lept from tree to tree, using the trunks as a reliable source of footing. He thudded down beside her, and dropped his prize, sitting down for all the world like a dog fetching a duck for its master. He tilted his head, and waited to be noticed.

[Genevieve Locklie]

She watched him lumber up the slope and drop the fawn. She couldn't help but smile at him. He had a way of making her do that. He was intellectual and a killer, but her had an air of humor to him. She walked over to him and touched his shoulder gently. "Percival, I'm not sure if it would be good for a human to eat some parts of decaying animals, we can become very sick and die." She said it casually, as if it was something that happened every day. She turned and squatted to look at it. Her hip wretched and released a low popping noise. The pain she felt was nothing compared to the relief of knowing that now her hip was completely in place. She allowed herself to fall back onto her butt. Catching herself with her hands behind herself on the ground. She groaned and lifted her right leg, battered and bruised and stretched it out in front of her. "Well," she began looking down at her leg. "My hip is back in all the way. I could feel it grinding and I knew it wasn't in. But it is now." She sighed in relief and stood back up. It was sore again but it definitely felt a lot better. She tested it by swinging her leg back and forth. They skin was tight and bruised.
She moved over to the stew that had been cooking most of the day and lifted the top of the pot. Her mouth immediately began to water and she had to put the lid down. She hadn't thought of what she was going to use as a bowl, or a spoon... She sighed and returned to sit in the lean to that she had fixed earlier in the day. "I think you can keep the deer, the smell is making me lose my appetite..." She said pinching her nose. But any of the bones or skull or skin you don't use, please feel free to let me use it." She said smiling at him. Even if she took the stew off the fire now, she would have to wait a few hours before she could eat it from the pot. She definitely was depressed at not being able to eat. She was so hungry. It was burning from the inside. She knew she needed to eat. She was already losing too much weight, and if she wanted to heal properly and be physically fit, she would have to keep her weight up. They also need to find a fruit bearing tree, otherwise they could become sick with scurvy.. There were so many things that they had to worry about with just eating meat... It wasn't going to be enough. They needed more.. And fast. Her face was laden with worry and she knew he would be asking her what was wrong. She wouldn't even know where to begin telling him how they would get vitamin C through the winter. She had no idea how long fruit would last in the snow, or how long it would take to begin growing again after the snow melt. She was worried for herself and Percival. She wanted badly to be able to provide for him. But she was broken... Broken and alone.
She brought her hand up to her neck and felt the large scab that had formed on her neck. She pulled the mirror out of her bag and looked at her neck. A glance was all she could handle. It was infected. She knew that look... She needed something, an antibiotic, or she could get blood poisoning. She set the mirror down not wanting to think of it. She curled her legs up to her chest and propped her head on her knees and wrapped her arms around her legs.
As she began singing, it started softly, and slowly became louder. Her voice soft and sweet. Gently carrying the notes from her vocal cords into the still air around them.
"Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here...
Me, oh, my country man,
Wish You Were Here...
I Wish You Were Here...
Don't you know, the snow is getting colder,
And I miss you like hell,
And I'm feeling blue...
I've got feelings for you,
Do you still feel the same?
From the first time I laid my eyes on you,
I felt joy of living,
I saw heaven in your eyes...
In your eyes...
Wish you were here...
Me, oh, my country man,
Wish You Were Here...
I Wish You Were Here...
Don't you know the snow is getting colder,
And I miss you like hell...
And I'm feeling blue...
I miss your laugh, I miss your smile,
I miss everything about you...
Every second's like a minute,
Every minute's like a day
When you're far away...
The snow is getting colder, baby,
I Wish You Were Here...
A battlefield of love and fear,
And I Wish You Were Here...
I've got feelings for you,
From the first time I laid my eyes on you..."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoYbVosc93U