Wolfborne (closed)

Joel allowed her to check him over, staying as still just as the pawsteps of many animals rose up around them. The pack was surrounding them just as they would their pups, protecting them from further harm. Dakota's familiar gray-white fur slid from the circle of wolves and stopped at Joel's side, as calm as he'd been when he approached Shaeem.

"Don't apologize," he said softly with a shake of his head. "Not your fault." He wanted to tell her that he'd been at this a while, that that was why he lived out here with the wolves and not near any towns but he couldn't.

“You… you seem alright” she muttered after a moment, surprised. She was about to tell him that was a miracle he haven’t got hurt, but she finally felt it: the pack. She stood there a moment before she moved closer to the man. Again surprised, but quickly confident. She finally took off her hood and, trying not to get scared by the many wolves, showed him his hidden blade.

“You’ve heard the sound of one of those… are you familiar with that kind of weapon?”

But still, she was impressed by the number of wolves around them. She was trying to keep calm, breathing a bit quickly. The blood on the man’s hands and arms weren’t his, as she could have touched and smell, which was reassuring. But on another hand, that meant that the blood rolled down his hands and arms from somewhere. The hidden blade. That must have been it. She jumped after a moment and mimicked to look around, looking for something…

“Is he hurt? Dakota, is he alright?”

If something would have happened to both of her friends…

Joel chuckled and crouched down in the snow, placing his hands on the gray-white wolf's neck for a moment, checking him over for any wounds. The wolf seemed fine, tilting his head as in question. "He's fine," Joel answered, rising from his crouch and looked over at her. "Not so easily overcome when pack is at his side." Then he decided to answer her earlier question and gave a small nod.

"Yes, I have heard and seen these weapons. Earned mine after completed training." He wouldn't say anymore on the subject. At least not yet. He was not yet ready to reveal his past.

Shaeem remained silent a moment before she sighed softly. That man knew about the Creed… he had just told her that he got his weapon right at the end of his training… She was about to ask him when she heard the silence. He wasn’t ready to tell her about the Creed. She quietly nodded after a moment before she slowly turned her head her the rest of the pack. They weren’t attacking her… probably because of Dragonheart’s presence. She swallowed her saliva mixed with her own blood after a moment before she made a reverence to the man.

“I tried to get them away from you and the wolves to continue the fight. However, I could have fell in a hole of a cliff if it wasn’t of you coming right at the good moment. I don’t know those woods as well as you do so… it was a relief to know someone was helping me”

She smiled at him before she took his hands. “Thank you, Dragonheart”. For a second time, Shaeem had the feeling she had to stay with the man. He was an Assassin, just like her… but she had to move right in the morning to New York. And he wouldn’t follow her. “You’re one of the first carrying friends I’ve ever had” she finally admitted while leaving his hands, hiding hers under her red cape.

Joel blinked at being called a friend. Surely he'd been mistaken upon hearing that. "Come," he said and began to move in the direction of the trees. "Not safe in open." Joel led the way into the trees, half the pack following him while the other half stayed behind to help Shaeem. In his mind, Joel was turning things over. She was apart of the Creed, the same group he himself was apart of. He lived out here among the trees, not among men, so he often didn't get the chance to meet another from the Brotherhood.

It was all just very well, though, as many didn't like traveling through the wilderness, especially when they didn't know what dangers lay in wait. Dragonheart was one of the few who did know the wilderness like the back of his own hand and was in tune with some of nature's predators, the wolves. So in tune, one of the Creed had told him, that he seemed at one with the wolf.

Shaeem did follow him, mimicking to look up at his person. After a moment she closed her blind eyes, feeling the pain in her jaw. Those men had not missed her… but she was glad those wolves came to help her. Those wolves but also Dragonheart. There was no one there who wanted to harm her… no one. Those woods had a mythic aura, maybe because she was surrounded by wolves. She laughed a little before she pretended looking up at the man.

“Dragonheart” she said a bit sadly, but still softly. “I’ll have to leave tomorrow. I have to continue my way to New York. But I’ll try to come by to see you and the pack. Will you remember me?”

She was a bit nervous about his answer. To her, she was herself some sort of ghost. Maybe she was. But she didn’t wanted her friend to forget about her, so she could come back and talk to him again. If not, she would just… she had no idea. But she wanted to see him back.

Joel smiled as the familiar glow of the fire came back into view, the flames burning down to glowing embers. "Wolves not forget," he answered, turning so that his back was to the fire. With his face not illuminated by the light, he looked quite like that of a wolf. "Even if I do, they remind me who friends truly are. But..." Joel's voice softened slightly and then returned to normal, as though he were composing himself. "Dakota pick up scent of my prey.

"Pack leaves at dawn." Joel's head whipped around and he called out something in his native tongue to one of the members of the pack. The sleek, pale red-gray wolf trotted away for a moment at his command and returned holding something carefully between her jaws. The she-wolf walked over to Shaeem and sat in front of her, her nose touching Shaeem's hand like she wanted to give the girl something. "Aiyana give something hand-crafted by my people. It is wolf totem. Will keep pack close to heart.

"When you finish what you have to do in Whiteface settlement, the howls of pack will echo in your heart. It will guide you to us." What he'd said sounded so spiritual, as though it were the truth. And it was. There was no mockery in his voice. Only kindness and a sort of wisdom beyond his years, like the shaman of a Native American tribe.




(Aiyana)

Shaeem felt her cheeks go red as her slim and fine hand touched the wolf’s nose. “Aiyana” the girl softly muttered. After a moment, she kneeled down and took in both of her hands what the she-wolf was offering her. It was small and attached to a little iron hook. She followed the thread a moment before it came to an end. She mimicked to look up at him before she went back to the jewelry. A totem, he had told her. To keep the pack close to her heart… she softly squeezed it in her hands then close to her chest, smiling gently.

“We will see each other soon” she promised before she took up the totem. After a moment, she started lacing it around her neck. On her chest already was shining the pendent of a choker necklace attached down her neck. The little pendent was some sort of symbol. Dragonheart knew it, for sure. It was the one of the fighters he had been with.

Joel nodded his head slowly when he saw the glint of the necklace already around her neck. What the Whitefaces called "Assassins" he called "Hunters." That was what they were. They were like a wolf pack hunting prey and the men of the Red Cross were their prey. "Stiyu," he said in his native tongue. It sounded like a goodbye, but was it really? He was a Native of this land. Goodbye must have been too final for him. Maybe this was his way of saying goodbye. "Donadagohvi."

(Be strong. Until we meet again. actual Cherokee phrases!)

Shaeem just waited for him to talk before she turned to him to smile softly. Dragonheart was an incredible person. After a moment, she reached for his hand and took it.

The next morning, Shaeem was already long gone, hands hidden her red cloak. She had left during the night not to be late on her mission to New York. Bust still, her heart felt heavy after she had left the pack and her friend. She squeezed the totem to her chest. That present was so warm to her heart… to keep the pack close to her heart.

After a few days she finally entered the city of New York, passing just as a traveler would have done within the city. Guards didn’t bother to look at her nor to see her. She was silently walking to her target, smelling the air to get where he was supposed to be. She had been told were to go. After a moment, she felt a weird tavern. She quickly hid and waited for a moment before the smell of the wanted one came at her. Yes, her target was hiding in there. She waited still before she felt that the man had left. Quickly, she followed him, as silent as a drop of water in a river. She took off the ribbon of her hair and quickly, they went free, falling at the end of her back, floating around of her before she putted her hood upon them. Shaeem’s eyes were all of her other senses. She kept on following the man from far away before she walked quicker. When she got almost walking on his heels, she grabbed the man’s hand and, as she turned to her to call the guards, she put her hand on his mouth and strongly grabbed the man to drag him in a dark little alley. After a moment, she threw him on a wall and sat in front of him. He felt his blood run away from his cheeks.

“You… you are… you are the ghost girl…!”

“Yes”, whispered the girl, taking her role of scary monster before she took off her hood. Her long black hair fell on each side of her, giving her a terrifying, yet fascinating look. Shaeem mimicked to stare at the man before she got closer to him. “Tell me where is your Grand Master, Templar.”

“My… my Grand Master?”

“Yes. Answer me. Or else I can’t promise what’s going to happen to you”

The man shivered before he opened his mouth, nervous.

“I… I don’t know!”

“You, Templars, are the ones who killed me several years ago. I would love to make you know how I died…”

“He is… he is coming back to Boston in three weeks after a trip to England! That’s all I know!”

“Fair enough. Now good night, Templar”

And she took out her blade and the man last vision was her deep empty ghost eyes.

She then ran out of the city before she got caught. That was stupid… she had been send to be told she had to come back to Boston… what a pity!

In the couple of days that had passed since Shaeem had left, the wolf pack had moved on from the road and headed deeper into the wilderness. Joel was with them. If one who knew where he'd camped returned, they would know he was no longer there by the telling of the fire-embers. They were cold. Now, he was running with the pack toward his target. Dakota led them, assuming the role of Alpha with Aiyana beside him and Joel just behind.

By noon, the pack had slowed significantly, the sound of their paws striking and sinking through snow filling the air. The trees were thinning and the smell of a campfire rose to greet Dragonheart. Soon, it was only him and Dakota moving through the trees, sneaking up onto the campsite. Joel had begun to walk on all fours, the ears of his hood making it appear as though he were just a wolf. A line of bushes barred their way and hid both him and the wolf from sight.

A look passed between man and wolf before Dakota sprinted away from Joel, leaving him by himself. The second one of the men rose to take a leak was the moment Joel moved, edging closer to the camp and away from the man as he entered the line of trees just as a light snow began to fall. No sound came from the forest except the rustling of the pack through the undergrowth. Good.

Jole made use of this time and sprang from the bushes, hands snatching at the other man sitting on a wooden stool. The two of them tumbled to the ground and ended up with Joel pinning the man to the ground with a snarl on his face. The only thing that was revealed by the light of the fire was his white teeth, shining as those of a wolf and his savage strength resembled a wolf as well as the way he held tightly to the man beneath him, squirming hard in the snow and sending it up in white puffs.

Within seconds, the forest was alive with the snarls of wolves and the shrieks of a terrified man as the beasts fell upon him. Joel didn't speak and instead wrestled with the man some more until he could feel the other's strength failing him. Only when the man fell still, chest heaving heavily, did Joel utter one word with the growl of a wolf. "Dukshanee!" With that one word, the schklink of his hidden blade sliding free of its sheath rose between them and slid into the man's neck, severing his voice box while his blood pooled around him in the snow.

Joel rose and cleaned off his blade with clean snow before he stalked back into the forest, leaving the camp abandoned with the pack racing after him, disappearing as he did back into the wilderness.

Shaeem walked until the night, and even then, continued walking and running for hours. She had to get back with the information the quicker as she could.

Under her red cloak, Shaeem was sure only to smell cold and night when she frowned. The air was filled with a metal scent… she turned to the smell. It smelt like blood, but not the one of an animal’s. It smelt just like human flesh. She finally entered a lone camp and stopped. There had been a murder here… she put herself down before her fingers touched one of the corpses. A red coat. Fine. For a moment, she was frightened about the corpses being the ones of… she shook her head and rose up, continuing her silent walk through the forest. After even more hours, there was something filling up the air. Shaeem quickly stopped walking and listened. She heard voices. Another camp? She smelled the air and hid behind a tree. Yes, maybe it was. She got closer. Those men were maybe going to New York too, making sure all travelers were checked over. She bit her tongue and frowned. They were talking about how much the wife at home was boring and unattractive anymore. Talking stuff about what Shaeem would have cherished: seeing the beloved one. She was about to jump into the camp to kill them all before she calmed down. Slowly, she took one of them by behind, killed him and dragged him away. She did so several times on many of the men, but after a moment, the men realized what was happening. They got up and looked around as Shaeem saw no other situation but to jump on the remaining red coats, what she did.

The girl jumped on the first man, stabbed him. She heard a gunshot near her ear, making her jump away before coming back into battle. When she got them all, she sighed and remain there, only standing shadow between several corpses. She was about to leave when she heard something behind her. But at the moment she was about to turn around to see what was going on, a hand covered her mouth and pushed her away.

“You, I know who you are” said the one, anger in his voice. “You are the ghost girl”

Shaeem violently started to struggle, but the man was keeping her to his chest while he was walking with her. After a moment, she screamed when her feet touched nothing but air. The man was making her hang up something that seemed to her to be a cliff. She had no idea how deep it was. That scared her even more.

“Since it is impossible to kill you, I’ll at least get rid of you. Go to fucking hell!”

And so, he dropped her. Shaeem felt all of her body being pulled down for she didn’t knew how much meters. Hair and cape were floating around her, just so she could hear how much quick she was falling. Soon enough, she felt branches scratching her face. She bit her inner cheek and quickly, took one of the branches, which she quickly dropped. She did again, and again, until her speed went slower, but still not enough. She couldn’t do much more… But after a moment, she screamed. Her cape got stuck in a branch, stopped her fall and started strangling her. She shook her head and quickly took the cloak off. She fell and after a moment violently hit the ground, right in the snow. She tried to take her breath, but she was crying and spitting blood, it was barely impossible for her to breath.

Shaeem had fall in a big pine forest, down a high cliff. The fact she had been able to stop herself with her bare hands and her cloak had saved her life, but how could she go home, now? She had no idea where she was, she was wounded and her blood was smelling everywhere around her. Animals would jump on her quicker than any Templar would… She got up but quickly fell. Her leg was hurting... taking support on the silent trees around her, she started limping away. If she could find someone quickly, a traveller or so, she could maybe make it out of there alive…

Dakota's head snapped up, his ears swivelling and a snarl appearing on his face. Joel halted and turned his head slightly to study his wolf companion. He'd heard something. Dakota looked up at him and, with a nod, bolted off in one direction with the pack following. Joel had hung around these wolves long enough to know when they had heard or scented something and his gut feeling told him that Dakota hadn't scented a meal that would feed them all.

Soon, the pack slowed and the ground fell away sharply to one side. Joel carefully peered over the side of the cliff into the dark pine forest below. He knew this area as well as the wolves did, for they'd explored it at one point in his life. He knew the best way to get down and up carefully without falling to their deaths, just as Dakota did. A twig snapped in the air, the entire pack twisting their heads around toward the sound. Joel's own head swiveled toward the noise and instinctively, he fell into a crouch, hands touching the snow lightly and barely feeling the cold.

Silently, Joel gave a growl toward Dakota and he signaled to the pack with a flash of his tail before he dove after the man who lived and ran with them. Aiyana led the pack along another way, the sound of many pawsteps filling his ears as blood roared. A man was leaving the edge of the cliff and Dakota gave a growl, his lips curled back to reveal his canines, ears pinned to his skull. Understanding at once, Joel sprang from the trees, his muscles tensed and his teeth flashing as he gave a snarling howl. At the signal, the pack exploded from the undergrowth, each wolf grabbing hold of the man while Joel freed his hidden blade.

The man shouted and was quickly cut off by the sound of a blade slicing through his neck, severing his artery and voicebox. Blood pooled around the man's body as the pack backed off of it. Dakota made a soft barking noise, earning Joel's attention from cleaning his blade with snow. He approached the edge, sending snow falling to the bottom. Something told Joel that they had to go down and he called to the pack before they all descended the cliff on a very steep path down.

Once the pack and Joel had made it onto the needle-strewn carpet of the pine forest, Joel uttered out a howl, Dakota soon following before they all headed deeper into the forest to find whatever it was that Dakota had scented.

Shaeem knew she had left her dark red cloak hanging on a tree. She also knew every step she’d made would let behind her a path that she wasn’t able to hide. Quickly enough, she heard a screaming sound from the top of the cliff. She rose the head to hear better, but the deep and heavy silence had come back to her ears. Scared, she made no sound as she continued on walking. Maybe the man had been attacked by some animal, driven to him by the scent of fresh blood everywhere in his camp… she held on a branch to try to breathe again. The tears were falling from her cheeks to the snow. How was she going to tell that to her Mentor? She clearly was a shame for the whole Brotherhood. Falling from a cliff… they wouldn.t believe her story if she was going to tell she had been thrown down it. They often would tease her that one day, she would just fall into something while running through the woods. They wouldn’t believe her being thrown by whoever would do so…

Again, Shaeem heard noise. It was coming closer from where she was… she tried to smell the air, but all she could smell was her own blood. There was no way for her too know who was coming towards her. She nervously frowned. There was no way for her to escape. The only thing left was to see if the ones coming at her were able to fight the bloody and dramatic ghost girl, her dark long hair falling everywhere around her, life black waterfalls on her shoulders. She had no time to put them back in at least a pony tail. Maybe that her looks were going to scare the ones coming… if they were human. If she had to face a bear, of something else, she was dead. She wouldn’t be able to fight at all. She bit her lip, breathing quickly in panic, almost hyperventilating. She was going to die there, in the middle of nowhere, and no one would ever know where her thin little corpse would be.

Joel let out another howl, the pack quickly echoing it from all around him. They had halted some ways along the bottom of the cliff a while ago and now Shaeem's red cloak hung limply in his arms. Dakota circled the ground ahead of the pack as they clustered around Joel's feet, trying to get the trail back. Joel's eyes gazed into the pine trees, the wind less effective down here among the dense pine forest. He knew the girl still lived. The forest was telling him so, as was the wind and the stars in the sky, covered by wisps of cloud.

Soon, Dakota's head snapped up and he gave a howl before bolting forward. Joel chased after his friend and the pack raced behind. Dakota had found blood scent. Joel himself could smell it on the wind. He just hoped that she wasn't too badly hurt.

Shaeem hands were way too painful for her to move them and use her hidden blade if she did get attacked. But weirdly, she wasn’t feeling the cold. She already had the adrenaline at the really top and couldn’t feel the cold around her. She sniffed again. Impossible to smell who was the one doing the noise. Her shaking hand went to her chest and she slowly took the totem to her neck. She never saw it, but the whiteness of the object made a terrifying contrast with de dark red of her blood. She squeezed the present and as quickly as she could hid behind a tree, breathing quickly. With chance, she wouldn’t have let blood on her way to her hiding spot. She stopped breathing a moment to hear what was going on now. Where they close? Still far?

Her ears were now they only thing that could make her see. Her hands couldn’t touch nothing but pain, her tongue was covered in blood, her nose was handicapped by her own smell and her eyes never saw thing. She took a deep breath after a moment and started chocking. She had to get away, but in her situation, she could totally fall in a cliff again and she wouldn’t notice… she got out of behind the tree and faced from where the sound was coming. She was an Assassin, she was part of the Brotherhood. She could still fight against whatever would come to her.

The pack had found her at long last. But they all hung in the shadows. All except Joel, who uttered a wolf's howl and stepped from the shadows, standing a few feet in front of Shaeem. He said nothing and instead pulled her cloak around her before he held an open hand toward her. "Come," he breathed softly with a small dip of his head. "Make fire and food. Warm you up and tend your wounds. Pack will hunt."

“D… Dragonheart” he heard herself whispering. “I… I thought you were… I thought I was going to get killed and…” But she said no more words. Instead, she stayed there a moment before she moved closer to him. His hand was reaching for her. She felt hesitation a moment before she took his hand, the other one keeping the cloak on her shoulder. He had come. Him and his family. How did he? She wanted to ask him. By what miracle was he next to her a second time? It had been three time now. Three times he saved her life. One saving her from the cold, another one from the red coats, one last time from herself. She felt like crying but tried not to. She owed him life three times now.

Joel wrapped his arms around her shoulders once she moved toward him and turned toward the pack. Dakota was staring at the girl, obviously concerned for her. With Joel's word of command, he and the pack left to hunt while he guided the girl into a safer clearing of the pine forest. There, he began to create a stone circle pit for the fire and piled twigs and branches into the center.

Only once he'd gotten it arranged did he strike flints together, the sound of stone striking stone ringing in the air for a moment before the familiar crackling of a fire rose into the night. He twisted around and beckoned her forward. "Come," he called calmly, his voice gentle. "Your wounds need tending."

He knew that it was the shaman's job to heal. But there were no shamans out here. He'd learned to heal with natural medicines when the old man who had trained him was killed and he was forced to leave yet another home he'd known. In a way, he'd become like a shaman, despite his young age.

She followed him with no more words. After a moment, the girl mimicked to look down and moved closer to him. He had find back the cloak for her. Shaeem wanted to thank him, but she barely could talk. She followed him until Dragonheart started settling a fire place. She sat next to him and silently waited by his sides until the fire rose up in the middle of the night. When he told her her wound needed to be fixed, she passed near telling him No thanks, they are fine. But after a moment she took out her hands from under the cloak and showed him. The other scratches weren’t that bad, making it look way worse than what it actually was. Her neck and shoulders also were hurting but not bleeding. The cape had strangled her in her way down, but not enough for her to get killed.

Her hair was falling on the shoulders to each sides of her face when she finally rose to him. “I… I haven’t fall by error” she started a bit nervously. She had to explain herself, at least at him, so he wouldn’t think she was a bad fighter. “I’ve been thrown” Shaeem finally said, trying her best not to shiver. “There was a red coat camp and I went for my duty, but one.. of them took me and threw me down” She bit her inner cheek. Like that, it sounded way worse. She sounded like she had not been careful enough.

"Killed one who did deed," he reassured her, pulling out a pouch full of weird smelling herbs. He also pulled out a canteen of fresh water and a cloth. "Dakota smelt your scent on his coat. Knew something was wrong. He one who found you." Joel picked up a wooden bowl and dropped a bunch of the herbs inside before pouring some water over top of them and proceeding to mix them together, the water quickly turning into a green paste.

Once it was completely stirred, Joel laid the cloth flat and took some of the paste before smearing it onto the cloth. Then he looked over at the girl, his eyes serious. "Show me worst wound. Salve will help to mend." Just as he had spoken, the bushes around rustled and the pack appeared, led by Dakota and Aiyana. The pair were carrying two rabbits in their jaws and a third wolf with darker fur stepped forward with a squirrel.

Joel grinned and ruffled Dakota's fur before he turned toward Aiyana. "We will share one rabbit. Pack need food too." Dakota understood and dropped his rabbit onto the snow before he and Aiyana led the pack away to eat the meager meal they'd been able to catch.

Shaeem looked surprised when she knew they had killed them man who threw her down the cliff. That meant that Dragonheart was one of the few who did believe in her words for once in her life… he wasn’t blaming it on her handicap. He really seemed to know she was telling the truth. She mimicked to look down at her hands a moment before she nodded. Those probably were the worse. Shaeem showed him her hands. “Those may be the worse. The rest are just bleeding scratches… Nothing really serious…”

She then though of her leg. She had no idea about what was happening in it but it felt like a wound that only time could repair. Or maybe not. She wasn’t sure of that. She laid her bleeding hands on her knee, trembling a little in fear. “But… but here… I don’t know what is happening with it” She felt bad. If it was broken, then what kind of Assassin would she be? Blind and handicapped. What a shame…

“So Dakota was the one who looked after me” Shaeem said after a moment, a soft smile appearing on her lips. “He is a valorous and brave one. What would I be without you all… those woods never were to me such a problem for me. But from the moment they were, you were all there and saved my life more times that what I could count. Thank you… thank you all”

And, softer, her head looking down after a moment: “From the moment I was gone until you found me back, I never felt less lonesome than that. It may be the pendent… it kept you all near to me all that time I was trying to make my way back.”

Joel carefully took each hand in his free one, running water over them from the canteen and then smudging the salve onto her palms before wrapping a clean cloth around each. Then he carefully placed each hand on her leg, feeling for anything unusual. He said nothing as she spoke and instead just listened while he tended to her wounds, cleaning her leg with water before he began to smear the green salve onto her skin and binding it with a tightly woven cloth.

When she was finished speaking, Joel answered, his voice soft. "Like I said before," he began slowly, cleaning his hands off with a mixture of the snow and water from his canteen before he wiped it on his legs to dry them off and placing them near the fire to warm up before he began to prepare the rabbit the pack had caught for them. "Dakota see something in you. Not sure what it was he saw, but he saw it. And wolves can see into someone's very soul, or so 'tis rumored amongst my people. They are most in tune with nature, with all living things. We view the wolf as a sacred animal and one that should be protected."

All the moment he talked to her, she mimicked to look up at him while trying not to jump every time he touched a wound. Even if his hands were gentle on her wounded self, she was trying not to let it be too obvious. His voice was calm and quiet, just as if his very soul was mixing with the cold calm wind between the tree’s branches. After a moment, she turned to where she could hear the wolves. Yes, they were sacred. She could feel it. Their aura was the same as his, and Dragonheart was the wisest and caring person she’d ever met in her entire life. Even the ones from the Guild, back to Boston, weren’t as kind and bright. Sure, they were brilliant and friendly individuals, but she wouldn’t go to say that they were as much as Dragon heart, a man she had met only twice in her life. She softly smiled at him.

“Yes. Yes, they are. Sacred. They are.”

She stayed like that a moment before she touched her hair with the tip of her fingers as they were floating in the lazy wind of night. She couldn’t make them back into a plait yet. She’ll have to wait. Turning to him, she asked, as such as she could really: “Can I help you?” Shaeem really wanted to be useful to him for at least once. It had been so many times yet she wasn’t, so many times yet she was only there to take him time away. She sighed softly. She wanted to help him in any way possible.

Joel gave a sort of chuckle, a grin appearing from beneath his wolf hood. He'd finished preparing the rabbit and now was cooking it in much the same manner he had the previous time he'd shared a meal with the girl. Now, he didn't exactly know what she could do to help, but he did know that he didn't want her wounds to get worse, so he simply said: "For now, rest. Wounds need time to mend and medicine needs time to work."

From the wolf pack padded Dakota, licking his lips. He was obviously done with his own dinner and sat quietly by Joel before he stretched out and placed his head on his paws, looking rather sleepy. Next to Joel, the wolf's aura seemed to swirl and blend in with that of the man before her, stirring the food over the fire.