Five Fingers, Five Toes

Titania Moonsong · 07-06-2012, 11:58 PM

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Word Count → 600+

Sitting close, side by side and hand in hand with Fayne, she listened to the short but painful recount of the woman's story. She listened in silence, letting her pack sister get it all out without any interruptions. Telling it would be hard enough, and she respected her strength enough not to break her resolve. When she was done she squeezed her hand a little tighter, and let the silence stretch for a moment as she digested everything that was told to her.

After a short time, but before the silence grew awkward, she began to speak solemnly. “Fayne... I had no idea. I can't even begin to imagine what that would be like. I don't even know what it's like to not be a Luperci. I was born like this, and it's natural to me even if the life that most Luperci live isn't.” She glanced down at her hands. Both Orin and Shawchert were shifters, and so she was by birth.

“The virus may have brought on a madness in your alpha, and in some others of your pack, too, but it doesn't mean you have to deny that part of yourself. The shock... the shock of things can be so much to bear sometimes,” her voice was low and grave. “It can change you. Maybe it was the virus, or maybe it was all just because he could not deal with the trauma of such a drastic change.” She stopped for a minute. Her speculating on it couldn't possibly be helping Fayne. She wasn't trying to defend the virus, but it sure sounded like it. She started over.

“This is nothing like what you went through, but when I was too young to remember a man broke into our home and killed my baby brother. It changed my mother. She became... someone else entirely. She was so different that she even changed her name. That is why I am called Moonsong, not Takekuro like my cousin Jiva, or like my mother herself. She was able to come back to herself after a while, but there was a long time where it did not seem like she would. It was evil that made this happen to her. Just as it was evil that made this happen to you. Something terrible was stirred within your alpha, something that was probably already there to begin with. People aren't bad because they are Luperci or not, they are bad because of evil. You... you're not. You can't torture yourself for who you are, for being like you are, because of somebody else.”

“When you change, it's beautiful. I've seen it,” she remembered seeing Fayne perform a rare shift in the den, during Palaydrian's rescue. She raised a hand and set it on the other side of Fayne's face, gently nudging Fayne so she would turn her head and look to her straight on. “You are beautiful. Optime, lupus, halfling. There is a light that shines inside of you, and it shows no matter what form you are. Do you think the family you lost would want you to live in grief and loathing? Or would they want you to make the happiest life you could for yourself? I think the very answer lies in the fact that you have found a home. Something led you here, Fayne, and whatever it is it wants you to be happy.”

Was she getting through? Sure, she couldn't just take Fayne's pain away in an instant but maybe she could help her see that she did not have to hate herself because of the crimes of someone else. “You were not afflicted by the madness. That is a blessing in itself. But a different madness threatens you now, and it's up to you whether it will take you or not.” She let that thought linger for a moment.

When it felt right, she asked gently, “What about between then and now? What did you do after you escaped, but before you found New Dawn? Was it long?” She wanted to know her adventures, good or bad, she wanted to know everything that made her pack sister into her pack sister.

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