390.

Nayru had barely made it to the Victorian home before the rains started to fall in earnest. Her coat was damp from the trek, but for the majority of her journey from the green house nestled along the eastern edge of Dahlia de Mai to the large home in Wolfville the skies had only threatened rain while the electric sparks flew across the darkened canvas. On four legs she dashed up the front steps and nudged open the front door, her soft steps barely making any noise as she glided across the wooden floors she knew so well. Weekly at least the young warrior checked in with Conor or Bris, but it wasn't always at the house and it had been some time since she had walked through these halls. New scents had filled the air and with a slight pang in her heart Nayru wondered if anything had been done to the room she had left empty. Yet she left that door unopened as moved toward the living room, where soft scuffling came from.


Gideon was then there, right before her as he had been exiting the room she tried to enter. Their bodies were nearly both adult now, and Nayru's slim and slender frame was notably more delicate compared to Gideon. Before she had always had a size advantage over the boy but as Gideon approached adulthood Nayru seemed to shrink in size. His masculine features were beginning to rival those of Saluce, whom was the largest creature Nayru knew. Beside them Nayru was tall but tiny, a true fairy. Meeting the emerald eyes with her own ruby ones, Nayru greeted the boy with a quick nuzzle and no words. Words weren't needed for them anymore.


Nayru was content to enter the room with no explanation and then the strange scents hit her. From behind Gideon she could see the bundles of fur on the couch, tiny little things. Nayru and Gideon had once been those things yet now they were so foreign to her. Puppies? Eyes wide she stopped her advance, nose twitching as she floated before the doorway. "Gideon! Does Conor have you babysitting his orphans?" Were they more homeless children Conor had welcomed into the communal home? It was the safest assumption but her tone left room for correction, uncertain as her eyes sought Gideon's.

Hey, look at this table. Bet you don't have one nearly as awesome. 306.


The words seeped in, almost as if they had soaked in through her skin rather her ears, reaching her heart and seizing it quicker than her brain could process. Not Conor’s then. Nayru was accustomed to being one of the lost boys that were taken in and given a home, a purpose. It had been her assumption that these were children of similar fate, and Conor was the guiding hand in that area. Yet they belonged to Gideon? Crimson eyes swept over the small bodies again as Gideon introduced them, Melee and Range. Had Gideon even named them?


"They are very beautiful, Gideon. How old are they?" Did he even know, exactly? Did it matter? Probably not, they were here in Dahlia de Mai now and that was all that mattered. This fact made it rather easy for Nayru to then accept that her younger companion was playing guardian to children who, in the grand scheme of things, were really not that much younger than himself. Yet they had someone. They would be fine, now that they had someone, and Gideon was a good someone to have.


Silently Nayru followed in Gideon's footsteps, drawing closer to the bundle still asleep upon the couch. Her breathing became lighter, as if she had to silence her already ghostly presence more as to not wake the puppies. Next to them she was aware of just how far they had come, how much they had grown. Had either Gideon or Nayru really been that small once? Had Conor and Saluce and the others loomed over them as they two currently loomed over Melee and Range? Had their physical differences caused their elders to view them differently than they did now? "How long have they been here? You should have come and found me! I could have helped you with them."

I don’t; yours is clearly more dorkalicious :o
His relationship with Nayru was a rather peculiar one, from the outside looking in. He did not have the same sort of platonic relations with her as he did with his siblings, aunt, or Conor. They were a part of his family, those who had accepted him because of his last name and bloodline. He had no doubt that his aunt would have accepted him into her heart whether or not he had carried the Stormbringer name, however, as she was a very kind and caring sort of wolf. He did consider Nayru to be close to him, but he couldn’t put a finger on what variety of closeness that was, exactly. She was a good friend, at the very least.


He had tried very hard not to think too much about her in the last weeks, though she often crept into his thoughts. He’d had a discussion with Conor a week or so earlier and the alpha had dredged up thoughts of the black and white wolf. Gideon had wanted to try and find her. But sometimes simply wanting things wasn’t enough to actually be able get them done. He was surprised by the amount of time that the pair of pups took up, and couldn’t imagine what he would have done if there had been more of them.


Probably the same thing that he was doing now…just…more of it. More play time, more nap time, hunting for more and more food as they grew, more being woken up in the middle of the night for silly little reasons. "Dunno. They were real little when I found them…as small as my hand" He said. "They were in a bag out in the woods." When he had lost his mother, he had been able to locate Dahlia on his own. These pups had needed a little help to find sanctuary.

One of the pups, the smaller female Melee, twitched a little in her sleep, paws moving a bit. Gideon watched her, a small grin forming. She was having a puppy-dream, it seemed. He wondered what she was doing in the dream. Chasing Range, perhaps. "It was about a moon ago..maybe a little more. I saw the wolf that dumped them, but didn’t get a really good look at her. She had a dark coat, and it was night time. I’ve been pretty busy with them since then...They get hungry every couple of hours. Or I would have come to find you. I didn’t realize you’d left at first. Was this place getting too crowded? What’s the place like that you picked instead?" As long as she hadn’t left because of something that he’d done or said, then it was fine with him. He missed seeing her around, but realized that she was a bit older..and definitely a lot more independent than he.

447 .


In a bag? Nayru at first couldn’t wrap her mind around the injustice that had been done to the puppies. Left out in the woods in a bag? Certainly then no one was missing them, that was well as Dahlia de Mai didn’t need anyone knocking on their door accusing them of puppy-napping. Yet in some ways it would have been better if someone did come demanding the puppies, if it had all been some silly mistake. Yet no one left puppies tied up in a bag in the middle of the woods by mistake. Someone had been hoping that they disappeared, without having to do the dirty work themselves. Gideon was cleaning up someone else’s mess. Nayru shook her head, as if throwing the negative thoughts from her mind.


The puppies were welcome here, and who cared where they had come from before? Children of Dahlia now, just as Gideon and herself were, and if someone came demanding them back Nayru would be one of the first to defend the puppies and keep them safe with Gideon. "Well I know now and I’ll be bring you plenty of food for them, if that’s alright. I’ve been hunting quite a bit lately and I certainly don’t eat all that I catch." Often times she would leave her excess kills with Bris or Conor, and where they went she didn’t know, but now she could do more good by dropping them directly with Gideon. And she could do it every day if need be, the fairy child was pleased to have motivation to indulge in hunting.


Nayru smiled at Gideon sheepishly then, although she had offered up her time and efforts for the puppies she felt guilty that word hadn’t reached him of her move. Conor and Bris had been told and she checked in with them from time to time but it seemed the Strombringer boy had not been informed. It hadn’t been too long since she left but Gideon perhaps should have been the first to know. "I just needed to be out on my own is all. You’ll really like my home though…" Her sheepish smile widened into a grin as she spoke. “I’ve fixed up the greenhouse in that garden we found. I’ve been growing plants and I made a warm den and it’s all turning out very nicely. Plus, no one dens over on that end of Dahlia. I thought we needed someone patrolling the eastern end, and who better than me?" It all made perfect sense and Nayru couldn’t have asked for a more perfect situation, as long as the option of returning to Conor and Bris’s home was always an option.

"Sure! That would really help. I can catch food for myself...fish mostly...but they're just starting to eat a little meat and I'm not too good at catching some of the bigger prey. Not even rabbits yet, to be honest" He would have to work on that. Admitting that he wasn't good at something was a little difficult for him, but he smiled along anyway. "I'm good at fishing, though...really good at it. So if you find yourself without any food in the winter time and want some fish, lemme know" He offered. A trade-back for later months.


He listened when she spoke of her new home, continuing to smile. A pang of discord shot through him at the realization that she was in fact gone and not moving back any time soon, but he tried to quell the feeling. He wanted her to be happy, and if that meant being out of the house then he would be happy for her. "That's great! I think I'll have to move out myself sometime soon...probably not for a few months though. I haven't been on the eastern side much..but if things are as good as you say, maybe I should move out there too. I wouldn't want to uh..crowd you though"

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Nayru smiled as Gideon accepted her offer of help. It was the biggest blessing anyone in Dahlia could give her, accepting her help. Or better yet seeking it out. They didn't know yet how useful she could be, so that no one came to ask her for her hunting services or protection she did not mind. In time she would prove her worth, to Gideon, the children and all of Dahlia and they would know how indispensable she was. And although she never thought of a payoff or any sort of reward she smiled when Gideon offered his own help. Fishing. Nayru had never even attempted to fish. She wouldn't even know how to start. And with all the hunting and training with Saluce she did, she did not think she would ever have time to learn. "That would be great Gideon, I will certainly take you up on that offer."


His words were cheerful as he spoke of her new house, and of his one day moving out, but Nayru could sense that there was some hesitance. Something being held back. Instinctively she drew nearer to him, resting her smaller head on his broad shoulder, as if to reassure him of their bond that was, as far as she was concerned, unbreakable. "You would never crowd me Gideon. " It was their energies she was trying to get away from, not that they were negative. It was, perhaps, that they were too good. Too busy. Conor constantly working for Dahlia, and Bris's kind heart. The others. Always buzzing, emitting energy. And Nayru sucking it up. But Gideon was like her. A sponge. Their energy was more centered, grounded, in sync.

There wasn't any reason for him not to accept Nayru's help, if she was offering it. Gideon was usually pretty open about getting and giving help when it was needed. If somebody had a task that they wanted done and he was able to do it, then he would. Why not? They were all just one big happy family in this pack, it seemed, for the most part...and he'd always want to help out anyone in his pack.

Gideon had been spending a lot of time learning how to fish over the last few months. Layla had helped him with learning that...giving him techniques, encouraging him. She was a really good packmember. He was glad that she was with Saluce, too, because he was another good friend of his. Both of them were wolves that he looked up to, and he hoped to be that kind of wolf someday. Maybe the pups would look up to him when they got a little bigger. "Well, good" He said, smiling. "'Cause these guys are already getting pretty big...I bet they'll be ready to go out on some puppy adventures themselves soon. So I'd be pretty bored...why not get some food and store it up for the winter to prepare?" If he could get enough food now, he could possibly dry some of it and save it for winter.

He was glad to hear that he wouldn't be crowding her if he moved that way. That part of the territory would be closer to where the coyotes live, and he had heard horrible things about them...so he did worry about her, just a little. Gideon knew that she could take care of herself, and felt that if he voiced such opinions that she would say the same, so he kept his mouth firmly shut. He just had to trust that she knew what she was doing. The entirety of the packlands were safe...he just worried that if there was an attack, she might be hurt in it.

He was busy in his thoughts and stared straight ahead, considering them. He felt a brush against his fur and then the light pressure of her head on his shoulder. Having the pups around was making him more used to physical contact, as they always wanted to be laying on him or around him or be jumping all over him, and he didn't pull away when Nayru drew nearer. Instead he tilted his head to the side, his cheek resting against the top of her head.

"Once the pups are a little bigger..we might head out there, then." He could be there to help, at least, if something did happen. The boy wasn't much of a fighter and didn't like the thought of it...but he would do what he had to do if they had problems with those coyotes again. He was a big wolf already, and would only get better as he neared full adulthood. Maybe his size would help out with something like that. "Then if any coyotes try to sneak over the border me and you can toss them back out." He said.

525.


Store up food for the winter, yes that was a great idea. They would have to do that; it would make life a lot easier when the prey was less bountiful. The birds went south, the rabbits and squirrels became less active and more elusive and the number of all of them decreased quite a bit in the cold months. Winter could be cruel for prey and predator alike, but Nayru was not worried. They had time enough to store up meat, and if Gideon could figure out how to smoke it, Nayru could catch enough them. Range and Melee would be eating more and more, but the patch work girl didn’t think she would have any trouble filling their demanding bellies.


He returned the embrace and she did not move, simply enjoying the weight of his head as it rested against her own. So large was his own head compared to her’s, but she did not mind the closeness of his bulky skull. It was strange, for so rarely did she want others to touch her, she would tolerate it from other friends, but she liked contact from Gideon, and slowly she was beginning to appreciate it from others. Perhaps it had been that he had been her sole playmate, that they had tumbled together and even slept close—he had been the only once since her separation from her sisters to provide this. And now she did not mind his being there, in fact she had been the one to initiate it. The black and white being would have simply stayed there in silence, but Gideon continued to speak and his last words caused Nayru to pull back from the male, crimson eyes hard on his turquoise ones.


Coyotes. They had always been a controversial subject, not just within Dahlia de Mai but for Nayru personally. So many in Dahlia de Mai held onto lingering concerns over the Inferni clan, and Larkspur had been quite outspoken about their rottenness. Yet how could it be that one species was more or less pure than another? It defied nature, and it defied Nayru’s beliefs. There was good in everything and everyone, even if it was muddled or mucked up, buried beneath loads of angst and strife and whatever else caused creatures to do evil. "They aren’t all bad, Gideon." Razekiel’s warm face came to her, and her soft voice held a bit of an edge. Yet instantly she softened, for he hadn’t spoken outright against the coyotes and she did not think the boy held strong biases one way or another. Hopefully, Nayru thought, it was only the remains of the war still trickling through their brains.


"If anyone sneaks over our borders we’ll throw them out." That had, after all, been one of the reasons Nayru had relocated so far east. No one lived on the end of Dahlia de Mai now, except her, and she was glad to hold down the fort, from whoever or whatever. Her voice was ever soft but sweet again, any reprimanding tones forgotten as she curried favor with the boy once more. "No one will get past us."

He didn't have much to go on for experience with coyotes besides the stories that had been drifting about. Gideon usually liked to make his own judgements about things, but he had heard these bits of information from many different pack members. He did not necessarily believe that all coyotes were evil, but wouldn't trust anyone from Inferni straight off, at least. "I knoooow...I just ain't gonna trust anyone who comes in here without asking." He said in agreement as she spoke again. They had the same idea.

The pups rolled around and made small squeaking sounds in their sleep. He was now familiar with their cries, and found nothing concerning about these little noises. "Maybe they'll stay asleep for a while longer so I can get some rest, too. Are you sleepy at all from your trip over here?" They could take the pups into the bedroom and curl up for a short nap, perhaps.

The ebony boy agreed with her and Nayru nodded, her eyes closing a moment in thought as she pushed the subject from her mind. They were in agreement and neither of them had to think on it anymore, but it was hard not to, especially for the girl. Would Dahlia de Mai ever be purged of the uncertainty and distrust that lingered? Would they ever pull themselves out of the shadows and fall again the in good graces of all the packs and clans? That it was perhaps dangerous to travel to Inferni bothered her greatly, for she didn’t want to believe that they would hold a grudge. It had been a recent wound yes, but the source of blood and gore had been eradicated and Dahlia was ready to heal. Scratching at the scabs wouldn’t help anyone.


Gideon’s voice penetrated the fog that cloaked her when she thought too much on pack relations, and popping open her rubies eyes she smiled at him. A nap? It had been so long since she had allowed herself such a luxury. And it had been a while too since she had taken her rest within the walls of the Victorian house. The idea was more alluring that she would have thought and she nodded, her gentle smile spreading on ebony lips. “Yes, that would be good. " Her ivory tail waved behind her and her crimson eyes danced, waiting for Gideon to take the lead.

He was glad to have the matter decided; they were on the same page with it, and didn't need to talk about it any more. When her tail began to wag his did too, and he rose quickly. He picked up a drowsy Range carefully by his scruff, where it wouldn't injure him, making a motion toward the hallway. He liked to sleep on the first floor so that he could watch the comings and goings of the house.

His room was as rustic and simple as Gideon himself, a queen-sized bed occupying most of the space. The walls were bare, a few minor possessions sitting on a dresser in the other corner. There were a few bones on the floor that he had brought in for the pups to chew on while their teeth came in, and he kicked them under the bed before leaping up onto it. The comforter on the bed had a pattern of mallard ducks on it and was rather faded, but the stuffing was still inside of it and it didn't have any major holes in it.

He set Range down carefully in the middle of the bed and the pup continued to sleep, his eyes never having opened. Maybe he would have a dream that he was floating or flying, with Gideon carrying him. He smiled a bit at that thought and yawned a little, waiting for Nayru to come in with Melee.

close and new thread soon? sorry for the wait luff!


Nayru watched closely as Gideon picked up little Range. She had never handled a child before but she instinctively knew she was meant to gather up Melee and follow Gideon into the bedroom. Almost Nayru could picture her own father picking her up in such a manner, or carrying Farore about. Din and her mother seemed lost in even these faintest memories, and at any rate half remembered dreams were hardly practical for the present. Moving over to Melee teeth closed gently about her scruff, the loose skin giving way the girl’s bulk. The fairy woman was pleased with the result and had to admit to herself that the weight of the girl in her jaws was not unpleasant, although it did not feel natural or normal to the non-maternal female.


Inside his room crimson eyes swept the area, and Nayru smiled at its blankness. Her own room in the Victorian house had been very bare, but in her greenhouse her personality exploded. The plants made a thick jungle, growing daily as she brought more in from the outside to hopefully last through winter. Inside her small self-constructed dog house there was nothing that was not Nayru, and secretly she had begun to carve designs into the old wood. Gideon would be amazed to see how much energy and effort had gone into her new home, when he came to visit finally. When the pups were older. Settling Melee next to Range, Nayru climbed into bed and waited for her friend to snuggling in next to her, as was their custom.