postdated 1.9.2011!

Skye was walking to Shawchert's house, taking it slowly. She had first heard about everything after breaking up the fight between Orin and Sky. She hadn't even known, really...She knew about Orin and Shawchert, and that Sky had a crush on Shawchert, but she hadn't really known the magnitude that it would bring. Both girls had been beaten pretty badly by each other...and Bangle just stood and watched! She gave an angry huff as she thought of the coywolf, but quickly deflated in her anger as she remembered that he had an affliction; he was a male. She rolled her eyes to herself.

This wasn't about Bangle, however, it was about Shaw. How could the alpha have been so ridiculous! Making love to a girl that he didn't even want to become mates with! And then there was Sky; Skye knew now that the girl had visited Shawchert either before or after the fight, comforting him, but she didn't really know much else. All she knew was that Shawchert had to have a little bit of sense beaten into him, and Skye was the one to do it!

Well, she wouldn't really beat it into him - maybe just slap it in to him. A little bit. After all, even though Skye had no romantic desires for Shawchert, she couldn't deny that the Capitano was a handsome and desirable man, and that it made sense for others in the pack to want him as a mate. But he couldn't just go flaunting it around all over the place, being ridiculous and not having any sense about it! He had to be sensible!

Skye was a little ashamed, to be exact. She hadn't known what was going on until the fight with Sky and Orin. That was when she learned everything, from everyone else. She was ashamed that she hadn't known what was going on - in her own pack! She was turning out to be an awful co-leader...she couldn't believe it. And it was Shawchert, for God's sake, one of her best friends, the first friend she'd had in Souls! Shawchert, whom she'd built the pack together with! And she couldn't even keep up with what was happening with him! What did that make her?

Well, that would be no more. As she stood outside Shawchert's little hut, knocking on his door, she would be here for him and the pack as well. After all, after she slapped some sense into the boy, he would need some time to recuperate.

Skye's heart almost broke when she heard Shawchert's misery-laced voice call through the door. It was like he had lost the will to do anything, and those two words wrenched at her. She was used to seeing Shaw as a natural-born leader, someone who stood up for others and did things and took charge. But as she slowly opened the door to Shawchert's small house, she had never seen him like this.

He was sitting dejectedly in the corner of his bed, his tail hanging off the edge and his legs and arms in a heap in front of him. His ears were low and his tail was limp, just hanging there, like it no longer had the desire to be held high like a leader. She stood there for a moment, the anger whooshing out of her like the air out of a balloon, but then it just came back.

"Shaw, it's me," she said, closing the door behind her and stepping forward to sit next to Shawchert on the bed. He seemed so sad, and that made Skye feel sad as well, but she knew they both couldn't lead Cercatori d'Arte when they were sad and dejected and walking around like a puppy that was kicked too many times. They had to take charge - that was their job! And if Shaw couldn't take responsibility for his actions, he was never going to get through life. Sure, he did something bad, but he had to acknowledge it and move on, not sit on his bed all day moping like a wet mop.

So Skye gave him a sharp pinch on the arm to make him turn around, and she put both hands on her hips and gave him a stern look.

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Skye smirked when the leader gave out a yelp and started to rub on his arm. He gave her such a miserable look that she almost patted him on the back and told him it was okay - but he had to have some sense knocked into him! He wasn't a baby anymore, waiting to be coddled. He had to man up, but at the same time, control his...manhood. She rolled her eyes when he told her, quite dejectedly, that he deserved every berating insult that she was going to give to him - which wasn't any. Much.

"I have two things to say," she said, her tail swishing against the bedsheets. "First, something you probably already know and are beating yourself up for, so I won't go into too much depth with it. I know you and Orin are friends, but you have to...well...control your manhood," she said, voicing her thoughts just moments before. "I know it was the heat of the moment, and all that, but honestly, Shaw!" She rolled her eyes, exasperated. She didn't have much experience in that field - but now that Bangle and her were mates...she shook her head free of that idea, still almost not daring to believe that her and Bangle were mates. Of course, that would have to wait now - now it was about Shaw's dumb little depression.

"Second," she said more sternly, "you know what you did was bad, but now you have to stop feeling sorry for yourself. You're a leader, not a wet mop, so act like a leader, instead of...a wet mop!" Man, Skye was bad at pep talks. She continued anyway. "If you don't get yourself together soon, I'm going to have to slap some sense into your silly self."

Shawchert scowled at Skye, and she had to suppress pulling her own lips down into a frown as well. Her eyebrows knitted together, however, as the large, hulking wolf spoke in confused, mumbled words, eventually screaming at the end.

Skye pinned her ears against her skull and her tail lowered slightly - she had never seen Shawchert lose it like that, and it was extremely unnerving - even a bit scary. Her tail wanted to crawl between her legs, but she remembered what she was here for - to snap Shawchert out of his almost drunken stupor, not to cower like a baby because an eight-foot tall wolf was crying and screaming like a two-month-old. Her ears bounced back up and her tail raised almost as soon as they went down, and she gave him an even sterner look, about to speak. Before she could, however, Shawchert mumbled more words about not knowing, and about everything. Skye pursued her lips and sighed a bit. She hadn't wanted to, but...

She raised her hand and gave Shawchert a sharp slap on the cheek with enough force to turn his head.

"I warned you," she said in a low tone, returning her hands to her hips once more. "You need to cut this out. It's not like you raped Orin or anything, and it's not like things like this don't happen every day. They do. And you just need to get over yourself, Shaw, because you're the leader of a pack who needs you." She gazed at the leader, the first friend she had made in Souls, the first person who had comforted her after she felt that she was truly alone in the world and softened. She didn't want to say these words, but she didn't know anything else to say to the man - she had to get him to stop cowering, she had to save him from himself, and he was doing a pretty lousy job of it. Someone had to do it, and it seemed like Skye was the one who did.

"And they're not going to lead themselves," she finished softly. "Time to be strong again, Shaw."

<3 !

Skye was delighted to see that her attempt at persuading Shawchert to take the lead again was working. He had admitted that she was right, and decided to talk to 'her' - her was Orin, she supposed. Skye agreed silently that telling Orin would be better than hiding from her - she remembered those two months where Bangle had hidden from her, and the confusion and pain it had brought before they had admitted their love for each other. It had worked out okay in the end, but if Bangle had spoken to her to begin with, it'd have been better than the two long, dragging months of confusion. She listened intently as he sighed and said that they would both need punishment.

"I've been thinking about that," she said, remembering the day before when she had spoke to Sky and thought of an idea. "Cercatori d'Arte is acquiring horses very fast - maybe Orin and Sky could help me make the shop across from my house into a stable for the horses? It's vacant, and just the right size. That way, Sky and Orin can make something useful for the pack and work together." Skye had been proud of her idea when she'd thought of it - it'd solve the problem of Jack in her living room and cleaning all those freaking horse poops everywhere (she imagined that Mars was having the same problem with his own beautiful horse) and it'd hopefully bond Orin and Sky together, sealing the wounds that the fight had caused. Sky had expressed that she was sorry, and Skye was sure that the usually happy Orin would be delighted to help the pack out as well as accept Sky's apology. The Secondo Capitano hoped it would work out that way, at least.

She then heard Shawchert say something softly that wasn't meant for her to hear - but her large ears picked it up anyway. She gently rest a hand on the Capitano's arm, giving her comfort - she knew he didn't mean it to happen. It was just the way life was.

Skye couldn't help it - she laughed at Shawchert's comment about having Orin and Sky close together with sharp objects. "It'll be alright," she said reassuringly. "I'll be watching them at all times - and you may not have seen it, but I can be dangerous if I want to," she said half-jokingly, referring to her defending either of the girls if they decided to become angry at each other again or start attacking each other. She shook her head slightly, unnerved still that something like that had happened in her little pack - blood, spilled on their grounds for the first time. She wondered if Orin, who was the historian, would record that. Probably not - she was now holed up in her house like Sky and Shawchert had...before Skye talked to them both. Perhaps she would try and help Orin, too; her packmates couldn't stay in there forever.

She looked at Shaw; she had never seen him lose control, never seen him like that before. She was immensley glad that he was back to the way he was before - a strong leader, and a thoughtful and caring person. Not the screaming man who had scared her just moments earlier. She wondered for a second what would have happened with him if no one had ever came and woke him from his stupor - would he still be in his house a few days from now? A week? Two weeks? A month? She stopped thinking about it. She didn't want to dwell on the past - the past was the past, no matter how strange and weird. Life moved on, and so did the leader of the pack. And although Skye wasn't the leader of the pack, she was glad that the real leader was here. She thought of the idea with the stables, but she needed Shawchert by her side - not as a mate, but as a leader - and a friend.

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"You're welcome," the creamy-white colored girl said, hugging Shawchert back. She was glad that she wasn't the main leader - that'd be too much responsibility for her. She wouldn't know what to do. She'd probably end up telling all the pack members to just do whatever they wanted and if they had a problem, go to Shaw. She laughed a bit inside her head about that - yeah, Shawchert was definitely a better leader. But she'd always be there for him if he needed it again, and she'd try to refrain from telling the whole pack to just do whatever they wanted.

She then pulled away from the Alpha and looked at him with a mischievous glint in her eye. "And you're right," she said, making her way for the door. "I do have other things to do - like being with my new mate, Bangle!" She dropped the news like a bomb with a giggle, her hand resting on the doorknob. She couldn't resist - it was just too much for her to keep all to herself. Besides, it was a big thing in her life! A mate! She never would have thought that was coming when she first made her way into Souls.

Skye grinned in devilish satisfaction as Shawchert's shock registered on his face. Hah! That was a funny bomb to drop on him without any warning! She watched him squirm a little, trying to figure out who it was - she even saw him sniffing, to her disbelief, trying to find the scent of who on earth her new mate was on her fur, perhaps - and then she started laughing.

"Bangle's my new mate!" she said, letting a girlish grin rest on her face. She did love telling people that Bangle was her mate - the pair was so unexpected, so unusual, so improbable...and yet, it had happened. The day before, Bangle had asked Skye if she would have his heart, and she had said yes - she had said yes, and they were mates. Everyone thought it was most unusual, if not cute - but that didn't faze Skye at all. To her, it was like they could never have been any other way.

She wondered what the leader would say - oh, Shawchert might have relationship troubles, and Skye would help him out all she could, but he was so funny when he was confused like that! She would have to do it again sometime...