From the windows of the mansion, Salem watched the snow fall from the sky. Every little flake was nothing more than a white blob against the backdrop of the forested horizon and eventually it fell so far that it disappeared into the snow that was already on the ground. The mansion was silent and cool and from what he could tell, everywhere one was either outside or doing something that didn't involve him. And doing something that didn't require making a large amount of noise. But the young D'Angelo was perfectly content with simply staring out the window at the world that lied beyond his home thus so far and watching what went on out there.



So far today, not very much. Like any child with the comprehension belonging to that of a five year old, he eventually lost interest with staring out the window and had jumped down from a window seat in one of the rooms and began to roam the many hallways within the mansion. For as exquisite as it was, he did not hold an appreciation for the beauty found within its walls and fixtures. In fact, he paid them no attention as he paused to sniff a particular place on the hallway rug where someone had done something at one time or another, and moved on quietly. No sign of his mother or his siblings any where, he paced quietly into the bedroom that the family shared for the time being, and wadded himself up mess of covers and sheets left askew.



They'd come around eventually. Someone would, anyway. So he waited.

There came a series of heavy steps that shook the floor beneath him, but not like of that belonging to something he would have called a monster. There was something light about them even, good-natured, and not the brooding, stomping, angry sort of steps he normally would have expected to hear. As they drew closer, he tensed with a mixture of anticipation, happiness, and fear, wondering just who it would that come have been coming. Would it be Naniko? Anu? Some poorly remembered pack member that he had met on the occasions that he had followed his mother out? The wolf who appeared in the doorway seemed to be none of these (at least that he could tell) and in her hands she held something that was both familiar and unfamiliar. A book, but not one that he could recognise.



Eyeing the salt and pepper woman as she halted in the middle of her sentence, the edges of his ebony lips curled a bit, but not enough to make a visible crinkle of a smile. They did however move on to speak, but before he could return her pleasant greeting, Haven popped onto the scene with enough enthusiasm for both of them. Salem's lips pursed automatically at that point and he pushed up from the mess of bedding that had been chucked to the floor, closing off the distance between his brother and the stranger. Not being of many words, the dark-haired D'Angelo merely nudged Haven's copper-coloured shoulder with his nose. He was naturally happy to see his brother and where a smile got the happiness across, he was affectionate enough to express his abundant love for his family through the gesture. But this display was brief and shortly tucked away, as Salem peered upwards at the towering “Gennie” and the item in her clutches.

He said nothing, but paid attention as clearly as he possibly could as Geneva read from the book. Even though the lettering was nothing more than squiggles to him, he felt a certain fondness in wanting to figure out how they formed words and what those words meant. The sounds that they made intrigued him as well. He practised those in his head too, his lips only moving scantly as he lipped them as well. Peter Pan was certainly and interesting fellow, as was Hook, though the question already brewed in the back of his mind — what made someone a hero, and what made someone a villain?



But it also went unasked, partially because he found he was too shy to ask something that seemed so silly. Obviously, obviously, chanted his own voice in his head, Hook was a bad thing. He was evil, he was dastardly, he wanted to ruin things. He didn't want to have fun at all. Peter Pan was quite the opposite and he had no problem picturing him as a dashing youth with the same amount of mirth that filled the air like Haven's voice and proclamation of Savina's necklace. Swivelling his head away from the imaginary pictures he saw in the text, he looked between Geneva and Haven and faintly tried to recall if he remembered what a seashell looked like.

Being curled up in a warm lap and lulled by the words of a fantastic story were almost enough to make him drift and blur the lines of reality and fantasy himself. Geneva's steady voice as she read the book illustrated so much for him that at some point he closed his eyes and let the words play out as pictures against the back of his eyelids (though really, it was more in his head than that). But then she reached a point for a suitable spot and Salem missed it entirely, only stirring a bit when Geneva had scratched him between his ears.



Shifting a bit in his seat, he craned his head upwards to get a glimpse of their wonderful storyteller before looking to Haven with a forming grin. A Lost Puppies? Oh, he'd go for that. Going on adventures like the fabled boy-who-never-aged sounded like such an ideal thing. If things like that were what entailed childhood, then Salem didn't want to grow up either. He could get used to something like that — nothing but stories every day, playing every day, no responsibilities whatsoever — and so it was with that grin and a forming glint in his eye, he knew what he wanted to achieve.

At her question, Salem shook his head as an affirming ‘no.’ He didn't really go on adventures, content with saying close to whatever mother happened to be around. It was far too cold for his liking outside most of the time and without realising it, he was picky to what the weather was doing. He liked sunshine and wind-less days, which at the given moment were a rarity. But Haven… oh, he was certainly envious of what his brother spoke about. A real castle, with armour and crowns… he could only imagine what that had been like. But he had never thought of following Naniko away from the territory, never wanting to disappoint her by doing something he shouldn't have done.