[WC: 399; WotD: 'jape']
Catharsis was young, but she wasn't stupid. The male's words were confusing. The word 'kid' sounded like 'kind'.. child. Did he mean them? He seemed curious.. and alarmed, worried. He hadn't been expecting them. From her reaction, Cercelee hadn't been, either, but she was nice enough. Like Mama had said about Ceres. She must be Ceres' ghost, or.. something. Maybe another Ceres, Ceres from another planet or dimension. Or a twin! In any case, she was plenty nice.. and the male didn't seem very nice. Catharsis didn't like boys anyhow. Palindrome was distant, and Roulette was Avarice's little sidekick. She wasn't particularly close to either of them. And her father... well, her Mama had never said much about him. And what she had said, sure wasn't nice. Maybe no boys were nice. That made sense.
Listening to the two adults talk, Cercelee's words made very little sense. What was a cousin? Catharsis didn't know. She didn't like how this was going - maybe it wasn't real. She bet the others were all playing a trick on her.. a jape, that's what this was. Mama was going to jump out any moment and laugh at her for being so silly. The girl's golden eye scanned the room, the red one still covered by a scab, looking for places Mama could be hiding. She didn't see a trace of the other dark female, though, and frowned slightly. Her attention turned back to the adults, and tilted her head. Who was the male, anyhow? She'd never heard of anyone who looked like that. He was black and white, in a odd pattern - did many others living here look like that? She wasn't sure. There was so much she didn't know. She sighed and pressed her face against her paw. Ugh. This was exhausting. So exhausting.
She just wanted to sleep. But she wasn't sure that was safe yet.
Looking up at the two adult wolves, she said quietly, "Hi, mister.." She knew that word from her Mama - she taught them how to address older English-speaking wolves a couple days ago. Maybe there was a reason.. No! Mama didn't desert them. She just wanted them to be safe while she was on her dangerous journey. Yes. That was it. This must be a safe place. Just to be sure, though, she asked tentatively, "Is safe here?"
Oh, the young and naive.
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