Aysun squirmed a little against his chest, and the merchant was proud of her liveliness. Although their mother didn’t appreciate their outdoor trips, Levent thought that they were ready to look at the big world Tanrı had crafted for them. He didn’t have any delusions that they might suddenly spring out of his arms and bounce across the grass—they were far too little and could only just crawl and wobble—but he was hoping to give them a little edge on the competition, as it were. At least, he’d been paraded around over almost all of Europe in a sling around his father’s neck when he was an infant.
The brown-furred man hardly paid attention to the Wolfe-Denahlii children, instead running a finger over the nearly transparent skin of his daughter’s little ears. She mouthed his hand until a loud call caused the man to flinch and Aysun to start squirming again. Holding her closely, he turned and flattened his ears as he saw a less-than-pleased Hotaru venture to the edge of the woods.
“I have Aysun, Hotaru,” Levent said gently, walking over to her side and resting a tentative hand on her shoulder; he was glad she was blind, or she’d get way too much satisfaction out of his sheepish facial expression. He shifted his weight slightly so that Aysun, while still carefully held, could reach out and nudge at her mother. “You want her?”
There was a pause as the white wolf addressed their questions, and Lev frowned as Honrin immediately went back to hacking away at the branches. He heard the dark she-wolf’s question and shot her a flippant grin. “They live in the stables very close by, Dalgina, but a corral would give them more space to run without the caretakers having to attend to them individually.” At least, that’s what he assumed would be the result. He knew it’d be nice to let Mai actually run around without a luperci constantly hovering over her, even if he liked keeping a close eye on the outsider mare.
“Would you like any help, Honrin?” Levent called as an afterthought. He hadn’t missed the curtness of the boy’s answer or his overall reserved demeanor, and he didn’t expect for him to accept the offer—but he threw it out there because it was polite, and for little other reason. If his pack mates wanted to break their backs doing a difficult job alone, that was their poor judgment.
<style type="text/css">
.lev1cai b {font-weight:bold; color:#C05D5C; text-shadow:#1b1511 1px 1px 2px;}
.lev1cai w {font-weight:bold; color:#c5c6dc; text-shadow:#1b1511 1px 1px 2px;}
.lev1cai p {padding:5px 15px; margin:0px; text-indent:0px;}
.lev1cai {margin:0px auto; width:500px; background-color:#5e5753; background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/3B5yq.png); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:1px solid #534b47; padding:220px 0px 5px 0px; font-family:georgia, sans-serif; font-size:12px; color:#bdb5b0; line-height:16px; text-align:justify; border-radius:10px;}
.lev1cai .ooc {font-style:italic; font-size:11px; text-align:center;}
</style>[/html]