Hiding in Plain Sight

Liam Catori · 11-29-2011, 03:04 PM

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ooc: so excited for this thread! This is set on December 1st. Also, Liam is in Optime. (1077 words)

Snow was actually sticking to the ground when Liam woke up on that first of December, stretching out of bed with a stifled yawn. He didn't have any big plans for the day – perhaps he'd go see if he was needed at Chien Hotel and if no one put him to work, he'd seek out his mother or the pups. Ever since Mara had left to travel Liam had been a bit grumpy. He hated everyone leaving, even know Mara hadn't left on bad terms. Of course, Zafier's death was perhaps the cause of such a sudden departure – Liam knew better than anyone how hard she'd taken it – but her just running away like that seemed a little cowardly in Liam's eyes. He hadn't say anything though, not wanting to upset his mother. He'd just wished his older sister good luck and told her he was hoping she'd return to them soon. It was like Noah all over again. But at least this time it hurt a little less... Shrugging the bitter thoughts away, Liam made his way towards the nearest window and gawked for a little while. Snow. It was so beautiful; like a million stars falling to the ground. “Wait until Lottie, Skoll and Hati sees this.” he said with a beaming smile.

After a quick breakfast – a couple nuts and berries – Liam pulled his rucksack over his head so that it hung on one shoulder, its contents rattling slightly at every step. He had his medical supplies in there, which took up most of the space, as well as a silver lighter and a pocket knife. It took a lot longer for the brown-pelted Catori to get from his home to Chien Hotel, at least compared to any other day these last couple months. His bi-colored eyes were fixed on the cloudy sky as the tiny specks of white continued to fall. He felt childish as he spun around on his heels, taking in the sights. This was even more fascinating than the patch of ice he'd slipped on the other day – or the frost that had appeared on occasional mornings in September and then most days in October and November. Curiously he watched a flake that had fallen on the padded palm of his hand. He watched as his body heat made the speck turn into water before it completely disappeared. He then bent down to scoop a handful of snow, the brownish green grass making an appearance. He watched the snow in his hand before dropping it on the ground again. The cold aspect of winter wasn't that great but so far everything else was perfect and Liam loved every moment.

For a few hours Liam worked alongside some of the pack-members, doing whatever he could to be of use. As a Duke for the pack, his job was to fill in for the co-ranks that weren't currently being filled. He was also supposed to babysit pups and protect the pack-lands but he wasn't required to do those as much, considering the only pups that truly needed to be watched were his baby siblings – and he didn't consider that a job at all. Besides, his mother was almost always keeping an eye on them and didn't require his services much. Today he helped with butchering and smoking the meat that had been gathered in the last day or two. He salvaged body parts that weren't good enough to eat yet good enough to use for practice. He was growing bored with practicing his stitches though and lately had been getting into more complex work like opening up the skin and flesh and focusing on getting to know the anatomy. He had seen some drawings in Soran's books – a human and its human parts. Human anatomy wasn't that different from Optime anatomy, Soran had said, but it was different from squirrels and hares – the fact that they were smaller meant their anatomy was to. Liam was fascinated by his discovers. He had hunted squirrels for as long as he'd been hunting yet he had never seen a heart the way he'd been seeing it (with an analytical outlook) until now. Could the heart – that ugly bloody thing – be why he loved his family? Why these strange feelings were slowly becoming harder and harder to bare whenever he thought about a particular young lady?

After leaving the cellar area Liam went to Lunenburg and gawked at how well the construction was coming along. He only stayed there for fifteen minutes, walking back to Chien Hotel afterward. The sun was very high in the sky by that time, about to start declining towards the west. His belly rumbled, the nuts and berries he had consumed this morning already long gone. A part of him wondered if maybe his mother had made something for the pups and if there would be enough for him. But then as his first birthday approached, he knew he'd have to grow more and more independent. Going to his mother and hogging all of the food she made wasn't exactly independent, now was it? Maybe it was time Liam thought about finding himself his own place... away from his parents and the pups. He was almost all grown up, after all. Maybe he could talk about it to his parents after his birthday – tell them he wanted more independence and a chance to be his own person. Maybe if he had his own place to live he'd be a better man – able to better understand his sudden urge to be intimate with his best friend. Maybe he would be able to even tell Robin how he felt about her.

But right now he was hungry and since his birthday was still twenty-eight days away, he was going take advantage of his dear mother as much as possible. Still in Chien Hotel, Liam rubbed his hungry belly before walking towards the front door that would lead to the cold outside world. He had reached out and cracked open the door when he caught that oh-so familiar scent. He stopped as he caught the scent of blood mixed with Robin's. A moment later however, as a gush of wind pierced through the silence, the two smells were gone. Liam opened the door further and glanced around, unable to spot Robin. It hadn't been a figment of his imagination, right?

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</style>Table by Kit.[/html]

Robin Aatte · 12-22-2011, 10:37 AM

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So, so sorry for the wait on this hun, we have had MAJOR internet issues (and a very unhelpful repair guy :S) I am back full time now though Big Grin

The young Major was now ten months old and growing like a weed, already she had far surpassed her small mother's height, then again that was not hard, Princess stood at five feet and four inches tall, but it seemed that Robin had inherited her father's genes for height, the Aattes had never been considered short wolves. It was not clear whether or not the young Aatte had finished growing yet, but she must have been nearing the six foot mark with her height, everything seemed so much smaller to her than when she had first started to shift, the trees did not seem to tower so much; the house that she shared with her parents and siblings seemed to be shrinking as the pups grew into yearlings, there was not really enough space for them anymore, even with Uncle Alder having moved out. The young patchwork female had begun to notice other changes about herself as well, her willowy form seemed to be growing outwards, her small, rather assexual frame showing the signs of feminine curves, although they were far from being as girly as her sister Fee's curves, it seemed that their bodies were beginning to reflect their personalities, Robin staying quite willowy and sleek, her sister developing a very feminine form. Her mane had also grown, it now tumbled far past her shoulders and it did not seem to be showing any signs of stopping. The patchwork female had risen early this morning, she had slept in the living room as usual, wanting to maximise the sleeping space in the small building as much as possible. She had dressed quickly, not that anyone who actually wore clothes would count what Robin did as actually dressing, she had simply slung her bow and quiver of arrows onto her back, she was never away from them now, she felt lost without them, they were a part of her. She had left the house quietly, but had let out a small cry of joy when she had seen the white covering across the lands. Snow! It was real snow, she had been so young when the last Winter had been present in the lands, but now she could really enjoy it. With a quick leap she bounced off of the porch, kicking the snow up nas she did so, laughing a little. What wonderous stuff it really was, if all of Winter was like this then she was going to really enjoy it.

She had stayed there for only a few moments more, staring up at the flakes of falling snow that were illuminated by the early morning light, she could not help but grin as she looked around, Winter really did seem like a wonderful thing. The young female had then set off to work, she collected the things she needed from a stump that was near the porch, brushing the snow off of them, a hammer and nails. The patchwork female had started helping her uncle with repairs to the small town that lay within their borders last month; they had worked hard and Robin had found that she had quite a taste for it, there was still much to be done and so she was going off to finish fixing a fence that was near to the Chien hotel, she did not think that it had been damaged in the war, it seemed far more like general wear and tear, but that did not mean that it did not deserve fixing. So that was her task for the day. Robin walked briskly towards her goal, pausing only to chew on a strip of dried meat that she had taken from the kitchen before leaving the house, she quite enjoyed the taste of smoked and dried meat, something that she had inherited from her great grandmother, although she did not know that. When she arrived she set to work quickly, pausing only for a moment as she caqught a familiar scent in the air, Liam; as usual the very scent of him caused her stomach to rebel against her, doing what appeared to be backflips and swirling in the most odd fashion. Robin tried to push the strange feeling away, after all she did not love him like that, she couldn't, her body was simply being silly, the male was simply her best friend, that was all. It seemed that the pair of young wolves were unable to admit their feelings to even themselves, let alone one another. Shaking the feeling away the young female set to work on the fence, hammering nails into place, lifting broken planks and nailing them back into their correct places, soon enough most of the morning was gone and the patchwork female's stomach began to rumble a little, she stepped back to admire her work, smiling slightly, it seemed solid, it would hold, she could not deny that she was rather proud of herself.

Robin took another step back, resting on another piece of fence, she slipped slightly on a patch of ice and grabbed the nearest part of it that she could. The next moment the pain was shocking, nauseating, she gagged for a moment, shaking a little before looking to see what she had done. Of all the places she could have grabbed she had managed to grab a piece with an exposed nail, the sharp little spike had pierced straight through the fleshy part of her hand between her thumb and forefinger. With a groan she noticed how quickly the wound was beginning to bleed. She tried to extract her hand from the nail, letting out a loud shout of pain as she did so. She looked at it, her blood dripping onto the snow was a rather beautiful contrast, but somehow the young female could not see that at the moment. Cradling her hand to her chest she sat down on the cold, snow covered ground.
"Erm... Anyone got any bandages?" The young female called out loudly, hoping that someone in the Chien hotel would have something that she could cover her hand with to slow the bleeding while she sought Liam out. He was a healer after all.

000+

Table by Erin[/html]

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