Changing Skies

Ryeth laughed at his enthusiasm, feeling her spirits lift as her werewolf's did and she grinned down at him, tugging his ear affectionately. When she spoke, though, there was a note of seriousness in her voice. {It is a game of pack life. It is a game of pride and skill, control and playfulness, but mostly, it is a game of dominance.} Seeing she had his interest, the Fae looked directly into Sylvester's eyes, knowing werewolves didn't do that unless threatening or completely serious about something - or comforting, but that was different.

{It is a game we could only play if you were to promise me, Vester, that you would never seriously harm me and that if I said a word that meant we weren't playing anymore, that you would stop whatever you were doing that made me say it.} Ryeth smiled slightly, showing she wasn't upset, but she did mean what she said. {If you could promise those two things and not forget them, then you and I can behave as pack members do. We could compete for dominance any time we felt like it just as wolves in the pack do. It could be our game. It could be our secret.}

The Sidhe knew she was taking a risk, a big one actually and putting a lot of faith in Sylvester. If they played this life-game, she would be trusting him to remember she was NOT a wolf and while she understood his pack structure, she could never be one of his kind. It was trusting him to respect her humanness even as she respected his wildness. It was a risk she was more than willing to take.

She knew how important structure and pack-like was to a werewolf and if she could give Syl even a fraction of that, she would. She wanted more than anything for him to be happy. She really didn't have any idea why she was so willing to accept the rest of the pack, er...group as her own - even if she still didn't feel entirely at ease around them - but she KNEW why she felt the way she did about the werewolf. She'd do anything she could to make him happy, to make him glad to be her pack-member.
 
Sylvester thought over her words carefully, his tail thumping on the ground. He lifted his chin up. {Even though they're trying to make me be human?} He asked, looking at her. He stood up and stretched. {But I like that. It sounds like fun.}

Aiden watched the couple as they had their little heart-to-heart on the floor. He finished his breakfast as he did and got up, disposing of his trash like he was supposed to. He walked back over. "Well, now that that's all done...I need to go sign out a van. If you two wanna look around that's fine, just....eh, it'll probably take Ciro and Alc-y about another thirty minutes to calm down...so...either be in our room or the parking garage in an hour?"
 
{Glad you approve.} Ryeth replied, ruffling his ears as she stood as well, looking up at Aiden - why was everyone so much taller than her! It wasn't fair... - and nodding with a smile. "We will be....or at least Syl will make sure I know the way and I'll make sure he's on time." she clarified with a shrug. She waved a short goodbye to Aiden as the man walked out of the cafeteria and then darted over to the food line that was pretty much empty, snatching a piece of toast.

She came back to the wolf with a smile, taking a bite and swallowing before talking. "Let's go find the children. Hmm?"

It really shouldn't be that hard with Sylvester's nose and she was sure by the time they had found the three boys, it would be time to go anyway. It was a good way to pass the time.
 
The hunt for the boys was enjoyable for Syl. He liked a challenge. And there were so many smells around it made it hard.

Though, all too soon it was time for everyone to load up in the car. Syl took the back seat in the van, sitting in his human form with pants because there was some stupid rule about wearing pants when outside. He pulled his fae into his lap and let the three boys squish into the seat beside them. They were going to be dropped off down the road after all. It just made more sense to bring them along with.

Ciro sat in the middle row of seats with his sister, who was still looking pretty tired, dozing lightly on her brother's shoulder. Ciro kept his arm around her, yawning a little himself. However, once they got outside into the sunlight, he'd brighten right back up and put his head against the window to try and feel it a little better.

Emily was up in the front seat with Aiden who was driving again. She was going to be dropped off first in her apartment in the town three hours away. The rest of them lived outside the town in the farmlands.
 
Ryeth sat back against Sylvester comfortably, letting her werewolf keep his chin on her head, letting him be dominant for now. They'd discussed that their 'safe' words for the game to stop was "Sun is better." They BOTH knew they'd NEVER say it accidentally and therefore, it was a good phrase to have. Syl's face when she suggested still made her want to giggle and she felt herself smiling at the memory before shaking it away lightly, looking toward said sun and moon.

They seemed a bit lethargic which made the Sidhe feel lazy as well - or maybe that was the lull of the car and her werewolf's heartbeat against her back - and more secure about how safe she was in their presence. The fear she'd felt toward them earlier was completely gone again, but she had a new respect, a new and healthy wariness for their powers and how swiftly their moods could change. If the others were cautious around then, having been friends for so long, then it made sense that she should be doubly cautious seeing as she was NOT fully initiated into the group. Yes, it appeared she'd been invited in, strange as that was, but she'd not proved herself and she didn't know any of them, not even Sylvester really.

No, she'd be careful around them for a while.

Her dark brown eyes drifted away from the twins and back to the boys all sitting together beside Sylvester. Noah was looking out the window, appearing very thoughtful and Andrew was playing a game with a piece of string he'd found, but Seth was looking at her intently and the Fae tilted her head, raising a brow, a smile touching her lips. "Yes, Mr. Owl?"

The eight year old watched her with a very serious expression for a long moment before speaking. "You're smiling."

Ryeth blinked, her brows shooting up into her hairline. "What?"

"You never used to smile." Andrew said it very factually, still playing with his string and not even looking up and Noah, next to him, nodded, looking out the window, but glancing over for a moment at the Fae with a smile himself. "You have a pretty smile."

The Fae felt her face go red with a keen blush that spread all the way down her neck.
 
Sylvester, happy to be the dominant one for a little bit, winning their little game, kinda tried to look down at her, but it was hard with his chin on her head. He smiled and reached up with his hands to poke, gently but playfully, at her face. "Huh. Yeah, you are. Weird."

Aiden glanced back at them in the rear-view mirror, happy for the distraction from his road-hypnosis, and smirked. "Oh woah. Is that like, a bad omen or something?" He grinned and looked back at the road. "When the sun and moon sit together and a smile breaks the fae's face, destruction is soon to follow..." He said in a haunting sort of silly voice, like it was some great prophecy.

Emily hit him in the arm, but was laughing softly. "Dork..." She turned in her seat to look back. "You obviously forgot to say something about wolves wearing pants...When the white wolf wears wool, and the sun settles and sinks, subsiding to the moon's melancholy monotony, and the fae flickers a faint friendliness, and three terrible teens titter to themselves, doom is sure to follow."

Ciro snorted and looked around. "The last bit didn't quite fit..."

"Hey. I alliterated as much as I could, ok? You got anything better?"

"Honestly no." He pulled his sister closer and pressed his mouth to her head gently. "It was quite impressive ill the end there."

"Well, thank you, o' great and powerful sun god."

He rolled his eyes. "About time I get the respect I deserve around here..."

Syl snickered a bit and rubbed his face into Ryethke's head. He was a lot more calm now than he had been back at the headquarters. It was helping that everyone else, especially Ryethke, was calm.
 
Ryeth snorted at all of them, hiding her face in her hands for a moment to still the giggles that threatened to break loose. She could feel the redness of her face, but it was starting to subside and when she felt it had sufficently enough she lowered them again. She couldn't help the smile that refused to leave, though, and she looked up a bit at Syl, acting on impulse and licking under his chin briefly before looking toward Emily in the front of the van, raising her voice to be heard.

"I thought it was good, but the almighty sun is right; the last part didn't work. There's only one teen back here...well, not including the Mutt." the Fae said with a perfectly reasonable tone. Seth, at her side, giggled and Ryeth looked at him with a playful glare. "And what are you chortling about?"

The blond boy bit his lip, looking between the twins and the Fae. "You called him the sun." He giggled again and Ryeth looked back and forth between Ciro and the eight year old, honestly puzzled. "Yesss...."

"He's not the sun! The sun is in the sky!"

Ryeth snorted and shook her head, understanding now. The children hadn't seen the little display in the cafeteria and had no idea what everyone else knew. The Sidhe sobered quickly and put on a very serious face. It was hard to tell whether she was playing or not. "And I suppose I am not the earth, yes?"

Seth paused at that, knowing very well the answer and looked back at the twins with new speculation. "Are you the sun?"
 
Ciro turned around and smiled. "That's what they tell me anyway. They don't actually know what I am. Unlike you being a telekenetic, that's easy. There have been other telekenetics in the past, but there haven't ever been another one of me. Or of Luna. So, it was pretty hard to train us. You three are lucky. Miss Doyle makes the best apple pie I've ever tasted." He said with a knowing sort of nod. "And Mr. Pincer really isn't as scarey as his name sounds. He's really nice. Plus, they live next door to each other, and then I live next door to them, and Aiden lives next door to me, and Ryethke is going to live with Aiden. So you won't be far away at all."

Luna lifted her head finally and turned in her seat. She put her chin on the back of it and smiled tiredly at the boys. "Mr. Pincer collects bugs. Big creepy crawly ones." She said, bringing her fingers up and making creepy crawly grabby motions. She grinned. "They're dead though. In cases in his study. Pretty neat, actually..."

"Oh, I don't like his study..."

"Says the woman that keeps jars of blood in her house!!" He looked at her.

"I'm a hematologist!!"

"You're a damned vampire is more like it!"

She smirked. "You just want me to draw your blood..."

"Keeps your blood powers away from me! I'm driving!"
 
Ryeth tried, she really, really did, but when Seth, Noah AND Andrew swiveled their heads to look at her with big, huge owl-like eyes at hearing the word vampire, she started laughing so hard it hurt her ribs. She was glad Syl held her waist else she might have slid off the seat as tears poured from her eyes and she tried to catch her breath. Once she had, reduced to giggles, she saw that all three boys were giving her less than amused looks. The Fae cleared her throat and held the smile in, but her dark brown eyes danced with mirth.

"It was a joke. She's not a vampire."

The three boys huffed at her and then started talking amongst themselves. The Fae caught words like "pie" and "HUGE spider" before she shook her head and tuned them out, directing her gaze to Ciro and Alcmene instead. She smiled softly at the moon, trying to convey that she thought no differently of her and then met the sun's gaze directly, silently asking for a truce between them. "Thank you for that."

She really hadn't known how to put the children's minds at ease. She was grateful someone had known what to say.
 
Emily turned back to look at the kids. "Despite what popular, trashy books say, vampires really do burst into ash when the sun hits them. It isn't a pretty sight at all. No, what I do is control people's blood. I'm a Blood Mage. I can do a surprising amount with it...make people move when they don't want to like a telekenetic can...even some hydrokenetics can learn to do it. The body being so much of a percent water and all...but I control blood directly. I can make little dolls out of it if I want...patterns..." She grinned. "But I'm not a vampire."

"Just about as weird as one though..."

"Hey! It keeps people from snooping around! You put vials of blood marked "HIV+" around your house, no one digs into your personal stuff!"

"Aaaaand that's about enough of that. No need to give the kids any more nightmares..." He glanced back at Ryethke and smiled, having no idea what her look was for. "No problem." He said happily. "You let me know if those two give you problems at home. You should like it, though. Aiden's land isn't cleared away for farming, so it's all trees..."

Cars...so boring...talking so stupid....Sylvester huffed a sigh on top of her head and turned to look at his Luna. {Hi...}

{Hello, Little Wolf.}

{I'm so bored....}

{I know...it's a long car ride.}

{I want to put my head out the window.}

{You know the windows in the vans don't open like that...}

{Nnnnnn...but...}

{I'm sorry, lovely. You can't. You have three little playmates back there. Why don't you entertain yourself with them?}

{They aren't the same age...}

{Try?}

{Nnn!} He huffed another sigh and looked over at the kids. He pulled a hand away from his fae and put a finger gently on one of Seth's bruises on his legs and watched it disappear like it was sucking into his finger. He smirked a little and looked at the boy.
 
Ryeth felt something that could only be described as relief when Ciro smiled back at her and she wondered at it a little before deciding she just didn't like people she had to associate with and would eventually be friends with mad at her. That settled in her mind, she turned her attention to what he'd said - vaguely aware that Sylvester was zoning out behind her - and felt a spark of anticipation grow within her. The emotion almost startled the Fae. When was the last time she'd looked forward to something?

"Just trees...." she whispered it, daring to believe it. Ryeth smiled softly at the thought and bit her lip before opening her mouth to ask something else. She didn't get any further than that as Seth yelped and her head snapped to him, body tense, alert for any kind of enemy, any danger - though, logically what kind of danger would be found in a van? Needless to say, she didn't find any threat, but rather a startled little boy who was looking at Sylvester with wide, but fascinated eyes.

"How did you do that!?"

Ryeth raised a brow, confused and Noah filled her in, looking curious himself. "He took Seth's bruise away!"

"Oh." The Fae relaxed back against the werewolf, giving Syl a look of amusement. He could explain this one. He'd started it.
 
"Wolf magic." He answered with a nod. He smirked at the boy. "Show me another. Umm...that one." He pointed to one on the boy's arm. "Ok. Watch my arm." He said, pointing to the same spot on his arm where the bruise was with the boy. He put his hand over the bruise and concentrated quietly. Eventually the bruise showed up on his own arm, then disappeared. "I can take them from people. I'm a healing sort of werewolf. I was born under a crescent moon. I take people's wounds for them. And I heal faster than humans do, because I'm better." He nodded.

She shook her head and curled up into her brother's nice warm chest again. {See there? I knew you could do it.}

He hugged a little towards Luna and kept his attention on the boys. "Do you have worse wounds?"
 
Seth shook his head, but held out his arm for another bruise to be removed. Noah and Andrew wanted turns as well and they started chatting to Sylvester about how they'd gotten them, their daring deeds to earn the evil Trader's wrath, turning it into stories.

Ryeth didn't join in, growing quiet as she watched the boys, but mostly her werewolf. Her thoughts circled around the wounds she'd had that first night. He'd healed all of them. How much had that hurt? She'd been in so much pain and it seemed that when he healed, he acquired the wound like it was fresh. Her ribs had been broken at first and her back hadn't been fully healed... Oh, stars. He'd taken all that onto himself! The Fae wasn't sure if she wanted to hug Sylvester in that moment or smack him as hard as she could....so she settled for keeping her hands still, on her legs, her fingers clenching for a moment before she forced them to relax.

There was nothing she could do about it now. She'd just try - very, VERY - hard in the future not to give him a reason to need to heal her again. That was something she could do. Maybe...
 
Sylvester grinned at the kids and told them some stories of his own. He kept to stories of fighting and not about captivity or other wolfy escapades and soon enough they pulled up in front of the houses to drop off the boys. The adults had been waiting for them and happily took them off to get settled in, commenting on how they would need new clothes and hot food and generally being good people. Ciro and Alcmene were dropped off a mile down the long stretch of lonely road, and since Emily had been dropped off first, that left Aiden, Sylvester, and Ryethke pulling up in front of a nice little farm house with a good sized yard and sprawling woods behind that.

Sylvester shifted to his wolf form and darted out of the car. He put his feet right in the grass, stretched, then howled happily. He turned back to the van, wagging his tail excitedly. {Come on! I want to show you around! I have a den! Come see my den!!}

Aiden parked the van and got out, stretching himself. He yawned and looked around. "I'll have dinner ready in an hour, I think...eh...make that two...I'm going to take a nap, then get dinner ready." He looked over at the two of them and smiled. "Just stay within the fence. You'll know it when you hit it. You should hear it first. It's an electric fence. Goes around the perimeter, but it's like...50 acres or something...so...have fun."
 
Ryeth exited the car with an almost hesitant air, nodding at Aiden and looking toward the house first, studying it with faint curiosity, but not much interest at this point. No, what drew her attention was the land around the house and she stepped down slowly to the dirt driveway, her bare feet – she'd not changed out of the clothing given to her last night and it hadn't included shoes - kicking up a small cloud of dust. She stood by the car, digging her toes into the earth and let her eyes slowly close, blocking out everything else - even Sylvester for the moment - as she extended her power, let it seep from the top of her head to her feet and into the surrounding land like a wave.

Her eyes snapped open, burning gold and this time when she looked around, it wasn't to see just the landscape, it was to feel it, to be aware of every blade of grass that moved in the wind, every tree that grew into the ground and towered into the sky, it was to feel the steady strength of the rocks and to feel the course of the river as it flowed over the land. She felt the very beat of the world, the life around her. She felt the house that sat upon the ground and the nearest buildings and people, miles away. She heard the whispers of the earth, whispers of safety, of security in this place…and whispers of welcome. She heard the beckoning of the land, to run, to jump and play in its fields. It was safe, all was safe the earth told her. It called to her, bidding her hurt spirit to heal and Ryeth didn't want to resist.

So she didn't.

The Fae sprang into movement with no more warning than a tensing in her body and a flash of a smile at her wolf, like a deer startled by the hunter only without the fear. Her feet flew across the grass, not nearly as fast as a werewolf, but at least twice as fast as a human. Her red hair streamed out behind her slender form like a fiery banner, tangling in the playful wind and her wild laughter rang through the air.

She finally felt free again.
 
Sylvester howled again and took off after her, nipping lightly at her heels but never connecting with her skin. He was just egging her on, wanting her to run faster, to not hold anything back. He shifted up to his war form, powerful arms thrusting at the ground, powerful legs kicking off from the dirt. He ran into the woods and had to slow, his large, hulking form not as nimble as he wished it was. He ran around trees and bushes and rocks and stopped at a tree with large roots. He shifted down to his wolf form again and started wiggling between roots and into a hole in the earth. He didn't have pups, but he made it clear that if he did, that would be where they would be kept. They would be nice and safe and warm and he would protect them just as he protected her.

He wiggled his way out and sat, smiling. {It's nice here. There are no other wolves, but it is nice.}

It did maybe raise a question, though...there was the female werewolf back at the base. Why wasn't he in a pack with others like him?

He started sniffing around and peed on the tree, then walked back up to her, thumping his tail happily.
 
Ryeth had laughed and raced after the werewolf with all the grace of a deer through the woods, slipping under things he could not and nimbly avoiding the trees he almost ran into. She might not be as fast as he was, but what she lacked in speed, she made up for in the ability to adapt to her surroundings more thoroughly. There were times when they were running that the Fae had looked like a creature of the forest herself, wild and untamed. Her connection to the earth would become more apparent the longer she stayed out here. Right now it just gave her the ability to stay with the running war-wolf and to push herself to limits no human could reach.

When they stopped, the Sidhe tilted her head, watching the hole until Sylvester came out and then she smiled an open-mouthed smile. Her tongue would have been hanging out if she'd been a canine and her body was relaxed, happy. {It's beautiful.} she assured her werewolf and scratched him under the chin, a submissive gesture for the time being. She was too distracted by her surroundings, too happy to think about domination at this point.

Instead she leaned back against a tree and slid down the bark, her hands finding the grass and delving into it with a satisfied noise before she looked back at Sylvester. {If you have a den and this land, why don't you have a pack, Vester? You breed, but where are your cubs?}
 
Sylvester huffed at the question and wiggled his way over to her on his belly. He put his head in her lap and looked around somewhat aimlessly. {They have human ways for keeping cubs out of their bellies. Humans have ways for everything. Especially ways that destroy nature or keep them from going down nature's path. None of them will pack with a captive wolf. They say I am weak and I am dangerous. I am feral and do not fear humans. They say it makes me dangerous. Even other wolf-borns like me. They stay away. And my old pack is dead. I have no one.}

He shifted until he was laying on his side, his head still in her lap. {I have you now. And I am connected to you, but it is not the same. I have no she-wolf. I have my Earth and my Moon and that is all I have. I am a lone wolf and lone wolves die.}
 
Ryeth listened to him, hearing the truth in his words, but also the self-pity and a bit of the dramatizing. She didn't call him on it, though, only letting him speak as she started to pet his hand gently and then moved her hand down his sides and to his chest as he re-positioned himself. She eventually started rubbing his stomach and once he was relaxed and had finished speaking, she replied, keeping her tone calm and reassuring, but her mind thoughtful.

{I understand your sadness and I know your loneliness, Vester, because I feel it, too.} She looked down at him with a soft smile, but her eyes were verging on mournful. {I too have lost my people to humans and I too am not truly accepted with them. I think this is one of the reasons we were drawn to each other.}

The Fae continued on from there, not lingering on the topic as it was not the point she wanted to make. She just had to figure out what she DID want to say in a way Sylvester would understand. {You are wrong, though, to say you have no one, that you have no pack. I told all of you that you were a family and though I have not been with you more than two days, I know I am right. Whatever any of you say, you ARE a family. You are a pack even if you do not look like a normal one.}

Dark brown eyes looked into the amber ones of the white wolf. {You ARE dangerous, my werewolf, but you are not weak. Your deadliness comes from your desire to protect that which you hold dear. Just because you choose to hold your strange pack; Ciro, Alcmene, Aiden and Emily, close and just because you choose to protect them above everything else does not make you weak. It makes you special.}

Ryeth cradled his head in her hands and rested her forehead against his own, such strong affection flowing through her hands, through her mind that it was nearly tangible. {You are NOT alone and you will not die. You will live to do great things, Vester, because you are special. It is not easy being special but it is worth it. Only special people know how important it is to be accepted for who they are. If the other werewolves will not accept you, then they are just blind to how amazing you are and they are not the pack-members for you.}

The Sidhe lifted her head away a little and a smile danced on her lips and in her eyes. {You will find a mate, my Mutt. Perhaps you are just looking on the wrong side of the earth. The wolves of my land are different. They play with the Sidhe and they mate with the humans sometimes, too. You would not be shunned there.}
 
{Huh?} He looked up at her, sitting up. {Other side of the earth?} The concept of the world being bigger than the area he had lived his long three years was quite puzzling to the wolf. He thought on it a moment and nodded. {Then we should go there.} He stood up and shook himself, then looked at her. {Lets go.}

He started walking off aimlessly into the woods. Obviously it had to be outside the buzzing, shockey fence, so he headed towards where he knew the closest side of that was.
 
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