CHPT 319: Two Lupines, in Waters Deeper than Death...

Rollan's home was nice. An opinion many people would detest before ever entering for many....superficial reasons.

But, Ursula liked it. She liked it even before she knew where she was-- when she was waking from the impossibly long nightmare of being chased by Monsters. Even in her faraway sleep, it felt like more of a home than what Rory Legrand had her sleeping in...such a sad statement to make she realized immediately after thinking it.

It was no gigantic Estate, made purely through egotistical eyes and a mind ideal for casting unfair judgement. Perfect.

It was small-- cozy, neat, natural, secluded and quiet. No boisterous loudmouthed men stomping all over the grounds like a legion of firepowered brutes with libido's high enough to loom over skyscrapers.

It was just like what she wanted for herself. A cabin in the woods.....

Maybe she wanted something a little different to what she stood in, but the point still stood. It was nice.

She stood in silence in the doorway-- lacking a door, while Rollan strode further inside rushing towards his cabinet that stood beside the cloth wall dividing his home into two large rooms.

Her eyes wandered, naturally. Taking in the sight of the thick wooden table at the center of the room. It was offset, she could tell by the scratches in the ground where it was moved forcefully.

A vision of her previous self stumbling into it in pain after waking up flashed across her mind. To the right of her, a similar memory played out relating to the hammock that lay under the rooms window in shredded tatters.

She felt her cheeks warm in embarrassment and suddenly wished she could instantly submerge her face in a block of Ice.

"I.....Where do I put him?" She whispered.

"Oh, the table is fine. No need to pamper the boy." Rollan mumbled while he slowly began to crawl inside of his cabinet in search of whatever object he was trying to locate.

"....Alright." She replied before further entering the home.

The rest of Claude's.....creatures-- Wolves, filtered in after her. The second their feet stepped onto the grounds of the home, it almost felt like a weight she didn't know was there was pulled off of her. It left her body in an odd state of attempted relaxation. She'd only seen some of them for the first time today, and yet, she felt better amongst their ranks.

When she turned to face them, if she could read minds, she would've sworn on anything they were feeling the same things.

"Weird...." She whispered again before turning and approaching the thick wooden table where she placed Claude to lay-- relatively comfortably on his back.

She stepped away from the table he laid on and eyed him, like a handyman eyeing his work from a new angle, checking for the correctness of something they cared for.

The table was large and thick-- no chance of breaking under his weight. His incredibly long and limber legs hung off the end like two columns of fat-less muscle. She could practically see each fiber and section of muscle in his calves and quads through his tattered pants. A look that matched the rest of his body. No fat, dense hard muscle and scarred bronze skin. He was beginning to look like the Vampires her Father always used to boast about roasting to ashes over dinner when she was a child.

She shook off the revolting memory and focused on the sleeping Lupine's face. For once he wasn't scowling at the world. She didn't like it. He damn near looked dead with the way he silently lay limply against the table, hair hanging off the north end while his legs occupied the south.

Reflexively, she moved over to where his head lay and began fixing his hair, untangling it from his back and pulling the rest down over his shoulders instead of letting it drag across the floor.

"You need a haircut..." She thought flatly while combing the black locks with her fingers. She could almost see the boy she first met. Behind the long wild mane of hair, beneath the array of deadly past injuries healed over beyond human speeds, under the burst of height and hard muscle tissue. She could almost see him....

Then her finger brushed over his ear, feeling how clipped it was-- like a battle-hardened sewer rat. Forcing the memory of the plated snake fiasco to the surface which only banished the innocent thought from her mind.

The table began to freeze at her touch, her growing claws scratched the ice like nails on a chalkboard. She wanted to stay next to him-- do something useful, but the sudden urge to put a hole in something was growing.

With another chuffing sigh, she stepped away from the table and gazed through the window while she took in deep breaths and started to count down in her mind. A tactic many Berserkers are probably privy too. Focus on the numbers, not on the object of your rage.

Thud...

She was pulled from her mind in response to the sound of something hitting the table behind her. She turned and found Rollan adjusting a candle beside Claude. She could smell the purple waxy surface as clear as day from where she stood.

"Lavender, hm? I'm sure it'll calm you both.....not completely of course. I'm afraid that boy may have demons on the insides far worse than the one's roaming beyond this forest, no?" Rollan said as he brought a flame to the candle.

As soon as the fire hit the wick and began to expel a torrent of spiraling smoke, the calming herbal smell wafted around the room like a rampant spirit.

"So, that's what the touch of the desert is?....Demons?" Ursula concluded, referencing a conversation they touched on during the walk back.

Rollan smiled while he seemed to watch the flame, "....I did say It was a touch you both were quite familiar with. How perceptive of you, Madame..."

"Seemed an easy guess. Now to consider if that's a completely bad thing...or something with some benefits.." She said, whispering the last part.

"Well, I don't see how the presence of Demons can be very good, no?"

Ursula shrugged, "Of course, it's bad thing. But I could be less useless with this particular bad thing..." She said, thinking of the notification.

Being a HellSlayer was about as far from useless as one could be....

Rollan leaned into his cane and looked at her again-- an action that seemed to make his words oddly more impactful, "Do you feel....useless, Madame?"

"I'm out of my depth-- in a new world, in a lot of ways.....I feel useless as fuck. My whole thing is not wanting to be on the sidelines.....I hate it. Been trying to get away from it forever, stop being a bystander-- stop standing by and watching shit unfold. And now here I am....I'm off the bench. And I've never felt so unprepared in my entire life." She spoke while looking at her hands, no more claws, but they still shook as if she'd just taken the meanest ice bath on earth.

Rollan silently stared, calculating, nodding, perceptive despite his blindness.

The silence spread another few seconds, leaving her to realize she'd just opened up to a ninety pound ominous looking gardener with a sword about her personal issues.

Her cheeks were once again as hot as the sun, "....It's a mess I'll clean myself. Anyway, can a girl get some water in here?"

Rollan continued to stare in silence for a few seconds before smiling to himself with a nod and leaving to retrieve a bucket of water.

Ursula took a deep breath and leaned against the table beside Claude. Frosty sat in front of her sniffing around her as if to make sure she was still her.

"There's something about him...." She whispered to the PitWolf in reference to Rollan.

Frosty sneezed and placed a hand on her knee as if he was saying, "You have no idea..." She could've sworn she heard one of the shadowy creatures behind laughing in response..

***

Claude slept for the rest of the day without a single movement....

There was a silence to his sleep-- a voluntary silence, one he willed. But, if he reached out, he could grab and hold threads of thought and emotion. They were far out-- beyond what his physical body could feel. But mentally, they were as close as the individual blades of grass in an endless field of green.

He pulled at the strings, felt their feelings, their thoughts.

Wonder, curiosity, fear, anxiety, anger, regret, determination, hunger.

"What can I do?", "What day is it?" "How long have we been gone?", "What if he never recovers?"

The thoughts invaded his own like distant whispers he could willingly bring to prominence. It was the weirdest feeling ever. Something similar to his Link to Frosty-- only he knew those weren't Frosty's thoughts.

They were Ursula's.....

His eyes opened, his body followed, pulling him into sitting up with and faint headache and case of raw disorientation.

"....Arne, why am I on a table...and when did I fall asleep? I'm...I'm confused...."

"[Hm. You don't remember, I suppose that's natural. Are you alright? How do you feel?]"

Claude tapped the table with his fingers, feeling it's unnatural coldness while he rolled his shoulders and neck, finding himself gazing at Frosty who lay by the table waking from his sleep. "Hey buddy." He whispered before replying to Arne, "I feel fine."

"[...No, tell me really.]"

"My head hurts, my chest hurts, I can't remember when I fell asleep and my legs are numb. Is that good, doc?" He growled sarcastically.

"[Perfect. Now tell me, what do you remember?]"

"Ursula's awake....I remember seeing her. It felt so unreal. Then she spoke....and...and...fuck. I don't remember anything else."

"[Yea. Well that makes sense. Your mind broke a tiny bit...]" Arne replied, he could hear the slight cringe in his voice.

"A TINY BIT?" Claude repeated as he bounced off the table, "Did I hurt anyone?"

"--he awake?"

Claude looked around the room at the words that came from nearby. Nothing and no one other than Frosty who was yawning mid stretch beside him.

"The fuck was that?"

"[Your Pack Bond-- it can feel a little odd in the beginning, but once you get a handle on it, it becomes one of your most useful tools as an Alpha.]"

He was just gaining his control and composure when Arne casually dropped another nuke in his lap.

"...A what?"

"[It's quite simple. You've changed another. Another Lupine of Romulus is born, and through this, a bond can be made connecting to the relating species....a bond that through the both of you, can spread and reach the others. And now, you have a Pack in more than a physical sense. Naturally you've found yourself at the head of this pack not only in terms of power but also as the Lupines Third Progenitor. Actually, at the ripe age of fifteen, you may be the youngest Lupine Alpha in history, Claude. Congratulations. I want you to know, I won't let you make the same mistakes as I did.....]"