Chapter 6 - Aaah! Cold!

Faun watched him leave, his anxiousness falling away when the door clicked shut behind Declan.

He glanced down at his leg, he had peeked under the bandage early that morning so he wasn't surprised but he had been tense because he thought that Declan would find him out for what he was.

He might have not spent a lot of time around humans but he knew well enough that one wasn't supposed to heal that fast but Declan hadn't even seemed to notice.

A sigh of relief left him as he got up to go through the clothes that Declan had given to him.

There was only one pair of shorts and they looked like they would be too big on him, the rest were rather too large shirts that could pass off as tunics.

He wasn't surprised that Declan couldn't find pants to fit him, just a glance at his waist beneath the parted overcoat told him all that he needed to know.

He had explored the room that Declan had put him in immediately when he woke up so he knew that it had its own bathroom and that he could jump out the windows if he ever needed to escape.

Reluctantly, he took off the overcoat, he hated to give it back. He couldn't explain why but he felt safe in the warm interior of the coat.

Faun got rid of the rest of his tattered clothing, it would have to be thrown away, there was no saving it.

There were times he spent entire months as a fox so he didn't exactly have a wardrobe to boast off.

It would have been faster for them to move in their animal forms but remaining in their human forms was far safer, especially when they passed by towns and cities.

It was why that first human had caught him in this form.

It also seemed like he would have to remain this way for a while, it was strange. He never liked being human because it only reminded him of the people who were out to wipe out his kind.

Faun gingerly stepped into the bathroom, trying not to be intimidated by all the pipes and faucets on the walls.

He had a vague idea of how to use the shower and he knew exactly what to do with a bar of soap, he wasn't stupid.

Smugly, he twisted the first faucet his hand touched, yelping when cold water showered down on him.

He was only caught off guard at first, long used to cleaning up in brooks and rivers, the cold water was nothing to him.

He liked the scent of the soap, it was a muted herbal scent that reminded him of shrubbery and flower buds.

Cleaning up properly was almost therapeutic and he almost teared up when he realised that he could do this as often as he wanted.

It must be so nice having access to basic necessities, he couldn't imagine a life like that for him.

Faun dried up and picked the biggest shirt he could see, folding the rest of the clothes properly. He had tried on the shorts but just as he predicted it was too big a fit for him and fell right off his waist.

He glanced at the closet on the far wall, he was pretty sure that clothes were supposed to be kept in there.

He pulled open one of the doors to find shelves just as he had been expecting and put in the clothes very carefully.

It was a surprise how he managed to remember so many things about the way that humans lived, considering that the last time he had been in a house had been when his parents were still alive.

He had spent all of the time after their death hiding from the world in general, he would spend months in his fox form, deep in uninhabited forests.

But then it became too dangerous to keep doing that and everywhere he turned it seemed like he kept bumping into hybrids on the run so he decided to do the same too so he wouldn't get killed off.

That was when he found the makeshift hybrid Pack which seemed to have a concrete plan of survival and he joined them because he didn't know what else to do.

But he managed to lose the makeshift Pack that he had been moving with and now he was here, with a human.

Maybe it was because he didn't spend a lot of time around humans to begin with, that's why after he got over his terror of Declan hurting him, he became curious.

He couldn't remember who had killed his parents, if it was the humans or the other kind, their sworn enemies. Shapeshifters.

They were all called werewolves now, all other kinds of shapeshifters long extinct.

Faun stepped out of his room and went straight for the living room, he was already hungry although he had eaten a really large dinner.

Declan stepped out of the hallway at the moment, he was freshly showered too, his eyes taking Faun in.

The red haired hybrid was seated on the couch with expectant eyes, wearing one of the shirts that he had given him.

It looked like a dress on his frail body making Declan wince, he would have to get him clothes, first thing the next day.

"Uh… Did you sleep well?" Declan asked awkwardly, gesturing to Faun to follow him as he made his way to the kitchen.

Faun's soft green eyes were wide as he hesitantly moved around the kitchen, getting a good look in.

The room was bright and sun filled, there was a flat top table in the middle that was quite high, pots and pans hung up on a far wall.

It made Faun want to smile for some reason, his hands clenched into fists so he wouldn't give in to the urge to touch everything.

He caught himself, standing close to Declan instead of continuing to explore like he really wanted to.

He wanted to know what was in all the shelves, he wanted to turn on the faucet at the sink and find out what the other things did.