Cousins were jerks, Fever decided. They'd told her that she was too young to know anything about boys and, despite the fact that this was true, the horned girl raged against them, denying the fact that she knew nothing. After the older pups had run away from her, Fever felt bad. She huffed and frowned and wondered where she'd go to learn about boys. If she didn't know something, then she should find out, right?

Fever threw herself into her bed and worked hard to fall asleep. It took a little longer than she liked, but eventually the world of dreams opened up to her. The fiery child entered the abyss like a hurricane, the darkness parting at her will. "Papa Moros!"She called out for her great grandsire. He was the smartest wolf that she knew. He'd have all of the answers for her. "Papa Moros, where are you?!" Despite her urgency, the girl's voice rang out in a singsong, saccharinely sweet.

"Fever Mendacium"

Darkness surged and swirled in the Void as Fever came rushing in like a bat out of hell, the spectral realm seeming to react to her presence and her agitated demeanor as if it were alive. Her shouts echoed into the emptiness, only her voice answering her calls—at least at first. Once a moment had passed, a deep baritone humming began to rise from the silence, seeming to come from everywhere all at once. Then the dark evaporated like a mist from behind the girl, revealing the massive crimson brute relaxing in a vision of an old cave, his giant body sprawled out across some plush furs of past hunts. A cozy campfire crackled next to him, casting his hard masculine features in bright firelight and deep shadows. He was humming to himself while he lay there, staring out the mouth of the cave at a storm raging outside. Howling wind and heavy rain poured just beyond, but Moros was the picture of coziness, waiting out the storm from his memories in his warm, dry den.

Turning his head to peer out into the darkness, Moros smiled at Fever and waved her over. "Well well well, if it isn't my darling granddaughter! Come over here, Evee! I have missed you so!" As the girl would approach the scene seeming to exist amidst the darkness, the void would fall away until Fever was completely in the cave with her great grandsire, all semblance of the darkness gone inside this memory. Moros beckoned her over and spread his forepaws to make room for her to come snuggle against his chest if she wished. The warmth and light of the fire bathed them both in its splendor while outside a flash of lightning and boom of thunder shook the heavens above. "What's got a fire lit under your tail, my precious little firefly?" asked the demon brute, all sweet smiles and enticing words for his favorite descendent.

"Moros"

The scenery changed but she was so used to this by now that it didn't phase her or take away too much of her attention. Her great grandfather beckoned her forward and Fever made no fuss about sidling up against his chest and taking her place there. Yeah, it was her place. They had both accepted that by now.

Moros questioned her and Fever's brows drew together. "Damira and Darika were talking about boys and, when I wanted to tell them what I knew about boys, they said that I was even younger than they were and that I didn't know anything." Fever knew tons of things. Tons. She wanted to know more though. In the particular area of boys, she wanted to know more than her cousins ever would.

Turning her angelic little face up towards her grandfather, determination filled her mismatched gaze. "I need to know about boys, Papa Moros. I need to know what they like and how to make them like you. Then I can rub it in their faces when I prove that I'm smarter than they are." Okay, so she was a little salty. A little vindictive. The girl had a bit of a superiority complex. Just a smidge of one. She knew her grandpa would understand.

"Fever Mendacium"

Without a beat of hesitation, his great-granddaughter passed through the liminal space of the Void and into his memory world, joining him in front of the crackling fire in the cave amidst a great storm. The warmth of the fire washed over the both of them, as real as the world beyond this purgatory, and the smell of woodsmoke and the sound of snapping wood as real too. With Fever settling into his forepaws and against his chest, Moros regarded the little girl with a paternal smile, one that masked the darkness and depravity deep within his tainted soul and blackened mind. At his inquisition, Fever let loose a tirade of complaints about two girls he didn't know, lamenting how they didn't let her participate in their boy talk. Moros hid his expression well behind an empathetic smile, but inside he was sneering. Ugh, inane girl talk...

Meeting Fever's mismatched gaze with his own jet black jewels that shone like pits into oblivion, Moros gave a throaty chuckle as the girl asked him for information about boys. Almost in perfect time with his laughter, a roll of thunder shook the skies outside, lightning illuminating the mouth of the cave. How ironic... Fever would never know this was his memory of the night he had disposed of his eldest daughter's corpse after he'd finally broken her. To her, it would just be a cozy campfire discussion between the two of them. Would it thrill her or terrify her to know the truth? Ohh, the possibility made Moros quiver. "My dear sweet little scion, you are infinitely smarter than any other dumb girl, and a thousandfold more powerful than them too," he reassured Fe with a tender lick across her forehead, right between her growing horns. "But I will still teach you about boys. It's an important lesson for a growing girl to learn."

Sitting up a little straighter and crossing his paws so he kept Fever held snugly in his grasp, Moros considered the topic at hand and the questions she asked. "Boys are simple creatures, Evee. We are guided by our instincts over our emotions, making decisions and following impulses that bring us delight and make us feel good." The grin on Moros' face was an allusion to the double entendre of his words, but Fever would be too young to understand those sorts of impulses and instincts. "Girls are... more emotionally driven creatures. Where girls like when you're nice to them or bring them gifts to make them feel valued, boys take their value. It's why we like to fight, to compete, and to kill. It's in our instincts to show dominance and that we're the strongest and smartest against the other boys." Tilting his head to one side as he considered Fever's second request, he replied, "If you want to make a boy like you, you must show him why he should be interested in you. Show them your smarts, your beauty, your appeal. Make yourself worth him competing and killing other boys for. Believe me, we boys love the challenge and knowing a pretty girl is the prize on the other side is the best kind of motivator." Granted, Moros left out just what brutes did with faes after they'd killed off the other suitors to win the rights to breed with them, but detail, details. The girl would learn all of that in time.

"Moros"