The moon rose high in the sky and Recluse basked in its pale light. It had been a few days since she'd been taken here and for the first time in a while, she'd finally felt like she was regaining her strength. The man who'd taken her had offered his den but the girl knew she couldn't be there. She both hated the man and his whole family but she knew she couldn't get the proper sleep she needed, she was slowly reworking her sleep schedule so she was awake in the evening and through the night and asleep during the day. That simply wouldn't be feasible in a den so full of noisy, annoying, bratty pups. Nevermind she was the same age as the majority of the pups.

Still it wasn't easy to remain asleep all day sometimes, noise and being jumpy didn't always lead to a full sleep. Still, it felt good to finally return to her element.



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Art by Vethysnia

Theta had been doing what seemed to be her favorite pastime as of late, avoiding her family. It was rare that the pup got caught within sight of her family members let alone in their den. She was out for a midnight snack having caught a couple of small animals outside of the pack borders. On her way to find a place to sit down and eat she spotted the bright white of a form she hadn’t seen in a while. If her memories were correct it was one of the other pups from Erovrare. They had never really spoken before, but it was a shock to Theta to find someone who wasn’t her family that she knew up here. Hanging around inside pack borders at that too, upon seeing them Theta spat the food she had caught on the ground and quickly approached them. Saying “What the heck are you doing here?!”

Art by Vethysnia

There would be no peace it seemed, as one of the very pups she didn't want to see approached her. Rudley, she might add. Recluse narrowed her eyes at the girl, remembering her as one of the pups she and her littermates had tussled with back in the woods. The girl summoned a soft growl. "Why don't you ask your dad?" She snapped, shifting herself so she could jump to her paws quickly if she needed too. "He's the one that kidnapped me."

The familial connection couldn't be hidden from her scent, not while she lived in proximity with them, and Recluse was certain each of them were just as bad as their father. "I assumed he made a regular habit of stealing kids away from their families." She hissed, looking to try and get a rise out of the girl. She wanted an excuse to fight, any excuse.



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Art by Vethysnia

Theta was surprised when she was greeted with immediate anger, but as the girl explained she could understand it. Her dad had kidnapped her? When had that happened? She would be angry too if she had been taken from her family…well maybe not them, but she was definitely still angry about moving. Theta backed up as the girl spat at her. “Hey! I don’t want to be here either, I’d rather be back at Erovrare more than anything else.” Nevermind the pack no longer existed. “I don’t know what he was thinking but he tends to do before he asks anyone else if he should.” Far as she was concerned there was no reason for her to stay here, they were old enough to survive without parents.

The girl didn't give her the response Recluse wanted. She snarled and quickly turned her head away from her, closing her eyes. "Then go!" She retorted, snapping her head back to look at the grey and russet girl. "One less of you to disturb me." If this girl was dumb enough to do as Recluse suggested she'd not cry if the girl died. Recluse was proof they weren't old enough to thrive alone yet, survive maybe but she'd hardly call what she'd been through living. She'd only been here a matter of days and in that time under the watch of the older wolves she nearly regained her strength. The girl couldn't be much older than herself.

"Then he's a bigger bastard than I thought." She spat, all the venom and hatred she could feel for the grey man spilling from her lips. He had driven her family apart, forced her father away from them and made her mother leave her behind, and now he'd taken her away from the only place she'd known as a home, the only place her family would look for her.



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Art by Vethysnia

Was this what other people saw her as? Theta wasn’t about to get angry at them, she could easily see herself through all the spite the girl carried. She wasn’t about to leave the girl alone either, maybe she could be what Noir was to her. A beacon of light in a world full of garbage and animal feces. “Be glad it wasn’t one of the younger ones who found you they’re far more annoying than I am. I’m not gonna leave you alone quite yet, you can even take one of my kills as a peace offering.” Gesturing back towards where she had left them, after the length of time it had been Theta had forgotten the girl’s blindness “I know what it’s like to hate everyone and everything around you and it’s hard to do that without something to keep you going and it’s a whole lot easier to hate the world with one person on your side than no-one.”