Scars on the Inside

With Winter  quickly approaching Spider was a man on a mission, now that he and Natiel had found a place to live it was his job as a healer to keep a heavy stock of medicinal herbs before the first snowfall. Time was of the essence as plants had already begun to wither in the coming cold.  While before he had simply wandered and gathered what he could before inevitably abandoning them he now hunted for specific herbs. On today’s list was Yarrow and for once he walked with his head raised, as he searched for any sign of the white flowers. He was never aware of it, but when he was focused on herbs and healing his entire personality changed; He never stuttered when going through the laundry list of medicinal herbs or the less desirable effects of a disease. Echo had noticed it immediately but had only watched the wolf with a knowing gaze, afraid that pointing it out would break the illusion. He doesn’t know it’s in his head the bird had thought as Spider described in great detail what Yarrow looked like so he could search for it from above.

Spider had in fact been so focused on finding white flowers that he only caught sight of the other wolf by the cluster of white speckles on his back and as soon as what he was seeing registered, the untroubled façade shattered. He dropped low, tucking his tail and flattening his ears, wide, fearful eyes locked on the turned figure who by all rights probably didn’t even know he was there.

At first he thought that it was a fawn, and its mother would be close-by, ready to trample him to death, but had in fact never seen a fawn that was almost as large as him, and that was of course ignoring the impossibility of a deer sitting like a wolf. As the pieces clicked into place he allowed himself to relax, but only slightly, in many ways a stranger wolf was a greater threat than a protective deer and would be apt to rip out his throat if they felt the need.

”But we’re working on that aren’t we?”

The memory of the bird’s voice rang in his ears and he squeezed his eyes shut at the thought. The older male had been much larger and much more intimidating than this stranger seemed to be and he had left the encounter unscathed. He swallowed a lump in his throat and, after practically forcing himself uttered a quiet, curious, “H-h-hello?”

Spider speaking

Echo Speaking