...Gasp! He's still fun-sized!

Gav fell into slumber where he managed to nestle himself in. The positive thing was, due to his size, he was fairly confident most things wouldn’t care to bother trying to drag him out from under there if they found him. Not that they’d get much of a meal out of an adult who was smaller than foxes! It still disappointed Gavroche that he had wound up being such a tiny creature but… it was alright. In some ways his small size was a blessing… if he knew how to use it to his advantage then it wouldn’t be as bad. He had considered pack life when he and Runa were free too… he missed being able to interact with others and without Melanthios and Houdini he felt something missing… and the winged male didn’t want the wild woman to feel obligated to let him tag along after her like some lost puppy just because he was lonely.

His breathing was a bit raspy with his throat irritated by the desert sands. Thankfully due to the milder summer he hadn’t baked in the sun like he could have… he was fortunate in that regard. Even still he had been worn out, the winds battering him enough that the rest had definitely been necessary. He just wished that he had been able to sleep peacefully. Instead he twitched as a nightmare, one that had come to him multiple times now, had returned to him. The eruption haunted him… being unable to help his cousin haunted him. He whined and shifted on the sands, the smell of burning fur registering in his brain as he fought to wake up.

A voice, mingling in both his dream and the waking world caused Gavroche to awake with a start. His head shot up against the rock and he let out a yelp as it collided with the solid rock. The male gave a whine as he lowered it and shifted a paw over his noggin, feeling it as it throbbed painfully while he tried to register what was going on and where he was. It took him a moment to piece together that he was looking out at paws and Gavroche shifted towards the edge of the rock, eyes widening a little with recognition as he looked up at Venom.

“Hey!” His tail began to wag back and forth as he barked out a dry greeting, unaware yet he was even on land a pack was seeking shelter in. With how things had been within the desert he hadn’t even noticed the borders when he crossed them, nose dried out and barely of any use to him at the moment. He pulled himself out from under the ledge and stood up, frowning a little when he saw how much she had grown… and she was younger than him too!

“How have you been? It’s been a little bit. You’re growing like a weed!” He barked with a soft chuckle, happy to see her again. The mutations the other wolf bore were fascinating to him. Her tongue, the quills, her claws… to see her still alive and well brought a sense of relief. Those here in Boreas had been far more acceptant of those with oddities than his own homeland… and for that he was grateful. No place was perfect but… a step in a better direction was welcome.