Meet my new friend

Chade hadn’t known what would be bothering Ricin but he was assuming some recent detail.  Maybe he’d had a bad run-in with someone in the pack.  Maybe he had found trouble he needed help with.  The worst thing Chade could imagine is if somehow they were getting thrown out of the pack.  What he never saw coming was this.

Swift was forgotten, the pack was forgotten, everything was forgotten in that moment as Ricin admitted to having seen what he did.  Their sister. "You knew, huh," Chade's words were a soft whisper. Chade’s mind spiraled to the past and to those few seconds of his life that changed their course.  A pack of roaring lions could have probably snuck up on Chade right then.


Chade remembered making Ry move faster even as he glanced back to see the terrified expression on their sister and then…

Chade shivered as he came to himself.  The truth was he’d had to turn his head as the bear crashed down on her.  He hadn’t seen how broken her body had become but unfortunately, he had a good imagination about it.  There had been more than enough nightmares to help.  So, Ricin knew.  He had always known.

Now it was Chade’s turn to glance away from Ricin.  He felt cold and hollow, his most scarred memory exposed.  Chade hadn’t seemed to react anymore about Ricin having told someone, at least not right away.  Memories hounded the present along with wondering how to feel about Ricin’s knowledge.

So there was perhaps a full awkward minute of silence before Chade’s head caught up, “you did what?” The reality of the situation as Chade saw it caught up to him. “You told..!” No no no.  Did Ry realize how bad it could get telling others that?  Chade had chosen to let his sister die so Ry could live.  How could they trust him if they knew he had done that?  His sister certainly shouldn’t have trusted him.  Ah hell Chade was gonna be sick if he didn’t get his emotions under control

“Who Ry?” Chade stepped forward so there was no more than an inch between muzzles, and their was intensity in his voice, “Who did you tell? What did they say…” Were they in danger?  No one was supposed to know what Chade had done, not even Ricin.  Chade’s toes dug into the dirt.  The fear, guilt, shame, anger were swirling around in him so much it was hard to fit in logic but it might be needed right now.

"Chade & Ricin"