Rain lashed the world outside the caves, fierce winds whipping through grasses and tattering the new spring leaves with their fury. Better than in some areas of the continent, but not a storm to be out in nonetheless. Not far within the sheltered confines, out of reach of wind and rain but still where he could see what little light there was entering the cave, shivered Tyr. Soaked and achy, he had taken refuge in the caves to wait out the storm as long as he could. He would have to venture back out soon, though. The dampness and chill had settled in his leg; not much of a hunter at the best of times, the added pain meant that he'd not had a meal in some time. For a moment Tyr considered whether it had been the best idea to leave his family pack. Yes, he'd been the omega, the abused, the mistreated, but he'd had semi-regular meals, a sheltered den, and the warmth of his family on cold nights. But he quickly dismissed the doubts. Those semi-regular meals had been the leavings, the worst bits of every kill the pack made. The sheltered den? The space under a rotted log that everyone else was too small to fit in. And the warmth of his family was a rare, rare thing, since he had always been left to hover on the outskirts of any family gathering. His father wouldn't have had it any other way. No, he was better off on his own. Better a aching stomach here than the bruises and bites and heartache of his family. The patch-coated wolf curled tighter, his thin tail curved over his muzzle. He'd just have to wait out the storm. Then all would be well. "Speech"

What the heck kind of land had she wondered into? She simply just wanted to find her scattered family and bring them together, to heals their wounds. All she ever wanted was peace within her kin. But such a thing was nearly impossible! Specially when everyone hated a brother she had never met. The yearlying shook herself roughly, pale ice blues narrowed up at the anger sky. She had never seen weather this bad before. She was not frightened till she watched a tree being ripped from the earth, roots and all. At once she fled, searching somewhere to hide, to not be clawed from the earth where her tiny paws kissed the mud soaked soils. The girl was pushed and shoved by the wind, whipped in the face with debris and pelting rain. She could barely see now. She whimpered with fear. She had to find somewhere to hide! A sight, though everything was blurry, welcomed her to its dark hole. Without question the pale silver girl raced for the caves. So wrought with fear and only to seek shelter from the storm did she not think to check the caves. She darted in, literally flying inside to land in a heaving heap inside. As soon as she recovered she spun around, wild-eyed to look at the mouth of the cave. Would she be safe here? Or would the winds upturn the caves too? She shivered and whimpered, slowly crouching her sore body down. Her body still coiled to spring out of the cave if she needed to flee yet again. She dearly wished her family was here, that they too were somewhere safe. She never noticed she had intruded into someone else's hiding place, her attention fully wrapped on the storm. I can talk!

The storm seemed to be worsening outside the caves. Inside, Tyr was starting to relax, muscles knotted by damp and travel beginning to unwind. His twisted, crippled limb still ached, but it was a familiar - albeit harsher - pain. A lesser pain still gnawed at his stomach, but there was nothing he could do about it so Tyr steeled himself to go to sleep until the storm was over. He was starting to drowse a little despite the fierce winds howling past the cave mouth and echoing through the cave, but whatever peace he was enjoying was interrupted sharply with the unexpected and abrupt arrival of another. A white female, landing in a frightened heap nearly on top of Tyr. He leaped to his feet and scrambled away, panting fearfully. He stumbled, caught himself painfully on his bad leg. He very nearly darted outside, but the intensity of the storm made him pause and rethink. Instead, nearly cowering, shivering, he turned his wide mismatched eyes on the cave's other occupant, and waited. Waited to see what she would do, what threat she would pose. Waited. "Speech"

She slumped down, ice blues watching the storm. She shivered and desperately wished her brothers and sisters were with her right now. She whimpered softly and bowed her head. She was just turning away from the entrance to lay farther in the cave when she noticed another. At once she noticed his fear, the caution and urge to want to flee from her. At once she backed up just to the point where she was just barely in the cave and off to one side. She didn't want him to feel trapped.I'm sorry..i didn't mean to frighten you. I mean no harm. Her voice was soft, soothing and angelic like her birth name suggested she was. Angel laid down and tried to make herself look small. Her eerie ice blue eyes looked away, down at her own silvery paws. Thunder clashed outside and she flinched and it took every ounce in her to not move farther back into the cave. She wouldn't till the other said it was ok. If he wanted her to go, she'd run through the storm to find another place. But she doubted she find anything out there. She wondered what had caused the other to be in such a fearful state. Or maybe it was just the storm and her sudden arrival that had frightened him so. She hoped she could get him to see she was safe to be around. She was no warrior, she was gangly, slim, and just a yearly lost without her family. She snuck a glance up at him, eyes pleading him to see she was not a threat. I can talk!

Uphill struggle, blood sweat and tears

Tyr had learned long ago not to trust kind words. They were simply a cover to hide malicious intent, and they were nearly always followed by a fierce punishment from one of the pack's adults, so he was decidedly leery of any perceived kindness. Still, the younger wolf seemed harmless enough, he no longer needed to fear punishment from Hroovitnir and he was far from the reach of Vili and Ve, so Tyr forced himself to relax, to stop trembling. He remained crouched still, ears and tail lowered as he watched her. She seemed to be giving him room, staying near the entrance to the cave rather than coming closer and pushing his boundaries. Unused to such courtesy, Tyr wasn't sure how to react, exactly, but making her stay where she might still be getting wet from the wind-driven rain was probably not a good way of going about it.

"You... you can come in further, if you want," he said warily. "You don't need to stay over there because of me."



"Speech"

Nothing to gain, everything to fear

She was about to completely settle down, to curl up and try to nap when he spoke. Her ice blues found his mis-matched eyes as she stared at him kindly. He seemed older than her but yet so scared. What had caused him to be such a way? She took a closer look at him, his underfed body, the way he folding in on himself. She could imagine what he had been through, but it had to be bad. She thought of her family. She had never been physically abused or intentionally abused but she had in a way. The flying emotions of her family, the sudden disappearance of everyone had scared her. There were so many times panic attacks hit her from no where, or after remembering something, or more often in her sleep. So maybe in a way she could understand where he might come from. Or maybe not.Thank you..I just didn't want to interude in your space more than I have already.. She replied softly. She scooted in farther into the cave but on the opposite side from the black and russet male. He was interesting to her, the colors of his fur, his eyes, the way he acted. Most wolves were happy or aggressive when she met them. He was different. She didn't think she was scary, heck she probably couldn't scare a rabbit or even a frog! She sighed as she settled down, curling up with her back against the wall and tail over her paws. My names Angel Madieke Black, whats yours? She asked softly as she laid her head down to watch him. She hoped the storm would pass soon. Her mind told her tonight would be sleepless, full of horror. Last time she had a panic attack in her sleep she woke of gasping right before she let out blood curling screams. The memory of it made her shiver. Why did it have to happen to her? I can talk!

Ever-watchful, but beginning to calm, Tyr felt a wave of self-loathing at his reaction. This girl was obviously younger than him, a bare inch taller if even that, better fed but slim despite that. The idea that she would be a threat to him was ludicrous and yet here he was, cringing and cowering against a wall. It was disgusting. He turned his face away slightly to hide the emotions flickering through his bicolour eyes. Was he ever going to be free from his father's influence? He huffed out a sigh. "You aren't intruding. It's fine." The girl spoke again, giving her name. He flicked his eyes over to her, studying her without turning his head. Her markings were quite unusual, from the dark color and spots lining her eyes, to the cross shape on her shoulder, and the ice-blue of her eyes was piercing. Her face was smooth and kind - her name seemed fitting. But Tyr, as much as it seemed illogical to mistrust and fear her, still could not bring himself to completely banish the lurking suspicion. He turned his gaze away once more. "My name is Tyr." Not claiming his surname left a shivery fearful feeling, mixed with a sort of elation, and Tyr scolded himself impatiently. What was he thinking, that Hroovitnir would come back to haunt him if he refused to call himself a Hroovitnirsson? Stupid, stupid boy. His impatient annoyance with himself prompted him to ask a question, something he'd long ago learned not to do. "What are you doing out in this storm alone? You must have someone to be with, surely... Family, friends, mate...?" He trailed off after that last one, embarrassed. Gods, that sounded like a bad pickup line. "I- I mean, you seem like you'd... You're just so young and pretty, it doesn't seem..." He sighed and gave up trying to fix it. It wasn't like he had much experience socializing with anyone, let alone an unrelated female. "Nevermind," he mumbled, hiding his head under his good paw. "Speech"

She laid there watching him, unable to tear her eyes away. His coat pattern was something she had never seen before. Well then again she had lived in a large family made up of colors of white, silver, black, and varying shades of grey. So anything other than those colors attracted her eyes. It was appealing and refreshing to her. But she could tell something was bothering him. She wanted to help him, to ask but feared she would be overstepping the boundaries with him. So for now she would work on him just being comfortable and trusting her. But for all she knew this could be the only time she'd ever see him. But she wanted him to see not everyone was bad, that you could trust every once in awhile. She didn't want him to live his life with such a depressing thought as to always be alone. He might be trying to hide everything from her, but she was excellent at reading others. Its what she had done all her life with her family. A name was given to her cave companion and she smiled softly before hiding her little nose in her tail as it curled closer to her body. She glanced outside to watch the rain for a moment till he spoke again. Ice blues returned their attention back on him. Ears twitched at the question of family and friends. But the mention of a mate made her blush and look away. She tried to hide her face more into her tail, to cover her blush. A mate? She had never thought of such a thing. Had never even had a crush on anyone. How could you when you were always with family and had so many older siblings? A slight movement from him made her look back up. She couldn't help smile at seeing him hiding his face after trying to fix what he had said.Its ok...My family got scattered. I found one of my older sisters recently but earlier we went our own ways to only meet up later today. But I fear for her safety out there in the storm and hope she found shelter too. I only had my family my whole life, no friends. But once scattered I've just been alone the whole time. I've..never had a mate.. She replied, blushing even redder now with her last sentence. Why was she blushing so much? It had just been a question. Maybe it was his complements. She had never thought much to how she looked. Thought she was just average at that, nothing special. What about you? Are you alone? She asked, trying to change the focus off of herself. She probably already knew his answer, but it would be rude not to ask and she could always be wrong. I can talk!

Uphill struggle, blood sweat and tears

This whole situation had something of a surreal quality for Tyr. Like a very strange and vivid dream, with this monster storm and this unusually marked female who actually seemed to want to talk to him, crippled useless Tyr. And such a sweet girl, too. She'd disregarded his oddities and shown enough respect to keep her distance when he'd reacted badly to her presence.

Obviously it must be a dream.

But since it wasn't, old habits and suspicions tainted the whole scene. She was a sweet girl, so sweet that Tyr couldn't shake the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for that moment when something he'd said would be turned on him, waiting for her to show the cruelty that he was certain was lurking there. It was in everyone, and inevitably would make it's way out.

And he hated himself for not being able to be blissfully unaware of it.

"I'm sure she found shelter," he sought to reassure her despite his own inner musings. "Older siblings seem to have a knack for taking care of themselves." If there was a hint of bitterness there, Tyr took some pains to hide it. He had never been much for being able to take care of himself, despite being older than most of his own siblings.

He shook it off, gave the girl a cautious smile. "People say family make the best friends." Some people, anyway. "I have family in these lands," he went on to tell her. "I don't see much of them, but I know they're around here." And that he made every effort not to run into them.



"Speech"

Nothing to gain, everything to fear

She head turned her head to look out into the storm, ice blues dark with worry. She had a large family to worry about. Most were older than her and far more fully built than her thin fragile frame. Even still she had been the background caretaker of the family. Always there to lend a helping paw, an ear to listen, a shoulder for comfort. It was who she was, or used to be. She worried Twig would be out in the storm searching for her. Hopefully her older sister had faith that she would find safe shelter. A hint of bitterness laced Tyr's words, making her look back at him. Her blue eyes seemed to try and understand him before her jaws part.You seem to know. Do you have older siblings? She asked before he mentioned about family being your best friends. Her eyes grew sorrow and she had to look away. Angel had never had a true friend, no one to tell she secrets to, her fears or dreams. She had set aside her owe emotions and life to be there for her family. If only that was really true. No one know too much about me. Not even when I'm from the third litter my parents had. Maybe because there were so many of us it is harder to stand out, to be recognized. I never..had anyone to be close to.. She voice had dropped to a whisper. Eyes stared at the falling rain. A shiver passed through her still damp body. It was getting a little chilling but she would block it out. She suddenly felt empty now. Lacking in knowledge of who she really was. I can talk!

Tyr shifted uncomfortably when she asked about whether he had older siblings. "Rather a lot of them, actually," he admitted. "Younger ones, too. Our sire was a bit of a..." he paused, considering how to phrase it delicately for the young female. "He had a lot of wives. I was the only pup from my mother before she died, though, so they're all only half-siblings." The girl seemed to tumble suddenly into sadness, speaking of the difficulties in being noticed in a large family. "Better that than to be singled out so that everyone knows everything about you. Better to be invisible than ridiculed." But he relented and rose to his feet, skeletal form shadowed in the dimness of the cave as he limped over to her side of the cave to curl up again next to her, to share what body heat he had. "It's hard when you're young. You don't really have a choice in how they view you or what you can do about it. But... now you do. You get to decide where you go and who knows you. Family isn't everything, it's just one thing..." That last part was said to himself as much as to her, a minor revelation for him, in a way. What his family thought, how they'd treated him... it really was just unimportant in the face of the enormity of the rest of his life stretching before him. "Speech"