Forest wanderings

[† Alissa †]

The last time Alissa had ventured in the forest hadn't been very exciting. The time before that however had resulted in a prolonged stay the young lycan girl wasn't happy with.

But now, she seemed unfazed by trotting through the forest in the form of a fairly small brown wolf in the middle of the night. Alissa wasn't looking for anything in particular, but her stomach was growling uncomfortably and she was determined to catch something this time rather than turn to the tunnel's fridge once more or even to ask her Uncle for help.

However as she pounced on a rabbit, it managed to get away.

"No way!" 'Lissa whined to herself as her tail fell between her short legs. Sitting down for a while and scratching at an itch that had developed on her side, the little Lycan decided to take a short break before finding another form of prey. Maybe she would find a water pool, too.

[Fenris Fenrir]

The rabbit, a clever fellow, had darted off into the underbrush and lay panting beneath a thorn bush. There it waited in hopes that the young wolf would move off and let it resume it's previous activities before being scared out it's wits. It slowly started to back away, but something blocked it's path and as the terrified rodent turned to see what; it was greeted by the salivating jaws of an even larger wolf. The rabbit let out a squeal of fright and tried to dart off the way it had come in, but Fenrir was too quick for the rodent, and his fangs pulverized the rear, right leg of the little beast.

It was clear that this mammal wouldn't be considered as an appetizer for the colossal lycan, but it would suffice for the other lycan that his snout had smelt out while hidng in the brush. Pushing himself off the floor of the Forest; multiple thorns burrowed into his flesh but their pain was miniscule to what he had suffered in the past. When fighting the great enemy; man and when engaging the beings of Hell in combat. It seemed that no matter how maginified his image was; he was just as easily harmed as anyone.

Knowing that drove the lycan insane; wanting to find a way so that these pitiful humans and power-hungry demons that he faced wouldn't prove as much as a threat to him. If only he could find that; he would be on even footing with many of the Forest's other denizens. Yet that bit of his agenda was put on hold as he stepped out in the clearing where the crippled rabbit squealed in pain and fear; knowing that it's end was at hand. It caused the muzzle of the wolf to curl into a smile; this rabbit shared so many characteristics with the humans, so much that he was surprised never to realize that connection before hand.

Though before him was his mother's sister and she deserved to be greeted, unlike some other members of the Tunnels. 'Hail Alissa, sister of Cealla who is my mother. What brings you into my humble abode? For it has been many a moon since either of you pups have come to see me; one could even go so far to say that you broke your promise that you gave to me not so long ago. Have you forgotten it? Or do you think that it meant nothing when I said that much desired to see you again?', thought Fenrir into Alissa's mind; hurt issuing in those thoughts.

'But nevermind; this vermin was yours to begin with and now he will no longer escape you. Kill him...kill him now.'

[† Alissa †]

Alissa had jumped as she heard someone coming out the bushes, and almost relaxed at the sight of the owner of the noise, but not quite. It was the huge Lycan that had been the cause of the interesting events the time before last.

Stepping back a little so she didn't have to crane her neck back so much as he accused her of breaking her promise, 'Lissa shook her small head quickly, so quick it almost gave her a headache. N...n...no, of c-course I hadn't for-forgotten, she stuttered, her soft voice panicky as though there was going to be a repeat performance, but this time without Cealla to comfort her while she went through it.

However as he held the rabbit out to her, if she was in human form, Alissa would have paled considerably. Now that she was faced with the situation, it suddenly didn't seem as appealing as a fridge meal. I...I... the little Lycan stuttered, her brown eyes widened to a point where she couldn't widen them any more. Swallowing nervously, she took a few more steps backwards away from the dying animal. Could she really kill another animal? One just like her? Would it be inhumane like the vampires killing some of her friends.

The vampires.

A little whimper left the Lycan pup as the thought hit her. Alissa had told herself to forget those memories. Some had been left worse off than she had, and yet the memories still remained almost fresh in her mind as though it had only happened yesterday. Looking back up at Fenris, Alissa shook her head gently. I can't.

[Maí Lé Rosà]

{ooc}: Grrrr... -snaps teeth at Fenris- You beat me.

{bic}:

Screeeck!

The high-pitched yip of another rabbit sounded from a short distance away, before a loud snap echoed around the surrounding area. Rabbits were never solitary creatures, where one was found, there was usually a whole warren more just around the corner. Careful not to get the animal's blood in her hair, the demoness held her head back a little, keeping her ivory tresses from flowing forward onto her bloodied, bare hands and the hanging corpse of the twitching animal.

Holding it at arms length, she walked out from behind a connection of trees, her body clad in a cream dress, corsétted and laced with black ribbon down the front. Her boots were a solid black and rode up her legs to her knees, while her garnet eyes complimented the whole attire in a completely different shade; set on the creature dangling from her spider-like fingers all the while.

Mai let a sadistic and almost bored sigh escape her lips as she dropped the creature to the snow-touched ground, kneeling to collect up a pile of snow in her palms. In a moment or two the snow began to melt, and she washed away the scarlet death on her pale skin, letting the stained snow drip off her hands and sink into the earth once more. It had been dropped by the young lycaness, but she was well aware of Fenris Fenrir not half a space away from her own crouched form.

"I wont be offended if you do not eat it." Mai said suddenly, not bothering to move her eyes to the brown orbs of the lycaness. She knew lycans almost always preferred to make their own kill, unless they were utterly starving. It was a pride issue, though perhaps this young lycaness was not old enough to take that trait on board yet. Perhaps she would accept, a gift. This one she did not need to kill, for this one was already well dead.

That was the effect the demoness had on some creatures.

The rabbit rested lifeless in the snow, it's neck snapped and lolling to one side while a deep hole was punctured right through it's stomach and out the other side. Their soft bellies were always easy to rupture, with a simple kick of a sharp enough stiletto. Much like the wolves that ate them if the time and precision was taken in the aim.

[† Alissa †]

I won't be offended if you do not eat it.

Alissa's mind yet again did an about turn and her stomach growled yet again, knowing what it wanted, and also knowing it was unlikely its owner would do anything about it. When in human form, Alissa would take a salad out of the fridge if any was available. For some reason, it was brought in occassionally, but the little brown Lycan did not deter its presence at all.

But at that moment, there was no salad; only an uncomfortable hunger pain in her stomach and two rabbits lying on the stained ground in front of her. As though it was an out-of-body experience, her small legs brought her forward a little. The poor rabbit was nearing death, and Alissa was only making it more uncomfortable, only making it hurt more. She had always been a gentle girl at heart, and hated to see others hurting. That was the only reasoning she had behind turning her head away and allowing a claw from her paw to pierce through the rabbit's skin in several places. If she had been dying like that, slowly and painfully, Alissa hoped someone would do her the favour she had just done the rabbit.

Lowering her nose and sniffing at the rabbit, the smell of blood only haunted her more. Though she was standing in front of two of the most feared creatures in the forest, or so she had heard from various sources. Would they see her as a wimp if she chose neither, if she backed away once more? Maybe if she said she wasn't hungry, but was only playing? That excuse quickly left her as she realised they probably had heard her stomach rumbling before.

There was only one thing to do.

Thank you, both of you, 'Lissa almost silently sent to the two in front of her, and yet still made no move to eat either rabbit, unsure as to what was holding her back.

[Fenris Fenrir]

So, she said that she hadn't forgotten? A lie; she would have remembered that day when Fenrir gave them their freedom; when he told her of what he wanted in turn if he was to set them free. And now; this pup had the nerve to blatantly lie to his face? Those furnaces that composed his eyes started to burn their fuel all the brighter. To think, to even consider for a millisecond that those that he held close to his heart would lie to him; would try and stay away from him as far as possible. But when she did not even touch the crippled creature before her, Fenrir's sinister mind started thinking of another reason as to why Alissa didn't touch the living meat before her; the source of everything that made a lycan what he or she was.

Those thoughts were pushed aside from his mind as another blood-curling squeal of a rabbit pierced the silence of the Forest and at the sound of a death cry; Fenris ignored his aunt and looked in the direction of where the sound came from. Though it was not long before the slayer of the rodent made her way into the clearing. And this slayer was no stranger to Fenrir's eyes; he had seen her the night when he begged for life at the hands of Lothani and she granted him life once more. Though he did not know the name; he know what she was. A demoness and with such beings; he would have to be cautious.

What surprised Fenrir was that she too offered a rabbit to Alissa and what turned that surprise sour was when Alissa said she accepted them, but didn't touch them. Was she afraid of touching something that once lived? Surely as a pup, her mother must have brought her meat for her to feast upon. Unless....no; that couldn't be. Would a lycan even be able to survive that lifestyle and if so; how many more of these heathens were in those blasted Tunnels?

'Why do you not touch them Alissa? They are young, they are tender; they are nice and yet you accept them only to let them freeze in the cold?', questioned Fenrir as he probed into Alissa's mind, 'Surely you have consumed the flesh of other animals before? Surely you know that meat comes from other living things? Or...no...NO! Those inbreds of the Tunnels! They have perverted you from the ways of the wolf! I should have figured as much from the beginning; first you break your word to me and now this; NOW THIS!'

'The fools; those b@#*hes! They have torn you asunder from the old ways; they have turned you into a perversion of what you should be! Why is it that you cower in my presence? Is it because that I eat flesh; is it because I follow a tradition that has been in affect since the Dawn of Time? You sicken me Child; I thought highly of you when I first saw you; now that respect that I had for you has fallen Alissa. You have been made weak; it's not your fault, but they have changed you into this...this...herbivoire! You were never meant to be one; yet here you are staring at this meat as if it is poison. I wonder; how many other of this lycans are in your Tunnels? For then there would be no contest between the two packs; the Forest would swoop in and bring you redemption.'

Realizing that his enraged rantings had gone too far, Fenrir snarled in fury and with the sight and sound of bones popping and forms morphing; Fenrir the wolf was replaced with Fenrir the man. Advancing on the girl with purpose in his eyes, Fenrir grabbed the already dead rabbit in his left hand and once before Alissa; he began his violent but necessary work. Placing the dead rabbit in his mouth, his left hand grabbed hold of a stick of small, but hardy stature that had a fork at one end of it. With his right hand, he pried open the muzzle of the delusional pup and forcefully shoved the stick into her mouth; preventing it from snapping shut. Then he took the bloodied rodent from his mouth, blood spraying from the corpse, and shoved it into Alissa's mouth as he removed the stick.

And he held her jaws closed, for she was still young and could not even dream to have his hold release her unless she repented those heathen ways and did as he told her. His hands clamping all the harder on her muzzle, Fenrir whispered into her ear, "I am saving you Alissa; I am saving you. Don't you see; they are making you into a weakling and those that are related to myself are not weaklings. So feast on this flesh; the sooner you do; the sooner I let go of you."

[Maí Lé Rosà]

The demoness pushed her shoulder blades back underneath her flesh, rubbing her fingers together to rid them of all the liquid-snow that cleansed them. It was clear from the telepathic messages sent from Fenris to the younger wolf that he was far from content to see her. His mood grew ripe with the emotion Mai knew all too well. Anger. A devilish smirk played delicately upon her lips, but she remained crouched, now pretending to wipe the pure yet tainted substance off her fingertips.

His language deteriorated, and so did Mai's smirk. It was clear that Fenris had met this young lycaness on another occasion, and it seemed she had had a word to keep with him. Though for them to have met on another occasion, it was a mild surprise to Mai how little he seemed to understand the lycaness before him. She stood on all fours almost shaking at the sight of both Fenris and Mai, and yet she found it in her frightened heart to be grateful for the food they provided her with; no matter whether her heart pounded with remorse for the rabbits.

...they have turned you into a perversion of what you should be! Why is it that you cower in my presence? Is it because that I eat flesh; is it because I follow a tradition that has been in affect since the Dawn of Time? You sicken me Child; I thought highly of you when I first saw you; now that respect that I had for you has fallen Alissa.

Mai's attention thickened now, and she rose to her full height; an easy six foot tall. So Alissa was this child's name. Already Mai had more information than Fenris, and though he dared to call the pup before him a child, it was none other than him who was playing childishly tonight. The demoness turned herself to fully face Fenris, and that turn continued as he rose to the form of a rougish man and stalked over to the lycaness.

His actions were well-calculated by the demoness, and her precision was most alert. What he did made the already smoky eyes of the demoness swirl with that death-defying blood-red and darken considerably to fit her changing mood. The lycaness was a lot weaker than him physically, indeed, but he appeared to have underestimated the ability of his other company.

Crack.

The silent elbow of the demoness came down hard between Fenris' shoulders, right at the nape of his neck. Whether it was the top of his neck that cracked, or one of his scapulas, one could not determine in the flash of movement that followed this first strike. A harsh slap drove itself across the back of Fenris' head, knocking it to the right, before both of Mai's hands drove their sets of nails into his scalp and followed through with heaving him face-first into the age-old trunk of a tree.

Several shatters of bones sounded, before the hiss of the demoness rushed like a hot breeze to his ear. "She cowers in your presence because you scream at her. You inflict guilt in her and terrorize the traditions that her clan has taught her. She knows no different, and yet you insist on tormenting her gentle heart with physical abuse." Mai spun the lycan man around so both he and she were inches apart.

"You sicken me, for you are the child in this clearing, not her." Her fingers curled around his neck, and her garnet orbs flashed a silver as cold as mercury. There was a blade hidden somewhere on her body, and with no more than a swift movement she would have it straight through his heart. It was a pity he did not know her by name. For if he had, it was almost certain he would know that she would pull him through Hell. Her Hell. The real Hell.

"Do not touch her again." Mai whispered, so that only Fenris could hear. That said, she roughly let go of him and stepped back, her deadly frame still facing him as she backed away to stand in front of Alissa. It was hardly concern that she held for the lycaness in particular, it was merely a soul-written hatred to see a man handle a child in such a manner. Memories often brought out the worst in people. Just like Hellish behaviour often brought out the beginning's of the worst in this demoness. Whether he was the Fenris Fenrir or not, the Maí Lé Rosà would not tolerate this behaviour in her presence.

[Fenris Fenrir]

Fenrir's breath was driven from him the instant the blow connected with his neck and he toppled to the ground; unable to do anything as he tried to focus on breathing, but it seemed that the Demoness that he had put to the side of his mind had more in store for him. Her slap knocked his face to the side so that he couldn't see her and spasms of agony entertained the lycan as her nails drove themselves into his scalp. Were he a human, he would have been screaming in agony and pleading for her to stop, but even if pleading ever crossed the thoughts of Fenris; it was gone the instant that the demoness rammed his head into a tree trunk.

The cartilage in his nose snapped; his lower jaw was dislocated and the sharp bark inflicted numerous, mircoscopic cuts on his face that burst forth with blood all in tandem. Fenrir's head drooped as his mind floundered about; trying to piece together exactly what happened to him, but knowing that something was trying to communicate with him. Or rather at him, for the minute that he regained a sembelence of consciousness, he knew that he was being lectured to. Though he only caught the tail end of the lecture, he knew that this demoness meant business. Those spawn from Hell; thinking that they could force him to obey them?

Yet her reasoning did seem logical to Fenrir, but she didn't know of his first welcome into the Forest. How he was betrayed by words, assaulted and in a sense left to rot by his own family. Perhaps he had been too harsh with the girl, but better she learn it that way than the way Fenrir had learnt it. When he was finally released, Fenris' hands gently clasp both sides of his nose and with a violent crack; the nose was set once more in it's proper place. A similar crack followed in suite, only this time the lycan had reset his jawbone. Yet blood still spewed forth from his newest wounds, Fenrir threw his head back and laughed.

"So this is it?", crooned Fenrir as mad as a loon, ""It's my lot in life to come across the most powerful beings of the Forbidden Forest; only to be mutilated by them? Brilliant; bloody brilliant! Come one and come all; step right up and abuse Fenrir the punching doll! Oh no, no, no, no!" Not this day; not any day was Fenrir going to become what he raved about. But; he still had one thing left on his mind that he desired to accomplish.

Still laughing like a loon, Fenrir's body started to grow as fur emerged and bones popped into place. Now he was serious; he had to exact venegence for what this demoness had done to him. Though it didn't need to be much; just enough to appease the bloodlust within him. The tormented beast let out a mixture of a roar and a howl before throwing his colossal body against the trunk of the same tree that was splattered with his blood. And resounding crack broke the silence of the Forest; all of Fenrir's left ribs had been broken, but the aged tree had also given away to the might of the Lord of the Hunt and creaking in agony and protest, it began to fall toward the Demoness.

But that was the only distraction that Fenrir need.

Even though half his body was in dire pain, he surged forward and sank his fanged canines into the soft flesh of her right leg and pulled backward. Some could have seen this as gruesome, but this was how Fenrir fought those that could not be corrupted by his bite. Yet even as he pulled her further back into the clearing, he saved her from the falling tree similtaniously. The wound that he had inflicted was not deep, and Fenrir let go once the tree settled on the ground.

'An eye for an eye Miss. Now we are even; now we may talk as civilized beings. Who are you to lecture me about how I deal with oath breakers and Tunnel rats? You are not my master and I am not yours, yet you lecture me as if you are. And if you thought that my methods of teaching were cruel, then you cannot fathom how tough a teacher the Forbidden Forest and an angry lycan pack can be. For Fenris Fenrir was but a child when he entered this woods; now he has grown; he is no child. He is untamed and hurt, but not a child.'

[No-Name]

"ME-OW!" Yelled the lttle two tailed cat from the tree above, making a spectecal of herself. She copuldn't hold it in. The Demon lady was so brave and right, even if she had thrown No-name out of the forest once already.

[† Cealla †]

The black lycan pup arched her back, listening as all the vertebrae cracked loudly. Another morning, another stiff back, another day of scrounging around for food. Ah, such was the life of a lycan. The population of the tunnels tended to fluctuate greatly- one moment there could be five or six residing there, and the next she could wake up and be alone. However, she eventually came to the conclusion that it was, in fact, the best place for her to stay. She had her old bed back, her old room, and could usually find something to eat. There was her mother's clothing that she could wear, even if she wasn't quite big enough to really fit in it yet. And most of all, there was the comfort of her own home. Even if she never really connected well with the other lycans who occasionally drifted in and out, she would still remain there.

She shifted into her human form simply out of boredom, wrapping a flannel blanket snugly around her shoulders as she went into the main living area. The fire in the fireplace had died down, of course, and she wasn't sure where Xavier was so that he could start it up again. Sighing, she decided not to mess around with the lighter and wood and put a sweater on instead. Even though her wolf-coat was much warmer this time of year, she wasn't really in the mood to walk around on four paws.

As she was digging through the closet in her bedroom, her blue eyes suddenly fell upon a small scar on her leg. When did that happen, anyway? Upon reaching down to touch the white scar tissue, it all came back to her.

Xavier. Kage. Fenris. Alissa. The time she'd been held captive and the promise she'd made. The forest. Fenris. Fenris. Fenris...

She'd never been back to see Fenris. How long had it been now- three months? More? And she'd promised to come back every month, hadn't she? Growling in frustration, she grabbed a pair of blue jeans and a belt and struggled into them. While they had formed perfectly to her mother's curves, they looked more like old-fashioned bellbottoms on her. Even with the belt they were prone to slipping down, forcing her to constantly yank them up as she moved. She then put on a plain blue sweater, with sleeves that fell down way past her hands. The only thing that she had new were her boots- she'd found them by the lake one day, obviously left there by some student with rather small feet.

Cealla quite literally ran out of the Tunnels and into the snow, almost tripping on a rock along the way. If anything, she'd almost gotten clumsier over the past few months. Always tripping over something or accidently bumping into walls. While she was hoping that maybe she was growing, she wasn't too hopeful. Maybe she'd just stay so small forever. 'Lissa was a little smaller than her, however. Wait... Alissa. Where was she, anyway? Not having her usual sense of scent, she didn't want to change into her wolf form just in order to sniff out her sister. She was probably out somewhere with Sean.

It didn't take her long to find Fenris; she simply returned to the area where he had held them captive and then roamed around there. Her interest was piqued, of course, when she heard her pack mentioned, but then her look instantly darkened. Why did Fenris talk about them in such a way? Maybe he had forgotten where he had come from. Sad, really. If it had been her choice, she might have permitted for him to join with the Tunnels, rather than becoming the killer that she'd heard he was. That choice was not in her hands, and at the time she had wanted nothing to do with him.

"How... interesting." She said, suddenly stepping into the scene with a thoughtful look on her face. "Have you forgotten who you are, Fenris Fenrir? You have begged to call me mother, but then you turn your back on me and insult my home. What should I say to that? I already have not liked the way that you have been conducting yourself; it's most displeasing when I hear about you hurting other people who have done you no harm. While I have no effect on you, I assume, you are still a reflection of me."

It was only just now that she took notice of her sister and the demoness- Mai, wasn't it? She wasn't that familliar with the creatures of the forest, nor did she really want to be. If not for her being a lycan, Mai probably would have taken advantage of her youth and torn her to shreds with hardly a fight. Sighing softly, she made her way over and knelt down beside her sister. She didn't chance to look at the expression on her sister's face, though she did notice what had happened to Mai and Fenris. They'd been scuffling, hadn't they?

"What happened?" She said, leaning over to whisper in her sister's ear. It definitly looked like they had fought, though she had no idea why they would have reason to. It didn't make much sense to her- they both loved terrorizing others, from what she had heard, so why did they fight?

[Maí Lé Rosà]

Justice needed to be served, that was why they fought. A punching doll. Now that Mai had every desire to make come true, had Fenris kept pushing her patience with his smart-alec act. As Mai's fists clenched and unclenched by her sides, she tensed slightly, watching with all her senses sparked to a new height as the lycan morphed into his natural form; the wolf.

Oh, and what a wolf he was. Had Mai not seen the depths of Hell, she would have taken a step backward. This could have favoured her, for although his next movements puzzled her, she eventually saw the toll they took on herself. He threw himself into the same tree she had thrust him into, pressuring it's trunk until the great limb of timber bent and began to fall. The demoness frowned, raising her hands and bracing her knees to the impact that she was about to hold off, before chomp.

She growled loudly, dropping her arms immediately to grab at the wolf's head as he sank his infectious jaws into her lower right leg. She grasped desperately at his furred skull, trying to get a good grip to snap his neck backward, before she realised what he was doing. As insulting as it was, she allowed herself to be pulled through the dirt and out of harms way as the tree came crashing down, perhaps inches from where Alissa had been positioned behind Mai. That had been Fenris' close mistake.

Whipping around, she threatened to wipe the lycan's jaws out of his face with her bare hands, but he had already let her go, and so she placed those gifted palms on her bloodied thigh and healed it. The skin knitted itself together like a thin tapestry, working tendons and veins over the torn muscle here and there until all was as flawless as before, with only the stained red as evidence on her skin.

Mai's attention suddenly snapped her gaze to a tree above both her and Fenris as that hopeless feline voiced it's opinion on the whole situation. Growling again, the demoness kept Fenris' words in her head but first leaped up and snatched the front paws of the cat above, pulling her easily off the branch and into Mai's arms. Smirking like a snake with it's victim in sight - so much so that one could have anticipated a forked tongue slipping through her lips - Mai ran her hand down the feline's back until she reached one of it's tails.

A hard yank crippled the tail motionless and she bent it backward, rupturing skin and splintering bone as she tore the whole thing right off. She tossed it to Fenris, before performing the same action with the other tail and then casting the cat off into the forest again like she had done however long ago. "A tail for you, a tail for me. An eye for an eye indeed, Fenris Fenrir." She said to him slyly.

Her hands wrapped around the cat's tail, and the fur caught on fire, sizzling and dispersing into the air as either smoke or ash until a thin layer of flesh remained. Mai's razor-sharp teeth came down on the little appendage and she ran them along it in one motion, much like a greedy mortal would eat a kebab. Chewing and swallowing, she placed each point of the tail between each palm and brought them together, crumbling the tail bones to pieces as they fell on the ground.

"I do not lecture you Fenris, I warn you." Mai began, ready to answer all of his heated questions. "I neither know, nor care how tough a teacher the Forbidden Forest and an angry lycan pack were to you, for that is no reason to inflict the same troublesome upbringing upon this lycaness. Your reasons for hurting are your own Fenris, deal with them on your own." She hissed the last, narrowing her eyes to him as if to say 'you should know better'.

Before Mai could utter anything further, another lycaness made herself present, and by the scent of her and her actions she was clearly related to Alissa. As a matter of fact, Mai had met this child on another occasion. This lycaness had been the first creature she had seen upon her return. The information the black-haired lycaness revealed was rather interesting, and the demoness took a step aside to lean back against a nearby tree trunk, listening.

The blue-eyed lycaness dished out her own fair share of questions, and Fenris had quite his share to answer for, as far as Mai could see. Mai observed the bond between the two sisters fondly, before crossing her arms and casting a look silently toward Fenris; her own telepathic voice filling his mind alone.

Look at them Fenris. You could have had that. Yet you slowly push it all further and further away. Brave wolf, do not hurt yourself any further. Embrace them. Free them, and let them live with what you have already lost.

[† Alissa †]

Alissa had tried to back away, but her little legs could only carry her so far before the man caught up with her and almost silently she yelped as the stick was placed in her mouth and she almost felt sick as Fenris forced the rabbit in, closing her mouth for her. The feeling of wanting to be sick only faded when she swallowed the offending animal. Never again, she decided. Fenris had somehow managed to put her off meat for life.

It was only when the demoness pulled him away and Cealla came into the clearing 'Lissa changed into her human form, a small girl dressed in a knee-length faded blue t-shirt for a dress patched up with green and pink in some places. Hiding a little behind her sister, her brown eyes widened to the size of proverbial dinner plates, Alissa continued to watch the scene, a feeling of dread making its way through her. Was this only the beginning? Now that Fenris had reminded her, did she have to come back and see him over and over again, be subjected to this repeatedly?

Swallowing nervously, any words 'Lissa may have had before left her completely. Informing Cealla of what had happened seemed impossible. All she seemed able to do was watch.