In Plain Sight [M] [DragonSong]

[Juno]

"Maybe...home-y?" he tried, his smile kind and brimming with amusement for how she was really trying. She seemed a bit better with her words. Did talking with him really change that?

"Do you want to sit?" the shifter offered, pointing at one of the chairs. "Are you...cold at all?" Well that was a little silly to ask when she'd just called it warm. But she had said it wasn't heat warm. He wondered if that meant too cold for her liking.

[DragonSong]

A little cautiously, Brenna took a seat. "Not cold," she assured him with a smile. "Nice in here. I like it." She looked around again curiously. "How long in this den?" she asked, looking back to him. Then she tried to correct herself: "I mean, how long...have you...lived here?"

[Juno]

"Just a few years. Maybe five or six years now. Um...winters? I used to live with family, my parents," he explained, taking a seat beside her. He looked around a bit, a frown setting in for what, to him, still seemed quite messy and unkempt.

"They still live close, so we see each other. Just for visits. They're neighbors, too." He glanced at her curiously, uncertain if he should suggest such a thing but not seeing what harm it could do. "Maybe you could meet them sometime. If you want to see more people."

[DragonSong]

After considering it for a moment, Brenna nodded slowly. "I think I'd..like that," she murmured. Frowning slightly, she drew her knees up toward her chest and rested her chin on them. "Didn't know we had...neighbors. Longclaw may get nervous, want to move the pack again."

Her frown deepened. It wasn't as though she was a stranger to the process, the pack moved its den every year or so, but for some reason this time the thought made her a little upset. She was enjoying this den. She liked the neighbors.

[Juno]

"Well... You don't have to tell him, do you? Could keep it secret. Unless you think he would find out." He furrowed his brow at the thought of the pack moving. He saw no real need to unless the alphas were really so uncomfortable with his kind. "I don't think anything else is secretly living nearby. Just us," he nodded.

[DragonSong]

She frowned a bit, a confused sort of frown. "Not...tell?" she repeated, as though the concept was completely foreign. And it sort of was; there were no secrets in the pack.

Then she shrugged, shaking her head. "Depends. He may not care. Where our land- home-" She struggled for the word for a moment, the gave up with another shrug. "If it's a small place where they...cross over, he probably won't mind."

[Juno]

"I'm the closest," he promised. After all, they technically were on his land. "He'd never see them unless he went looking for them." Maybe that was a good thing.

Christopher sighed, leaning forward with his forearms upon his knees in thought. "Longclaw doesn't like people, does he?"

[DragonSong]

Brenna shrugged, sliding toward the edge of her chair and mimicking his motions. "No, he's just...being alpha is hard. Has to keep the pack safe. Been doing it a long time, he's...wary."

Biting her lip, she glanced away a bit. "Before the pack found me...Snowfur's last litter hunted. Killed by humans when pack was out hunting. Snowfur still has the scars."

[Juno]

The news was a little surprising to him, but he supposed it was no different than the way humans hunted smaller predators for their furs. Killing innocent pups was a tragedy in his eyes, though.

"That's very sad, I'm sorry to hear that." Being childless himself he couldn't understand the loss of young ones, but he did know the bond of family. He and his sisters had been safe from any such danger being what they were. They could protect themselves, speak for themselves, but young wolves could not.

"She seems to care about you a lot," he added, smiling slightly for what he'd seen of the white wolf. "They all do."

[DragonSong]

Brenna smiled softly. "They're my pack," she said simply. "My family." She shrugged. "I love them, they love me. We...look out for each other."

Blushing slightly, she added, "That's why Longclaw...wary around you. Just trying to protect me. He'll warm up though- there's plenty of prey here for us to share land."

[Juno]

Christopher nodded in understanding, righting his posture a bit in the chair. It was an odd concept to him to see animals as family, but if she had truly been with them as long as she'd said he could see why they'd formed such a bond.

"Would he like it better if I stayed away? I could hunt further from the den," he suggested, though he didn't like the idea of suddenly not seeing her so much.

[DragonSong]

"No!"

She snapped her mouth closed, feeling her cheeks grow hot. "I- I mean," she stammered, "I don't think... He won't mind, just needs to get used to the idea." She looked away, brow furrowing slightly. Why had she had such a strong reaction to the idea of him not being around?

She'd only known the shifter for a few days, but it felt like there was so much he could show her, teach her. And if she was being honest, she liked him, spending time with him.

[Juno]

He smiled knowingly for the way she so adamantly protested. At least he had an ally on that front. "All right, I won't worry about it, then. I'm glad, though. I...don't really see too many people. It's good to know someone else it out there." It sounded off to him, though, and he frowned and found himself wishing he could take the words back.

He didn't like that she was out there but he did like having someone nearer than the human places that he could talk to aside from family.

[DragonSong]

She nodded, cheeks still feeling a little warm, but smiled. "Me too," she told him quietly. "I...like knowing someone is..out there."

Suddenly feeling a little awkward, she stood and looked around his den- house. He'd told her briefly what most of the things in it were used for, but she was still curious. "What's this?" she asked, tilting her head to look at him as she knelt next to what looked to her like a large, shiny, hollowed out rock.

She tapped it and found that it made a soft clanging sound, and was cold to the touch. She frowned, studying it closer. She vaguely remembered something like this in her before-pack-home... But in her memory it was much bigger- she didn't realize that was because she had been smaller- and usually filled with water.

[Juno]

Watching as she explored his space the shifter was quickly on his feet at her question. Padding over to her he crouched down to see what exactly she was looking at. "Ah, that's just a pot," he explained, chuckling softly.

"I cook with it. Soup and stew, mostly. Just when I'm tired of raw meat. Or I heat water for a bath, though that can take a while," he added distractedly, glancing up at the larger vessel. He pointed at the unlit hearth. "There with fire. Do you remember if you ever had anything like that? They're quite good."

[DragonSong]

"Fire," she repeated, nodding after a moment. "I remember fire." Then she frowned. "Bath?" Her nose wrinkled. The word summoned an image of Snowfur and Bright-Eye licking the pups clean, and she couldn't quite reconcile it with Christopher's explanation.

[Juno]

"Mhm. With water?" Was it really such an offensive idea? He supposed he could see how an indoor bath was a bit of an oddity to someone who lived in an actual wolf den. "It's like...a river or lake. Just smaller," he tried to explain, uncertain what she might have been familiar with in the ways of water.

[DragonSong]

"I think," she said slowly, "I remember something like that." Then she shook her head, shivering. "Why would you want to do that? Isn't it cold?" She didn't love Snowfur's baths, but at least her tongue was warm. On the rare opportunity they came across a stream when it was relatively warm she'd played in the water, but it was still pretty frigid.

Why would someone bother with that in their own house?

[Juno]

"Well that's what the fire is for," he explained gently. "You can make it warm enough to be pleasant. It's actually quite relaxing." Christopher thought he should offer to let her try it sometime but didn't want to think of the logistics of it if she'd never tried it before.

"Do you see anything you recognize?" he wondered, curious what she might have had before or found familiar.

[DragonSong]

Brenna looked around again, frowning in thought. "I think...this," she said, gesturing to the hearth. "I remember sitting in front of this, and there's fire, and someone was...singing..." she trailed off, then shook her head.

"Oh, and this!" She crossed to the bed, kneeling to examine it closer. "This is where you sleep, yes?"