singillatim | built my house out of sails and wood.

He truly, truly, hates this. It might be obvious from his behaviour — there Edward is, now a large and particularly fluffy black wolf, ears pressed down, tail between his legs, body tense and hunched down as he moves through the woods. Occasionally, he whines low in his throat, a mournful, pathetic sound.

But he knows he deserves this punishment, this... beasthood, and so he lets it have control of him, taking little excursions like this several times a week now, so as to allow the beast inside of him to breathe fresh air.

And oh, it wants to — every sense is enhanced, smell and sight and hearing, but he's afraid to give in too much to such things. He tries to keep himself away from anything particularly tantalising, like the faint scent of some small animal not too far away (his stomach aches, he's hungry, he ignores it....)

No. No, he'll just... linger there in the woods, restless and nervous. He doesn't expect to come across anyone else.

Edited 2024-08-03 17:45 (UTC)

The wolf that barrels past him is his opposite in many ways: light grey in colour, lean and fast and comfortable in this body. She's got a little bit of blood in the fur around her muzzle, and is wearing a little red nylon backpack, altered to clip around her chest.

Fully fuelled from her snack earlier, Chloe had just been running to enjoy the moonlight, but stops abruptly at the sight of another wolf, especially one who looks so troubled.

She sits and tilts her head, staring at him with grey eyes. Who are you?

There's a startle as another animal comes rushing past — quick and unexpected, and he's still adjusting to the sensitivity of his new nose and ears and eyes. Maybe some part of him sensed her coming, but it was overwhelmed by the way he senses everything else.

But he's immediately stunned in the face of her — smelling that little bit of blood before he sees it, which scares him, but... she's also wearing a pack?? Is she a domesticated animal...

Edward's submissive, shrinking back and putting his head down to her, ears lowering again. He doesn't understand that this is a fellow person, even if, on some level, he grasps that something's... different to all of this. He thinks she's just a wolf, and he's intimidated by the fact he can understand what she says to him, in some way. Like dreaming the same dream.

I'm a human. The sentiment comes, not true language, but something deeper. Not supposed to be here.

It's Chloe’s turn to startle a little. This one is like her, but so tense and afraid.

She walks slowly toward him, head lowered - mean no harm - then presses her nose against his side, searching. Scared. Hurt?

Somehow, he continues to be able to understand her, like flashes of feeling in his head forming words. mean no harm — it's so strange to hear such a sentiment coming from a wolf, but it helps ease some of his surface fear, even if the big black wolf continues to look nervous when she noses him in the side, tensing, his breathing warm and strained.

Scared, he thinks, or says, or feels — and with it, more feelings. His wolf instinct can't hold things back — scared, lost, hungry.

He's so hungry.

Scared and hungry… it makes Chloe ache a bit in a place that in this body she can't name. That's how everyone had felt during The Bad Thing, and she doesn't want that again.

But during The Bad Thing there were no rabbits, and there are rabbits now! She can help him.

Chloe runs two delighted circles around the other wolf. Hungry? Hunt! I can show you.

He startles slightly again when the other wolf starts darting around him like that, but if he leans into his own instincts and spirit a little more, he can recognise this as excitement, and maybe his tail perks just a bit, no longer hiding between his legs.

She can show him? Does he want her to show him? (Yes, yes he does, he's so hungry, he wants help — the thought is a complete contrast to what Edward's human mind desires, which is never to use his teeth or claws to kill anything, but ultimately — it's his wolf's stomach that wins out, and the hunger housed within it.)

His head turns to her, and he nods it downwards, still submissive, but receptive to what she offers — hunt, eat, show

Chloe is so excited - both by the chance to hunt and the chance to help - that she flops over to wriggle around on her back for a second, but very quickly she's back on her feet and off like a shot.

See the prints, smell how long ago they were here.

The other wolf's excitement is open and free, all flops and wiggles and lolling tongue. Edward's still a bit shy in the face of it all, unsure, but then she's moving, quick and assured, and he finds himself following, listening.

His nose pushes to the prints in the snow, puffing out air against it and breathing in a scent. It makes something in him shift, alert and aware. His ears twitch, lifting, no longer flattened back, and he lifts his head to look in the direction he thinks they're leading.

that way?

It's questioning, very willingly relinquishing leadership to her — you're the alpha here, Chloe.

The other wolf starts to look a little more confident, inhabiting his body a little more fully. He points in the right direction and Chloe hops happily from foot to foot.

Yes! Run, hunt!

Chloe presses her shoulder to his, willing to run right alongside to show the way.

Her encouragement sparks something deep down in his spirit — a yearning to relinquish human control and all the filters that come with it, with withholding himself. The wolf in him doesn't know what it means to repress, to swallow down. It wants to run and play and take in the world with all of its senses.

He starts moving faster, a trot to begin with, but it's too slow, he wants to go faster, and before he knows it he's running, long legs moving swiftly through the trees with the other wolf beside him. The forest almost seems to accommodate every move he makes, as though his senses know exactly where to step, where to shift, so that he doesn't hit trees or other obstacles. It's so freeing.

Chloe would laugh, if she were in her human body. She loves running: the wind in her fur, the promise of a hunt…

Still running in the direction the tracks lead to, Chloe throws back her head and releases a joyful howl. They're running!

The other wolf's howl seems to unlock something inside of him — a need to answer, to join in. He's lifting his head to howl seconds after hers, creating a brief chorus through the stillness of the wood. It makes him excited, mouth stretching back into a wider grin as he runs faster, harder, letting his nose guide him towards the scent of the tracks.

And he realises that he can smell more of them now, the source of them — meat, fresh meat, something alive and thriving. It's getting closer!

They're getting closer. He found it! Chloe grins back. Then, without slowing down, she mimes scooping something up with her mouth, then shakes her head sharply to one side, demonstrating her rabbit hunting technique.

Do you want to try?

built my house out of sails and wood.

— Chloe Frazer.

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