Little Red's Riding

Skye

Soren was laying on his back on the bed, tossing an apple up into the air over and over again while Silas paced the short length of their room, his eyes returning to the window again and again.

"Maybe you should go for a walk. Get to know the layout of the city better." Soren could barely keep the irritation out of his voice.

"How long does it usually take before she sends you back a message?" Silas stopped at the end of the bed, waiting impatiently for his answer.

"Or you could go downstairs and have something to eat since you didn't even order lunch when the rest of us did. Or you could shower again so you don't reek of what you did in that dressing room with my sister while I was out there getting punched in teeth by your Beta." Silas rolled his eyes and went back to pacing. When he hadn't left after another five minutes Soren finished his apple and sat up before tossing it into a nearby trash bin with a sigh.

"In the past she usually responded pretty quickly. But I'd imagine, after what we all saw today, that she's pretty busy, babysitting our little, mostly human, Luna. Who knows? Depending on how protective whoever it is who put those soldiers on her is feeling, he might not be letting much in the way of communications in or out of that room."

Silas stalked back over to the window, bracing his arms against the upper pane as he stared down at the traffic moving slowly in the street below. It was less than two days now before something had to happen. But even with the limited time that they had left, everything was moving too slowly. He needed to do something. He couldn't just sit and wait. Pushing back from the window he walked to the door.

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Skye sat with one foot bent beneath her, and twisted her hands under the table. Her injuries had all been carefully bandaged, and the little witch that had shown up and somehow managed not to be slaughtered when she'd first been spotted by the guards on the edges of the wolf territory, had helped as much as she could with her healing. It seemed to Skye that she healed far more slowly here, on this side of the hill, than she ever had back home. Then again, she'd never been hurt this badly back at home.

She and Sage, that was the red-headed witch with the lovely violet eyes that had sought refuge in the wolf pack and who by some miracle had been allowed to stay, at least until the Alpha returned and decided what needed to be done with her, had quickly become best friends. Sage was required to have two guards who watched her night and day, to make sure she didn't betray the pack. After several long nights that the two young women had spent talking, while one of Sage's guards sat nearbyl in the corner glowering at the witch while she worked her magic with herbs she'd gathered from field and forest, Skye wasn't really sure that Sage had had a real friend before.

Skye was also pretty certain that the young witch had come to the village because she was in danger from her sisters who, Skye gathered, Sage had betrayed. Sage must have told all of this to the older healer that everyone called Auntie Grey when she first arrived in the village, flanked by the guards who had stumbled across her.

The young witch and the older healer had gone into a room and the frightened looking witch had emerged with a promise that she could stay. For a time. A few moments later she was in Skye's room and Auntie Grey was putting her healing hands to good use. And by the end of the evening she and the little Faye were talking as if they'd known each other for years.

It had been such a relief to Skye to feel like she had a sister again, even if it likely wouldn't last. The expectation was that she would go back. She couldn't leave her father. She was the only person that he had left, other than his parents, and they wouldn't live forever. And before too many years past he would need someone to take care of him. Hell, half the time he did already. He thought he could take of himself, but she knew he'd forget his head if it wasn't attached to him.