“Well, don’t go kissing on each other now,” I heard Mylicous say.
Derium and I turned to him, Yura was by his side. He had ahold of someone, I can’t say a local, there wasn’t any one around to be considered a local. He looked ratty, unbathed, hair unkempt, beard loaded with debris. Mylicous didn’t even have a chance to let him go before Derium got ahold him. His suckling noises were horrible to listen to, but luckily it didn’t last long. He rolled over on his back and I watched as some color came back to him, his film over eyes cleared up a little and the wound on his neck began to close.
“I’m going to need a few more, but I have the strength to feed on my own,” Derium said and got up off the ground. He frowned and looked down at his clothes, “I look horrible, maybe I will find some clothes as well while I’m out, bathe even.”
“Will you come back?” Mylicous asked.
“Yes, I like it here, these mountains are vast and full of caves, I was making a place to live out of them before….” He trailed off, “before things went bad. I will be back before sunrise, anew and ready to rest for the day.”
He was gone before I could say anything to him. The remaining three of us, looked at each other and shrugged. I wasn’t hungry, but I was craving the taste of food, my mouth was bored. I used the torch to make a fire, Yura found some long sticks and fashioned them into long spikes. Mylicous disappeared briefly and returned with some odd-looking rabbits.
They looked like a mix between a rat and rabbit. Their snouts were longer, like a rat as so were their bodies, but they were round as well, their tails were brownish-white. They had more of a claw-like hand instead of a paw. They smelled a little weird too, my excitement or food went away.
“I found these smelly little things,” he said and tossed them down. They taste better than they smell,” he said and it was then I noticed some fur in his beard.
“Did you eat one without changing?” I asked.
“I took a bite out of one, never seen one, I was curious,” he said and picked the fur out of his beard and flicked it from his fingertips.
I simply rolled my eyes and stared off. I started to wonder what Derium was up to. I hadn’t heard any screams off in the distance. I glanced out of the corner of my eye and watched as Mylicous and Yura took the fur off the rabbits. Yura used a fingernail that she grew out to field dress her rabbit. She was quicker about it than Mylicous. She then, rammed the pointed end of the stick through the rabbit and held it over the fire.
I was confused to say the least, how sometimes they eat the meat raw and sometimes they would cook it, it didn’t make much sense to me, but it wasn’t me and I shouldn’t have cared about it so much. They ate away though, as I went back to thinking about Derium and I realized I could sense him again. Mylicous must have seen the look on my face.
“You can feel him again, can’t you?” he tore into a piece of the rabbit.
“I can, I haven’t felt him in so long, it’s almost bothersome,” I said arching an eyebrow.
“I think I feel a little more complete,” he said and smirked.
“I think you’re a little messed up to be honest,” I chuckled and Yura joined in.
“I agree with him, Mylicous,” she said as she also, tore into the cooked rabbit.
I looked back up that the sky, the fog had all but disappeared, just a lingering coolness, but I believe it was getting to be around fall time. I wasn’t looking, towards the winter coming along. Even though it took longer for me to get cold, I didn’t like winter. I was almost saddened at the thought of winter coming up.
Yura scooted closer to me and put her head on my shoulder, “Are you coming back with us?”
The question threw me off guard, I hadn’t thought about it for a while. The thought of staying in a permanent winter wasn’t something I fancied, but on the bright side, I would be staying with Yura and I could always try to convince her to move to a warmer climate.
“I don’t know yet Yura,” I said as the her eyes instantly swelled up with tears, “I want to, but we need to talk about living somewhere that’s not so cold.”
She wiped the tears from her eyes and Mylicous was giving me strange glare, so I addressed it, “What seems to be problem brother?”
“I was hoping you would come back, you are part of the pack.”
“I know this, are you going to make Derium part of the pack and take away his free will? Or does he get a pass?” my question was harsh, but to the point.
He, somewhat, angrily took a bite out of the rabbit, what was left of it anyways, “I didn’t take away your free will, you can leave whenever you wish. I was, as well as Yura was, hoping you’d come back and stay a little.”
I felt instant regret for my harshness, I could feel Yura’s heart racing with anticipation of an answer, which made me feel even worse, “I will stay a little while longer.”
“I would like to visit your place,” Derium said, startling us, appearing out of nowhere.
“Anytime brother, need I warn you that the people in my pack are not meals?”
“You won’t have
