Chapter 4: Quiet, Quiet Dear
Asta's last ounce of rational thinking left her soul when she collapsed into the male and was swept off her feet. She felt her whole body melt, and while her breath caught in her throat, her body felt... calm.
All the tension that had built up in her muscles, threatening to make them lock her bones stiff, evaporated as she was engulfed in the same warm, calming embrace she had felt float over her when Molaki had stepped between her and the pack.
She had never been in shock before, and her final thought before losing consciousness was, strangely rational. Was this what it felt like? Is this what the Idol's last gift to their people was, a feeling of calm before they died?
It was at least an hour later when she stirred, her long eyelashes fluttering against the hair on Molaki's arm's first, giving him goosebumps and stopping in his tracks. He kept his joints loose, trying not to cling to her and make her feel trapped... even though she was. He just didn't want to make her struggle right away.
It took the doe a moment to gain her bearings, at first blinking bleary eyed and breathing in deeply, still calm, until her vision cleared. When she looked up and saw she was being carried by the white wolf, as he predicted, Asta went into a panic, sucking in to scream as the writhed to get out of his grip.
The wolf dropped to the ground, hissing while he took a hand and shoved it onto her face like a glove. He meant to only keep her mouth closed as she screamed into it, but his hand was so big compared to her own size that he covered her whole face from the eyes down. He cursed himself at the fear that was thrown out at him from those large pupils, tears welling up in them again.
"I'm so sorry, you have to be quiet," he whispered.
"Please, don't scream. Don't. I'm the only one who wants you to be safe."
They stared at each other in gridlock, Molaki pointing one ear to the side to detect what Erest was doing. He was a ways ahead, but had stopped moving when Molaki stopped.
"I can't take my hand off until you promise me you won't panic."
Asta gave another whimper that threatened to break his heart in two, but nodded her head. He hesitated, but removed his palm.
"Please don't make me do that again."
He realized too late that it would have been polite to ask her if she wanted to stand on her own two feet, readjusting his grip on her and marching on with the doe in his arms. She was light compared to his abilities to carry heavy loads, and he liked holding her. He wanted to be close.
As Asta regained her bearings, a trickling thought scratched in her mind as well: she felt comfort being held. She felt the same calm, warm feeling rising from her gut that she did before she lost conciousness, and she wasn't in shock anymore. The adrenaline rush was gone, but the fear and resolve of being killed hadn't come back.
The pair walked in silence for another half hour, Molaki subconsciously slowing his pace the closer he got to the city. He wished he was holding this tiny female under different circumstances, his heart beating harder when she absent mindedly fisted the loose shirt he was wearing, to hold on better.
"Why were you out this far?"
He asked, feeling like he was choking back tears. Not many. Just a few, he told himself.
"Foraging," mumbled the girl. It was the first time he heard her voice when she wasn't screaming or crying. It was light and melodic, like a songbird.
He flared his nostrils. That wasn't a good enough reason to be so far into territory the wolves were always in, and it didn't answer why it took them so long to even find her, though he wasn't going to ask.
"Our wheat and oat fields were wiped out in a blight. We have... nothing to eat for the winter. Our land has been mostly eaten bare of anything that could be stored and dried, I was sent to find alternatives."
The wolf nodded, as if he understood, but this wasn't an issue the predators had. Situations could get lean in the cold season, but they had dried meat stores all year round. They even had to a small extent, farmed animals. There was always a stray mouse to eat here and there in the winter if one wanted to hunt fresh meat, and in their human forms they were happy to eat root vegetables in a pinch.
"Well, that will have to wait. I don't know what we're going to do, -" he realized he hadn't asked her name. He peered down at her apologetically, though she was looking listlessly straight ahead.
"Your name?"
"Asta," she answered.
"I'm Molaki."
"I gathered as much."
The wolf wanted to laugh at the only sliver of fire he had seen from his cargo.
They walked for a few more moments, before, to Molaki's surprise, Asta spoke again.
"You smell weird."
He raised an eyebrow, flaring his own nostrils again.
"Like skinned hide and death, right?" He knew the plant eaters were soft about anything that didn't smell living.
"Well, your clothes do, yes," Asta said, seemingly deep in thought. "But you smell like...."
The wolf felt his heart flutter in anticipation while the doe trailed off. She didn't explain.
"You scent of the autumn winds," he blurted out, like the words were escaping his mouth.
".... We're walking in the autumn winds," Asta responded coldly.
Molaki felt like a puppy pleading his case, but too young and stupid to even know what he was talking about.
"Yes, but - but it's like spices, and, and, and... comfort."
He stopped breathing as he waited for her response, preparing for her to mock him, cry, or spit in his face. He knew nothing of the plant eaters' habits, if they had the same way of determining friends, enemies, and bonds.
But after a thought, her head held up slightly the doe sighed, laying her full weight back down into his chest.
"Yes. Same."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone