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Lenora listened to his words, her muzzle still resting on the back of his neck.
“Your warning is made in good faith, but I would not hold you to blame for any harm that might come to me for choosing to stay with you. How could I? It was my choice to make, and it is for me to face the consequences of that choice, be they good or ill. So you need not burden yourself with guild if such a thing happens.” Little one, he had called her. Perhaps he was trying to be harsh, and the thought made her own fierce independence rise up. She had survived many years alone, and was well capable of taking care of herself. And yet she knew that he wished her to leave for her own good, and even though the words may have been intended harshly, they did not come out that way.
There is hope for him yet, I believe. She had to believe it.
<br><br>
His next words, however took her completely by surprise. In her experience, Tobias was not one to give up secrets easily. And yet here he had agreed to do so, with hardly any urging. Her heart beat quicker, but somehow his words filled her with foreboding.
Our sworn enemy...how can -our- sworn enemy lurk within him. Surely he cannot mean some kind of demon, for if that was so, he would have said that -my- sworn enemy lurks within him. What does he mean...? Her thoughts were broken off by a change that began to overtake him. A smell that she knew well, and hated, began to permeate the air. Tobias' scent was still there, but it was steadily getting weaker. Or perhaps, just changing. Her eyes became round green pools of shock as they widened. Her nostrils flared, and her lips pulled back involuntarily, baring her teeth for a second.
No! No! This cannot be! Her mind raced, trying to come up with an explanation, some reason that this could be happening. She knew now, what he meant, by 'our sworn enemy.' Men. The sworn enemy of all wolf-kind. The killers of her mate.
<br><br>
A low growl slipped from her throat, but she cut it off, quelling the unconscious reaction to the stench of human that now hung strongly in the air. One thing, and one thing only, kept her from throwing herself at the throat of the human monster who had replaced Tobias. The tiny hint of his scent that still hung about the human. So weak, almost impossible to find, amidst the human stench. It was all that held her hatred of humanity back. All that saved her razor fangs from seeking his flesh. She could still see the scar on his shoulder, but it hardly registered upon her mind, the stench of man was too strong.
<br><br>
She tried to speak, to ask him what, how, this had happened. But the words wouldn't come. She felt...almost betrayed. Her mind told her that this was still Tobias, but her heart remembered only the death of her mate at the hands of humans. Humans like this one that now stood before her. And yet she was unable to attack him, because of the memory of what he had once been. She raised her black-masked face to she sky and loosed a long, shuddering howl, then turned and fled, her paws carrying her swiftly towards the forest, she vanished into the night. She didn't care if he followed her. She made no attempt to confuse her trail. She just needed to be alone for a few minutes. To gather herself and bring the powerful emotions his transformation had elicited under control.
<br><br>
She wondered if he even would try and follow her. He had made so many attempts to dissuade her from doing so, perhaps he would be glad that he had finally rid himself of her company. A part of her hoped that he would not follow her, that part, governed by her survival instinct, no longer trusted Tobias. (If indeed it had ever truly trusted him.) But mostly she hoped he would, hoped that he would follow her and offer some explanation for the act almost of betrayal that he had committed. So she laid beside the trunk of a huge oak tree, waiting. Waiting to see what he would do. Emotion still ran strong in her, though reason was beginning to reassert itself.
<br><br>
In a way, he had not broken trust with her. He had revealed to her one of his greatest secrets. In a way, her flight had been a betrayal on -her- part. The thought stung her. Stung her to the core.
He has been betrayed too many times. And now I have done it again. I who professed to trust him, to believe there was good in him. I fled at the first sign of hardship. What kind of friend have I been? And yet I say to myself that I love him. And she still did love him. The wolf, Tobias, anyway. She could never love the man, Tobias. At least not for himself. But perhaps she could learn to endure him for the sake of the wolf. Perhaps.
<br><br>
Sighing, Lenora rose to her feet. Her nose sought and found the strong scent of human, and her own scent on the path she had taken in her flight. Slowly, she retraced her steps. Hoping that her betrayal had not hurt him, yet fearing that it had. And still she struggled within herself. Part of her wanting to stay with him, part of her wanting to flee far, far away. Tobias had always said that some secrets were better left untold. Lenora believed him now. Believed that statement with all her heart. But she could not betray his trust in her. Could not bear the guilt of that betrayal, so she made her way back to him. Slowly, but surely. She recalled a proverb she had once heard.
Aithnitear cara i gcruatan. A friend is known in hardship. How true that was.
<br><br>
~Lenora
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