Tithe

Head ducked against the cold, Tithe still tried to cover as much of the entrance into the fox den as he could. The winds twisted over the fields as if it was trying to find any way it could into the small shelter. He was so focused on trying to maintain his bodily barrier, ears pressed tight against his head to keep warm, he missed her bark and bit back a surprised yelp of his own when she grabbed him and pulled him into the den.

No other thoughts crossed his mind as he unconsciously seemed to curl around her smaller golden body. Slowly he started to come back to himself to realize she had put her own face in his fur and she had taken the first movements toward him. Humbled, and trying to ignore the heat growing within his own soul, he carefully placed his head on her shoulders and back, carefully embracing her. He only shifted and moved when she did so to accommodate her before returning to the blanketing position he had taken.

Tithe moved just enough so he could continue to be next to her, but still look into her dark eyes while they spoke. The question settled in him and he had to think about it for a while. Searching within him to know what exactly had pressed him forward and into the snow. There had been the soul deep drive, the hunger that was not his. There had also been something else. Along with the pulse that coursed through his veins, there had been a thought in his mind. Whatever had first made him look her way. Whatever had made him need to chase her still existed but coupled with his genuine thoughts about her. He had felt her need, and thought to answer it.

I was concerned. He answered, his eyes still locked on her. And then I felt that you were here. Now he broke the gaze, lowering his nose to the ground, trying to find words that would work. She was the only one who rendered him speechless and the only one who seemed to make his guards fall away. Everything in me just told me you were under the snow. Glancing back up at her, he subtle nosed the rabbit closer to her, hoping she would be distracted and eat the whole of it; consuming the life and the heart he had brought for her.

He moved uncertainty, his ears flicking with a conundrum that had been circling in his mind. Hunching his shoulders against his displeasure and trying to keep his steady composure, he looked back over at her. He was a off balance as he had been the first day he met her. I have been meaning to speak to you. You once asked me if I would tell you the secrets of my pack. Share with you where we hunt, what my leader does, and where...she... sleeps. His words were just as cautious as her’s had been. The question he wished to pose caught in his throat. I hope these secrets would come to be your own.