Butterflies in Winter

::Chapter 6:: Change

A weight settled in Kit's chest at what had been said, it all but sealed the fate of his friends if this was the truth. These strangers, whoever they were, whatever they were had come to this place to kill them. For whatever reason, they believed Kit and his friends to be something dangerous, and they wanted them dead.

Something which they were currently succeeding at, unless Kit and Max were able to put an end to it. Which in itself would appear to be impossible. These strangers were armed, and from what they had seen willing to do anything.

Yet almost nothing was going to make him give up the hunt, little less then death was going to stop him from working until his dying day to try and save them.

Max turned to look at the young woman, his eyes narrowed half a shade but he wasn't aggressive. He was scarily calm, in spite of the magnitude of the words which came from his mouth.

"Who are you, who are you with, and what the hell do you want with us?" It was three simple questions, but ones on which their world could easily flip on it's head. Max put it more eloquently then Kit would have been able to, but the young wolf was struggling to keep his head straight. His mind beginning to whirl with the hundreds of questions which ran through his head.

For a moment, Kit wasn't sure that she was going to reply. She was running her fingers through her hair, she looked distressed. It seemed that Kit and Max weren't the only ones shocked by news today.

"My name's Romany," the stranger said in a choking tone. Looking down at her feet, part of him wanted to pity her, "The other question, however, wont be as easy to answer."

"Try us," Max said with a grumble, he shifted from foot to foot. Restless, even in human form. "You'd be surprised with how well we've become accustomed to getting strange news," no truer words were ever spoken from the young man's mouth. The pair exchanged a glance, but Kit didn't say anything further.

"I'm Max, the man behind me is Kit," he explained. Gesturing towards Kit with a bored hand, the young man continued to fidget from side to side. Max was clearly not wanting to stay in one place, he was restless, and Kit couldn't find it in himself to blame him.

"Nice to meet you?" a phrase as simple as that had never sounded more dishonest, her eyes were darkening with pain and fear. Their future for now was very uncertain, something which Max and Kit had been used to for a decade. However, the knowledge was taking it's toll on the newcomer.

Kit hadn't spoken until this point. Now he grimaced, looking the younger woman in the eye with a sigh. "Yeah, there's been nicer circumstances, I'll give you that." He wouldn't have called his tone reassuring, but the slight grin on the stranger's face told him that his effort had been at least somewhat appreciated.

His eyes drew across the still body of the beast, he nudged it with the side of his boot, proving to himself one last time that it was in fact dead. Then looking up, he said softly. "We're going to have to get going, and you're coming with us."

It wasn't a threat, and his words didn't carry any of the earlier anger of fear. However, it was clear that the woman didn't have a choice. They needed her in order to save their friends, though after all they had been through. Kit didn't think she'd be particularly excited to leave them.

Romany didn't react for a heartbeat, she seemed to think things through. Kit watched her in silence, trying to read her face but finding it neutral. He paused, about to say something further when she spoke.

"What is your plan exactly?" She asked, an eyebrow raised.

"There isn't one," Kit's words were completely honest. He made no attempts at sugar coat it, they'd hardly had the time to formulate a plan. They had acted first and didn't think to stop about what they should be doing. It was the way of the animal. "We had friends to save, we didn't pause to contemplate the consequences."

His tone was more sarcastic then he intended it, but he didn't stop to apologise, and the younger woman didn't flinch. She understood the power of the two men before her, and yet she didn't seem as scared as Kit probably would have been in her place. His admiration for her was beginning to grow more and more.

"Of course you don't," she sounded more like a teacher scolding a student then anything else, she drew her eyes across the two men in front of her.

The metallic smell of blood was beginning to overwhelm Kit's senses, to the point where it felt he was breathing in a puddle of it. He let out a low breath, trying to come to his common sense and think straight. A struggle considering how sleep deprived and hurt the shape shifter was, he was only just beginning to realise the extent of his and his friend's injuries.

As much as his instincts told him to keep running, as far as he could until he either collapsed or found his friends. He knew that it would be of no good to either friend for them to do so, and he sat up and said with a sigh. "We need to get some rest, we shall return 'home,' and return to our search in the morning."

For a moment, the woman paused, uncertain. Kit watched her, guessing what her next question would be, but choosing to wait for it to leave her lips before answering. "Am I... am I to follow you?"

Kit didn't need to see his reflection to know that his eyes had darkened a shade. "We wouldn't leave you out here on your own, not after everything that's happened." Kit spoke solemnly, truthfully.

The woman looked uncertain, it seemed a part of her still wanted to not go with the pair. She saw the animals as a threat, as well as a source of safety. The two conflicting emotions were clearly battling inside her head. Kit watched, silent.

Max was the one who spoke first, not giving the wolf a chance to open his jaws. "We're leaving, we can do this the hard way or the easy way. You come with us by choice, or we carry you." The eagle explained as though it were perfectly simple.

"Because of you, and the people you came with. Our friends, our family is lost, and we're going to do whatever we can to get them back." Kit explained, in an attempt to sound less threatening but he didn't say a lie.

Romany looked as though she was going to speak again, when a roar echoed across the woods a second time. It didn't sound as close as it did the first, but it was enough to make the young woman flinch.

It was that which made her decision for her, apparently making Max and Kit the lesser of two evils. "I'll come."