In the Eyes of the Wolf

Chapter 18

Caspian gasped as he heard the name, then quickly covered his mouth. I shot a curious glance in his direction. He shook his head at me and sighed.

"Farley, why don't you give Pax a small tour?" Clementine asked and put a hand on my arm. Her grip was firm, telling me that I had no room to argue.

"Alright," I said slowly. "Come on Pax, let's let the adults talk about their adult things."

Pax snorted at my words. "Alright, let's see how good your description skills are." I could tell from his tone that he knew the others were going to start talking as soon as we left the room.

I was faced with a new challenge, navigating the house with someone who can't see, or rather, explaining a house to someone who can't see. I hadn't actually tried doing this before. Even explaining the forest would be difficult, and there wasn't nearly as much to talk about.

The kitchen was fairly easy, introducing Pax to the various houseplants that we have on the windowsill. There wasn't much to talk about. I pointed to each cupboard, knocking on it to show some sense of direction, and described what was in each.

I didn't bother showing him the back garden, which was too small to even bother with. So, we went upstairs. I showed him Caspian's room, to which I received a lot of shock. "There's not an office?" Pax had asked me, "Where do you guys have your serious meetings and stuff?" He was very surprised when I showed him the desk, where we had all our meetings. "It's in his bedroom? You're actually allowed inside his bedroom?"

His reaction to a lot of things caused me to burst out in fits of laughter. He was surprised that Clementine and Caspian didn't share a room, and if the two were listening in, I'm sure that they would've had quite the shock. Showing him the bathroom was quick, but he seemed much more relaxed afterward. He had pointed out that he could still smell the floral fragrances of the various products which were kept there. I couldn't quite smell it, perhaps I had gotten used to it over the years.

There wasn't a lot to show him in the girl's room, just describing the colour of the wallpaper and the cleanliness of the room. Pax liked the texture of the carpet, bending down to touch it with his hand. The smile which crawled onto his face was absolutely adorable. I found it strange how he could react like that to something as simple as a carpet.

Then we got to Rowan and I's room. I hesitated with my hand around the door handle. There wasn't anything I had to hide in here, but what if Rowan hadn't cleaned up after himself? What if I'd left something out of place? I sighed and opened the door as soon as I found the tiniest bit of courage.

"This is Rowan and I's room," I announced. I awkwardly shuffled into the room. He kept his arms behind his back, I didn't know why, but he had kept his arms in that position for the majority of the tour. "The bed and things on the right are mine. The walls are a pale blue, I don't really know what else to say."

Pax took careful steps around the room. His legs would brush against the beds and the chest of drawers. He was quiet until his foot knocked the football which I had kept on the floor.

I jumped in front of him and picked it up. "Sorry about that, it's just a ball." I threw it up in the air and caught it once, the sound of the ball rang in my ears and filled me with nostalgia of using it as a basketball, which I wouldn't recommend.

He shook his head and then held his hands out. I passed him the ball and watched him pass it back and forth in his hands. "Been a while since I've even tried to kick a ball," he mused. "I mean, I've played with Alder a few times, back when he had a ball. Think it burst...mysteriously." He chuckled at the end.

"I'm surprised this one's intact, to be perfectly honest." I moved to sit on my bed. I didn't want to tell him that he could join me, that could make it awkward. Him standing in the middle of the room, also made me feel awkward. I patted the spot next to me. "You can sit here, you know?" My voice wasn't even, and it was quiet.