Random of Random

Estranged {excerpt}

The winter wind was numbing against Raelynn’s naked flesh as she sat there, just outside the cave, staring out at the snow. The sun was bright and it sparkled off the snow in rainbow glimmers. The snow was clean and white, perfectly fresh without even the marring of bird scratches.

The sound of claws on stone made Raelynn look back into the cave and see her brother walking towards her. Mornin’, he said to her through their mind link as he laid down beside her, putting his head on her feet. She nodded to him in return and continued to stare out at the land scape.

Grant and Raelynn were seven months apart, both four-years-old for the time being, but Raelynn’s mind wandered over the similarities and differences between herself and her family. Grant and their dad were so alike, and yet Raelynn was different. She was a human amongst wolves. Grant let out a wine, knowing the look on his sister’s face and not liking it, yet not wanting to speak in her mind and snap the rails her train of though was traveling.

She looked down at Grant, stared into the blue of his eyes. You’re both the same. And I’m not.  Grant could only imagine how his younger sister felt. You both have tails and fur and paws and wolf bodies. I don’t.  Raelynn looked down at her own human form and frowned. She didn’t like her toes or her fingers; she didn’t like that she was always cold in the winter and had to stay inside the cave with her dad for warmth because she didn’t have the coat of fur the rest of them did. She didn’t like how scrawny and easily wounded she was, nor how slow she was compared to her sibling.

I hate it. A tear rolled down Raelynn’s cheek. She hated that she was different from her family. Her father told her that her mother was like she was, human, but she couldn’t be around because she was doing grown-up stuff somewhere else. Somewhere along in her thinking, Grant had fallen back asleep, his warm breath puffing against her shins in an even pattern and his head keeping her toes warm. But she didn’t want to be warm. She wanted to be cold and she wanted to play in the snow.

Slowly, she slid her foot from under his head and slowly left the cave, sneakily climbing the side of the cave until she was standing onto of the cave and looking out. Her feet were freezing in the snow, her toes and fingers red and swollen from the cold climb. Her skin was pink and she was shivering, but she was out! She was in the snow and her dad wasn’t right there behind her breathing on her or pressed against her to keep her warm!

Raelynn! Get back in here, now, please. The command was from her father, still inside the cave. The little girl’s happy mood fell as she did as told, going the long way around she she wouldn’t slip and land on something harder than snow and hurt herself. When she entered the cave again, Grant was awake and sitting next to their father’s huge dark form. She didn’t look at her father, just went to a corner of the cave that was away from the wind and small enough that her won body heat would circulate in that small confined space and warm her up.

Her dad sighed and went to stand above her. She didn’t look up at him. You’re mother is going to come and get you, Rae. He said and the younger of his children finally looked up at him. She’s going to come take you so you can live with her for a while. Grant and I will come see you when we can.

After just telling herself how much she hated being here with them, she was happy to get away and she was happy to finally meet the woman who had birthed her. Her father gave Raelynn specific instructions to stay in the cave while he and grant went to find food. Her mother would come to get her before the boys got back. Once the boys had left, come she did.

Katrina Creese was a tall woman and she wore clothes over her skin to keep her warm. She didn’t look much like her daughter, and since Raelynn had yet to grow into her self, they looked even less alike. But as Katrina looked down at her daughter, all she felt was love tinged with guilt. “Raelynn? Baby it’s mom.”

Hi mom.  Katrina looked shocked at the voice in her head. It had been a year since she had any voice in her head besides her own. But she shook it off and convinced her daughter to get dressed in the clothes she brought. Raelynn felt strange covered in the soft fabric, but it was warm and she liked it. 

“Rae, we’re going to go no okay. It’ll be a long time until you see Daddy and Grant, but you’ll have me so you won’t be alone.” Katrina picked her daughter up and rested her on her hip. After adjusting the hood of the coat, the young mother set out to take her daughter home. 

It was a long time indeed until Raelynn saw her brother or father. And even then she didn’t recognize them. At seventeen, Raelynn had few memories of her brother and fewer of her father. What she remembered of them was a dark and rusty looking wolf who was always tailed by a younger, smaller, and browner version of himself.

She didn’t expect the two guys that showed up after St. Patric’s Day to be her brother and father. The former had an ovular face and bright blue eyes. His chin was dusted in stubble and his short-ish dirty blonde hair was styled with gel to be out of his face. He was tall, just barely shorter than the man next to him, yet taller than herself by three or four inches and he was muscular. Had Katrina not given her daughter the heads up that her father and brother were to appear today, she might have ogled the boy further, but she knew Grant was her brother, so now that was awkward.

Jonah Creese was not the man she had imagined to be behind the rustic wolf. He was tall, the tallest of the three that stood there awkwardly in the doorway and he would be taller than her mother when she arrived home from work. His hair was brown and it tumbled down his neck, long and wavy but it worked. The stubble on his face made him look older, fatherly in a way. After growing up with her mother and then now looking her father, Raelynn could tell where each feature of her face came from.

Jonah smiled at his daughter. “Hey there, Raelynn. I’m Jonah, you’re dad. Did Katrina tell you we were going to be coming by?” His tone was babying and gentle, like he was talking to her as if she were still four. 

“yeah, mom told me. She’s out right now, but you can come in and make yourself comfortable. I’m in the middle of some homework, so you’ll have to excuse me.” Raelynn left the door open for the two men to enter at their leisure and went back inside to the kitchen where she was doing her homework. An advanced algebra text book lay open on the counter next to a notebook and calculator. Before she went back to the math though, Raelynn checked the pasta and decided it could boil for another three to five minutes. 

She got through two problems and strained the pasta before the hard staring got to her and she looked over her shoulder. “Do you guys want some mac n cheese?” Raelynn asked as she put the pasta back in the pot . She combined the Velveeta cheese from the packet with a little water, mix the pasta with the cheese, and then served three bowls of the stuff. 

“Thanks.” It was the first thing Grant had said to her and she was shocked by his voice. Looking at him, she expected his voice to be an octave higher, but his voice was deep she stared at him in wonder for a moment before she blinked, smiled, and replayed with a friendly ‘your welcome’.

Again silence settled and the only sound was Raelynn typing on the calculator and scratching on the paper and the sound of the silverware on the glass bowls. She was more than happy to have finished the assignment so she could actually engage with her guests. She didn’t know much about them nor they her, but they were family, apparently, so they needed to bond. 

Raelynn smiled. “Have either of you ever played guitar hero?”