R everything's fucked and we don't even know

[Odette]

She'd been separated from the hunting party for...

How long had it been? With the heavy fog and snow that had settled over the region, it had been difficult to track sunrises and sunsets. She knew that now it was darker than it had been earlier, but were the clouds just more dense overhead?

Odette shook a particularly large flake of snow from her nose as her stomach grumbled. She was cold. Entirely too cold and entirely too hungry. At this point, with no frame of reference for anything outside of her Kingdom, she was decidedly lost. Like, 'no way in hell am I getting back' lost, possibly verging on 'oh my god I'm going to die out here' lost.

She was probably closer to the latter than she wanted to admit. For the time being, though, it seemed she was in luck: shelter from the snow and cold, just ahead. A dark shadow for a cave's maw served as a creepy beacon, a swath of black amidst the white-out.

She pushed inside and shook her fur out as her eyes adjusted to the gloom.

[Vargulf]

Soft, wistful whines erupted from Vargulf’s chest as his eyes squeezed shut against the wind. Behind him, his tail curled feebly against his ankles, hanging tightly between his legs. The cold erupted like fire against his skin as he moved. Each step as painful as the last. The snow beneath his toes sung quietly with each biting reminder. He could imagine the threat of frostbite already forming, the silent warning urging him to find shelter.

The mountains were not a place for Vargulf. Not a place for him.

He moved regretfully through the snow, eyes narrowed and drawn to the floor as he searched for any sort of sanctuary. It wasn’t until the paw prints of another caught his painful stare, and briefly, he perked up.

A friend? A foe? A hope?

The beast could not help himself as his nose sniffed at the forlorn tracks. No longer caring as bits of snow caressed his snout with frost bitten hands.

Follow it, Vargulf, a voice inside him said. Follow, follow, follow.

It pleaded with a ferocity he could not deny. And so he listened.

He pushed forward against all odds, his limbs a terrible sight to behold as they leapt and crept and waddled against the snowfall.

And there, pale blue eyes discovered a cave.

Go in, Vargulf, the voice said again, Go now.

And so he did.

[Odette]

She nearly jumped out of her fur when she heard the sound of nails on stone. The cold had made her congested, admittedly, and she'd completely missed the scent of a stranger on the way in.

Odette whirled, then paused as her eyes adjusted to the light at the cave entrance. "Is someone there?" she asked, a bit dumbly, because even she could see that someone was literally right there.

But, the question was... "Who are you?" She sounded suspicious, guarded, but also a little hopeful that the stranger might be nice.

[Vargulf]

[mild content warning bc he's being creepy]

Darkness engulfed Vargulf as his paws came pitter-pattering through the entrance. His tail still hung tightly at his ankles and his ears lied stiff against his skull. But a warmth lied in the heart of the cave, its flame of heat far more inviting than the biting wind behind him.

’Is someone there?’ A feminine voice asked.

Vargulf’s body wobbled forward, leaning into the sound. “S-S-Someone is…” A croaking voice exclaimed. It was not Vargulf’s fault that his voice was no more than a hoarse whisper. Instead, it’s ghostly cadence was merely a testament to the harsh journey he had endured.

But now he had found hope, surely he must’ve found hope.

Within the protected walls of the cave, the snow along Vargulf’s spine began to drip and melt. And with the environment’s sudden warmth, a moan of satisfaction poured out from his lips. Puddles of precipitation formed beneath him as he stood half curled against himself. He did not take a step forward, not yet. Instead, his eyes blinked erratically, his head swinging back and forth against the shadows as he searched and searched for the voice.

’Who are you?’ It asked.

Vargulf could not see. Not at first. But the voice requested him to speak and so he did.

“Vargulf.” He answered as though his name was a title, a curt response that was clipped and hoarse. The voice inside him chirped as well, in silent whispers it harmonized. “Vargulf, vargulf, vargulf…”

The beast crept forward as his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Before him lied a slender woman, caressed in gentle shades of brown. The whisper of the voice came again, low and harmonizing against the emptiness of the cave, ”Pretty little thing, pretty, pretty, pretty…”

“Who are you?” He asked.

[Odette]

It sounded like a man. Older than her, certainly, with a hoarse, hesitating voice. At least, that’s how she interpreted his stutter.

Aside from looking about as thin as she did, Odette decided that he was handsome. Clad in calico, with piercing eyes. His voice and stature suggested low status, though. He was unlike her in that way.

And in age, too.

She forgot herself momentarily, forgot that she was young and starving and alone for the first time in her life, and she stood proudly with her tail curled above her back. “I am Odette Leblanc, Princess of the Fluviaux Kingdom.” she expected him to have some knowledge of the nearby kingdom. She didn’t bother asking if he’d heard of it. He would certainly bow his head to her once he heard.

[Vargulf]

A quiet chattering of teeth followed in the response of her name. His head tilted to the side, easing against the shadows behind him as he took a couple steps forward. Odette. The whispering voice inside his head repeated. Odette, Odette, Odette.

A disconcerting smile spread along his lips as his paws fidgeted beneath him. His tail twitched behind him, and for a moment, he had forgotten the reason as to why he had found shelter in the first place.

Was it for food? Or was it warmth?

“What is Princess doing here?” He asked, head tilting further to one side. ”Is cave home?”

[Odette]

Again, where she should have felt fear, or at least reservation, Odette's naivety led her to spout all the information the stranger had requested. He hadn't lunged to bite her face or threatened her yet, so there was still a hope fluttering in her chest that the man might be able to provide her with some food and give her a push in the right direction to get back home.

"I was... separated," she ground out. "During a hunting expedition, we tracked an elk herd to the northeast and then I got lost."

Her ears fell. "Cave is not my home. At least, I don't want it to be... I'm hungry." Hint hint.

[Vargulf]

"Poor Princess," He whispered, voice dropping to a stilled whine. "Poor, poor, poor, poooor princess indeed." The voice inside of him crooned in a falsetto.

It was then that the reminder of food sputtered into view. His mind momentarily consumed with a deep-seated hunger. If it weren't for the dryness in his mouth and the icy wind at his back, Vargulf would have drooled.

Instead, however, he chittered in agreement.

His neck arched forward, lengthening against the empty space between them.

"Vargulf hungry too," he uttered. He could feel the way his ribs caved at his sides, the grumble of hunger that nipped at his heels. His mind told him yes, but his body told him no. Yet, Vargulf was not alone, and therefore, not all hope was lost.

There was options. And Vargulf could make exceptions.

Couldn't he?

Though as an internal war raged within his mind, Vargulf eyes flickered to a space behind Odette. The darkness that loomed and crooned beyond. "Vargulf knows the way," He said with a hasted nod. Yes, he knew the way.

His legs propelled him forward and he slithered against the inky darkness between them.

"Come, come. Follow Vargulf."

[Odette]

Poor, sheltered Odette still had no idea that there were wolves out there with sour intentions. She thought his way of speaking was odd, but being called a poor princess was all the validation she needed to trust him.

Yes, she had suffered considerably, hadn’t she?

She moved to fall into step beside him. “Your talking is odd,” she commented. “Why?”

[Vargulf]

CW: Cannibalism and disturbing thoughts

Did Vargulf know where he was going?

No, definitely not.

But the beast could reason to himself that the situation was a win-win. Surely the caves would lead to somewhere. All the better if the trail ended with food for the both of them. But even Vargulf could not deny that if it came to it, and his hunger was unquenchable, there was a carry out meal right beside him.

He chittered chaotically at the thought, a wide tight-lipped smile spreading across his lips.

The darkness surrounded them like a blanket as they moved. Cold and empty, void of the warmth he had so desperately craved. The winter chill, he realized, was inescapable. It did not matter how far they went; the ground beneath his paws were still cold, the air still tight and dry, and without the hope of sunlight, the shadows were nothing more than an icy veil around the pair of them.

A pair of wide eyes slithered at his side, towards Odette, as her voice filled the space beside his clattering teeth. It was then that a ghostly laugh took the place of chittering teeth, his head shaking from side to side. "Vargulf speaks no different than you," he responded curtly, a bobbing of his head following shortly after.

"Why does the Princess talk the way she does?" He asked.