SilentCreekPack {Origins}

Chapter 9

For the next two weeks, Lucaine and Dianna spent lots of time together. Dianna being able to shift allowed her and Lucaine to form a bond stronger than the one they had as humans. As a matter of fact, Lucaine spent so much time teaching Dianna the Shapeshifter basics, that he was hardly ever home, and Cynthia noticed this. She made it a routine to question him constantly on his whereabouts, failing to get a straight answer each time. As a matter of fact, she was closer to driving Lucaine out of his mind that she was to cracking the case. One bright morning saw Cynthia rolling over as she opened her eyes, expecting to see Lucaine. "Good morning honey— Wha?" She gasped, noticing that he wasn't there. "Hmm..." She groaned getting out of bed, slipping on her white bunny slippers and striding out of her's and Lucaine's bedroom with a yawn. "Luce? Lucaine?" She called walking downstairs into the kitchen, and not finding him. She later found her self upstairs once more. As you could have guessed, she was quite irritated by now. She knocked on Dianna's bedroom door. When she didn't hear an answer, she opened the door and peeked in. Dianna had disappeared as well. Cynthia lowered her eyebrows in a slight, but clear irritation. Something was wrong.

Meanwhile, the rythmic thud of sprinting pawpads rang through the forest. "Can't catch me!" Dianna squealed, quickening her pace, only to have Lucaine simply lengthen his strides, without increasing their speed, and pass her with a smirk. "Oh come on." Dianna huffed, with narrowed eyes. She moved her paws as fast as possible, only to tire herself out completely, and flop onto her back. Lucaine coasted to a stop, and trotted back to where his daughter lied, looking like a car with a blown engine.

"Can we... pause for .. *puff*... a moment?" Lucaine chortled sitting beside her. "Sure. There's a lake nearby where we can drink." He said nudging his daughter up. "Where are we even going anyways?" "To visit an old friend of mine, She's a shapeshifter as well, I'm sure you'll get along just fine." Lucaine replied as the two began to walk. Eventually they arrived at a lake. As Lucaine lowered his body to the turf the lap up the cool water, Dianna prodded him with a paw. "Hey dad?" "Hmm?" "Why am I cream and ochre, while you're silver grey and white? Shouldn't our colours be similar?" Lucaine looked up for the water. "Good question." He said rasping his tongue across his jaws to remove the water. "When you're a shapeshifter, born as a human, your pelt and eye color match your personality. For example, my mother was a red, cream, red, and white wolf, my father was dark brown all over. But look at Me." Dianna glance her father up and down. "Well that somewhat makes sense." She wagged her tail a bit. "Yes, it does. As a matter of fact, most shapeshifter mothers often have their young as humans, so their coat and eye colors won't be left to the awkward twists and turns of genetics. But it's a different case when you are born a wolf." Lucaine continued, padding away from the lake and further into the forest. "Your personality plays no role in your pelt or eye colour, you inherit them from parents, and even grandparents—" "Since genes for coat color sometimes skip generations?" Lucaine smiled. "How did you know that?" Dianna smiled smugly. "Biology." She grinned trotting after him. "That's probaby why Dusty's coat was similar to mine?" "It could be. If you had gotten to know Dusty on a Wolf-to-Wolf basis sooner, you two probably would have had a lot in commo-" Lucaine was cut off by the sound of a twig snapping in the surrounding area.

Both he and Dianna released threatened growls from their throats as they scented wolves great numbers. Two, then four, then six, which soon ended up being twelve, and they all surrounded the two wolves who stood paralyzed by icy stares. The group paced around them in distorted circles. "What do we have here.. rogues?" The largest male scowled his talons penetrating the ground with each pawstep. Dianna opened her jaws to speak. "Uh—" "That didn't require an answer, flea bag!"He snarled, baring his teeth at the young shapeshifter. Lucaine, straightened up, to face the wolf, who was slightly shorter than he was. "Watch your tongue." He uttered, calmly suppressing a growl. "Or what?" He said with a smirk, snapping his jaws at the taller male, as four more wolves stationed themselves around or behind Lucaine, their tails lashing in anticipation of a fight. Dianna instinctively lunged at the large red and brown male with open jaws, scarring him across the muzzle. He whipped around sharply, and ugly gnarl bellowed from his throat, as Dianna, too shocked at herself to react, stood frozen. Suddenly a feminine voice broke up the feud. "Nerox, down." The male pinned his ears back. "B-but—" "NOW." The voice said once more. Nerox, neatly tucked his tail between his legs, and sat on the floor, a small flow of blood formed from the little tooth scratches across his face. Lucaine looked up at the femme who had spoken. "Thank you, Tzuma." He said calmly as the calico she-wolf stepped up to him. "No problem." She said prodding him with a paw. "Sorry about my beta here," She said motioning to Nerox with a paw. "His mate's just given birth to a litter of pups, so he's feeling a bit protective." Lucaine perked his ears. "So Lomasi's had her pups already?" Dianna looked back and forth from Tzuma to Lucaine as the wolves conversed for the next half hour, until Lucaine finally remembered to introduce her. "This is my daughter—" "Dianna, I've heard a lot about you." Tzuma said sniffing at the young female. Dianna sniffed back, before speaking softly. "How do you know my name?" Tzuma smiled. "Remember the voice that called you to the window?" "That was you?" "Mhmm." She nodded."I think we'll get along just fine, Dianna." Tzuma huffed looking the young femme up and down. She liked her already. "Come along you two, I'm sure you're tired, and hungry." She said as she walked away from both of them, and hinting them to follow with a flick of her tail. Lucaine avidly followed Tzuma, with Dianna trailing behind. She passed Nerox on the way, who still sat sulking until he was called. She pawed up to him and licked at the small wounds on his muzzle. "S-sorry about that.." Dianna whined between licks, showing a bit of subtle submission. "I-I don't what came over me..." Nerox only answered with a somewhat forgiving huff, as Dianna was called by her father, and she bounded off behind him.