The Winter Ranger's Den (Heavy W.I.P)

5 - Narrow cliffs

Fjolla slipped into the clothes Keith had given her as she found that they were surprisingly, reasonably comfortable despite the shirt obviously being too tight around her chest. Fjolla had never worn human garments before and after being briefly confused about how to get into them, she managed to put them on. The only clothing Fjolla had ever really worn was when she was in the private confines of her home. A small cave that was hardly visible from a distance slightly edging out the side of a mountain. It wasn't too sizeable but she didn't really have any other options as this cave was in a great isolated spot that humans never entered as they assumingly deemed it home to dangerous wildlife. They were partially right to have this notion. The clothing she'd find herself wearing in this cave was thanks to the humble craftsmanship of her brother. A makeshift deer hide dress kept together with parts of whatever flora and fauna he deemed apt enough to sew it together with. This dress meant a lot to Fjolla as she didn't have a lot of possessions and would be distraught if something happened to it. Her brother always made sure to size the dress up for her whenever she grew or if it was ever damaged. Fjolla never asked him to either, he just always just seemed to know when.

Fjolla opened the door to the hallway and headed through to see Keith cooking in the kitchen. He told her how he was preparing a dish called "poutine" with a juicy venison steak being prepared on the side. Fjolla loved venison, out of all the wild game she had hunted in the wilderness venison was a favourite of hers. Keith preparing it for her was just good luck. After the meal had finished being prepared; despite being enamoured by the venison, she explained to Keith how she could eat plants as well as meat so he wouldn't have to worry as much about giving her a meat-only diet. "Oh, you can try some Poutine then if you like," Keith suggested. As he brought out the two separate dishes of venison steak and poutine. Fjolla started noticing how homely the cabin felt compared to her real home. She thought she'd be a bit more nervous talking to someone other than her brother for the first time in years but she couldn't help but feel charmed by Keith. Despite trickery being a foreign concept to her she could tell he meant well. He could tell he was being honest like her brother who was always brutally honest with her. He spoke his mind on things that were occasionally left better unspoken of. Like whenever they talked about humans. Her brother had an unbridled distaste for them and wanted nothing more than for Fjolla to stay away from them completely due to their unpredictable nature. It was a rule that her entire species seemingly had, there aren't nearly as many Khaedae as there are humans after all and this rule was likely helping keep their species alive and under wraps. But curiosity killed the cat and whenever her brother mentioned humans on a negative note she'd always try to shine a more positive look on them. "Maybe humans would be friendly to us if we just introduced ourselves nicely," she'd said once to her brother who responded. "Fjolla, you're the most important thing in the world to me right now. I know humans can seem innocent at first. But once you start meddling with them they show their true colours eventually. You know what happened to mother and father." He said. "But it wasn't their fault!" Fjolla argued, "Fjolla! Are you suggesting that it was our parent's fault they died?! I thought you knew better!" He exclaimed, "No! I'm not saying that..." She said. "It's just that those humans were probably very scared. We all were." She explained, "Then who's fault is it Fjolla!?" Her brother demanded. "I...I don't know." Fjolla said in a sad tone. Her brother sighed. "Look Fjolla I know you mean well you always do. And that's why I'm so worried! It's that kind and naive nature of yours that I love most about you. But it's also something humans can exploit." He stated. "I'm sorry Fjolla. I shouldn't have brought up our parents... Just trust me on this. It's what mom would have wanted. It's what dad would have wanted. And it's what you need right now... To be safe." He said, "Do you understand Fjolla? You know I love you." Fjord said feeling bad that he'd gotten into such an argument with her sister. Especially on subjects that were so salient to her. Fjord embraced Fjolla "I love you too." Fjolla said endearingly.