The Other Side of the Lie (EDITING, ON HOLD)

Three-Hawk

The white Werewolf jumped off him when he screamed from the sudden pain.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Hawk yelled. Then he realized what the wolf had done. Tentatively, Hawk moved the wing he'd injured when he'd crashed. It was sore, but the pain was nothing close to what it had been mere minutes ago.

"Oh. Thank you."

The she-wolf snorted, and he knew it was a she because she'd made the exact same sound his sister made when Swan thought he was being stupid. That particular sound, it seemed to Hawk, was something the universe let no male vocal cords produce.

"Are these for me, too?" he asked, lifting the branch of berries from where it had lain beside him. His answer was a canine huff that told him, who else would they be for, stupid? "They aren't toxic, though, are they?"

The wolf gave him a look of exasperation –an odd look on a canine muzzle– and shook her head no. To prove her point, she approached and delicately plucked a berry off the branch with her teeth –he couldn't help but flinch at their size– and ate it. Hawk waited for something to happen. Nothing did. The she-wolf didn't keel over, dead, didn't throw up, didn't even blink as she sat watching him cooly. He was a little disappointed when he made his wings vanish and still got no reaction.

Finally he gave in to his hunger and stripped the branch of all the berries. He popped a handful into his mouth and realized with a start they were blueberries. It was only then he remembered that he hadn't eaten since dinner the day before. He was starving. Once he'd eaten his fill, he went to the stream for a drink.

The wolf was lying down, and Hawk had assumed she'd gone back to sleep, but at his movement she'd raised her head to watch his progress across the cave.

The stream had carved itself into the stone so that there were very few places where the water was shallow enough to be safe. Hawk knew from when he'd backed the wolf into it that it had a strong current, and that he would have to be very careful. He picked a spot where the water seemed the safest, and crouched to cup his hands in the water. It was glacial, and felt good, if a bit biting as it slid down his throat.

He was leaning down for more when his foot slipped on some water splashed up onto the smooth rocks. He fell in with a huge splash, and had just enough time to take in some air before he was under water. The stream was much deeper than he'd first though. His feet couldn't touch the bottom. Then again, he wasn't sure he was upside down and about to hit his head on the streambed.

Hawk hit something hard and the breath was knocked out of him. He was suddenly being pulled up and out of the water until he lay on cold stone coughing and choking. The she-wolf stood over him with a slightly annoyed expression. He glared back up at her, then grudgingly thanked her. She nodded in return, then started pulling at his shirt with her teeth.

Knowing full well that his wet clothes would kill him just as fast as the wolf could, he removed his shirt but refused to do the same for his pants. He was shivering violently by the time he was back to his spot with his back propped against the cave wall. He thought of his cloak, lost somewhere in the woods. The wolf, to his great surprise and discomfort, nudged him away from the wall then curled around him so that he was encircled by a wall of big furry white werewolf. Hawk was about to leap away when he noticed that he was already feeling warmer, so he settled back against the wolf's side. Before he knew it, Hawk was asleep.

When Hawk woke he didn't open his eyes right away. He was warm, and his pillow felt much softer than he remembered. His pillow also moved, rising and falling slowly. It was snoring too, and it was then that Hawk jerked upright.

His pillow was not a pillow. The white wolf blinked sleepy brown eyes at him and snorted in annoyance.

"Sorry," he said, although he wasn't quite sure why he was apologizing. Well, he had woken her up. The wolf nuzzled his hand and he rubbed the beast on the head, then blushed. Hawk had no idea what was wrong with him. This werewolf wasn't a pet, she was a girl! He shouldn't be giving her pats on the head.