The lull of night

Caves

They all reeked of the same perfume,
Bled the same color,
Were called by the same name,
They're more than a species, I'm sure

And for evil that is perfect,
For torture that is white
For pain that is innocent,
There is no certain cure

But everything that follows,
Everything enticed,
Everything intrigued
By all these shades of man

Mere hope keeps them alive
Simple wishes burn
Coins tossed in the fountain
What is your brilliant plan?

-Unknown-

Stiles closes his eyes for most of it, burying his face into Derek's fur. When Derek finally starts to slow, Stiles lifts his head up to look around. It looks like any village that Stiles would have pictured, with teepees and fire pits and all. The only problem is that all of it is destroyed. The teepees have been ransacked, the pits all kicked out...

Stiles frowns, sliding off of Derek's back just before he, Talia, and Peter all shift into their human forms. Stiles knows what Derek and Talia look like, but he realizes that he's never seen Peter before. He's not very tall, and he leaves his claws and fangs out.

"What happened?" Stiles asks Derek frantically, grabbing his hand.

The two other wolves, Isaac and Erica, shift up as well, snickering.

Stiles frowns, looking around. "Obviously I'm missing something."

"This isn't the real village," Derek says. "This is our decoy camp."

Stiles' eyes widen. "You're kidding."

Talia smiles. "He is not."

"Where do you guys live, then?"

Peter grins at that, putting both hands on his hips and a sharp little grin on his face. "Tree houses, obviously."

Stiles wrinkles his nose up at the thought of wolves living in trees. "Really?"

He rolls his eyes. "Derek, your human is an idiot."

Stiles huffs, looking over at Derek. "Derek, you're uncle is mean."

Derek smiles, pulling Stiles closer. "It means he likes you. We live in intricately crafted caves, actually, which must makes us sound more like savages, but it's the safest place we've got. We're not the biggest things in the forest, after all."

Stiles frowns. "But...you're all so big and powerful."

"Grizzly bear's and lions aren't pretty, kid," Peter says. "We'd rather just leave those guys alone unless we're really that desperate for food."

Stiles rolls his eyes. Peter seemed big and intimidating before, but now he just seems like a sassy, oversized puppy. "So where's the entrance, then?"

Talia smiles again, walking over to a tree on the outer edge of the fake wreckage. "That is where the trees come in." She reaches up to pull down on a branch, and Stiles watches with wide eyes as the trunk itself begins to open up, revealing a passageway inside and down.

"Wow," he says, walking closer to it. "None of them will ever find this."

"Good to hear," Erica says, walking passed him towards the entrance with crossed arms. "Because we're risking our lives bringing you here. You better not turn on us, dull-eyes."

Stiles smiles up at Derek. He would never do anything to jeopardize their being together. "I won't."

Isaac grins and goes after her, saying something to her, but Derek says something to Stiles before he can hear it: