The Stray

2-2: Witchcraft and Whittling

First on the list, he had to get armed. All he needed was a floor to sit cross-legged... and his poor dagger. He didn't wanna wake her, but she'd really hate it if he got a weapon while she was out. The wolf gently pulled her, sheathe and all, from the stupidly huge pocket of V's old pants. "Mandy? Hun?"

Clonk... A groggy, annoyed thunk, like a dented bell struck with leather, answered. Ah, the wonders of Thinglish. The dagger twitched and flipped over, like she was trying to burrow back into his pockets for warmth. He smiled despite himself.

"Listen, I wasn't gonna push ya, but I am about to whittle a new staff." Well, that sure did it— Mandy tossed herself from his pocket, blade shimmering in a riot of colors that reminded him of someone falling out of bed in their blankets. The wolf chuckled behind his hands.

Mandy was, as far as he was concerned, his mother's finest work. A classic Vol wedding dagger: double-edged, with a seven inch triangular blade. She was equally at home carving large glyphs and carving large throats, and she'd done plenty of both. Mom had lavished all her skill at bladesong into the forging, singing strength and durability into her very steel. Almost a decade later, she was still sharp and deadly. She was further empowered by carefully engraved glyphs, some of which carried nasty surprises for their enemies.

She rang grumpily as her blade settled into its more 'normal' look, her colors fading back to bright steel. With one exception: a set of silver-blue eyespots, sorta like the fake eyes on a butterfly, winked into being just by her guard. The wolf patted her lightly. "Mornin, hun. Figured you'd want your say."

Mandible rolled her eyes, but floated into his hand obligingly. She was warm to the touch, now that she was awake once more. He'd been worried for her;. they were linked at the spirit as witch and familiar, so his hunger had left her cold, sluggish, and eventually asleep. It was good to have her back.

Dee-brrring. Mandy looked up at him with some concern. Their link meant she already knew everything that'd happened, and even his jumbled up thoughts and feelings on it. There was no substitute for actually checking in, though.

"I'm alright. Just gotta arm up." I feel a lot better with you around. Mandy heard that thought, and smiled at him with her eyes.

Clang.

"Yeah, me too."

With no more words needed, they started to cut away at the broken staff. Whatever V'd smashed with this thing musta felt it; there were old protective glyphs, burned and blackened, that'd burst from her sheer strength. And the thing was split down at least a foot. It took a while to make it to whole wood. It was fine, though; he'd done far more with less, and whittling was a relaxing time for them both.

Partway through, Meri poked her head in, V close behind. "Oh, you're doing the staff!

"Yep." Timothy paused only briefly to smile at the girls before returning to it. Mandible, however, greeted them with a cheerful doorbell-ring, and tilted up in a tough guy nod. Meri yelped and hopped back in surprise, and that got an equally stunned V to yelp and fall over backwards. She crashed hard on her back, with her sister flopped atop her. The wolf couldn't help himself— he burst out laughing. A long, good laugh, the kind he never got to have. Even Mandy's eyes widened in surprise at it.

As his laughter subsided, Timothy managed to say "I forgot to t' introduce ya to Mandy, huh?" Not to be a total jerk, he got up and offered Meri a hand. The little dragoness gratefully swung back onto her feet, still staring at the dagger.

V sat up, looking kinda grumpy. "You named your knife?"

"Dagger." Timothy corrected as the weapon in question scowled.