Fåk✒️

When you're born to two parents, who then leave you, and then adopted by two new parents, who then sell you, you realize you might not be all that wanted in anyones life. With her head hanging and her feet feeling heavier than ever, she followed the scout that was taking her to her new pack. She was pointed in a direction and sent on her way. As she walked alone toward her new home, she just knew that they wouldn't like her. No one else did. Her anxiety grew with every step, and at last, before reaching the threshold to her new home, she turned around and ran. By the stream, she found some rocks in the formation of a shallow cave. The opening to the outside was partly covered by a fir trees branches, and you had to walk through some shallow water with slippery rocks to get there, so she felt safe and secure. She made it her new home, and that's where she grew up.
-
Close to where she lived, there were two packs. She had been spying on them. They seemed to be rivals, with one pack being much smaller ans stealing from the other. The smaller pack was easier to infiltrate too, because the leader didn't seem to know who was in the pack or not, and they regularly threw parties where strangers were invited. She went to them to get food, but appearently they had none, if you don't count old fruit, and each individual wolf was responsible for getting food for themselves. Some hunted, but most stole from their bigger neighbour. Fåk realized this was what she had to do, too. She spied and planned, and eventually she had a steady source of food if she didn't manage to catch any herself.
-
The day started like any other, she woke up to the sounds of the river, she laid there listening to it for a bit, the soft ripples and pours as well as the clucking splashes hitting the rocks near the shore. When she opened her eyes she could see the blue sky peeking out from behind the branches covering her cave. She stood up and stretched. Another calm, wonderful day, she thought. But when she stepped out of her cave, she saw the tail and hind legs of a wolf sticking out of the water on the shore. She rushed over, grabbed the leg and pulled the wolf onto the beach. She sniffed the air. He didn't smell dead.. Suddenly he coughed up a lot of water, heaved a deep breath and then started breathing normal, albeit a bit raspy, without moving an inch. She sighed.
"Damn it," she muttered as she grabbed the skin on his neck and pulled him to her cave. She couldn't let him lie there all vulnerable. Once he was in the cave, she pulled his elkskin coat off of him and hung it to dry on a branch. When she looked back at him, she saw his fur wasn't just black like she had thought. It had grey streaks on the back. The wolf was big and muscly, and adorned with jewellery. Most of it was teeth and fangs, one of them was a dull crystal, but one, she thought of stealing and selling it. It was a crystal, shining and glimmering when the sun shone through the trees, and clear, like ice! But she decided not to do it. A wolf this adorned must be important, at least to someone.
She was sitting outside the cave, watching the sunset, when she heard him groan. She quickly peeked in and when his eyes looked up at her they struck her like fire. She even became warm, yes, just like if he was made of fire.
"Whats going on.." he groaned again.
"I found you in the river," she responded, "who are you?"
"Borg," he said and laid his head down in pain.
"Is your neck hurting?" She surprised herself with worry.
"No, no, just.. just a headache, I recall hitting some rocks," he sighed before lifting his head once more. Borg reached down and inspected the leaf bandage she had put on his wounded hip, "are you a herbalist?"
"Oh, no, I'm not," she almost laughed, "I just know some.. some stuff."
"Do you live here?" Borg asked and she nodded quietly until he responded, "it's a beautiful cave."
She suddenly felt uncomfortably warm and her paws were tingly. She nodded a thanks and then she left to cool herself in the river. When she came up to the surface she could see him looking out, at her or maybe at the scenery? His chin was resting on a rock and he looked incredibly content. After a moment he tried to stand up and walk, but he fell to the ground. She ran to him to help him up.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm dizzy.." Borgs response sounded weak, so she helped him into the cave again to rest. He looked up at her with sad eyes.
"There's trouble," his words made her stiffen up, he sounded so serious all of a sudden, "will you let me rest here tonight?"
She nodded, and thought he was about to fall asleep. His eyelids flickered over his firey eyes. But he spoke again in a rumbly voice.
"Is your pack near?"
"I live on my own," she responded, and his eyes opened again. He looked confused.
"How do you make it on your own?"
"I.." she didn't want to admit to being a thief, so she thought for a bit but Borg looked so concerned, she had to say something and suddenly her heart spilled out, "It's hard sometimes, really hard, especially when I get sick or wounded, but I get by. I actually like it here."
"You're welcome in my pack," Borg mumbled as he was about to fall asleep again, but he continued mumbling, man this wolf must love talking, "and my packs herbalist. Her name, it's Skivling. I recognize this river, it's the river a stones throw away from my packs camp. We must be .. a bit south from there. The river is so beautiful, the nature here and the sunset is too, I.."
"If you live here, how come you didn't notice the beauty until now?" She smirked he was making no sense and it was amusing, and sort of cute.
"I never have the time to stop and look, there's things to do all the time.." he was about to fall asleep again but gasped, "what was I talking about?"
"The rivers beauty?"
"No that's not it.." he closed his eyes and seemed deep in thought, or dream maybe- no, still awake, "oh right, the river. Follow the river to the south. Make a departure to west, under the branch- What's your name? I'll tell my herbalist to remember you if you ever need her."
Name. Name? Oh. A name.. She hadn't thought about her name for several years. Did she.. did she have one?
"I.. I don't have a name," she whispered and Borg looked confused again. What was it.. Something on F.. fi.. fo?? She must have been making F sounds without thinking, because Borg chimed in.
"Fåk. Remember that word. Tell it to the herbalist, and she will help you," he finally closed his eyes and... yes, yes he was sleeping.
-
She stood at the opening of her small cave, looking in at the massive dark body in there. There was no personal space left in the cave. Her heart started beating hard, and she laid down next to him, so close that she could feel his chest rising and falling as he breathed.
She woke up abruptly as she felt the emptiness around her. She looked around her, and he was gone. She stood up and went to see if he was outside. There, the pink sunrise was glistening on an object, lying on a root right outside her cave. She sniffed the air and got closer. A fish! A seemingly fat and juicy fish! She had only eaten fish a few times before, and she was hungry, so she ate it immedietly. The flesh was delicate and easy to rip apart. As she pulled off one of the fins to crunch on, something fell off of the tree root that the fish had laid on.
"Huh?" She got closer and pawed at it. It was a piece of bark, with strange carvings on it. She had never learned how to read, but these carvings looked different.
"It must be his packs scripture?" She told herself. Before she knew it she was heading south along the river, then west, and then.. then what? She stumbled around for a bit until she smelled something unfamiliar and followed it. Fog started creeping out between the tree stems and she stepped back, startled.
"You shouldn't be here, leave at once!" A voice growled at her, but she couldn't see or smell anyone anywhere!
"I'm looking for a herbalist!" She shouted into the forest.
"You're not injured, it's unwise to try to trick a witch!" A witch?! She stepped back, and then she remembered, yes, the word! What was the word..?
"Fåk?" She wasn't sure..
"Fåk. Really?" Suddenly a wolf appeared in front of her and looked at her with sceptical eyes, while the fog seemed to thin out and disappear. The wolf didn't smell like anything, weird. She became worried she had just said a bad word to this stranger, it did sound like a bad word didn't it, but, "you're Fåk? So what do you want?"
I'm Fåk? What? she thought to herself but shook the confusion away, focus: this must be Skivling, and she can read the scripture.
"Will you read this for me?" She handed the piece of bark over to Skivling, who looked at it quickly and then scoffed.
"You can't read?"
"I can!" She shouted, embarrassed, "just not this."
Skivling didn't seem to believe her lie, but she complied anyway.
"Dear Fåk, I'm sorry for leaving so abruptly. When I woke up, I was feeling better and I had to rush off to my pack. You're welcome to visit any time, and if you need anything just send me a message. I leave you this as a thanks for your hospitality."
"That's all?" She wondered while recounting every word to herself. He had adressed her as Fåk.. hmm.. It was growing on her.
"Yes. Well, signed Borg, of course, but I'm sure he told you his name," Skivling responded coldly, but then she turned big eyed and nosy, "what did he leave you as thanks?"
"Will you tell him I can't-" Fåk groaned and swallowed her pride, "tell him I can't read or write but that he's welcome to visit as well."
Skivling smirked all of a sudden, "I'll tell him to visit as soon as possible."
"What! No no just say he's welcome to visit!" Fåk panicked but Skivling laughed.
"You know, I don't meet him all that often, he only comes here if it's something important. He didn't even tell me he had been feeling unwell this morning," Skivling didn't seem bothered.
"That's okay, there's no hurry. Thank you for helping me!" Fåk grabbed the piece of bark and hurried home.
She laid down in the sand with the note in front of her and looked at the symbols. At the bottom of the piece of bark, in one of the corners, four symbols were etched.
ᛒ ᛟ ᚱ ᚷ
That must be his name! Borg. Borg.. She read it over and over until she felt her cheeks warming up.
-
A few days later, when she was out swimming in the night, a dark figure approached from the beach. She gasped and hid behind a rock in the water. She peaked out to see what it was doing.
"Am I that scary?" the familiar voice shouted. Borg! She was about to swim to shore when she noticed him taking off his elkskin coat. Oh. She felt like she had no time to think before he was already out in the middle of the river with her.
"You've really chosen a nice place to live, the river is so tender here," he looked toward the rivers north end and then back at her. She nodded, it was a beautiful place.
"But it's a bad hiding spot for you, the moon illuminates your fur and the rivers reflection doesn't help!" He laughed gently and Fåk looked down at hers reflection, oh yes, it was very white. How dumb!
"Why are you here?" She asked him, and immedietly felt like taking it back.
"I just wanted to see how you're doing, and thank you in person for the other day," he bowed his head slightly, "and I also must admit I might have been a bit dumb, I wrote a note to you using old runes, assuming you were from around here. Did you manage to read it?"
He.. he didn't know? Skivling must have been telling the truth, they really hadn't met since then. But then why was he here if not because of her invitation? She started moving toward the shore and pondered, while he followed behind.
"Actually, I was wondering.. if you could teach me to.. um.." she glanced at him, and his gaze was soft.
"Of course."
He showed her the runes and what they sounded like, but then he started drawing totally different symbols.
"These will be much more useful to you," he said, and taught her those instead, "they're the runes commonly used in this land, and when writing in the tongue that we are speaking now."
Fåk was a quick learner, but he didn't want the lessons to go too quickly, so he stopped the lesson for today. But Fåk had some questions left.
"What does Fåk mean?"
"It's the old tongue, I mean, my tongues older version," Borg smiled at her, "It describes a certain type of drift of snow, caused by heavy wind near the ocean."
"Wait.. you usually speak a different tongue?" Fåk was surprised by her own stupidity, but Borg didn't seem to think that of her.
"Yes, my whole pack, in fact. You haven't noticed on the way I speak?" Borg was still smiling gently at her. Fåk shook her head.
"To be honest, I haven't really talked to another wolf since.. well.. it has been years," Fåk expected Borg to make some remark about it, but instead he started collecting some sticks, digging a pit in the sand and lighting a small fire. Fåk was drawn to the warmth, and laid down next to it.
"I'll be right back," Borg said, then he disappeared. Kind of strange behavior, but maybe he had to pee or something. After some moments, not many but still many enough to pee several dozen times over, he came back, wet and with a fish in his mouth! He placed the fish on a rock and pushed it near the fire, almost into it.
"What are you doing?" Fåk was confused, why would he burn a fish?
"Oh, um.." He almost looked embarrassed, "just making you a snack, I suppose."
He laid down a bit away from her, and she couldn't help but inspect his face. His eyes looked the same colour as the fire, in fact, the fires reflection made it look like a fire was burning inside of him, too. While Fåk hadn't talked to many wolves, she had seen a lot of them, but not one that looked quite this appealing.
"You're handsome," she whispered, maybe because she was used to talking to herself about the things she saw, and it just slipped out. Borgs eyes turned to her and she felt her heart pound. He smiled and looked down at the ground, he seemed shy all of a sudden, so Fåk quickly changed the subject.
"What does your tongue sound like?" She was still curious about why they even spoke in a different tongue than the rest of them. His eyes met hers.
"Du är vacker, du också," he said it in a low voice, almost as if it was a secret, but Fåk didn't understand what he said even though she heard it clearly. She nodded. She quite liked the sound of that tongue. But it also sounded familiar.. yes, one of the packs she steals food from, they speak like this.
"Borg, I.. I'm sorry, I think I have stolen food from you," she confessed, and he looked at her with some disbelief and concern, "I'm not a good hunter and, and I have no pack, I'm sorry-"
"Hey now, don't worry about it," he had come closer, "my pack has bigger problems than one thief, and if you had asked if we could help you we would have, so I see no difference. You deserve to be well fed."
Fåk almost gasped at this sensation, she looked up at him and he gave her a smile. He was so close to her..
"Oh right, speaking of food!" He got up and grabbed the fish, placing it in front of her. The fish was now darker in colour, sooty and the skin look crumbly. Fåk reluctantly took a bite, and chewed, and.. the skin was crunchy and salty, while the insides were soft, almost melting in her mouth, a little bit sweet almost but sort of smokey. Borg grabbed a fin and crunched on. Fåk looked up at him.
"It's yours," he laid down again and with his permission, Fåk ate the whole fish!
Later, Borg interrupted their quiet stargazing.
"I have to get back to my pack now," he said, but he sat still next to her, as if he didn't mean it. She wanted to tell him he could stay if he wanted to, but she didn't dare. Eventually he got up and his warmth was pulled away from her.
"And don't worry about the food. Just do me a favor," his words made her a bit anxious but she nodded, "next time you're in our territory, pay me a visit too, alright?"
"I will," she whispered, because her heart was beating fast and her mind felt foggy.
-
She didn't want to rely on their food anymore, but at some point you have to get your stomach full, and so she searched her way to the pack. This time she wasn't hiding or sneaking, because it felt wrong to do so, and she had been invited, right?
"What are you doing?" A voice startled her and she looked up to find a rather angry-looking white wolf staring at her.
"I.. I was told I could have some of your food, Borg sent me here," Fåk stuttered a little, not ready to be confronted like this.
"Oh, we can't feed my kids but we can feed whichever rogue wolf the alpha fancies, huh?" The wolf turned her face away and started walking, as a different wolf came running up to Fåk.
"Take the food you were promised. Her kids are traitors to our pack, they joined an enemy pack and she thinks we should all just be one pack or something. You'll have to excuse her, she's a mother and grumpy, that's all," the dark brown wolf smiled gently at Fåk, so she took a piece of meat and left to eat it alone.
The words rung in her brain though. Alpha?
-
She hid behind a rock, not in the river this time, and her heart beat fast, and then she covered her warm face with her paws. What am I doing? She thought as she heard Borgs voice softly call for her outside her cave. She peeked out at him. This time his jewellery stuck out to her like a thorn in her paw. It was beautiful, he was adorned so carefully. Teeth. Were they the teeth of his enemies? Beautiful but threatening. This is the outfit of an alpha. Oh god, what am I doing?! She thought again as she realized she was hiding from an Alpha. She carefully stepped out from behind the rock.
"Oh, I didn't know you were here, did you wait a long time?" She tried to sound innocent. His face lit up as he saw her and it made her feel warm and nervous.
"Hey, why didn't you keep your promise?" He pouted all of a sudden.
"W-what?" Fåks ears pulled back and she was almost scared.
"You said you'd come say hi to me next time you visited my pack," he sounded quite sad, and it made her feel guilty, "hey, is something wrong?"
His concerned voice made her look up at him and she felt so dumb. His jewellery, his stature, his gaze. Of course he was an alpha, of course. He was adorned from head to toe. A magnificent elk pelt on his shoulders, strings adorned with fangs hung over his back and were wrapped around his tail and leg. On his front paw, he had a ring.
"Maybe we shouldn't see eachother anymore," Fåk blurted out.
"What?" He sounded surprised, and she avoided his fiery gaze as he walked closer, "why? Did I do something wrong?"
Fåk stuttered and hummed and turned away from him and started walking away, but he ran up in front of her.
"What's wrong, Fåk?" He asked gently and she turned her face away, backing up until she realized her path was blocked.
"I don't- um I'm just really busy, I'm moving away and umm," she fell silent, trying to come up with a good excuse.
"Enough," suddenly his voice was commanding, "look at me."
Fåk looked up at him, feeling nervous and shy, but when she looked into his eyes she took a deep slow breath to avoid gasping. There was just something about his eyes, well something about him that made her lose her breath. She didn't want to stop seeing him, but she knew she had to, and tears started forming in her eyes.
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