It was goodbye that she was saying. In the final throes of her mourning, having decided to move on and travel northward, Eek found herself circling the perimeter of the fog drowned woods she'd called home since the death of the last winter. One final lap before moving on to pack life. She was nervous beyond belief, with that hated uncertainty twisting her gut. She was not confident that she would be accepted, or that it would give her what she wanted. She was an optimistic girl, but not air headed. the exercise of this farewell trot would hopefully burn away the fear.


She kept her mind off of what lay before her, instead focusing on appreciating the silent beauty of the land. She saw specters in the curling mist, she nodded to the roving deer. What light may have cut through the trees was drowned by dark bloated clouds, bringing to the woods an early night. But as to be expected of such an indecisive girl, at the southernmost edge of the area, where one landscape began to leak into another, eek grew tired of this ritual.


Thumping her tail-less rump to the ground, she stared out of the woods and into the neighboring scenery, a slight pout on her lips. Moments passed her by, tendrils of mist wrapping themselves around her shadowed limbs. She was eased for a short time, colorless eyes drinking in these novel details, but with time it gnawed at her again; boredom. After moments of hesitation and tamping of the ground, Eek released into the air a series of staccato sounds, asking for company.

She wasn't expecting so swift a response. Though excited by the opportunity of company, her initial impulse was to feel concern. The sound he made came across as ill and she immediately took to inspecting his health. Abruptly she had swiveled around, ears forward and neck stretched out. Her introductory sampling of his scent did not yield any whiff of contagion, and so she made sure to appear friendly as she inched closer to him for a better sniff. Her nose wriggled with effort until finally, at a few feet away, she was certain that no sickness laced his breath.



With joy, she threw out a grin and slapped her front paws against the ground a-rhythmically. Would this be a new friend? How she hoped so. Since leaving her last home, she had been unable to gather friends and as instinct would have it, she yearned for company to allow her to feel normalcy. Not even consistent company. Just the thought of a connection somewhere in this land would suffice. Her stance now was childish, her tail-less rump swaying. But just as she would introduce herself, his wordless introduction repeated itself in her mind and she felt compelled to ask.



"Are you sick? I know some tricks to soothe a sore threat, if need be," Eek offered with an encouraging smile. She nearly wished he would say yes, as that was how selfish her impulse to coddle other creatures could be. The poor girl lacked any idea as to what truly ailed the man, nor how her prying might affect the atmosphere of their meeting.

Well, wasn't he the friendly one? Except, then, why didn't he speak, and how could he sound so hampered? Eek had never before met a mute, and it failed to occur to her that something made it physically impossible for this man to communicate normally. Rather, she took it as his choice. There was no offense for her to experience in making this mistake; company was company, no matter the method of conversation. But still, curiosity pressed in on her, and so she would try once more to get a few words out of him.



"Well that's good then," she supposed. His posture was not that of someone needing help, and that caused a slight disappointment within her that she did not let reflect outwardly. Still she yearned to discover an ailment, to cure him and mother him. Ah well.



He had given her direction, but she wasn't entirely sure what he intended. Hesitantly, she took a few steps forward, indicating her readiness to follow his lead, at least for now. Who knew, perhaps he was a tad bit unhinged like herself.



"Are we going for a walk?" she asked with a grin.



"If we are to be friends, you should know that my name is Eek. What's yours... ?" She supposed that if he would not vocalize his answer, she would cease to try and coax words from him.

Nothing. Focusing on his single eye made it even more clear to see the emotions that would cloud it, the emotions he apparently could not voice. She was bothering him with her probing, and so Eek decided she would stop. However, being unable to receive a vocal response did not mean she herself needed to be silent. Eek was a paradoxical creature in that the instincts of her kin drove her to seek company, but her heart had no interest in such matters. What Eek loved best was to know that she was not alone while staying out of sight. But she had so many thoughts inside of her head, and when given an audience, at times they just poured out. Now was beginning to feel like one of those times; unfortunately for Hati.



"I'm sorry, I'll stop with the questions. Though I must call you something. I hope you don't mind. Let's see..."



She pondered the possibilities of what to call her new friend while trailing behind him, oblivious to where he was leading her. Eek was a treasure trove of names; she had a fascination with them, thanks to her mothering obsessions. Every creature she had adopted had been given a unique name, and she never reused one even once.



"How does... 'Tyst' sound?" she inquired. It was a word she had learned in her travels, another land's way of saying 'silent.' Swiftly, she realized her error in ending her sentence upturned, asking him for a response; "Sorry. Tyst it is."



She continued to trot along behind him, organizing her thoughts, words pooling on the tip of her tongue until the scent of blood entered her nostrils. The first pang to hit her was hunger, but as her eyes caught up with her lungs her heart stopped and her desires swiftly changed course.



Before them lay an injured rabbit, still gangly with youth. It wasn't quite a baby, but it was close enough to strike hard across Eek's heartstrings. Only heartbeats separated time for her as everything slowed and her ears flooded with white noise. She saw his wry grin, his muscles contract, and his body act on the purpose it was built for. With a thunderous snarl, Eek acted on her own impulses.



She lunged forward, putting everything she had into passing Tyst and threw herself in front of the injured hare. Aggression carved her outline jagged, tail, ears and hackles all raised as an open mouth bared its lethal weapons. Her colorless eyes shown every bit of her insanity.



"How dare you attack a child," she hissed, the hush of her voice nothing but venomous. She wished to heal the poor baby, but dared not to turn back on this monster.

She had thought him to be kind, call it discrimination, due to the nature enforced upon him by his handicaps. How wrong she had been. There was nothing worse in Eek's mind than a creature that would harm youth; though her own trespasses against the children she attempted to care for were never viewed as this, for if Eek thought those times had been her own fault, she would surely die of guilt and misery. But what now to do with this man? It was a difficult situation; though their disadvantages, hers of size and his of sight, surely were balanced, she did not know of his experiences and training. If he'd been half-sighted his whole life, he surely would've learned to make up for it in his aggressions. Not to mention, in order to fight him she would be forced to leave the baby behind her completely without shield. The indecision froze her to the spot, the hatred and violence of her stance unchanging.



Then, he began to step forward, a solemn determination in his single eye. Eek snapped her jaws at him, a sharp click that was quickly swallowed up by the hungry, dying tendrils of fog. She wanted him to leave her, to be scared off, but the bastard had an idea in his head that he did not appear all too ready to let go of. She thought of words to say, of how to perfectly compact her disgust into verbal weaponry, but before she could think of even a sentence, an unwelcome stranger barged in upon the scene.



Eek swiftly adjusted her position, rear swiveling to the side so that she may square her front between the two, keeping both within her sights. A threatening growl dripped once more from her fangs, this other man immediately labeled as a threat. Eek would not be caught off guard, not when a child's life was at stake. Though maybe, she could persuade him to help her? Perhaps he had a heart, unlike her failed friend Tyst?



"This monster was going to attack the child!" she appealed, hoping desperately that he would not take Tyst's side. How could she fend off two of them?