Isaac and Tanya
Isaac was coming down the stairs when he spotted a van pulling up at their house. Who was that?
He got to the bottom of the stairs and opened the door. A couple of doors opened and Tanya stepped out.
"Tanya?" Isaac stared. "Why... Taylor!"
Tanya grinned as Isaac ran forward to greet his brother.
Taylor
Taylor jumped out of the van, then looked up with a grin on his face.
"Ike!" he exclaimed, rushing forward and hugging his brother.
"Oh man, it's so good to see you again. Where is everyone?"
Mouse, Natalia and Varian
Varian wrapped his/her tail around Mouse's throat as s/he stared around thoughtfully. There are many more people then I would have thought.
"You get that. C'mon, I need to ring Nyx and have her come pick you up." Mouse stepped out of the van and waved at Ike. "Hey, Ike!" She turned back to the van and gave her hand to Natalia. "C'mon, Natalia." The purple eyed girl crept out of the van and kept her eyes down as she stood behind Mouse. They still hadn't been able to convince her to take the collar and cuffs off. "Where's my Pack?" She frowned in concern.
Isaac
"Uhh... you sure have some... interesting company..." Isaac said, trying not to stare.
He shook himself.
"Well, Zac on the computer, I think Zoe and Mackie are playing in the rec room, Mom's gone grocery shopping and I'm not sure wher Jess and Avie are. I think Dad's in the office. Damn, it's good to see you again Tay! We missed you. What happened?"
Taylor
Taylor shook his head.
"I don't know, everything's just... woah," he threw his hands up.
"I seriously need to get back into the music detail. And I need something to eat. But first, I need to see the fuzzles again. I hope they were behaving themselves..."
He took Mouse's hand, glancing at Natalia warily.
"Let's get inside."
Mouse, Natalia and Varian
Natalia was cringing at the amount of space around her. It was all just too big. Mouse picked up on her unease. "C'mon, Natalia, we'll get inside." The mutant flashed her a look of appreciation from limpid eyes, then switched her eyes back to the ground. Mouse sighed unhappily, then started towards the door, holfing Taylor's hand. "This is Varian. Varian is a hybrid of mutant, Western dragon, T'ien Lung and Naga DNA. This is Varian's T'ien Lung form." Varian slipped from Mouse's shoulder and hovered for a moment, eyeing Ike before dropping gracefully to the ground. "This is Natalia. She's a mutant. She makes violets." Mouse recoiled from the feeling of despair that permeated the house and dropped Taylor's hand to run to where she felt her Pack. She saw them and stood in the doorway for a moment, horrified before dropping to her knees beside them.
Fafnir cracked open an eye and looked at her. 'Lo, Pack.
"What, what have you two done to yourselves? Oh, Faf, Bets..." Mouse petted them anxiously, trying to find out how far gone they were. "You didn't need to do this."
Did. Couldn't live without you. Bets said faintly. Tears started to pour down Mouse's face.
Tanya and Isaac
"Well, I'll let you guys settle in," Tanya smiled. "See you next month."
"Bye Tanya, and thanks," Isaac waved.
"No problem," Tanya replied, and got back into the van.
Isaac opened up the front door for everyone and showed them inside.
Mouse, Natalia and Varian
Varian padded in, and looked around, before shifting into a Naga form. "It isss nice." He nodded firmly. "Yessss, nice."
Natalia fiddled with the silver rings on one of the cuffs and didn't look anyone in the eye. Mouse went to the kitchen and got a dish of water and then disappeared back inside to tend to her Pack.
Fafnir and Bets lapped at the water gratefully. I don't want to see the two of you do this ever again. You hear me? Never again.
You won't. Fafnir promised.
Varian settled in a corner, supporting his body with a coil of tail. "Sssso, thisss isss outsside?" He hissed through sharp teeth.
"Yes, I...I remember this. I think." Natalia looked confused. "It is hard to remember what is, and what I forgot or made up."
Isaac and Zac
Isaac ran down the stairs and banged on the door to Zac's room.
"What?" came him impatient reply.
"Tay and Mouse are back!"
"What!"
The door opened two seconds later (if that) and Zac ran up the stairs.
"Tay!" he cried.
Taylor
"Zac!" Taylor exclaimed, hugging onto his younger brother as if they were kids again.
"Man, it's good to see you again. I feel kinda worried to ask what you got up to while I was gone."
His eyes moved to where Mouse had disappeared upstairs again.
"But... maybe it should wait."
Isaac and Zac
"You're back home barely ten minutes, and you already miss Mouse? Or is it your fuzzles?" Isaac grinned. "They've missed you too by the way."
"Yes," Zac agreed. "Very badly. Man, how long has it been?"
"Too long," Isaac put in.
"Yeah," then Zac's eyes widened, "you... you wouldn't know about..."
Zac trailed off and started walking up the stairs.
"Let's go tell your fuzzles you're back."
Natalia, Mouse and Varian
Natalia fidgeted. What was she meant to be doing? She sat down gracefully on the floor in a corner. Varian watched her, then yawned to display a shining array of pointed teeth.
"Why do you sit there?" Varian asked, face blending to become black African in appearance and the snake half of his body becoming glimmering black.
"I always sit down when the Masters don't need me," Natalia said confused.
"Ah, yesssss. The Whitecoats. They're not my Masters." Varian half closed an eye in contempt.
Mouse looked up as Taylor entered. "They were starving themselves to death. If we;d been two or three days more..." She just shook her head.
Taylor
Taylor's eyes widened and his mouth hung open.
"Fafnir?! Bets?!"
He collapsed down onto his knees at their side, lifting Bets' chin slightly.
"They didn't wanna live without Mousey," Mya sniffed.
Taylor looked up at the fuzzle, but was too shocked to notice how much she and her siblings had grown. He softly ran his fingers over Bets' head and down her side.
"We tried to make them eat," Xanthe added, "wanted them to. Wanted them to eat. Wouldn't eat."
"Doggies sad," Aricin put in.
Mouse
Bets licked Taylor's hand. It hurt too much. Without the two of you.
Was...dark. Fafnir lowered his face to the dish of water and lapped eagerly, his body making his demands known.
Mouse sat back on her heels, eyes showing her horror. "This...this is my fault. I've changed them, somehow. If they weren't, if I hadn't..." She shook her head slightly. "This is my fault."
Taylor
Taylor just shook his head.
"You couldn't have known this would happen," he almost whispered.
He cupped some of the water into his hand and made Bets drink it.
"I need..." he pursed his lips with a frown, "I think Dani might be able to help."
He looked up at Mouse.
"You don't know about her. She's... an ex. She helped Fafnir after you were taken by Spook. The trank was a bit much for him, and she healed him," he gulped.
Mouse
"God..." Mouse bowed her head as tears slipped down her cheeks. "I knew I should never have stopped running. Everything just caught up to me when I did."
A pack needs a territory. Fafnir raised his head to look her in the eyes. And...is new Pack you have found. He shook his head slightly, trying to clear the dizziness from it.
We don't blame you. You shouldn't blame yourself. Bets added gently.
Jessica
Jess came back from the mall and came inside. Mackie came running up.
"Jessi, Jessi! Tay's home!" Jess grinned and went looking from him.
"Taylor!" she cried, hugging him. "Oh, I missed you so much!"
Taylor
"Hey Jess," he said quietly, hardly even looking up, "I missed you too. I missed everyone."
He scratched Bets behind the ear, then stood.
"We need to get them some food," he said softly.
Isaac and Zac
"Already far ahead of you," Isaac replied, telekinetically bring some food into the room. "What, you think we would just let the starve themselves without trying to get them to eat? It's been waiting for them..."
"And waiting. And we've had to chuck out a whole bunch because they just left it there," Zac added.
Taylor
Taylor took some of the food and knelt down to Bets again.
Slowly, he tried to make her eat it. He couldn't stop the smile crossing his face when he saw her trying.
"We need to get Dani over here again. I just hate calling her like this, it feels like I'm just using her. I haven't actually talked properly to her for... I don't know how long."
Mouse and Varian
Mouse took some of the food and started to feed it to Fafnir. You'll probably like this girl. He told Mouse before gulping down the meat she fed to him. She fixed me from the stuff that woman fired into me.
"Don't give them too much," Mouse warned Taylor. "Their stomachs will have shrunk, and they probably can't take much heavy food."
Varian was bored, so s/he decided to shift into Western dragon form and went to find the people s/he had come with. The place smelt interesting and the little dragon poked her/his head into corners, wings fluttering slightly. S/he stalked into the room Mouse and Taylor were in. What are they? Varian demanded imperiously.
"This is Fafnir, he's a wolf. And this is Bets. She's a malamute."
Why do they look nearly the same then? Explain! Varain walked over to Mouse and stared at Fafnir. The wolf growled.
"Varian's a puppy, Fafnir," Mouse said wearily. "She, he, just wants to know what you are."
Rude impertinent thing. Fafnir sniffed.