"So, food! How does hunting down an elk and tearing out its throat sound? Or devouring five goats? Or stomping on frogs and eating their legs?" Thomas cackles as he walks down the street. The strange fey then pints at a building down the street and adds, "Or how about there? I hear it is the wurst place in town."
"You are.. how can you be so .. peppy.. after that performance?" Redmane asks, gesturing back to the amphitheater. "And.. uh.. this place should be fine?"
"What would you prefer me to be? Dour? Tired? Polka-dotted?" Thomas asks as he spins around and walks backwards so that he can look at Redmane as they walk.
"I don't know!" the she-wolf says, exasperated. "I would be a wreck I think." She hurries forward to see if Thomas loses his balance though.
No, he doesn't ... probably to make her more exasperated. He sticks out his tongue ... which is disturbing if only because he's shifting some when he does so, reverting to the half-wolf shape Redmane wears ... which of course makes him larger than her. "I'm alive and I intend to enjoy it," he notes once his jaws quit squirming about. "If it would make you feel better, I could blame you for what happened..."
"I blame you for not bringing me along," Redmane says, and tries to poke Thomas in the chest. She also realizes that he was reacting to her scent while still in fey form. She has to wonder what would happen to her if she tried to return to her human shape.
She also finds she has this strange urge to remain in a semi-lupine form; as if it might actually be difficult to try and completely change back right now. "Well, I could hardly be a dashing hero of legend if I hadn't gone alone!" he claims after being poked in the chest. "Besides, you had more important matters to contend with.
"More important than going on an adventure?" Redmane asks, and narrows her eyes. "It's because I got old, isn't it? I still ended up going after you anyway."
"You had lands to rule and horses to look after," Thomas points out, "I was 'decomissioned', more or less. And I thought you went after Ahearn, not me."
"I never slept with Ahearn," Redmane grumbles pointedly. And the grumble echoes in her stomach. Maybe werewolves need to eat more often..
Thomas actually stumbles. "Thank you for the mental image of you and Ahearn," he grumbles, then spins around. Just in time, too. They've reached the storefront. He wasn't kidding about wurst, it seems this shop specializes is sausages. There looks to be a small lunch counter inside, along with the main counter for buying meat. He opens the door and waves Redmane through, noting, "After you."
Redmane pauses, as if unsure, then steps on ahead into the shop towards the lunch counter.
And of course Redmane feels Thomas 'paw' swat her on the butt as she goes past him! "Aroo," she hears him tease as he follows her inside.
Also, inevitably, Redmane jumps forward and lets out a yelp! "What was that for?" she asks, rubbing her rear even though it was just a light swat.
"You smell nice," Thomas answers, then heads up to the counter himself. HE flicks a little ceramic bell with a claw tip. A curtain leading to the back room parts and out comes a /beautiful/ fey/lupine with silver-streaked black hair. "Hello," she rumbles to the two, her pointed ears perking slightly as she smiles toothily. "Are you seeking the freshest meats in town, perhaps? A bite for lunch? Something ... more?"
"Lunch!" Redmane replies with a grin, then perks up her ears. "Wait.. something more? What else do you offer?"
"Oh, well, that depends on the guest," the fey woman says to Redmane, that smile never wavering. "I sometimes take people on hunts, or arrange duels between packmates for changes in rank. Sometimes I even arrange certain matings. You see ... the butcher shoppe is quite similar to the taverns in fey towns. Very ... popular."
"Oh.. well, a hunt might be nice," Redmane notes, glancing at Thomas. "After I take care of something first."
"What do you need to take care of? I think we should just have some sandwiches right now. Bad idea to hunt on an empty stomach. Causes the whole problem with wanting to go after something huge," Thomas remarks as he hops onto one of the few chairs near the lunch counter.
"I need a bath," Redmane says, taking the next chair. "There's some special soap I need to use."
"You don't smell like a sock yet," Thomas quips. The fey behind the counter laughs.
"We have just started preparing a simple dish we heard mortals seem to enjoy. A sausage grilled and such into a split roll of bread," the fey woman offers. "Would you be interested?"
Trying to ignore the laughter, Redmane nods. "A frankfurter? Do you have pickle relish and mustard too?" she asks.
"We have mustard. But ... pickle relish? Is that some sort of strange love potion for pickles?" the fey asks Redmane.
Thomas hooks some toe-claws into a chair leg and slides it out from the lunch counter for Redmane.
"No, it's just.. chopped up pickles, I guess," Redmane says.
"Hm, I suppose we could make that. Would you like one, then?" the fey asks.
"I would," Thomas says.
"Me too!" Redmane agrees. "Too bad you don't have any cola though."
"Cola?" the fey asks, looking confused. She shakes her head, then slips back into the 'kitchen'.
"You are acting a little funny," Thomas finally says to Redmane. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm.. It's.. girl stuff," Redmane says under her breath.
"Anything I can help with?" Thomas asks and leans a little closer to Redmane. He sure smells musky ... but in a good way.
Redmane whines a little, then stops herself. "I need to use some special soap to cover my scent, so.. you can help with that, I guess," she mutters. "You know.. get my back and stuff.." And then you'll smell like mint too, she thinks.
"Why ... are you asking me to bathe with you?" Thomas asks, grinning like a goofy canine. He then leans in and licks her nose. "And your scent is fine. There's no reason to cover it."
"It's making you act odd around me though," Redmane notes. "It's.. you know.. a 'ready to mate' sort of scent."
"I'm acting odd?" Thomas asks. "I thought I always acted odd."
"I mean, you're acting attentive," Redmane points out. "It's from the scent, not because.. well, it's from the scent."
Thomas then blinks a few times. And boy does he grin. "Red ... are you telling me you're in heat?" he asks. With the way he clenches his jaw, he's probably trying not to laugh!
"No, just that I'm getting there," Redmane says with a growl. "So.. I have to take some steps to keep men from going all goofy around me."
"Oh, I see. You don't want any attention, not even from me," Thomas says and sits back. HE sniffs loudly and turns his head.
"Hey, you weren't that interested before," Redmane points out. "That's why I'm not letting anything happen because of odors and wolf-brains. That's.. just not romantic. But if it torments you because now your body wants me... well, if I can survive rejection then so can you, I'm sure." She then maliciously wags her tail to blow more of her scent at Thomas.
"When did I ever reject you?" Thomas asks, his head still turned away in a huff. "I've included you in lots of things."
Redmane sniffs now. "So you've already forgotten the Honeymoon Suite?" she accuses.
"That wasn't rejection!" Thomas claims. "It was entirely too comfortable there. And flowery. Flowers steal my strength!"
"Too comfortable?" Redmane asks, one bushy eyebrow raised.
"Of course! Adventurers are supposed to sleep in moldy old castles and caves," Thomas claims, "Not some lavish room! But then I suppose you like flowers now; your staff keep dressing you as one..."
"My staff are flowers," Redmane says with a sigh. "So, if we'd been in a barn or the lair of a defeated enemy or some hollowed out tree you'd have succumbed to my charms?"
Thomas' answer is to grin and spread his arms. It's also then that the fey lady returns carrying two plates with ... well, a footlong sausage on each one, stuffed into what looks like a near full loaf of bread.
"Now that's a wiener," Thomas claims, his attention now on the food at hand.
Redmane's mouth waters anyway. "That looks tasty!" she says.
The plates are set onto the counter. "One moment and I'll get the mustard and ... relief. No, relish, that's what you called it," she says, then ducks back into the kitchen.
"She's a tease," Redmane notes of the absent server. "Bringing it out before the condiments.."
"Is all you think about food?" Thomas asks as he reaches over to flick her eartip.
"Of course not," Redmane says with a wolfy pout. "There's fighting too. And ranching. And.. some other stuff!"
"Other stuff?" Thomas asks. Redmane is spared from actually having to answer as the lady returns carrying a pot of some yellowish goo that is probably the mustard and a plate piled with chopped pickles
"Ah, proper wiener dressings!" Redmane says, and actually claps her hands together.
"She's an expert on wieners," Thomas tells the fey as she is setting the plate and pot down. "And ... just send the bill to the inn? We're staying there."
"I know you are, who you are, and the food is free," the fey lady comments. "We do not get famous guests often, legends ... well, never until today. Do enjoy. If you still wish to hunt later, well ... just stop by again."
"My dad is great with the barbecue grill," Redmane notes. "Remember when you over for dinner, Thomas?" she asks as she applies the mustard and pickles to her sausage.
"I vaguely remember eating too much. I think I ended up laying on the porch step moaning and burping," Thomas admits as he just puts mustard on his ridiculously large sausage-dog-thing.
Redmane begins wolfing hers down first. It's tricky to remember to chew with this body!
And for once Thomas is actually dainty about eating. HAving a longer head means greater chance for a huge mess. He still burps, though. Some manners never improve.
"That was great! I bet the 4th of July franks won't be this big," Redmane notes, and rubs her belly.
"I hope they won't be. Otherwise you'll have to roll home because you'll get fat," Thomas taunts, reaches over, and flicks her nose. "But on the plus side we could always claim you were Ahearn's new ball..."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny," Redmane says. "I think those were caribou sausages."
"How can you tell?" Thomas asks. "Is it because you caribou me?" He twitches as he tries to not laugh at his own joke.
Redmane rolls her eyes, then presses a finger to Thomas's nose to see if it's cold or not. "Well, what else is there to hunt that's big enough? Wild boar?" she asks.
Yes, it's cold! Redmane's finger is also soon wet because he licks it. "Boar, yak, caribou, deer, buffalo, could be anything," Thomas says, "But most likely deer or caribou, yes."
"So.. going to help me take a bath so you can go back to not finding me attractive?" Red asks teasingly.
"Sure," Thomas agrees, "I'll even dye you a rainbow of colors while we're at it so that no one would be able to stand looking at you!"
"Well, we could forego the soap, and then.. well, how good is your self control?" the she-wolf teases further. "But I need you to not smell good either."
"I am the epitome of self-control. Have I ever done something on impulse?" Thomas replies. He even puts his hand on his heart for emphasis.
"I don't know how to answer that," Redmane admits. "But just in case, you still have that tin I gave you right?"
"Should. We haven't been attacked or otherwise robbed," Thomas says as he stacks his plate on top of Redmane's, then stands up and stretches. "Hm, I also suspect you just want to see if that old spring is still around..."
"I'd almost forgotten about that!" Redmane claims. "It must still be around.."
"Or .. it could have been renovated into some cheezy .... nah. That only happens in the mortal world, I think," Thomas quips as he heads for the door. "C'mon, lets go find your soap and then we'll hunt the elusive cavern!"
Getting up, Redmane smiles and says, "I'm sure we'll find it. You always find what you're looking for, right?" She stretches, and then pats Tom's butt. "After you, Lord Explorer!"
Obtaining mint-scented soap turns out to be surprisingly easy. It's apparently quite popular and sold in quantity in the town's general store 'The Lupocathary'. Alas, the reason it's popular is also well known to the shop keeper whom grinned widely and sniffed the air when Redmane asked for it. He also had this habit of rubbing up against her whenever he got the chance. That is ... up to the point Thomas accidentally spilled a can of red pepper powder and sent the man into a massive sneezing fit
With the keeper distracted, the pair escaped with little further torment ... and they even paid for the soap. It would be bad form for a legend to steal after all! The next half an hour was getting directions from four different people before they found the old hot springs. Interestingly, the place had not changed that much. The broken marble was repaired and the stone all scrubbed, but the general look and feel had not been significantly updated. The pool now stands before Redmane, steaming away in its own silent contentment. That is ... if water can ever really feel content. It's all wet, after all.
"I'm suddenly nervous," Redmane says, and looks to Thomas. "You go in first, like last time. But without a bimbo on your arm.."
"Bimbo?" Thomas asks and gives Redmane a really odd look. He can't help himself and rolls his eyes as she sheds his clothing down to boxer shorts. A maniacal grin and dash later and Thomas cannonballs into the middle of the pool with a splash!
"Aghhgh!" Redmane complains, half growling as she get splashed. "I hope these magic clothes are waterproof too," she mutters, then tosses the soap to Thomas.
Thomas deftly catches the bar of soap! "You're so growly," he teases as he idly floats about in the pool and juggles the bar. "You can jsut go back as full wolf if they're too wet to wear, you know."
"I don't know that I can change that easily right now," Redmane notes, and maliciously swivels her hips and rear as she disrobes, in how she thinks a stripper or burlesque girl probably does.
So of course Thomas wolf-whistles! "Never know until you try! Of course you might get stuck..." he teases. "Just like old times!"
Finally, Redmane enters the spring and starts to relax. "As I recall, you were the one who was stuck," she points out, and tries to sink Thomas by yanking down on his tail.
"Arg...," Thomas starts with and ends up making a bloop when he dips under water. A very slick bar of soap comes flying out of the water a second later towards Redmane!
"Hah!" Redmane barks and makes a grab for the soap. Even without it, Thomas's wet-dog odor is helping her to think clearly again.
Having claws sure makes it easier to catch the soap. "I wasn't stuck!" Thomas claims as he surfaces, "I never mated with a wolf back then!" His ears splay to the sides as he sticks out his tongue.
"Oh, I thought you meant being able to change shape," Redmane notes, resisting the urge to try and nip that tongue in the tastebuds. "But now that you mention it.. would you have married that wolf girl who was glomming onto you when I showed up?"
"Who, me?" Thomas deflects. "Wolf girl? Oh that one. She was kinda cute ... if you like werewolves."
Bumping noses, Redmane asks, "But you only like this werewolf, right? Or at least.. right now?"
"Oh, well ... if you must know," Thomas starts so say ... then dunks Redmane by grabbing her shoulders and pushing down! She goes under water just before Thomas actually answered the question!
While down there, Redmane tugs on Thomas's shorts to see if it'll make him let her go.
Oh, it does. It also gives Redmane a rather interesting perspective on male werewolves before he pushes himself back and away in the pool.
After squirting water out of her mouth, Redmane retrieves the soap, and says, "We'll have to do each other's backs. Can I trust you back there?"
"Depends on if you sit in my lap," Thomas teases as he lazily floats about again.
"Is there an underwater seat I don't know about?" Redmane asks with a toothy grin. "Maybe it would be safer to let you wash my front then, hmmmm?"
"The hormones are getting to you," Thomas teases, "I'll behave as long as you do." He leans back ... and ends up floating on his back in the water.
"Now who's teasing!" Redmane barks, and starts to work up a lather with the soap. I wonder if this will sting at all, she thinks, and decides to test it on Thomas first. Specifically on his exposed stomach.
"Ack! That tingles!" Thomas complains, fails, and promptly sinks back into the water
"Good to know," Redmane says, and rises out of the water enough to try it on her own belly. Of course.. it probably needs to go wherever the pheremones are produced. In hindsight, she should have asked about that.
Thomas comes up sputtering. The soap does tingle, but it's not nearly as bad as Thomas was making out it seems. He's busy knocking water out of his ears now ... and it isn't likely he would know much about where it needs to be used, anyway. Safest solution then is, of course, to use it everywhere!
Redmane hmms, and decides she'll probably regret this, but.. "Thomas, I need you to sniff me and then rub the soap in really well wherever it makes you feel like you want to grab me," she says. "Then I can do an all over lather, and that should be all you need too.."
Thomas actually barks a laugh at that and floats over to Redmane. What happens next might be the most embarassing moment in Redmane's life as she's carefully snuffled from head to toe ... and then soaped in the oddest areas, from her wrists and ankles, to the base of her spine ... and then in other really sensitive areas. It also doesn't help that at one point his chest his pressed up against her back and his arms are around her. The urges that this triggers are ... strange to say the least. She so wants to complete the shift and be a full wolf ... and this feeling only gets worse when she feels Thomas' jaws lightly bite down on the scruff of her neck. Everything around her seems to stop ... and fade to a fog.
Pine? No ... cedar. The scent of the wood is overpowering as is the dew in the air. Branches rustle around her as the fog seems to sink lower. Redmane is laying face down in the center of a ring of stones. It's night-time and moonlight bathes the circle in its silvery magic. All around her the forest feels alive. t's also then that she realizes she's still in half-wolf form ... and completely alone. Well, seemingly alone, anyway. She feels like she's being watched.
"Hmmmm, either Thomas hasn't been brushing his teeth or.. uh.. I'm at a loss," the wolf-woman mutters. So she clears her throat as she sits up, and says aloud, "Hello?"
"Why are you in my forest?" comes a feminine voice from, well, everywhere. "What do you want?"
"That depends on.. who you are and where I am?" Redmane asks cautiously. Could the springs have been part of a fairy circle or Siege?
A myriad of shadows dart around the circle. It could be one creature, it could be many. And no matter what, the wind always seems to shift to blow away whatever scent this creature might have. "You're in my forest," the voice claims, as if that is answer enough. "Do you want to be part of it?"
This question flummoxes Redmane for a moment. She has no idea what agreeing or disagreeing would entail, after all. "I'm really just.. visiting," she explains. "I can't make a decision like that on the spur of the moment."
Redmane suddenly has that neck-tingling feeling that someone is standing right behind her. "Why not?" the voice asks fro m right behind her, "Is there something wrong with the forest?" There's a vague tone of someone who may feel insulted.
"I.. haven't seen it yet," Redmane explains, sniffing the air before turning her head to look behind her.
Of course the wind is blowing just so to make it impossible to scent the person or creature behind her. "How can you not have seen it? You are here and you wear the skin of one in-between. Don't you love the wild?" the person asks.
"Well.. I don't know that I'd love to be part of the wild, but I do love it," Redmane notes. "I can stand outside of it, and still admire and protect it. But if I were part of it.. I wouldn't be as effective."
"Why do you say that? Your mate is part of the wild and has protected it. He is an old spirit," the voice comments. There's a blur of white as the creature spins around and comes to stand in front of Redmane. It's ... a little girl? Well, it looks like one, anyway. Maybe four feet tall, thin as a sapling, and with paper-white skin and hair. The only color it has is the emerald green of its eyes. She cocks her head to the side as she peers up at Wolfmane. Her eyes go wide and she quickly back-pedals away from Redmane! "I know you! Monster!" she gasps and points. "You're one of them!"
"I'm not a monster!" Redmane declares.. then has to pause and think about it. If this child-spirit is that old, then yes.. "I'm not who I was back in the Old World, and the Sunken Lands," she explains.
The child darts and hides behind one of the rocks. She peeks out and comments, "The trappings have changed, the soul endures. You are still part of the Old World. You cannot sever all ties or you would cease to be." Her head disappears back behind the rock ... then reappears behind another one ten feet away! "His daughter. Have you come to burn my forest to its roots?"
"King Balor was never truly my father, for he never truly considered me as his own," Redmane states firmly. "They exiled me from their world, for allowing myself to be taken captive."
"Then do you seek to destroy us to regain his favor?" the girl asks as she crawls on top of one of the stones and crouches there as if preparing to pounce. "Do you hunt one of the old to take him before Balor? Sacrifice his soul to the Undying lands? Is that why you are with him?"
"I belong to Cerridwen the Moon, Goddess of Wisdom and Nature," Redmane says, sitting still within the stone circle. "She reforged me, so that I could work off my debt of evil, and I have paid that debt. They one I travel with helped me to do so, and showed me that I could love and be loved again."
The girl leaps towards Redmane. As she arcs through the air, her skin flares with white, almost blinding, light. When she lands, Redmane finds herself nearly nose to nose with a spectral-white wolf. It glows almost like the moon itself as it peers into Redmane's eyes; its fur rippling as if it were swimming beneath the surface of a lake. "I am Aisling, I am the land; its dream," the spirit says. "I have spent long Years in the cold; a fading dream. So few of the old ones are left. History claimed them one by one. The first to leave us was King Riordan. Then Lady February was taken. We feel the passing of each one into memory, into dreams. February's son left us long ago ... and did not come in dreams; gone from historie itself. Then ... the spring came and his scent returned. Were you responsible for this? You walk with him now."
"We... came back together," Redmane says, trying to keep her hackles from rising in response to the posture of the white wolf. "We were both reborn into the mortal world, and only recently found our way back to Mirari. I cannot say I was responsible, only that I was involved."
"He has been corrupted by Mortal's touch? A horrible fate," the white wolf 'says' as it circles Redmane. "Is that why you both have taken the touch of the moon? To purify yourselves?"
"Many Years past, we both came together to save the wolves of Abnehmenvolf from a demonic influence that had poisoned their relations with the fey," Redmane explains. "Now that we are returned, we chose to visit them again at their own invitation. For me.. yes, it was purifying. To set my past behind me, and the burden of its evil."
"So you do wish to be part of my forest?" Asling asks again, her white muzzle appearing over Redmane's right shoulder and soon putting them 'eye to eye', at least in terms of Redmane's right eye and Asling's left. "You wish to be fey? A shifter? At peace? Why are you here? Why did you call to me?"
"I.. did not know I was calling you.." Redmane says, and pauses to think. It's very much like the question Cerridwen put to her in the temple. "I'm not ready to be at peace yet," she notes. "Adventure is something I yearn for still. To be fey would be.. to lose much of what I am. To walk in the forest and in the city, as a shifter.. I don't know. I don't know what it would mean for my future, or.. a future with Thomas. I need to be something he won't be afraid of losing. But I also need to live in two worlds, as I'm still part of the mortal world and this one. Is that too much?"
"You are still lost then," Asling observes as she resumes circling. "Seeking to be happy but unsure of what will get you there. That is ... a very mortal feeling. Perhaps when you have been with us again for many Years you can decide. I ... envy you in that and other things."
"Other things?" Redmane asks, thinking about it. "You mean Thomas?"
Asling hops away and then back up onto a rock. Her head tilts back and somehow the wolf-creature manages a wry smile. "I could never catch him. Not in Years of hunting," she notes.
"Well, the trick is.. to not chase him," Redmane suggests. "He enjoys the chase, the hunt.. he doesn't want it to ever end. You just have to be there for him, as much as possible. He won't lean on you, won't often thank you.. but it will mean something."
"Oh? So I may have him?" the creature asks. "Now that you understand him so, surely you are bored of him..."
The red wolf barks in laughter. "If he outlives me, then you can try to sire a new breed of Old Ones," Redmane offers. "And that is not an invitation to hunt me. I respect you, but do not think I would hold back my claws if it came down to a contest."
"And here I was going to show him the joys of the shift," the white wolf teases, "And passion under a moonlit sky. You would deny him that out of your own desires, mm?"
"I wont deny him anything he asks of me," Redmane claims. "But I know that being the hunter is not the way to win him. I need to be the prey, as difficult as that seems."
"There is one more thing that he needs to truly be tamed," the wolf offers as she turns her head towards the dark forest that surrounds them. "But time grows short and I must hunt. I doubt there is anything I could tell you that you do not already know."
"Why would I want to tame him though?" Redmane asks with a wolfy grin. "Are you going to try and tempt him away while we are both able to shift?" she asks, before the wolf can fully escape.
The wolf looks back and licks her lips. "He may choose to remain a shifter. I may ... encourage that," the spirit notes. She leaps from her rock and out into the forest. It's odd, as bright as she glowed, the forest swallows her without trace and leaves Redmane alone once more.
"Hmmm," Wolfmane rumbles, and trice to recall the sensation of Thomas biting the scruff of her neck.
Redmane feels tingly and all minty. And there's something biting the back of her neck ... and her hands are now mostly paws ... and she's smaller and ... egad, she's most of the way to a full wolf now!
"Graw!" she barks out, wondering if her condition and the bite have triggered the change.. and how she'll be able to use soap if she does! She has to act quickly.. so lightly elbows Thomas in the gut!
It's really hard to elbow someone when all you have are mostly canine fore limbs! But somehow she manages it! The grip on her scruff releases and there's yet another splash as Thomas apparently goes under water again.
Redmane grits her teeth - partly in effort, partly to try and physically keep her jaw from elongating further - and tries to pull back. Two legs, hands.. especially hands, she urges.
It's difficult, but not impossible. She feels her body squirm has bones adjust. Her face shrinks while her 'paws' extend back into fingers. It's not painful at all; it actually feels rather ... good. She realizes she could go back to completely 'normal' with more effort ... or she can choose to stop at half-wolf.
Stopping mid-way, Redmane blinks and has to take deep breaths. She's tingling, and it's not from the soap. "Wow.. so that's what she must have meant about the pleasures of the shift.." she mutters, then remembers Thomas and turns around.
A gray and black complete wolf is crawling out of the bath on the other end. He sneezes, then shakes out a bunch of water.
"I thought you had more self control," Redmane notes, smirking and trying not to giggle.
The wolf just snorts and practically marches out of the bath house dripping wet! Once again, Redmane finds herself alone.
"I should have brought a leash," the woman grumbles, and sinks down into the water to blow bubbles.
And so ... Redmane finds herself alone in what is now a very minty bubble-bath. And surely Thomas-Wolf won't be out there alone where Asling can find him. It had to be a weird dream after all, right?"
"Why can't I ever enjoy a bath with that man," Redmane sighs and gets out of the water, shake-shake-shakes herself as dry as possible, gets dressed.. and then tries to go full wolf so she can track down her erstwhile 'mate' before he gets (her, likely) into trouble..