Rind.

A day had passed, and they hadn't spoken about it. There had been a weird tension between himself and Kellanar, and each hour it seemed to grow stronger. Kellan, who had never previously gone out in the afternoons, disappeared suddenly that day, with no warning or explanation. Gustin ate the afternoon meal alone, then tried to spend the time napping, but for reasons unclear to him, visions of caravans and faceless beauties named Ideste kept him awake each time he closed his eyes. Had what Kellan told him been true? The wolfe had no reason to lie. Gustin shivered. The idea of another wolfe seeking him - hunting him - sent a chill through him. How could he know the wolfe would be anything like Kellan? Maybe he would be cruel and jealous. Maybe he wouldn't let Gustin go outside at all, winter or not. His throat closed up a little at even the idea of it and he felt dizzy. How could Kellan abandon him to a life like that? How could his own wolfe just leave him? Trade him, that's what he'd said, but leaving is what it was. Gustin shook his head to clear it. This was crazy. Kellan wasn't his wolfe, he was his warden, and there couldn't be any abandoning done when you weren't connected to each other in the first place. And besides, even if he did get traded - it was just a change of scene, nothing more, nothing less. Even if it got ugly...well, it wouldn't be the first sticky situation he'd been in, and he'd always gotten out. Always had and always would. He was a runner, after all, and damn good at it. No thing living, hell or on earth, could ever keep him trapped. Gustin would always get free.

Kellan came home before dusk with a full cloth. He dropped it on the floor and unbundled it without speaking to Gustin. Gus didn't care - he was too confused and annoyed and absorbed with his own thoughts and emotions to even want any conversation. After a few minutes of dividing things into small bowls and slicing rabbits for the cooking pot, Kellan abruptly got to his feet and dropped something on the table in front of Gustin. It floated, midair for a moment, before dance-descending to touch the wood. It was a small red feather. Gustin looked worriedly up at Kellan.
"Did you - "
Kellan shook his head.
"Found a nest. Redchest birds." he paused. "Spring comes soon."
Gustin looked down at the feather and smiled. Kellan had brought him a gift.

~:~

The wolfe disappeared two more afternoons in a row, and by the second one, Gustin was desperately bored. After washing everything within reach, stacking up and counting the excess of soap he'd made on other bored days, repositioning the furs and then re-repositioning them because Kellan complained that he'd tripped over one, and watching the windows for hours, hoping for signs of springtime life, he gave it all up and went rifling through the cabinets for any overlooked stash of Kellan's moonshine. Damn clever wolfe had hidden it all. Gustin kicked the table and went in to take a shower.

Just before dusk, he heard footsteps on the roof, and then the door suddenly shuddered open and Kellan slipped in through the opening, followed closely by the Layer. The sun was setting behind them. The door clanged shut. Gustin looked up, annoyed, then surprised.
"Hey!"
Kellan narrowed his eyes at Gustin's greeting, which the human then realized had come across as excited rather than startled. The Layer smiled a slow smile and inclined his head.
"The Layer eats here tonight, human."
Kellan pushed brusquely past him, removing the cloth slung over his back (which Gustin just knew would be full of dead rabbits and bloody small game, no matter who many times he specifically said he didn't want to see it), dropping his outer layers in a pile by the bed before walking over to check the fires. Adotre sidled up next to Gustin, where he was sitting at the carving workbench, and leaned casually on one arm.
"And I'm starving. You know, this big beastly thing you call a caretaker has had me running like a hare all day - all over the territory with him! I'm desperately tired and cold." A dramatic sigh, then a slightly predatory glance up at Gustin. "A hot bath would probably do me good."
Gustin tried to stay annoyed - he was still angry/confused about Kellan and didn't want to give the wrong impression - but he couldn't help himself; he smiled at the Layer's overdone flirtation. Adotre grinned at this.
"Ah, there it is. That handsome little smile."
The Layer moved a little closer and Kellan growled low from across the room. The Layer moved back.
By the cooking pit, Kellan was slicing meat into the pot that hung over the cooking pit and chewing thickly on something in his mouth. He looked pointedly at Gustin, who got up, sighing, to come and help him. Adotre raised an eyebrow.

They sat crosslegged around the low eating table, each of them equidistant from the others. This only happened because Adotre wanted to be as close to Gustin as possible, Gustin wanted to be as far from Kellan as possible, and Kellan refused to let either thing happen. As a result, Gustin ended up sitting on an awkward corner, which gave him even more reason to be annoyed with the wolfe.

After dinner, Kellan told him that he was going out; Gustin almost dropped the plate he'd been washing. He'd grown so used to their routine that this felt jarring, frightening, out of place, even more so than the weird afternoon excursions. Kellan never went out at night; Gustin had assumed it was too dangerous. Why was he doing it now? What did he have to do? Why was he leaving him again?
"Where are you going?" he tried to keep the desperation out of his voice. Kellan looked at him for a long moment, picked a pinch of the herbs he'd sorted earlier and chewed them slowly, then went back to sorting through a group of knives.
"Only a quick survey, human. We will return quickly and unharmed."
Gustin shrugged, kept on at the washing.
"If it's quick and undangerous, then you should let me go, too."
Kellan rolled his eyes.
"It is too cold for you, human."
"I'll bundle up."
"The woods are treacherous at night. And you cannot leave the home during this time."
Adotre smirked.
"Oh, you won't be going anywhere, pretty thing. Not with Kellan's season as close as it is."
Gustin stilled and Kellan cut his eyes at the Layer.
"Close? How close?"
Kellan poked at the pile of knives.
"It's not clear."
Gustin stared at him. Kellan ignored this and got to his feet, abandoning the knives but taking his carrying cloth.
"You weren't going to tell me?"
Adotre giggled.
"Perhaps he meant to make it a surprise."
Kellan growled low in his throat and the Layer backed towards the door.
"Going, Kellan, going, Old Thing."
Kellan pulled the heavy door open and turned back to look at Gustin.
"I'll be back soon, human. Have a bath, go to bed."
Gustin's heart beat a little faster at the last word, but he decided Kellan had meant nothing by it and so after washing, he took the wolfe's advice and went in to have a bath.

~:~