Tobys cabin

[Jamie D'vart]

"Do you want me to paint you human or furry?" asks Jamie, as he goes through his paints box. Totally different palette depending on the answer...

[Toby]

"How do you want to paint me?" I ask softly taking a pouch from my pocket and heading to a sapling at the edge of the grove and scattering Tabbaco around it

[Jamie D'vart]

"I'm good either way. Which do you think is more... you?"

[Toby]

"Their both me. But let's do human for now it's rare hikers get this far out but just in case it's better to be human"

[Jamie D'vart]

"Okay. Do you have a pose in mind?" He looks up a little. "I like that tree," he adds. "It's very interesting."

[Toby]

"That's Rachel. She's my alpha gods rest her soul. When an alpha dies we plant a tree atop their body. So they can still watch over us. This grove is made of my ancestors all the former heads of the half moon pack. This is where we come to run to teach to share in the sacred moments of life." I smile foundly at the grove around us lwhy don't I sit here with her and you can paint me and I'll tell you about her"

[Jamie D'vart]

"Alright." He takes a few minutes to set up his palette, his tripod, his canvas. "Okay now get comfortable."

[Toby]

I settle down on the ground nestling next to her trunk.
"Ready?"

[Jamie D'vart]

Jamie nods, picking up his charcoal pencil and beginning to sketch out the outlines of the scene as guideposts. 

[Toby]

"Rachel was the closest thing to a real mother I had. She ran the home I was placed in at 13. She knew what I was. She'd said she'd seen it too many times. Kids abused to the point they either seek out abusers to feel loved or become abusers to feel safe. She's not wrong. I felt safe and powerful causing pain, but she thought me to control it. I was on a path then that was leading towards prison. Or worse. Instead she brought me here." I gesture around us "she taught me what it means to be a wolf something my bio parents never did."

"There's magic in being a wolf but that's not the whole of it. Rachel and her pack belong to the first people of this nation. We're Wampanoag. They thought me the language of this earth of our people. Thought me how to feel empathy how to connect. They took me as I was and didn't expect me to be more than that. They took a scared kid and gave me family. I'm still a sychopath but I'm one who's genus earned how to connect and feel empathy. They fixed me as much as I can be fixed."

"Before I enlisted Rachel adopted me and named me her successor. I became a member of the Wampanoag nation, or what's left of it anyway. It's just our pack now. And we're pretty small. With Dixon jointing we're now at 30 members, there's another small native pack to the eat we're i. Talks with. Their alpha is old and dying and ha named no successor but his doighter who's an omaga. If we're comparable I'll take her as my protectorite. He mate died a few years back..." I shake my head coming back to the point

"Rachel did what you tried to. She saved me. It may not look it but she did. She's the best thing to happen to me. She gave me my family, my futur, my empathy. She gave me everything and now she gives me comfort and shade." I smile stroking her trunk tenderly

[Jamie D'vart]

"My dad tried, you know. With my sister, I mean. He put as much of himself into teaching her as he could. I think... when she left, I think it broke something inside him. He hasn't stopped searching for her. Lost his job for taking too long unauthorized leave. Mom divorced him. But he's still looking."

[Toby]

"Sorry to hear that. It can be hard though knowing how different you are from everyone around you. Sometimes it's good to leave. I'm better for going and coming back maybe she will be too."

[Jamie D'vart]

Jamie shakes his head. "We're... unique, you know. Dad looked it up, once. All his half siblings are dead, and with them, their entire lines. We're the only ones like us in the world. But he only cares about her."

[Toby]

"I care about you." I say gently

[Jamie D'vart]

Jamie snorts. "For magic reasons"