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44

Valery was dealing with a bit of a predicament. She was all snuggled up in bed, with her knees pulled all the way up to her chin and her tail curled around her legs. The blankets were up over her head, creating a nice, warm little cave. She was snug as a bug in a rug.

But she was really, really thirsty.

She squinched her eyes shut and tried to ignore it, but the harder she tried to ignore it the more she thought about it and the thirstier she became. There was a pitcher of water just beside her bed, but to reach it she'd have to venture outside her cosy little haven.

What to do... what to do...

In the end she simply couldn't take it anymore and she threw her blankets aside with an annoyed grunt and holy freaking hell it was cold out here!

She hopped out of bed and damn! Even the floorboards were cold against her footpads! She hurriedly poured herself a glass of water and downed the whole thing in three big swallows, eager to get back in bed and rebuild her little snuggle cave. She could actually feel the water go down her throat and settle in her tummy like a big snowball.

"Brrrrrah!" she said and rubbed her shoulders, imagining her insides slowly turning into ice crystals.

She was just about to flop back into bed when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It was a dim, flickering line of light shining in from the crack beneath her door. If it wasn't always so pitch black out here in the middle of nowhere she probably wouldn't have noticed it.

She longingly looked at the small pile of frumpled blankets on her bed, so warm and inviting, but what if her brothers were up to something? Or even worse, what if Dad was looking at that picture again?

He didn't know that she knew, but she did. Sometimes he'd sneak downstairs, candle in hand, and stand in the hallway, staring at the picture mom had drawn for them. Sometimes it was only a few minutes, but sometimes he'd zone out for hours at a time, until the candle was all melted and stubby, and sometimes he'd take it up to his room and sneak it back downstairs before morning, while they were still asleep.

Valery suddenly felt cold for a very different reason.

She curled her tail around her body and hugged it to her chest, just a small little girl wondering what she should do.

She shuffled towards the door, the tip of her tail twitching just beneath her nose, pushed it open, and peeked outside.

The landing was dark, but she could see a faint glow coming from downstairs, pulsing like a heartbeat. If she wanted to turn around and go back to bed, now would be the time.

She looked over her shoulder, at her big, floofy bed, little more than a black rectangle in the pale moonlight.

But what if they needed her? Whether it was Luke or Tim or Dad, what if they really, _really_needed her? She's had a feeling that all three of them have been in dire need of help for some time now. She was pretty useless at most things, but even she could give a hug and a kiss if the situation called for it. Maybe that's all they really needed. Just a soft, warm hug from someone who cares.

Or a good smack upside the head, if it was her idiot brothers down there hatching some kind of scheme again.

She stepped out onto the landing, fully aware that she was compulsively squeezing her tail like a children's toy, but unable to stop.

She reached the first stair and looked down.

The light was coming from the sitting room, spilling onto the floor in a fan shape. Did someone light the hearth?

She carefully climbed down the stairs, one hand trailing along the bannister, the other clutching her tail up to her face.

She reached the bottom and stopped, listening for any sounds, but all she could hear was the faint crackling of burning wood.

She stepped into the pool of light and slowly leaned forward, until she could see past the doorframe.

There was something in front of the fire place, big and hulking, but scrunched down. She thought it was just a pile of blankets at first, but then it shifted and she saw it was Banno, sitting on the floor, his face completely obscured by dancing shadow.

You stay away from that thing, Vee. You hear me?

But why? Banno's nice.

I don't care if you think he's nice. I don't care if you think he's just a poor innocent little woodland critter with a boo-boo. That thing is dangerous, so you steer right clear. Promise me, Vee. Promise me you'll stay away.

But Luke, he's just -

Please, Vee. Please, please, please! Promise me you'll stay away from him!

I...

"Valery?" Banno whispered. "Is that you?"

She realized she was still clinging to her tail like a baby and quickly dropped it. "Yes, it's me," she whispered back, standing just inside the doorway.

"What are you doing up so late?" he asked, barely moving inside the blanket. She could see those big claws of his sticking out at the edges, keeping it closed around his body, and she could see the shapes of his knees, but not much else. A rather remarkable feat, considering how big he was. It even covered his head like a cowl, so that only the white part of his eye was visible. He was sitting right up against the fire, almost close enough for the blanket to catch light, and yet it was as if he was surrounded in his own private bubble of darkness.

"I -"

Stay away from it! Steer right clear!

"Oh, did the light wake you up?" Banno asked, lowering his head. "I'm sorry. I didn't think it would reach all the way upstairs."

"No, that's okay, I was up anyway."

Two tiny bumps suddenly rose up on Banno's head, and Valery knew that he must have perked his ears beneath the blanket. "Oh? That's a relief."

It always got to her, the way this huge Wolf sometimes talked. The way he'd flatten his ears, the way he'd sigh, the way he'd sometimes stare at the mountain. It just wasn't right. Something so big and strong shouldn't be so sad.

"What about you?" she asked. "Did you have that dream again? The one where you're drowning?" She took a tiny step forward, but just as her foot was about to cross the threshold...

Never be alone in the same room as him! Never! If you absolutely have to be in the same room, come get me or Tim. Preferably both. He won't try anything if we're with you.

Try? What would he try to do?

He- I don't know, Vee. Just don't take any chances, all right?

She hugged the doorframe, clutching it like a Fox who had almost sleepwalked off a cliff. Her heart was beating like crazy, and she was breathing so hard she could actually feel her tummy pushing against the wood with every exhale. She must look like a total idiot. She brushed the hair out of her eyes, smiling apologetically, but Banno wasn't looking at her. He was staring intently at the flames, transfixed by the way the logs were curling up at the edges, glowing bright red, then slowly fading to black.

Banno slowly shook his head, making the blanket rustle. "No. I haven't had that dream for a while. I was just feeling..." His head twitched, and for a moment Valery could see the white of his eye again, but because the coloured part was just as black as the rest of him, it looked like a white ring shining inside the gloom. "...Homesick."

Her hand unconsciously crept up to her heart at the mention of that word. So many images flashed through her mind in the blink of an eye, making her feel all kinds of things. Their little home back in Grovenglen, with Dad's workshop in the back and Mom's garden in the front. Every spring it would just about explode with roses of all colours, and Mom would set up her easel and paint the prettiest one of them all, usually with the mountain in the background, and Valery would sit on the porch with a piece of paper of her own, quiet as a mouse, and try to duplicate what her mother was doing. Sometimes Adria would come to visit, and they'd play in the garden for hours, looking for lady bugs and butterflies, and they'd always be so jealous of each other's fur patterns, Valery with her gold and black, and Adria with her solid white. Sometimes Mom would come and join them and they'd laugh in the sun and weave circlets for each other out of wild flowers. Sometimes, when it was too hot to play outside, they'd just stay inside all day long and sew tiny dresses for their dolls out of spare bits of cloth, even though they were both kind of getting too old to be playing with dolls. But it was fun. It was always, always fun. Everyone was so happy. But now...

Now they don't even have a garden anymore...

"Valery? Are you all right?"

Banno's words ripped her out of her fond memories just as suddenly as they had plunged her in, leaving her feeling strangely empty inside. "I'm fine," she said, suddenly realizing that she was holding her tail again. This time she didn't bother to drop it. "You miss them very much, don't you? Your friends and family?"

Banno sighed and turned back to the fire. "Yeah. It gets pretty bad, especially on a cold night like this. We don't have nice, warm houses like this on the other side of the mountain. We all live in tents, and sometimes, when the wind blows really hard, it can rip a tent right out of the ground, while you're still sleeping, and suddenly you're out in the cold, in the dark, stumbling around with snow blowing in your face, almost blind, praying that your shouts will be heard above the roaring wind, praying that someone will find you and lead you back to where it's warm, praying that you won't freeze to death, all alone. Oh, but this isn't the kind of talk for a little girl in the dead of night. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Valery said. She had taken a step towards him without even realizing it, strangely captivated by what he was saying. She's always been interested in what lay beyond that giant mountain on the horizon, and hearing Banno speak was like listening to a living, breathing legend.

"It's just... I'm so worried about them. Every time it snows, I worry about them being warm enough. Every time I sit down to eat, I worry about them having enough food. It's always so hard to find good game this time of year, and I can't do a single thing to help..."

Valery shuffled a tiny bit closer, feeling nothing but sympathy for this gentle giant. Just like her, he was always worrying about his family. His worries might be slightly more worldly than hers, but that didn't change the fact that they had something powerful in common. "Banno... I don't know much about your family or your people, but I'm sure that if they're even just half as tough as you, then they're doing just fine."

He smiled. It was just a tiny one, but she could see the firelight gleam off one of his fangs. "Thank you, Valery. I really appreciate you saying that. Only..." His smile vanished. "That's not the only problem."

"What's wrong?"

"My friends. My family. My people. They all think I'm dead. Just as much as I worry about them, they must grieve for me. I just wish I could let them know that I'm okay, that I'm being taken care of, that I'm still alive and thinking of them. But... I can't. Nobody can."

"Don't be so down," Valery said. "You plan on going back once the snow melts, right? That's not so long from now. Just a month or two. It'll be over lickety split."

"Well yes, but -"

"And when you show up, all your friends will be so happy to see you, they'll throw you a biiiig welcome home party, and everyone will be there, alive and well, because nobody froze or starved while you were away. And then, after everybody gives you a big hug, you can tell them all about how well we took care of you."

"Thank you, Valery. That makes me feel better." She could see the small smile surface again, but it was gone in an instant. Her words simply didn't have enough strength to make him feel better, and no wonder. She knew next to nothing about his family, or Wolves in general, or what it was like to live on the other side of the world. What difference would her empty little words make?

There was something she could do. Something she's been wanting to do for a while now, ever since she started to notice how sad and lonely this Wolf really was, away from everything and everyone he knew and loved. How homesick he must be. They might be two completely different creatures, but the things they felt on the inside were exactly the same.

She had come down the stairs with a hug in her heart, ready to give it to Luke, or Tim, or Dad, but maybe the one who needed it the most was Banno.

Don't go near him, Vee. Even if Dad is right there, don't go within grabbing distance. And if he tries to talk to you, just pretend like you didn't hear him. I know you think I'm crazy, but you can't trust him. He's dangerous.

Valery hugged her tail tightly to her chest, almost burying her face in it. If Banno really wanted to hurt her, he could have done so a thousand times over the past few months, but he didn't. Why would he even want to? That's what she simply could not figure out. Luke seemed to think that Banno wanted to hurt her, maybe all of them, but he could never say why. Why would Banno want to hurt her or her family? What could he possibly gain from that? He's been nothing but nice the entire time he's been here, and she was beginning to think that Luke was just full of poopie.

"Valery?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you sure you're okay? You're shaking."

She's been out of bed for quite a while now, and the cold was really starting to get to her. She couldn't stop shivering. Banno was so worried about his family already, and now she was just adding to it.

"I'm fine," she said for what felt like the hundredth time. She hated this feeling of being pulled in two different directions at once. On one side, she saw a Wolf even more lonely and homesick than she was, who couldn't sleep because he was so worried. On the other side was the monster of Luke's warnings: a feral creature of fangs and claws. She had promised him she wouldn't get too close, and a promise is a promise, isn't it? No matter how absurd it seemed. Or seemed_to seem. What if he was right, and she just couldn't see it? If Banno really wanted to, he could easily rip off her head with a single twist. But just because he _could didn't mean that he would. Father could murder them all in their sleep with the hatchet one night, but that didn't mean that he would. Hell, even she could do that, technically speaking. Judging Banno on the grounds of what he looked like and what he was physically capable of wasn't fair. And didn't that mean that the promise Luke had forced out of her wasn't fair either? It's what's on the inside that matters.

She was clutching her tail so hard that the tip was going numb. Or maybe it was just from the cold. Her little blue pyjamas with the black buttons seemed so awfully thin for a night like this.

"Valery, why are you standing all the way over there? Aren't you cold?"

"I, um..."

A big, black hand slithered out from underneath his blanket and patted the cobblestones by his side. "Why don't you come warm yourself by the fire? There's plenty of room."

Her mouth went dry at the thought of sitting beside such a huge creature, and if she hadn't been clutching her tail so tightly, it probably would have snaked between her legs in a heartbeat. But why did she suddenly feel so nervous? She had wanted to give him a great big hug just a few minutes ago because she felt so sorry for him, and now she was petrified. She'd even started thinking about him in scary terms, like the way his hand had crept out from underneath the folds of the blanket like a snake peeking out from underneath a shadowy rock. Where was all this coming from? She suddenly felt like running back upstairs and slamming her door shut and diving into bed with the covers pulled all the way up over her head, like a frightened little baby. And she didn't think all of it was because of Luke, either.

The blanket whispered as Banno pulled his hand back inside and turned his head away. "Oh. You're still afraid of me."

"N-No! Banno, it's not like that, I just -"

"It's okay, Valery. I understand. This isn't new for me. Even back home, I was always the biggest Wolf. Cubs would run away and hide whenever they saw me, so I'm used to it."

"But -"

"You actually have more reason to fear me than they did, since you're so much smaller. I must be massive to you. And then there was the time I shook your hand too tight... I still feel bad about that. You must see me as a giant ball of mangy black fur with claws and teeth sticking out all over. I know that's definitely how your brothers see me. That's why they're always excluding me from everything, trying to keep me separate, like they're trying to wall me off. They don't just fear me, they hate me."

"No, Banno! I don't see you like that at all! Really! I don't hate you!"

"It's okay, Valery." The blanket wrinkled into many hills and valleys as he pulled it tightly around his shoulders. "I just... I thought you'd be different. That's all."

Ever since Mom died, Valery has had two jobs in this family. One was to help out with the housework, and the other was to make sure that the remaining members of her family were happy. Banno wasn't really a part of their family, but that didn't stop her from going to him.

Her shadow slowly swivelled around her feet like the hand of a clock as she came closer and closer to the fire, feeling its warmth wash over her, increasing with every step. Banno was getting bigger and bigger with every step too, but she wasn't afraid of him anymore.

"Banno?"

He wouldn't look at her.

She sat down next to him on the cobblestones and gave him a gentle prod. "Banno? I'm sorry I made you feel bad. Forgive me?"

He did not say anything, or show any reaction at all. He simply stared straight ahead, the tip of his muzzle just barely sticking out from beneath the folds of the blanket.

"I'm not afraid of you. I'm right here, see?" She reached out and put her hand on the bump that was his knee. This was the closest she had been to him since the day he woke up, and it did feel a bit strange, but not in a dangerous way.

The fire crackled and orange sparks rose up into the chimney, carried by hazy plumes of smoke. The light shifted and pulsed and the shadows danced to the rhythm, and in the faint glow of this light, she could see his muzzle crinkle back, ever so slightly, into a smile. "Really?"

"_Really_really. You probably won't believe me when I say this, but I think I understand how you feel. Dad and my brothers, they always see me as this fragile little flower that needs to be boxed up at all times, otherwise the wind'll blow off all my petals. But they don't understand that a flower still needs sunshine, otherwise it'll wilt anyway, no matter how good they take care of it. I know they mean well, but they're all boys. They don't get it."

"I'm a boy. What makes you think I'll get it?"

"Because we're the same. That's why we can understand each other."

"Are you saying you feel lonely, even when you have a father and two brothers who love you more than anything in the whole world?"

The fire was getting smaller, and the coals were becoming dull and grey around the outside, no more than blocks of ash that have yet to crumble, so she scootched a little closer and leaned her head against Banno's side, thinking carefully about what he had said. "I know it makes me sound very ungrateful, feeling that way, but things used to be different. I used to have a mommy, and friends, and a big garden to play in, so it was okay for the boys to be boys with each other. But now I don't have a mommy anymore, and no friends either. That's why I sometimes feel alone. Because Dad and Luke and Tim, I love them so, so much, and I know they love me, but they don't understand me, not like Mom did."

"You miss her very much, don't you?"

"Mm-hm," she whimpered softly, surprised to feel a sudden lump in her throat. Her eyes were all scratchy and dry from the heat of the fire, and when she went to rub them, she realized that she was already crying. She quickly tried to turn off the waterworks, but this was the first time she had ever been able to tell anyone how she really felt on the inside, and it made her feel both guilty and relieved, a mix of emotions she was not accustomed to. She clung to Banno's blanket, squeezing it tightly between her fingers, and she tried to stay quiet, but she couldn't do it. She sniffled back the snot dripping from her nose, and every time she tried to take a slow and steady breath, her chest would hitch and turn it into a sob.

"Valery? Hey, hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay. Sh-sh-sh, it's okay, you don't have to worry, it's okay," Banno crooned.

"I'm s-sorry," Valery whispered. "I duh-don't mean to f-feel like this... Bu-but I can't he-help it..."

"It's okay, Valery. You just miss your mother, that's all. You've got nothing to be ashamed of. Come on..." He shifted his arm and threw half his blanket over her back, enshrouding her in a warm little cocoon. "Now it's just the two of us in here," he whispered. "And if we're together, then neither of us need to feel lonely anymore. How does that sound?"

She scrambled over his knee and threw her arms around him, burying her face in his scraggly fur. She couldn't speak properly, so she just nodded her head up and down, letting him know that it sounded wonderful.

It was dark in here, but the light from the fire shone through the weave of the blanket in millions of tiny squares, and it was warm. After standing all alone for so long, that's the feeling that stood out the most for her, just this unbelievable sensation of warmth, even stronger than that of the fire.

Banno shifted and suddenly one of his gigantic arms was wrapped around her waist, pulling her in and squeezing her tightly. It wasn't like being hugged by her father or her brothers. This was different. Their hugs were always soft and gentle, but this one was hard and fierce, almost desperate, forcing their bodies together. It was a bit scary at first, an unexpected reminder of Banno's immense strength, but she could tell he was being careful not to hurt her. She could barely reach all the way around his body, but she tried her very best to match the strength of his embrace, squeezing him as hard as she could, pressing her hot, streaming face against his chest, crying out all the sadness and frustration she had pent up since Dad came home with the terrible news of Mom's death.

All wrapped up in this nice, warm blanket, with the fire crackling just a few feet away, caught up in Banno's big bear hug of an embrace, Valery felt so safe. Her tears were finally starting to dry up, and she was no longer snotting all over the place. She sniffed one last time and snuggled against Banno's body, resting her head against his chest like a pillow. She didn't want to fall asleep like this, but it was the middle of the night, and she was so sleepy. Her eyelids were starting to come down against her will, making all the tiny squares of golden light vanish into the dark. She tried to force them open, but she was fighting a losing battle. She yawned and closed her eyes, but just as she was about to surrender and drift off into sleep, she noticed something odd, something that unsettled her just enough to keep her awake.

Her 'pillow' was rising and falling rather fast, and still speeding up. And because her head was right up against his chest, not only could she feel it push against her with every inhale, she could also hear his heart going crazy. This wasn't the slow, steady rhythm of someone sitting by the fire, but the frenzied pounding of someone who had just sprinted a mile.

His grip suddenly tightened, and what was once a good, strong hug was now slowly causing her pain.

"Banno?" she whispered. "Could you maybe ease up a little? You're squeezing me a bit tight."

Banno did not loosen his grip at all. Maybe he didn't hear her? She craned her neck straight up, but the blanket was wrapped around them both in such a way that she couldn't see past his neck.

He squeezed her again, much tighter than before, making it feel like her ribs were about to snap under the pressure. "Ah! Banno, you're hurting me!"

Her entire body was rising and falling with the speed of his heavy breathing, and she could actually feel his heartbeat slamming against her cheek. This little cocoon they had made didn't feel so warm and cosy anymore. Now it just felt hot and muggy, filled with her own recycled breath.

She squirmed in his arms, trying to get his attention, but it was no use. Maybe if she could just get her head out from underneath this blanket she'd be able to tell what was going on? She pushed against his chest with both hands, trying to create some separation, but he was so ridiculously strong she couldn't budge him an inch.

She was having trouble breathing now. Every time she tried to take in air, her sides would ache and a stabbing pain would shoot through the small of her back.

She was suddenly very, very scared.

"Banno? Banno, what are you doing? Can you hear me? You're hurting me! Please stop it!" She grabbed the blanket and pulled it this way and that, trying to rip it away, but Banno must be hugging it as well as her, because it kept snagging tight. "Banno, you're scaring me! Just -"

She reached for his neck and her hand touched something weird, something unexpected. Everything within reach (the blanket, their fur, their clothes) was supposed to be soft and fuzzy, but this was all smooth and moist. And tacky.

What on earth?

She pulled her hand back and squinted through the gloom. There was something on her fingers, all wet and sticky. She couldn't see very well, but the cloying scent of iron told her more than enough.

This was blood.

"Banno! Are you hurt?" Maybe this was why he was squeezing her so tight? Did something happen? Was he ill? If only she could get loose!

She encountered even more of those weird smooth patches as she reached up to grab his shoulders, and all of them were just as wet and sticky as the first.

What was going on!?

She sucked in her stomach and pulled herself up, pushing off the cobblestones with her feet, working her way up to his neck as if she were climbing a tree. "Banno, talk to me!" she pleaded, desperate to break free, desperate to get fresh air, desperate to find the light. "Banno!?"

The tip of her snout finally slipped through the gap between his neck and the blanket and she jerked her head back, pulling it off their intertwined bodies, and as the last corner slipped away from Banno's face to pool on the floor in a crumpled heap around their ankles, the pulsing light from the hearth revealed a sight that made her choke with shock and revulsion, too horrified to even scream.

Banno's arms, chest, neck, and face were all covered in burns. Everywhere she looked, there were bald patches in his fur, red and dripping. Some were so bad, they had actually cauterized, resulting in a crispy layer of charred skin even blacker than his fur. She could smell it, the stench of burnt hair, so heavy and bitter it made her gag. She could feel them, the patches of fur that had merely scorched. They were so hard and rigid they were like tiny needles against her palms. And his face... by the gods, his face...

There were more burnt patches on his cheeks, with lines of blood oozing down to his chin. There was a big one on his forehead, a horizontal line, as if someone had taken a brand and slowly dragged it across his face from one temple to the other. She could see the shadows of his fur dancing across the trenches of his exposed skin in shifting zig-zag patterns, dancing in the firelight.

"What happened?" she asked, barely able to breathe. "Banno, what on earth happened to y -"

He wound his fingers around her muzzle and clamped down tightly, cutting off her words. She tried to pull her head back, but he was simply too strong. She couldn't move! She reached up and tried to pry his fingers loose, but she might as well have tried to bend open steel shackles with her bare hands. His grip was so strong, and he was pushing her jaws together so hard, she feared her teeth might break against each other. She tried to scream, but the only sound to escape her pursed lips was a faint whimper. All she could do was breathe through her nose, and in her panic, it sounded like the rapid breathing of a rabbit caught in a snare.

Banno moved his hand, forcing Valery's face closer to his, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. She closed her eyes, praying to all the gods that she was simply having the most realistic, most terrifying nightmare of her life, knowing full well that no dream could possibly be as real as this.

He put his mouth right against her nose and sighed, long and slow. She could smell his breath, and it smelled of roasted chicken, because that's what they had had for dinner just a few hours ago. This was real. This terribly, horrifyingly real.

She could feel the fur around his lips tickling her nose as he inhaled slowly, closing his single eye in what could only be described as a look of pure pleasure.

Was he... was he breathing in the air that she was breathing out!?

"We've been waiting so long," he whispered, blasting her face with his foul breath yet again. "But it's okay now. I'm tired of waiting, Valery. And I know you are, too. Why postpone this any longer?"

Oh gods, what was he talking about!? She scratched at his arm, digging her tiny claws as deep into his burnt flesh as they could reach, but Banno didn't so much as blink. Did he not feel that? How could he not feel that!?

Banno leaned in even closer, so that his lips brushed against her nose as he talked. "It's okay, Valery. You don't have to be outside anymore. You can be with me forever. You can be real. Just like Vallah..."

She could see the eyepatch she had so lovingly made for him, brown against black, every line and wrinkle standing out in the glow of the fire. She remembered cutting the leather, sowing the seams, tying the cords one by one, hoping that he would like it, hoping to make him feel at home.

What was he going to do to her!?

Banno opened his mouth and slowly slithered his tongue out over his razor sharp teeth, pink and glistening, dripping with saliva. He pressed it against her jaw and dragged it across her cheek and over her eye and into her hair, sickeningly hot, leaving a wet trail of spit all over her face.

Valery screamed inside her head, she screamed and screamed, but the sounds that escaped into the real world were pitiful by comparison, barely audible to her own ears, much less to her family, fast asleep upstairs. "Mmmmm! Mmmmmm! MMM!!"

Banno reversed direction, slowly dragging his tongue back down again, breathing heavily against her face while she kicked and thrashed, flailing every part of her body that wasn't pinned.

Why... why was he doing this? And why didn't she listen to her big brother!?

Acting on blind instinct, she brought her knees up to her chest and kicked out, hitting him in the gut with both feet as hard as she could, but his grip did not loosen. In fact, he didn't show any reaction at all. He simply kept on licking the side of her face with his vile tongue, steadily moving down towards the corner of her mouth, making the most disgusting slurping noises. She pushed against him with her feet and arced her back, trying desperately to create some separation, but Banno was so tall he simply leaned forward a little, snuffling against her jaw with his mouth, slowly tipping her backwards.

Terrified of being pinned against the floor, Valery stuck out both hands behind her back and planted her palms against the cobblestones, knowing that if Banno was to land on top of her with that massive body of his, there would be no escape.

Still screaming her useless screams, she tried to crawl away backwards, scraping her palms raw against the stones, barely feeling any of it. She was caught in the throes of pure terror, the only clear thoughts in her mind telling her to get away at all costs, to scream as loud as she could, to get away, to scream, to fight, get away, scream, fight, run, get away, get away, GET AWAY!!

Banno's grip tightened even further around her muzzle, and she gasped through her nose as she felt the tips of his claws puncture her skin, digging into the soft meat of her lips. He started to push her head back, and the angle of her field of vision went with it. Banno's face slowly disappeared as she was forced to look straight up at the ceiling. Somewhere up there, so close and yet so far, was her father, sleeping soundly, unaware of what was happening to his baby girl.

Banno wasn't done yet. He kept pushing against her muzzle, angling her head farther and farther back until she could see the hearth, filled with flames dancing upside down, washing their heat across her face, making her eyes water.

This was worse. This was so much worse. She could hear Banno, and she could feel him, but she could no longer see him.

She felt his tongue drag along her jawline and slowly slip down to her neck. She could feel his hot breath flowing over her. And then...

She felt four hard points against her throat, two on the left, and two on the right. They were the tips of his canines, lightly pushing against her neck.

"Don't worry, Valery," Banno whispered. "This will only hurt for a second..."

---

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Donation Progress $100 / $300 (Unlock Sunday update)

How and Why: The Story behind "Ander" (Journal): https://www.sofurry.com/view/517234

Special thanks go out to the following furs for helping me keep this project afloat with their generous donations. I couldn't do it without your support.

1. Mystery fur
2. PyrePup
3. KmlRock
4. Faan
5. Sunny-Fox
6. Mystery fur #2
7. Sky Star
8. Claybrook

Thank you! You guys are the best! ^_^