Raven is right now wearing scarf, coat, pants, boots. Sturdy warm boots that she does _not_ want to take off. Raven has a little one and half person tent and a fire. Her fire.
Starshky is lying, stunned at Raven't feet. He appears to be dressed in ill-fitting rags, and is terribly skinny and barely clean. Other than that, it's difficult to tell as he's curled up, apparently afraid of her.
Raven is not feeling guilty at _all_ at basically breaking up this - um - guy's contact with his people. Yeah. Now what was she going to do? She could argue to Owl that she took him in because um - he was Flock and he didn't look happy? Assuming he came back to Dexia with her. Assuming he lived. He didn't look sickly or anything. Raven sighs mentally. All right - a little guilty.
Raven kneels down so that she's not towering over the guy. Kid. Whatever.
Starshky is shivering badly. Understandable considering he's only lightly dressed, and the garments are air conditioned to say the least. Raven wants to know, "Lad?"
Starshky whimpers and pulls in on himself.
Raven mentally notes that this is _not_ a good sign. Did she do something to get the fates mad at her? Raven hmm - options. She had rabbit stew, a semi-warm tent, and clothes. Raven says, "I'm not going to hurt you."
Starshky continues to shiver. He whimpers again and apparently tries to control it.
Raven hopes he can understand her slaughtered Mainlander. And that she's not saying something in some dialect that means 'I want to eat you.' Raven queries, "Are you hurt?"
Starshky says something in a small voice.
Raven is cold and tired and couldn't understand a word of whatever the kid just said. Great. Raven sighs, "Come on inside the tent. It's warm in there."
Raven opens the tent flap and gestures.
Starshky manages to get into a crouching position. "Thank you master..." he says, then moves in a crouching walk and huddles inside the tent. He's still near the door and pressed up against the outside wall.
Raven blinks. Raven mentally goes, "Master?" She's pretty sure that's the masculine . . . erm. Raven heads in the tent and closes the flap. Starshky curls up where he is. Raven sits on her spare cloak / bed, and rummages out a spare shirt of Silvram's. She took to carrying spares since Silvram almost always forgot to pack clothes - Raven sets the shirt near the kid, "Here. See if this fits you."
Starshky comments, "It's too good for me, Ma...Mistress."
Raven thinks nice calm thoughts. The big hairy wolf guy with a knife wound. Perferably fatal. Raven remarks, "You don't have to call me Mistress."
Starshky looks confused. "You are Alpha. Alpha is always Master or Mistress. You are Master?"
Raven blinks, "Why am I a - olfa? Alpha?"
Starshky remarks, "You lead your pack. Alpha leads the pack." Starshky sounds very sure of this, although his voice trembles as he shivers.
Raven notes that either he's not speaking her version of Mainlander, or he doesn't have the grammer quite down.
Raven states, "I'm not a werewolf." She was pretty sure she wasn't. Walking on four legs sounded uncomfortable and awkward to her. Raven states, "I don't have a pack."
Starshky comments, "You have an Omega. So you must be an Alpha." Starshky divulges, "You will be great."
Raven queries, "What's an Ahmaga?"
Starshky interjects, "Me. I am Omega. If you have me, no bad for you."
Raven tips her head, "Do you want to be an Omega?"
Starshky shakes his head. "But you need an Omega. And I have to be Omega..."
Raven tips her head, "Lad, I wouldn't kick you out of my camp if you weren't an Omega."
Starshky remarks, "You need one. You must have lost yours." Starshky looks sad at the thought.
Raven sighs, "Where I'm from there aren't _any_ Omega." Raven thinks for a bit, "That I know of."
Starshky questions, "No Omega? Then how do Alphas become great?"
Raven shrugs, "I don't know."
Starshky questions, "No Alphas?"
Raven questions, "Does Alpha mean a leader?"
Starshky nods.
Raven remarks, "There's leaders, and people who work for leaders. I work for Owl. She asks me to do things for her, and I agreed to come to the Mainland and travel."
Starshky questions, "Is Owl a great Alpha? Will she hurt me to be great?" Starshky shivers again.
Raven shakes her head, "If Owl tries to hurt you, I'll hurt her."
Starshky says, "But if she knows she can be great if she hurts the Omega, then she'll hurt me. And she'll be great and you can't fight the Alpha."
Raven is ignoring the fact that the most Owl'd do to someone is maybe bore them with paperwork or drop a book on them. Unless if they hurt someone she cared about - There was that one time that the assassins attacked Munin, one of Owl's students. They found the last body only a week later. For all of her quietness, Owl was a strong mage. Raven repeats, "If she hurts you, I'll hurt her. And Owl doesn't like to hurt people."
Starshky questions, "You won't hurt me? Don't you want to be great?"
Raven shakes her head, "I don't want to hurt you. You haven't hurt me." And besides, randomly hurting people tended to get them to gang up on you and stick knives in your ribs. Or ruin the the rugs. Blood was nasty like that.
Starshky states, "But Alphas hurt Omegas."
Raven offers what she hopes is a comforting smile, "Listen, for now, we're here and I don't want to hurt you, and I hope you don't want to hurt me. That's why I pointed at you. You looked safe."
Starshky asks, "Safe?"
Raven states, "You didn't look like you'd think I was some little girl that you could do what you wanted with. You looked like you needed somewhere warm and a good meal, so I picked you."
Starshky wants to know, "You...want to give me food? Why?"
Raven relates, "Because I've got enough for me, and you might be happy if you had a nice meal."
Starshky seems interested in what she's saying, but still looks a little unsure.
Raven reaches slightly toward him, "I just am offering food. No strings attached."
Starshky shies away from her. moving back as far as he can.
Raven blinks. Raven queries, "Lad?"
Starshky remarks, "No...don't hurt..." Raven notes that the Alpha would be a little messy without his skin but she'd feel better. Raven relates, "I don't want to hurt you." Raven isn't used to trying to sound safe. If you grew up as an orphan in the City, you spent more time sounding unsafe. Raven relates, "Listen, I won't touch you if that gets you scared. And I won't hurt you. Understand? Not tonight. Not here."
Starshky says nothing, but his eyes are a little shimmery. Damn. The last thing she wanted was him crying. Tears made her feel odd.
Raven states, "I promise."
Starshky inquires, "What should I do?"
Starshky looks a little embarrassed. "Should I just stay quiet while you eat?"
Raven interjects, "I don't mind if you talk."
Starshky wants to know, "What do you want me to say?"
Raven wonders if breaking people's necks does count as alarming behavior for Starshky. Probably. Raven relates, "You can say what you want. Ask me questions if you have them." Raven relates, "Would you try on that shirt? You look cold."
Starshky shivers badly as he tries to raise his arm for the shirt. He manages to snatch it, but ends up shivering so badly that he can't even move freely enough to put it on right away.
Raven blinks at him, "Are you hurting?"
Starshky finally manages to slip into the shirt and huddles down for warmth. Starshky remarks, "It's...this is warm..."
Raven nods. Raven divulges, "I'll be right back with some stew for us." Raven slips out and gets two bowls of stew. Raven peeks back in. The kid hadn't moved an inch nearer to the brazier, but his color looked better. He needed a good bath. Raven slips back in the tent - good trick while carrying soup bowls and sets the bowls down. Raven closes the tent flap. Raven produces two slightly dented non-matching spoons, and nudges a bowl and spoon near the kid, "Here, this one's yours."
Starshky asks, "Mine?" Starshky hesitantly takes the bowl and spoon. Starshky looks puzzled for a moment, then up at Raven.
Raven comments, "You can eat all of that. And you can have seconds if you like." Raven starts eating. Raven is half keeping an eye on the kid.
Starshky eats very quickly, eyeing Raven as he does so. Raven finishes, "Do you want more?"
Starshky eats so quickly, Raven's surprised he doesn't choke or burn himself. Starshky nods hesitantly.
Raven smiles, "I'll get you a refill then."
Starshky scurries forward, leaves the bowl and retreats to the wall of the tent again.
Raven takes the bowl and her own. Raven refills his bowl and lugs her other pack into the tent. Raven hands the kid his bowl and rummages out her cookies.
Starshky takes the bowl and eats entirely too quickly again.
Raven nibbles a cookie. Raven offers him half of the cookie.
Starshky takes the half cookie and tries to nibble it like he saw her do. But he can't control herself and, well, wolfs it down.
Raven looks around her tent. Raven has banked the fire - or the snow was already doing it for her, but she banked it a little. Everything outside was good for the night. Raven realizes that she's got a teeny little problem. Other then the kid. Or because of the kid. Raven notes that she has no clue where he'll sleep. Raven looks at the kid. Raven comments, "It looks like it's going to be a cold night."
Starshky nods. "It's going to keep snowing.
Raven rummages out the spare blanket she has and spreads it out. Then she starts working her boots off. Which is not fun with the snow and ice worked in the laces and eyelets.
Starshky starts to crawl toward the tent flap.
Raven blinks, "Lad?"
Starshky asks, "Yes, Mistress?"
Raven asks, "Do you need something outside?"
Starshky looks a little startled. "I was going to sleep."
Raven thinks calm thoughts. Calm. Raven says, "You can sleep in here if you want. It'd be warmer."
Starshky questions, "I sleep outside, don't I?"
Raven comments, "You can sleep inside." Raven pats the blanket, "Remember? I won't hurt you. And it'd be warm."
Starshky remarks, "I'm not...used to sleeping inside."
Raven tips her head, "I'm sorry. I've had to sleep outside before. Never liked it much in cold weather." Raven wants to know, "Would you stay?"
Starshky divulges, "I...would like to. If you let me. I won't bother you."
Raven pats the blanket again, "Then stay - you can use this if you like. Or we could share a bed."