#VERSE. ( pcuuw. )

[fidelityfcrged]

She had only been gone a few days -- she and two of the other members of the pack had left to trade the fur, leather and dried meats from their traps for grains, cloth, fresh fruit and vegetables - things they could not typically harvest on their own, with their nomadic lifestyle. Only two, three days, and she had come back to chaos. Or close enough to it. A trophy, one of the newer cubs had crowed, dangling the vampire's fangs from a leather cord he'd wrapped around them.

It had been enough to make her queasy. She fought because she had to, because it was necessary to protect her, and her family. This -- this was not that. It took her very little time to hand off her goods and find Cash, where he and a couple others of the pack had been sitting around the fire in the back cavern, making an effort to keep her voice level and her tone calm as she asked them to leave her alone with their leader.

She did not know where in the cavern system he had hidden the vampire, but the scent of the leech stung her nostrils strongly enough that she knew that it must still be alive -- or whatever passed for living. "What have you done?" Fear and anger alike seeped into her words, despite her efforts, and she could feel the tension knot, hot and violent, in the pit of her stomach and at the nape of her neck. "How could you bring one of them here?" Into their home, temporary as it was.

@somebadguys