This creature was admittedly a strange one, unlike anything that he had ever seen before. Its muzzle was flat and slanted, which did not seem that convenient for breathing, in his opinion.
It had some sort of second coat on. Instead of being a thick layer of fur, it seemed to be a thin, small layer of skin that draped along its body almost as if it were not of its own like it had just ripped it off another animal. The thought made Ibis shudder— he could practically watch this creature in his mind, ripping pelts off other animals and leaving them to die out in the cold. Then, he imagined his fur ripped out, leaving him bare and vulnerable to the same threat.
He could imagine dying painfully and mercilessly in the freezing temperatures, with only his frostbitten paws sinking into the snow to caress him and the howling silvery winds to reassure him of his fate, doomed for a terrifying, wintry fate with nobody to comfort him.
Nobody to comfort him.
To interrupt his train of thought, he heard a voice pouncing out, driving away the numbing imagery in his mind.
“Ibis? Are you alright? You’re not saying anything,” the husky growled out, visibly impatient from his lack of response.
Swiftly, the white canine whipped his head up, his blue eyes shooting open as he tried to process what the husky had just said. As she tilted her bicoloured cranium, Ibis could feel the bashfulness bloom in him. Though he could not only stare for so long, he had to reply!
“Uh… Yeah, I’m fine. W-why do you ask?” Ibis stammered, his ocean-blue eyes reflecting hesitance and insecurity. Ibis only realised how his whole body heaves and falls as he breathes, how his entire self is shaking as it is wracked with hunger and pain. Oh, so much pain.
“You don’t sound fine. Maybe you’re still hungry- I can assure you, kibble is great. It might not be as good as all the wild animals you eat, I love myself some salmon sometimes… but you’re hungry, right? Beggars can’t be choosers.”
Shakily, the frosty ice wolf narrowed his eyes. A beggar? He didn’t think of himself as a beggar- but now that he’s all alone, waltzing into a stranger’s den for food… well, now he’s surprised that he wasn’t begging earlier.
“B-beggars can’t be choosers, yeah… anyway, what does kibble taste like?”
“It… it’s hard to describe. It’s sort of… savoury? Though, it’s also salty in all the right ways,” the husky murmured, her eyelids drooping over her icy blue eyes as a result of the bliss felt from thinking of the taste of such delicacies.
Meanwhile, Ibis’ own eyes lit up out of his own curiosity, a bead of drool slipping from his lips and dripping down onto the strange brown stripy floor. He hasn’t ever tried kibble, but the claws of hunger rake through his stomach. At this point, he’s willing to try anything in order to satisfy the throbbing pain.
The kibble looked like rabbit droppings, immediately lessening Ibis’ own appetite. He winced at the strange smell, although it wasn’t so unpleasant. Something about this new food looked and smelled strange, so could he really eat this? Still, if he didn’t eat it at all, he could easily perish. He couldn’t do that- not without at least trying to save his pack.
He takes a tentative bite towards the kibble, drool continuing to drip from his mouth as he starts to eat after what feels like millennia. When the kibble grazed his tongue, he could feel a shiver pass down his spine at the sheer joy he felt finally being able to eat again.
The kibble felt strange in his mouth- not soft like rabbit droppings as he had expected but more like hard pebbly-stones that rumbled in his mouth and crunched against his teeth. It felt nice to have something to eat again, even if it did taste slightly off.
He doesn’t even realise how desperate he is until halfway, where he’s slobbering and crunching with such a fervour that he’s making a mess around the bowl, sighing, groaning and shivering so harshly that he thought he could easily pass out.
As the realisation set in, his eyes widened in shock and what he had transformed into in his desperation for food, how he was reduced to nothing but a slobbering mess of a creature in front of somebody else. Not the way an alpha was meant to act!
Well, he was an alpha. Formerly. Before the… he couldn’t even say it.
“…wow. You sure are hungry, aren’t you?” The husky murmured, padding closer to his heaving, dishevelled, kibble-spilling body as she spoke. He could just sense the waves of concern emanating from her icy blue eyes, his heart panging with self-pity and humiliation at the sight.
“Y’know, when I first met you, you weren’t as… sickly as you are now. What happened?” Her voice wavered with hesitance when it was met with a quiet grumble and a whine.
Ibis could not even begin to unravel what had just occurred to him- the betrayal of his father, the death of his mother, the isolation between him and his brethren- everything that had happened to him seemed to weigh his paws down like heavy stones formed around them, encasing him in a spot where he could not move.
“Bad things,” Ibis murmured pitifully, as it was the only thing he could stomach to mention.
“…oh. So bad that you can’t tell me?”
“Yeah.”
The husky blinked back awkwardly, clearly unsure how to even continue this conversation. “…huh. Uhm… I’m… sorry for your loss?”
This interaction was starting to shift from slightly discomforting to even more so unbearable. Clearly, it was time to change something.
“What’s your name?” Ibis stammered, his cobalt eyes narrowing.
“Oh? I’m… Luna. You’re Ibis, right?”
“Indeed.”
“Ibis… like the bird?”
“Indeed.”
At this response, Luna visibly brightened up. There was something that he said that interested her greatly. For some reason, though, he would have to find out.
“Is there…?”
Luna gave a startled yelp, her fur emanating heat from the sheer embarrassment and awkwardness she felt. “Ah! No, it’s fine… uhm… I’m just really interested in birds. I try to learn all I can. They might be my most favorite thing in the whole wide world!”
Ibis tilted his head. Favorite thing? Surely, out of everything… it couldn’t be birds. As wolves, they were superior to the smaller creatures, with jaws full of sharp teeth made to tear into the flesh of weaker flesh. It was the core being of a wolf, to be admired and envied by all other life before them for being so powerful and mighty, yet remaining wise and sharp despite the other brutish predators that feasted on them.
Perhaps this was what it was like to admire other creatures? But even then, birds seemed… too lowly. They constantly scoured the skies, too afraid to even tread on the ground, too cowardly to even make dens- no. They hid in trees as if that would stop wolves, the superior species, from consuming them entirely. Of course, they fail in the end, as wolves eat them anyways. What made them so worthy of being admired?

“Why?” Ibis huffed, knitting his brows together in a form of confusion. “Why… birds?”

Luna only tilted her head in response, her silvery blue eyes gleaming with an equal, if not a bigger, amount of confusion as well. “What do you mean?”

Ibis only huffed in response, his brows knitting together further both in confusion and in slight frustration. He was not used to being questioned so often.

“I mean… why birds specifically? What’s so good about them? They can fly, that’s it.”

Luna’s eyes widened in indignation and then narrowed in judgment, her gaze boring into him. Ibis could feel the fine hairs on his pelt prickle like thorns against her stare and his breath hitched, his own eyes trying to reciprocate the intensity of the moment.

“Take. That. Back. Now.”

“Wh-”

“How could you even say that?! Birds are literally some of the coolest creatures ever. “Oooooh, what’s so good about them? They can fly, that’s it.” First of all, flying is awesome by itself, literally, no other animal can do it like they can, except for some bugs. Even then, bugs are way smaller than birds! Second of all, they can do a lot of other things other than flying too! So, basically-”

Despite Luna’s loud and impassioned attempts at explaining the superiority of birds, Ibis could only stare with a chaotic mix of surprise, irritation, awe, and inspiration. She spoke with the fury of a true wolf, snapping and biting just to get her point across. Truly, if she was not meant to be a wolf, what was she? Was this just her or were other huskies as similar as them?

“—and honestly, I personally believe that birds have everything one can ask for! There’s a wide range of birds in general, they can already fly- and that’s so cool already- they’re also really smart and I just think that maybe-”

“You’re a wolf.”

“…what?”

“You- you defend yourself with such a passion, with such a sense of anger… are you sure you’re not a wolf? Are you really sure? You… you’re so… you have to be a wolf. You have to be.”

“…what on earth are you even talking about?”

Ibis scoffed, his white fur glistening under the artificial light while his cobalt blue eyes narrowed in response. Could she really not see the potential she had?

“You should be a wolf. I could teach you how. It can’t really be that hard…”

“…I don’t wanna be a wolf, though.”

Ibis narrowed his eyes even further, confusion clouding his mind as he started to inch closer to Silver, his cobalt eyes studying her face.

“What do you mean you don’t want to be a wolf? Wolves are superior. They live freely and they are strong- yet they are also capable of greater thought. Anybody- everybody would want to be a wolf. That- that’s what you learn in the pack…”

“Maybe that’s just what you’ve learned in the pack, but is that really true?”

Before he could even say that, he took the time to pause, his eyes glistening with a sort of misdirection. What was he doing? Why was he sticking to such virtues of a family that he could never be connected to any more? He snarled at his own confusion, figuring that his mind was already clouded with fatigue and loneliness, and that he should spare Luna from his foolish ruminations.

“…guess not…”

“Thought so. Anyway, I’ve already got my heart set on something else, thank you very much.” Luna grinned with a reverence, one that could only be shown when thinking fondly of a member of the family. “Birds have always fascinated me- how they can fly so amazingly… how they can be so graceful… I want that for me. I want that to be for me. I want to be a bird.”

Ibis only stared at her as if she had grown a second head as if she had gone absolutely wild.

“…what?”

Luna only sighed, shrugging slightly. She just hopped onto the strange velvety mass (which was apparently called a ‘couch,’ as he found out later) and splayed out, her eyes betraying a sense of longing.

“Birds are so, so amazing- they’re free… they can go wherever they want, live however they want- all I can do is eat and do nothing while my owners keep working to survive. That’s all I do every day. Honestly, that’s why I let you in- so I could have somebody else to talk to. I’m lonely.”

Ibis’ heart gave a pang of sympathy and sadness as he knew precisely how isolation and loneliness could scorn a canine, being exiled and shunned from his own pack after all. All he could do was whine, remembering his family and how he missed them so dearly.

“…I know what you mean.”

“You do, don’t you?”

“…I was abandoned by my own pack. My own father tried to murder me. Do you know how pathetic that can be? For my own family to leave me to rot? I’ve been passing through these snowy fields for… I don’t even know how long… but they left me. They abandoned me and my mother to die.” Ibis growled, tears welling up in his eyes. “Maybe I deserved it.Luna’s own eyes widened and Ibis could sense her heart stilling. Of course, he knew this could not be a good sign. Especially not for someone as energetic as Luna. At least he thought she was supposed to be energetic, in the short window of time that he had met her.

“…that’s- I- I’m sorry…”

Ibis only sighed, his eyes showing a glimpse of vulnerability and pain.

“It’s fine. I… I just miss them, is all. I feel like I’m holding onto their ideals- as if they’re still with me.”

Ibis expected words of encouragement, maybe- or questioning, or curiosity or even just words at all- but he did not expect her to press her head up against his shoulder, huffing slightly into his less-than-pristine white, matted fur.

After a long period of silence, Ibis could hear the rumble of Luna’s voice, seeping from her maw as she opened her mouth to finally speak.

“…I know what it’s like to lose someone too. I- I lost my parents a long time ago. You probably have it worse- since I didn’t really even meet them- but I keep thinking about what life would be like if they were still here. I’m so lonely here. I- I’m glad you’re my friend.”

With that moment, Ibis could only do the one thing he did when he was born, when he scraped his paw playing with his littermates when he was scolded by his mother when he was outcasted by the other pups, when he was outcasted by his own father-

-he cried.

He cried so long, so hard, he figured he would never stop crying at all, right into Luna’s fur, letting it soak up his tears as his eyes shimmered with a glossy shine. His wails were large and miserable, echoing from his heart, which threatened to burst in his own chest, to his mouth- where his teeth acted as bars of a cage, silencing himself. However, he silenced himself no longer as he cried out horrendously, letting himself become vulnerable in front of his only friend.

After what could have been hours upon hours of nothing but sobbing and whimpering, Ibis could feel the tightness in his chest lessen and he carefully separated himself from Luna- though he longed not to do so- and sighed, his eyes still watery from his tears and sorrows. “I apologise, Luna, I-”

She only pulled him back in for another few quick moments before resting her chin next to his neck, breathing in his scent.

“Don’t apologise. Thank you. Thank you for being here with me.”

When the light of the moon shined on the fine hairs of their pelts, they knew that the time of night had arisen. Quickly, Luna guided Ibis to her bed- a strange yet comfortable nest made of mysterious material, and yet it felt… like home. Like he was snuggled back with his mother and his siblings, hearing the faint snores and grumbles of the other wolves in his pack.

As he curled up tightly, a few paw-lengths from Luna, he felt his heart hammer in his chest while also being deathly still, as he had absolutely no idea what he could do next. Perhaps he could build up his strength as he stayed with Luna? What if the pack needed him desperately, though? Needed him to see through the veil of lies and treachery that his father had put them through?

He had only one thought rushing through his mind as he nuzzled against the soft velvet of the bed- he needed to go back home.