CHPT 349: Genius in Hibernation, Hero in Complexity...

With the ice thawed, they spoke on and off for another few hours in between eating and discussing future events as a light drizzle of snow accented the night around them. But their discussions could only last so long, Ursula wasn't a night owl-- even in spite of her Lupine hailings. Sleep called to her strongly and she rarely had a problem resisting.

It left Claude to his own devices as he sat with the slowly fading fire while Ursula drifted to sleep with the Pack laying around nearby.

"....I wonder if i'll see him tonight. What do you think he's been doing?" Claude's voice bled into the silence as clear as the snowflakes falling around him, allowing him to hear how his own fear changed it perfectly.

"[That very question makes my nonexistent spine tingle like no other....I can't comprehend the whereabouts of a God....much less the whereabouts of a vengeful one in the midst of his season of awakening....bad news lies there more often than not, mate.]"

"That's true.....and horrifying. Fenrir can't be up to anything good...not now-- not with winter being here. It feels like he's torturing me-- telling me how Winter is coming all this time...and now he's....he's gone? I feel like I've been asking myself this question ever since the first snowfall..."

Ursula shifted on her log, slightly startling Claude as she halfway opened her eyes and looked over at him, "Hey....I forgot to ask....how's the transformation training going..?"

Her words came out slurred by sleep, almost in a drunken tone that deepened her voice.

"I'm still failing. My trigger isn't calming myself...it's closer to acceptance I think, since I'm not exactly proud of what I am."

"Ahh....I get it." Ursula replied sluggishly.

"But I'm accepting. Everything I've done....to everyone. Still nothing. Just the cold water that keeps reminding me I'm not getting it."

Ursula made a snorting sound-- reflexively waking herself up in response to hearing his pause that must've led her to believe he wanted her to speak."Erhm...uhhh..I don't know, man. Maybe....maybe you got it all wrong. The opposite of anger.....is calm.....right? But the opposite of disgust...or disdain...or suppression...isn't...hmm...it isn't acceptance-- not entirely at least..."

Claude looked up from his hands, sitting up to view her correctly as his interest rose. Almost instinctually picking up on where she was headed. "Mhm?"

Ursula yawned and turned over with her back facing him, "I mean.... you can't just go...I'm a dirty Monster...I accept it..hoorah..." She said, trying to mock Claude's tone of voice and failing miserably in her tired stupor.

She continued onward, "I think.....hmmm...if you want to get on the other side of disgust and disdain....you have to take in all the good. Good is....good....haha....erhm. What you are isn't all bad.....if you were never a....a Lupine....you wouldn't have saved all those people...or Maris...hm...Maris....she better not be bullying Warren.....and they better be answering all her funny little...questions..." She finished with a heavy yawn and stretch.

"Ursula....that's brilliant."

Following Ursula's words, she'd rolled too far over the log and fallen face first into the hard grass. Instead of getting up in shock, he'd slowly begun to hear her loud snores from behind the log as the Phantom Wolves laid around her in a border of furry shadows.

"[Well, that's some food for thought.]" Arne said.

Claude turned and laid against the log, not even bothering with replying verbally as his mind played around with the idea until sleep eventually took him.

Maybe his slumber would be a bit more eventful this time around....