//------------------------------// // Quest 2 - Of Encounters & Introductions // Story: Wolf-cubs // by Orrm //------------------------------// -BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP-!!! Sunset’s alarm rang in her ears. She mumbled incoherently as her pink pajama-clad body rolled off the old, thin mattress she called a bed with a ‘Thump!’. She almost preferred the ground. Sunset grumbled and rose to her feet, aided by her arms, vision slowly clearing as she wiped her eyes clean of crust and stumbled into her kitchen. The old, wooden floor groaning like an old maid with every step and it's chill made her shiver in discomfort. Sunset sighed and took out her phone. It was Christmas morning, 7am to be exact and, of course, the accursed Mystable account posted again once again! Something about Gilda and dorks. Her hand rested on the sink handle and turned. Yep, water came back. Might as well get ready. Sunset had spent most of her time since she got back debating with herself whether she should or should not accept the strange boy’s offer. On one hand there was the chance that she was just going to get attacked for no apparent reason. On the other hand it might have been a genuine offer. And somewhere in-between was the glaring question of ‘why in Tartarus did a complete stranger invite me to their house?’. The fact that the same individual had committed assault on her former ‘friends’ with ease only added to Sunset’s confusion as she had mulled over each of these thoughts the night prior. After an hour or so of thought she concluded that she had nothing better to do and going to a stranger’s house for Christmas, while not a particularly good idea, was the only alternative to spending the Winter alone. In her apartment. While the heater wasn’t working. She didn’t want that. Susnet sighed as she exited the apartment an hour later. The chilly air crept along her pores as her shoes crunched the snow, she hoped that whoever she met would not turn her away. Honestly she wouldn’t blame them if they did. After all, what sane adult take some random girl into their home to celebrate a holiday with THEIR family. Why was she even doing this in the first place? “Go left, no straight then left and…..turn right at the….one….two…three…..and……” Sunset stared at the modes two story house before her. As the boy had said it was all black and frankly she doubted she could see it at night. Luckily daylight was upon her. The house had no lawn and was built to fit snugly between the two three story houses beside it. It had a large, black door that stretched to about seven feet by a hundred centimeters and was quite plain in appearance. No designs either. The entire front of the house was devoid of decoration or structure and was completely flat save for the single rectangular-frame window on the second floor and the odd door handle shaped like a silver wolf’s head with a closed maw and two pitch-back eyes staring at her. It even had a bright gold nose with the word ‘Press’ written on it. Not ominous at all. Sunset cautiously strode forward, eyeing the unflattering structure as she pressed the nose... But no one came. She was about to press the button a second time when the door handle twisted open of its own accord to reveal a young boy. This one was a tad taller than her and a fair bit less muscular than the stranger she met the day prior, fitting the idea of a ‘slightly-toned youth’ than a muscle-monster and his hazelnut eyes complimented his russet hair well. He wore a white, sleeve-length sweater with a monochrome, convex-shaped eye printed on the chest, said sweater was complimented by a black pants that, like the sweater, hugged his lithe form like a well-fitted glove. He exuded an aura of boredom, of Nihilism in its purest form. The boy’s face was significantly more sculpted than the other’s, a firm yet curved jawline and short face giving him a youthful appearance as he focused his placid gaze onto Sunset. “And you are?” His voice was gravelly, deep and odd as if he were speaking from equal parts his throat and a bucket of gravel, grinding and choking the sounds produced. Surprisingly, it didn’t unnerve her. “Sunset Sh-” She wasn’t allowed to continue as the boy whipped out a small six-shooter pistol from nowhere and shot her in the neck. Surprisingly, she felt no pain. She raised her hand to touch the area in question and felt a foreign object protruding from the wound. A dart. Oh. She face planted on the snow with a crunchy 'Plop!' as the boy advanced upon her form. //Several hours later// Sunset slowly eased her eyes open as she raised a palm to her neck. Nothing. She smiled. The whole thing was a dream. Now to go to Sugarcube corner and- “Achilles what the fuck were you thinking?!!” “I wasn’t,” “What’s she gonna’ think now eh? First time she meets ya and ya shoot ‘er with a goddamn tranquilizer!” ”I bought her a gift,” “...” “See, logic,” SMACK Sunset blinked. She pinched her arm. Nope, definitely not dreaming.. She raised her head from the soft cushion that she had made a groove in and sat up from her position on what appeared to be a large galaxy-themed couch. Out of nowhere a small cup of water materialized to her side as the owner of the offending arm said in a slightly loud voice. “She’s awake, numb-skulls!” Not long after two familiar boys entered the room and sat down on the ground to the fireplace. There was a fireplace. Sunset took the water and gulped it down, enjoying the feeling of cool liquid flowing down her parched throat and then surveyed her surroundings. Currently she sat on a medium-sized couch meant for three people in a small room. To her extreme right was a bright fireplace that seemed to liven-up the black walls surrounding it and above her sat an odd, old-timey brass chandelier whose brilliant, intricate appearance contrasted it’s modest surroundings greatly. On the upper right and left sides of the room were two door-frames, one leading to a kitchen and the other to a room shrouded in darkness. The floors were made of varnished light-brown wood and opposite to her was a couch similar to the one she sat on. It housed two new boys. One of them appeared to be a little more than five feet tall, likely bordering on six, with black hair and reddish-brown eyes. He wore a festive green top with a Christmas tree printed on it and a blue jeans that were one size smaller than he should rightfully have. His face was long, giving him a more mature look than the rest, a small, confident smirk tugged at his lips Next to him was another boy, this one was significantly shorter, even more than her, and had dark-brown, almost black eyes and his on face was a cheerful smile. Inviting, warm, unnerving. He wore a baggy sleeve-length T-shirt with the words ‘I LOVE CHRISTMAS!’ written in bold red and green print and a red, three quarter shorts. Both youths could be no older than her, maybe seventeen for the lanky one, twelve or thirteen from the one in shorts. Almost all, however, were surprisingly bulky, almost disturbingly so. Though not as much as the one who invited her, they were all fairly fit, except the smallest. He was... reedy, wearing clothes his size yet he couldn't possibly fill. Strangely, they all shared the similar tanned complexion with only slight differences in tone. Sunset took a good five minutes to observe everything and then leveled her eyes onto the one she was most familiar with. He sat cross-legged on the ground and stared back at her, wearing the same set of clothes he wore on their first encounter. He seemed much shorter than she remembered, it was cute in a way. Like a puppy. A docile, dangerous puppy. Sunset cleared her throat. “So…….” The boy huffed as his eyes met hers, a mix of pity, sympathy and embarrassment danced in his liquid pools of scorched earth. They gave her all she needed to know about events prior. “Yeah, sorry about that ma’m, He’s a bit skittish when it come to things like these,” Sunset wanted to say something. She really did. One part of her wanted to scream and rant about the morality of randomly shooting someone with a tranquilizer. Another part wanted to know why the young man had a tranquilizer in the first place, and the last part wanted to run as far away as 'humanly' possible.. She chose the middle-ground. “Well I’m not injured so all’s forgiven,” The boys each exchanged short, skeptical glances upon her casual dismissal of unprovoked assault but remained silent as she continued. Sunset sighed, slowly blinking as she collected herself and suggested in an open, casual tone of voice, “Let’s start over. My name is Sunset Shimmer. What’s yours?" The boy nodded and the line that was his mouth curved upwards. He spoke, his voice not as deep as the other one but it had a ‘powerful’ feel in itself. “I am Asura Fenrir, the one who ‘retrieved’ you is Achilles, the grinning idiot in baggy clothes is Orthros and the other one with the Christmas tree t-shirt is Vandal, ” Sunset allowed herself a smile as she absorbed the new information. “We’re brothers,” Asura finished, a proud look on his face as he waited for Sunset’s response. She did in turn. “Very interesting names, where are your parents? I’d like to know if I could help with any.........thing?” The moment she uttered the word ‘parents’ the mood shifted from light and rose in intensity till it mimicked a knife’s edge. Each brother held a different look of stern fury on their face as Sunset gulped. Then, it was gone. Each of their expressions relaxed and the atmosphere returned to what it was as if the change never occurred. Asura’s response was absolute, “We’d like to avoid that particular topic, if you will,” The last three words were not a question. His tone was flat, his eyes sharp as he gazed at her. If she looked hard enough she could see grief behind the burning exterior. Just because human eyes were smaller didn’t mean they showed any less emotion than a pony’s. And over time she had learnt to spot them all the same. “Sorry if I brought up a touchy topic, in any case, why am I here?” Her question extorted a chuckle and a mild-mannered response from a grinning Orthros, “For Christmas, Lady! What else?” Then Vandal intercepted, his tone flat as the floor they rested on. “Want a shish kebab?” The boy stretched his right hand towards her. In his fist held five warm shrimp shish kebabs quite literally packed with impaled foodstuff. Sunset stared at the offending item and cautiously reached for one as the others did the same. She took a cautious bite of a roasted bell pepper and grinned in satisfaction. “Why does this taste so good?!” Vandal smirked. “Family recipe,” They all then took to stuffing their faces with the snack as Vandal placed a bowl of shish kebabs in the center of the room. There were seconds then thirds and even fourths but eventually they stopped and simply sat where they were, enjoying the odd warmth the fireplace gave. Sunset was no different. While her introductions to the boys were quite offputting, to say the least, she relished in the opportunity to eat with other people who didn’t stare at her with malice, hate or ill-intent. Sure, they were close to strangers but they invited her into their household and even offered her something to eat. Sunset snorted. Was it really that bad? When did she get to the point where she was willing to accept kindness from anywhere no matter how odd it seemed? When did she get so desperate she was willing to take the chance of being assaulted so she could spent time with someone who didn’t despise her. . . . . . . Wh-when did inflicting harm onto her become something so trivial that everyday she just shrugged it off...…. when did she become so…..pitiful? A single tear rolled down her left cheek. She had no more tears to cry. Beyond that she was out of them. The blooming, pulsing pain in her chest persisted as it wrought chaos and constricted her lungs. The pain was so real. It hurt so mu- “Ms. Shimmer!” A booming voice shook her back to the world of the living as a collection of furious brown eyes pierced her own glassy cyan ones. She stiffened as those fury-filled orbs focused on her and in unison they all asked the question she knew they would, their unified voice betraying some inane worry they held despite their profane manner of speech. “The fuck happened to you?”