Before, Then, and After [MAR-APR 2024 8CC LIST]

7 - A Romp Beneath The Stars

[Present].

Adolpha was taken aback, looking a bit confused.

"Well?" Quince asked, expectant.

"I'm not sure," Adolpha responded, hesitant, face and head flushed pink with wine. "I don't know that I've ever been a wolf just for fun, except maybe on holidays. But at random? Isn't that a bit scandalous?"

Quince laughed, "Pfft! When have you ever participated in something that wasn't?"

"Oh, you're a bad influence, Quince! And beside the matter, we aren't children anymore."

"Might as well be," Quince huffed, leaning back in her red padded chair, hands folded across her chest. "You're just upset that May forced you to grow up beyond your years. And it isn't anyone's fault that you got pregnant as a child."

Adolpha's eyes widened from the shock, and then she sputtered a laugh, "Wasn't anyone's fault, was it? Is that what people say?"

Quince shook her head, "Nope, but they've all got their mighty theories."

Intrigued, leaning forward on the table then, "Let me hear one."

"Well it was little Osbourn's theory that Mother Nature gifted you with child to make you stronger for our journey!"

Adolpha laughed, "Well, I am not sure that he would be too far from the truth. May was just as much of a blessing as my own magic."

"That is true," she nodded, almost thoughtfully, but Adolpha knew that Quince's mind was a twirling mess from the wine just as her own. "Another drink, then, and then we shift?"

"Oh, I'm not too sure about that one, Quince," Adolpha said, glancing down at the table.

"Don't be, Adolpha! We'll go far into River's Bed's forests or perhaps wheat fields, and nobody will see us! We can catch mice for the farmers, the ones that have been digging up their planting seeds!"

Adolpha lifted her chin, and her gaze was met with Quince's. There was no saying no to her, not now. And Adolpha didn't even want to say no; in fact, her gut was itching for the change, for the playfulness and wholesomeness of a night out as a wolf. She was aching for a holiday, or perhaps a vacation, and she thought that this may have been just what she was looking for.

"Oh," Adolpha said after a moment of strained silence, "I would hate to impose."

"What is wrong with you, Adolpha?" Quince asked, her words delicate and comforting, light as a feather. "You have been doing chores, helping my Ma. You know that we appreciate the help, but that is quite unlike you. Whenever you'd been to my home in the past, coming over for dinners or lunches, you'd always joined me on the couch to talk and mingle. But this time you were far away, and the only chance for talk we got was whenever you were eating your meal in front of me. It was quite rude, you know!"

She faltered, shrinking back into her own chair from across the table, "I'm greatly sorry, Quince." Of course, Adolpha thought, scowling at herself, I wasn't even thinking about Quince. I was just thinking about myself again. Is that all that I think about?

Quince stood, slamming a flat hand on the dining table's surface with a bang, "Damnit, Adolpha! Don't hide away from me, like that, you stubborn, pessimistic fool! You needn't feel the way that you feel, and I wasn't upset with you!" Her voice and face softened, and she sat back down, "I could never be upset with you."

Adolpha said nothing. She merely stared at her fidgeting hands beneath the table, her skin suddenly hot and sticky, her breathing quick, and a harshness within her chest like a pounding weight that she alone was forced to carry.