New Beginnings (Olkhon Island | Baikal Lake, Siberia)

[Tenzin]

It wasn’t too long a journey, and Tenzin did not choose to fill it with chatter. Their path to the cabin veered off the main track long before the village, and they found it nestled in a hollow of storm-battered trees. Her heavy brows fell low when she first perceived the damage in person. As her hands picked at the chipped wood where hinges once affixed to the frame, she made a perturbed grumbling sound in her throat to announce her great displeasure for the mess. That was not normal man-strength, more alike to the sorts of monsters she usually brought to heel than one of the wolfkin. Thornpaw had warned her Wildfyre was not simply wolf, and she had not entirely understood what the elder had meant by it then – he showed her tall stones in the dream, but the rākṣasa hatyārā had no teachings to interpret what they were in the waking world. She just understood it as the grizzled wolf explained it with bared fang – a mortal enemy. Now Tenzin wondered if Tristan the man was really just a man at all. Plenty of monsters had human faces, and some could breed with humans, though she did not understand how such unclean blood could be called by the kin. It made little sense – but only about as much as a man who disappeared in a lake in the first place.

Inside was damp and smelled strongly of the pups spending a long soggy night huddled together. Sierra assisted her in a temporary blockade, while internally Tenzin began tallying the tools she might need for a more permanent solution. The village was awash with repairs, and it would be a good time to barter for what she might need, perhaps in exchange for some muscle: she was strong and lean and happy to help. Though it seemed unlikely the cabin might have the tools to hand – something else to consider. For now she listened to Sierra’s uncertainties as she talked herself into sense and perched herself on the bed. It was a tiny place; kitchen and living and sleeping all in one space, and Tenzin moved about it with ease, checking cupboards to ascertain their supplies and frowning liberally for what she perceived. She would clean the damp. Food was scarce though. Alone, Tenzin would have hunted, but it was unfamiliar territory and she wanted to offer certainties. Another thing to purchase in the village.

She paused to laugh when Never ratted her out, hands on her hips, her braid dangling over one shoulder. It was a fierce and merry sound. “Best listen then,” she said, grinning. The pups were tramping all over the bed, making themselves comfortable, and Sierra eventually joined them. Tenzin told Never her intentions – to clean the den, then to leave and find them food before she returned – so that he would be able to explain to Sierra if she woke before Tenzin’s return. She made a start with the mopping while Sierra at least pretended to close her eyes, but she waited for the breaths to deepen truly before she left using a window.

---

By the time Sierra woke, it would be to gentle cooking smells from the stove. A small homely fire danced in the hearth too – it was summer still, but it meant something different in Siberia, and the cosiness took off any chill. She’d removed her contacts for her own comfort while she worked, knowing they were unnecessary here, and for a while it had made her pensive as she considered Jacinda. She wondered where she was. What she was doing.

The fare was local; pelmeni stuffed with fish, onion, garlic and chives, some smoked omul from the lake (enough of that for the pups too), and a pot of green tea. Tenzin had purchased additional herbs and spices that could not be easily foraged, but talking in the village she had discovered this island was largely rural and still had strong indigenous roots. Living off the land would not be hard here. A word with Howl as she traipsed the path back to the cabin had confirmed the hunting would be good enough to support them, and the pack were curious for the prospect of kin so close. Supplies for repairing the door had been harder to negotiate, mostly because she needed to borrow the tools, and she was a stranger with an odd manner and broken English. But ultimately it was a small-knit place and everyone was working to recover the storm damage. Her practical offer of help was well received when it was put in practise, and that worked better than words, so Tenzin had what she needed, though the work would wait. By now, she was hungry herself.