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"You're too young," her father had said with finality. Seeming to soften a little, "I know you like the pup. But you're too young, and so is she. Maybe when you're older you can be a soldier, and have a wolf of your own."
"I want her," Ellis whispered, crying, her arms around the wolf pup's shaggy neck.
Such pride, years later, to be able to make the introduction, "This is Ava, my own sweet sister wolf."
*
Bait let out a piercing howl, high and continuing. Unprepared, the humans and elf all stumbled, hands lifted belatedly to their ears. Inconveniently, the sound they had counted on as a defense didn't seem to have much effect on the monster. They escaped it in a scramble of a climb.
Ava, whining softly, kept her gaze across the tree. Her thoughts touching Ellis were little more defined. Probably she wanted Bait, as a theoretically vulnerable pup, with her and Ellis instead of perched on a further branch with Ezran and Rayla.
The monster circled below while Ava displaced her feelings by licking Callum's face. They were safe enough up the tree; Ellis could let herself be amused at Callum scrunching his eyes closed under her sister wolf's attention.