A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

About a day later, Erik found himself in front of a relatively intact house at the edges of Kirkenes, barely within the defensive line of sigils. By his side was a nervous and slightly depressed Alice.

Astrid had to remain in the dimension for now, because having a vampire walking around in the Enclave camp would just be asking for trouble.

Obviously it wouldn't be anything they couldn't handle, but why tempt fate? Besides, Astrid wasn't really interested anyway. There was enough to do inside their home.

"Is this the place?" Erik asked, warmly, to the young girl by his side.

Alice nodded softly while panning her gaze to a specific spot on the snowy ground. "It's impossible to see now, but that is where my foster parents died…" she mumbled, sadly. "They were burnt to a crisp, barely any ashes remained. Now probably scattered into the wind…"

Although Kirkekens had been deserted when Erik and the others first arrived here, it hadn't always been that way in the last seven years. In the first days of the Enclave, Kirkenes was their main base. Their capital, as it were.

Only when Sigurd took over the Dominion and started the enslavement war against the Enclave did Kirkenes become deserted after various battles drove the Enclave to take on a more guerrilla type fighting style.

At first, however, a few stragglers stayed behind, with Alice and her foster parents having been part of that.

That is, until the Council came and took them out in order to get their hands on Alice.

"Then let's take a moment so you can remember them," Erik suggested, knowing how much relief he got from visiting his father's grave back in Frostvik.

Alice nodded without a word and closed her eyes for a moment while Erik watched over her.

They weren't alone, however. With the entire Enclave of about 3000 shapeshifters crammed into Kirkenes, most were camping out in the streets, and every house was filled to the brim.

The only thing that stopped them from falling into chaos and anarchy during the last month of mind-numbing boredom was a healthy fear of the second-rankers keeping everyone in line.

Naturally, everyone had their eyes on Erik, the prodigal son of their founder, and the supposed current leader of their faction. Most of their expressions were simply curious, some were kind and hopeful, but others were hateful.

The fact was, that Erik had not been a particularly active leader since he arrived there. The fact that the Dominion's ghouls were now under his control was only known to the Enclave's leadership, so most of these people thought he had just been lounging about doing nothing.

Which wasn't actually false, to be fair.

There just wasn't a need for him to do anything.

At first, after Erik came outside with Alice, some of these malcontents had tried to accost him, but Erik had simply ignored them. And if they refused be to ignored, he turned them into a living ice sculpture with only their heads unfrozen.

Thus, they now all kept their distance, and simply watched to see what he was up to.

Finally, Alice opened her eyes again, and nodded gratefully to Erik. "Thank you… I'd like to take a look inside now."

"Are you sure?" he asked, with a hint of concern. "The house is probably filled with people right now. We could wait until this whole business with the Dominion is dealt with.

A murmuring started in the surroundings. People were surprised by his confidence in dealing with the Dominion. Some took comfort in it, and others thought he was boasting. Either way, Erik and Alice ignored them.

"Yeah…" Alice nodded. "There's a few things I want to gather, like pictures and mementos, assuming they're still there. Ivar had an old, working Polaroid camera and several replacement batteries, so we managed to take some pictures in the first few years.

Anyway, the longer we wait, and particularly after the Enclave files out of this house, the bigger the odds these things will be gone."

"Fair enough," Erik nodded, before they walked up to the house. There hadn't been a big uproar because of his presence, just some staring and murmuring, so the people inside might not have noticed his presence yet.

He didn't bother knocking. Their wasn't any guarantee of personal space in the current Enclave, as everyone was living on top of each other already.

The moment they entered, a mature woman's voice carried over from one of the rooms to the sides, "I don't know who you are, but every room here is filled to the brim! You'll have to find another place to sleep!"

Erik and Alice believed her, as even the hallway they entered through was filled with currently empty sleeping bags of people who were probably out training or doing whatever they could to fight the boredom.

Surprisingly, Alice appeared to find some recognition in that voice. "Miss Heidi? Is that you?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Eh?" the voice answered with a hint of shock, before walking out into the hallway, revealing a busty, middle-aged woman with freckles and graying hair. "That's impossible…" she muttered, but fell silent as soon as she saw Alice, her eyes widening in shock.

"Alice?!" she cried out in surprise before quickly closing the distance between them and forcing the young girl into a hug. "I thought you were dead, you little rascal! When I heard someone had attacked Ivar and Marta I feared the worst! Are they with you?!"

Alice smiled a sad smile and hugged the woman back. "No, Miss Heidi. They died back then, and I was taken prisoner."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that," Heidi muttered, tightening here hug around Alice. "Was it the Dominion? Did they make you a blood slave? Oh, I'm so sorry, Dear."

"It's not important," Alice shook her head dismissively, not really wanting to talk about it. "I just came to see if there was anything left of my time with them…"

"Oh, of course," the woman quickly nodded. "I think I've seen some pictures and such spread around. You're free to take whatever you want of course. And if you and your friend need a place to sleep I can make it work!" She rattled off her words with a clear desire to be helpful, causing Erik to smile.

So far he had just been watching, but now he spoke up, "That's not necessary, Miss, thank you. We have our own arrangements. Alice, why don't you introduce us?"

Breaking the hug, Alice smiled at Erik and introduced Heidi as a neighbor and friend of her foster parents, back in the glory days of the Enclave.

Than she turned to introduce Erik, but Heidi, who finally took a good look at Alice's companion, already realized the truth. She took a step back and gulped as she looked at him with a mix of fear and awe, "T— That's alright, Alice. I know who he is. I— It's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Erik."

"There's no need to be so deferential," Erik chuckled casually. "Any friend of Alice is a friend of mine. She is a friend, though, right?" he asked Alice, with a raised eyebrow. "Was she a good neighbor?"

Hearing the light threat in his tone, Heidi paled as she remembered a few times where she scolded Alice for being a troublemaker and send a pleading look towards the young girl.

Alice giggled a little, a smile on her face. "Don't worry, Miss Heidi. He's just kidding. He looks scary, but he's a teddy bear when you get to know him."

"I resent that," Erik scoffed. "If anything, I'm a teddy wolf."

Alice laughed and punched him in his arm, while Heidi calmed a little. Although, having born witness to the events from two days ago when Erik arrived in town, she found the comparison to a cute toy a little hard to believe.

That said, it was clear to her that Erik and Alice cared about each other, so she smiled warmly, "I'll take your word for it, Alice. And I'd love to hear how you ended up with him while we find you some mementos of your foster parents."

Alice smiled and nodded while they walked deeper into the house. There were some other residents there, but since it was the middle of the day, most of them were out, while those remaining were trying to fight the boredom by sleeping or reading.

While they gathered some pictures and other things that held meaning to Alice, she told Heidi a shorter version of what happened to her and how she met Erik. She didn't really feel like mentioning how her father turned traitor to try and save her, nor that Erik had a hand in his death.

As they walked, Erik tossed the things they found straight into Alice's room in their dimension, causing Heidi's head to spin, to great amusement of Alice and Erik.

An hours later they stood outside again, and Alice smiled at Erik, "Thank you! I liked seeing Miss Heidi. It brought back some pleasant memories."

"Good," Erik smiled. "Is there anythin—" but before he could finished he frowned, and took out his communication sigil stone.

"Master!" Emily's voice came through the other side. "They're starting!"