A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Erik watched as Liv appeared to loose her caution towards him. Yet, perhaps not so much because she thought he was trustworthy, but more because she had started questioning her own reality.

Erik smiled a little sadly. He may not know Liv that well, but the expression on Liv's face was one that would make even the hardest of hearts tremble a little. She looked at her sleeping daughter with a mixture of pain, anxiety, depression, and only a sliver of hope. The hand caressing Astrid's strawberry blond hair trembled.

It was clear to him that she wanted desperately to believe that both she and her daughter remained alive and present in reality, but a part of her didn't dare believe that. Hope was the a dangerous force to let into your mind. It could raise you to great heights just as quickly as it could plunge you down to the deepest depths.

Erik slowly approached the bed and shrugged, "Eight years ago I fell unconscious, and awakened to a world I didn't recognize. I've had many moments of doubt since then. Is this really reality, or am I in a coma of sorts? Perhaps I'm already dead?"

Although Liv seemed to be having a harder time of it than him, he could sort of understand where she was coming form.

While Erik crouched down next to the bed and looked at his future mother-in-law, Liv continued stroking her daughter's peacefully sleeping face. "One of the last things I remember clearly was the moment of my daughter's death. After that it's a blur of… madness and fury, before dissolving into nothing at all.

Now I wake up here, my supposedly dead daughter by my side, and no idea how I got here… or who you are."

'She's having more trouble with this than Astrid did… probably because she apparently thought her daughter was dead,' Erik thought to himself.

"You actually witnessed that attack in the forest?" Erik wondered with a raised eyebrow. They had always known, or rather, assumed, that Sigurd thought Astrid was dead, but Astrid had often worried about what her mother thought she knew.

Now, Liv finally turned back to him with narrowed eyes, "I did… can I assume you were the werewolf in that attack?"

"I was," Erik nodded, before grinning a little, "But no Astrid's were harmed in the making of whatever you saw."

He chuckled at his own joke, but Liv scoffed and rolled her eyes at him, which only caused Erik to chuckle louder.

Even as they talked, they tried to whisper a little, so as not to wake up Astrid for now.

Erik could see Liv needed a moment to acclimate before Astrid joined the conversation, while Liv herself was afraid of dispelling the illusion.

After he finished laughing, Erik smiled softly at Liv. "Anyway it's been a while since we last met, Miss Frost, but you do actually know me. We met a few times, I believe. But admittedly, I wasn't very sociable back then."

Liv frowned, and looked into his playful yet piercing amber eyes. She didn't recognize that look, but when she went through the list of people of who he could be, there was only one with that combination of hair and eyes.

A young, socially awkward boy jumped in front of her mind. His gaze was far more subdued, and his hair was more silver-gray than silver-white, but the face was right, as was the eye color.

Her eyes widened, "You… Runa's boy?!"

Erik nodded, still smiling softly. "That would be me, yeah. When I came across Astrid as a ghoul in that forest, I naturally had to do something."

Erik had imagined various responses from Liv during the past year at the new of his survival, but he could only be disappointed when she just scoffed, "If you're trying to convince me this is reality, you're doing a piss poor job of it. I'm supposed to believe not only my daughter came back from the dead, but her childhood crush as well?"

Before Erik could answer, Liv narrowed her eyes, fury glaring within her gaze. "Besides… if you really are him, and this is reality, than you and I have some things to settle," she growled threateningly.

"I had to watch as she drowned herself in sorrow when she learned of your death!" she continued, her voice rising in intensity with every word. Her weakened body started panting a little. "She became cold! S— She didn't care anymore about anything but revenge!" By now, she was almost seething, her eyes blazing, "And now you dare tell me you were alive that whole time?!"

If it hadn't been for Astrid's head on her lap, she may have jumped up to attack Erik, regardless of her weakened body. She was still a third-ranker, after all. She fully expected to be capable of beating a second-ranker like Erik, even if he did give her a dangerous feeling.

But, Erik wasn't so easily cowed. "Careful with those threats there, Miss Frost," he grinned, his eyes shining with fighting intent. "How do you think you ended up in that bed? I certainly didn't ask your ghoulified self if you could please lie down and drink my blood slowly."

Suddenly, Liv seemed to be struck by lightning as she blinked. Her thoughts apparently having shifted away from Erik's strength. "Right…! Of course I became a ghoul…"

Then, she balled her fists, and her expression shifted to pure, blistering hatred, "Sigurd… I'll rip that traitorous, stinking, rat-fucker limb from limb!"

"Where is he?!" she growled at Erik, clearly struggling to stop herself from waking Astrid by jumping up.

"Don't worry about him, he's not anywhere," Erik shrugged casually. Then, his smile became a little teasing, "Although, you seem awfully interested in punishing a supposed figment of your imagination, or afterlife, or whatever you think is going on here."

"Don't you be throwing logic at me, boy," Liv growled with narrowed eyes. "Careful I don't test out that supposed strength of yours…"

Instead of being intimidated, Erik laughed happily, "I think I know where Astrid got her hatred for losing from!"

Liv was about to give a scathing reply, when the head on her lap finally stirred. "M— Mom?" came Astrid's careful voice.

Immediately, Liv's eyes widened in panic, and her body froze.