she smiled at kita and nodded, "will do." she said as she stretched. she thought for a long moment at what she could get done the quickest. she pulled in a cold breath and let it warm in her lungs before she slowly let it out. she liked the feel of the coolness rushing into her body. it felt like it re-energized her. it made her muscles relax and her head clear. "anyone want to join?" she asked. she looked at the other three as she walked in the group toward the lake.

Not being very skilled in wood working other than whittling little knicknacks here and there Crosis remained inside trying to think up designs for the building. If everythign went well they should be finished with a few weeks to spare before winter bebegan its reign over the forest. Money wouldnt be too much of a concern, what with his little treasure box and kitas stash. Tonight would be a time to rest, tomorrow they would have to start working and finding people to elp them. Then they needed cooks and waitresses and who knew what else. His shining enthusiam began to lessen as he realized just how much they still had to actually do. "Well tomorrow should prove to be an intresting day."

The night passed on and on, yet Crosis never returned to the forest. He remained within the house, checking little things and trying to picture how they would go about transforming this place. He was now walking around the village, most of the people still awake and milling about with their personal agendas. No one seemed that suprised to see him as people leaving for days on end wasnt uncommon. Before long the town knew about his plans to open a tavern with a small inn within it. Most responses were positive, a few others simply not caring. With a few friendly smiles and promises to return the favor when they needed it, he had almost half the male villagers and a few of the women agreeing to help him and his friends convert the old house. By the time everything was finished though the night was well on its way to becoming morning, the village already fast asleep while Crosis continued to toil about, checking cracks int he wall and the quality of the wood in various places inside the house. Before he knew it though he was curled up upon one of the beds, snoring contently in his human form with a content smile.

Kita nodded to mydnite as they entered the lakes clearing glad to see she was still alive and well. "Crosis I think is staying in the tavern to ready it for construction and Silver is...running her own wood shop on the outskirts of the lake." he looked back sort of pointing with his eyes where she was at. He sighed as he passed by her." We start building tommorow and we sure could use another free paw." He kept the finer details to himself as he plodded along to his den behind the falls leaving her with Aithne. He figured if any thing curiocity over the weeks would be enough to drive Mydnite to supress her distaste of the humans enough to come see the project at least. Once hidden in his cavern of a cubby he let out a heavy sigh followed by a thourough head scratching before starting his dig in the human things he had collected over the years.

He set aside a crate that was still usable and begain tossing things into it he thought they might use. Strangly though Kita was becoming jumpy and nervose, jerking to look behind him with chops curled every so often. Finaly it got to the point to where he got up and had to poke around his cave a bit and the look around the lake but all seemed quite aside from the girls. But as he was just about to return he stopped suddenly feeling a strangle tingling sensation through out his body. "Solarus" he thought and spun around to see a white haired very young looking and petite framed elf. Though that was a generic definition since rarly were elves very stocky, male or female. Kitas eyes narrowed and he took a quick step forward. "Im not in your hole." the elf said with a smile throwing its hands up deffencivly. Kita stoped and crossed his arms. "Im guessing your Solarus's runner?

The elf bowed in its high class fashion" You are correct young votary." the elf teased. "your kin are of Lunas light as well elf that white hair doesnt cover your dark skin." Kita replied through gritted teeth. "but we go by another name for the luminous deity we share....preist doctor." This elf wanted to see how far it could push Kita. "shaman! now make a point before I decorate my insides with your flesh elf!" Kita barked. "oooo so vulgar, Solarus wishes to bring buissnes to your establishment." Nosey little wretches GRRRAAA!" Kita lunged at the elf as it shot out from the entrance and Kita kicked a small spot of dirt after him then called out as the elf seemed to disspear into the trees as was their nature. "TELL HIM TO COME ALONE!" Kita growled storming back into his den mumbling some thing about Solarus spying on him in his free time.

The next morning Kita was standing out side the falls with his arms wraped around the crate of goodies, Howling for the others. When they had collected he told Mydnite if she wasnt going to help then she had to watch over the lake, which was pretty much a given since thats where shed most likely be. With that he headed into town to begin construction. It seemed Crosis had already got the word out seeing thier were a few humans already gathered at the building. Throguh out the build Kita played the part of the slow boss. He had never built any thing before and so every thing he did was rather slow and in some instances had to be "done over again" but he took a back seat after he fell off of one of the beams in the celing and took out one of Silvers nice tables that at the same time catapulted a hammer out on of the windows narrowly missing one of the workers.

After that incident he took it upon himself to swallow some pride and just help buy getting lumber and nails and helping any one when they needed it. As for the humans finding them out. Their was the neccesary drama. Their was the one worker whom after being talked down to by one of the girls and being wholy embarased and teased to no end he dropped the subject of some of them living in the woods and such. After that no body asked questions...except the few. Their was some trust and truth with a few of the humans but only a couple. With a few "nessesary" Injurys some minor threats and agreements.

The pack itself made some friends as uneasy of a time as it was for those few weeks. The snow had begun to fall near the end of compleation and it slowed the project greatly. As was the past few winters, unbelivably brutal was an understatment. Many times every one even had to stay in the tavern over night and then burst the door open and digg a way out and then dig up allt he lumber and things that were to big to fit in the tavern and were kept ont he down wind side of the building no less. It was near these last few weeks of intense snow ins that the real bonding happen not only did the pack members gain a whole new respect for eachother the awkward and tension between them and the humans begain to wash away along with SOME of the pack members grudges and bitterness toward them.

It was long and hard and winter was aproaching those final months of its worst deathly freezes and snowy winds. but the day of compleation finaly came. Kita was so excited in his joyus haste he ran out side to make snow angles only half dressed and was very quickly shivering infront of the fireplace with some hot tea. Still though unable to solve his heat problem like normal he was just as excited as everyone else to have this over and done with and to have the incredible leasure of residing in a heated and bedded place if need be. "Well w-what h-have we got l-left to to to to do?" kita stuttered through his chattering teeth.

(take what you will from it this isnt a set in stone post so if you want some thing to happen or what ever in your post then do it and I will edit it mine to better respond to that and vise versa everybody understand?))

So it began the following morning, belongings and provisions being placed here and there, vairious villagers lending their strength of arm to help expand the house into a respectable tavern and inn. Crosis was in charge of morale and keeping the groups from killing eachother when stress got the better of them. More than once he found himself struggling, trying to keep the packs secret exactly that, a secret. In the end most of the villagers still thougth of them as humans wishing to earn honest coin. Crosis wasnt about to tell them any different, he would Kita sort out the handful that had an inkling of what they were. Near the middle of fall they enlisted a small group of travellers, gypsies as they turned out to be. Their exotic looks would do wonders for publicity, Crosis only hoped there wouldnt be any problems caused by them. Their ilk were notorious for being tricksters and thieves, but for now they seemd as honest as they were, people with secrets trying to get by.

Relations grew with the small group and the pack, they being similar in nature. The gypsies, three women named Morika (mori for short), Asaj, and Pennae (Penni for short) were quite adept at being barmaids and cooks. In fact they seemed adept at most every job given to them, though in the end all three preffered to be waitresses and housekeepers. Crosis was more than happy to let them do the cleaning, though more than once he saw Pennae steal an item here or there, even daring to try and steal out of Kitas pocket! She succeeded of course, but Crosis simply stole the gold coin and slipped it back into his pocket. It seemed Crosis had more than enough experience lifting items that wernt nailed down. And thankfully after kitas accident almost killed poor Pennae with an errant hammer, she decided karma meant for her to be a good little housekeeper and leave things where they were.

In the end the village seemed to be happy with everything. The pack grew tighter, Crosis even opened up more often, telling jokes and whittling decorations of wolves, horses, people, even mythical creatures. All over the tavern his works could be seen, excluding one or two that had mysteriously dissapeared, though none of the barmaids knew anything about it. Morika with her skill and carpentry grew close with silver, learning from the master as she helped Silver tackle projects that would have taken too long on her own, mainly because she was forced to build using human tools as even the gypsies didnt know they were wolves.

Through some sort of blessing they finished building the tavern with days to spare. The building was fully furnished with food, drink and living nessecities. The top floor held the 6 rooms available to paying customers, though the gypsies seemed to have made the last room their own and no one seemed to particularly care enough to tell them no. The ground floor was the tavern, a large bar took up one side of the room, with square tables all over and some alcoves on the opposite wall for people wishing to drink in private groups. The kitchen was seperated by an ornate overhang with thick curtains, the scent of cooked meats and fruits wafting into the main room occasionally. Then there was a large bedroom with four beds and some other furnishings. All in all it was a great achievment ofr the village.

Now Crosis looked at the large wodden plank, paints lying next to it and his face deep in thought. They still needed to name the place, and for some reason he found this to be the hardest part of the whole thing. Everyone else semeed to be outside playing int he new fallen snow, but he didnt wish to leave until they could all agree upon the Taverns name.

His stomach protesting for food he couldnt help but join them both, eating slowly so his tounge wouldnt burn. "Well...namewise I was thinking something that would represent us or maybe the lake." The three sisters, because thats how the always reffered themselves, were busy cleaning...well two of them anyway. Asaj was sitting happily upon the staircase with her own bowl of soup, listening in as she always did the past few days. "Well, if you be askin my opinion dear," she said with a slavic accent that betrayed her gypsie heritage that her unusually light skin might have not. "Maybe ye should name it after how the people will feel while here? In our travels people come here to get friendly with the ladies and get howlin drunk more than a few times over if their coin be plentiful enough." She smiled and resumed eating.

silvertip was relaxing on the floor with a bowl of soup and drank the broth as it warmed her. she smiled, listening to them go on about a name. she looked at the tables and chairs and was very proud of herself. it was good to know that those poor excuse for parents showed her something. she sighed and settled more to the ground, yawning. "how about..." she trailed off to think. "luna's? its simple and easy to remember."

Kita huffed under his breath smirking at Asajes input and then Silvers. "Lunas...ah I like it but its to forward. people might get curious about the name, and any human that knows who Luna is or what she represents to us...it could cause trouble." he thought for a moment before his eyes fell on Athines enthusiasm on "The Howling Drunk though...that could mean a many great things. kind of has that-" he stoped abruptly as this strange girl just invited her self into the tavern. Kita just sort of staired, eye twitching a little."Hi" he said after a long moment. "were not open yet miss." as he spoke his spoon full of soop drizzled back into the bowl. He noticed this finaly when some spattered onto his hand and he set the spoon down still staring at this girl.

(Im going to assume the gipsys are the ones whom know abotu the pack since they are the ones living in the tavern and will be around all the time =\ )

((Of course they do. And they have a secret that they havnt told you guys yet o: dun dun duuuun))

Asaj chuckled to herself. "Yes well we humans tend a bit of a curious sort. Like when Mari followed ye all back to the lake." Mari made a snorting, choking noise from behind the kitchen curtain. "Well how was I supposed ta know? I jus thought they all be going for a swim or sumthin! Next thing I know im dealing with a pack of talking wolves!" Crosis meanwhile was still eating his soup when the woman walked in. She looked familier, but then again so did most people at this point. He simply nodded, before going back tot he sign and tring to figure out how best to write the letters for the Howling Drunk.