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Jolene couldn't sleep. Not now. She was afraid of what awaited her behind closed eyelids. Images of her parents' death and and the family of wolves she'd just met a few hours ago was fresh in her mind. She shared a bedroom with the female wolf-kid in the pack. She didn't talk much, and Jolene was unsure if she was supposed to make the first move to build up a friendship. She had always been shy, rather staying hidden behind her parents than socialize with the other children in her age. Now though, she didn't have anyone to hide behind.
The wolves tried to push her forward, make her more independent. She was only five. She wasn't ready yet.
She had no idea how she would turn out later on, now with both of her parents dead. She hoped to be accepted into the pack, to be protected and safe and loved. The wolf-parents seemed to care for her. They had been careful around her ever since they met her. They had given her a new pair of clothes, an old-world school uniform just like the rest of the children wore. It made her feel like she belonged, being dressed just like everybody else.
Jolene sighed as she turned to her side on the bed, wrapping the white blanket around her just a little bit tighter. In the burrow, she had always crawled into her parents' bed whenever she woke up in the middle of the night and got scared at the lack of light. Now, however, she couldn't do that. She had to be a big girl, which meant spending the entire night in her own bed.
She had a hard time falling asleep with the lack of a goodnight story and her mom's kisses, but she had to get used to it. She had to learn to live like the wolves, to fit in. Still, she didn't dare let herself fall asleep, afraid to wake up from a nightmare and cry like the baby she apparently still was.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the wolf-girl beside her yawned and sat up in her bed, pink eyes glancing over at Jolene through the dark.
"Can't sleep?" she whispered carefully.
Jolene shook her head, knowing that Margot's night vision was good enough to catch the movement. Shuffling was heard as Margot got out of her own bed and into Jolene's, wrapping a hairy paw around the human child's shoulders.
"Hey, don't worry. Everything will be okay." Margot promised lowly, side-hugging Jolene which seemed to get the child to relax, melting into the embrace.
Everything turned quiet for a moment, except for the girls' steady breathing.
"Jolene?" Margot whispered, looking down to see the child's face, but her eyes were closed and her breathing had slowed down, indicating that she had finally fallen asleep.
Margot smiled through the dark, letting go of the human to lie her head back down onto the pillow, tucking her in underneath the blanket before she moved back to her own bed to go to sleep as well.
Whatever she had wanted to say could wait until tomorrow.