I am the fifth dimension
She recognized that voice anywhere. It took her a moment but she pushed herself up to a standing position, her tail giving a few low sways. "Nah, I can't go and die just yet. There's work to do." She said with a weak smile and sharp nod of her head. Perhaps @Askan had shown up to push her to go do that work. Not that she minded. It helped sometimes to have a bit of motivation even if it was in the form of a sharp-witted superior.
"You wouldn't let me die like that, would ya? All limp and weak looking." She teased with a smirk. Death wasn't on her mind but she did already know she didn't wanna go out like that.
"I wouldn't let you die, period."His response was immediate, certain, as though it was in his power to stop such things. He liked to think he was, pretend that he was, but even Askan knew that he was no higher force, that in the end they would all die. "Least of all like this." At the very least she'd had the mind to clamber to her paws, he would have given her a good kick otherwise.
His expression softened, a little less sharp and jagged around the edges. But his intense sense of focus-all thanks to those bright eyes of his-remained, steadfast as always. He granted her a brief smile, a quick tick of his lips to show her that the sentiment was shared, that Hawthorne was made for greater things. Shit, she'd changed a lot since Reyes had dragged her tiny arse to the Falls. In all honesty, it had been for the better. The less she was like her Mother the better, or so Askan thought.
"What is bothering you?" Because it had to be something, there was always something.
Hawthorne wasn't liking the way she felt. All distant and bored. The Edge was home but she was having an itch to go somewhere else. But did she? Of course not. Coyotes were crawling all over and she couldn't bring herself to just slip off into the unknown. Her heart was rooted in these woods.
She paced around for a bit before finally settling down in a sitting position. Her shoulders sort of hunched forward as she squinted while looking out into the forest beyond the den-site. The Selwyn needed a change of pace but how could she get it? And what would that change of pace be?
She'd been at Shallows Edge for a while now, like a ghost, just exsisting on the the fringes. And Mari was fine that with, that she wasn't lonely, if anything it was a nice reprieve from all the bullshit she'd gone through. This was what she had needed, some me time.. She'd been thinking a lot, wondered where she was going to go from here and...
Well, she supposed it had put things a little into perspective. Mari wasn't a changed woman, she hadn't made a 180 it was more... She'd fucked up and it was time to try and rectify that. If she couldn't, if the damage was already done at the very least she could say that she'd tried. It's what Posie would want, surely.
Tipping her head back she called for her alpha and brother, they needed to talk.
It had bothered him a little, that Marisol wasn’t exceedingly social. Not enough to try and change it, though. They were cut of the same cloth, after all, and back at Wild Rye Fields, Reyes himself had been anything but a social butterfly. So he let his sister do her thing, occasionally spending some small amount of time until they both got irritable – and that was that.
So when she called him, he found himself mildly concerned – it wasn’t from outside the pack, and she didn’t sound too urgent, so it couldn’t be injury (or those damn coyotes), but still. Reyes didn’t delay, bringing the rabbit with him to the source of his sister’s call.
He dropped it between them, an unspoken offer. “What’s on your mind, Mari?”
Reyes appeared and of course, he know something was up. She supposed it was pretty obvious, wasn't it? Her gaze flitted to the rabbit he'd laid at her feet, not being the short to deny a free meal she dragged it close but didn't tuck in, not yet. There was a lot she needed to say, but where was she supposed to start? From the beginning, she supposed. It was a lot easier said than done, she was half tempted to backtrack, to slip away before anything of real substance was said but... Fuck, he deserved to know.
She huffed a sigh. She'd told him that Posie was gone and he'd taken that surprisingly well, hadn't cried or anything like that. But this was different... She was-for once- owning up to one of her many fuck ups. And shit, it was a bitter pill to swallow, to know she could have done better, been better.
"You know those talks we had? Those catch ups? " Mari had told Gabi some of what had happened but not all. Just the important bits,well most of 'em. But that's what she was trying to do, to make amends as best she could.
"I didn't tell you everything...See, you're an uncle. Congrats."Mari shrugged.
Of course he hadn’t cried. What would anyone do with a man who cried, anyways? Just wasn’t his place. It hurt, yeah, but-- Shit. He’d figured them all dead, by now. That’s just how it was.
“Uh huh…” Reyes started, eyes narrowing by degrees. He hadn’t even the chance to ask her what she was up to, though, because Marisol blurted it out a few seconds later. He squinted, loudly, as if he could tell truth from lie if he just stared hard enough. “Not you,” he grunted, looking her over. She’d sooner kill a man. Wouldn’t she?
“…Posie?”
Obviously she hadn't been knocked up, nor would Mari ever allow that to happen. Gabi was wise not to make that accusation, otherwise she'd might have taken his off his nose for that- or tried to at least. Still, she was grateful that her brother wasn't a complete dumb ass, that he had the wits to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Mari didn't really want to walk him through this, it was hard enough as it was.
"Mmm. After all that happened we got seperated. Honestly, I didn't look too hard, didn't want him to be my problem but..." She trailed off. "That was a shitty thing to do, I know." She added, knowing full well Gabi wouldn't approve. She didn't let him interupt her, she still had more to say. "So I wanna find him, if I can. Make sure he's alive and kinda happy. Comprende?"
With the summer heat beginning to peak, even the most shadowed parts of the Edge were a bit warm for her taste. Not only that, but she'd found it difficult to sleep well at all nestled in the roots of the tree where'd she'd been hunkering down at night. Maybe it was the relative openness of the forest that she didn't quite like come nightfall, but one way or another it was time to find something a little comfier and a lot cooler.
It had taken her several hours to find somewhere suitable to create her little nest, but eventually she'd come across a perfectly sloped embankment that would give her some privacy. It was as verdant as they came, thickly covered in the fine sort of grass that was pleasant beneath the feet. If she carved it out just right, the inside of the rise would hopefully make her a nice place to call her own.
The dirt flew out behind her like the spray of a wave colliding with a stony shore. It fell to to the grassy ground at random in chunks with a thud, leaving a messy, growing mound. Lyanna's rear end was hanging right out of the hole, her tail swaying in either direction to give her some leverage to balance as she worked with her paws. When it felt as if hours had dragged by, she reckoned she was finished.
Standing back to look over her handy work, the girl was rather pleased with her hole in the hill.
Well, she'd been productive enough for one day. As per her usual routine when she was home instead of out on the road, Lyanna had started early in the morning with a stop by the falls to wash up and admire the sunshine that glinted off the rush of water that fell from the ridge. After lounging until it began to heat up enough to dry the wet from her thick-even-in-the-dead-of-summer coat, she'd made for the borders. Weaving along the edges of the territory in her own good time, she'd left her scent and markings strewn in between the last bunch. When she'd come full circle as the sun peaked in the sky, she scratched her signature into the trunk of one last evergreen before moving along.
For a time after, she'd lurked along the outskirts of the Edge and eventually set out a little further. If she could manage to kill at least one thing to drag back and drop in one of the caches, she'd have met her task quota for the day and would be content to amble back to the falls for an early evening bath - perhaps with Reyes - before calling it a night early. Lately she'd been spending her nights in the pack den, snoring with a leg or two propped up and dangling over Sachiel's back or pretty face. She reckoned that sounded like a good end to a good day.
But.
Then everything went to shit. She'd wasted her time on a flock of quail only to have came up short when a lone coyote crossed all of their paths to scare them off and effectively ruin that venture. The inconvenience had been frustrating enough that she'd just said fuck it and decided to call it a day - without a single snack to drop for one of her pack mates in any of the caches. Lyanna was nearly to the ridge when she'd caught sight of an eagle as it landed to perch itself high above her and the rest of the world, victorious with a limp snake clenched in its talons. Hmmf. The way it pecked at its dinner was nothing but salt in her little wound.
Glaring at it in all of its glory, she resigned to plop down on her butt, a single russet ear flicking sideways to listen to the first of the crickets come to sing its song.