Whitestone Monadnock I see it in your eyes

Sorry, I power played a bit... let me know if you want me to change it.

Word Count: 227  

Anaia’s words trailed away as she felt the smaller wolf stiffen beside her.  “Are you okay?” She asked, staring at her in concern.  Her words seemed to pass Sara by as she simply stared into space before murmuring a simple, “No.”  Anaia could tell it was in relation to her own thoughts rather than a response to her inquiry.

Her next words stunned the newer pack member.  “What do you… Wait, those wolves… that was your pack?” She blinked in surprise, then horror trickle over her.  “Oh no, I didn’t mean- I’m sorry if I brought up any unpleasant memories…” She trailed away, sure she was only making it worse.  “I didn’t realize…”

She sat quiet for a moment, wondering if this wolf beside her, who seemed so kind, had anything to do with the kidnapping of her sister. No, she’s about the same age as me; she couldn’t be.  But still, anger boiled in her belly.  “I’m sorry to beat down on your family, but they were kind of terrible wolves.  They stole my sister from us when we were pups.  They tried to steal me, too. And my brother.” She tried to keep the accusation from her voice – she couldn’t believe Sara had been part of that – but she couldn’t help that it colored her words regardless.  There were just some things you never forgave.

"Speech"  Thought

The smaller female heard the accusation with in Anaia’s voice, she felt her muscles tense as the larger wolf seemed to blame her for the actions of the pack she had grown up in, though the feelings may have been justified, Anaia didn’t have a right to blame Sardathia. Anger starting to swell up within herself, she spit “I didn’t have anything to do with anything, I don’t even remember much of my childhood, but it’s nice to know my family was nothing but thieves.” She stood up, shaking the snow from her fur, the rising tide of anger receded as quickly as it had arrived.

“I don’t know what they did, or why they did it, probably because the pups in my pack.” she said it with some venom and emphasis “Had a very low survival rate. Maybe they needed more, or maybe they wanted to pit your pack’s blood against theirs, they were disturbed Anaia, thank’s for reminding me I’m apart of it.” she said quietly, sighing as she settled down on her haunches away from the other wolf, the close comfort discomforting her now. “I don’t want to be like them, it’s why I left when Jake was killed by a bear, it was a chance for a new start to find myself.”

Sorry if I went a little too fast here but I figured we really ought to get the ball rolling...

Word Count: 299  

Anaia immediately felt bad. “I’m sorry… I don’t know what I was thinking.  I… I wasn’t trying to accuse you of anything.” She inched forward to try to press her nose into Sara’s should in apology.  “I know you didn’t… you couldn’t have been involved.”

But there was something poking at the back of Anaia’s mind.  Something familiar about the way the smaller wolf spoke when she got upset. She noticed a tiny flick of the ear, barely noticeable due to the damage it had.  Anaia was suddenly transported away back north, listening to a lecture from her mother and the irritated flick of her ear that she couldn’t control.  It was a tick Anaia and her sisters had inherited.  

Then there were her eyes.  Her eyes are just like mother’s.  How had she not noticed it before? She was so homesick she was seeing her family in everything.  How could I not see my mother in Sara’s eyes?

Anaia came back to herself and found that she had sprung to her feet, stance wide and fur standing on end as she stared into Sara’s eyes, her own wide as the moon.  Her injured leg panged, but Anaia couldn’t force herself to relax.

“You…” She breathed, hardly daring to say it. “You can’t be.  After all this time… all this distance…”   Her heart pounded in her ears.  

But why not? They already determined they had once been neighbors.  What was one more little coincidence? Or maybe it was fate? Fate that had driven her away from her home and to travel south.  Fate that had pushed Sara to do the same.  Fate that they had found the same pack.  Fate that we’re together.

“Sara… I think you’re my sister.”

"Speech"  Thought

Saradathia tensed slightly as Anaia tried to comfort here, her nose pressing into her shoulder, followed by the apology had calmed the yearling down some. She turned her silvery gaze onto the slightly larger arctic wolf as she spoke, her ears perking at her words. She didn't want to be involved with her old pack, she had run south after her exile to get away from them, she had found a good pack, but now...now her past seemed hell bent on catching up and reminded her where she had come from.

Anaia’s next few words caused everything that Saradathia had ever known to come crashing down. It couldn’t be...She tensed up, staring into Anaia’s wide eyes in disbelief “It..it can’t be….” she whispered quietly, but...in the back of her mind, the small nagging doubt that she had was growing, she ahdn’t ever really felt close to her family, her father had always treated her with a cold detachment, was it really possible? Could she have been lied to for so long? In a way, she wanted to believe it, it’d answer so many questions, so many doubts and she’d have..family right here on the Monadnock. ‘I don’t….how…...why?” she whispered quietly

OOC!  

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Word Count: 229

The other girl’s confusion was evident, and she couldn’t seem to get her sentences out correctly.  Anaia understood what she was asking, though. She felt her stance relaxing, her leg throbbing from the sudden abuse.  “Your eyes.  They are identical to my mothers.  Then there’s the way your ear flicks when you get irritated. It’s something mother used to do, something my sisters and I all inherited.”

She stared earnestly at Sara.  “I said they stole my sister.  Stole, not killed.  Around the time we were born.  Unless they killed her after they left the territory, you would have known her.  Unless she is you.”

It was the only thing that made sense.  Her parents had given her sister up for dead, and they weren’t strong enough to take on the war-like pack that claimed the land next to them.  They couldn’t have taken her back, and if they’d tried, they would have been killed and left their remaining pups orphaned.  No matter how heartbroken they were over the loss, they couldn’t abandon the rest of the litter.

Anaia and her siblings had never felt that she was dead, though. There was always that tickling feeling that something wasn’t right, like she was still alive somewhere.  Her parents had chalked it up to the imagination of children, but what if it wasn’t? What if she had been right there all along?

"Speech"  Thought

Saradathia returned the gaze, could it be true, that she wasn't related to those violent monsters that she had always been ashamed to have to call family, the very bitter anger that rose up within her every time she had seen them abuse or hurt someone, and then look at her expectantly, that she had to do it because she was their sister? If it wasn’t true...Saradathia could finally let the past go, no longer having to live in shadows of a bloody ancestry that wasn’t hers, she could learn about her real family, even if this was a twisted lie, she was going to believe it.

“I...I don’t know what to say...Sis….” is that what she should say? It felt so weird for the small wolf, a slight shudder running through her, it felt so right though. She pressed her muzzle against Anaia’s flank before whispering “I’m glad I found you….and that you found me..so please tell me everything about them...what’s our parents like?” she wanted to know, she HAD to know what her real family was like “What’s their names? What are they like, who are they?”

OOC!

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Word Count: 424

Anaia felt a warm kind of pleasure pulse through her as Sara called her sister. It was something she’d heard, of course, but it was different now.  Special, somehow.  This was somebody she thought she’d lost, somebody she never expect to see – especially not hundreds of miles south of their homes.

“Please tell me everything about them…” It was a tall order, but the white woman wasn’t going anywhere.  She smiled as she recalled them, ignoring the clench of homesickness in her chest.  It wasn’t as bad as it had been lately though; Anaia decided to give the credit for that to the discovery of her sister.

“Our parents’ names are Coron and Ryis. Mother looks just like you… only she has both ears.  She is gentle and kind, but strict.  When she got mad… it was like the worst storm of winter raining down on you all at once.  Dad… he was strong, but he would always play with us.” She snorted at the remembered antics of Ryis trying to get her husband to be responsible, until her children had chimed in with big eyes and pitiful pleas. “Mum was always getting after him to get work done, but in the end they would end up tussling with the four of us together in the end.  Dad was such a joker.  After you were taken was the only time I really saw them sad.  They missed you, of course, but they would only talk about it when they thought we couldn’t hear.”< /p>

She paused, thinking of her siblings.  “Apart from me, you have three siblings.  Jizara, Serena, and our brother Kobal.  He was the youngest, even after you.  We all looked after him, and it drove him crazy because he was really only a day younger.  He took after dad though.  He was – is – friendly and silly.  He could always get us laughing.

“Jizara is the oldest; she’s going to lead the pack someday.  She’s more like mum, serious and demanding. She was constantly tattling on me and Kobal since we were always sneaking off to have adventures.  Serena would try to follow us sometimes, but most of the time she stayed closer to home.  She was quiet mostly.” Out of all her siblings, her next youngest sister was the hardest to describe.  “She was always thirsty for knowledge, but mostly kept to herself.”

Anaia realized that talking about them seemed to make it easier. She felt lighter, as if she’d finally been dug from a snowdrift.  She smiled at her sister again. “You would have loved them.”

"Speech"  Thought