Cedarwood Forest like I will always want you

AW!
Afternoon, Broken Clouds, 48F/9C

The leader wasn’t sleeping much these days, and he wasn’t interacting much with others. Even so he had noticed their numbers had dwindled, in particular Sharlee’s baby daddy had seemingly disappeared overnight, leaving her a single mother. Wasn’t that just great? More mouths to feed and an absentee parent, Reade was just like his mother, and Vanadis, and everyone else who brought children into the world just to leave.

Bastards.

Viorel’s lip curled in annoyance as he moved through the forest east of the territory, not wanting to see any of his packmates or family. He was mad at the world, and he didn’t trust himself to be kind or respectful. He was looking for an excuse to fight, though he would never be the one to tell you that. Instead his body language screamed danger, a deliberate warning for others to keep away, shoulder’s hunched and muscles flexed, hair along his spine prickling at random points.

Maybe he just needed a hunt for a reason to be violent, but he needed to do something to get this over with. A low rumbling growl began to form in his throat as he walked, Viorel was mad, about everything, and anything, and ready to take it out on the next living thing he saw.

Do this to my loved ones, I've got some nerve

Don't think I'm not sorry

This place seemed familiar.

She couldn't place it, not even if she had been asked to. It hardly mattered with how much the scenery seemed to change around her. How the days warmed and her belly ached still. No one could deny that the Isla that stood here now hardly resembled the still baby-fat child that had gone to the mountains. That had seen the tail end of a sister's death and fled. That roamed freely with such ripe, bitter hatred in her heart.

She could not have know how she mimicked her father exactly in these moments. Blood a constant boil with the angered need to take it out upon the world at large.

The low growl was heard by her, who froze on tall muscle-leaned legs. How could she have known it was him? The wind did not favor her, any wolf could have been her own similar grey-black.

A snapping snarl escaped her in return. Similarly prepared to become violent from her shoulder-hunched spot a few trees away.

The Valle man’s growl was met with an unfamiliar snarl through the trees. Muscles bunched almost gleefully beneath his salt and pepper pelt, wolf whirling around with violence and hatred in his eyes. Teeth bared, he lunged blindly towards the sound, bounding across the soft earth with haste to rip whoever dared challenge him to shreds.

It was only at the very last second that Viorel’s logic kicked in and the sense of knowing took over. He recognized that scent, though he did not recognize her appearance. Bailing sideways and attempting to halt, the whole progression was somewhat awkward. Even though he recognized her smell he still couldn’t place who this was standing before him after all of this time.

Instead he stood there, staring and panting, just trying to put two and two together. Nothing had been making any sense lately and it was not a surprise that this didn’t either, it was almost like a mirage. He shifted uncomfortably on his paws before a hoarse voice said, ”Sephrina?” Was this her ghost come back to haunt him? The dark fur, the familial scent, grey eyes that were clearer than he had ever seen them. The afterlife suited her.

WELCOME TO MIDNIGHT MASS.

---

Her body roared to life.

This was life or death. This was the roar of a challenge like she had sought. It was not some child she could shove over or a bird she might squabble over for a meal. She had flared to life with hackles raised like flags. Each one practically resembled each nerve that fired off at once.

She only managed to stop herself for the name that spilled forth.

It ripped her apart harder than tooth or claw ever could. Like an illusion shattered she saw a man before her. One she had known so well, had called father, had learned from. All before the mountain. All before death.

"She's dead." Words spat as if she intended to hurt them both. As if her own blood had intended for her life to suddenly tumble into all of this. "Did no one tell you anything?" Anger, bright and brilliant like the chaotic look within her gaze.

The Valle man physically flinched at her words, Sephrina was dead, of course. This was his other lost daughter standing here before him and she was alive and…based off the anger in her eyes not all that well. His own frustration welled within him that Isla would speak with him this way after all that had gone on, that she was so close to home but had not let them know she was okay. That she had taken off at all.

Viorel grit his teeth in an attempt to remain calm. Her words continued to pick at him and he was quick to retort, ”They told me you ran.” He didn’t feel the need to finish his sentence, if he had he would have added while your sister drowned. He could not believe that anyone had let this happen. That the mountain wolves had let his daughter die, that Isla had ran while it was happening. All these people who were supposed to keep his disabled daughter safe and who had failed her.

He had failed her, and that was why he was so angry. He needed to make the world pay for his mistakes, the fact that a lapse in judgment, a misguided judge of character, had taken the life from someone who was just getting started.

WELCOME TO MIDNIGHT MASS.

---

"Did they tell you there was a bear too? Did they tell you no one was watching her? Do you trust those who killed Sephrina to trust their words too?"

A viper, cruel and striking with sharp words. Seeds of mistrust and doubt had surely been planted with a death of his child, she only sought to water them and make them bloom. To use his own grief as an instrument of her own too. She cared little who got hurt in the way of all of this or what relationships were destroyed beyond repair.

Even if it was her own.

It would seem that Isla was every bit as angry as Viorel was, or if possible maybe even more bitter. Their wounds had both festered for so long that they had become infected and were slowly eating away at every part of their lives. And here they were, instead of embracing and rejoicing, adding salt to each other’s wounds, grinding it in until there was nothing left intact.

His lip curled slightly in warning before he answered, ”I know about the bear and that Chan wasn’t watching her. The question is, why weren’t you?” It was unfair of him to say, but it was a question that had plagued him. Isla knew better than anyone else her sister’s challenges and personality, why had she not been looking out for her?

Nose wrinkling in disgust he added, ”The Cove is no longer friends of the Backwater. I told them unless they brought you home safely they were our enemies.” And yet here she was standing in front of him, physically okay it appeared. He wanted to soften, he wanted to let them heal each other, but her body language screamed danger and he couldn’t let himself get there.

He just wanted them all back.

WELCOME TO MIDNIGHT MASS.

---

To blame his living child seemed a move below even her.

It was not. It hardly counted as below her and hardly anything was below her. She could continue to prove this.

"You sent your blind child up to a mountain lake. As much to blame as me, aren't you?"

It was a blank kind of look that settled across her features now. Resigned to continue this back and forth of who might hold up the mantle of a sister and daughter dead. Somehow she could convince herself that twisting hard words into emotional shrapnel was a stronger level beyond marring flesh. She craved the endless collateral damage in the wake of Sephrina's death.

Yet she only lingered in the punctuated silence now. Prepared for another blame, another cut against the grain, something to continue chasing the tails of their misery.

You sent your blind child up to a mountain lake. As much to blame as me, aren't you? The words did exactly what Isla had intended and the rage building up inside him finally burst forth. He lurched forward without warning and grabbed her muzzle within his jaws. Not pressing more than was necessary, but enough to just make her shut. up. He just wanted her to stop talking.

Because she was right. He sent her up there, he trusted the pack, he was the reason that she was dead and everybody knew it.

Suddenly realizing what he had done he released Isla, backpedaling quickly. His eyes were wide with remorse and fear and he whispered, ”Do you think I don’t know that? Do you think that I don’t realize that it’s my fault that she’s dead!?” His voice escalated by the end until it was almost a shout that came from deep in his chest and rattled his bones. He felt deflated and the fear drained away from him, looking back at his daughter and throat hoarse, ”Just come home. I can’t lose you too.” She just had to.

WELCOME TO MIDNIGHT MASS.

---

It had been expected earlier maybe, but she had not been prepared now. Unable to move quick enough to escape the sudden muzzle clamp that came upon her. Tongue flattened in her mouth and teeth pressed tight together. From here it had become easier to imagine harsher words to spew.

Yet her mouth was forcibly closed, unable to spew more hatred.

Even when he released her she found herself unable to speak. His voice had become thunder, it startled any animals that lingered still and her own ears moved accordingly. Despite everything, he was still her father and she still knew his place as always being above all. It was not hard for instinct to dictate she stay silenced. A sponge to his rage.

”Just come home. I can’t lose you too.”

A chance to be cruel and she would let it slip through her grasp. Perhaps for only selfish reasons. Not made to be alone even if she would surely burn every bridge around her. It was hard to keep up any strength or bulk when she roamed alone. If she went home, it was for herself, that much she knew.

Perhaps it was the deepest cruelty to give her father the idea that she had missed it too.

"Okay."

She would say no more, for fear it would only be full of venom and vile words.