Secret Falls blow out all the candles

@Anastasia

I bite my tongue and I torch my dreams

The wolf could not believe how familiar everything still felt, how the forest and the falls had yet to change despite the years of wear they’d endured since he had last passed through them. What else had changed? Apart from the sorrow he had felt, the happiness too and the life changing experience that being a father had been… what else had changed? He hummed softly to himself as he continued to venture north. There were a stranger pack’s scent lingering, and he did his best to avoid them, sticking to the western end of the vast territory and well away from the borders. He knew that next would be the Lake and above that would be the River… if they were still there.

He hoped Lachesis was still there, so that he might find his uncle, greet him and perhaps catch up. He had promised to come back, and even though it’d taken so long, and things had changed… he was going to keep that promise. His ears remained perked, listening in case he might stumble upon another wolf. He’d already stumbled upon a wolf from his past, a woman… and this time he hoped for a stranger, or at least a person whom he had happier memories of.

Like clockwork, she finds herself throw into a reminiscent dream that was laced with hurt and confusion, but most importantly there was love. The kind of love that Anastasia had managed to avoid for years, apparently, but she was slowly beginning to come out of that shell once more. The shell that had been brought to her attention and she wanted nothing more than to be the woman she had once been. So when she caught a familiar yet eye-opening aroma that certainly made her cease her movements.

As soon as she stopped her ears moved, her nose twitched and she felt her body grow weak, breath hitched within her throat as she took a long look around her. Tail did not move as she scoped out her surroundings directed to the borders before finding a dark figure. If she wasn't so emotionally bound to the young boy, she might have presumed him to be the late Shade visiting her from beyond the grave but she could recognize that particular face anywhere.

While still being in emotional shock the dove moves forward with a questionably curious expression, her eyes squinting as she approached. Karpos? It had been quite some time since she had seen him and at this point she expected any reaction - happiness, sadness, anger... and any emotion that fell into that spectrum.

i'd love more threads, so message me if you'd like one!
looking for friends, potential love interests and role-inspired threads!

@Anastasia

I bite my tongue and I torch my dreams

It wasn’t until he heard her voice calling out his name that he realized there was someone there… perhaps his senses were getting rusty. Karpos? The word as uncertain as his eyes were turning to face the blue eyed dove. He’d recognize her anywhere. “Mom?” When he’d been younger it’d been Mama Ana, but after reflection and interacting with his own children, it had felt… strange to use that terminology. Rosealia had never been a mother to him, she might have given birth to him but Anastasia had been the woman to raise him. Even if they’d fallen away from each other, and he’d been consumed with grief and rage, that was a giant hole in his life that she’d been able to fill.

He smiled as he moved towards her, pleasantly surprised, elated even at her presence. What were the odds? “It’s been so long!” He had a couple more scars than when she last saw him, and he was older, more worn than he had been in his youth but still bulky, built like his father had been, but also so much different. He had so many questions, but he was still processing the fact that she was there in front of him. Surely that meant his Uncle wasn’t too far away. The two used to always be attached at the hip and if she was back in the Lore than he had likely found her already.

With wide eyes she gazed upon the darkened, large shadowy figure all whilst knowing exactly who it was even if he looked like quite a stranger. The boy was so much larger and bulkier than he was last she had seen and my, was he simply so handsome! Of course, that wasn't all. As his eyes looked to her and his voice called out to her with that singular word, she felt pulled from the very ground she had once stood upon. That one word having eluded her for so long that she hadn't even realized what that truly meant to her.

In her golden years, being called mama, or mom, had been something on the back of her paw and easily skipped over. Anastasia had raised him (and his sister) from the very moment she had come across Shade and had known for a long time that she was in all meaning of the word his mama but to be called it now signaled something within her. A moment of realization that she wasn't alone - that she did have a child, even if it wasn't biological. She had Karpos.

Tears stung her eyes, eventually staining the white fur beneath as her mouth dropped open in a sudden tremble.

As he moved to her, she made the effort to close the gap (though not quite as hurriedly as he, for she was still quite shocked and elated). It really has, she thinks to herself but takes a moment to concur that it had been several years and he had grown ten times over. You're not a boy anymore, she mutters and chuckles at herself, that's for sure. Anastasia had always been an adult to him but he was not a gangly child anymore and it would appear that he had made his name be known on countless occasions due to the scars he wore that proved he was ruggish and bold.

The last she could recall seeing him was right before she had rejoined Cut Rock River and seeing Lachesis again, a moment she was sure had been one of the last before she disappeared again. The worry of changing eventually drowning her and forcing her unable to cope with the changes that had been made. If only she had stuck around, things might have been different. Events that she had slowly begun to welcome even if they weren't in her favor.

i'd love more threads, so message me if you'd like one!
looking for friends, potential love interests and role-inspired threads!

I bite my tongue and I torch my dreams

There was, perhaps a sense of relief in seeing such a welcoming face… like it was his family somehow finding him after something so traumatic as what had happened to him just months ago. He grinned at her, butting his snout against her shoulder briefly to greet her. “I’ve got a couple boys of my own, now… I really hope I didn’t give you guys as much trouble as they did me.” His two eldest sons had been quite the challenge to raise, for you could hardly keep them from going at each other for five seconds, and when they weren’t fighting they were travelling way too far outside the borders. Natalie had always just laughed at him when he fretted, telling him that boys would be boys.

There was a tang of sadness in his eyes at that moment. “How are you? And Uncle? How is he? Is he still at the River? I was heading north to see but surely you know..?” There had been so much that he had missed… he hoped that one day his children would get to meet them, the woman who was effectively their grandmother, the uncle who had been there for him through thick and thin… he was almost certain one or two of them had been following him from a distance, if he knew them well enough. He knew Natalia had briefly passed through the Lore on an adventure of hers before she returned home… met a couple familiar faces too, and some who were descendants of familiar faces like Capella’s daughter.

It had always been a rare concept for Ana to feel slapped in the face but it seemed like she had been getting emotionally slapped quite a few times within the last half a year. First Lachesis had a mate, that came with having kids of many mothers then there came the fact that even Karpos had built himself a family of boys. It was worth it, she grinned as she easily let her discomfort slide back from whence it had come. The boy-to-man in front of her deserved her attention and even more, he deserved to feel welcomed and humbled to have come across here just as Anastasia was more happy to see him alive, well and making his way in the world. Especially now that it had come full force that she might sort of have a son after all.

This time she was rather oblivious to the twinge of glum in his eyes and was quick to pick up on the words, the question, that he asked of her. Oh, we're good! She blinks for a second to consider her words, I'm good and he's good. I came back several months ago and joined Hearthwood. Kinda kept to myself then Lach moved us up here - to the Lake. Driftwood Surge. Surely that was enough to say that that is where they were now, present and future. In some alternate universe, Anastasia was literally standing beside Lachesis and making herself at home in his den at night but it was easier to supress those thoughts than to explain to Karpos exactly how badly she wanted to have a family all her own.

I should ask though... whatever happened to Adsila? It had been a very, very long time since mention of his sister had been brought up in Anastasia's company but it had been even longer since Ana had actually seen the dark girl in person. Where had she gone off to and what had she done before leaving? Perhaps by some miracle she kept in touch with her brother after all these years, it was hard to tell.

i'd love more threads, so message me if you'd like one!
looking for friends, potential love interests and role-inspired threads!

I bite my tongue and I torch my dreams

He couldn’t fight the Cheshire-like grin that came to him when she said that it had been totally worth it. He liked to think he’d turned out alright and hadn’t caused too much trouble, but then he actively thought back to his teenage days and remembered exactly what he had been like… and it was awkward every time he did. Leaving the Lore had been one of the best choices for him in the long run. She said they were good… that meant his Uncle was nearby! She told him that the River had moved closer to the Lake and been renamed Driftwood Surge. He would need to venture closer to their lands so he could see what had become of him and talk to him after so long.

Then she asked what happened to Adsila and a frown hinted at his features. “I have no idea… I went looking for her but I couldn’t find her. I ended up settling down hoping she’d find her way to me, but to no avail.” He did worry about his sister, and he missed her too. They were the only siblings that each other had, and he’d always been protective over her so her disappearance had hit him harder than it might have hit everyone else. “I worry about her constantly, but by the time I left Hearthwood, she’d already been long gone. It’d been a slim chance of finding her to begin with.”

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

There was no way that she would ever paint a negative light on the time that she had spent here before getting lost in that blizzard. She would have fought tooth and limb to go back to those simple times in a heartbeat but now, she had already surpassed the realization that she needed to secure her life now. That she couldn't time travel nor reset the relationships that she had once believed to be unavoidable but rightly so. Karpos had been a good and adventurous soul, perhaps the only thing she could remember that was a little unsure was when he had screamed at her and XIX for leaving the Trail behind. She didn't regret it, per say, but they could have handled it differently.

Though on the subject of his sister she could see the lilting frown, admitting that he had gone looking for but never found her in the end. That his journey had stopped and that had resulted in him settling down elsewhere. The dove couldn't blame him for seeking a life somewhere else, it was only natural, though she wished that she had stayed here permanently. Things have a way of coming back to us in the end, I think. Ana smiled once giving him an encouraging thought for there was no way that she could stay away forever. It was clear and easy to say that now as both she and Karpos had both returned to their cherished beginnings here. Why wouldn't Addy?

(This post was last modified: Mar 24, 2018, 02:02 AM by Anastasia.)

i'd love more threads, so message me if you'd like one!
looking for friends, potential love interests and role-inspired threads!