Hollowheart Keep Shadows of the Night

For Miss @Taima - Some mood music <3

You'd better ransom your heart and baby

• NAIRA •

don't look back - because we've got nobody else

The shortness of the days was barely noticeable this far in to the tangled and gnarled trees that made up the Ghastly Wood - the creak and groan of the trees doing little to set the monarch on edge. The smell of rotting wood, dirt and snow prevailed down here and she ached for the fresh thin rocky air of the mountain pass long left behind. As she walked she pondered on the fate of her golden son - the dull ache of abandonment never truly left the mother, not when her children kept vanishing without a word. It would seem they all took after their father, regardless of his absence - the singular exception being Nova - another sign?

Perhaps it was the absence of her own children that drove her to take in those who had landed on her doorstep - maybe it was the vain hope that somewhere out there another mother was looking after her own in her absence. Regardless of the motivation behind her actions, she had plenty of time to evaluate her shortcomings on the journey down the mountain - glaringly her total lack of a meaningful relationship with the Lyall heiress. She had every intention of remedying that fact just as soon as time permitted - and now they were safe, she had her chance.

The wolf trench headed out towards their new borders was enough of a sign for the monarch to follow and so she set out to find the Lyall. Oblivious to @Mapplethorpe’s prior grooming of the girl she merely wished to check and see how the girl was coping within the pack with the absence of her prince, and to perhaps share a little hard earned wisdom with the young woman. Sharp ears had overheard some of the mutterings of her youngest daughter and she had every intention of setting the record straight.

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Taima had heard the Scout's call to action when it had been discovered a small family of deer had stumbled into their newly marked lands. Her reasons to keep her feet beneath her and ignore the summoning altogether were numerous, but mainly the Lyall heiress had very little desire in regards to socializing with the pack, especially with him. The whole time the pack was on the move, hunting and feasting, the yearling was left to fulfill her own agenda of frankly not caring about anything or anybody else. Things (two mice and a brittle rabbit ribcage) that she had found in the snow, frozen and hard, filled her belly just as well. She didn't need anybody else to provide for her, even if just imagining the taste of cooling blood stirred within her a primal need to hunt.

Her stomach grumbled; a reminder that it had been a while since she had had those meager morsels to eat. She scowled, urging herself onward through the snow. Perhaps if she could just get her head around following the path that was forged around the territory by the brutes under Naira's command, she would figure out soon enough where some of the pack's new caches were hidden. A cunning smirk worked its way up onto her face but was instantly quelled when the sight of the queen herself was coming her way. She stopped in her tracks, her spindly legs stamping to a halt on the hard-packed snow.

She turned her head to one side and swept her ears back along her ruff, greeting her superior loud enough for Naira to hear just within earshot, just as Mapplethorpe had taught her to do. "Good evening, Your Grace," she warbled. A shiver chilled her as it ran up her spine then clambered down her sides and into the pit of her stomach. It seemed from a distance as though Naira had been determined in looking for something; and, somewhere from the depths of her innermost being, Taima hoped beyond all measure that she wasn't what the tawny monarch had in mind. She tried hard to mold the corners of her lips into an upward fashion. If she was lucky, perhaps maybe a simple question would disarm and divert Naira entirely. Keeping her head to the left and her eyes well away from the trail before her, aside from a small glimpse of the sovereign's fiery amber eyes, Mapplethorpe's very words came from her tongue as she asked, "Could I be of assistance?"

Gosh Naira give the girl a chance... <.<

We're running with the shadows of the night

• NAIRA •

So baby take my hand, it'll be all right

The tawny leader paused just a moment before advancing towards the yearling, regarding the girl with a cool stare, a small smile tugging at the edges of her lips as the well practiced wording left her mouth. So unlike the girl she had first met on the side of the mountain almost a year ago now, or was it longer? Her head slightly cocked to the side as she regarded the girl, now almost a woman. With a small shake of her head, a singular cant of her muzzle she tried to put the young Lyall at ease. “No need for all that. I was never much of a one for formality.” she quietly confessed - as long as nobody outright challenged her authority she was happy to do away with titles amongst her family. Her tail hung low to relax between her hocks as she glanced past her companions tawny shoulder, wishing for any sign of the remaining deer they had hunted only days before. Even a few rabbit tracks or a fox would suffice really - perhaps even a starving loner...

It was most probably a delicate subject to broach but subtlety had never been her strong suit. “They all had too much of their father in them... Aponi too.” she mentioned quietly, more to herself than the wolf that stood before her. “He’ll be back, you know. But that doesn't mean things will be the way they were..." The he remaining vague - Rhysis, Datura, Adonis? Who knew? They all seemed to think they could float in and out of her life at will - upheaving any small stability that had been achieved in their absence before gliding out again like a breeze. She would not tell Taima what she must do, but she herself knew that no Aquila would walk all over again. They were old enough to be out on their own, and that was the choice they had made (to her knowledge).

There had once been a confidence to the girl that seemed now to have worn away like a cliff scoured by a century of wind, a subtle surliness that perhaps she as a mother took more note of than the others (then again perhaps it was all in her head). She decided to get straight to the point, in case the young woman would prefer to avoid small talk. “What is it you want most little dove? Leadership? Were it mine to decide, one day you would have it - but it is not mine to give. Either way it is something you have to take - by choice, or force.” Words are not a woman's only weapons little dove...

Perhaps she had misread the girl, for now it was a conversation she wanted to have. Perhaps even felt that she needed to have. “If a leader chooses not to hunt, not to fight, how long then is their pack likely to survive?” she pondered aloud. Taima had not been the only absentee, most notably to the leader the self proclaimed ‘princess of the mountain’. Triell was right, the mountain was cursed and she herself would never settle there again, and if Aponi wanted it, she would have to take it on her own.

“Regardless, when the snows begin to thin, we will travel to the Cedarwood, you and I. Although it wouldn’t be the first time perhaps we will find something that Sagacity and Chulyin managed to miss.” She did not expect a response to her musings, rather she wanted to give the young Lyall something to think on in the interim. Come spring she would be considered an adult and everything would change. “My sister was with them too.” she added as almost a sigh at the end. With a winter this harsh it was hard not to think about the family she was missing. She settled her rump in the snow as her ears continued to flick this way and that. There was no such thing as downtime - she would always be on the lookout for their next meal.

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(This post was last modified: Jan 14, 2014, 11:26 PM by Naira.)

Naira made it known at once that there was no need for formality and it sent Taima scrambling for the middle ground between a formal meeting and casual conversation. Nothing was ever casual when it came to Naira Aquila, queen and leader of the pack, Mapplethorpe had made sure to inoculate such respectful practices into her head. Now, she was at a loss for how to react, even further more as Naira continued with a simple observation - about Datura, Taima supposed - and a couple of rhetorical questions. The young Lyall kept her gaze averted and her ears came up, listening hard to her Leader's every movement and breath. The girl must have drifted off in thought at point, gotten caught up in the idea that her golden prince could possibly come back for her, for when Naira asked her a direct question at last, Taima jumped and briefly glanced at the matriarch before hastily looking away

Aside from her family, she didn't know what she wanted anymore. Without Datura, she felt she had nothing in regards to the pack and her future within it. Mapplethorpe had at first led her to believe that she was to be a princess bride, a means in which Naira and Datura's bloodline remained strong. From her, the next generation of Aquila's was to be born and raised... and the line of Lyall forgotten (lest she pushed for the idea of allowing her daughters to be christened with her surname, the only thing she had left of her family... her mother... her father...).

Her train of thought was dismissed as the Queen continued to say that leadership was not hers to give, that it was Taima's responsibility to take it for herself if she so wished it. Taima's ears drew back again. @Aponi could have it all - the pack and the very mountain they had escaped from - she really could have cared less. The Mountain, the Ghastly Woods... this was not where she belonged. Once upon a time, she might have believed it, but now, her true home was calling; and, on that note, Naira began again, stating that they would soon travel to the Cedarwood.

The Lyall's brows furrowed, a part of her wanted to believe that Naira was truly proposing such a thing. She brushed it off, the queen was probably trying to appease her, get her to side with her and draw herself even closer into her superior's deadly grasp. Mapplethorpe had poisoned her once; she would not allow Naira the same pleasure. Then came the punch. "My sister was with them too," she revealed, but Taima did not allow her disbelief or astonishment to show through.

"I appreciate your generosity, Lady Naira," she murmured, mirroring the woman as she, too, sat. As was appropriate, she lifted her head just enough so that she sat up straight in the presence of the Keep sovereign. "As well as your proposal, but, Sir Mapplethorpe has promised me a great deal come Spring." She hoped her words, despite their near-monotone and lifeless tone, were coming out as intended. Any half-truth would do when it came to an attempt to keep Naira well away from her homelands. "I'm sure my mother and father have her well-kept under their care?" she tried to further disarm her, but now curiosity was eating away at her like oxalic acid eating away at rust on metal.

"I don't mean to pry," she breathed, almost afraid to let the question loose from her tongue, "but, who was she? Your sister? And, how well did you know my parents?" They certainly never told me about you... ever.

Surrender all your dreams to me tonight

• NAIRA •

They'll come true in the end

For a moment she wondered what Mapplethorpe could have offered the girl but shrugged it off trusting her mates judgement. The word still felt strange - it had felt strange with Rhysis too, but the mention of spring worked to melt a little of the ice around her heart. Winter could not last forever. At Taima’s words she smiled. “I don’t doubt it.” was all she managed to get out before the girl went on and her shoulders relaxed some more, an easy grin of familiarity and nostalgia working it’s way onto her face.

She had no doubts any revelation she made about her sisters identity would come as a surprise, they were as different as the sun and the moon. “Aniu - mousy little thing, I imagine except for the eyes that Aponi will grow to resemble her the most.” She thought back to the one encounter she had with the Keeper of the Cedarwood. “It is a long and complicated story but I will start near the end to save you the ravings of an aging woman.” she easily teased. “Adonis wished to visit Ryvet but I would not allow a not yet yearling to travel that far alone - truth be told even if he had been a yearling I would have kept him close. I had no doubt he could make the journey after...” She pulled up short realising already she was getting off track.

“Anyway, on the way I was given some news to pass on. I only met your father briefly. He was searching for you. By the time we got home Datura was gone too and Mapplethorpe went out to find him...and came back with both of you.” She had planned to send the scout to the Cedarwood immediately on her return but she had come back with Mercy and between her own children and the young foundling the task dropped further down the list. Nobody had expected the pack to move. “I believe Adonis may have also met your mother once...but I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”

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Aunt Aniu had been the sister to the nomadic royal and Taima nodded, listening as Naira added that Aponi would possibly grow to physically resemble the woman who had taken care of her and her siblings. 'Physically, maybe' Taima silently shrugged. 'But that's where the similarities stop.' From what small glimpses she had seen of Aponi, Taima knew the princess' personality well. Determined, outspoken, fearless, audacious, rebellious... these attributes had, once upon a time, defined Taima through and through. It was no wonder to the youth how Mapplethorpe and Naira tolerated their daughter at all with her fits and tantrums. Had she been that way with Borden? Taima seriously hoped not, but had a feeling that she had behaved just as monstrously in her cubhood. If she did manage to escape the Keep, she would have to make it up to her parents, apologize over and over until she knew deep down that their hearts were healed and that she could be their beloved daughter once again.

The queen then brandished a jesting side that the young Lyall was familiar with. It had once sent her close into the protection of Mapplethorpe's side, but now, she knew all too well not to be fazed by the teasing in her tone. Ryvet, her memories whispered, all recollection of the spring of her birth coming to her as though they had been been awaken just by the utterance of his name. Naira seemed to be drawn off-topic but Taima did not even bother to ask her to elaborate on it. Her question still stood. How well did Naira know Jaysyek and Borden?

Her head tilted to one side as it all came to light: Naira had gone to the west to bestow upon him whatever findings she had discovered, and Borden had been looking for her... and that was all she had wanted to know. Never mind that Adonis - whoever that was, she would have to ask her brother if she ever had the chance; if anything, he might have been yet another of Naira's wards - had met her mother. Jaysyek, she knew now, would have been wasting her time making acquaintances with this despot of an empress. But, that was it. Regardless of however long ago their meeting had been, her father had indeed tried searching for his wayward daughter. That, alone, could have been the singular reason as to why she would have to push through with her plans. No one, not even Mapplethorpe, the all-knowing authoritarian, would see it coming: the eventual realization that she had gone... just like her once-beloved prince had.

"I see," she answered, mustering up a smile. "Aunt Aniu has always been my favorite. My brothers and I used to play with her." The memory flickered to the forefront of her mind, visions of that sun-filled afternoon briefly blinding her as she blinked with the unheard childish laughter filling her ears. "She let my sister and I come with her to look for plants sometimes."