Red Fern Forest the wind is low, the birds'll sing

She wasn’t aware she had hurt the kid’s feelings - it hadn’t been what she intended to do, after all. A bit of light jesting was what she was used to. It wasn’t harsh or intentionally mean, and if she had realized what she’d done, she would’ve apologized, of course.

Nevertheless, she got the answer she wanted. ‘Lyall’ wasn’t a name she was immediately familiar with, but she assumed it to be his other parent. What she had not expected was three of them. Not that there was a problem with that - Atsila had no room to judge - but she was a little bit confused.

Best not read too much into it.

“Veho’s my brother,” she responded with a wag of her tail. “So I guess that makes me your aunt. Not the one you were singing about, unfortunately. Sorry.” There was no doubt in her mind that his other aunt would have been a better option for him to be around. Atsila herself was not a good influence. “It’s nice to meet family, at any rate.”

The prickly feelings that crawled up and down the back of his neck was mostly due to his self-consciousness but he managed to still smile, albeit nervously, at her. “Veho’s my brother,” she revealed. "So I guess that makes me your aunt." Had this been some cartoony, comical sort of reality, a giant red exclamation point would have manifested above the boy's head with a giant poof! sound. It could have been more of an aha! moment, but Mouse, while sharp, was more prone to being awed first rather than excited and exhilarated. He had gotten that solely from his papa.

While she apologized, she noted that it was still nice to meet family. To this, the Lyall nodded with enough gumption to make his large ears flop about the top of his head. "S'okay," he simpered with yet another wave of his tail. "I thought I was gonna be the only one out here for a while... Papa did say they moved everyone out to the Swamp." The lines in his mask seemed to make his face more frustrated than thoughtful. "I met my aunt Namid before, have you seen her? I thought..." He grimaced a little, clenched teeth showing from between his slightly parted lips, "I thought maybe I would like to stay with a pack with family. Since I can't... I haven't found her, could I stay with you?"

images of broken light,
which dance before me like a million eyes...

He was a really polite boy. Veho and Rook and Amaryllis must’ve done a good job raising him, she figured with a small smile, taking in his awed expression at her simple statement. What a nice kid. A little hard to figure out, but that was mainly due to their opposing personalities.

She perked her ears when he mentioned Namid, a smile canting her maw to the side. “Haven’t seen her,” she said, flicking an ear, and copied his earlier mystified expression when he asked to stay with her.

Wait. He wanted to stay... with her?

The thought was almost hilarious. Atsila couldn’t comprehend how anyone would want to travel with her, but... she’d wanted a traveling partner for so long, and... well, she’d taken a liking to this kid. Besides that, he was family.

“I’d love for you to stay with me,” she told him with a smile. “If you want to, of course. I think it’s a great idea.” In an alternate universe, she would’ve been ready to sign the adoption papers.

Mouse's heart sank a bit when she told him that she hadn't seen Namid. He rather liked her, despite his Papa's seemingly flip-floppy feelings about her. But, Auntie Atty seemed to be an "all right" replacement. At least, she was genuinely nice and she seemed to not mind him and his bit of silliness in the slightest. So, when she mentioned that she would love for him to stay with her, he began to beam at her again, puppy eyes and all.

"I'd like that a lot," he gushed, suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude for her simply being out in the woods where he had been singing a bunch of silly things to an aunt he had only ever heard about in Rook's stories. He stood back up, his tired feet forgotten and his song all but gone to the winter wind. "So, where're we goin' now?"

images of broken light,
which dance before me like a million eyes...

Well, this was certainly not how the red wolf had expected her day to go, but honestly, now she didn’t want to imagine it could’ve gone any other way. Not only had she met her brother’s kid, but now she had a traveling partner, a new friend, and a family member all wrapped up into one. A kid to look after, even though she really wasn’t even a full year older than he was. In terms of personality, it seemed that he was young, and that was what she was going with. She’d take care of him.

Besides, he got super excited when she agreed, and that was adorable, and she vowed to be the best aunt in the entire world.

“Wherever you want to go,” she said with an equally bright smile, tail wagging behind her. “Show me some cool places.” Apparently he’d grown up here. He probably knew more about it than she did.