Spectral Woods strawberry skies

@Sahalie Sunny, 75 ° F, 24 ° C
Starting inside OTB borders... Sorry for weird vagueness in places I figure we'll just iron out the kinks as we go?? If something is off though let me know and I can edit stuff too

There was an unusual lightness in Spieden's step as she tread over the dry dusty earth of the Bend, kicking up a small cloud in her wake. She had made up her mind, there was nothing holding her back now. Wanderlust had gripped her, the overwhelming urge to spread her wings and leave behind the musty den, the dour faces, and at least temporarily forget the overwhelming responsibility of making sure everyone was alive and warm and fed. No longer was she shackled to the den as a nursemaid, having convinced the pups without too much struggle that bits of regurgitated meat were proper food. She would not be gone for long, just a couple days just to clear the cobwebs that clung to the corners of her mind.

She'd been so steeped in pack and pup matters that it had become all to easy to forget a world existed outside of the scented marks that surrounded her home. She didn't need anyone's permission, but knew that disappearing without a word would be too much given that Nayeli had done the very same. Spieden had already mentioned to @Triell offhand that she'd be going up north, a short trip to see what was there and would be back quickly.

But Triell wasn't the only one she needed to tell before she left. Spieden's nose skirted over the ground as she walked, snuffling in the pups' familiar scent as she honed in. She spotted a black pair of ears poking up over some foliage in the distance. "Sahalie?" Spieden called, her quick steps slowing to a more cautious pace. She wasn't really sure how the girl would respond to Spieden leaving for a little bit. "Can I talk t' you?"

(This post was last modified: Aug 07, 2015, 02:44 AM by Spieden. Edit Reason: how does i html )

Triell's dark daughter was blooming like a weed. Already the blue of her irises was starting to fade and the Tainn gold was coming in. In the the mean time, her eyes simply looked like a muddy green. Her face, too, was changing as her bat like ears yawned above her head and darker adult fur sprouted above her eyebrows. She had more brown in her than her father or mother. In fact, she actually looked a lot like Spieden. She probably could have convinced some actual stranger that she was her mother. Whatever that meant.

Sahalie was still trying to figure out what Spieden was to her. Spieden had never told them what to call her, really. It was the others that had referred to the all-dark by this name. Sahalie turned the word about in her head, wondering cautiously if she should call her former milkbag by this name, too. Was this a public name? Did Sahalie even had the same relationship that Spieden did with all these other wolves? The dark girl caught glances here and there and sometimes it looked like Spieden actually liked them better. This had made her bitterly angry. Why was Sahalie not a good girl?

The cautious tone of her primary caretaker rang out in the clearing. It was always awkward between them. Nervously Sahalie peered out from behind the central oak she had been sitting under. She did not know whether or not to approach Spieden. Had she done wrong? "I'm...I do something bad?" Her voice snagged on her throat a little. She wondered if Spieden had caught word of her run in with that loner a week ago... Her heart fluttered.

"What?" Spieden asked as if she hadn't heard quite right, her head tilting as her scarred ears flicked out sideways. Sahalie sounded scared, but Spieden wasn't sure if she'd just startled the girl with her sudden appearance, or if she really thought Spieden had come to punish some wrongdoing. She didn't want Sahalie to fear her, and was worried about what sort of impression the children were getting of her. She already felt like she was damaging them somehow.

"N... No, you're good." Spieden finally answered after her mind had a moment to catch up. Unless Sahalie had gotten into something without her noticing, but Sahalie seemed generally well behaved anyhow. Spieden moved closer, gingerly stepping towards the sable-coated girl and settling back onto her ample haunches in the shade of the great oak.

"I just wanted to let you know, I'm gonna be gone for a couple of days." Spieden said at first, waiting a few beats to let it sink in before she continued. "Your dad'll stay with you, and the rest of the pack too. They'll take care of you and your brother. I'll be out of the territory, but I promise I'll be back right away." She explained. She wondered whether the news would be met with fear or indifference, or maybe even joy? So many of her own anxieties clouded her perception and made it difficult to get a read on what exactly was going on in Sahalie's mind. None-the-less, she watched closely for Sahalie's reaction.

A lynx has left behind the remains of a deer. +5 Health

The cub released an audible sigh of relief. She was always so worried about doing bad things. Especially to Spieden, who seemed hurt so easily. It was not injury in the same way that the rest of the pack was injured, like when that older wolf had died. It was like the words that drifted off Sahalie's tongue, if she was too careless, were a lot like those fuzzy yellow-and-black wolves that had bit her paw. And Sahalie did not wish to hurt her primary food-bringer. Though, if she were honest, Spieden was really starting to mean more to her than that. As her language grew and words came more easily to the Tainn girl, their relationship grew in odd ways and odd directions but Sahalie had never stopped wanting more from Spieden, feeling like there was more somewhere.

And that was why when Spieden said she would be gone Sahalie began to cry.

She hadn't meant to cry —though it seemed she was doing this now a lot— and the tears were not immediate. Her mouth sort of hung open a bit and her head slipped sideways as she had listened. Gone a few days? This did not make sense. To Sahalie, there was no other place to be. Sure, she had glimpsed the deeper, darker parts of the forest that lay beyond the borders. But the forest just seemed to continue on in the same manner. It occurred to her that there might not even be days worth of walking. And how long was "a few days" really? Sahalie did not understand the coming and going of her pack mates. She did not know where they were most of the time, and usually this did not bother her. But that was because she had Spieden, as constant as the trees. How was she supposed to do anything without Spieden? This was when the tears came.

"Y-y-y-ou can't g-go," she wailed haltingly through her sobs. It was hard to restrain herself. Emotions just sort of ran away with the little girl. She had no experience with them, and no way to control them. Maybe it would come with time.

(This post was last modified: Aug 10, 2015, 10:28 PM by Sahalie.)

Something didn't look quite right with Sahalie. It took longer for Spieden to recognize the signs and symptoms of the impending meltdown, but there was no missing the tears sliding down her cheeks or the wailed plea for Spieden to stay. Spieden's amber eyes widened to the size of saucers, a frantic expression crossing her face as she panicked. What was she supposed to do! She'd seen Sahalie fuss over dinner, or the forlorn look that sometimes hid in her puppy-blue eyes, but she hadn't yet seen the girl break down like this before.

Spieden knew she was a sorry excuse for a parent, and knew that whatever mark she was leaving on the pups was probably not a good one. Still, she never meant to hurt them and Spieden's shriveled little husk of a heart was breaking watching Sahalie cry. Technically, Spieden didn't have to go. Nothing was at stake that required her to leave. But she didn't know if her sanity could take just sitting in the territory within the line of scent-marked trees that felt like the bars of a cage. She did not leave Salmon River just to stick herself back into a jail of her own making. Still, she didn't want to hurt Sahalie more than she already had.

"Shhhh, shhh, nonono, please, don't cry, it'll be okay..." Spieden begged, rising back up to a stand and scurrying towards Sahalie. She circled around a few times, whining as she tried to figure out what to do. She just wanted the tears and the sobs to stop but had no idea how. Her tail swished low and with ears folded back she planted kisses all across Sahalie's head, ears, face, as she tried to stop the heart wrenching sounds the little girl was making.

She felt the thrust of a muzzle and a swift lick to her forehead. Then there was another one behind her ear, on her muzzle. Soon they were everywhere. The gesture was foreign enough to hush the sobs and slow the tears. Sahalie was not quite sure how to explain what about the actions Speiden was making caused the winds that howled in he heart to shift, except for the fact that the girl could never turn away physical contact when it was offered to her. There was just something about feeling the warmth of another body against hers, feeling their muscles move underneath their fur, knowing that somewhere there was a mind just like hers controlling all this maybe. And to come from Speiden of all the wolves. Why, this was probably the first time the all-dark had touched her impromptu. This gave Sahalie's rolling emotions fuel to continue

Her head whipped up, and her eyes were naked accusations. "But why are you going? Why now?" Couldn't she go later? Sometime years from now? Sahalie didn't understand where there was to go. "And where could you go that's better than here? This place is great!" It was great because it was all she knew. It was great because she didn't know what "great" was. She certainly felt that there was probably more to life than this, and she wanted it, but she was afraid to grasp it. Afraid that she was wrong. Or what if it was everything she had ever longed for and she never wanted to come back? And she was afraid that Speiden was making this same mistake.

Spieden was afraid it wouldn't work. It had been a split second decision, and she could only hope that it wouldn't backfire. Steadily the tears tapered, the sobs abated, though Spieden was unsure if it was from comfort or rather the sudden shock of any form of affection from her. Honestly, she thought she had shocked herself. Her heart raced, but she noticed that for once her skin did not itch with the feeling of wanting to crawl right out of it. Spieden backed off slightly, still near but no longer looming quite so directly overhead of the dark coated cub. Immediately Sahalie's little face was pointed right up at her, an intense look in her eyes that Spieden noted didn't look quite so blue anymore.

Spieden tilted her large head, grizzled brows knitted and lips tightly quirked in an unsure expression. They were simple questions, but their answers were hard. There was an innocence to them that Spieden did not want to crumple, having felt like she had already chipped away at some of what should have been a carefree childhood. She didn't want to tell the little girl that her home was lacking, that she felt like she was trapped. "Yes... It is," Spieden started out, initially agreeing. "But there's lots of other great places, too. It's nice to go see them sometimes." She answered. "The Bend is great, yes. It has rivers and trees and moss. Other places have different things, different trees, different moss. Meadows and mountains, lakes and swamps, oceans... They're just... different. Sometimes you just need a little bit of 'different'." she said, 'or else I'll go nuts', she thought.

(This post was last modified: Aug 21, 2015, 11:15 PM by Spieden.)

Sahalie chewed her lip as she tried out the reality Spieden was proposing to her. That there would be different things out there in the world was not unreasonable. But there was also different grass here in the main area than there was out there in the forest. And sometimes the trees were different. Some of them had pointy needles that hurt her paws and some of them had broad leaves. The broad leaf ones were starting to change their color. That was different. Why was this not different enough for Spieden? She struggled to make an argument out of these things she found ineffable.

"Do you want to find a different Shalie out there?" she mumbled, her lip quivering again. Surely that was what Spieden was trying to say, since as far as the dark girl was concerned, moss had never been a very high priority to the older woman. "Or are you gunna look for this "Nayeli" too? Cause I'm not even sure she's real." To Shalie, this reason seemed much more concrete than this concept of "difference." Wolves mattered more than moss. Wolves had taken her father away from her. Wolves would take Spieden from her.

"Cause I think I should come with you. To make sure you come back," she nodded her head determinedly in the direction of the ground. This seemed very reasonable to her, just a three month old cub. No one had made sure Nayeli had come back until it was too late. But Sahalie was smarter. Her solemn face softened a little more, and she admitted very quietly, "I would like to see different things too." She did not want to sound like she did not like Oak Tree Bend.

@Sahalie

Spieden wasn't sure how easily convinced Sahalie would be by her given reasons, but at least the girl appeared to consider them. Spieden would have laughed at Sahalie's innocent question as to whether she was looking for different Sahalie somewhere out there. But she couldn't hold back an amused snort when Sahalie called Nayeli's existence into doubt. Sometimes it seemed that way, that Nayeli was simply some collective hallucination that had visited itself upon the Bend given how easily she vanished like mist in the morning sun. But the evidence to the contrary stood right before her, unless a stork had dropped off the two Tainn cubs. "As far as I know, there's only one Sahalie. I'm pretty sure Nayeli is real, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna look for her." Spieden said with a distasteful grimace.

Spieden's grey brows inched up her head when Sahalie suggested she come with, her head tilting slightly to the side. "Hmm... Well, maybe." She said slowly as her brows drew back downward, hesitating to give a solid answer at first so that the cogs in her mind could have a chance to turn. Spieden always treasured the memories of uncle Wasgo taking her and her siblings on trips into the neighboring lands. It would be good for Sahalie, and surely the girl was just as bored of the musty old borders as she was. Drift seemed to be easily content with exploring whatever grimy little nook he could find in the Bend, but his sister seemed to demand more of the world. Spieden didn't think it would be too dangerous, after all, she would be there to fend anything off.

"You know what? Why not." She decided with a toothy grin. "Just as long as you behave yourself and stick close to me, otherwise I'll have to send you back home to make mud pies with your brother." Spieden wryly cautioned, her brown tail swishing behind her.

(This post was last modified: Oct 03, 2015, 08:59 PM by Spieden.)