Spectral Woods we tied string around our fingers

  

It seemed that his friend agreed with him, which both pleased the boy and made him apprehensive. As she moved toward him, he tensed slightly in shock as she brushed her muzzle along his cheek his breath hitching in his throat. He hadn’t had such an affectionate gesture made toward him since before Minka had died, and it felt foreign to him. She continued down his neck and across his back, and the boy’s heart hammer in his chest. His face heated beneath his pelt and he tried to ignore the buzzing he felt. It was such a strange feeling that he didn’t know what to think of it. As she swept past, she carried her scent of musky, earthy tones. Damp, but somehow comforting. It clung to his fur, he could feel it weighing him down at the tips and it was all he could do to not give himself a good shake.

"Now you're a Bend wolf! C'mon, let's go, newbie!" she said with a beam, and he scoffed. Before he could make a comment, she darted forward and his brows rose, taking a few longer than normal strides to catch up. It helped that he was more than a few inches taller than his smaller friend. She commented on exactly how special the place she was taking him was, the tones at the end of her voice lilting at the ends like an unfinished story. He once again found himself wondering what he was getting himself into.

--------------------------

"Gotta stay close," she ordered, giving her tail a good swish. He didn’t need to be told twice, but it also wasn’t quite so hard to find her black frame in the midst of the greying fog as long as he wasn’t more than five to six feet away. However, when he looked down at his own legs he found he wasn’t even sure if he had legs anymore. The silver child blended in darn near perfectly with the dense mist that clung around them, chilling him as the moisture began to make its way through his second coat. Then, suddenly, what he assumed they had come for appeared out of what seemed to be thin air. He stared upwards in awe as three waterfalls came cascading down snowcapped rocks, the falls themselves encased in a sheet of ice that seemed to suspend them in thin air. He squinted, looking closer and was more than a little surprised to see that water still coursed beneath the frozen surface. He had never seen anything like this before. Well, actually he had found a waterfall with Eirian that one time when he was much younger, but he had never seen one frozen before. He was so sucked into his astonishment that he almost missed Sahalie beginning to speak.

His head whipped size ways, topaz gaze blinking in a daze as he swiveled his furry auds to catch her words. "The small one there, that's Rissa. And then there's Aiyanna in the middle, and Kisla is the biggest. These are the Three Sisters." she explained. Rissa, Aiyanna, and Kisla, he thought absently to himself, looking from fall to fall in order. Such peculiar names, names that surely couldn’t have been picked out of no correlation to something important. Then, his assumption was confirmed. It seemed that they were named after the leader’s daughters, which made sense to him. Back in the Crest they hadn’t had stories like that because they had just moved there before he was born. His mother hadn’t lived long enough to tell him a lot about Black Thorn Downs, other than its name and that she had led it before. In all actuality it made this place much more special to him, to know that it actually had history. That this wasn’t a place that someone just took then dumped, it meant something to these wolves.

Then, something occurred to him that hadn’t occurred to him before. “Hal…are you the princess?” he asked, still looking up at the falls. He used the term because that’s what the wolves in his old pack had called Ari, and he and Draven and Kova had been ‘princes’. It meant that they were the leader’s children, and that they were supposed to take over the pack when they got older. At least…that’s what was supposed to happen in normal circumstances. But there was nothing normal about Kino. And, only the leaders were supposed to have children from what he had gathered. So logically it made sense that she would be the leader’s daughter. “Are the real sisters still around?” he asked next, though he knew in his heart how unlikely the chances were.

(This post was last modified: Feb 08, 2016, 02:35 AM by Kino.)

When she looked back to her friend she had to squint hard to see him through the clouds of fog. She could see hints of the black markings but no real face. It felt like her eyes wandered some time before she managed to catch hold of his sky-bright eyes. "There you are!" she teased, as if he had been hiding on purpose or something. With the pride of a helicopter parent she stood a little straighter, her expectations acceptably met by the admiration sparkling in her friend's eyes. She wanted to say something, but found that there were no words waiting on the tip of the tongue. Or even farther back. Nothing could be coaxed out. But it was for the best, really. All her talk would probably have ruined the moment.

She was equally unsure of how to answer his question, and so she launched into the explanation that was closer to a stream of consiousness. "Uhm, Idunno to be honest," she began, "No one really talks about that stuff here. Someone called me a princess once, the same one that told me about the deadly berries. No one else though." Oak Tree Bend wasn't really the sort of place where the wolves were concerned about status. Her dad hadn't even cared to take back his title when he had returned. Everyone just sort of "hung out" and did their own thing. "That was back when my dad was the leader, though. He left to go look for my mom and then Drestig had to take over for him. So I mean, it's not like I have a right to anything, you know?" Her job wasn't to lead, anyway. It was to make everything whole again. She didn't need to be a princess to do that.

"And as for my cousins," she drawled, her face turning back to the falls, "Kisla actually leads a pack up north, Hearthwood River. She's the oldest. I've never met her, but some members of our pack went up to visit them recently." She hadn't really realized that the Kisla waterfall was related to the one Serach spoke about for awhile. The whole family business was quite complicated and it took time to work out, especially since most of it she had to do on her own. Even now she was still discovering things. Most of the time she just wondered at how many names there were despite their being so few Tainns in her actual life. "I think Aiyana is alive still. At least I heard she was. No one talks about her much, so I don't know anything about her, where she is, or why she left." Which was kind of sad, Sahalie thought, but not as sad as the last of them. "And little Rissa died a long time ago. She was younger than we are. She's the reason my pack moved over the mountains from our old home, how we ended up here." It had taken awhile, but eventually she had gotten the story from @Triell.

(This post was last modified: Feb 08, 2016, 04:35 AM by Sahalie.)

  

She explained that she wasn’t completely sure if she was a princess or not, which confused him slightly. How did someone not know if they were? Then, she said that her father had been the leader which would have made her the princess, but it seemed that a man named Drestig had taken over when her father had gone to look for her mother. This was the first he was hearing that she had lost her mother at some point in time, and he wonder and hoped that they had found her. He knew the struggle of losing a parent, and he wouldn’t wish it on anyone else. He gave her a sideways glance, but decided not to ask about it.

Next, she went on to explain her other family situation. It seemed that the oldest daughter, Kisla, led a pack up north called Hearthwood River. The name struck a chord in him, and he fought to remember where he had heard of it before. Then, it clicked. The Crest had been allied with them, but at the meeting the day Kino had left they’d been debating as to whether or not continue their alliance. He thought harder, wracking his mind for the situation that had happened nearly two months before. They had had…information on his father’s death. At least one of their members had, and he hadn’t been sharing. Kino’s brows furrowed for a split second, but he was quick to smooth out his expression. Sahalie was related to the wolf that knew something about the man who had killed his father…he had no clue what to do with this information. Next, she explained that Aiyanna might or might not be alive, but nobody really knew. And lastly, the little Rissa had died when she was young and had been the reason the pack had moved to their current location. “You know so much about your family,” he marveled out loud, looking at her with raised brows. Truly, it was impressive to him. But, with a family that seemed to have such long lineage he wasn’t surprised.

(This post was last modified: Feb 12, 2016, 05:06 PM by Kino.)

He sounded so amazed at her extensive familial knowledge. The girl shrugged, "My dad's family. They've lived here, or... well.. over on the other side of the mountain for years and years. So there's a lot to know." A soft sigh fell from her gently rising chest, "And there's really a lot that I don't know, that I wish I did. I feel like I'd understand everything better if I just knew what had happened. Like, who we are and stuff. I don't even know if it matters though. Besides me and Drift, My dad, and Kisla up north I think we may be the only Tainns left." It felt weird to be a dying breed, to feel like at one point her family was very important and, without anyone even noticing or raising any objection, they were fading away. She wasn't sure if Alastor could really sympathize: the awe in his voice hinted at a general lack of knowledge about his own family. Not that it would be his fault.

"Don't know anything about my mom's family," she continued, "Don't even know anything about my mom except for her name." Nayeli. It sounded to alien, so foreign. She fell silent for a few moments, but when she looked back at her grey friend she was smiling. "But I mean, that's okay. I don't miss her or anything. Never even met her. So it doesn't matter much. And I can make up for it by knowing a whole lot about my dad's side, I guess." Maybe that was her motivation.

Cautiously, she reached out into dangerous territory. For the most part, their brief relationship had orbited around her. Perhaps Alastor was comfortable with it being that way, but Sahalie was certainly not blind to the fact. Her voice had a sing-song quality to it as she attempted, as casually as she could, to test the waters. "What about you, Al? Whadda you know about your folks?" She sounded so absent, looking off into the waterfalls, giving him the opportunity to brush off the question if he needed to.

  

The boy understood how she felt when she said that she wished she could just understand. There were so many things he wished he could understand about his family. On occasion he wished he had known his father, wished his father had never died. Maybe if he hadn’t, then everything would be okay. Maybe his mother wouldn’t have died, maybe he would still have his family. Kino’s life was one big maybe, a plethora of what could have been or what should have been but he’d learned a long time ago that things never usually went the way they should.

He tried to hide his surprise when she admitted that she’d never known her mother, only her name. Tokino automatically popped into his mind once again, and he found himself in awe of how similar they were in so many things. He had to remind himself to not get his hopes up, to not expect too much about their relationship because something would, inevitably, go wrong at some point. But, all the squishing in the world couldn’t simmer the faint wanting he felt in his chest. Wanting to have a real connection with something, to feel normal.

"What about you, Al? Whadda you know about your folks?" she asked innocently, but by now he knew of her curious nature. He couldn’t blame her from prying, but his heart began to beat faster in his chest. Kino swallowed, thinking rapidly. They were so similar, so alike that for a split second he almost thought of telling her the truth about his past. About the truth about him. But…he was not his friend. The part of him that made them so similar was broken, so irreparably shattered and angry at the world that he was afraid of what would happen if he showed her that side. Kino was an orphan, Kino was malicious and plotting, Kino was afraid. Alastor had the chance to be different, Alastor had the chance to live the life that a child should, to grow up with at least some resemblance of normal and that was something that Kino craved. “Mom and dad are nice, they love us and everything. We were moving a few months ago to somewhere new and a big snow storm came. I guess my brother and I got lost somewhere along the way, then we ended up here. Don’t know much about their past or anything, just everything after we were born.” he said with a shrug. That was safe, that was a bit tragic but much more doable. He paused for a moment before adding in, “I have a sister, too. She didn’t get lost with us, though,” perhaps the last bit was more risky, but he felt no reason to leave Ari out. She was as big a part of his life as Kova was.

(This post was last modified: Feb 12, 2016, 05:04 PM by Kino.)

@Kino /makes vague attempt to wrap it up

It was a lucky thing that she had chosen to feign detachment, for it would have pained her to see how uncomfortable her prying questions made her friend. Despite how similar their lives might have been in terms of family history and loss, the two children were really quite different in the way they dealt with and felt about the things that had happened to them. Sahalie was not bothered to talk about her mother, but unfortunately Alastor was. As time ticked on without an answer, her fur began to prickle with the realization that she had crossed the border into a territory that was not hers to walk upon. Thank god, when he actually spoke the story was much lighter than she had been expecting. Yet still, it was heartbreaking all the same.

A deep frown lined her face as she turned back to gaze at her friend. He must have been separated fairly recently if it had been the snows, and the wounds of loss were probably still fresh. He had his brother, at least. But he was completely detached from his history, from his roots. Alastor was a lot like Leotie and — as she was beginning to suspect — many other wolves in this land. She resolved not to take her own story, her family's story or their presence in her life for granted.

"I'm so sorry, Al," she said, giving him a gentle nudge with her shoulder, "I hope they're alright. Maybe you'll find them when the snows melt?" The fluttering hope in her voice faltered a bit. She didn't have much faith in lost wolves returning: none she had known had reappeared in her life thus far. "In the mean time... maybe you can be my brother, and I can be your sister?" Nothing could replace Drift — certainly not this clean, silver boy— and nothing could replace Alastor's sister... but she wanted make an attempt to fill those holes all the same. It would be nice to have an agemate again.

 

"I'm so sorry, Al," she said, a deep frown marring her normally bright face. If she was acting like that toward the petty little story he had made up, he could only imagine the horror that she would show if she ever knew the truth. This thought further sealed in his mind that she could never know, he could never put a thunderstorm that big over his own personal sunbeam. She gently bumped his shoulder and suggested that they might be able to find them after the melt and his heart gave a squeeze. Maybe he would be able to sneak into the Crest and visit his mother’s grave, but he held little hope for that. No doubt Gent and the bitch would be patrolling the borders constantly, and he didn’t fancy being knocked around again. Still, he needed to play the part of the hopeful. “Maybe,” he said, his grin as half-hearted as hers.

What she said next made his topaz gaze go wide, blinking in surprise. The offer of becoming practically family to one another was, in a sense, quite frightening to him. The family he had known left, or died, or ended up hating him. He wanted none of that from Sahalie, he wanted in fact the exact opposite. The selfish part of him wanted her to stick around for a while, allow him to get to know her and maybe get a peek at that rain cloud that seemed to occasionally move across to blot out her sunny personality. Still, the hope he saw replacing the sadness in her expression made him stutter in his resolution. He wanted her to keep that hope, wanted her to remain untainted as best she could and if that is what she wanted them by god he would allow it. He would protect her like he had Ari, except this time he wouldn’t let her go. “Okay, Hal. We can be like family,” he agreed with a nod.

Then, the boy stood up and gave his pelt a shake. They had stayed in the territory for far longer than he probably should have been, and he was beginning to become worried that they would be discovered soon. “I need to go now, though. Family or not, they won’t like me here for much longer. But I’m going to come back soon, promise.” he said, his typical smirk curling on the edges of his maw. He waited for her to get to her paws, knowing she’d want to walk him out at least and allowing himself the vague satisfaction that she would have wanted to.

Exit.