Secluded Spring what's lost is found

For papa @Gent. During another blizzard, apparently.

Sniff sniff sniff.

Trot trot trot.

Rest. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

It went on for days. As a girl, Ari might have found a great joy in travelling all over the land, through the snow and around the trees. Then again, the child hadn’t been lost in a blizzard, and rarely was that child on a mission. This Ari was not quite so keen on the frigid weather, nor the blizzard currently screaming in her ears. As if it wasn’t hard enough finding her way back to Round Stone Crest, it seemed the weather was keen on repeating the scenario that had taken her away from the timbers in the first place.

The youth might have kept complaining, too, had her near frozen nose not caught a faint whiff of a very familiar scent. The only scent, in fact, that she’d been looking for.

Steely grey eyes light up like clouds in a thunderstorm, and the bear burst from the thick snow, her steady pace becoming a fierce gallop as she plowed forward like the great beast she’d grown into. It didn’t take long to find the source of the scent, and eventually, she came across a border; this was not Round Stone Crest, the Leigh woman realized belatedly, but it definitely still stunk of Gent and Raela all the same.

“Yooooooo!” Ari cried, halting mere paw steps away from the marked border. She tipped her scarred snout into the snow, and sang.

I’m here.

Of all things, Gent did not truly expect one of Minka's children to ever find their way back to them. Kino and Draven had both left willingly, making their spite for what had remained of their mother's pack clear. It could not be anticipated that they would ever want it, or any of them, back in their lives. With time, this mindset had eventually enveloped Marianna and Kova as well within Gent's expectations. Hopefully, harm had not come to either of them. Most likely, Kova had chosen to settle with his younger brother rather than return and claim what was his. And Ari? Gent hoped his ineptitude at reaching through her grief and confusion had not damned her. Maybe another pack had found her and taken her in. It was such a nicer alternative, and he would rather have that optimism at the back of his mind that find out a harsher truth.

Never would he dream that she would return, willingly, healthy and whole.

Her voice had aged along with her, and he could not know who was so enthusiastically beckoning for him at his door. As though they were expected. When his leviathan frame plowed its way to her, however, that massive bulk impossible to miss amongst the trees and heavy snowfall, the pieces fell slowly but surely into place.

It was hard to believe, and he thought that maybe the sentimental compartment of his heart was fooling his head. But that pelt, so like her mother's, and her silver eyes were all unforgettable trademarks.

Such bitterness had grown in his chest at all that had transpired after Minka's death. After all was said and done, Marianna had been the only one he had been brave enough to hold out hope for, and he had guarded against even that. Recognizing her now, it was only the good memories that flooded his heart, and before he knew it he was bounding to reach her. Snow flew in his wake, paws occasionally catching on ice but winter's worst couldn't slow him down or keep him from her.

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

Was he always that big?

Ari squinted into the blowing snow – for a moment, the alpha could have been a shadow, a trick of the mind brought on by too much travel and an abundance of snow. Her ears swiveled forward and backward again, but the other wolf made not a sound, save for the swish and pull of snow being shoved out of the way as the dark form moved towards her. The closer Gent got, the more certain she was that she’d found the right wolf.

Hah. Let’s see Finch make fun of me now, the young woman thought triumphantly, her bushy tail wriggling behind her. Ari probably couldn’t find her way out of a pile of leaves – indeed, perhaps the reason it’d take the wolf so long to travel from the canyon back to the Wildwood when the distance wasn’t quite so far – but her nose still worked just fine, and she still remembered the important smells all the same.

That Gent has relocated his pack further south and further east was of no matter – in fact, Ari hadn’t really noticed that at all, save for it was simply not the timbers.

Finally, she could not contain herself any longer. With a mighty wiggle, the Leigh rocked back on her hind legs before rocketing over the borders, forgetting they were there in her excitement. Eyes sparkled as she met Gent somewhere halfway, throwing on the breaks only to avoid actually colliding with the man. “Dad! Dad! I found you!”

Like maybe she hadn’t been missing an entire year.

 

A wild dissertation appears!

She called him dad, and whatever reservations and chips of ice had still remained within his heart fell away. He knew now, what a difference there was in raising children that were his own blood and what he had been to Minka's litter. Yet similarities still existed, deep ones that mattered, from the care and attention he had put into their upbringing, to the affection he had always shown them, down to how much he had considered them to be his regardless of lineage. Draven and Kino might have chosen to rebuff him after their mother passed, but Marianna had always been his daughter in every sense of the word that mattered.

"Ari," he murmured, pressing his forehead to hers and nuzzling against her crown when finally they reached each other. She was so big now that he barely had to lower his skull to do so, rare even amongst grown men that he interacted with.

"I thought I lost you," he confessed, the meaning more than missing her from his life. He genuinely felt that it was his fault she hadn't made it back after that storm, that he should have watched her more closely despite the space she had clearly desired. He should have known what it was she needed, should have been able to balance her need to grieve and her need to move on, was certain that any good father would have. That his own litter had made it so long without showing any of the dysfunction that Minka's had was a great comfort, but it didn't erase the guilt.

"What happened to you, where have you been? You need to eat, you need to come see..."

Oh, there was so much to tell her and to show her. The pack, this wondrous new home. Raela, who would surely feel the same relief as he did at her return. Her siblings, if she would have them. And of course, he wanted to hear every last detail of her story too.

"You're all grown," and he'd missed so much. "I'm so happy."

To be fair, Ari thought as she brushed up against the older wolf’s warmth, she’d thought she was a goner then, too. Screamed at the wind and the sky and the snow until her voice had gone out, and she hadn’t been able to call for anyone. Not Gent, not Raela, not any of the other adults in their pack. Couldn’t even cry for her mother (or the father she never knew) as she wandered through blankets of white – everything looked the same, and she was convinced she was going in circles.

Except, she wasn’t, not really.

“This wolf, Finch, he found me. I got lost.” As if that weren’t evident enough, but the Leigh girl had gotten incredibly lost to end up where she did. She twisted, bumping against the only father she’d actually known, her pink tongue flashing out to lick the bottom of Gent’s chin in both affection and deference. Ari Leigh was no submissive creature, but there were certain wolves you’d always answer to; her father was one of them. “I, yanno, they kept me for awhile ‘cos I was so skinny and tired. And my leg was all messed up. And here I am, now! Taught me to hunt and things. And fight. Things, you know? But you said something about food, and I…”

Yes, that was her stomach growling. Ari laughed. “I been lookin’ for you. Ain’t takin’ much time to each ‘cept when I really gotta.”

 

A wild dissertation appears!

He leaned back to watch her features as she briefly summarised her story. Finch, eh? He'd never heard that name before, not that that was very surprising. If he ever did run across the man, he would definitely need to send him the wolf equivalent of a fruit basket at the least for saving Marianna, and so he would keep the name (and any other details the young girl might eventually pass on to him) preserved in his memory. His ears twitched as she mentioned her leg being messed up; he hadn't noticed anything when they'd bounded to each other, so hopefully it had healed up without any kind of problem. As they walked to go back home, however, he would be sure to watch.

A soft sigh fell from him as she trailed off about food. Someone else had raised her through her second year, but she hadn't forgotten the bond they had shared. His heart felt so full to know that, to see it and to have her back.

"Well then, let's get you filled up," he said with a smile, butting his forehead against hers a final time with affection before turning to lead the way into the territory. His head tilted back and he sent up a howl, calling for @Raela specifically; he knew she would want to see the girl right away too.

"Foods been getting a little scarce around here, but nothing we can't handle. It's just Raela and I left, from the old pack. Everyone kind of... went their separate ways," was the best way he could explain it. If she wanted specifics on any particular wolf, he would willingly give them to her, but just as she arrived was not the time to pass on morbid news.

"This is home now, though. We've new members and friends... a new litter, too. If you want to stay... it'll just be all the more perfect."

He wouldn't try to persuade her, he had learned that lesson when she was a child that boxing her in only made her miserable. But oh, how he hoped she was here for good.

To be honest, Marianna was pretty certain Finch wasn’t actually the guy’s name.  Just like she was pretty sure Reyes wasn’t really Reyes, either, and Sundog definitely could not be the woman’s birth name, but who was she to argue?  Her mother had named her Marianna but everyone called her Ari – and once Minka was gone (and the bear had a suitable amount of time to grieve), she’d started taking Minka’s name instead of the sire she never actually knew.

Seemed like a suitable tribute, anyways.

But she was getting distracted now, wasn’t she?  Gent was offering food – well, food and information, but truthfully, the loner was far more interested in the former until her rounded ears caught onto that last little part.  Ari almost tripped on the snow, head flying up.  “A litter?  Puppies?”  Her silver eyes widened – she’d never really thought of it before, had she?  But then, why wouldn’t they have their own puppies, right?  If they had a pack, a small one, something to build.  It made sense.

Ari’s tail started to wiggle again, moving forward from her brief shock.  Now that she was moving more slowly, the slight hitch in her giddy up was becoming much more obvious – the adrenaline of finding the man she was looking for had begun to fade.  Still, she had much more important things on her mind.  “Can I meet them?  I mean, after I eat – but yeah, I wanna meet them.  And stay.  Duh.  I didn’t truck my ass out here just to say hi and wander off into another blizzard, you know?”

(This post was last modified: Jan 13, 2017, 05:58 PM by Isuni.)

 

A wild dissertation appears!

Of course, mentioning the children would be the most catching of his laundry list of changes. As she honed in on it, clarifying the words, his ears tipped back nervously. There had been so much he'd seemed to have done to piss the trio off after their mother passed, and a lot of it seemed to have to do with the fact that he hadn't thrown himself atop her grave and refused to live without her. Moving on certainly seemed to upset Kino and Draven, and he'd never been able to pin down how Marianna felt, even though it was natural, what was needed. They were children and they didn't understand past their own emotions. He knew that now, even if he still didn't understand all the choices that inspired them to make.

Children with another woman, though; wouldn't that be the final flame to burn what remained of their bridge completely down?

He expected her to balk, to act with at least confusion. He certainly did see what she actually said coming, not one bit. Can I meet them? she asked, happily, and the man chuffed out the breath he'd been holding.

"Yes," he answered her, the grin spreading widely across his face once more. "Of course you can. There's a cache near the main den I just recently stocked, they should be around there..."

He had turned his head to look at her as she spoke, no longer holding reservations. If she could so easily accept his son and daughters, then what had seemed to good to be true really was reality. It was then that his eye caught her limp, far more prominent now. He would not say anything now, but it would need attention before the day's end.

And she was staying. She'd said that too, that she had specifically come all this way to stay.

"Welcome to White Fir Notch, heart."

Yes, the topic of puppies was kind of…weird. Gent was her dad, after all, just as Minka was her mother, even if the man that actually sired her final litter was a man none of them could ever meet. It still-- It still worked, somehow, in Marianna’s mind, and she was perfectly happy to hum and accept it, tailing after the alpha easily until something else dawned on her. Brows furrowed as she snorted.

“Uh – I’m not gonna call Raela my mom, though. ‘cos she ain’t. Even if she’s theirs. That’s cool, but. You know. My momma is mine.”

Certain that Gent would accept this one small request, she saw no reason to dwell, though it did remind the youth of something else she had decided whilst living amongst the strange cohort of wolves living at Blackwatch Canyon. “My last name’s Leigh, now. Like Minka. ‘cos I never did meet that other guy, and she’s gone now, and… Just seemed right, I guess.”

It was Reyes’ idea, but her father didn’t need to know as much. (He carried just one family name, and that was it, after all.) She had also toyed with the idea of adopting Gent’s surname, but had settled on Minka’s in the end – the woman was gone, after all, and the swarthy shadow didn’t need remembering like her mother did. Bumping into his shoulder, she hummed again. “Hurry up, old man! ‘m hungry, yeah? Don’t tell me you slowed down in a year…”

 

A wild dissertation appears!