Whisper Marsh melting clocks on burning walls

when she was just a girl

The exciting got boring? She tried to comprehend that, and supposed that perhaps it meant that anything constant would get old eventually. Nineva tried to remember a time in her own life that she had been bored with the routine of her life, and discovered she couldn't think of a single moment. She supposed that made her lucky. The bump of his shoulder against hers pulled her onto his next train of thought, and her smile reappeared. With each descriptor he passed to her, the expression grew more wry. Regal, was she? That wasn't so bad to hear.

But then his voice changed, subtly in tone and noticeably in volume, and her head quirked ever so slightly to the side as she wondered what that was about. Had he said it normally, she would've taken the words as they were. The change they inspired, regardless of how brief, made her wonder what exactly he meant by them. She wasn't given the opportunity to ask. Changing gears yet again, he launched into something very different.

She tried her best to hold onto his intention, but the words collided inside her head and she wasn't certain what he was trying to explain at all.

"Gods... ?" she repeated under breath, unable to fully place the concept. Ash had always spoken of the afterlife being the night sky, @Veho had always spoken of ancestors beyond the veil. These weren't necessarily their gods, however, as far as Nineva understood it. She wasn't entirely sure she believed in the notion, but she wanted to know more. Deacon seemed more willing to dismiss the idea, however.

Looking ahead, she put some thought into the question before answering.

"I return to Grizzly Hollow, and you do as you like," was the simple and honest answer, as Nineva always gave. "I wouldn't be opposed to you staying there too, though. In fact, I'd prefer it. It's up to Veho of course, but so long as all of this goes smoothly I don't see why he wouldn't welcome you in. Unless, you intend on staying with your family?"

she expected the world

objects in space

"and you do as you like."

What a simple answer. So easy to follow and yet it still confused him. More guidance was given when she stated that she'd prefer him to stay with her. He could work with that. Deacon's ears perked at her questioning tone. His head shook slightly in a sort of 'no' motion. "I don't think I should stay back home. I just need some sort of check up, ya know? Have to make sure everyone is still alive and things aren't burnt down to a crisp in the willows." Bright amber eyes shot towards Nin. "I'd like to go back to the Hollows with you. Gives me more of a chance to prove myself and allows you more chances to get to know me." Wasn't that what she had wanted early? Wasn't that what he'd agreed to? He saw no reason at all to not follow her back to the Hollows and stay with her. There was more to life than sitting in one spot for the rest of your life.

"What's it like there? I mean, structure and stuff like that. Are you all like family or just wolves in ranks?" He mused in a gentle curious tone. He knew that while Willow Ridge was family and wanted to appear as a family, it always seemed there was some sort of rank challenge. Even as a child, he was having dominance asserted over him...granted he had been a handful and likely needed it more than his siblings.

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when she was just a girl

Nineva nodded as he explained his feelings about making a home of the Willows again. In her mind, she likened it to Secret Woodlands in an attempt to understand. She visited very often, checking up on what remained of her family as well as the friends she had made there. No longer did the thickets bother and smother her, the damp smells didn't make her snout wrinkle. Yet she would never be able to call the place home, even just temporarily.

Still she found it odd, that Deacon would not return to his own birth pack, but would swear himself to Nineva's. Whatever was different within his heart, she could be thankful for it, though.

That he would come back with her made her smile, but it wasn't a promise and she would not expect too much of the man. As far as this relationship would go, she would believe each claim as she saw it come to fruition. It was just better that way, for everyone.

"It's... fluid," she answered him, slightly unsure of her words. She didn't want to mislead him, but what exactly could be said about the ranks of Grizzly Hollow?

"Veho's always been there, at least as long as I've known. There are some others that have been around quite a while, like me, and Tomen was born there. The rest, though... I mean they come and go, and I think they try to be more of a family but... that's hard to maintain when wolves keep disappearing."

Subconsciously, she had purposefully not attached herself to more wolves than she'd already had. It hurt less that way, when they deserted.

"What, um. What did you mean by gods?"

she expected the world

(This post was last modified: Dec 04, 2016, 09:09 PM by Nineva.)

objects in space

"It's... fluid."

Peculiar answer but he would take it. Ears leaning in to catch her words. "So, um, mostly family with some visitors kinda? Like ya know, some of ya are family but some wolves go in and out. The Ridge had that some. My mom was always picky about who came in, though. I think my dad was a little more lenient, maybe not." He hoped she would understand what he was trying to get at. The heart of Grizzly Hollow was a family but there were sometimes visitors too.

Listening to her question about gods made him hum softly. "Well, uh," He paused trying to think of a good way to explain it. "We never talked about them much so I can't be real specific but they're kinda like the all mighty of us. Stronger than your most amazing wolf, bigger than the tallest cedarwood. They're so great they don't even live here." He wondered if he might have sounded crazy. "They live up in the sky, we can't really see them though. They control things down here but hide from us." Deacon hung his head down trying to think what else to say. "I think they're scared we couldn't handle interacting with them, ya know? But I mean, maybe if you try talking to them they'll answer. I'm not sure how it works exactly."

have you checked out my player preferences?

He was pretty stuck on that word 'family', wasn't he? She had to wonder if, despite all his time away from the Ridge, he still expected each new pack to feel the same as his natal home had. The tidbit about his mom being selective, well, that wasn't a surprise. From the times Narime had spoken about her dear friend, it had been made clear to a very young and impressionable Nineva that @Elettra was an admirable and successful leader. One able and willing to make the hard choices that the world had taught the yearling she would one day have to make. The consequences were too great to allow leniency.

Then he went on to answer her about his gods, and the notion was rather bazaar to the young girl. She'd already had some few, simple teachings about worlds beyond a wolf's own. Her father had taught her that those who died were not gone, that their essence escaped into the sky and became the stars that were seen only at night. Veho's own thoughts were a bit different and more detailed. He had explained to Nineva that the deceased were called Ancestors, and that a veil kept them away from this world. There were times she had thought on it all, trying to merge the two philosophies together. Perhaps the sky was the veil; that was why birds could only fly so high. Yet Veho consulted his Ancestors during the daytime, when the stars could not be found.

It was all terribly confusing, and the older she got the more she realized that these explanations were only rationalizations that made sense to each wolf and not necessarily the world as it was as a whole. It was odd, considering something a mentor had told her to be other than absolute truth, and perhaps that was why she normally just avoided the dissonance.

Now, though, she attempted to fit in what Deacon was explaining with these two other worldviews. She found she didn't much like the thought of something so unreachable controlling her or the things around her.

And so she told him as much, and went on to explain what she had been taught, and they carried on like that for quite a while, asking questions, sharing thoughts and views and guesses until the day lost all of its light and they were forced to bed down.

Only to rise the next morning and start all over again.