Fireweed Rise Someone’s bound to get burned

Another one for @Sven - RE: Attica, you're right in the path of a small snow whirlwind!

just because it burns doesn't mean you're gonna die

Attica Grace Archer

Ever since she followed Sven over the mountain and @Ravenna to the Cedarwood there had been an itch in her paws and more and more often she found herself sneaking across that invisible line to escape the sadness of her home. It felt like every frosted willow frond matched the hearts of those that lived here. Ever since Adele died... Months. She could see that @Renier and @Enoki were trying, really really trying - and so was her brother! But was it enough? It was hard to keep smiling when everyone around you looked so grim.

So she escaped to the rise. Everything out here was so open, it wasn't oppressive like the Grove or cold and wet like the marsh, just wide, open rolling hills. A chance to stand back and look over it all, the heights like a wall to the east and nothing to the west until you hit the lagoon, hush meadow merely an extension of the almost treeless expanse when everything was covered in snow. It was then she turned her eyes back towards the mountain and saw it, the small snowy whirlwind headed straight for her. It was too late to run so she braced herself, squinting her eyes and turning her ears down against the icy buffeting, snowy shards raking through her fur like claws.

with my grin spread & my arms out

He'd been looking for her, because today was particularly boring and he found his mind tiring of routine more regularly since he'd ceased traveling the tunnels and escaping into the East. The borders had been freshly marked with his scent both yesterday and this morning, he was nowhere near needing a meal and had recently seen to it that his resident priorities had been fed as well. There was really nothing that quite needed done other than endless walking, or... perhaps he should visit the north again? His steps paused and he gazed over the snowy expanse to where the trees began to crowd the earth again.

Nah. He'd rather spend the day with Attica.

The wind whipping round in sporadic gales and the phenomena that could create was a familiar occurrence to him. After all, he'd survived his loathing of Winter once already. But the look of shock on his sister's face earned a laugh out of him, and she was even funnier still when it had passed and she was covered in ice crystals. He was chuckling to himself still as he padded his way to her, and licked the ice from her eyes and ears before speaking.

"Gotta be quicker than that with snow devils."

Sven smirked at her, dancing in place on his paws in mock swiftness.

in my bloodstained sunday's best

(This post was last modified: Jan 25, 2017, 08:30 AM by Sven.)

The whirlwind now gone (completely dissapeared, how did that even happen?), the girl spotted her brother moving towards her and her tail waved in happy greeting. There had been so much on her mind since her trip to the cerdarwood with @Ravenna but she hadn't yet worked up the courage to ask. The deficit pointed out so glaringly made her realise that something wasn't as it should be and when she closed her eyes at night she was haunted by a white wolf with green eyes and a black wolf with grey. They weren't nightmares, but the nights they came to visit her she often woke more tired than when she had initially gone to sleep.

As his tongue passed over her eyes and ears, she squeezed her eyes shut and smiled, making mock sounds of protest as he went. When he was done she stepped back and shook the remaining ice from her fur, taking in his words while still wrapped up in her own thoughts. Ravenna had her mother, who was their Nonna, and her father was missing, but all Attica had was her brother... "Where are our parents?" she finally asked. "Why are they looking for Ravenna's dad but not our parents?" She couldn't know that the Skoll they were told to watch for was one and the same or that the pair didn't share the same mother. All she knew was now that it had been pointed out that something was missing she couldn't get it out of her head.

 

(This post was last modified: Mar 15, 2017, 11:10 PM by Attica.)

with my grin spread & my arms out

Well, that party ground to a halt fast. Sven stilled as the question he'd been more or less dreading left her lips. He'd thought this over so many times, especially at night. With her curled up blissfully against him, but his own mind racing and resisting sleep, he tried to reason with all of his anxieties. Played the scenarios out in his head over and over again, trying to get them perfect. How could he do it, though? How could he ensure that Attica wasn't hurt by the truth? It would be easy to tell her that they were horrid wolves that the both of them were better off without, and while he wouldn't lie to her, he couldn't help but remember the pain he had felt with each insult hurled at Piety or the indignation he felt when he saw others sneer at Skoll's turned back.

Would it affect her like that when she didn't even know who they were? How much exactly did she remember of those few, scant moments she'd had with their father and Hecate? Her follow up question hinted that it might, that wondering of why they were treated differently. He didn't want her to feel bitter as he had, didn't want her stomach to hurt and her sleep to disappear. Yet after all of his practicing, he couldn't remember a single line now.

"Uh, they're..." his pale eyes panned subtly back and forth, as though searching the snow for the answers. He couldn't bring himself to look right at her, to meet that inquisitive gaze.

"They left. Angier, he's... he's old and blind and I guess they think that means he needs help coming back, but... I mean, he just left too. Wolves do that, Attica. I have no idea why. I really, really don't."

in my bloodstained sunday's best

It would seem that the question she asked left her brother a little flustered, and she was sympathetic because after all, hadn't she felt the same way when Deacon had levelled the question at her? Perhaps if she had any memories to cling to the admission that they had left, not just the Ridge but her might sting a little more. As it was though, the girl felt little beyond the satisfaction of having an answer. A short nod was offered in thanks for not trying to sugarcoat it, followed up with a shake and a shrug of her shoulders. It seemed to her that people died more often than they left, but she hadn't been around before.

After all, it wasn't like she wasn't good enough for them to want to stay was it? Nobody else had been driven away by her presence, to her knowledge anyway. So it must have been a problem with them. She didn't even stop to wonder if they might still be alive.

As to what he said after, however, well she thought she might have the answer to that one. "I think I do," she offered with a smile, "I think it'd be fun, to go on an adventure, and see things I've never seen before. Don't you ever wonder about Torbine Sven?" On the cliffs over water that stretched as far as the eye could see. It sounded positively romantic. "I hope I can see it one day."

 

 

with my grin spread & my arms out

He expected emotion to pass through her pale green eyes; to see confusion, resentment, anger or sadness. Instead, she just... accepted what he told her. It caught him off guard, and he could only blink owlishly at her as she went casually on. He'd always known she would grow to be a better wolf than he, but this had him questioning much of his own emotions. Maybe he really was unstable, an overreactor. Or, maybe those small differences in their situation had actually worked in his baby sister's favor. As much as he wished he could know her heart and mind, they were, after all, different wolves.

There was already a dull buzzing at the base of his skull from these thoughts, and it only grew louder as she expressed her understanding for departing from the Ridge. For her sake, he slugged through it to try and understand, and, well, there was a very important factor about why he hated wolves leaving. No one had ever been upfront, honest and genuine and innocent in their reasoning. It had always been a disappearance, an abandonment, a betrayal.

"Torbine's the only place that's ever sounded as beautiful as home," he admitted to her, turning his thoughtful silver eyes to the frozen willows that surrounded them.

"Traveling just, doesn't appeal to me. But if you want to see it, I'll make sure you get there."

He would take her himself if he had to. He trusted that Attica would do things the right way.

in my bloodstained sunday's best