Sunrise Ridge changing your colors

The days were longer here, more or less because nothing was familiar to her. Not a single place jogged her memory - it was as if she had never lived in this valley at all. Not a single territory was a reminder of what she had once had. Of the lives that she had known - Shade, Ace, Spectre... all of them she feared were gone or spread wide. While Lachesis had found her and given her a reason to move forward, the itch to run would always be present. Anastasia was a gullible and innocent fool, wishing for the best but not knowing how to handle anything besides goodness. Change was not easy but she really wanted to try, even if it wasn't going to end in her favor.

So the woman traversed the land near to where she had found her friend, eager to figure out what she wanted to do in this land. If anyone would even care to see to her so that she might begin anew. The pale china doll wanted the life she had before but was willing to see new faces within her social circle. It was the first step to prospering here and regardless of the changes that would be hard to wrap around, the Starklen woman was prepared to face what challenges lay ahead.

For now she simply had to forego the differences to wander this Ridge. The trees tall and gangly ( much like her dear friend was ) but she could see that the pines were changing their color soon and eagerly hoped that she might be here to see that in the very least. With nose held to the trees and her tail slack behind her, she moved gracefully but at a glacial pace so as to experience all of what this "new" valley had to offer her.

by Sarah

If Lenae truly wanted to be a good teacher then she had to learn as well. She couldn't merely just recite stories and tidbits of wisdom that had been handed down to her by her parents. This was her home now, as well as Cyrils, so if she wanted to help him find his place in this land then she had to get familiar with it too. As tempting as it was to hide away on the Monadnock she knew she had to fight the urge and explore once more.

Hopefully this time she wouldn't nearly drown herself. But as tough as it had been, there had been a silver lining, she'd met Little Crow after all!

So she ventured south once again, though this time she served a little east till she found herself atop a ridge.

It was quiet, adorned with tall needly trees unlike which she'd ever seen before. The Lowlands-as well as her homeland- was so open and spacious with scarce a tree in sight, but to the south there had been trees aplenty, so many she couldn't count. This place seemed like a happy medium. Enough trees to provide a sense of cover, but not so many that the view of the surrounding land was out of view.

As she sniffed and snuffed at the ground,-taking in the new scents,Lenae unknowingly drew closer and closer to the stranger. If she hadn't looked up- in alarm, no doubt- she would have probably walked right into her after a few more steps. The Selwyn drew to a stop with a yelp and back paddled a few paces till there was a decent amount of space between them.

"Ah no! I mean, I'm sorry! I wasn't paying attention, stupid really." She babbled, her gaze averted.

How could she have not noticed her though? Daisy white with eyes as blue as the sky! What was with this land and all these pretty-or rather, gorgeous- people! What was a- and there she was getting off track again. Silly silly silly.

"My bad."

With her ocean eyes trained so heavily upon the pine needles above her it was easy to disengage from what walked upon the earth. Anastasia had never been a very observant lady and thus did not even see the girl come closer and closer. In fact didn't even notice anything or anyone until words were spoken. A slight shake of her shoulders and her head snapping down to gaze thoughtfully and surprised at the woman that apologized profusely for transgressions that had not come to pass. "It's okay," she answered thoughtfully as her eyes traveled the length of her sudden company's face, "no harm done. It's not like I was watching where I was going, either." After all, she had a hard time even realizing she was walking so far and would have ended up halfway across the valley by now without realizing it. She was too easily distracted and she would guess that this particular string of company was, too. "I'm Anastasia, and you are?" It was as good a step as any, to introduce herself and hope that her company might be willing to divulge information, too. Of course she was quite unaware of the looking tension between any of the packs located with the Wildwood.

by Sarah

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She was so lucky to run-or rather walk- into another seemingly friendly face. For all of the scary men she had met, it seemed as though there were always plenty of nice wolves to make up for it. She was still shy and nervy of course, Lenae was slowly but surely coming out of her shell, but knowing that the pretty-daisy- stranger was willing to let it slide made her feel all the more better.

Like she didn't have to, yet again, run like her life depended on it.

Her plush tail uncurled from between her legs and began to swish that way and that, as she grew bolder with each passing second.

"I'm...Everly." Even now she almost tripped up and said her real name, not the one she had chosen for herself. Not the one she had stole. "And uh..Wow, I don't want to sound weird or creepy or like that but...Your name is really pretty! Suits you really well, like a princess almost."

And there she'd gone and done it again. Every time someone was nice to her, she was so desperate to reciprocate that she always went above and beyond what was necessary. She laid it on too thick, spoke her mind without really thinking about how it would sound. There was a reason people used to call her a ditz and as much as she wanted to prove them wrong she always went ahead and did the opposite.

If the roles were reversed and someone said that to her...She knew full well it would make her nervous. Compliments based on her appearance and otherwise were scary, frightening things. Not out right but...the connotations always reminded her of things she didn't want to think about. Ever.

"Ah...Sorry again." She pawed at her eyes, as she licked nervously at her lips. "I'm no good at this, clearly."

Anastasia had had quite a troublesome past before she had run into Lachesis and had started new in the Wildwood. The first love interest of hers had been given orders to dominate her and he had refused and as chivalrous as that was to refuse... it had led to worse. His refusal to obey had led down a more horrific path and she had long ago forgotten the hard memories in an effort to move forward. It was perhaps why she had taken to Lachesis because he hadn't been large and massive like the men from her home. He hadn't pushed her around as they had. "Nice to meet you, Everly." Hers, too, a pretty moniker and she would even be so bold as to say that it really suit her as she could see Everly very clearly on her face.

"Oh, a princess?" The idea made her nervously chuckle, as she had never been much of a fairy-tale-led woman but she supposed that in another reality she could have been a princess. "You're too kind, Everly..." though before she could thank the woman for her kind words she seemed to apologize for being so bold and straight forward. A sign that she wasn't as sure of herself as she wanted to be and lacked the proper confidence to say her words without doubt falling behind. "At what? Conversing with a stranger? I admit, I haven't talked to too many strangers lately and I think you're doing just fine." Unaware of any of the dangers that might lurk in these lands, she hoped that this was simply an off day for her. Because she didn't want to believe that there was anything she should be fearful of nor did she want Everly to think that she had anything to worry about from a small and pale woman.

by Sarah

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looking for friends, potential love interests and role-inspired threads!

Bahhh ana is so cute!!!

These days it was rare-or so it felt- to find others who saw things the way she did. Meeting new people had always been something she enjoyed and despite all of the terrible things she had gone through she still felt that way. To an extent.

Her compliment, whilst a little heavy handed, was earnest in every meaning of the word. Lenae never said anything she didn't mean. If she felt negatively about someone-those sorts of wolves were more numerous then she would have liked- then she'd rather say nothing at all and suffer in silence. Forever the martyr she was.

"No, it's true! Coat as white as snow, I swear I've heard that in a story before. Just can't remember where...." She pouted, annoyed at how her mind was so good at holding onto the bad and letting go of the good.

Maybe Anastasia had a point. Surely she wouldn't want to sugar coat it and lead Lenae down a path of misconceptions. If she had truly done something wrong would she have even brought it up? What if she was just trying to be nice? Trying to not hurt her feelings? Lenae had never agreed with tough love, it was either loving love or nothing at all in her eyes but... She was overthinking things wasn't she?

"Ah thank you." She dipped her head, a little flustered. "Strangers can uh...be a little scary. Especially if they're big and you know... I think men are a little scary too." She wasn't sure why she was saying this exactly, but maybe Anastasia felt the same way? "But I don't think you are, you sort of remind me of my friend...She's uh, she leads the pack I'm in. Whitestone Monadnock."

Maybe that was why she felt a little bold around her, she sort of looked like Piety?

Anastasia would have loved to hear of a story of a princess whose fur was as white as snow - it made have made her upbringing seem a little more fabulous than it had been. Truth be told, Anastasia hadn't been two cents to the life she had had before meeting Lachesis. It had begun when they had met and to believe anything different almost seemed uncomfortable. "I suppose it's probably a story mothers tell to their children when they are young," and while she had never had doting parents that swaddled her and told her stories to keep her light alive, she hoped that one day she might get the chance to reconcile with her own mothering side. A tale she had hoped to weave with the only one that had ever truly shown his love.

"Of course" came her answer as the girl thanked her for ( what she could only assume ) her honest opinion. "Don't believe that all men are scary, there are some that are wondrous..." and by this she means mostly XIX himself but also to Shade and Maksim. Two men that she had grown to care for deeply and had been well-respected friends of hers when she had been a busy soul here. Anastasia wished that she could tell the girl not to let the unknown scare her and to look at the best in things but how could she truthfully tell anyone that when her mind constantly ran from the fear of change and adversity?

"Whitestone Monadnock," she repeated idly and her lips twitched as she collected information that she desperately needed. More packs, more territories -- she needed to know more about the land if she wanted to stay otherwise the weight of change would consume her and drive her out. "She sounds like quite a friend. I actually lived here years ago... in many of the packs that resided here. It was so long ago." With the sudden information she feels herself drawing to a close mentally - wanting nothing more than to escape into the past rather than push forward into the future. There was no Maksim and certainly no Shade ... where had they gone? Did the devil push them out, too?

by Sarah

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Anastasia was right once again. The world seemed far less scary when she had believed in the stories her Mother had once told. There was always a happy ending, always light at the end of the tunnel and a rainbow after the rain. But these days seemed to dark, like storm clouds that refused to shift no matter the season. It was better than before, at least now a bit of light peeped through the clouds, but darkness was darkness and it still hurt.

All men might not be scary, but enough were. She had seen it for herself and that sort of lesson had cut deep, like a lesion that refused to heal.If there were wonderful men out there...Well, she hadn't met too many. There were some she liked and trusted well enough...@Wraith and @Aleksei had always been kind to her, but that still wasn't enough to erase months worth of trauma and terror.

"I know I'm just...Scared. Why do they have to be so big? Doesn't seem fair."

That's the thing though. How would her brother have put it? Tough shit, life isn't fair.

Lenae was a little taken back when Anastasia mentioned she had lived here once. Maybe not here here, but at least in this land. Perhaps it was her imagination,Lenae did have a rather active one when the mood took her, but did Ana seem...sad? Like there was a great weight upon her shoulders? There Lenae was, worrying about her past when she hadn't stopped to think about anyone other than herself. She was an awful person, selfish selfish selfish.

"Why did you leave...Did you not like it here? Was it...bad?"

Lenae knew there were bad wolves everywhere, even here. But..Piety and Wraith would keep her safe, right? She was doing everything she could to pay them back but what if it wasn't enough? What if they thought she was a lost cause? What if they were just biding their time to-

Lenae shook her head so quickly her vision blurred and her ears rang.

"She is my friend. She means a lot to me. I think I-" She clamped her mouth shut. "We get along very well!"

A young deer has been separated from the rest of its herd. Hunt Opportunity

At this point in the game, Anastasia understood that one could never be too careful about really anyone. Gender was no matter, honestly -- the only thing that made males scarier was that they usually had more size and weight on them than a female did. Anastasia certainly was not renowned for her strength at a mere hundred pounds, thanks to her small stature. In the beginning of her young adult life she had been tortured extensively but Anastasia, thanks to Lachesis, had seen hope thrive.

Everly was right that it wasn't fair that they were so much bigger but the "life isn't fair" motto was very strong and very useful in this situation. There was very little in life that was fair and she could easily point to Lachesis and Lilya and say that that wasn't fair either. Yet, she knew that he had enough reason to want to be happy without worrying about her coming in and out of his life.

Of course, she didn't anticipate being asked any questions pertaining to the why's and took a moment to find words that would properly explain her ongoing absences. "No, I loved it actually." That was no lie but her feelings often got the best of her - something she was sure Everly understood, "I had been in the mountains with my friend and I got separated. Returned months later but everything was so different. He was a little different... I couldn't cope so I left." In the back of her mind she tried to excuse herself by saying that Lachesis was better off without her anyways but she really hoped that that really wasn't the case.

It was pleasant to hear how much the woman cared for her leader as it certainly reminded her of how she felt when it came to XIX. He had always been a friend to her and always would be but sometimes she could always feel this uncomfortable jab at her heart as though reminding her that she was the one who screwed everything up. "Keep your friends close, Everly. She sounds like a keeper."

by Sarah

i'd love more threads, so message me if you'd like one!
looking for friends, potential love interests and role-inspired threads!