Wild Rye Fields water's sweet but blood is thicker

Backdated to 8/20, for @Aleksei and Ris bonding time!

She had been in Wild Rye Fields for a long time, and she loved everyone there. She had met so many wolves, and made so many new friends, and that hole in her heart that Kisla had left had started to mend around the edges... just a bit. The sadness wasn't overwhelming anymore, and she could actually function in a semi-normal way. No longer throwing up after meals, many fewer night terrors, not as terrified of everything anymore.

Okay, there was one thing she was scared of. Apparently, her older brother lived here - Aleksei, they said his name was, but she couldn't pronounce that so Lexi was as good as he was gonna get. That was, of course, if the child could ever get herself to approach him. Ris knew by then that he'd been told about Kisla, and she was his mom too, and he was probably so sad about it. And besides all that, she didn't know him at all. What if he hated her? What if he told her to leave? What if he blamed her for the big monster taking Kisla away?

She'd never know if she didn't approach him, so that was what she set out to do today.

The child had spotted him lounging on a hill as she walked past, and she tiptoed up to check if he was asleep or not. Silver eyes peeped over the ridge of the hill, tummy pressed into the earth. She looked like a little prairie dog, attempting to peek out of its hole for danger, and squeaked in alarm when she caught sight of two deep green eyes.

Yup. Not sleeping.

He had been miserable since the news had been broken to him, and all Aleksei wanted to do was sleep away the pain. Of course, it achieved little more than making him feel worse, so, for the first few weeks, he did the bare minimum he could. Half-hearted patrols that more often than not were broken away from early because it hurt far too much to function normally. Eventually, it became easier to breathe, and he resolved to visit the Ethos once he felt more up to the task—the thought of approaching Hearthwood River in his current state of grief left an uneasy anxiety in his gut, especially considering his harpy of a sister and her simpering baby-daddy were still there.

Aleksei also had another task to attend to, one that he was putting off out of sheer worry; his sister was here. His youngest sister, Risaela (how had he forgotten her name?), had been taken into Wild Rye Fields as a temporary ward, and he hadn’t bothered to seek her out at all. He had his reasons. He didn’t doubt for a second that the blame for Kisla’s death would be pinned upon him. Perhaps his sibling would blame him, too?

It was a surprise to discover, then, that she was the braver of the two. She met her surprised gaze with his own as she peeked up at him, the sight of it all causing his lips to curl into a smile. With his chin resting upon his paws, he was at the perfect eye-height to catch a sneaky cub off guard. “Hello there,” he  greeted her, voice as soft as melting butter. His tail gave a gentle thump against the ground, to reassure her that everything would be fine.

Let the roots & soil drink of me
Whispering leaves & pointing branches will tell them where I'm lying

The initial shock eased back when she saw that he was smiling, and it almost completely vanished when he spoke. The big wolf's tail thumped on the ground, and Ris raised her whole head over the rise of the hill, feeling more confident now that she knew he wasn't about to yell or snap or anything like that. A small smile made its way onto her own maw and she crawled up to the top on her belly, still not going to rise all the way. Not if he was laying down.

"H-h-hi," she stuttered, moonstone eyes traveling from the grass at their feet then back to his own orbs, then back to the grass again. The pup had never felt so nervous about meeting a new wolf before, which was ridiculous because this was her sibling. Like Inna and Matheo. This was supposed to be so much easier, wasn't it? She just couldn't help but be afraid. "H-hi, Lexi." She retried her first greeting, this time adding his name to it. Perhaps that would be better.

The child cleared her throat and lowered her head, small tail swinging back and forth. She was caught between wanting to smother him with affection (as she did with all of her family) and wanting to keep a bit of distance (he was a stranger, after all.) "Um... I-I'm R-Ri-Ris." The girl wasn't sure if he knew her name or not. If she knew his then he probably knew hers, but it was polite to introduce herself, so that was what she was gonna do.

Her nervous stammer was not lost on him, nor was the dancing of her gaze. She was scared, and he could understand why, but behind her nerves stood a great deal of courage—she could run, but instead she opted to remain where she was. In fact, she seemed unsatisfied with her first attempt at a greeting, and spoke again, tacking on a shortening of what he could only assume to be his name at the end. He continued to smile, and another series of tail wags went off. Despite her silver-grey features, Risaela felt like golden warmth.

“I know your name, Ris.” He shifted, lifting his head from his paws to give her a few sniffs. Carefully, with slow movements, he craned his head forward in an attempt to press his nose against her chest and blow through his nostrils. “It’s nice to finally meet you—how are you feeling today?” He couldn’t forget that it wasn’t just him who had lost a mother, after all. Risaela would most certainly be taking it harder in his opinion. She was so young, after all. It must have shaken her quite a bit, to have her flee all the way across the Lowlands.

How the River wolves had not noticed sooner, he would never understand. In fact, it caused him a great deal of stress and frustration. Thinking about them tended to have a negative affect on his mood. Had they worked more as a pack, instead of relying on one young man to fill the role of ‘the great king’s great, perfect heir’, perhaps his mother would still be alive—perhaps Risaela would have been safer, never given the fright that had her scampering across dangerous wilds to find shelter in a pack several days away.

Self righteous pricks.

Let the roots & soil drink of me
Whispering leaves & pointing branches will tell them where I'm lying

Another smile crossed the child's features when her brother claimed to already know her name, and she stood still to let him scent her. She even stood still when he pressed his nose into her fur and blew out a breath, a tiny giggle escaping her. Taking the opportunity given, Ris bent her own head down to nuzzle the side of his maw, familiarizing herself with his smell and also showing some of the affection she deemed necessary. Besides that, it felt really nice to know that she had even more family in Wild Rye Fields, and that they would accept her so easily.

But that still bothered the girl.

While it was nice to meet Aleksei and stuff, she couldn't really understand - why wasn't he angry with her? Why was he happy to see her? After several weeks of worrying herself to death over the idea that her older brother wouldn't want anything to do with her, this alternate reality didn't make any sense to the child.

"Y-y-you're not ma-mad a-at me?" she asked, genuinely confused. Her stutter was improving as her nervousness ebbed away, but it still lingered - in the slowness of her words and the struggle she had to endure to form them. It wasn't something that bothered the girl - she had lived with it for her entire life now - but she did hope that she didn't sound stupid to the tawny man.

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

Aleksei’s eyes closed, and he soaked in the moment. He had thought he’d never get a chance to be so close to his youngest siblings. Despite this meeting being born of tragedy, he counted himself lucky in this sense. He pressed his snout into her side, trying his hardest to not scoop her up into an embrace. It was hard to fight back that instinct. He had missed out on Inna and Lekalta’s childhood, and now he was going to miss out on Risaela’s, too. Aleksei decided he’d have to try, though. He’d try to be part of their lives, regardless of what the River wolves thought of him, or deemed him to be.

She was his blood.

“Little Ris, why would I be mad at you?” He pulled his head back to frown, meeting her gaze with his. Honestly, he was surprised that she hadn’t been taught to despise Aleksei. He was the family abandoner, after all—left not once, nor twice, but three times. “You’ve done nothing wrong.” Falling quiet, he studied her expression and then softly continued. “Do you feel like you have?” His voice was a whisper. Aleksei knew all too well how painful it was to worry your family hated you. He had lived with it for a year of his life, and had only a this year learnt to put it aside so he could live. “Because I promise you, you haven’t. None of what happened is your fault.” Only then did he offer her a gentle smile, a reassuring nudge of his nose. “Do not blame yourself.”

Let the roots & soil drink of me
Whispering leaves & pointing branches will tell them where I'm lying

To tell the truth, Ris hadn't heard very much about Aleksei from her pack. If she had been aware at all of her older brother's existence, then it was only from passing comments here and there. And even if she had been taught to specifically hate him, she wouldn't have listened. Just about any of the River wolves would be able to testify that Risaela Tainn was absolutely, hilariously oblivious to almost every teachable moment. Besides that, she liked almost everybody (except for the Cereal kid, but she was trying there.) Why should her older brother be any different?

Family was family, after all.

It was a relief to know that he wasn't angry with her, but the child couldn't escape the idea that maybe, if she'd done something different, her mom wouldn't have been taken away by the monster. She nodded her head when he asked how she felt, and did her best to explain. "M-maybe, if I w-was a goo-good girl... l-listened bet-better..." It didn't make much sense coming out of her mouth, but she did need to get it off her chest. Even if that meant dealing with the stupid burn of tears in her eyes. "Stay-stayed w-with mama... 'nstead'a playin' 'n st-stuff, th' m-monster wouldn't'a bit-bit her..." The girl wasn't sure if she thought that Kisla had left on purpose, or if she was being punished by something entirely different for being such a bad pup, but it was how she felt since the cougar had killed her.

“No, no, no. Ris, no, don’t ever think that. It’s not your fault.” Without hesitating, because the whole thing was far too heart breaking, Aleksei sat upright and swept his head down to nuzzle Risaela in a brotherly hug. How on Earth had she gotten that into her head? Had someone told her it was her fault? Was that why she’d run crazy across the lowlands? If some foul wolf had said that to her, he’d personally find them and beat all nine circles of Hell out of them.

He swiped his tongue across her crown. A gentle kiss, reassuring, supportive. “I know it hurts, and I know you wish things were different, but none of it is your fault. You can’t blame yourself. You did nothing wrong. Don’t let anyone tell you that you did, or that you were bad.” This whole thing was so … god, it was infuriating for Aleksei. They had left his mother unprotected, let his youngest sister to run away! They let this terrible thing happen, and he doubted any of them felt a shred of guilt. Bastards, the lot of them.

Even if he was three days away, he’d have to make sure Risaela knew he’d always be there for her. If she needed to talk, or get away, he’d be there. Always. No more mistakes. No more disappearing. For Risaela, he would be the big brother he should have always been. “Here, give me a big smile. Your biggest, okay? Can you do that for me?”

Let the roots & soil drink of me
Whispering leaves & pointing branches will tell them where I'm lying

Ris got a lot of things into her head. Some good, some bad. She wasn't always sure where exactly the thoughts had come from - all she was aware of was that they were there, and that they were always nigh on impossible to form into words. Fortunately, it seemed that Aleksei had no trouble understanding her, because before she knew it, she was being tugged toward him and chastised gently for what she'd told him.

She couldn't do much else but snuggle into his fur (which was surprisingly colored a lot like her own pelt) and nod her head as he spoke. Cuddles were the best. In all honesty, the child didn't think that there was anything on earth that cuddles weren't the solution for. And the words helped, too, but Ris had always done much better with physical reassurance over verbal. Which went hand-in-hand with the fact that she couldn't communicate easily through spoken language, even if she couldn't quite understand the connection yet.

What she'd gathered he was trying to tell her was she wasn't bad and it wasn't her fault.

The child looked up when he told her to smile, silver eyes round and questioning. Why that was important, she didn't understand, but it certainly sounded like it was important to him. So she decided to give it her best shot, regardless of if she understood or not. The girl squeezed her eyes shut and stretched her maw as comically large as it would go, giving her tail a couple thumps on the ground for good measure. It was an honest-to-goodness funny face, in an attempt to make him smile in return.

"Y-you happy, L-Lexi?" she asked afterward. It was a bit off-topic, but she wanted to know. If she were an adult, she would have phrased the question better - asked him more about his life. But she wanted to know, because even though he was really nice and all that, he still didn't seem very happy to her. Which made sense, but the child wanted to know for sure before she started to cheer him up.