Hearthwood River miss almost grown

@Inna - these two need to have a conversation

Risaela was still feeling a bit down after Cyril's abrupt departure from the Lowlands, and she desperately hoped that he was okay, wherever he was going. Something horrible had happened to him, and if nothing else, Ris wished that there was someone out there who could help him feel better. Her forehead gave a little tingle where he had touched his nose to it, and the little silver girl was hopeful that the two of them would see one another again sometime in the future.

The young wolf was prancing along the line of the western border, tail swinging pleasantly behind her. Her paws crunched against the snow, and she followed the treeline as far northwest as she could. She stopped on the edge, angling her ears forward and thinking about how pretty Wild Rye Fields probably looked in the snow. Maybe she could go see Aunt Jessie and all of her friends over there sometime soon. She would likely tell Uncle Cloud about it this time, but she couldn't see that there would be any problem with her just going over to say hi - and the Rye wolves had told her that they were family, after all.

One paw stepped out over the border, but she hesitated when a blue jay flittered down to land in the snow ahead of her. She stepped a little further, watching it with a small smile. It'd be so cool to have wings like that.

Inna had been working hard when she wasn't with her daughter she was either out hunting or doing patrols. She also made time to talk to Andre about plants, he was very helpful and she hoped to be able to teach Oksana all she had learned in the spring. She'd gone hunting earlier in the morning getting up before Oksana had woken for the day. Inna doubted the little Crow would take a nap later, she dreamed to have trouble sleeping lately. Inna knew why her daughter wouldn't sleep but the pup didn't want to talk about it.

She was half way through her patrol when she caught sight of the form of her half sister. The Raven wanted to turn and go the other way, let her run off. In a had given up caring what her siblings did. Come go whatever, she was done with it, there wasn't any point in caring anymore. Her mother was dead and their family scattered. The only sibling she held any care for was Lekalta, her littermate and the one who was always on her side.

Deciding against it Inna took a few more steps to where Risa would see her. “Where you going? I will be sure to let Lachesis know,” she said as she sat back on her haunches to wait to her the girls answer.

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you.

 

Ris jumped a bit at Inna's voice, pouting just a bit when the blue bird fluttered up into the trees - startled, as well. The child had been avoiding her sister for a while, because the dark wolf had hidden away in her den for so long and Risaela was convinced it had been because of her. After all, Inna had been there with Kisla, as well - she had seen the same thing Ris had. Perhaps she had expected the silver girl to stick around afterward. And maybe Ris should have - she had just been so scared at the time, and she hadn't known what to do. The Rye wolves had been perfect for her at the time, and though she was glad to be back with Hearthwood, she missed them badly.

Sheepishly, she lowered her head and offered her sibling a smile and a short wag of her tail. "N-not going anywhere right now," she told her, then looked out over the border again. "Was thinkin' 'bout going to see Aunt Jessie and Lexi and Rey and K-Kana and Griff and Sp-Sp-... uh... Spinks," she elaborated, her mercury eyes lighting up a bit. "Gonna talk t-to Uncle C-Cloud first, so he knows. They're all super nice, I-Inna."

Finding Risa at the border wasn't much of a surprise to the Raven. The child had always been prone to wandering and it seemed got away often enough that she still thought it was okay. It wasn't her place to discipline the child, that would he left to Lachesis since it was him that had taken her and Matheo in after their, her mother had died. She would have taken them both on and maybe had she it would have kept her from her depression. Maybe knowing she still had her youngest siblings would have helped but she felt both Matheo and Risa had made themselves perfectly clear as to how they felt about her. Now she felt as estranged to them as she did Orren, Karina, and Alek.

Inna remained indifferent the smile and wag, she had been hurt far too much by the girl to offer w smile or wag of her own. “You may not leave today or tomorrow Risa but when you go you won't come back.” She stated matter-of-factly. Whether it was true or not to Risa it had become Inna's truth. She had to roll her eyes at the girls naive where the wolves of wild rye we're concerned. “They may have been nice to you but I am sorry to say I can not agree with you.”

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you.

 

Inna was so confusing. Ris wandered off all the time, but she was never gone forever. Why was her sister pretending that it was such a bad thing? She had just as many friends outside the pack than she did inside, and Lachesis had never scolded her for being gone. Not once. So why was Inna saying that she was going to leave forever next time? What made next time so different than all the other times? Was she really not expected to go see her other friends and family ever again?

And why was she being so cold?

"That's dumb, Inna," Ris chided, flicking her ears back once more. "Why w-would I not come b-back? This is m-my home," she tried to explain, glancing over the border again and then back at Inna, furrowing her brow when the black-furred wolf rolled her eyes. "If they weren't ni-nice to you, m-maybe you were mean to them, too." Surely there had to be some reason. Not one of them had been the least bit cruel to Risaela, and she missed them dearly. "Why're you bein' mean to me?"

In a just looked at her sister for a long moment. Could she believe that Risa wouldn't leave Hearthwood forever, leave her behind like everyone else? She couldn't, not until she saw it with her own eyes. Proof that not everyone left. Risa shouldn't feel upset though Inna believed it about everyone including her own daughter. In the spring was when she felt Oksana would leave Hearthwood. By then she would be a yearling and have all the skills she would need to survive, food would be plentiful. There would be nothing to hold the little Crow back.

“It's not dumb Risa,” she corrected calmly. The Raven shook her head, “It was home for my brother's Orren and Aleksei, my sister Karina, and Lorcan and they are all gone. Your my sister so it only follows you will leave too especially because I care a whole lot about you.” She hoped that would explain to the child why it wasn't dumb what she believed. Her tail lashed across the snow behind her at Risa’s comment, “So because they are nice to you that automatically means that it was my fault?” She asked trying to keep calm with the pup. “I am not being mean to you Risa. You would know it if I were.”

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you.

 

"Lexi's ha-happier with Aunt Jessie's p-pack," Ris felt the need to explain for her older brother. Her tail drooped a bit - she missed him very much, and would be seeking him out sooner rather than later. "Doesn't m-make sense, Inna. How come I-I'm s'posed to leave just 'cuz I'm your sister?" She wanted to comment then, that if Inna had actually loved her, then why did she hide in her den all that time? Ris had been afraid of her sister's anger when she came back - just as she had been afraid of Lachesis'. Wandering over to her den had seemed a decidedly bad idea.

None of this was making any sense to the girl, who had been met with such a cruelly cold front when she had attempted to be warm. "N-no," she argued, wrinkling her muzzle in a confused pout. "But if y-you were nice, then why would they be me-mean?" Unless it was a situation like this, where Inna was being... well.... what was that 'b' word Ayti sometimes used...? "Yo-you're bein' not nice right now. Maybe that's w-why they were mean."

Do it seemed little Risa wanted to defend Aleksei, “Alek broke a promise to me. He disrespected our mother and my father on their graves no less and he threatened Oksana's father. You can trust him and love him all you want Risa but he will break your heart and I don't want that for you.” She knew she couldn't stop the child from doing what she wanted but still least now she knew. Now she found make her own decisions about whether she could trust Aleksei Baranski. The girl didn't understand why because they were sisters Risa would eventually leave. “Because Risa everyone I have ever loved or cared about has left whether they died or just left. Except Lekalta she has always come back and always been there for me.” Inna would not discount what her littermate has done for her. “So you see that’s why it makes sense.”

The pup still couldn't see the faults in the wolves in Wild Rye, well not all if the wolves in the rye pack. Inna had no doubt that Jessie was a kind wolf and she wished she could talk to the woman again but she didn't know if she would be allowed. “The first time met Askan he and I went hunting and we had gotten along very well, at least I thought we had. Then later when I met Reyes for the first time I was polite and tried to help him the best I could but I couldn't because he needed Lachesis. When I went to the rye border looking for you he and Reyes accused Hearthwood of not caring about you enough to come looking for you sooner. Risa, as soon as I couldn't find you here I went looking for you. I was so worried about you. Then they told me I couldn't see you so I waited for you until I realized you weren't coming back. I was so upset that they wouldn't let me see you and that they had accused me of not caring about my own sister that I wasn't very nice but it was only after.” Her sister was still saying she was being mean, “You hurt me Risa and you hurt Oksana. Do you think I should be okay with that? Your my sister and you left and then when you came back it's like you didn't even care. I know your young and couldn't understand but just I just wish you would have been here.”

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you.

 

"Maybe you're wrong," Ris said evenly, glancing to the side before looking back up at Inna. "Maybe you're im-imagining stuffs. I do that a lot, t-too, but not an ima-imaginary place with mean people. Cause Kana and Rey and Lexi are so n-nice," she reasoned, her attention caught as a flurry of snow drifted down right in front of her wet black nose. "If I-I'm not mean to them, they're not gonna be mean t' me." Because duh, that was how it worked. If you're nice, they'd be nice. Obviously.

But then Inna went on and on and on about everything that had happened, and about how Ris had hurt her and Oksana. How? That didn't make any sense, either. Why only Inna and Oksana? Why had everyone else been happy that she was back? How come they were the only ones allowed to be hurt? "You ne-ever came out of your d-d-den!" she argued, her own tail giving an irritated lash behind her. Inna's negative emotions were starting to wear on the usually-positive child's own emotional state. "I was af-afraid you'd b-be upset, an' I did-didn't wanna talk." That was the truth, too. And clearly, she had been right in her assumption. "I di'in't leave f-f-forever," she continued, her stutter growing more pronounced the more upset she became. "H-how come I g-go-gotta apol'gize for not talkin' t-to you? Y-you were in you-your d-den longer than I wa-was with Aunt Jes-Jessie." Her fur bristled just a bit and her breathing picked up, clearly very defensive. "Y-you're bein' a..." Come on, come on. What was that word Ayti used sometimes...? "A binch!"

The longer she listened to the pup it had become clear that she wouldn't get through to her. She wanted to believe just as Lachesis that they were all good wolves who only told the truth about everything. “It’s okay Risa you can believe what you want about them. I just thought you should know my side of things. I hope you're right that they are never mean to you and they you never have to go through what I have.” She was fine trying to defend herself where Reyes, Askan, and Aleksei were concerned. It was like the three of them found do no wrong but because she was the only one to see them for who they were she had to be wrong or crazy.

Here they were with her staying in her den and even more she felt like everyone thought her wrong for grieving. They it was wrong for her to miss her mother and so often it felt like she wasn't the one that had lost a mother. At the rye border it had been Risa lost her mother, with Lachesis the same thing. Like they didn't recognize it care what she had lost. She didn't understand, was it because she was older? Was she supposed to just move on? Not care that the wolf who had brought her into this world and took care of her until the day she died was gone from her life. “Was I not allowed to grieve too?” Inna’s brow raised as her sister said she didn't want to talk, “Then it doesn't matter if I was in my den or not. If you didn't even want to try.” The raven was trying to keep the frustration she felt toward the girl in that moment at bay but it was becoming increasingly difficult. “I never said you had to apologise I was just trying to help you understand my side of things but just like everyone else your stuck in your own feelings and defending yourself instead of trying to see things from someone else's point of view.”

Then it was the last straw when the pup called her a bitch, just because it wasn't said right didn't mean it didn't carry the same meaning. The Ravens hackles raised as she rose to her feet, “I'm done,” she snapped at the child before turning and walking away. If that was how Risa felt there was nothing left to discuss. Again she had tried and again it had failed.

Inna's exit unless stopped.

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you.