Sanguine Cove red sky at morning

For @Enera ! Backdated to the 4th of December
RE: Sanguine Cove, the winter storms have made some parts of your territory hard to traverse.

I'm on thin ice, might as well dance across

Stella always came back to the lakeshore. It didn't always help her feel any better, but sometimes it did help a bit.

The Vuesain girl made her way through the snowdrifts and down to the water's edge, where she spent a long moment simply looking out across toward the other shore. A rime of ice edged the shoreline. Today the water was dark and restless, brewing with the last dregs of wind from passing storms. The far shore was partially obscured in hazy mist rising off the lake, and one could imagine many things in the sanguine half-light of morning.

The air steamed around her muzzle as she caught her breath. Winter was truly upon them now. With luck, today the storms would pass, and she hoped she could get back to everything that needed doing in earnest.

There was no shortage of work to be done around the Cove. With the younger children growing, there was always a need to top of the caches, scout for dangers like that awful cat... and then there were the travelers. She could find plenty of ways to keep her paws full, as well she should, but first she needed a moment to breathe and center herself.

(This post was last modified: Dec 15, 2022, 05:24 AM by Stella. Edit Reason: backdated )

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

The lake looked so different in the winter. Enera had been here once when it had been frozen completely, when they'd skated across its surface. She'd also swam in its cool waters when finding even a drop to drink was next to impossible. Today, Enera gave in and allowed her paws to carry her to the shore. The lake was not yet entirely frozen - a surprise, given how cold it was out. It was almost bittersweet, what curled in her chest. She could picture Marrah skidding out on the ice, peals of laughter in her ears.

Oh, how she missed that laughter. How she missed her friend. She'd thought about seeking her out in her travels, and if she was alone she might have, but now that her sisters would be with her... she knew how Marrah felt about the twins. She doubted she would be welcome, wherever her friend was. Enera hoped she'd found someplace safe, somewhere she could be happy.

Enera turned to pad back into the trees when she saw another form outlined against the mist rising from the water. After brief hesitation she quietly approached and sat beside the other girl, who appeared to be her age. One of Woya's cousins, then. "Do you miss him?" she asked softly.

I'm on thin ice, might as well dance across

Stella turned toward her as she approached, giving a dip of her own head and a flick of her tail. She had begun to speak a greeting, but -

The question took her off guard. "Yeah," she exhaled, peering at the other girl for a moment. Stella didn't know the yearling from the chasm well, but in this moment she felt as if the other yearling understood her. For a moment she said nothing more.

Her gaze from the snowy girl and looked out across the lake. He wasn't supposed to be gone, she still felt. But it seemed that living meant leaving the dead further behind them with every step, whatever they tried to do. Why?

Stel hadn't ever ventured to the chasm, nor did she remember much from their brief visit during her youth, and she felt somewhat guilty now for not reaching out before. But if she'd changed at all recently, it was a shift into living each day as it came, for the next. "You know what it's like?" she ventured at last, feeling in her gut that the answer was yes. "I'm Stella," she didn't want to sit and grow cold on the lakeshore, so she began to walk slowly, looking to Enera to join her if she wished.

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

The girls sat in silence for a moment, watching the lake before Enera was posed her own question. "I do," she answered, rising to her paws to walk with Stella. "Enera," she said in return. The Rayvne girl allowed the quiet to fall over them again, listening to the lapping of the water and the muted sounds of a winter forest. There was a kinship between them she felt, an understanding that Enera had been looking for since her mama had died - an understanding she'd wanted in @Marrah and hadn't gotten.

She wondered how her sister-friend was doing now.

"My mama died giving birth to my sisters," Enera finally said, voice soft. "I was there, but I couldn't do anything to save her." She wished she could. Sometimes she wished she could have taken her place, so that Sova and Adonya didn't have to grow up without their mama - even if Woya was doing an excellent job.

I'm on thin ice, might as well dance across

Enera, the name was familiar in a vague way, and Stella felt a growing kinship with her. Quiet subsumed them for a time, each lost in their own thoughts as they walked.

She missed her own sister, Kateri. Though they weren't really full sisters she knew, it had never mattered. Stella had tried to put on a smile when Kateri left them for the Backwater, but still It stung not to have her around to turn to during this time. Of course she had Leo, had Sana, but she felt the absence of Kat, Lynx, of those who were gone in any sense.

Enera's voice brought her back. Stella blinked slowly, knowing there really weren't words. "I'm sorry, it isn't fair," her own voice had an edge to it, ice that thawed with the next breath. "To not be able to do anything... it shouldn't be that way," there was nothing to do about it, protesting to fate or the universe would not change anything. But at least Enera would hopefully understand she was not totally alone.

Stella looked at her with warmth in her gaze, blinking away the first mist of tears as she'd got used to doing recently. "You must miss her a lot too, then," she said lamely, knowing her words did not go far enough to describe the sort of absence felt in the wake of a loss like that.

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

The passing months had crawled and flown at the same time and that aching absence no longer consumed her, but Enera was marked by it. She knew she would never be that chipper child again, thinking the best of every situation and ready to lead her friends into any adventure. Her friends were all gone, her mama too. And now she was taking her sisters from their agemates, their adopted siblings and mother. She nodded mutely as Stella spoke, not sure how else she could respond. It wasn't fair, and she'd cried that to the night sky many times since her mama died.

Enera let out a quiet huff of ill amusement. "With everything I am," she said bitterly. Maybe that wasn't healthy, that all she'd ever been had transformed into how badly she missed her mama. She needed to be more now, needed to take care of her sisters. She wasn't going to have Woya and Ad to lean on anymore. "I'm taking my sisters away from home. That's why we're all here... we're leaving the Chasm." It was... difficult to say. But it was getting easier. They'd already left, after all. Now they just needed to keep moving.

As they walked Stella's dark-tipped tail flicked. She recognized that hint of a brave face too. It felt good to talk to someone else who understood, and at the same time she would not have wished this particular form of kinship - shared grief of a lost loved parent early in life - on anyone, not even her worst enemy. It changed everything, became everything as Enera said.

She could only imagine what it would be like to look after her smaller siblings, to be without her stepmother and brother and everyone else.

Enera's next words came as some surprise, though Stella greeted them with a nod of understanding, letting out a "Mm," of affirmation. "Do you know where you will go?" Her gaze went to the passes, snowed in deeply with the first true storms of late winter. The second half of winter is colder than the first, she remembered. "The weather can get bad really fast on the mountain, so be careful," words spoken in hope rather than dissuasion, as she smiled at Enera. Stel did not wish to leave home for more than a scouting trip anytime soon, but life was unpredictable and she could imagine seeing ghosts around every corner well enough to understand. And she understood the need to take a step, too, in any direction. Maybe that's why even when she was in one place, she was never still these days.

had a dream so big and loud

JUMPED SO HIGH I TOUCHED THE CLOUDS

The decision hadn't been made lightly, and she'd already told those she cared about the most, but still she expected some level of judgement. Stella gave her none. She merely hummed and asked a very good question. Enera frowned. "I'm... not sure yet. Other than our visits here and my trips to Turtleback Lake for water, I haven't seen the Lore. I thought I might try to find Marrah..." she sighed. Was it fair for her to drag her sisters around to find her friend who had chosen to leave? Would she even appreciate seeing Enera?

The warning was heard loud and clear. "We'll be getting off the mountain as quickly as we can; I'm not well-travelled enough to take care of them up here without help." And she would not risk her sisters' lives for her own pride - more than she already was by taking them away from their home.

I'm on thin ice, might as well dance across

She nodded at Enera's words, mulling them over. It felt good to simply walk and talk, and a part of her wished the other yearling would stay with them for longer. It had been a long time since she'd felt any sense of sisterhood with another her age, and she realized how much she'd missed it.

"I don't know what you'll find, but I hope its something good for all of you," the masked girl gave the other a flash of a smile.

"And If I ever run into her, I'll tell her you're lookin' ?" She ended the statement with a questioning tone, allowing Enera to confirm or deny the thought. She understood that trepidation too, the search for things that may never be found could wear your soul out quickly.

To Stella the mountain was home, despite its harshness. But she understood too that Lost Lake and its tucked away coves were a spot of refuge in a rugged place, perhaps not necessarily one that others might not wish to linger. Especially now. She herself had seen some of the Lore, though not enough to know even a fraction of the secrets it offered to a traveler. "If you cross the mountains again and need to rest, or just want to come back, you're always welcome here." she stopped to look at Enera, knowing that she spoke out of place. But she was certain that @Oksana or @Nash would not turn away the Ravyne if she wished refuge or company here in the future. The Chasm wolves had always been welcomed as family, after all. And Stella would be glad to see Enera, hoping that perhaps it wouldn't be the last time she saw her.

(This post was last modified: Mar 30, 2023, 10:22 PM by Stella.)