Fisher's Split Can you make a wish come true?

RE: The stars are unusually bright tonight. Maybe because it's also unusually cold.. brr.
1/16 shortly before midnight. For @Lantana only please

Llinnea had gone from having nothing to having quite a bit very quickly and she wasn't sure how to deal with it. She missed her Mor and she missed Azzy especially. The sharp words she'd hurled at him as she left still stung her lips and his returned barbs sat heavy in her ears. She regretted the whole confrontation but didn't know how she could have made it better.

You talk too much.

So she tried not to speak, and she kept her distance so it would hurt less when Loach decided to leave her behind. She slept in her cosy little snow den and tried to pretend it was warm enough and she didn't need warm bodies pressing I'm around her to sleep.

Pretending wasn't as easy as it used to be.

Llinnea roused herself and slipped from her den with a low huff of frustration, glancing about to make sure she hadn't woken Loach - if he was even nearby - and padded upriver to sit at the water's edge and stare into the sky. The stars were so very bright tonight; she wondered if @Asmund was out looking at them too, and if he missed her as much as she missed him.

Currently traveling with Loach and Claw

Sleeping was not as easy as she'd hoped, even after her daylong trek around the area to scout it out. Tired limbs stretched out instead on the crusted snow on a low rise near the river, her head tipped upward as she gazed at the stars. Lana had done this a lot in her life, whether it was as a traveler or back home as the wayward daughter. Sometimes it was easier to talk to the stars than to other wolves, she found.

And so when she caught the hint of movement from the corner of her eye, she flicked her gaze to check who it might be but made no move at first. She watched as Llinnea made her way up the riverbank and out of sight, and only after some time had passed did Lana rise and follow after the girl. Was she checking up on her out of genuine concern, or to try and get in good with these two? She couldn't honestly even say. But, well, she had been that age once, and remembered that it didn't make whatever life threw at you any easier.

Llinnea hadn't gone far. Stopping a short distance off, Lana flicked an ear and cleared her throat softly. "Want some company?" she offered. "If not, no hard feelings."

Currently traveling with Loach, Llinnea, Clouse and Claw.

Llinnea hadn't expected to be found so quickly, but the soft crunch of snow behind her alerted her to another presence moments before Lana spoke. The pup's ears twitched, but she managed not to jump. Llinnea glanced behind her at the paler woman. "If you would like," she said before turning her nose up at the stars. She didn't mind Lana's presence here, although she had to admit she'd like the short time it was just her and Loach. A growing group was safer, and she wasn't going to turn away safety when it presented itself. She was still small, she didn't want him to find her just yet. She needed to get strong.

Hopefully she wouldn't come to regret this.

Currently traveling with Loach and Claw

Lana settled in the snow a short distance from Llinnea, curling her tail around her toes and taking a breath of the especially crisp air. She let it out, tipping her own head up to look at the stars.

The girl was polite enough but cool, though it was hard to tell at times with that accent. Lana wondered how far she'd come in her short life, but for the moment it seemed better to pass the time in mutual silence. She didn't mind. After all, sometimes it was easier to talk to the stars than other wolves.

When she did eventually break the silence, it was with less playful defensiveness than she usually employed. "I know we don't know each other very well, but if I'm gonna stick around here for a while," she breathed a beat "and I'd kinda like to," she glanced over, "I want to be of service to someone." Loach may have recruited her, but despite her age she felt she should approach Llinnea with the offer to join their little band. Woman to woman, or girl to girl, that was how Lana had been raised. Despite shaking a lot of that off over the last year, she'd retained a lot of it too.

The woman let the offer hang in the air with the rest unspoken for now. She'd tried fitting the mold at home, and that hadn't worked. She'd tried living for herself alone, but it didn't fulfill her either. Was the small band of loners making a go of it too good to be true, or could she really help make this work?

Currently traveling with Loach, Llinnea, Clouse and Claw.

They sat in silence, Lana a comfortable distance as they started up at the stars. Llinnea thought maybe they could stay like that and she could just be in someone's company. Maybe even enjoy it. She could almost pretend it was her Mor sitting beside her.

Oh, but she missed Asmund.

It wasn't to be, however, as Lana slowly began to speak. Llinnea's ears twitched but she didn't respond right away. Finally Llinnea hesitantly asked, "What is... 'service'?" she was still learning new words and sometimes she was too embarrassed to ask. But how else was she to learn? And Lana didn't seem like she would mind too much.

Currently traveling with Loach and Claw

Maybe she should just have stayed quiet. Just them and the stars, which of course would say nothing wrong. But in her short time here Lana had found some satisfaction in being a part of this group, and she wanted to let Llinnea know that she was a bit in her debt for showing her a degree of acceptance. For her part in allowing her this opportunity, whether she knew it or not. It meant a lot.

When the girl finally answered, the woman flicked an ear, chewing over her answer. "It means to help you, to do what you ask if you need something. Unless you wanna dismiss me," she gave Llinnea a wry smile.

Lana may act casual most of the time, but she had been raised with notions of valor and ideals that meant Llinnea, and not Loach, was the one Lana would bring this offer to. They weren't really more than a tangle of loners here, if they ever would be more who could say? But if Lana could make a difference to them over the winter, to help them survive, maybe she could do some good instead of just existing.

Currently traveling with Loach, Llinnea, Clouse and Claw.

Llinnea listened carefully to the definition of 'service', filling in a familiar word for this new one. Tjeneste.

She nodded quietly and turned her gaze back to the sky. Thoughts slowly churned around Llinnea's brain, circling back to Asmund and Mor and the wolves that were here in Fisher's Split. Just the three of them... but three was better than two. She'd grown up with so many other voices crowding her territory, even if she hadn't met many of them due to their isolation within their home. They very reason she'd told Azzy they wouldn't protect him when it came down to it.

"It is... quiet, here," she said softly. "Lonely." Because even though she had Loach, whom she liked, she still missed the warmth of her bror at night and the crooning of her mor when they went to sleep. She hadn't yet dared to try and curl up with him at night.

Currently traveling with Loach and Claw

She wasn't sure if Llinnea understood the explanation or not, but Lana would not venture to push the matter, rather watching as the girl turned her gaze back to the stars and following her gaze upwards.

Eventually she spoke, and the woman let a sigh out through her nose as she nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it is isn't it?"

Lonely. In some ways it was. Lana sometimes missed the chatter and the energy of her days back in her large birth pack, but it had come with many restrictions, too. It had been isolating not to fit the mold, ever more so as she had grown until, well. Now here she was traveling, sometimes with others but always alone, perhaps until meeting these wolves. Only time would tell. She could only guess at who or what Llinnea might be missing. But it was obvious she was without parent and siblings, whatever kin Loach may or may not be to her it didn't seem to be that. Lana at least had her sisters at that age, and her parents, although strict and obsessively formal, had been present. The girl really ought to have someone else her own age around, or another girl to talk to. A friend, peers, family. Something.

"It doesn't always have to be that way, though," Lana went on. She believed, or had always wanted to believe, that although the world could often be dark, but there were stars shining in that darkness, no less beautiful for the blackness they were scattered throughout. A fool's hope maybe, but life was what you made of it and she wanted to have one that was worth something.

Currently traveling with Loach, Llinnea, Clouse and Claw.

She didn't know what to expect in response to her statement. Agreement hadn't been high on the list insofar as Llinnea had one, but the soft validation soothed something within the girl that she hadn't known needed soothing. And yet in the back of the mind prickled a defiant piece of worry - worry that Lana would leave them to find somewhere less lonely. Despite herself, Llinnea... liked having the woman around.

And then her next statement came and a tiny breath of relief escaped the pup even as she looked curiously up. "I miss my bror," she admitted, "but my bror does not miss me."

Currently traveling with Loach and Claw

Lana was not sure what to say to that. She thought she understood the feeling, having left (or been cast out? even now she was not sure) her own family, she still found herself wishing to see her siblings again someday before her years ended.

"You know that for sure?" She mused gently. Not doubting her, but simply knowing that the black-and-white surety with which the girl offered the statement was a rare thing in her experience. And, they were just kids, weren't they? Even younger than now, presumably? If 'bror' meant what she thought it did, anyway. Whatever had happened between the girl and her brother, the woman could not know but she could empathize with how Llinea must feel.

Maybe the girl would have the chance to find out, sooner or later, and Lana hoped that if it happened she'd take the chance to find out rather than staying rooted in the past.

Currently traveling with Loach, Llinnea, Clouse and Claw.