Shroud of the Lost are you telling me I'm on somebody's mind?

For @Nash and @Aven is free to pop in as well if you want! Tagging @'Magg" for thoughts
Early afternoon, few clouds, 73F/23C

Blood Runs Thicker Than Water

The agouti child had taken a fondness to swimming in the shallow parts of the river, but her mother had stressed that she should never do it without an adult. She didn’t really understand why that was so important - having no concept of drowning or dying really - but she wanted to make her mom proud. The best parts of her day were always when mom turned her sunshine on, telling Neva and Aven how good and brave they were, or smart, or strong, or really anything. Nobody else mattered in the eyes of the girl other than her mom and her twin.

The rest of her family was also good, her grandparents and other extended family members, but they were chopped liver compared to her core two. This afternoon her mother was busy, and she had grown bored of the game she had been playing with Aven, so she promised her sister she would return shortly with an adult so they could swim. Then she had set out, with no specific direction since she wasn’t much of a tracker yet. Sooner or later she would find a grown up, and then she could swim, it couldn’t be that hard.

But Both Feel The Same When Your Eyes Are Closed

Nash was lounging not far from the riverbank, taking the opportunity to rest now that their journey appeared to have come to an end. He'd spent a few days scouting the surrounding area, looking for any potential threats to either chase away or determine if they needed to move on. So far it seemed the perfect place; nestled into the sharp bend of a river, surrounded by water on three sides... a river could still dry up should another drought strike, but the fast moving water would help protect them from other threats, and the eddies along the banks were slow and shallow enough to give the pack room to swim and enjoy the water not unlike they had done at the lake.

It eased a bit of the traitorous homesickness in his chest.

The sound of pawsteps met his ears and Nash looked up to see one of his granddaughters wandering toward him. They were so hard to tell apart, only the subtle difference in scent the indicator of which was which. At this distance he still couldn't determine. "Good afternoon my dear," he said with a wide smile. "Where are you off to?" Magg wasn't quite as protective of her girls as Aquene was of Jessamy, but that wouldn't stop Nash from worrying about the pups just as much as he did his own youngest.

The game was quick to end, both Aven and Neva growing bored of it in the hopes that they might be able to swim. Neva made some headway in that she went looking for an adult, but her actions left Aven alone. Now, it wasn't that the cub couldn't be alone, but rather, she wouldn't be. It was a choice, one she'd made her entire life up to this point, and this moment was no different.

Thus, the youth set off after her sister, arriving at the tail end of their grandfather's inquiry.

(This post was last modified: Aug 15, 2024, 02:26 AM by Aven.)

Blood Runs Thicker Than Water

Neva could hear her twin’s paws moving behind her through the brush and found the sound comforting. It was nearly constant, the sound of the other being close, or their scent, it was so ever present that even when Aven was not in her eyesight she just assumed she wasn’t far. How nice it was to go through life and never really knowing what it was to be lonely, or even alone. She took it for granted, and it was almost inevitable that when they eventually got separated that it would be devastating to the Slayer girl.

Beaming at her grandfather, her paws hurried beneath her so she could nuzzle her head affectionately against the dark man’s shoulder. Then she declared happily, ”We wanna swim! But mother says we can never do it alone.” She would disobey anyone else trying to tell her to do anything, but she would never disobey Mother. That might take away the way she turned the sunshine on them. Unless Aven really needed her to and then she would likely at least consider it. Smiling as sweetly as she could muster she asked, ”Will you take us? Please?” He clearly wasn’t doing anything, and it was hot out.

But Both Feel The Same When Your Eyes Are Closed

Please note: Aven may appear in any of Neva's threads without prior warning - even if the thread is marked private.