Oak Tree Bend when I'm low

Approx. March 21st, 10:30pm, Mist 34F/1C

Takes place after this thread though I'm leaving her injuries vague but its safe to assume she's visibly been in a fight

It had taken her nearly five days to get home and at that point she had completely forgotten about getting the ginger she had set out to find. The first two nights she had spent licking her own wounds in the Plateau den before finally heading back towards the Bend. This had taken her nearly three times as long as it should have as the pain surged through her body and exhaustion came quickly. It was long past dark when she was nearing the borders but she had not wanted to stop, not when she had gotten so close.

While other parent's thoughts may have been with their children Aponi's were solely on herself, her true heart as selfish as it had ever been.  She simply had not wanted to die upon the mountain top as Aesire, Phineas and now that old hag had done. She deserved better. She deserved to be worshiped on her death bed in her old age surrounded by admirers.  Huffing in exertion she reached the borders, muscles aching from the travels and her body just wanting to curl up and slumber. Still she refused, heading towards the den she shared with @Kyna sure that if she rested for a few day she would be just fine, she just needed to rest.

She had to wonder at @Aponi's fading scent, @Kyna, though the same age as her mother when she left the Keep, uncharacteristically left to fend for herself. Her granddaughter didn't yet seem to be terribly independent for her age (having only spotted the girl glued to her mothers side at the meeting), but she wasn't going to be one for passing judgement on her daughters parenting style. She had never had just one to think for. Besides, she wasn't certain that the bridge that stretched between herself and her daughter could bear her considerable weight at the moment. It was best to proceed with caution.

Her arthritis had been giving her hell with the finicky weather. Unable to sleep through the ache in her hips she rose to do a pass of the border. While the first leg was slow, she found it got easier the warmer she got, and soon her sorry shuffle had morphed into a comfortable ground eating glide that she was reluctant to stop, the steady wolf trot one she could maintain all night if she had to. But there was something that stopped her jarringly in her tracks. The loud flap of ears and ruffle of fur as she shook would give her away to the moonlit wolf. "Good to see you home." she commented, genuine concern conveyed through tone more than action. There was something off in her daughters scent. Old blood and mountain stones. What had she been up to this time?

Her muscles ached and all she wanted to do was lay within her den and finally get a good night's rest and the scent that filtered through her nostrils only made this worse. Snorting as her mother's smell grew strong the silver woman did her best to increase her speed, ignoring her body's protest.  Unfortunately she did not move fast enough. Aponi was not one to admit she needed help and Naira was the last person she could think of to want to see upon returning to the borders. @Spieden maybe, her daughter certainly, but this tawny bat only added salt to her wounds.

Snorting once more at Naira's words the silver fae did her best to press on, as if sheer will power could stop her from limping. As she neared her she offered a snide, "Yes like you've ever cared much about seeing me home." It had been nearly two years ago that she had left her family behind with Mercy and even then as a pup her mother had not attempted with any vigor to convince her to return. She had already been too busy with her next litter to pay any attention to the last which was perhaps why she had never seemed to care as Datura came and went. Blue eyes eyed the older woman coldly as she continued her slow shuffle, maybe for once mother dearest would take the hint and leave her be.

"You were always a problem child." she answered with a smirk. "Remember that time you wandered down the mountain and I had to come and fetch you? Or how about the time you took off after a tiff with Karpos? No my dear it would seem I wanted you home more than you cared to be there." There was no bitterness in her voice, no anger. Aponi could spit all the venom she wanted, if Naira had survived Rhysis she would damned if she wouldn't survive his daughter too. "You've got the same ill temper your father had, and equally restless paws. At least I knew you would hold your own..." @Nova had always been another matter entirely.


It didn't take a bloodhound to know she had been up on that bloody mountain again. "I hope you finished what was started?" the last thing they needed was loose ends floating around. She didn't care if it was an injured loner, pack wolf or a fucked up nanny goat. The Bend wolves didn't need any creature bent on revenge coming down here to take its bad temper out on them. If it was likely, she hoped her daughter would at least have the sense to bring it up. "Someone else's loose ends were what destroyed the Keep, you know."

sorry for this shit reply!

Her mother's words were enough to bring forth a humorless snort. Ready to return with a quip about Naira seeming to forget she had more than one daughter when she was home her temper flared. Blue eyes lifted and flashed, suddenly fangs were barred, "Don't you dare talk to me of my father. After all you leaving the Keep is to blame for his murder, it seems your own restless paws have more blood on them than my own." Having already been in a fight within the last week Aponi wasn't foolish enough to think she could win another even with her mother's age.  That didn't stop her tongue though, the Aquila had always been proud, much too proud.

Lifting her chin she set her jaw, a motion that her daughter would copy when she challenged Aponi but the mother would never admit she got the gesture from her.  Narrowing her icy eyes she grinned, "Unlike you I always finish what I start. Any loose ends are long dead and without witnesses."  Silver tail flicked behind the woman at the thought of the white bitch's staring eyes, she had certainly deserved what she had got.

Moving to get away from the older woman Aponi barely managed a yard before she stumbled, knees partially giving out beneath her. Setting her jaw the silver woman heaved herself out of the half crouched position she had fell into, legs quaking beneath her. She wasn't going to get much farther without assistance, damnit.

For a moment she stared at the girl, cogs slowly turning over until the grooves of the conversation all lined up like the barrel of a keyhole. She closed the distance to support the girl wondering if she should just keep her mouth shut until the girl was physically able to run away if she heard something she didn't want to hear. "Even though he loved you as such, Mapplethorpe wasn't your father." Her blunt statement was perhaps a little tactless but she thought as much was obvious. He was certainly no Aquila although she supposed her children had never asked and so she had never told. "After you and Mercy took your leave, the rest were quick to follow. Sagacity left, @Gent left, even Chulyin couldn't bring himself to stay and then that idiot Myrrhis stole a child from the Willows." Her voice became gravelly with a growl, "We didn't have the numbers to defend ourselves, there was something in the woods. Watching, waiting..." Her voice had dropped and trailed off. She did hate reliving the past.

"We didn't have the numbers to defend ourselves, the children were too small, vulnerable. He stayed behind to afford us an escape, I thought he would find us here but we had an agreement. When he didn't show..." Pain contorted her face, clear as day. No amount of time would make that dark chapter any easier to endure, well she had to assume the worst didn't she? But to finally have it confirmed that he had been murdered... Oh if any of those who left them ever crossed her path again... 

She shook the weight from her shoulders with a sudden shimmy of her shoulders, head slowly tilting one way then the other. She gave her daughter another look over and decided there was nothing too out of place. She supposed her daughter might have more questions and she left the floor open for her to ask them, otherwise she would head back to the infirmary to grab what stores she had that might make short work of any injuries and fight off any potential infection.

Her mother's assistance was met with a tensing of the silver woman's muscles though when this caused her whole body to ache she relaxed. It was begrudgingly accepted until Naira began to speak once more. A snarl was quick in her throat as she pulled away and lashed out with her teeth in blind anger. She was in no shape for a fight but neither was her mother and it didn't take long for her physical aggression to be replaced with verbal. "Liar." It was simple word but it was said with enough menace to cause even the coldest to possibly curl away from her.

The anger quickly faded from her face and was replaced with a cold sneer, "Or are you finally admitting what everyone knew all along; you're just a whore that nobody cares enough to stay with?" Her physical aches and pains were forgotten for the time being and Aponi was far from being finished lashing her damn with her tongue. For so many years she had held the resentment inside of her and now there was too much to bear, it all came pouring out.

Words hurtled from her mouth cool and calculated as she watched Naira's face contort with her own words. She had showed her weak spot, "Biological or not he was my father and you left him behind to be murdered so your cowardice ass could run away with children whom are now nowhere to be seen. Did you push them away like you did with me and Nova and Datura? Is that another litter of yours who can't bear to be around you, will you replace them this year them too with yet another father?" She fell silent then though there was so much more she could have said. Giving her mother a chance to retaliate before she laid the rest of the bones in her closet bare.

Gnashing teeth were sidestepped as she allowed her daughter to support her own weight, blank stare only marred by a single lifted brow and a roll of her eyes. "Do you ever get tired of it? Trying to convince yourself you're not just like me? How many men have you been through now? How long did they stick around? Karpos, Mercy? Clearly neither of those are @Kyna's father so there must have been more. On that count then we're at least even... Perhaps you've even outdone me, and I was your age before I even started." Then she continued to go as though she cared about her siblings

The corner of her mouth quirked up in a smile. "They are with my mother, just like your brother Adonis and your sister Lily." Oh and even she had thought the girl dead but she had found them and it had only taken her standing beside Naira's mother for the pieces to fall into place. Of course @Aponi would think she had pushed her away, and while she might have been going deaf she certainly was not blind. "If children don't want to leave you when they are grown then you haven't done your job. Ambitious children leave home, find mates, start packs of their own. Will you hate Kyna when she chooses to do the same? Will you try to convince her to stay? To rot and bow and scrape when it is clear she is meant for bigger and better things?" Only children were a luxury to be sure but that didn't mean you had any more claim to them once they became their own person. Her daughter would have to let go eventually, would she be ready when the day finally came?

(This post was last modified: Jun 29, 2016, 02:17 AM by Naira.)

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

Feel free to archive after your post! Also Aponi didn't know she had a Lily sister

Her mother stepped away from her but thankfully Aponi was ready and able to support herself instead of falling to the ground like a fool. Her expression was childish, one she would expect from her teenage daughter rather than from a full grown woman. A raised eyebrow and rolled eyes as if she was throwing some kind of moody tantrum. Everything about Naira disgusted her. Anger drained from the silver face and instead she looked on as if she had stumbled upon something rotten and foul. Snorting she shook her head, "Yes because the pup love I shared with Karpos and Mercy is the equivalent of the sires of children you've collected." Still the blue eyes narrowed as the bitch brought up Kyna's father.

Phineas had been far from her mate and while he had certainly made mistakes he had been the best father he could have been to their daughter. He did not allow the snark that came along with her mother to scare him away from a relationship with his child. Unlike apparently whoever he real father was. "Not that you deserve to know but Kyna's father is dead. That is why we are not with him and that it why I am not like you. I didn't jump from man to man once I had my child but there was nothing left for us to hold onto once he had passed. And unlike you I didn't abandon him to be murdered so I could save my own hide." The words were cold but not outright angry. There was no anger left for her matriarch anymore, instead there was just a deep dead nothing feeling, as if the woman before her hardly existed at all.

Still a single humourless laugh escaped her sore tired body, "Who is Lily? Another sibling of mine that you created and then replaced when you were bored with her? Kyna is free to do as she pleases, though I hope when she leaves she leaves out of want and confidence not out of a feeling of being replaced, unwanted like a burden that was never asked for as I felt when I left the Keep." She had no more words and no more time for Naira anymore. Her muscles ached and her eyelids begged for her to lay down so they could close and she could rest, everything had been laid bare. In the end this accomplished nothing just like every other conversation the two had ever had. Shaking her head she turned away, "I'm very capable of showing myself to the infirmary and can tend to my own wounds." The going would be slowed without an able bodied wolf to support her but Aponi's pride was big enough to carry her.