Silverlight Terrace Drop Dead Diva

@Vela 

Wraen had spent the hot and sunny day hunting in the mountains and by the time sun set she felt too tired and spent (and was too far away from home) to return to copse that very evening. With the idea that no one at Firebirds would worry much about her brief absene, she decided to stay in the little valley between the two mountain ranges and made her way down carefully.

A little while later Wraen found a comfortable corner to lie down and rest her tired limbs. And before she was able to finish the grooming ritual, her eyelids grew heavy and soon she was soundly asleep. In her dreams she relived the events of the day and unlike in real life, there was Maia too to whom she told everything that she had experienced. This was a happy illusion, she smiled in her sleep and wagged her tail.

Vela had been in need of some space. Everything in Moonspear was just so ... sad. The female didn't want to be confronted with her father dying. She had been pushing it down hard since her family needed her. Jarilo was a mess, and the others, well she didn't have much faith in them either. Perhaps Hydra, since she would have new young to focus her attention on. The speckled female let Hydra know she was going to the beach for a few days.

Vela let out a relieved sigh when she left the territory. It felt great to not have to hold up this facade. She had to be strong support for everyone in her opinion. She was suffering as well. As soon as the mountain was far enough the female broke down in sobs. Her parents were gone. She never got to say goodbye to her father. Never speak to him again. The girl traveled in the darkness since it would hide her tears. Going to the beach was just one of the many memories she had of spending time with her father, and as she reached the terrace and the wind grew saltier new loud sobs came from her lips. Life was so unfair.

"And you know - what, we should... wait... why are you crying?" Wraen's line of thought was interrupted by Maia's expression suddenly changing from the happy-go-lucky one to the utterly devastated, which was still vivid in her memory. "Please, don't cry. It will be alright... it will be alright..." She told her, reaching out to hug her and this was, where she woke up with a start.

Maia was gone, but the sobbing was still there and it sounded too real to be just a dream. Wraen pushed herself up to a sit and scanned the immediate vicinity for the source of the sound. At a night like this it was easy to believe in wailing ghosts of the past or the sirens that tried to lure you somewhere. "Hey!" she called out to a white form of a wolf, walking past her. "Are you alright?" 

Sorry for the delay!!

Vela was not quick to be startled but she had been so sure that she had been alone, that when she heard a voice was startled. She blinked the tears away. It was the worst wolf she could run into. It was Wraen. Beautiful, wonderful, too-good-for-her, Wraen. Vela bared her teeth, mostly because she was embarrassed. She didn't want the other female to see her vulnerable. But her bared teeth were not as ferocious as they normally were. She didn't have the strength. She was so tired of pretending she was alright.

She turned her face away from the woman but she had heard her. "No," she replied shortly and sniffed. Trying to calm herself enough to not be a bawling mess before the pretty female. "Nice to see you again, Wraen," she spoke turning her blue eyes to the other. "Or should I still call you Veeri?"

Wraen as well as her narrator had forgotten for a moment that they knew Vela well and, who could blame them, when so much time had passed and when in the dark of the night all wolves - white, agouti, grey and dark - looked alike? She was taken aback by, what she interpreted to be a very hostile greeting, and retreated a bit, expressing all the calming signals that were in the canine etiquette book. And it was not until the other began to speak, that a recognition hit her and a shadow of a smile and a laugh flashed in her features. 

"Either is fine," she shrugged, not remembering, how she had begun her acquaintance with Vela and now with Charon dead it did not matter either. "You are mourning your father," she said softly. "I heard about the sad news recently. My sincerest condolences."

Vela cast a scowl at the female when she said that she could call her either name. She was not even surprised she found out her true name. It was almost as if she didn't remember Vela. The speckled young lady didn't really like that idea. However, when she started about her father Vela realized she must have remembered her. "Condolences won't bring him back," she returned bitterly.

Of course, Wraen would be happy with that news. She disliked her father or at least had something against him in the past. Now he wouldn't be a bother anymore. Vela's blue eyes were conflicted and layered with pain. She glanced away from the female with a sour expression. "Guess you are pleased about it," she huffed.

Wraen was further taken aback by the bitter tone and unjust accusations. Whatever disagreements she had ever had with Charon was not any of Vela's business. And being deliberately insulted by her, when she had not the slightest idea of the manner of relationship she had had with her father, put her off. What was wrong with people?

"I understand - you are heart-broken, but that does not mean this is an excuse to be a jerk to other people," she told her in a level, serious tone and with no wish to be more humiliated by her, she turned and began to pad away.

Vela inhaled sharply when she was called a jerk. She was and she hadn't been treating Wraen kindly it was true. Vela scowled at her feet. She wasn't using it as an excuse. "It is not an excuse. It is just that the pain is hurting so much and I don't know how to deal with it," she groaned. "Everyone around me is sad and hurting. No one is really functioning around me. It is just...." What was it really? She was angry. So angry she never got to see her dad. Angry at herself that she left. Angry that she was selfish enough to want to explore the world. But also immensely sad. Her family was falling apart and there were so many emotions she was not used to dealing with. It left her in a mess of confusion.

"I don't mean to be a jerk to you but I don't feel very nice or positive at the moment," she stated, clearly conflicted. Pleasantries were not something that was her first priority. "How do wolves deal with this?," she growled.

Wraen was not cruel by nature, but there was that teeny tiny devil on her shoulder that felt smug, when her words hit the target. When Vela spoke again, she stopped, turned around and listened with furrowed brow. She was still angry and heard Charon's daughter out with less sympathy and pity than she would have under different circumstances. Perhaps, this was better - Vela did not look like a person, who needed soothing words and soft attitude.

"They don't," she replied. "You just get used to the facts and go on with your life. It does not stop just because someone you love dearly dies," she said. "Pain needs to be felt," and somehow this was not the first time she told it or thought about it this year.

Vela's frown deepened as the wise female spoke. "I see," she spoke shortly. She disliked that idea. She didn't want to get used to the fact that her father was dead. But she also realized that there was nothing she could do. She couldn't bring him back. She could be mad about it, but that didn't really help. The speckled female hated that she would never see him again. "I really do feel the pain," she admitted sourly.

She was scowling at the ground but this conversation made her think. She then moved her bleu eyes up to look at Wraen. "Thank you." She liked that Wraen was honest with her and didn't just pity her. It was refreshing. "I think I needed such honesty."

Wraen was glad that they had covered and finished that topic, she even felt a bit more forgiving for Vela's earlier tactless outburst. It was never easy to lose a person, who had played a significant role in one's life long enough. And the first few times were especially hard, though she was sure that one never truly grew desensitized to death in general.

"You were gone," she changed the subject. Their dates took place randomly, she could not be sure, what Vela had done in the meanwhile. "What's new in the outside world?" she asked.

Vela looked up with a hint of surprise when Wraen spoke about her being gone. Had she noticed? Vela looked at her curiously. "You noticed me being gone?," she asked, her tone had a hint of hope as she talked. Then she nodded. "I was gone. I followed your advice and went to travel on my own. I went far beyond Teekon. It was strange there, two legged creatures ruled there and they had these mega beasts they controlled on paths made out of rocks," she explained.

'Wolves there were different, their livelihood was depending on those two legged creatures they called 'Men'. Some died from their touch or some even died from a distance. You would hear a sound but as soon as you would hear it pain would follow," she spoke more seriously. "That is what I've heard. They stayed far away, in fear. But that fear ruled their lives." She thought Wraen would probably find this interesting as well.

Wraen let Vela's question slip away unanswered. When you do not see a person for the better half of the year, you can safely assume that they have gone mia (short for "missing in action" as her narrator found out today). However young Ostrega's innocent curiousity was endearing, she did not wish to pierce the soap bubble and therefore let her believe, what she had imagined hearing in Wraen's words. It could do no harm after all.

She listened to the description of the odd lands the girl had been to with attentive interest. "Men" was the closest impersonation of aliens she had ever heard. Who would have thought that one of the fictional characters of her vast collection of myths, legends and other tales were actually real and living. Odd as well, not at all as she had envisioned them to be like. But then again there were a lot of examples in the history, where the truth behind the story was another story itself.

Such as all the narwhal tusks that were sold to naive medieval people as unicorn horns. Or that dragons had, in fact, walked the Earth, when the ancestor of the wolf had been nothing but a tiny, little, furry rodent that did it's best to avoid being stamped on. That the centaurs, in fact, were borne in the imagination of men, who had never seen people riding on horses before. Wraen knew nothing of this, unfortunately, but she had devised already not only from Vela's story, but also from her own experiences that there was always a grain of truth in the myth, however impossible it sounded. 

"Did you see the aliens yourself or did you take the message from others, who lived in their vicinity?" Wraen wished to clarify some details.

Vela nodded in response to Wraen's question. "I saw the hard paths for their beasts, and their beast themselves," she stated. She almost had been under them if she had been any slower. "I smelled their scents but didn't dare to go see them up close since other wolves warned me," she explained. "I did see where they lived, what was abandoned," she spoke. "But I didn't want to linger if they returned. My guide was nervous they might return."

She had not really explored everything but that was tough when the wolf showing you was scared of the creatures she demanded to see. Still, she had seen them in their beasts, and their beast she had narrowly missed. She had inspected their roads and seen where they lived.

"Fascinating," Wraen remarked, took a minute to mull over all that Vela had told her and finally storaged the neatly written folder next to the other books in the vast library of her mind. It was definitely something she would return to later that evening.

"I don't know, if you know this already," she began after a shared moment of comfortable (on her side at least) silence, "but I live in a pack just beyond this mountain. If I look up from my cozy corner in the forest, I can see the peak of Moonspear."

"I am one of the Firebirds and you are welcome to visit any time you wish," she added.

Vela nodded, it had been fascinating to say the least. The female was glad to be out of that world really. She liked Teekon far better. Then the best thing happened. She was told where the female lived! Last time the female told her that she hadn't been in a pack. Vela smiled at her words. "Oh thank you for that invitation. I will take you up that," she nodded. She wondered how they would react to an Ostrega being on their borders but she would probably see what their reaction would be once she arrived there. "I would be curious to see your home," she admitted with a hint of a smile.

"Curious - why?" Wraen never let an opportunity to play witty and smart slip away. "Just because we are called after a fiery element with bird brains - which, in my opinion, is a dangerous combination," she chuckled merrily at this idea, first time it had ever occurred to her, "does not mean that we are that much different from the rest. Though I can't speak for the rest of my packmates - there just might be a risk of combustion, if you happen to rub them the wrong way." Her tone, however, implied that she was joking.

Vela slowly smiled a bit when the female made some assumptions as to why she would find her pack interesting. "I was actually thinking that this territory must offer you enough to have you settle. The last time we met you were a traveler who wasn't bound to a home. So to have a place that you would be called a home for you must be special," she stated with a nod to the other female. "But good to know about those other things as well."

"Well, I have my share of the inherited wanderlust, but I would never wish to having nothing constant to anchor myself to," Wraen explained. "Home is essential," she gave Vela a knowing look. The girl had to be familiar with this, Moonspear was a family property and was just as a huge part of, who Ostregas were, as the surname they proudly wore. "Yet I have learned in my life that it depends on whom I share it with. After all even the best of places are just places, when you do not have your friends or family there with you."

Both of them talked about life's challenges for a while after that and left on mutually good terms. Little did Wraen now that it would be a long time until she would meet Vela again.