Moonspear change of tides

Things had been difficult for Alya, lately. Righteous anger had left her, and now all she could feel was the burn of loss and the sting of guilt, and most of all, the chilling sorrow of all that had come to pass. There had been few highlights to the past several months. Her time with Vaati had been one of them, but by this time, Alya felt sure she had been abandoned once more.

Everyone left them, and yet, Alya had never gotten around to leaving herself. Even Hydra, homebody that she was, had gone away with Dirge. Why not her?

She looked around the slope she stood upon, drowning in the practice of isolation that had become her life. She had a duty to her family, but where was her family, now? Korei had gone, Galaxy had died. Floki, Dash, those three... And yet, she stood upon the mountain, unbroken and unbothered by the snowmelt, the earthquakes, the bears, the cats, the wolves. Long after this mountain crumbled to the ground, Alya would be here, dutiful as ever. Still, likely, in the same turmoil she faced now.

When the call reached her ears, she moved forward with mechanical steps. Gone was the grace that she had cultivated since her puphood. Gone was the coy smile that had she'd practiced as a girl. She was a girl no longer. She was hardly even a woman - hardly more than a dark and humorless wraith.

"Nikai," she greeted when she'd come close enough to recognize the wolf on their borders. It was so strange to see him again after all this time. She had a feeling that he'd grown, and he was as handsome as she remembered - but she couldn't help sneaking a glance at his leg. He'd been ruined for her. Ruined before they'd ever had a chance. "Nikai," she repeated, her voice softer as she drew near enough to touch him, only to stop just before that distance was closed. She could not quite meet his eye, was not sure there were words enough left in her to patch the hole that time and distance had ripped in their friendship.

So much had happened since last they met. She was not the same girl he had known.