Blackfeather Woods flashed junk mind

@Potema

She had been able to sense her, the lady of white, the one with the eye on the other side. Keelut could see the way she, like no one else before, had followed the trail of her light, and if she was able to do that she had a lot more in store that Keelut wanted to know. He was intrigued by her, for among those he'd known so far, no one else had been conscious of Anna.

So he sought her out, followed her scent to the mouth of a cave that had her mark all over. There he settled, flat belly to the ground and head gently posed over his paws as he awaited her appearance.

With winter fast approaching and her pups eager to leave her womb into the cold world, she had little time to organize the herbs remaining. She did her best to keep them safe and preserved, even as her growing children wore down on her body, urging her to sleep and eat and do little else. Eventually Potema couldn't ignore her exhaustion, leaving the herb store to find her den. 

When she exited the tunnels, she was stopped by a familiar sight. The boy with the Sight. She paused, breath clouding the air around them. Your name is Keelut, isn't it?

As she emerged from the dark cave, contrasting her surroundings, Keelut's ears perked up and his eyes found her light. His head sprung up from his paws and his tail greeted the moon witch with a energetic swing. He knew she would pop out at some point, and like many other times before he had not been wrong this once.

"Yes I'm Keelut!" he answered, sitting upright in a show of respect for the one he knew was an important wolf. "What's yours?" he asked back as he realized that he didn't quite catch it the last time he'd seen her.

I am Potema, I am the Listener, She wondered if Nemesis had taught them fully about the roles each member of the Dark Council had to fulfill. She figured, that as the Silencer, and now Dark Master (Mistress? Was the position interchangeable?), she would give some explaination, but the extent of which was ambigious. Keelut, have you been to the Temple? It was the greatest source of magic in the territory, where ceremonies where held, where she broke the Veil into the Void. If he responded as she had when she was younger, Potema was certain that the boy would be her next apprentice.

The listener, she'd said, and Keelut's head quirked to a side as he tried to make sense of her words. It sounded funny, and Keelut didn't hold back a giggle. Wasn't everyone a listener? He flicked his ears to make sure they were still functioning, and the results were positive; he was a listener too.

But what she asked next was even more interesting to the blue-eyed seer. He'd never heard about the temple, and he got an instant urge to see it with his own eyes. "What's a temple?" he asked with big eyes and a wow expression in his smiley face.

She smiled at his wide-eyed question. A temple, Her voice was hushed with reverence at the thought of the Temple and the magic she felt there. It was truly a wonderful place that she had not found anywhere else in the world. Not even in Hag Fen. Is a place of worship and magic, 

He had a potential that she found no where else in Nemesis' children. It excited her to know that she could mentor someone else. Someone young. Someone with the Sight. Do you want to see it?

The sole sound of the word magic as spoken in the white witch's lips made Keelut's soul ooze with excitement. He had heard the term from his parents and some of the other adults, and the meaning of it, although still unclear and confusing, was the seed of Keelut's imagination.

"Yes!" he agreed joyfully and promptly placed himself next to the weird-eyed witch to follow her lead. Keelut had learned a lot of his father's beliefs and even adopted them as his own; but he also knew that there was something he wasn't being told, that there was a mystery to these woods and a force within it to which he had not yet been introduced.

The excitement on the boy's face oozes into her own, making the woman smile at him. Come with me, She beckons, beginning to lead him to it. She takes the land route for now, the winding tunnels too tight for her to safely travel through. Her body still protests, despite her taking a more comfortable approach to the matter, the weight on her body increasing the aches and pains. She'll probably nap in the Temple when this is over.

As they walk, Potema says little other than words of guidance as they begin to cross into the swamp. The lights that had so entranced her when she was young are dancing faintly in the distance, far from their proximity for now. As the land begins to gently slope downwards, Potema speaks, gesturing towards the large monolithic stone in the center of the small valley. This is Nightcaller Temple. It is where the barrier between our world and the next is significantly weakened, allow us to more easily cross and commune with those of the next, She speaks softly before turning to Keelut. Can you feel it?

It was hard for Keelut to keep a focus on the white whitch as they traveled through the forest and into the swamps. Those blue spirits, the ones Anna liked so much, would light up and disappear throughout the journey, and often did the kid veer away from Potema's lead to chase them. She would always notice, and a single one of her sharp barks were enough to bring the kid back to the road. She was observant, she seemed to see everything, and Keelut wondered how she could when she had but one good eye. Perhaps he would ask her later.

When they arrived to the place Keelut didn't even stop to hear Potema's words, he simply trotted around the boulder, admiring it's beauty, scenting its aromas, touching its rough edges and soft parasites. They were glowing, much like the tendrils of light that swung in the depths of the web, and Keelut sensed the magic of which the white witch spoke.

"I do," he said, closing his eyes to feel the waves of energy hit his whiskers, making his ears flinch and his heart slow down. She was calling, Anna's voice, and it was coming closer. Keelut could sense her presence here unlike he did anywhere else in the forest, and it made his guard hairs stand on edge. "where is she?" he said turning his head, looking around for Anna, feeling her closer than ever but unable so see her physical form like he did when she visited him.

He is easily distracted by the wisps, but who wouldn't be? They were intoxicating little things, dancing and tempting the boy to chase after them into the swamp, but Potema knew what the swamp held under the surface. Every time he was lured, she barked to him, bringing him back on task. 

He is awestruck by the majesty of the Temple, more so than most, able to feel the throbbing of energy and peer into the Void. She watches, letting him explore the Temple to his heart's content, occasionally letting her eyes close and sense the growing energy around them. He feels something, becoming increasingly agitated. She knows what he is searching for, who. She points to the center, to her mother's pelvic bone, knowing that if he stands there and reaches out, something will grab him.

He finds in her eye a lead to the answer he requests. A bone, carved with symbols, painted with blood, covered in color, taken already by the nature that grows through and over the rock, and the energy it oozed brings him closer. He hovers his nose closer over the hipbone, testing the electric feeling it brings down his spine and he understands. He wouldn't be able to describe it as such, but somehow he knows that the piece is some kind of anchor to this plane, and a gateway to the other.

Keelut seeks the witch's approval with a blue glance, and seeing her encouragement to take one step further the kid places a paw gently on top of the hipbone, and the reaction is immediate. He feels the magic pass through it and into him, it's a faint sensation, but one that his senses cannot ignore. And suddenly she materializes out of the mist, more corporeal that she'd ever been, closer even that he'd ever felt his very own mother to be. "Anna!" he barks, she barks back, coming closer to him to plant a gentle kiss over his eyes, which Keelut closes as he smiles, and then she's gone as quickly as she'd come.

"Where did she go?" asks the child as he realizes she's no longer around when he opens his eyes again and looks around desperately, releasing the anchor from his hold.

Potema settles against the ground, her large frame leaving a dent in the soft beneath her. Her pups move, squirming as if they felt the electric shock of magic as well. She licks her belly to steady them, her gaze turning back to nod in encouragement to the young boy. He steps forward, his paw touching her mother's bone. Potema's shivers as she feels the breach. There's a soft, cloudy fog around Keelut's head as he lingers, but as quickly as it came, it dissipates, leaving the young man confused and lost. Potema nods understandingly. As strong as the link may be here, to truly delve through for longer takes practice and herbal assistance, She pulls herself to him, gently nosing Keelut sympathetically. Did you see her?

The white witch approaches Keelut to give him a gentle nudge, but her words don't make him feel any better. He can't feel Anna anymore, not even a faint, distant connection like he did before coming here, and the contrast of it with just seconds ago when he'd literally felt her touch had him thinking the worst.

"Yes," he responds, looking at his feet sadly before turning his gaze back up to her good eye... "I felt her touch, but now she's gone" he explained, feeling the blues settle down swiftly. But Potema probably new the way to get a stronger connection, she had many answers, and Keelut was a smart child. "Can you teach me?" he begged. He was sure that he would learn easily, but he clearly couldn't do it without guidance..

She runs her nose through his fur in a gentle, maternal way as he laments the loss of his connection. She never personally felt as he did, spiritually linked to another, but she could only imagine, her thoughts flying back to when she tried to contact her mother. 

She is impressed by how much he could already with no training; his natural abilities already making the process easier for him. But, no matter how he good he was, he had to learn. Yes, She responded. I will teach you that and more,

In the middle of his distress, the promise of learning how to reconnect with the other side was encouraging. He couldn't believe yet what had just happened, and although it was probably all in his imaginative mind he did not want to live a single day without Anna's company. She'd been his companion when his parents hadn't been there, and ever since birth she'd been the only one who knew him perhaps better even than himself. Anna was important.

"Can we start now?" he asked his new mentor, and already she was an authoritative figure in the ruleless child's little world. If it meant that doing what she told him would make him able to live again what he'd just experienced, then he would follow her command.

She saw in him the same look that she presumed her mother saw in her at this same age. Pride filled her body, even though this was not her child, she felt the same driving need to teach him, as she did Seff, as she hoped to with her own children. Yes, She smiled, I will begin your training immediately,

He was eager, impatient, and it made itself apparent through the way his eyes seemed to demand more information through their stare. He was standing there, waiting for the witch to give him instructions, to guide him through the next step or anything really that could hint what the next step could be.