Stone Circle and the day is done

The girl turns her face towards the sun, basking in the last of summer's rays thoughtfully. Leaves tumble from the trees, and there is a kind of eery nostalgia in the crunching leaves and autumn colours. A year ago, her dwindling family first came to Easthollow. For the first time in a long time, the girl thought of the mother he never truly knew, and the giant question mark of a sister she never really had. She wondered at the pathways her life had taken, and just how differently it might have gone. Keoni was happy; happy with her mother and her brother, her pack and her new siblings that weren't really hers at all. A soft sigh escapes her muzzle, and her gaze slips closed, though her ears are attentive yet, perched atop her skull and she sets her head upon her paws and daydreams.

Burr swept across the packlands on growing limbs, noting for the first time ever that the wind was growing colder as the season progressed. His belly and his instincts both knew that autumn and winter were coming, but he'd never lived through either before. Recently he had been hungrier than ever, nearly insatiable, and that food was beginning to build his body into something thicker and taller than it had been before. It was still a few weeks before Burr's growth spurt would really kick in, but it was undeniably close. The bulk he put on now would stretch with him until he was tall and thin by winter's coming, a typical juvenile.

The forest was changing significantly as well, with leaves falling and blazing in colours he'd never seen on trees before. Burr took notice as he padded slowly through the sparse woods, having avidly avoided the part of the territory where Valette or her pups could be found, and that was how he came across the silvery she-wolf who seemed to be sleeping. Burr's steps slowed and he eyed her cautiously, but his curled tail shook twice as he spotted her freckles, so much like Nikai only dark on light, and he turned toward her. "Hi," he offered quietly. If she responded, great. If not, no skin off his back.

Her gaze fastened on a plump juvenile, and her gaze narrowed a fraction in confusion. This was obviously not one of Valette's pups, so what - her thoughts suddenly clicked, and she assumed the pup to be one of the family she had yet to formally meet. She offered a chuff and a soft smile, rising gracefully to her paws, tail wagging softly in benign greeting. No words passed her tongue, they had not in a long while, and she had learned to live with that. The juvenile instead tilted her head in question, one that could mean any number of things, allowing the pup to guess at its meaning and fill the silence.

Burr had never before encountered or even heard of a disability, so he didn't understand Keoni in the slightest beyond what was instinctive. She rose to her paws with a wag of her dusky tail that set Burr's curled one waving as well, but instead of verbally acknowledging him, Burr was left to puzzle over an inquisitive head tilt. He unconsciously mimicked the motion himself so that his large ears flopped sideways. Perhaps she hadn't heard him? Sometimes Rowana pretended that she couldn't hear anything he said. Burr didn't think Keoni had any reason to do that, but he couldn't put the possibility aside. With a timid smile, the boy asked, "what's your name? I'm Burr."