The Tangle hips that could bear you a buffalo

Just like that, it all came crashing down.

After a few failed attempts, the name squeaked out like a rusted wheel in need of oiling. “Mallaidh?” Perhaps if Eirlys had led with her littermate’s name, the whole interaction could have been different — but she didn’t regret it in the slightest. Whatever she’d said, it’d led her to this point — and this was right where she wanted to be. “I thought you forgot all about me,” she managed to eke out through the lump in her throat. Now that she knew for sure it was her sister, she pressed forward without thinking, and if Mallaidh didn’t step back Eirlys would push into her personal space and seek to rub her unsullied cheek against her sister’s. She was already crying — there was no holding closed the floodgates now. There was so much Mallaidh didn’t know!

And there was nobody but Eirlys to tell it.

“Mallaidh — I mean, Furi — ” she said, her memory jogged by their mother’s lilting tongue. “Äiti — she…she…” Hiccupping, she tried to follow her rule from earlier — to just say it fast, so it’d hurt less — but her tongue was tripping over itself, knocking against her teeth, utterly out of control. She very nearly lied, saying something like, “She’ll be so happy to see you!” Anything to not have to be the one to make Furi sadder than she already must have been, being separated from her real family for such a long time. And she didn’t know about Chusi leaving or papa changing, either.

Fuck.