their eyes were opened, and they looked to the heavens with a wonderment. while they could not go out-of-doors just yet, lasher was determined to bring the natural world to them until such a time as they could wander as they would. today he had found a beautiful bough of pine, and he shook his head vigorously until all the snow had flown from the deep green of the needles. carrying it high, lasher brought it to the den; he lay down and pushed the bough toward his playing children.
crushed beneath his jaws, several of the needles began to give off their rich and wintry scent. lasher was still, waiting to see what his daughters would make of this new object in their small world.
Emaleth was curious of the Otherworld, and her thirst to understand it grew each day— at first, she had feared another rebirth, until it dawned upon her that the Giver and Bringer often left through the gate, and they always returned unchanged. It was the cold that dissuaded her, then, rather than fear. Her small form was unable to regulate its own heat, particularly due to the absence of a true undercoat. But a day would come, before the first thaw, that little Emaleth would finally cross over the threshold and come to understand just how large this life was.
When the Bringer returned, she and Deirdre had just finished playing— dancing and pouncing upon each other, babbling as they did in their secret language— for the paler sister had grown weary, and fell into a heavy and limp sleep near-instantly (though not without a drowsy smile and wag of her tail as she noticed the Bringer). As only the very young could.
Emaleth, however, was not quite so tired; and her curiosity was piqued at the thick scent that began to permeate the den. It awoke something in her— like a memory that was just out of reach— and the child clumsily dashed towards her father, both to greet him and investigate the object in his jaws. As she approached, the scent got stronger, and just before reaching the dark presence of the Bringer she paused to sit and give in to a small fit of sneezes.
748596+the pine inspired a fit of sneezing in emaleth; he glanced beyond her to see that deirdre slumbered still. a soft chuckle emanated from his throat; he reached out his paws, that she might step into his embrace. "pine," he said gently, enunciating the word. though he would not know if she understood until she could repeat the sound, and apply it to the bundle of green needles, it was the beginning of her formal education.
she did not exclaim as deirdre might, though she had rushed to him -- she was already logical, introspective, and lasher loved the very future of seeing his witches reared together as complements of one another.
Her small sneezes subsided, and as she saw his arms open— he was becoming more corporeal as her vision improved and adjusted to the low light of their cavern— Emaleth bounded happily into them. "Daaaa!" came her joyful sound, unaware that it meant father, or that it would become her word for him; only that she was glad to see him, and wanted him to know.
The scent of pine continued to tickle at her nose, but it was no longer so overwhelming to her senses. From her father's embrace, she inspected the odd branch with sight and sound, leaning towards it as though she wished to touch it but, perhaps, thought it off limits— but then the Bringer spoke, and Emaleth lapsed into her new favorite game: repetition. "Aaii-nnnnn," she offered in return, grinning up at him, not realizing yet that this word was connected to the aromatic gift.
she repeated the word; he smiled broadly at her. "pine," he repeated, reaching out to pat the gathered branches. he said the word again, then brought emaleth to him, to cuddle her for a moment. so fleeting would this time be -- he could only cherish each moment as it came, and for now he preened the lilliputian eartips, the small paws, intending to tickle her with the rush of his breath and the nibbles of his lips.
her soul was calm, but she had come to the same beautiful conclusions and realizations as had deirdre, lasher knew, for he had watched it. what thoughts roiled beneath the surface of her dark fur; what words would she speak; what new witchcraft would she birth into existence? taltos wondered, but he was content. the emaleth of old had been born a woman, who sensed with newborn fingers the pain of her mother, and milk had been her lot, not blood, as would be another witch's.
"Aaiinnn," she repeated with a sort of coo, a small grin upon her tiny features— she wanted the Bringer to smile again, too. She watched with wide, blue eyes as he patted the scented bough, and little Emaleth giggled at the motion it made... but the lesson he attempted to bestow upon her did not register in the small child, at least not yet.
Her giggles continued as her father then planted kisses and tickles over her tiny body, and she reached her paws to bat gently against him. "Aaaaiiin, aiin!" little Emaleth cried through her giggles, thinking perhaps it would either make him desist or continue— she wasn't sure of what she wanted! With the Forgetting taking a deeper hold each day, Emaleth became less aware of the currents of power that pulsed in her veins— perhaps believing the sensation to be normal.
But it would awake with a vengeance one day, and she would revel in it.
smile he did, flashing his teeth in a grin he could not hold back. she was lovely, adorable, this dark little witch of his. she shouted the word in her tiny piping voice; lasher laughed. "pine!" he exclaimed. it became a sort of song between them, as he playfully wrestled her unto the earth, then allowed emaleth to surge to the fore with her growing strength. the currents of power around them were lost upon the man; while he was aware, he was forgetful of what it meant to be so young a child, so untouched by the darker energies, and so less cognizant of the pure and pulsating transcendence that surrounded emaleth.