She could feel it deep within. A calling, a specific kind of calling that had been there before. The elderly woman took slow steps forward. She was in no rush, not today - not ever. She stopped to look at the scenery from time to time, taking it in, feeling it. Closing her eyes she took deep breathes before continuing.
She had traveled for days and she felt hungry, thirsty and now tired. She had to take several breaks upon the journey, her body almost too old to keep up. But something drew her toward the crown of small mountains with the opening, a calling deep within her chest dragged her forward. She could hear it within, that the spirits called it her home.
Her yellow eyes were soft, almost kind in the way they scanned the area, as if everything was familiar within her soul. Which wasn't far from the truth to her, she felt like she had been here before, like everything was a previously treated path. Maybe in a different life.
The Teekon wilds had been a different scenery to Hope, but she felt at home already. Spirits at called upon her to keep searching, even as she passed areas filled with other wolves. Now she could sense them at even greater strength here, than previously. She smiled. So this was her future home, hmm?
The spirits had been kind to guide her here. She let out howl, stretched thin, low, calling for home and yearning for someone to talk to. She stood by the borders of this strange place, her old body finally telling her to lie down. She slowly began to lie down, resting her legs as she put her head upon her front legs, waiting in the cold.
She had finally arrived.
medicines and the presence of an abiding love.
mahler had found a new semblance of strength. he had at once returned to the borders, freshening and deepening the boundaries of rivenwood. he found himself still without the robustness of yesteryear. the gargoyle was annoyed to find that his patrol took twice as long.
but it was during such that a stringy, feminine howl reached weakly into the air. he paused amid the forests turning to fireweave. a carpet of orange and yellow led him to the caller. it was a woman of great age, curled at the borders as if she were a fawn. this was such a way to greet a potential pack that mahler did not at once know what to do.
and so the stony lavender gaze only coursed over her. the woman wore a striking pelt of heather-grey. mahler saw that she breathed, and cleared his throat. "are you ill, frau?"
Hope was closing her eyes for a moment, waiting and listening. When she heard the footsteps of someone coming closer she opened her eyes and raised her head to watch a grey male come closer. She didn't feel afraid or frightened, the spirits had led her here, no harm would come to her. She tried to raise herself but her tired legs told her no.
"are you ill, frau?"
He spoke a language and with an accent that was unknown to her, but his demeanor told her he was friendly. There were no insult in his tongue. She smiled warmly at his concern and let out a very light and quiet laugh. "No, not ill. But tired from my travels here. It seems like my old legs won't go a step further." She uncurled her legs and tried once again to raise herself, but failed. She didn't have any strength left in her legs and so she lay down once again smiling at the youngster. His concern was welcome, though not needed.
"I just need to rest for a bit, then I'll be able to stand again." The elderly female looked out and beyond the grey male on the beautiful landscape before them. She smiled. "Is this your home? It's beautiful." she nodded toward the sight behind him and then moved her gaze slowly back toward him. She was in no rush to get things done and it was clearly showing. She didn't think him the impatient kind, but she could be wrong.
"I've been guided here. I hope to make this my home as well." This was why she had traveled for days after all, the reason she was so tired and fatigued. She had traveled without much more than water in her belly and she was paying for it now.
mahler would have been amused to know that the aged woman considered him a youngster. she moved slowly and was quite weak. perhaps a harder iteration of him might have turned her away, perhaps the one which had once lived in diaspora.
but this version of mahler knew that this she-wolf was at the end of her life. he did not expect someone so frail to exist through another heavy winter. the irony was that he too was without his same strength.
"vhat guided you?" the shadowpriest settled carefully to his haunches. "i am mahler. this is rivenvood."
he would wait for her efforts to restore her. the feeling within was that he could not leave her here. it would be inhumane. mahler was pragmatic but he did not think himself cruel.
The journey to this territory had taken a harder toll on her that she cared to admit to herself, but she could definitely feel it. She kept her head lifted as the man sat and asked her what guided her here. She smiled and lifted her nose upward before speaking. "The spirits." She pointed with her nose and then gestured to all around them. She could feel them in this territory, stronger than usual.
"Don't you see? They are all around us." She closed her eyes and felt their presence once again, closing in on her. When she opened her eyes she felt for a brief moment as if she could feel the aura of the man. "i am mahler. this is rivenvood." She nodded to say she heard him and answered in her own beat. "I am Hope."
She took another glance at this Rivenwood and then back to Mahler. "Rivenwood.. I love that name." She kept her legs tucked in under her, during the conversation. She felt a tingling in her legs, a whisper in her ear and she knew she could stand once again. She stretched her legs and moved into a sitting position just like Mahler. "Ah, there we go. I swear these legs won't always do my bidding." She chuckled in amusement, mostly to herself.
She felt a gust of the winter coming from behind and she shivered.
The spirits spurred her on, to tell this man more of who she was. "I realize I may not look like I can be of much use to Rivenwood." Her soft gaze never left Mahler's. "But my life experience could be of use to those younger than myself. So let's face it, pretty much anyone." She smiled to ensure him she was joking. She had humor after all.
"I remember my own youth. The crossroads. The choices. love, death. All of it. I would love to assist those in need. Maybe even help them understand themselves better." If possible. She didn't add the last part. Her own crusade was her own agenda, but she didn't want to involve Mahler into that. He had a certain glow about him, the glow of happiness. She wasn't here to remind a happy individual of death.
She kept the smile in perfect place.
the spirits.
mahler was a skeptical person with no sense for the supernatural. when she said these things, the man blinked. he knew the memory could falter deeper into age one fell, and he wondered if that was what he was witnessing now. perhaps the spirits in which she believed were only the vestiges of memory.
it terrified mahler on some silent, unsaid level. he chose only to listen. hope was her name. it matched the sound of her voice and the way her eyes were strong even if her body had become uncooperative.
her humour was endearing. mahler found himself smiling despite the situation. that hope echoed his thoughts spoke to her presence of mind. perhaps he had misjudged.
spirits, then.
"rivenvood is quiet. my vife, my daughter, and my son live here. the children from this year vere vones i helped to raise." but none of them were infants. in fact, with how he had seen both druid and heda depart, he had grown more certain that they were soon to disperse.
it would be more silent then.
"i vould be happy to learn from you, hope. i am a healer and a midvife by trade."