The bear had found the forest to be alight with life and the great spirits of things that he could not speak to. There was a mystic air about the wood. Lærke had never known such energy before in his life. Though he had spent his days as a man of battle – many of them hard fought – he found a strange peace about the forest that was unlike the woods of his own home. The broad beast hungered for more. He wished to know how the land had been settled and what the leaders before had wished for it. Lærke knew already of the beauty of the place, and the wolves within the ranks, but he had always found himself drawn to the past. He wished to know how the earth had felt the first time a wolf had pressed its paw into the soil. Certainly, the druids of Donnelaith would have known such details.
 
Trekking forward with a gentle sway of his massive figure, the soturi drew his argent gaze upward to the foliage that littered the skies and cast a cool shade on the earth below. If he trained his ears well enough, he could hear the cry of the seagulls on the shores. There were a few instances when he could even hear potential joiners who had cried to the leader of the pack next door. The bard had not yet introduced himself to the wolves who had taken guard over the forest, but he believed he’d find them a peaceful bunch.
 
The sun was setting in the sky and Lærke wondered if there was a place within Donnelaith that he could gaze upon the stars. Flicking the tip of his tail, he lowered his crown and moved forward with plodding steps that carried his great weight.

A song!
 
The words seemed to be carried by the wind of the trees in the direction of the great warrior. He drew his ears forward atop his skull and glanced around him with feverish delight. Someone was breathing life into the trees with a melody in a tongue he had never heard. The broad creature turned carefully in a full circle before the song was almost upon him and he heard the breath of a laugh strike against the air before he found himself face-to-face with the pale girl Deirdre. His eyes shot wide for a moment and he bowed his skull toward the earth in a shameful attempt to correct himself. It was not noble of him to gawk at her so openly when she had merely been traveling through her home.
 
With a tentative lift of his skull, the bear peered upon her with argent eyes. “You… you were singing,” he rumbled in the deep bass of his voice. The chocolate figure’s tail flagged behind him out of encouragement. Lærke had thought that he had traveled far away from the voices that would cry out in lullabies and ancient words. Having his sister there was the closest thing he believed he would have to the songs of his childhood. But this radiant creature had songs of her own, and Lærke was mesmerized.

The girl sang to the woods and the trees, and the round man could feel his heart soar with her words. There was a shyness to the way that she addressed the lyrics that she had offered, but the soturi did not believe that songs could be spoken out of timidity. He had always known them to be a celebration or a soothing offering for those who had ruffled spirits. As the pale girl Deirdre believed her flowers and trees to require soothing, the bear had always felt as though it was the souls of other living creatures that needed it. But he had sung of many things: the victory of battle, the passing of a fellow soturi, and even the crying of his child sister as she could not sleep. It was in his nature to sing – he was a bard of his lands.
 
Nodding his head slowly at her question, Lærke offered her a verbal response in his native tongue: “Kyllä.” A smile then drew across his dark lips as he pulled his crown upward and his handsome voice allowed for a heavy bass to turn to music.

“Läksin minä kesäyönä käymään
Siihen laaksohon kussa kuuntelin päivää
Missä lintuset laulaa
metsäkanatkin ne pauhaa
Ja mun sydämeni etsi lepoa ja rauhaa”
 
And he finished slowly with his ghostly eyes drawn toward her. “I do… I do not know the tongue of your song. But it was säteilevä.” Taking a short step forward, the great soturi gestured with a bob of his head for her to continue her song to the trees and the earth. He was certain that their roots had grown stronger because of it and the bark of their skin had been made to endure more.

The pale girl inquired to him about the meaning of his song, and the great hulking bear could not help but to offer her a chuckle that radiated with warmth. Even the laugh that rose from his mouth was deep in sound and lingered in his chest. As his argent gaze drew along her features, he found himself quite comforted by her presence. Though the emerald of her eyes did not strike him with familiarity, there was a way about her speech that afforded him thoughts of his homeland. “All songs have meaning, sweet child,” he answered her with a dipping of his skull. Lærke was not the type to simply hum a tune that did not carry the weight of some great tale upon its shoulders, but he was not averse to simple ditties. He had plenty of them stored inside.
 
Drawing his tail upward and flagging it in a show of encouragement, the bear gestured forward with his muzzle in a pointed fashion. “Your song. It has meaning, yes?” the soturi then inquired with a slight canting of his head to the left. The twinkle in his gaze was ever present; the conversation that was being passed between them was one that he had had with many others. Still, he did not want the child of the forest to feel as though she had anything to hide.
 
If she had a voice and a song to be shared, there could be no shame in that. But Lærke was a creature of great pride and honor. He wished only for the talents of others to be discovered. For Deirdre to feel reluctant about using her voice so freely was natural. It would only turn to tragedy if she should not wish to explore it further.