Noctisardor Bypass shadows settle in the place that you left

@Ava Amara got better as the days ran on. the chaos of the passing weeks began to settle, and with it came new faces; an aunt in the form of @Druid, the man @Glaukos, and there were the names @Etienne and @Anselm that haunted her.
dinah had begun to feel as if she didn't have a place in all of this. she sat and watched things happen, buried herself in between the tapered peaks of the mountains and kept quiet while the world turned without her. she felt — replaced.
anything that had once been familiar was now gone. daddy and judah and simeon were not here to see the woman she was becoming, and she began to think of the bypass as home. that frightened her.
but if there was one thing the redheaded girl had learned, it was that life must go on. you must stare hardship and despair in the eyes and face it with clenched teeth; you must cover the bags beneath your eyes and smooth your hair. a woman's strength is in her gentleness and beauty. and so, she swallowed the icy shards of dread and numbness that kept her awake at night and instead turned her focus to work.
today, it was the new garden she had been cultivating in preparation for the snowthaw. her paws are wet and cold and sticky with mud, but she is now halfway done with clearing out the soil and burying seeds. soon, there would be blooms, and maybe by then she will feel alright again.

despite the headaches persisting, ava could be found in good spirit these days. she kept mostly to herself, humoring her mama and sister where prompted -- but like dinah, there was a growing divide in her heart, and she felt that there was little use for girls like her in this world.

she thought of the hard-eyed stranger, and the soft man with the kind eyes. she owed them a lot, and they occupied her thoughts often.

today was an unusually warm day for the season. she found dinah splattered with mud, little rows made in the hard ground. ava's gaze traveled inquisitively up dinah's darkened legs, to her face -- a silent 'what is?' communicated in her inquisitive gaze.

there's the thud of footfalls coming up beside her, and when dinah looks up she cannot help but smile at the stumped expression upon ava's face. hey, dork, she gestures with an extended forelimb for her to come closer. i'm planting a garden for the summer.
given the lack of opposable thumbs, it was rather rudimentary; some holes dug much deeper than others, some seeds scattered in a haphazard array. but it felt good to have something to focus on. in a few months, there'll be mountainbells and rhododendrons, dogwood and salmonberry. she thought about whether or not daddy would've liked it, and she can hear the ghost of his voice in her head. it's gonna be beautiful, dinah marina.
you feeling any better? she purls. maybe you can help me.

dinah’s warm smile seemed to break the wintry cold — ava pressed her about to her sister briefly in greeting before stepping back to view dinah’s handiwork. 

lots of holes in the ground. some were quite deep, others seemed barely started. ava studied the pattern and stepped over to one shallow hole, pausing over the dark dirt.  

she didn’t feel much better, but she nodded anyway, happy to help — her tail arced in indication that she awaited dinah’s guidance.

i gotta even out these holes, she thinks aloud, wiping a peppering of dirt from her brow. and i gotta figure out how on earth to water the seeds. maybe, like, a leaf dipped in the creek, or something? do you have any ideas?
she knew, admittedly, very little about how to care for a garden.
dinah pauses to watch as ava positions herself in front of one of the shallow holes, a giggle lovingly passing from her lips. if you feel like digging, knock yourself out. i've got a whooooole lot more seeds that need to be scattered.

ava looked to the uneven sized holes, then back to dinah, gauging which hole was the desirable size and depth before she begun excavating dirt from the remaining ones. 

she stopped as her sister wiped dirt from her brow and mentioned watering seedlings. for this, ava shook her head in a defeated ‘no’. she had no clue how to water a plant — but!

her eyes lit up as she remembered the shells from their youth. only… they were so very far from any beach. ava rose suddenly, trotting off towards their den. 

she returned with a clump of hoary colored moss. it was not much, but she pushed it towards dinah to see what she thought of the tool.

dinah returns to her own task after her sister wanders off, and does not look up again until she hears the flop of something wet and soft upon the ground. her gaze lights up when she sees it, dorky little smile beaming down upon ava like a concentrated ray of sunshine. oh, you little genius, she reaches out to pat her on the shoulder with a paw — gently, of course, given her rather fragile state — and scoots the moss closer to her.
c'mere, we gotta go soak it. she gathers it into her mouth, little clumps of dirt falling away and sticking to her chin. she leaves a trail of little brown prints upon the earth as she begins to lead ava to the lakeside. oh, gosh, mama's gonna kill us, won't she? we're a fuckin' mess, dude.

ava smiled softly to herself as dinah patted her shoulder. granted, it was a gentle gesture — but its impact immediate. 

she trotted wordlessly after dinah, looking past the rows of fresh upturned earth. her steps were slow at first - it’d taken some energy to find the moss, and she could feel her battery draining. 

dinah’s voice carried behind her, causing ava to peer down at her chest and legs. brown. just endless sloppy brown. ava grinned, stepping into the water and watching it discolor as the pair soaked the moss. what mama doesn’t know won’t kill her.

i am so sorry i fully did not realize it was my turn

dinah knew her sister well enough to recognize when she was tiring. she slows down herself, and when the pair reach the shore, she lets the freezing shock of the lakewater soak into her muscles. the mud dissipates and scatters around her in a pool of muck.
thank you for helping me with this, the girl glances over her shoulder to look at her sibling with unspoken affection. to think, a year ago they were childishly bickering, so unsure around each other; and now they are all the other has left. you know i love you, right?

the water darkened as the pair waded within it. ava studied the makings of each ringlet; a cloud within clouds of murkwater. 

she buffeted her sister’s shoulder in silent rejoinder: i love you too. their home had changed, their pack had changed, their lives had changed — even they had changed, too. but dinah would always have allyship in ava. 

she seized the moss with a grin and darted back towards the garden at a loose canter. 

<3 fade with ur post? new one soon i hope

ava concurred wordlessly, and dinah took this moment to meet her eyes. she had grown into a strong young woman, bathed in the soot of a lineage they were perhaps both clueless about; but ava, she decided, was as much of a redhawk as she and her blood-brothers. daddy would want her to share the surname, she thought, and she hides the emotional glaze of her expression with a turn of her head.
when dinah turns back around, ava is already gone! she stumbles into laughter before shouting wait for me! and turning to lope after her, leaving a trail of wet grass behind her.
if only she had known this would be the last happy memory the sisters would share for a long while.