The Tangle mostly void, partially stars

@Ora

After everything, on this cool afternoon, Furi feels… nothing. For the first time, she’s devoid of everything and she… well, she doesn’t know how to feel about it. She’s been in a roller coaster ride ever since the start of the war, tossed around from one turmoil to the next, and just as things begin to slow down, everything starts building up around her. Arrille’s betrayal has fallen from her mind, losing its place in the lineup as she tries to figure out how to deal with the grief her natal family has caused her in such a short span of time. She’s gone from believing she’d never see them again to being thrown at them left and right, unsure what to make of it.

And then there’s Drageda, whom had taken care of her. Can she leave them? Can she reunite with her family without feeling guilt for everything they’ve done for her?

Furi’s jaw tightens as she moves, not sure she wants to return back to the cliffs just yet. For a little while longer, she wants to be lost. If she can stay away from what’s supposed to be her home, maybe she can find a little peace and quiet and maybe she can figure out what she wants. The love she feels for her family has never gone away but the love for Drageda, her friends… Blixen simply can’t be thrown away, either, can it?

She does not realize the morning is upon her, creeping through a small clearing of the tangle. She doesn’t exactly remember making her way into the territory but with nightfall, she’d gotten a little turned around and stuck in the one place she hates but the pull is still strong. She thinks of Sif, Ingram… her sister, before she closes her eyes and her legs crumble beneath her, leaving her on the ground in the opening as the birds begin to chirp their morning call.

Maybe it was because she was raised differently, words we rarely muttered within her family. The only language they all knew was the one they could say with this bodies, a quick look of the eyes, a long flash of teeth. No matter the gesture, she could figure it out. Her name, and her brother's, were really the only things her mother might say. Her father was mute, just like herself so he was the one to teach her the most.

She missed them, wished the tragedy had never struck their home. She longed for her brother's fur against her as they slept,  had she not been good enough to be his companion?

Quickly the child shook her skull, those thoughts had no place in her mind. Instead she let her pumpkin and olive gaze wander, from the glittering snow to thebrown and silver wolf.. wait! There was another wolf! Her nostrils flared as the scent of a pack reached her, this girl belonged somewhere but wht was she here and not there? Concern colored her features as she watched the slightly younger canine, watched as she collapsed on the ground. 

In an instant she was running, her paws kicking up snow in her wake until she reached the larger girl. Without thinking she curled around her, and if she did not move she would place her head before her front paws as her body wrapped around her back half. Dual colored eyes looked down at her as she gave her a quick push with her ivory streaked nose. Please, please be alright! Please wake up!

She is given only a moment of rest before she hears the thumping on the ground but she is much too late to react by the time she approaches. It feels like miles away until it is upon her, curling around the curve of her spine. Exhaustion pulls at her and she responds sluggishly until she realizes she may be in danger. A growl slips from her teeth and she snaps blindly at the girl (though she does not get anything in return), before she rolls to the other side and staggers to her feet to face her attacker.

The reaction was expected, you see the child has done this before. She really needed to think before acting on impulse, it always ended up putting her in trouble. So when the snarl came all she could do was make her ears fall to her skull, her eyes fell to the ivory snow as the feeling of pain blossomed over her shoulders.
A squeak came then, it was cracked and painful sounding. An easy sign to note that her voice box was broken, she could feel the blood that swelled up in her new wound as the woman moved away. She was aggressive and defensive, Ora acted accordingly. Her ears stayed pinned, her eyes looked at the woman's dark paws. Her tail tucked to the point it touched her belly, her posture lower. 

Total submission, she laid flat on the chilled ground but then nothing came. Would she understand her stance? Would she see that Ora was not a threat, no, not a threat. All she wanted to comfort her,  to make sure she was alright.

Again she opened her mouth, her eyes crept up the girl's face before dropping her eyes once more as the painful squeaking sound came again. It was all she could do, well, unless she let her touch her again. To show her, how broken she really was.

What the girl does not expect is for the other to drop down and submit so quickly. Was she not being attacked? Pale green eyes narrow, looking her over quickly. her sides heave as she watches, everything starting to focus. The tiny wolf before her hadn’t attacked her and Furi retaliated, noting the taste of blood in her mouth. She quickly realizes she’s close to Drageda and not outside Blackfeather Woods.

”I... I’m,” she pauses, shaking her head. Her joints shake and she has to sit down. As if on cue, her legs slip out from beneath her and she falls to her rear. ”I’m sorry,” she manages, and opens her mouth again to say something but nothing comes out and she sighs, trying to ease the panic coursing her veins.

Her dual colored eyes dared to look up from the slightly younger girl's paws, watching as her pretty pale green eyes narrowed at her sudden display. It seemed her actions were under reveiw in the tired girl's mind, was she trying to figure out it this was just a ploy? That had happened before, you see, this little girl had curled around another without thinking. The result was much the same as this one but that ivory woman had asked questions and thought that this submissive show was an act, more growls had come that day as well as the feeling of teeth. That day she had limped home to her family, causing worry and distress but this time she did not have a home to return to.

the child wished she could whine, wished she could cry and let her know that agression and anger were not her intent but a broken voice box prevented such things, slowly on of her dark ears tilted up to catch the words falling frim the pretty girl's lips. She was apologizing, no, no, no! It was Ora that should be saying she was sorry, she was the one that had startled and accidently threatened a collapsed stranger! Quickly, she shook her head. She watched as the maine coone colored woman fell to her rump, she could see the exhaustion in her shaking limps. 

Cautiously, the silver fox hued child crawled to the tired girl. Again she gave the painful, and unpleasant sounding squeak. If allowed she would press her herself against her pale fur, trying to curl around her once more as if to embrace her to let her know it was okay. If the reaction was negitive she would press against the snow once more, trying to give the girl a shy smile. Again, trying to say that it was okay. She was not in the wrong for how she acted, and the wound on her shoulder was forgotten as she wished to only comfort.

The other girl doesn’t say anything and only moves to make it appear she’s much smaller. She doesn’t mean any harm and it takes several seconds for it to register. Her tongue flicks against the back of her teeth and the smear of blood reminds her she hurt the girl and she shuffled her feet awkwardly. Her breathing slows down but her breaths are still drawn in with effort.

At first, Furi doesn’t notice the approach until it’s too late and the girl is snaking around her much larger form. On another day, perhaps comical—like a cat striving for attention—but she stiffens instead, in case she’s strong, but this time she keeps her teeth to herself. “What are you doing?” she asks quietly, torn between putting distance between them and leaning in and instead she does neither.

The much smaller child watched for every signal, her pale olive and pumpkin eyes noticed the smallest ticks. She could hear that the darker girl was calming her breathas she crawled closer, she looked for signs of aggression and defense for her to back away but there were none. It wasn't until she cmhad curled her petite frame around her did she stiffen against the touch.

Was this the wrong move, would there be more violence for her naive sense of comfort? Touch was confirting to everyone, at least, thats what the child thought. Words came then, a question, what are you doing? How was she to answer that? Touching, comfort, thats what she was doing but still the question hung in the morning air. 

She tried again, her lips parted to say sometying but only a squeak came out. She persisted to the point she now flinched at how painful the action was. Shaking her head she leaned up, she went to press her nose against her throat before quickly falling back to the ground to show it was not a sign of aggression. It was an action to let her know she could not talk. Her ears pinned to her skull again as she looked up at the much larger girl. Would she understand the message she was trying to convey?

The stranger doesn’t necessarily back away but Furi doesn’t necessarily relax. Instead, she tries to tune in as the other attempts to speak, a painful sound escaping and her ears twitch and fall back. “Oh,” she says as it begins to sink in. For the first time, she notices her eyes are different. Like Artaax. And Dio. “You can’t talk,” she adds, shifting away from the embrace. It’s a weird sort of comfort that somehow makes her uncomfortable but her bones are weary and her mind is a few inches short of the circuit cutting and she’s asleep from exhaustion.
 
Furi opens her mouth to ask a question but she quickly snaps it shut, not sure she’ll get an answer, but it is hard to fight the compelling urge. Instead, she sits back, waiting to see what the other does—maybe she’ll offer answers in her own way.

The little wolf offers comfort, even if it is strange, but she accepts it for what it is in the moment. She feels selfish, for a bit, taking what she needs but she is so tired and if she can hide away from the world a little while longer, she'll cling to it.

Eventually she returns to Drageda, leaving her new friend behind. Another strange wolf, lost to the tangle.