Firefly Ravine contralto

I was gonna wait but tbh it's just... really nice to have muse for this boy <3

Ashlar had not planned on leaving home, let alone leaving when the winds of winter were just beginning to harden the ground. Mama had said that perhaps he should wait, but he knew that he could not. He had one friend and she had left. Whatever she was doing, if he could help her to do it, he would. Their eyes had been kind with understanding but he wondered. Had they had a friend like that once? If so, what had happened?

After the war, he had thought that maybe she would stay. He did not know why she wasn't happy there but it didn't matter; she was different and he couldn't know why she did the things she did. Speaking with Baba had helped a lot with this understanding.

'We need them, but they need us too.' Ashlar had never understood healing when he was younger. He'd thought it boring when Baba made him gather plants, the names and uses garbled in his head and impossible to memorize. Why did he need to heal when Baba could? This time had been different. He understood, now, the way violence could turn a wolf. Maybe it wasn't about fixing everything. Maybe it was just about fixing something, as much as he could, with every opportunity he was given.

Baba had been trying to show him this. Finally, he saw.

He'd followed her as best he could, but she had a head start. Eventually he would find her, he knew, but for now he hummed as he weaved his way alongside a massive gorge. In the darkness he could hear the water and he knew better than to stray too close... but he did wonder what was down there.

Mysterious river, hidden and dark. What are your secrets... where do you start? He smiled, then shook his head. That wasn't right. He didn't want to know where it started, so really the whole rhyme was wrong. That would distract him well enough to take most of the night's walk, probably.

two hunters were better than one, and she and her Ulfhedinn had brought down enough small game over the past day or two to sate their stomachs. she now wanders a bit, leaving the rise to step down into a gorge. it's quiet and dim-lit without its namesake insects.

but not silent.

". . .where do you start?"

that voice— Avicus slinks closer, indigo eyes rounding as the deep-earth-brown of Ashlar appears in view. her brow furrows, head cants as she stares at him, eventually speaking:

you.

no malice or feeling within that word, just simple surprise.

he's here. not his home. but he'd been so happy?

she is confused.

He was expecting to have to track her down. Instead, she had found him! Ashlar let out a happy woof of greeting and bounced a step forward, tail wagging. He knew better than to invade her space but even months with Ursus couldn't temper his boyish enthusiasm.

She seemed less happy to see him but he didn't mind. Catching her confusion, he stopped and his smile turned a tad sheepish.

You left, but I wanted to h... help. Unless... unless she'd rather he didn't?

That thought hadn't occurred to Ashlar until this moment and as it did, his look shifted to slightly stricken. If... it's okay. If she'd left to leave him as well as home, he would go and would not hold it against her. They were different and he'd failed her a few times. He knew that, depending on what she wished of him, there was a chance he'd fail her again. And suddenly he was unsure, coming here as he had and assuming she'd wish him to join. Perhaps she'd wanted him to stay.

he is his usual, nervous, stammering self. it brings her annoyance, but the emotion is tinged with a little joy—no. not joy; joy was reserved forever for her mother. relief? for the familiar cowardice of the singer?

Avicus nods once, then lifts her chin, observing him through a shrewd stare.

how help? she asks.

she's already trying to answer that question for herself. he is no fighter—she knows that well. perhaps a healer, or one to watch over the young, if they ever came. 

truthfully, he is of no use to her. . .but she finds she wants him around, for whatever reason.

She wanted to know how. He'd come here knowing this but still, he couldn't help it. His gaze dropped and he felt that creeping, familiar shame threaten to overwhelm him. He'd been so glad to be home but, even there, he hadn't been able to shake the sensation that had first made itself known within Ursus. It lurked like a shadow and, recognizing it, Gannet had sought to wrestle it forth. He'd only half succeeded.

It had been enough to start the wheels. Ashlar swallowed, trying to recapture the conviction he'd come here with. It was harder now that he was face to face and asked to speak for his skill.

B- Papa began teaching me m...medicines. He said quietly. He did not like he way they words quavered but he could not help it. It did not matter how close of friends they might be - Ashlar was incapable of speaking confidently of a skill he had neither tested nor proven. I can't fight, but I can still... He trailed off, suddenly feeling far less sure of coming here. Not because he did not wish to but because he could not know what she saw when she looked at him. Friend, coward, or both?

I'll work hard. He finished somewhat lamely, but there was a resolved determination in his eyes when he finally lifted them. Maybe he wasn't valuable yet... but he would be.

a healer. she has respect for them, at least following Evien's sacrifice. not brawny by any means, but still tied to the earth as hunters and warriors—just in a different way. to life, rather than death; to rebirth, rather than destruction.

yes, that will do just fine.

she nods. Hǣlend, Avicus says briefly, gesturing toward Ashlar's slight dark frame. another one of those fever-dream words—and yet, if she thinks on it, she remembers the singer's yellow gaze, drifting closer as the utterance rose up in soundless consciousness. . .

come, she says, and begins to turn toward the rise.

ok to fade if you like!

Ashlar waited and felt his nerves within his stomach while he waited.  He would be sad if she turned him away but he would not be upset with her, just himself.  It had taken him too long to draw the connection from what he loved in music to something he could love within healing.  He did not know enough.

She said something that he didn't understand and he looked at her with confusion until it dawned on him that it was a title.  Then he lit up.

He didn't say anything, just nodded in response and then enthusiastically bounded after her. He couldn't help gamboling about a bit with exuberance, but he was just too thrilled. He hadn't liked Ursus in the end, but she'd been the one thing about it he had liked. Being a part of something that was hers would be amazing!

What's it mean? Ashlar asked suddenly as he followed, curious about the word she'd called him. He'd never heard anything like it.

we can go a little longer for foundation purposes!

his question turns her head, and she gives the faintest of smiles. healer, she says, in a tone that suggests it should have been obvious. but there's no great scorn in her voice beyond that, and she's glad to have Ashlar with her again.

the two begin the climb from the ravine, her own pace a brisk but steady march. she's recovered enough that such excursions no longer leave her winded, and she relishes the feeling of her body working as it should;

everything in its right place. every part in working order.

well, except. . . Avicus lets her tongue hang free, brows drawing together in a silent scowl. but the appendage wasn't necessary in most situations, and so she bears it no mind beyond drawing words together.

Nyra, she says, that one word easy enough and drifting lazily behind her to Ashlar. we will kill her. you know?

Oh. Her tone subdued him a little, but not for long, since she didn't truly seem to be upset by the (seemingly) stupid question. Ashlar was back to bouncing soon after, only to be completely side-swiped by the statement Avicus made next.

He knew that a lot of bad had happened, but he didn't really understand this need to kill a wolf he'd never heard of. His tail tucked and he was silent for a long series of moments while his thoughts spun uncertainly.

He did not feel good about this.

No. He finally answered, so quiet to almost be a whisper. He didn't know anything about that. Will.... will it help? He didn't know why she needed it, but it was all he could ask. He wouldn't be able to stop her if she truly wanted this, but he did not think it would do anything for her. Death wasn't closure.

Killing this wolf, he guessed, would only anger those who cared about them. And then they would come and kill others. He did not want that for her.

"no."

the quiet word brings her to a halt, near the top of the ravine, and the ire it flares up within her nearly causes her to turn and chase him, tail between his legs, back from whence he'd came. she sucks in a very deep breath, though, and faces him with eyes that brook no opposition.

Nyra kill my ma, Avicus says, just as quietly, but with a menace absent from Ashlar's tone, then repeated, with emphasis: we will kill her.

and he is free to go, if he chooses. plenty of healers that could handle blood and fear; Evien had been one of them. but this is his last opportunity.

if Ashlar leaves now, she will never again allow him to darken her doorstep.

she stares, waiting.

Ashlar had known it would upset her, and despite the fact that his courage shrunk within him, he stood his ground. He looked down, sadly, and thought.

She had lost her mother. It was hard, and the singer could understand that grief in some amount. But to Ashlar, her mother had been a violent wolf, and violence breeding violence was what he feared. He didn't want that for his friend.


How did he say it right? What about after? He asked, his voice still quiet. Is....will it b..be enough? He winced at the stutter. He didn't want to be afraid but the look and tone she wore showed what a line he walked. Coward.. He thought perhaps he knew now how he was seen. It hurt him some, but he had to know.

He would not help her kill, but he would help her heal. He did not know what that looked like. But he would not help her, either, to fight any and all that were not them in the way Ursus had. He couldn't live that way.

Their first conversation back here and, already, death.

he does not leave, but he continues to question. always questioning, this one.

"would it be enough?" no. Avicus feels a little despondent at the thought. no, what would be enough would be having her mother back, alive and well. to have had Nyra never enter their lives.

but that was impossible.

she nods, solemnly. it isn't enough—not nearly enough—but once it is finished, she'll tuck it away forever.

enough, Avicus confirms. you heal. i fighh'.

she gestures up toward the rise. come. leh'go.

He felt nervous and strangely subdued - far from happy now - but Ashlar let it drop. He nodded back around the lump in his throat, but his gaze was serious. He had grown enough to know what this likely meant and he still would stay. She did not expect him to fight; maybe it was unfair of him to expect her not to.

Their conversation had given him a lot to quietly think about as he followed her up the rise. He would need to prepare if she meant to kill. Baba had shown him some ways to treat injuries, but he hadn't known he might need the methods so soon.

He began to hum to himself, softly, the tune he'd sung for her a long time ago. A part of it was nerves, a part of it was an apology. He hadn't meant to upset her.

the song reaches her ears and she smiles without meaning to, and though she's corrected the expression before turning to Ashlar, the soft look upon her face remains. hhh— singer. his proper title is lost upon her broken tongue.

hh'inger. you know, Avicus says, a little frustrated at herself, but still meaning to bring up good memories of the past. she remembers. and now Hǣlend. we go.

she wonders if he'll stay. she hopes he will, at least for her sake, if not for the sake of revenge.

fade here?