Sunbeam Lair breathe (in the air)

@Korei Julia :)

In. . .out. In. . .out.

Many moons ago, when she was a small child, her parents had taught their children the art of meditation. Daddy said that it made him a better fighter; Mum insisted it was good for health. The pups had giggled to themselves over it. Dottie yawned through the first lesson, and Freddie scampered away, singing a tune. But Lily, while she had initially not taken it seriously, grew to love peaceful periods of quiet reflection.

It started with breathing and relaxing, and the mouth of Sunbeam Lair was the perfect place to do it. Night had fallen, and tiny snowflakes fluttered to the ground, resting stark white on her black pelt before melting into tiny droplets that lined her fur like morning dew. There she sat, breathing. Simply breathing. In. . .out. In. . .out. And her mind was devoid of thoughts.

Some time later, Lily emerged from her transcendent state, feeling replenished and grounded. With a languorous stretch, she re-entered the cavern, looking around to see who might be up. She wondered about the state of this pack--everyone was female, save for Lennon and Alarian. It hadn't been that way, at home. There was an even mix of boys and girls. It was different, here.

There was Lanawyn, Alarian's beautiful sister--Lily was quite taken with her--and his equally-beautiful niece Lainie. (Good genes in that family, Lily mused.) Then Mary, Xahi, and Korei, who the two gentlemen had found along the way. Korei seemed to know them best, and she wondered whether she could wheedle a good story out of the white-pelted girl.

Korei had been sitting there for some time, gazing at the wall. Thinking about her feelings...about the pack idea Lennon had...about the hunt Alarian took her on...Lennon....Alarian...She shook her head out of her trance like state, she just couldn't get mind off them. She didn't know it yet, but she was stricken. Even if someone told her that, she wouldn't know the meaning. But the feeling she had, she guessed it was a good feeling.

She found Korei staring at the wall. Just. . .staring. At the wall. For a moment, Lily wondered if she was, in fact, meditating, and hung back, quietly watching. After a few beats had gone by, though, the girl decided this was bloody awkward, staring at someone staring, and gave a light chuff of greeting, hoping not to startle Korei too badly.

"Hullo," she offered, smiling. "I don't believe we've met, formally. I'm Lily--you're Korei, right?" Her dark tail wagged, wanting to know more about the pretty, staring girl.

Maybe she'd be a friend! Lily didn't have many non-family friends back home. Her parents ran the pack; her father's brother was the beta male, and all of her mates growing up had either been siblings or cousins. She was never in want of anyone to play with, but they were bonded by blood, not by true friendship. They sort of had to love each other. Now, wolves had to decide whether or not to love Lily.

How could they choose not to? the dark-pelted girl thought, a little smug.

Korei Julia startled as she had in fact somewhat fallen asleep for a bit when someone chuffed behind her. "Huh, what?" She turned around so she could see the other wolf and that's when she saw the other wolf.

"Yes! Yes, I'm Korei" she answered. She titled her head a little to the side then. 

"How are you Lily? And who brought you? Was it Lennon? He has been bringing a lot of others around. Isn't he nice? Alarian is too, he's very nice. They both are" she kept on rambling.

goddamn it im sorry for the wait cody

Before she knew it, the white-pelted girl spun around and was soon babbling. Lennon this, Alarian that. . . Her nose wrinkled in amusement. Apparently, she wasn't the only girl swayed by the young men's charms. She at least had the presence of mind--more like the ever-looming threat of her mother's disapproval, which followed her even hundreds of miles from home--to keep her lips sealed.

"Alarian brought me," Lily said sweetly, smiling. "I found him in a tree. He gave me some food and decided to take me home with him." Ugh. That sounded so corny, like a romance tale. But it was what had happened! Lily shook off the thought, instead blinking softly at Korei.

"What about you? You seem like you've been with the lads a while," she remarked with a grin. Lily then mentally braced herself for more babbling.

Korei Julia didn't know Alarian had brought someone. Perhaps it had happened while she was sleeping...As Lily spoke of why and how Alarian brought her home, she felt that odd feeling again. The not so good one, but she pushed it back down. It was an odd feeling, one that she didn't know just yet what it was.

"Lennon saved me from drowning...then they saved me from a cougar attack...then they saved me from another wolf. They save me a lot" she said. They were her young knights.

"Sounds like you've gotten yourself into some trouble, love," Lily responded, her voice at once gentle and playful. She didn't want to make the girl feel like she was being mocked, but surely she could take a small jest. "Lucky our boys were there for you."

She sat down next to Korei, breath a bright puff of white steam in the dim light of the cave. It was quiet--she could hear every beat of her heart--and she broke the silence with alacrity, wanting to know more about her new friend.

"Where did you live before?" Lily asked, looking over at Korei. "Why did you leave?" She was blissfully unaware of the potential can of worms the question could open.

She nodded slowly, her injured ear flicking. She still missed how much she could not feel on it, like the wind catching on against it. "This...this was from the wolf" she said quietly, turning her head slightly so the ear was more visible. 

She shifted awkwardly upon being asked where she was from. "It's...it's a touchy subject" she murmured quietly back to Lily.

"Holy shit," she remarked as Korei showed her her ear--or what was left of it, anyway. Lily hadn't noticed it on first look, and wondered why. Now that she saw it, she couldn't unsee it! "That's wicked. I mean I'm sorry it happened," she amended, looking appropriately contrite. "But it definitely makes you look fierce."

She noticed Korei's discomfort at her question and shuffled her feet in turn, blinking softly at the girl. "Oh, sorry," Lily murmured. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." She might be okay with talking about her old home and family, but she could see why some people might not be so keen on it.

Maybe the wolf who had torn her ear off was her family! That was a chilling thought, and Lily resisted a shudder as it emerged in her mind.

Korei frowned as Lily cursed, and said it was wicked. "Wicked?" Her ears flicked back a bit. "Is it that bad? It isn't that bad is it?" Then Lily said it made her look fierce. She was not entirely sure what she meant by that at all. "So...that is good?"

She shook her head. She did not want to talk about it. Korei remained adamant on that, and would unless towards Lennon or Alarian. Even though only Lennon was the one who knew. "What about you? Are you settling in?"

Lily shook her head, giggling. "No, no, it's good. 'Wicked' means, like, 'cool,'" she explained with a smile. "And 'fierce'. . .well, it's good to look fierce, right?" She bared her white teeth in illustration, breaking off into a soft bark of laughter.

She pondered Korei's question for a moment, eventually nodding. To be quite honest, she hadn't really had time to think; the whole experience had been a whirlwind so far, with Lily bouncing from one place to the next and finally bumping into Alarian.

"I suppose so," she said quietly. She shrugged. "I do miss my family back home, sometimes. But I really like everyone here, and the landscape is so beautiful." Lily looked out the mouth of the cave, toward the falling snow. "I've never seen mountains before this. My old home was on the plains."

Korei Julia didn't want to look fierce, as how Lily looked it looked like she was about to fight or something. She gave a nervous laugh with her, leaning a bit away. 

"Yes, everyone else is nice here...you, Alarian, Lennon, Xahi...all of them" she murmured at the end. "And I like mountains. Used to live on some, they were nice too..." And easy to fall of from, equally dangerous.

Oh, this girl was nervous. Sweet, but nervous all the same. Lily noted how she leaned away, joining in the laughter but looking incredibly taken aback. With a shrug, the dark-pelted girl let the light dim from her eyes a little, molding her manic pixie nature into something kinder, gentler.

"That's really cool," she remarked about Korei's old home, smiling. "It does snow a lot up here, though. More than down there." She looked outside again, her gaze tracking individual flakes for a long moment. She wondered when it would stop. She wondered if it would ever stop, up here.

"What do you do, then?" Lily said spontaneously, moving her eyes back to Korei's. "Like, for fun. Or I guess as a job, too." She wondered if Korei knew about jobs. Everyone had one, at least as soon as you grew up. Like Freddie was a singer, and kept everyone happy, and Dottie was a great hunter. Jimmy was a border guard, and Lily a caretaker, tending to the old and young alike.

She heaved a small sigh, eyes growing sad for an instant. She did miss her littermates, just now.

Korei Julia nodded. It indeed did snow a lot. "Snow is great, isn't it? Great to run around through, roll around...have you ever slid across frozen water? It's so fun!" she said, getting excited now. She visibly became more comfortable with Lily, now that she was happy and excited. 

"I look at the stars" she said, quietly. "The moon too...I like herbs too, but the stars more." The stars she loved more than anything else. Her head tipped at the sudden sadness. "What's wrong? Was it something I said?"

She shook her head, the smile returning to her face almost as quickly as it had left. "Not at all, love," she assured Korei, gaze returning to meet hers. "Just missing my family is all. They're all so far away."

Her eyes narrowed as she peered toward the mouth of the cave; the snow and clouds blocked any sort of light that could pop through, save for a dim glint where the moon hung high. "You like the stars, then? That's groovy," Lily remarked. "I like to look at them, but don't know much about them.

"And I've never slid on frozen water," she added, her voice breaking into a giggle. "That sounds right fun, though a bit reckless, perhaps." Then again, she supposed she and Freddie--the troublemakers of the litter--had gotten into more than their fair share of trouble in their young lives. Slipping and sliding sounded tame compared to the hell they had raised.

Her ear flicked when called 'love'. Either she had learned it off Lennon, or she was related to Lennon...or somehow just had the same way of talking. But unlike with Lennon, she let it go by. "I know how that is" she ended up saying in reply, without even realizing the words leaving her. 

"Yes, they are...groovy." Another word she didn't exactly get. "I know of many constellations, and it's fun to imagine your own."

An idea popped up in her mind, and she got a smile. "Come on, let's go find some! I can show you how well I slide!" she said, getting a bit excited now. Her tail started to wag as she finally stood up from sitting.

Her eyes sparkled as Korei spoke of the stars. An astronomer! Nobody in her family had been one, at least not that she knew of. Every once in a while, the night sky would come up in one of Mum's stories or Daddy's songs, but they mostly stuck to the daylight, and all the wonders to be found under the sun.

"Okay!" Lily responded exuberantly, tail thumping against the ground in joy. She grinned heartily at Korei. "Lead the way, friend," she murmured, a giggle in her throat.

You want to fade here, or have them slide around?

Korei Julia giggled aloud as she hopped out from cave, bouncing out and around. She prepared to go looking for a source of iced-over water. And a big, wide smile on her face. "Which way should we go, huh? Left or right?" she asked back to Lily as she bounded about, prancing around while filled with excitement. She would let Lily lead the way till she would find such a spot.

Slide! Side! Slide!

The decision was hers, and Lily pondered for a moment, looking back and forth in an almost comical fashion. "Left," she finally decided, nodding toward a meandering path down the face of the mountain. She stepped outside, the cool night air raising the hairs on her pelt.

Shivering with both excitement and chill, Lily trotted carefully down, keeping her steps light and nimble so as not to tumble down into the darkness below. She made sure to keep close to Korei; getting lost out here at this time of night wouldn't be fun at all, though her eyes were slowly getting used to the night.

"You know this place better than I do," she called softly over to Korei, her teeth flashing white in the dim light. Snowflakes settled on her pelt, little bright specks against the black fur. "Where's the nearest pond?"

Korei followed Lily's appointed direction left. She kept close to Lily and Lily did with her, it sure was cold. But still, she skipped along, sometimes making a skipping circle around. When asked where the nearest pond was, she shrugged. "I always stay in the cave. Don't go out." She got a burst of energy, and off ahead she went, howling into the air. 

Till she went sliding across a frozen pond. Korei yelped out, falling onto her belly while sliding across. She was stunned for a moment, then got to laughing happily. "Lily! Lily, I found-" She slid a bit, and kept her balance only just. "I found one!"

Lily raised her eyebrows at Korei's statement, finding it unbelievable. Who wouldn't want to get out every once in a while?! But she was pleased when the white-pelted girl took the lead, and raced after her, tongue lolling from her black lips.

Then she was sliding, careening across the ice, and Lily pummeled into Korei with a muffled oomph, losing her balance and rolling over on her side. Breathless with adrenaline and laughter, she sprang to her feet, only to slip and fall once more.

"Ha! Ha ha!" she cried out gleefully, orange eyes glowing like jack o' lanterns in the dark night. She got to her feet again, this time slower, a little wobbly as she stood and faced Korei. Her tail wagged in joy, and she took off in a run, sliding (almost) expertly across the ice on four nimble paws.

"You're right!" she called back to Korei, the wind rushing past her face in the most exhilarating fashion. "This is fun!"

Korei tried to stand up again and this time, she got it! With a paw she pushed herself forward, skidding across the ice....Till Lily came sliding at her and Korei was once more down on the ice, this time on her side. Yet still, she laughed. And she was glad to hear Lily laughing with her as they both slid along. 

"It is! Just watch out for rocks!" she called out, spinning about once she got on all fours again. And quite elegantly. She still had yet to show Alarian, or Lennon this as well. "Alarian would love this! And Lennon! Haha!" She started pushing herself around until she was almost spinning like crazy, getting dizzy...till she thwumped into a clump of snow, face first.

Rocks? That was a complication Lily hadn't considered, and, with a touch of concern, she tried to skid to a stop, instead, tumbling head over heels once more. She heard a muffled thump nearby, and saw that Korei had smacked face-first into a pile of snow. Giggling with some concern, she stumbled to her feet and slid gingerly over to the girl.

"You all right, Korei?" she called into the dim light, flicking her ears in curiosity. In truth, her paws were starting to get cold, and she herself was a bit sleepy. Perhaps they could slide around a bit more before going up to bed.

Korei saw nothing for a moment, and felt nothing except the cold wetness of the snow. Yet...she began laughing. A muffled laughter. She had not had this much fun in what felt like forever! She tried to bring herself out, and eventually succeeded, flopping onto her back while laughing. "That was fun! Let's do it again!" Immediately she tried getting up onto her paws to keep on sliding about.

She giggled, seeing Korei's bright figure clamber to her feet and begin to slide around again. It seemed the girl was full of boundless energy. With a woof of joy, Lily bounded towards her, skidding to do a neat kind of pirouette around her new friend.

"This is so fun," she called out, voice chipper despite her slight exhaustion. She smiled at Korei, not knowing whether she'd see it or not but doing so regardless. "Thanks for suggesting it. I would have never thought of it."

With an exuberant cry to the moon, Lily launched forward and away. . .sailing into the night, pelt rippling on the breeze. Feeling so free.

gonna fade here!