Wapun Meadow let these shadows prove the sunshine

@Arlette

He had long overstayed his welcome here.

Winter still held a formidable grasp, but the days spoke of the quickening spring. Nights were shorter, the sun stood longer, and Malachi knew that soon enough, the fine spread of snow would melt and give way to new growth, to trees dressed in fine array, and sprawling fields aglow with prairie grass and wildflowers. He had never seen the spring dawn upon Duskfire; he had only watched as the flowers had wilted and wept into the endless pull of the night.

He was far from the glacier now, but if he raised his head and lifted his eyes just right, he thought he could see the scaling peaks through the layers of distant trees. It was a long way home - and he felt himself wither as he dropped his head, for the way held an end he wasn’t so sure he would ever be ready to face.

Arlette wanted to help her mother and the pack with finding her sister. The was found in the meadow as she traveled just behind the group to catch up and help out. The female found that her small size had trouble traveling some of the deeper patches of snow. Her pale coat blended perfectly with her surroundings but her having to jump to get forward through the snow made her quickly visible.

Arlette was glad when she arrived at a patch that was not so deep. She let out a soft puff, and then realized she was not alone on the meadow. She watched the other curiously. He was not a member of Easthollow, otherwise she would recognize him. She didn't. A stranger! How exiting! It seemed he was looking at the distance. Arlette sounded a bark to alert him and then trotted closer with a spring in her step. Arlette was always eager to socialize.

He thought of home, and Malachi ached for many faces, but he found himself stuck in the looping agony of one, of her - and he longed for her sweetness, her gentleness, her eyes like the bright winter sun. Sometimes, he could still feel the waves against him, sucking him out into the ocean as they stole him away and tore her from his sight. The waters had taken many things from him; time and again, they had rendered him apart - but he had fought. Yet what was there to show for his efforts? He was still alone, and he wondered...

... if he returned...

... would he find her there? 

A voice broke the man, and his mind stumbled back to the present. The mirage of the ocean fled from his eyes, and he saw the meadow again with stark clarity. Birdsong called from the nearby woods, and the air filled his lungs with the nothingness of snow. It was almost too much, and Malachi turned - 

- and what he saw made him double take. He recognized the face running toward him - at least, he thought he did - and in a lapse of surprise, the man blurted, "Scarlett?" until he realized, this one was far too young to be the matriarch, and he shook his head with a clunky apology.

"Ah - no! Sorry, miss. I - ah, I mistook you for someone else." But his face still flexed in obvious confusion. Scarlett had been pregnant when he'd seen her last, but that had been many years ago. This simply couldn't be her daughter. Yet he had never seen anyone else, in any land he'd travelled, with an appearance quite like hers... so who was this?

When she approached she was at first surprised that he knew her name. But as she processed it she realized that the male had said Scarlett and not Arlette. The girl blinked. She knew she was named after her grandmother Scarlett. "You were close! I'm Arlette," she grinned at the male, her tail wagging in a friendly matter.

"Maybe you didn't, though! I was named after my grandma Scarlett," she spoke. This was mostly revealed as this male seemed to know her grandmother and Arlette was always eager to learn more about her. She didn't know as much as she liked. She did know that her grandma was buried by their stones and that her mother had lost her early. "I must have looked like the Scarlett you know!!" she tried to fish for more information.

Arlette, the girl corrected - and the coincidence would have unnerved him, if she had not offered him the relation that followed. Ah - and just as quick as they had scattered, the pieces clicked neatly back into place, and the momentary confusion quickly rearranged to make sense again. Malachi shifted his weight to face the girl more fully and appraised her with the upward tip of his head.

”Your grandmother,” he repeated, his voice a low and contemplative murmur. This was not Scarlett, nor her daughter, but a descendant of the winter queen. He didn’t question whether their Scarlett was the same. This much was obvious to him. 

”Yes,” he said, and as he watched the mannerisms of this radiant girl, he couldn’t help but see the reflection of his old friend in her face. Scarlett’s children had survived, and if her granddaughter was any indication to the family she had raised, he hoped that meant that there were many here who were abundant in the gentleness and compassion he’d been too late to see in Scarlett. He wondered - how did she fare? Was she still near? He smiled softly, though his gentle words flowed with an edge of sadness. “I know her.” 

Arlette nodded excitedly when he repeated that her grandmother was Scarlett. It seemed that this male knew her grandmother. This was really exciting. "You knew her!! Oh boy!," she let out with her pure excitement. Her tail wagged at lightning speed. She looked like her grandmother. So this just meant that her grandmother was white as her! Perhaps she even had red eyes like her! It must have been!!!

Maybe this male could tell her more about her grandma! This was perfect. "Oh please tell me about her! I wanna know about her. Did she have red eyes too?," She asked curiously. She wasn't aware that the male didn't know that Scarlett had passed. "What was she like?," she fired another question at the male. It was clear that Arlette had not known her grandmother. Her mother had told her bits but not too much about her grandma. Only that she was buried at their stones.

Arlette didn't know Scarlett, this much was clear, and Malachi felt an anxious foreboding crawl through his spine as she continued on. Her questions... her phrasing... everything in the past, and his face fell deeper into a frown. His eyes darkened.

Scarlett was ... only, Scarlett was what? He couldn't figure out what to do with that. Malachi hoped Arlette meant the winter queen simply wasn't here anymore, wasn't living in the area, still alive, just... not around, but he felt the bristling sense that he knew all too well what this young one meant.

He decided just to focus on answering her questions first. "Red eyes, white fur. She looked just like you, actually," he said through the tightness of his frown, "She was kind. Selfless." Sometimes to a fault - and is this what got her killed? No - no, she could still be alive; he was jumping to conclusions. He sought his focus again, "She loved pups. The ones everyone abandoned, that no one else really seemed to want... she was always bringing them home..." his voice was troubled, distant, wholly stolen by the memory of the friend he had lost, and teetering on the edge of the question he needed to know, but didn't quite have the courage to ask.

He had lost her once, but had the world now lost her altogether?

Arlette was not aware that this male did not know that her grandma had passed away. However, she did notice that the male seemed to frown and that his eyes darkened. Didn't he want to talk about her? If so then why wouldn't he tell her so? Arlette sucked in all the information he gave her breathlessly. Her grandma looked just like her. That was wonderful news!!! That meant that she wasn't adopted! She was kind and selfless. Her mother was kind as well, and... wow! Arlette wasn't sure if her mother adopted children though. Arlette believed Nikai was really her brother.

"My mother is much like that! I think she would adopt pups as well, she loves being a mother. Sometimes too much," she admitted with a smile. "Not sure if mom ever did, though." Arlette slowly nodded. "But!! My grandma seemed pretty great! No wonder we remember her through the Mother Stone," Arlette thought out loud. "Mother recently brought her bones to our standing stones. We remember wolves that passed and try to take lessons from their lives," she explained with a soft smile. Her eyes then widened. "You should see the stones!!! Oh!! AND! And meet my mother. I bet she would love meeting a friend of her mother!! You want to meet her as well?"

Arlette didn't think that the news of her grandmother's death was such a shock. She didn't know her, only as someone who passed. Hence why she touched on it so briefly. "Can you tell me more about her? Anything would do!!! I'd love to hear more about her," she then pressed on. They could totally talk about it while she walked with him to the borders of Easthollow, if he would want to meet her mother.

Malachi wasn't able to offer smiles and nods where such gestures were due; every word Arlette offered only settled against him like a sweet yet heavy burden - sweet, knowing that Scarlett had remained true to herself even after she had experienced the betrayal of Duskfire, but heavy, for he had never been able to forgive himself for being one amongst those who had turned their face from her.

At some point in the young girl's spiel, the man sunk to his haunches, and his gaze fell from Arlette to settle on the snow. He didn't mean to look at anything in particular; in fact, he hardly registered how long he'd been staring at the ground at all. The youth's words phased through his ears, and while he heard her, his thoughts beat their rhythem like a sombre dirge.

Scarlett was dead, and if she had already turned to bones, then she had been dead for a very long while already.

A part of him had known, but the truth came no less easy. Scarlett was dead, and he could not change that.

There were many great lessons his friend could have taught her granddaughter; there were many great lessons Malachi could share in her stead, but why should such an honour fall on him? He felt he no place to speak on her behalf - and he wondered, had she passed in quietness and peace? Or had the violence of the world overtaken to destory her in the end?

He hardly counted himself worthy to be speaking with Arlette, and even more, to meet Scarlett's daughter, but he realized he missed his old friend, more than he had known, and carefully, he nodded.

"Yes, yeah. I'd like to meet your mother, and... I'd also like to see where your grandmother is buried. I... I didn't know she passed," he said softly, and he felt a twinge of heat, hearing Arlette call him Scarlett's friend. He hoped the winter queen had died counting him as one.

He rose to his feet, and when he turned to look upon Arlette again, he offered her a soft yet sad smile. "It would be an honour to share her life with you, or... what little pieces I know - but, let me save those stories for when we're with your mother. I'm sure she would like to hear them, too..."

... and he wasn't so sure he'd be able to do this twice.

Would you like to fade out and start a new thread in EH? <3 I loved this so much <3

Yes totally! You can make a thread in EH Borders, and then I will reply with Valette. I might ppc Arlette haha

She noticed that the male had been looking away from her. Perhaps she was giving him too much information. Or maybe he didn't know that she passed. Arlette watched the male before her with a curious expression. When he finally talked it was revealed that he didn't know that she had passed. It was like she assumed. "I'm sorry. I would have told you more carefully," she admitted, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Arlette nodded eagerly. "That sounds wonderful," she spoke more softly. "I will show you the way," she offered with a smile and then stood to lead the way for the male to Easthollow borders.