Stone Circle vinur

she looked for @Inkeri now.

the woman had traveled, she was a proven member. bjarna wished, so badly, she could give the woman more — or that perhaps they could be more! it felt like acquaintances, only pack mates and nothing more.

this must be remedied.

so she came with a soft gift of a rabbit fur.

[

Inkeri shifted through the pack lands. Eyes on the horizon as they grew ever smaller. Fearful if what may come, but anxious to hold tight to what she knew.

It was the princess if the pack that caught her attention and ahe turned with a small smile. Searching for the words hello.

Hallo

inkeri was beautiful.

wolves were.

she wished to speak, but she couldn't! her mouth carried the pelt she had brought as a gift. so carefully she set it down within reach of inkeri.

hallo. a bit sheepish, but her tail swayed. for you.

Inkeri wished the younger girl could see how lovely she was. She was half wolf it was clear, but she was beautiful all the same. It bothered her, how small the she wolf tried to make herself. Inkeri knew that well.

Thank you! Her tail waved behind her. She tried to think of the words to say it in Icelandic. Þakka þér fyrir

her cheeks flushed, flattered that inkeri tried so much!

i...speak. try speak. she laughed soft and embarrassed. it would be good for bjarna to have trusted figures to try to speak more of a common tongue with. that might not balk if she stumbled or said something off.

inkeri okay?

Inkeri smiled at the girls admission that she would try. She shifted. it is hard. I know. Know.

Inkeri gave a grave nod. She had learned the common tongue and still had trouble. It was hard to find the right words for a vast language where many of the same words had different meanings and some words had words that meant the same thing. The common language was just difficult.

Ink is very well. Happy. Content.Content.

she did not wish for anyone to struggle, but it was good to have shared it. to have somebody who would understand her better.

but happy! bjarna knew this word. it gave a smile to her face. her paws softly tapped in that doggish way.

good, she exhaled softly.

inkeri do?

what had the skáti kept herself busy with?

Inkeri's life had been full of struggle. IT was nothing new. But she felt she had handled it very well for the most part.

She tap tappity at the ground. It brought a small smile to Inkeri's lips. How quaint. She liked this girl.

Hunt.Hunt. Travel. Travel. Watching. Watching. Met Merry and Icarus. Will go to sea with merry. Merry.

She ahd met Merry and Icarus and Merry would take her to the sea. He had promised. But he had disappeared on her again.

hunt.

travel.

watch and sea. these things she knew and understood. however she had never heard the words merry or icarus before. often times unknown words were complex or names. things she could not have known without a second helper.

ah, uh...meer...merry?

Inkeri nodded her head. She was enjoying learning to do for herself. She had alwalys been with someone, but she was learning that it was okay to be alone sometimes. And truthfully, she was finding care for herself that before she wouldn't have had. it was a growing process.

Friends. They are friends. Turmeric is name. Name. But call him Merry. Merry. Icarus is name. Name.

what were friends?

an inherently sad question to ask, perhaps. yet bjarna did not even know how to ask it fully! thankfully inkeri said names and now had the knowledge to know that these two words were indeed names.

sea, she spoke softly now. merry...from...sea?

gunnar had once been and she ached for the fluid speaking of her father now, wondering when it would strike her. as if it were merely part of puberty and not a learned skill.

Inkeri would have loved to explain what friends were. She would talk at length of who they were and what they wee and why. She and Bjarna were friends.

She shook her head. Thinking. Merry from down mountains. Mountains. She pointed with her paw the way he had come.

Gunnar is from sea, yes? Yes? She thought the man had said that once, but she could be wrong. Bjarna from sea?Sea?

gunnar. sea.

bjarna. sea.

sometimes she wished, maybe. wished that perhaps gunnar had been her blood father and sanja had birthed her with him at the sea. it was a clumsy wish. one formed from insecurities.

gunnar sea. her head nodded carefully with a little smile.

bjarna...here.

not truly, but it didn't matter. she had only ever known kvarsheim as home and that was what mattered most.

inkeri?

Inkeri could understand the wish to have different parents or to accept adoptive parents in lieu of your own. It was hard.

Inkeri shook her head. Far away. Away. With sister. Mother and Father. We were forbidden.

Inkeri looked down sadly. Unsure how to verbalize her life. It was full of shame and pain.

away.

she wondered where. what it was like to be born elsewhere and come from somewhere so far away. a life of seeing things before one settled.

travel? see?

did inkeri ever think of the things bjarna did?

not that bjarna had ever learned where she had first come from.

Inkeri had not paid very good attention to what had been as she and Anja had walked. But she tried to remember for Bjarna.

Yes. Mountains. Mountains! Big hills! Trees. So many trees! Strange animals. Animals! Rivers that froth and bubble. Bubble. Small little creeks.

She tried to show as well as tell so that Bjarna understood, she didn't know if she was doing well or just looked like a fool.

it was good that she repeated words, if you asked bjarna.

it helped with the learning curve of some of them. especially when inkeri moved with her words. this way she could place a visual to them.

to know that mountain was a big thing, like in the distance. rivers and creeks like the one in their home.

she smiled wide and warm.

inkeri see! much!

bjarna did not know how to convey how she too wished to see all of these things. up close and personal, not something in the distance.

instead she only softened her smile some and settled into a cozy silence.

Inkeri smiled. And panted gently. The movements having tired her out a bit. She nodded.

I have. Have.

Then she pushed a paw at Bjarna. I show. Show. Bjarna. Bjarna?

Inkeri would like to show the girl this and there was enough around here of all these things, just within walking distance a few days at most. Perhaps if she could show her. Maybe Inkeri herself wouldn't be so frightened all alone.

show. soon.

for she could not leave now! not when new faces trickled in and she felt, improper or not, that gunnar still needed her.

his work could always be halved or more when she was here.

thank inkeri.

her features warmed beneath her ruffled cheeks.

Inkeri nodded. She would show the girl as soon as she was read to go. Most of these things only would take a day or two of time away. She knew her father was aging and unlike Inkeri's own father whom she had never met, they seemed close.

You're welcome. Welcome!

A soft smile in kindness. A gentle brush of nose to fur.