Ouroboros Spine let me hear you sing

galana wanted nothing in this moment, utter content settling onto her troubled mind. perhaps it was her body's desperation for the sweet sleep she awoke from that kept complicated things away. her company tonight was the glittering lights from above. so high, so far- complete wonder would always envelop her nights.

the complexity of the sky quieted the thoughts she did not wish to think of. there was only the ambience of the night. she had not strayed far from the ulax, resting on the ground with her head upturned.

The isbjørn prowled at night, keeping the borders safe when the sun went down. There wasn't much to do; he marked most heavily where the borders faced the far reached of the Great Bear Wilderness, leaving the borders where the scent of the moon villages mingled a little more ambiguous.

He was thinking about Morningsong. Thinking that he should visit, except not before Minnow returned home. She'd not been gone too long, but he was anxious already that she might not return. He couldn't sleep knowing she was out there, so close but so far. It used to be he'd push his back against Dutch's when things got like this, and the panther would tell him a fanciful tale to set his mind at ease. For all they'd supported each other through the years, though, they'd never really seen eye to eye. But even if he was settling quickly into this more grounded (and yet somehow more lonely) existence, he supposed he still missed Dutch.

He wandered back when he'd tired himself out, mind still whirring away with worries. He came to the ulax, where he slept nearby under the open sky, most days —

"Didn't mean to wake ya," he said in a hoarse voice when he saw eyeshine in the dark. But, now that someone was awake, he settled himself nearby in hope of conversation.

❝don't worry, i've been up.❞ she affirmed his apologies were unneeded.

galana had heard his approach, ears turned his way. she hadn't seen much of the man since her return to moonglow. there was no familiarity with valiant, but the energy the pale wolf carried eased her usual anxieties of interaction. her gaze turned towards him, pausing for moment to marvel at the reflection of moonlight from his fur. it was ghostly.

❝we haven't gotten to speak much at all.❞ he was welcome to sit beside her, she wanted to keep her mind from drifting towards thoughts of sakhmet.

Valiant had suspected as much, but it was a relief all the same to hear that he'd not disturbed her rest. It seemed that she, too, was struggling to put her mind to rest.

Up close, he identified her easily enough. Galana, the youngest daughter of Aiolos and Kukutux. (He'd not yet realized there had been anyone else in the equation.) She was close in age to Ajei, and Valiant thought it must have been hard on her when Galana disappeared — and he could only think that something terrible had happened, given his background.

It was good she was back. Valiant felt fiercely glad for it even being perfect strangers with the girl.

"No, we ain't, have we," he agreed, stretching his paws out before him to lay sphinx-like at conversational distance. "My name's Valiant. I joined with my sister not too long ago. Still gettin' to know everyone." He laid his head on his paws, and there was a sparkle of humor in his eyes as he plead his excuse: "I'm shy."

And he was, really — even if that was not the word he liked to use.

"You're Galana?" he said, an uptick in pitch at her name even though he was sure he was right. "Ajei said you got back not long ago."

galana's tail stirred the dust with a few thumps as her companion for this night settled down. she smiled at the way he articulated his words, she hadn't heard much like it. she'd thought it as charming. at his excuse and drop of his head to his paws he’d pulled a laugh from her. how long had it been since she’d done that?

❝that’s my name.❞ she shifted to move her back legs out to the side, resting on her elbows.

ajei was a name and individual she found herself familiar with, but the time they’d spent apart created a space between them she didn’t know how to cross.

❝well valiant, i’ll be walking the same steps as you.❞ she let him know she knew who he was. 

just like him, it felt like she’d was still getting to know everyone.

❝it’s weird to love wolves i don’t truly know.❞ galana spoke with a pensive smile, her gaze wandering back towards the stars.

she’d been away for so long, things had changed. her brothers had changed, or grown; she’d thought of the two things as synonymous and it was a bitter taste in mouth.

Valiant's ears flicked as if tickled by a fly. He heard the same sort of poetry in her words as he often heard in his cousin's. Walking the same steps. He liked that, though. It did make him feel just a little less like the goal was insurmountable.

"I know it," was his quiet reply; commiseration, as Galana spoke of her love for familiar strangers. "It's lonely, ain't it? Havin' someone so close again, 'cept somehow you're years'n'years apart."

He watched her face; the stars were reflected in her eyes. Valiant felt no need to look up at them. The world above had little to do with him.

"But that's just perception, ain't it," he went on. "If you reach out and touch 'em, well — they're right there, sure enough."

she swallowed hard at his words. galana wanted to tell him. she wanted to tell him that he was right: it was so lonely. the girl felt his eyes on her, but it didn't feel ordinary or plain. she felt she had never been more seen.

when he continued and told her that they were right there, that she could reach out and touch them and they'd be there she lowered her gaze back to his face. a loaded pause settled between them, her ears flattening to her skull.

❝they just seem so far, ya know?❞ an exaggerated sigh followed as she tried to send the heaviness that pressed on her out with just one breath.

❝it's almost easier to talk to you- well, i mean so far. chickadee too. strangers, not- well you know. i haven't done as much talking as i think i should be with them.❞ galana said in a nonchalant and whiny tone altogether, shifting to roll onto her side and gaze upward once more.

Valiant gave a little sigh in acknowledgement. He knew what she meant. He wasn't exactly sure on the answer to that side of things, but he could give her his best guess.

"A lotta worthwhile things take effort," he murmured, worried, suddenly, that Minnow might overhear. "But if you ain't good at talkin' to them — maybe try doin' things. Make memories again. Eventually, you'll have plenty to say."

But that eventually was a cold comfort, wasn't it?

"Is there somethin' you wanna talk about that you feel like you can't say to them?" he asked then, allowing his mind to drift to that fearful blank space in her history. He preferred to think she'd simply gone out of existence to drift in lonely limbo for a time — but he knew it was likely far more complicated than that.

❝i don’t know how it’d help if they knew.❞ galana hummed in a continued exasperated tone.

her mouth was pulled tight in a thin line and she clicked at the silence. trying to pull the words together in her mind was difficult. she’d responded to his latter question, though acknowledging his advice of actions with gratitude and plans to later execute them. galana knew what he was addressing though, the seasons she was away for.

❝i wasn’t like outright stolen or anything- or maybe? i don’t know. i just… i went out pretty far by myself. it’s embarrassing really. i met some wolves, they asked if i wanted to go with them- see the ocean. sounds sketchy, i know. i didn’t know. we never went to the ocean. we went pretty far, and i knew if i tried to go back i wasn’t going to make it. i was scared and they kept saying they’d take me home, but they were running from something. one of them had done something real bad and we couldn’t turn around. i still don’t know why they kept me around, or why they were so scared of taking me home.❞ she paused for a moment, to catch her breath.

she wasn’t talking all that fast, but the story weighed heavy on her. the two men, strangers then not, she thought of them. those two grew to four- to five and it was always others they’d known.

❝it turned into weeks real fast. they fed me and taught me stuff and they fought each other an awful lot. this one lady, she was really nice to me- would always have whisper fights with gray and mida. the ones that found me. i could never really figure out what they were saying. i still don’t even know what all that was. but i ran fast, real fast, val. gray told me moonglow wasn’t home and that everybody leaves home, that they gotta leave home at some point and find a new one. i didn’t like that. they could be scary. i didn’t want to be scared all the time. moonglow wouldn’t hurt me when i would mess up, and i kept thinking about that. at one point i just kept walking with them as a choice but when they started killing i ran.❞

the nomadic pack- gang? whatever it was kept her around for intentions unknown to little galana. they’d dug themselves into her heart, always short of family, but nearly there in some twisted way. the morals they held were good enough to keep her alive, but not enough to take a frightened child home.

The story disturbed him. He couldn't think of many reasons a group of thugs would want a young girl around, and all the ones he could think of seemed to have not yet come to pass. And she was home now — that thought settled the stiff rise of his hackles, though he still felt a strong urge to run back to guarding the borders at once. He was, he thought, doing more good right where he was.

"I don't think you should be embarrassed," he said after a long moment. "You're judging yourself with some hard-won wisdom. Wisdom you didn't have when you were younger."

He offered her a wan smile.

"And I hate to tell you this, but you've got at least a few more months of dumb decisions ahead of you," he told her, "if we're goin' by my calendar. I think I didn't grow any real sense 'til I was halfway through my second year."

But, jokes aside, he could not bring his mind away from the bulk of her story.

"I think we're all real lucky to have you back," he said, serious once more. "But Lana, your family — " How should he put this? "What they're imagining is worse. And it gets worse every night they go to bed wondering. This is your story, and you can keep it to yourself if you want. But I think the wondering might be stoppin' up their throats even more than yours."

valiant offered relief, the idea that she didn't have to think of it the way she did any longer. she shifted from her side to rest on her legs once more, looking at him with a smile short of bittersweet. though as he continued, mentioning her family once more, her skin felt tighter.

❝i don't know how to tell them, but i think they know that.❞ she said with down turned ears. ❝i will though.❞

she wasn't sure how they'd react. galana hoped it would be similar to valiant's taking of the story. he was kind. 

❝thank you, val. i needed to hear it.❞ she didn't need to blame herself anymore.

Valiant didn't envy the young woman the burden that she carried. He knew as well as anyone how difficult it could be to talk about things. Even simple things sometimes escaped him, and he found himself silent when he should have spoken.

But he'd spoken this time. Maybe the willpower would carry, and Galana would find her voice when she needed it, too.

"Of course," he replied, his own ears splaying in embarrassment even though he was pleased to have been of use.

Do you mind if we close this one soon? I am hoping I will feel less overwhelmed when more of my threads are present dated. Sorry for the delay!