Stavanger Bay no thanks I already 8

I feel like this is not a very Lotte-ish post. x__x My brain is mashed potatoes.

“Doe Cairn,” repeated Lotte carefully. It was on the tip of her tongue — “ah, but I jest with you, tiny dancer, for Lotte Ansbjørn is my name!” — but she had come too far to change her mind now. Courage, she chided herself, wearing an expression of attentiveness that belied her inner turmoil, immerse yourself in your role! A warm smile shaped the bard’s generous mouth as the muse spoke lines of poetry wholly her own. “‘To celebrate each other,’” repeated the soot-stockinged hoyden, mulling over the words, rolling them about in her mind like baubles to be selected and cherished, “and to mourn those we miss.” Marbas was not a lingering character in Lotte’s play, but Dagfinn — ai, minun kaksonen! — Lotte did not know how long she could be happy living without her twin at her side. She could always trust him to keep her secrets and — well, quite simply, she could always trust him. Always.

“I?” she questioned rhetorically, and turned her attention to Chusi as the girl finished her tale. She bared as much of herself as she could to Doe, trading what information she dared for the information she longed to gain. “I come from a land where there is almost always snow,” she said in Kitku’s lilting mezzo-soprano. “We celebrate the hunt, a battle honorably won, the birth of new young — we celebrate life, and…” The English word eluded her for a moment, and her tongue worked furiously in her mouth to find it as her muzzle crinkled with indecision. “To live is to fight, to sing, to celebrate,” she fumbled, wishing Dagfinn was here to help find the word she lacked. Without him she was a passable bard, but an unfinished one. Helplessly she turned to Doe and shook her head. “Your common tongue turns my tongue to sap,” she admitted. “Every day is to celebrate. Celebrate as life dictates.” A smile broke over her features as softly she laughed at herself. What a mess she’d made of that reply!