The Sentinels When you come and break my heart, free my blood.

Snuggling powerplay; I can change it if you have other plans!

Unsurprisingly, Lotte shared Dagfinn’s heartache; it was mirrored within her, its presence betrayed by an uncharacteristic listlessness that dimmed her argent eyes and siphoned away her song. The disappearance of the Bear hurt her deeply, though she would never have admitted it, and she felt more and more with each passing day that the forest could not be her kohtalo after all. She had said nothing at the recent pack meeting, when normally she would have jumped at the chance to immerse herself in the culture of the forest wolves, learning all she could that she might pass this knowledge to her children in song and stories. What is wrong with me? She meandered through the forest, tracing the few memories she’d made with poignant fondness.

A long howl rose then, and it did not so much shatter her miasma as soar up through it, the warmth and light it engendered thawing the chill of inactivity limb by limb. Tipping her head back, she returned his call with one of her own — and just like that, the spell was broken. She approached the territory borders at a walk — then a trot — and then she leapt skyward and broke into an outright sprint that did not cease even after she had her beloved kaksonen in her sights. She slowed enough that she wouldn’t knock him flat and immediately butted her head against his chest and collarbone, starting low and arching upward like a particularly zealous cat. “Kaipasin sinua. Kaipasin sinua niin paljon!”