Moonspear by a route obscure and lonely

“That’s weird,” was on the tip of Cypress’ tongue, but he stifled it in deference to the girl’s feelings. “Huh,” he murmured thoughtfully instead, trying and failing to put himself in Alya’s — and apparently by extension, her sisters’ — shoes. He and Rannoch had been inseparable in their youth, but even before their forced estrangement, they’d begun growing apart ever so slightly as they explored different places and met new wolves. The hollow raven simply couldn’t comprehend the bond Alya shared with her sisters — and, if he was being honest, it made him feel a little uneasy. She’s special, he realized with a boatload of dismay.

“Well,” he said haltingly, “I know you. I know you. I don’t know them.” Shifting his weight, he made to draw her closer against him as a bitter winter wind rocked him where he sat. It made sense, he guessed. In every physical aspect Alya and her sisters were identical — they came from the same parents and lived in the same pack; they looked the same, probably spoke the same, maybe even thought the same — but the idea that he might make a mistake was terrifying. He’d made so many mistakes, and every single one of them had ended up in someone leaving or dying. Though he couldn’t see much from this angle aside from black fur and pert ears, he stared hard at the girl as if by doing so, he could espy some surefire way of telling her apart. It would’ve been better if she had a scar or something. Maybe — would she — no.

“I broke my family — I broke it.”

“I live nearby,” he answered quietly, glossing over her first question as he turned it over in his mind. “Maybe a day and a half north.” He hesitated briefly. “I don’t want you to go looking for me,” he told her plainly. For now, at least, Alya was someone he didn’t have to share with Rannoch — better than Lucy in that she saw him and knew him and didn’t know his bigger, stronger brothers and cousins existed. He amended that there were almost certainly bigger, stronger wolves in her own pack — including her father — but unless she went poking around Neverwinter Forest, she wouldn’t see what a poor option Cypress was.

He certainly appreciated the idea of a password and told her so. “I like the way you think,” he said, his voice warm with an unspent chuckle. “If I meet one of your sisters, what do you want me to do?”