The Heartwood heart to heart

@Vaati

Alya had still never been to the dark wood where the Cerberus's newest ally resided. For more than a year, now, she'd lived beside it. From her lofty home, she could see the stand of trees, thick and insidious even from her own distant hearth. In her youth, she'd thought them only wolves - friends of her father, even. She remembered the dark girls that had come to the borders, their pale mother ahead of them. They'd been a family just like her own. As she grew, she'd thought very little of them - not when the Redhawks had been a much larger irritation.

But all that had changed when Vaati had attacked Rannoch. It seemed like so long ago. She could still feel that same indignation, but now, she saw that it was misplaced. Now, she was indignant that Rannoch had ever been thought worthy of her sister. Now, she was indignant that he'd survived to bring a Redhawk bitch into their borders, that he'd had the audacity to place her above Lyra in his affections. Now, her thoughts were for a different male... bloodthirsty and rather dashing.

Alya had returned to the last place she'd seen the gnarled young male, curious about what he'd done with himself since being spared by Hydra. Part of her wondered if she'd find his broken body in the black woods she travelled. That would be a shame, of course, but another part was quite certain he was alive and well. He was a resilient creature, Vaati; something that attracted the Ostrega girl all the more.