Lost Creek Hollow shrines

you write me these short but carefully laid out responses of fabulous prose and i respond with a word-vomit novel

MY B!!

there was, perhaps, only one other wolf in the world that could mete total vulnerability from indra besides laurel -- and that wolf was mona. indra rejoined mona's soft thrum with a quiet rumble, briefly coming to contact with the firebird's slim cheek before pulling back. the contact, short as it was, was brimmed with genuine affection -- mona was family to indra, regardless of lack of shared blood.

she hummed tunelessly as she inspected the quiet meaning in mona's words. the leadership shift hadn't rocked her, but stigmata's no-holds-barred speech had.. she too had been taken aback by laurel's sharp retort -- but in indra's eyes, sometimes a swift and exacting blow was all that was needed to ensure finality.. and as much as she had wanted (and how she had wanted) stigmata to absorb into their small clan, he simply was not of their mold...

nor they of his..


it troubled indra too that laurel remained unhappy, though indra had her own careful insights on the matter. it could be argued she knew her sister well enough to know the lack of control (which she had become accustomed to as well) ate at her -- but indra was confident laurel would eventually regain the rungs lost, and that someday, things would be right again.

(again? had they ever been right at all?)

"i wish things were different." indra conceded at length. "i think it'll take laurel a while to catch her stride. us too. and... once we find our feet and the dust settles i think things will be different. but i miss some things about bearclaw.. i hope the kids like it - i know a move like that is tough on them.." the kids by and large seemed okay, though selfishly, indra worried for merrick the most. he was younger than the others, and had gone from princeling to -- well.. pauper.