Wapun Meadow learning that i’m deserving of love and the peaceful heart

indra fancied she saw something shift in merrick’s gaze, uncoiling — and then whatever serpent shade it was that riddled his eyes seemed gone. 

of course it was; she was so silly to think it was ever there in the first place — such a fretful, stupid woman. it was her son, her sweet darling boy — all this time in the wilds had made her a jumpy, paranoid beast.

guilt flooded her senses, sinking quick in the pit of her stomach. how could she have looked at him that way? as his mother?

a relieved smile, tinged with slight shame, threaded its way across her features. the defensiveness fluttered away, replaces by pure and unadulterated joy to see her son once more. it was just merrick; her boy. merrick, one eyed (and she would ask about that later, but still...), but here..

her baby, beloved boy.

me too, she breathed happily into that tense atmosphere, while little snowflakes doused her muzzle, hanging on the dark tips of her eyelashes. merrick, i missed you so much, i— she took a step forward to embrace him, and it was then he spoke of a companion, halting her steps. indra pulled back as a small figure pulled alongside merrick, darker even than the shadows that mutely flickered under the pines. indra’s gaze flickered from the wolf to merrick, a look of slow confusion dawning upon her countenance.

the girl, if she could be called that, looked at her in such a way it chilled indra to her bones. what had she done to deserve such a cold demeanor? indra tried to smile, tried to defuse the iciness that crept into the mood. hello, she attempted, vying for some shade of warmth in those fathomless eyes that stared back, unfeeling as a blackened pool. indra looked to merrick helplessly as no answer came, just an indifferent stare.

unsure, and trying so hard to hold onto her wuthering composure, indra connected the dots. this companion, mute — maybe a replacement for nunataq, or perhaps even ... reigi..?

she doesn’t talk? indra asked, feeling apprehension slip through her skin. she was not sure she approved — or even understood. giving the ‘companion’ ample time to answer of her own accord, indra felt an iciness grip her heart. she doesn’t talk. she repeated, her voice suddenly as cooled as the streamwater that gurgled aside them.