Sun Mote Copse Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger

The way Wraen spoke, she sounded like she had a good deal of experience dealing with others, in particular with troubled teenagers. Most wolves might have taken her calm assurance as enough proof that she had the experience and knew what she was talking about- after all, she made perfect sense. Teenagers were a handful, everyone knew that- but Wraen was able to see past the trouble to find out perhaps why those troubling behaviors were there, and was also able to bypass cruel judgement and acknowledge that sometimes kids were just tough to get along with because they were going through a tough time, or were simply being beligerent because they hadn't learned otherwise. Regardless, she seemed to have most things pegged right on the mark. 

But Niamh had to wonder exactly how much experience Wraen did have- because she was a bit skeptical by nature, and didn't really like it when others knew more than she did. She often saw advise as a means of flaunting knowledge, and was stubborn enough to turn her nose up and do things her own way. So when Wraen- who, to Niamh's knowledge, had no children of her own- spoke to Niamh about teenagers being rowdy to Niamh like they were both on the same sort of plane, Niamh wasn't exactly inclined to lean in, bump shoulders with her leader and agree...Even though technically, she did agree with everything Wraen was saying. She was hesitant to agree simply on the basis that she didn't believe that Wraen could really know what it was like to raise a child when she herself had none. Why try to be a part of the tired Moms club when you weren't even a Mom? She put on a smile, even though it was false, and nodded. This was something she'd rather talk with Finley about- or anyone else that had kids. It just didn't seem as real coming from a wolf who had no kids. 

Her eyebrows raised when Wraen spoke about being a handful as a child, so when this was mentioned, Niamh was able to issue a real laugh as she shook her head. "I dunno," She said, "I have a hard time picturing you as a rebel," She said wryly, giving her leader a good look up and down. She certainly didn't seem like the type who would have been disobedient, disrespectful or rebellious in any way. Niamh imagined Wraen as being fairly demure and quiet as a child, the way Nellie had been...And that thought made her smile fade and her heart ache. "Some kids are just...Naturally good." She commented softly as a sidenote, turning her gaze away again. That being said- how good of a kid had Nellie really been to run away on her own like that? 

There had been no signs of a struggle when Nellie had disappeared. It was very late at night when Niamh had eventually gone searching for her- as her daughter usually returned to the den to sleep not long after dark. Supposing perhaps that her adolescent was simply out playing a bit later, she'd given the girl more time- but when too much time dragged on, the over-protective mother had gone off searching. She'd asked everyone she saw if they'd seen Nellie that day, and when it was that they'd seen her. The answers were somewhat vague- and not what she had hoped for. She'd wanted one of them to say that Nellie had simply been playing with their kids, or that they'd seen her off doing her own thing. But it seemed that Nellie had spent most of the day on her own, or out of sight- and when Niamh went around the borders to check for any sign that her daughter had left, she'd found a single set of her daughter's tracks leading out of the copse. 

She'd followed the trail, but it had begun to fade by the time Niamh started following it. She could only guess, then, that Nellie hadn't stayed in the pack all day that day, then- and that she had wandered off directly toward the borders when she'd left that morning. Niamh was at least 10 hours behind her daughter by that point, and as soon as Nellie's tracks crossed a river, she was unable to find where she'd come out on the opposite bank. Too much time had passed, and the water had cleansed her daughter, making it much more difficult for Niamh to pick up her scent again. She'd roved here and there, calling out for Nellie, hoping that she was within earshot and that she might come home- but from what Niamh could tell, her daughter had set out with the intention of leaving and going out on her own. She was too young yet to make it on her own, and as the days grew colder, so grew Niamh's fear that Nellie would never come back.  

For days her mind had been full of questions. Why had Nellie left- didn't she love her mother and her brother? Had there been any signs that Nellie had been unreasonably unhappy, or that she might leave? Had she asked any questions or said anything that might indicate that she wanted to leave? What was the last thing she'd said to her daughter? Had she told her that she loved her that morning? They hadn't argued...They never argued. But had she said something to Bronco in front of Nellie that had made her decide to leave? She wasn't sure she would ever get the answers to those questions, and it made her grow a bit colder, knowing that potentially, there might have been something she could have seen, said, caught or done to make her daughter stay, or to realize that her daughter was planning something. Maybe if she'd been a better mother herself, her daughter would still be there...And maybe had she been able to control Bronco more, she might not have felt the need to take him on a mother-son trip when he'd been young...And if they hadn't gone, maybe Colt wouldn't have gotten in a fight with Kiwi, and then maybe he would still be alive. It occurred to Niamh that there was really no use dwelling on those things- but dwell she did, regardless. 

She'd spaced out a bit, losing herself to her grim thoughts for a few moments while Wraen spoke, before she eventually tuned back in- just when Wraen talked about the borders, which they currently patrolled, and about the world beyond the lands they had claimed. Yes, the world was big out there- much bigger than Niamh wanted it to be. If only it was smaller, maybe she would be able to find her daughter. She simply uttered a small grunt and nodded in agreement, still somewhat lost in her reverie.