Swiftcurrent Creek close your pretty eyes, my butterfly

for @Soltero <3

she balances upon a thin precipice. to her back twirls the present in her frivolous display of startling vibrance, and before her lingers the slumbering past; unperturbed until this very moment as minute paws press against the very blades of grass that had once stood tall and adorned in the scent of swiftcurrent creek. 

"i'm home!" she declares with inadvertent vigour, as if challenging the frisky breeze to suggest that this place was no such thing. the french loiters sourly upon her tongue and she is quite suddenly convinced that the twisting air's whistles take the form of a smug snigger at such a ridiculous notion as to hope fruitlessly to hear her announcement returned by another. shoulders sag as she rattles a hasty inhale, quite suddenly grasped with the cowardly desire to flee away from this gateway and all its hungering ghosts. to this day all of her memories of swiftcurrent creek are of a time of unruffled bliss, a constant refuge for her mind to retreat to when all else seemed to be falling apart quicker than she could put it back together. if she ventured forth, she was risking replacing these images of radiant life with the stark truth of the corpse of her home. but...she does not turn away. 

for this is not her home, there truly is a place of vivacious tranquility that she can find sanctuary within. a place of the present, with real wolves and real possibilites, she could not rely on the what had passed to be her saviour. and so, picturing the verdant embrace of easthollow, her chin tilts upwards. the heavy sky weeps, delicate rain clinging tight to her pelt as it journeyed with her as she stepped across their fallen borders.

the lush aromas cradle her with each shaken step, lustrous eyes wide with rue as vague recollections prance before her vision. the twisting blades shiver where she'd once crouched with helios, chasing after buzzing crickets..and that clearing where she'd scuffled with lainie and zephyr, mama and maman watching on right beside....she passes hurriedly by the den area, the tightening of her throat an indicator in itself that there were some things that should be left only to memory. her paws shift mechanically, as if aware of her desired location before even her mind had caught up. 

the stream comes into sight, babbling and giggling away to itself as it roiled and danced; not a care in the world for the loss of the wolves that had once relied so wholly on its source. so much so that they'd been forced to flee at its demise, only for it to have returned to its full potent now as it gleamed and sneered at the dejected dove frozen before it. 

here was the first time she'd seen her papa let broad shoulder's sag in a moment of solitary weariness, where she'd come to accept that adults were not some invincible force in this bizzare world. her body thumps upon the damp earth, long limbs draped across the bank as she glared hard at the distorted image staring back at her. "where ever you's are mama, maman and helios...i hope you's are so happy. no matter who brings you that happiness i hope you's have found it, and papa..." she idly recalls the first unalloyed conversation she'd had with valette before whispering "the wolves of easthollow believe that the dead watch over them in their eternal standing stones, i think it's a really nice thought and, well i don't know when the water of the creek returned here but i'm going to decide that it did the day you became one with the earth, that part of your spirit is what has brought this place to life once more"  

she lapsed into silence then, feeling strangely at peace as the rain pattered softly around her and she gazed unwaveringly upon the river's eternal dance.