Phoenix Maplewood there is a girl in the lobby of a cheap hotel

her jaw loosens incredulously, tongue poised and ready to dish out the heated denial buzzing in her mind at her sister's false, self deprecating words but it falls lamely shut again when the night touched girl gets her voice in first. brows furrow, teeth pressing hard against each other; struck by such abhorrence to hear such things said about her fiery sibling even if they spewed from her own mouth. ears press tight against her head, wide look shimmering with the kiss of salty tears as toes press against the spongy earth that lainie's gaze fixates so woefully upon. lainie has always been the sprightly one of the bunch, vivacious and chipper in the face of anything...polaris..well she feels so inadequate in the face of it. she wishes to- no she needs to help her, make her see the lies sneering behind such a spiel but how? for how long has such a parasite festered within the guttering soul of the raven girl? how deep do its cruel roots dig?

she leans back, breaking the contact of their embrace to stand tall before the girl, chin tipped high despite its occasional wobble. "lainie tonrar- you are not weak, and if you disagree with me then you're calling me a liar and i don't take kindly to that. when it comes to your legs? i'm not going to pretend that that's not shit and that i am not so damn mad and upset at the world for doing that to someone as wonderful as you but the fact that you've dealt with that and yet still here you stand? that makes you stronger than anyone that's just had to stroll along your struggle. sure look at me, i have no excuse and yet i have yet to meet anyone as bad as hunting as me! and wolves aren't supposed to survive alone anyway, we are pack animals and we look out for each other. and you know papa better than that lainie, perhaps he thought you'd prefer if he didn't speak on it, he could be a bit socially awkward but he would never prefer you gone." a choked chuckle then as she added, breathless after such a vehement declaration "plus, if he didn't love looking after wolves then i don't think he'd put up with such an abundance of children, i've just been trying to look after one pup the past few weeks and it might just be the most challenging thing i've ever done"

her chest heaves, lustrous look fixed ardently upon the girl for a few moments before she blinks somewhat bashfully away, coming down from the high that had propelled that speech. ears splay as she runs a paw through intertwining blades of gossamer graced grass, a little smile pressing stubbornly upon trembling lips as she'd quietly lilt "yea i hope so, although somehow i really....i really feel like he did know. we've all gone through rough patches, the difference is that usually we've the time to mend them again...that time was robbed from us this time but surely he would've known that we were working towards it nevertheless, even if we were just that bit too late"

eyes travel to the bits of sky peering in through the rustling canopy, inhaling shakily. did he watch down on them like so many seemed to believe? or was that just a fruitless wish for those who could not accept that a soul died with its host. yet even so...her eyes drop back to the earth as she studied it silently; remembering her conversation with valette. if his vessel was returned to the earth in death then perhaps his soul lingered in the babbling brooks and curling ferns, it was a strangely comoforting thought.