Sea Lion Shores Sister’s in the drive in movies, brother’s at the old high school.

Miranda's question provoked a laugh; smoky and bitter like the last chestnut left in a fire far too long. "It happened before that." Her gaze swept the misty sea, wondering if it was even worth telling this story again. Every time she reincarnated the tale, she breathed life into it anew;

life into her nightmares anew;

"My mother lived by the sea before I was born." Her gaze flickered lazily from stormy beach to Miranda, wondering if he had such a legacy. "She lived north, a brackish cliff forested by giant trees called Ankyra Sound. That was her home. " How alien the word felt on her mouth when she was but a vagrant: "First came a bear to chase her off, then wolves who took up the cliff besides her -- and then a bear again. I was but a few months old at the time when the bear came the second time."

And how that memory was seared into her, cruel and everlasting as a brand.

"We were forced uphill by the water. We went to a place with beautiful stones, and a beautiful queen met us -- but her heart was cold, and she turned us away. We were starving, and rain swept across the hinterlands in furious droves.

My father died during the move. Wouldn't you know, I don't think I ever saw rain until we were on the road. A flash flood; it stole him and my brothers away as if they had never existed." A slow blink accompanied by a soft exhale. What she wouldn't give to be held by her father again, scolded, even carried back to the den between his jaws..

"We made it to a plateau. They took us in, but did not love us. Eventually, it became apparent their leaders were soft -- my mother challenged their rule, and we were outcast." Raleska paused, inspecting Miranda with eyes too clinical to be called warm. "That is but the first part of the story."

"Have you ever starved, Miranda?" She allowed him a moment to answer, before she turned her cheek and peered at some distant thing in the rolling fog. "We did. My mother. Me. We went west, back to the shore -- and it was there my mother found Rosalyn and Erzulie.

Funny thing, that. Did you know, my mother and Rosalyn had been packmates well before I was born? No love lost there, between those two -- my mother would sooner sink a tooth into Rosalyn's spine than feed her, and I suspect Rosalyn held her fair share of embitterment." Yet it had never spilled over to Raleska. "We swung north again; my mother had an obsession with that place, you know. Ankyra. She held it in her bones, and now it holds her bones in it -- but we went home. Only, wolves had come to the cliff -- wolves of an order called Drageda. They harassed us, attacked us -- even stole Rosalyn from us. That is how her face came to be like that. Enemies right outside our home who would sooner kill us than let us live in peace." She grit her teeth. "We went one day to rescue Rosalyn - an invasion.

I watched my first death that night. Strange thing they don't tell you - I relive it every day. He died at sunset -- and not a sunset since have I closed my eyes and not seen the throat of my packmate ripped from him by wolves better called monsters than kin.

We prevailed, though." Raleska's muzzle lit in a rare smile which curved ugly and unkind around a thin snout: "Their leader committed suicide -- and like that, it was as if they'd never been there at all."

There was so much more -- but for now, Raleska stopped and waited for any questions.

She shared what little else she was comfortable sharing - Miranda was a decent listener, but after a time Raleska grew tired of talking. She closed her story with a bitter shrug of a shoulder and pointed back to Rusalka. It was nearing dusk, and she suggested they head home.

I tacked on an ending since I noticed Miranda was inactive, but if you'd like to continue this thread let me know <3