The Heartwood No one seems to keep

Heph considered the first question that came to her, she found it strange that they would trouble her for her intentions more broadly. Perhaps if she wanted to pass through, perhaps if she meant them trouble but what did these wolves who had chosen to tie themselves to a piece of earth and the wolves that resided there care about wandering hearts? As if life were something one sought rather than something that happened, as if the sum parts of a world of a wolf were more the wolf than the world, as if the sun had risen each morning. She might have laughed for either one of them, but then the smaller of them approached.

Her movements were fluid and not quite like a wolf, but she let her circle, keeping her eyes and head tilted to catch the tips of her ears as she tracked around her, but keeping her self facing the larger of the pair rather than present her flanks to him. It was not that the smaller did not present a threat, but as her words also slid around her she gathered that it was more to unsettle her and threaten than actually sneak. Again her intentions. This canine wished to read her nonchalance as hesitance, her lack of a destination as a lack of purpose but Heph had not the words to explain that those were mistakes. She spoke of ultimate achievement as if there was such a thing that had any more meaning, any more finality to it than the ocean's surface, unless this entire ultimate achievement and settling was all this little one's way of asking Heph why she did not just keel over and die - the true settling. The grey toned wolf thought that might be plausible although it seemed more vague than her many other threats.

Before she had the chance to answer, toeing that edge between outright mockery and a genuine response she is not even sure is something she can believe anymore, a third wolf appeared, this one was large as well his stance so outrightly dominant that it tells her he wants to be seen that way. He asked questions with a flatness that makes them sound like statements, the intonation all off and making her half miss all his words. And his voice moved from a raspy rumble that spoke of thirst to a deep purr that spoke of a hunger she does not know what for. She could tell from the light that caught in his eyes that he found it amusing, whatever suffering he thought she felt or was about to feel.

Wishes are for stars. Her mother had told her gently, tongue on the top of her head when she told her she wanted to go past the edge of the clearing. Wishes are for stars. Her sister had said, resigned, during one of their many talks. Wishes are for stars. Her brother had said as they lay beneath a blanket of wishes.

She could not choose what to want, no one could choose what they wanted, wolves wanted things, they wanted them fiercely and sometimes they wanted them weakly. No, if wolves chose anything it was what to do with those desires. Her gaze flickered over his chest, his teeth, he had said teeth were useful and he did have pretty teeth she thought. "I've nothing against learning more but I would just as well pass on when" Her gaze flickered, for a moment, to the two others before snapping back. Traveling was lonely, meeting other loners, meeting wolves at the edges of their territories. For all the subtle and less subtle threats and the deep low growls and snapping gazes and biting words it sparked something in her to have exchanged words with these wolves. As everyone was wont to there was a mercurial shifting to them, their speech and their movements. And that cemented it in her mind. Her voice was soft but flat, lacking the forced levity or the natural edge or even the hesitance of before, almost an afterthought as if it slipped out without her awareness "the world moves and so do I." Her shoulders gathered tension as if readying for a shrug but the motion refused to complete itself and she let the words hang in the air, let the moment hang in the air. Really with this third wolf, with the threats and the words and the cryptic questions she could not see past the moment.