Wapun Meadow amappo

sorry to derail the cute father daughter trade thread with delulu

the figure grows more distinct as athalia gets closer to it and farther from ancelin. she can see the foreboding, cool gaze, the soft charcoal of its fur, the snow as it begins to collect upon its guard hairs. there is something so familiar about it — her. she speaks to her in a language she has never heard before; she smiles, but her teeth are like knives as she opens her mouth. hello, athalia.
the bearwolf freezes. she knows this woman; she knows, she does, she knows, but there is something wrong, something so very wrong — momma?
who is your friend, athalia? the figure steps closer, grows taller as she does so. the one you abandoned your name for? after all i did for you and your sister, this is how you two repay me?
athalia cannot move, cannot pry her eyes away from the kaleidoscope of her mother's. momma, she shouts it now, shouts it aloud to no one as if it may pull her from her spell if she says it loud enough. she thinks of what ameline had said to her once, that night she spent tucked up at the crest of her arm; you leave. ancelin stay.
you were meant to follow, the facade shouts. her voice hammers in athalia's eardrums, scraping, tearing apart from the inside out, and the girl winces; the apparition is impossibly large now, towering, reaching for her and yet pulling away simultaneously; i did not birth such a cowardly child! i did not raise a failure!

failure failure failure FAILURE

after she ducks to look for ancelin, her mother is gone.
she begins to weep.