think i can fly

It was him. Chehlia was relieved to have found one of her kin here, and she clung to him. It was only when he spoke that she mentally backpedaled. Had they left her? She did not think of it as that, just as she did not see Sumayl departing as leaving her. They simply struck off at different times. Chehlia had stayed in a fruitless search, ending it with the confirmation that her parents must be dead and gone. They could not be found, but the truth of it was she had not looked very hard even though she had looked. To see their burnt bodies... after finding just one unrecognizable carcass, she could not bear to keep hunting. But she lingered. What if they had hunted for her...?

So she withdrew to amend her own words. "I wouldn't put it that way," came her gentle words. It was true, if anyone needed protecting it was Chehlia, but she had wanted them to go to prove she could do something. As it turned out, she needed them after all. But Sumayl spoke again, and she could only smile. "You didn't, none of you did. I don't think of it like that. I just... I wanted to stay a little longer, was all," she offered, her voice breaking again. He would understand why. Chehlia had loved her parents with all of her heart. If not by the side of her siblings, she was with her mother or her father. She loved them both equally, and carried the duo in her now.

The Ostrega shook her head at his apology, "You shouldn't be, you didn't do anything..." She nudged him gently, hoping he'd understand that he hadn't done any wrong by her. Neither had any of her siblings. She did not think herself too forgiving, for there had been instances they had upset her in the past and she always was willing to let them know. But here she could be empathetic with them just wanting to go. Chehlia could not, not so soon. The pale wolf still grieved, but she understood that her parents would want her to live on despite their own passing. That was what brought her to find her brothers and sister, else she would have waited 'til she was skin and bones for her parents to come find her. At two, she understood the reality of the situation.

The thought made her press more into her brother, her heart heavy. "It took too long to find you..." a sigh.