@Dante
It had not been what had been done, but what hadn't, what couldn't be done.
When Amelie followed Blue Willow's footsteps happily along the edges of the Greatwater Lake she had genuinely thought she had found her forever home. She had been sure, maybe in a way that was too naive, that after the first night and the first time the Healer referred to her as daughter the deal would be sealed; that the mere fact of calling her 'mother' would make her such. But even if she admitted to herself that she had loved Blue more than she had loved her own birth mother, she knew that that love did not have the power to set their relation in stone.
No matter how she loved her, or how dear she held her in her heart Amelie's love could never compare to that of Blue's own kin.
She wanted children, not vagabond rescues like her.
With her head hanging low between her shoulders and her tail curled underneath her body, the girl swiveled her ears towards the man. Like Blue, he refused to ask her to stay and gave her free will to go, his best wishes even -- but like Blue he failed to acknowledge that what pained her was that once again a bitter goodbye showed her she had no strings to the Plateu; saying that she would be missed was a lie.
He wouldn't miss her when the only time they had spoken was to tell him she was leaving, and besides Blue, who had not even thought of her during all this time and would not for various weeks after she was gone, there was no one else to miss her.
"I doubt it" , she breathed between pained exhales, not really caring if he was able to grasp her sorrowful words or not. Would he tell Blue of this? That she had been lingering helplessly around the borders like a ghost?
"... Has she even mentioned me?" She blurted out not being able to silence the thoughts filling her troubled mind. "Sorry I --" she added quickly, her mind wanting to know the answer to that question but her heart fearing that she already knew.
"Tell her when her pups are born that I wish them all well"she finally mouthed, her voice coming out like a tired croak that soon died out, just like she would in the menacing cold that would come within weeks if she didn't find shelter.
Abandoned once and then another, the young vagabond turned her head after dipping her nose in farewell.
Like she had apparently faded from Blue Willow's mind, her image would soon fade entirely from the Plateu, leaving no trace of her presence or reminder of her existence among the 'happy home' that would become the Plateu with the birth of the pups.
