Blackfoot Forest Can I get a witness?

@Leto!

Minna ran at breakneck speed along the border, tongue lolling and eyes gleaming. A storm was on ther way, and the air hummed with tension and energy. The dark clouds rolled on the horizon, promising revitalizing rain in the hours to come. Minna simply loved storms- the power, the beauty, the sheer unpredictablility. She had been spending time with Leto recently, and she was in a good mood. Slowing, she loped steadily toward the looming mountains, colapsing in a heap at a pile of boulders near the mighty mountain's base. Sitting, she lifted her head and howled for her firend, wanting to show him something, something simply amazing.

Leto was not much of a romantic, he had had a few flings that were mostly hit it and quit it style. Friends with benefits, lovers if you will. Except, Leto didn't do love. 

Minna though, she was different. Leto liked her as more than a friend, she was becoming his best friend in the short amount of time he had been here. Now he wasn't all hearts and roses for her, but there was something going on there.

Hearing the girl's call, Leto loped across the territory to stop at her side barely winded. "Hey, pretty." He greeted as usual, with a shortened version of his nickname for her.

Minna smiled at his quick approach. "Hey, charming" she replied in kind, eyes shimmering. An ominous boom of thunder, faint but closer then before, came from the clouds rolling towards them. "There is something I've been meaning to show you. It's amazing- you'll love it." She wagged her tail excitedly, hoping he would agree to come with her.

He chuckled lightly at her name for him, it was apt. Leto had been renowned for sweeping women off their feet, his charming nature had ferreted him out of the stickiest off situations.

Leto followed after her with a nod, curiosity filling him so that he was silent for once. He couldn't help but wonder what it was she wanted to show him, hopefully food was involved.

Minna delighted with his acceptance, and set off at a brisk pace toward the small opening, she had discovered quite by chance a few days ago. She had to peer at the rock face intently for a few minutes before finding it, and then scramble up into the opening. She stood in the entrance of a cool cave, waiting for Leto to follow. She could hear the familiar stir of water echo through the cave walls, and remebering the blue waters, with an encouraging word to Leto continued to move down the tunnels.
After a few minutes, she stepped out into the large open chamber. Still blue water filled the cave, it was faintly lit from above. Water tricjled down the walls and into the huge pool, Minna swung around and looked at Leto. "Well? What do you think?"

"Wow.." Leto breathed aloud, the spacious cave echoing his word slightly. It was beautiful, a pool of aquamarine only disturbed by the trickle of water from above. 

Leto moved to settle by the water, gesturing for Minna to join him. "Step up from Queen of the River, eh?" Leto joked, happy to let her keep the title.

Minna smiled at Leto's wonderment and went to sit beside him, brushing her pelt with his. She stretched her head forward until it almost toushed the waters edge, then twisted to look up at Leto. "Yes- you must know call me Queen of the Secret, Blue, Hidden Underground Cave Pool." Minna thought was was a title perfectly suiting her. Her tail wagged in amusment. "I wonder what makes the water so blue?"

Leto shrugged, curious about it but having no clue as to why the water was such a vivid hue. "Beats me, sure is pretty though." Though as he spoke he had only eyes for the beauty next to him. 

"Where did you come from?" His question was quiet, open for denial if she so pleased to shut down the talk of their pasts. Leto wanted to know her, wanted to know why Minna was the woman she was. What made her Minna?

Leto's voice bacame softer as he asked her about her past. Minna apprieciated the time to get to know each other better, and spoke in the same soft, serious voice. "I was born in Canada, to a pack that spoke German. It was a tight pack, just my parents and my siblings. We lived by a beautiful lake, and in the autumn it turned red, orange, and yellow with the reflection of the beautiful trees. I lived for many happy months there, until a great fire destroyed our home. In the chaos, I became seperated from them. That night, I heard their howls, far away, but I was seperated from them by acres of burning forest." she quivered slightly beside him at the memory, memories of her past family flooding her mind. "I howled back, but I don't know if they heard me. I was one, I think, so I set off on my own. I made my way here, eventually." She didn't tell Leto that she had seen her little brother consumed by flame as he tried to run toward her. She didn't tell him the trials she faced as a wanderer. Those, she reasoned, were in the past. It was time to focus on the future. 

She found it odd that she had confided in Leto so easily, perhaps it was just him that she felt comfortable around. "What about you?"

The usual joking was gone from his face, replaced by his rarer solemn look as he listened to her dad story. Even rarer still, Leto moved to place his head over hers in an act of comfort.

He didn't move from that spot as he spoke. "I grew up far to the north, in the land of always winter. My mother died birthing us and the Alpha female was kind enough to share her milk. My father raised us, trained me to become a warrior. A disease hit and after he died, I moved on with my two younger sisters. Liri and Ameta. We were only ten months old at the time and I..I couldn't take the pressure, I guess. I left them in the dead of night, in the midst of a storm so they could not find me. I spent the next two years at a different pack where I grew up. I dreamt of two tiny, white wolf pups crying out for me..I knew I had to find them."

He left nothing out, except for Ameta's death. He would tell her if she so wished to know..but she would hate him for it. Leto knew she would. Liri did.

The weight of his head over hers was what pushed the memories away, making her focus on the here and now. Then he begun to speak, and she was startled to learn that Liri was his sister. As he laid his past bare for her, she remained silent, remaining still. She considered his words, heard the pain in them. She carefully moved closer to him, then begun to speak in a soft voice.  "Leto, you were young. You were inexperienced and afraid, and your actions should not haunt you. I can tell you care and love your sisters by the regret in your voice, the regret that proves you a good person." 

She knew he was probably beating himself up over his past actions, she would that she probably would in his shoes. But who was she, to judge his actions, when she knew naught of how he had felt at that point in his life? She simply leaned against him, providing him the comfort that she felt she should give.

"Thanks, Minna." Leto whispered against her fur, a few tears gathering in his eyes. He knew he would always carry the weight of his guilt but Minna made him feel a little better about it.

"Some had stuff happened after I left them Minna, horrible things. I want there to protect them..Liri she was hurt because I wasn't there to stop the guy who did it. And Ameta she was killed by a bear.." A few tears trailed down his muzzle as he finally told her, faced up to what he had done.

Minna felt tears sink into her fur, she looked up to see tears dripping from Leto's muzzle as he confessed the consequences of her actions. Minna stilled, and began speaking in an even softer voice then before. "When I was running, when the fire seperated me from my family, my little brother followed me. His leg was twisted, it had been since he was young. I should have helped him, I should have done something. But I was terrified, and hesitated, and he died in the flames." Her body quavered as she held back her tears. "I was about the same age you were, Leto. Perhaps a little older. And it haunted me for months, what I had done. Even if it seemed hopeless, I was a coward to run. But one night, I thought about the fire, and my brother. I knew that my actions were partly to cause for his death, and that a piece of me would always be with him. It was then I decided to let go of my regrets. It does still hurt, to remember that night, but it is done. You can't go back and change it, your actions are part of you, and the best you can do is accept them and look to the future. My brother, though he could not run properly, was a dreamer, and longed to be an adventurer. When I wander, and explore, I do it for him, too." she lapsed into silence, exhausted. Staring at the beautiful blue pool, she leaned againt Leto, being a rock, an anchor.

UGH THEY'RE SO FRICKIN CUTE ASFKSHLEJ

He listened, enraptured. "I'm sorry..I'm certain he forgives you." Leto pressed no further than that, letting her lean on him in her exhaustion. 

All he could do was hope that Liri could find it in her heart to forgive him. He rested his cheek against the top of Minna's head, allowing himself to let go of his guilt and his sadness to let a warmth take over as he leaned against his best friend.

There was no past, no more if or had. There was simply now, and now was Leto and the beautiful pool and the stories they had shared. But they were simply that. Stories, that no one could change or omit. They where a part of her, a art of Leto, but just a part. They could not allow the past to grow so heavy it crushed them. So Minna put it out of her mind, she too end embracing the warmth that was now.