Emberwood She said I'm coming over again, it's spinning in circles and I don't know how it ends

@Rosalie I decided to go ahead and get a thread posted for them, no rush though just whenever you've got time :)

The flames of a dying world - a sight that had greeted her in the same sheltered forest more than once - was replaced with the greenery of summer's onslaught. Flowers stretched tender blooms to the sun dappling through unfurling leaves, releasing sweet perfume as the northron passed. 

Returning to the Vale, her paws had grown sore and weary. The glade - warm and inviting - encouraged her to rest her feet if just for a moment. 

The pallid fae curled her soot-dappled spine against the trunk of a tree, sighing contentedly in relief as she ceased in her trip. 

Dark eyes slipped shut briefly, unable to detect the presence of any other within the wood, allowing the wind and birdsong to erase whatever worry lingered if but for a brief respite. 

The woman had only just felt comfortable enough to venture beyond the borders of the Creek. She preferred to stay near to Alessia and their children, and increasingly Kavik as well. They were all a family, and despite herself she found that she was happy. Exceedingly so.

Today though she was looking for a small adventure, her independent nature asking to be released if only for a couple of hours. Today she wandered north west, curious of the fire ruined wood that lingered on the outskirts of the pack lands. The world was attempting to revive the area and Lie found the idea extraordinary, as she marveled in the ability of the earth.

A strange caught her sight. The pale figure of another basking in the spring sun, the wind picked up around her and Lie turned to make her way back to her home. Even as she turned the mingled scent of Lie, Kavik, and Alessia would permeate the air. Briskly making its way to the slumbering woman in the slowly regrowing land.

The scent would bring her dark eyes to opening, would set her heart to pounding in anxiety. She'd been handling Kavik's betrayal better than could be expected, surviving and thriving within the Vale but the northron wasn't sure she was ready to face either of the dark Tonrars. 

Her gaze settled upon a slim red wolf, her form svelte and sharp much like a coyote but different somehow. 

Relief flooded her system, fearing it to be the distraught Alessia she had once encountered the winter before. 

"Has he taken another to wife then?" The Blackfoot would call softly, devoid of malice or cruelty, a knowledge burning in her mahogany gaze as she regarded Rosalie in curiosity. 

She hadn’t been prepared for any form of acknowledgement from the other canid. Most would have simply ignored the intrusion, as Rosalie hadn’t intended to disturb the woman. Now that she had though, Lie paused and turned back and curious brow raised. “Excuse me? The petit woman couldn’t place the northerners face, and held no recollection of her scent. Lie did not know who she was, nor of whom she spoke.

Lie refrained from venturing closer, suddenly feeling off. Her instincts told her to leave, leave the woman in peace and return to her family. But she was intrigued, who did this woman think she was.

It seems her question has struck a nerve - if the way the woman turns back, head leveling incredulously and retort sharp with offense, is to be taken at face value. A glimmer of confusion sparks in her woodland orbs - both in regards to the woman's response and the thought that perhaps her nose was mistaken - but it dims as quickly as it comes. 

Liri settles for raising her eyebrows in surprise, wondering how a simple inquiry could spark such fire, continuing nonetheless.

"Kavik," the northron clarifies, soft tones steady as if unperturbed and curiosity shining in her gaze as she awaits anger warily. "You smell as strongly of him as his new wife did," she elaborates further. 

"I didn't stick around to see the pups, of course," pale shoulders shrug at the obviousness of this decision though her mind wanders to the dark and broken girl she offered a weasel and well wishes to - despite her pain at coming face to face with her replacement. 

Be good to her, Kavik. She might have warned if she'd been able. She is too young, too kind for such sorrow.

"Liri," she offers, wondering if this might enlighten the red lady though she doubts it. "He probably doesn't speak of me." 

The words leave her lips as matter of factly as the rest, a strange smile of awkwardness offered alongside. 

It's neater that way, the healer supposes, to deny betrayal and bury mistakes never to be spoken of again. Better too, for the children. 

Lie had no idea who this woman was, or how she knew Kavik. Yet as she continued to speak the image became clearer and clearer, this Liri knew Kavik intimately. “He has never mentioned you.” Rosalie was confused, as she took a step closer to the woman. “I am Rosalie.” Common ground had been struck and it was easy to offer something of herself given that Liri had already shared so much.

“Who are you?” With a narrowed gaze, she was drawing conclusions that she didn’t like. Was this Kavik’s ex-mate? Was Alessia the other woman? What was going on? “Who are you to him?”

As the woman turned, introducing herself, Liri dipped her head in welcome - sensing now that the edge to Rosalie's words was the cause of confusion, not anger. 

"I'm not surprised," a strange, wry smile graced her features - that of a creature who has become used to abandonment. 

"I am Liri Blackfoot. Once, not so long ago, I was Liri Tonrar." 

"I was his wife. His co-Alpha upon the Plateau but then, I don't guess he mentioned that either." She smiles again, ever so slightly, as dark eyes flit to the trees in memory. 

"I met Kavik after returning to Teekon. I had left a year before after the death of my infant son. He was..kind. A good person. I loved him before I even knew him." She cannot deny the connection they had, even now with the realization that he was not all he appeared to be. 

"We were hunting when the thunderstorm came and we found ourselves lost. Somehow, we managed to gather other lone wolves and they became our family." A genuine smile of pure happiness, if not tinted with sadness, as she thought of her wolves - her kin. 

"But as autumn neared, I contracted greencough from treating an ill packmate. Two moons later, I stumbled out of the caves to find my pack gone - Kavik having fled with them."

"I scented him on the borders of Swiftcurrent Creek once I made it over the mountains but...he had gotten Alessia pregnant so I moved on, fled to the wilderness." The healer can find no emotion to muster as she nears the fateful end of their marriage - eyes distant as they linger upon the forest. 

The tale comes spilling out regardless of whether Rosalie wanted to know, regardless of whether Kavik wanted her to know. Liri could build no dam to ebb the flow and some part of her reckons that the slim, red lady deserves the truth. 

"I met her once, shortly after finding out about it. She seemed...so forlorn," the former Tonrar murmurs almost to herself, a furrow forming between her eyes. 

Her gaze returned to Rosalie curiously. "Are the children healthy? Happy? Forgive my asking, you need not answer if it makes you uncomfortable to speak of them." 

This woman is their mother as well, she has come to realize - the smell of younglings and mother's milk cloying her natural scent - and is loathe to push the boundaries of maternal protection yet she had worried over the fate of Kavik's pups, pups that might have once been hers. 

Liri Blackfoot. Lie’s jaw dropped at the realization of what the woman was saying. It was true, the man had a way of worming his way into your heart no matter how hard you tried to keep him out. Startled, Rosalie took a step back.

The woman’s story rambled on, and Lie grew more and more anxious and confused. He had left her? While in her darkest hour. Her heart skipped a beat, stricken by the thought. And Alessia had met her? What was going on? What had transpired between the three of them? She was lost, and confused, totally absorbed in the tale the woman was spinning.

When her conversation turned to the children, her children, Lie wasn’t sure what to do. Surely Alessia and Kavik wouldn’t want her to share much. But Lie felt for the woman, her story not so different from the pale woman’s own. “They are well, all four of them.” Lie lent a small smile. “I am sorry about what happened to you Liri. I know your pain.” Offering a kindred gaze speaking of the similar despair that had befallen them.

A breathe of relief; a weight lifts off her slim shoulders, one she had been unaware of with all that was on her plate. It was not her place to be concerned over the fate of Kavik's children but the healer could not withhold her anxities - not after her brief encounter with the heavily pregnant Alessia, not after absorbing the grief that plagued their entangled triangle. It had seemed an abysmal future at best but the fae can rest easy at night, knowing Rosalie had mended the relationship between Kavik and his new wife and cared for his pups as well as any mother. 

"Thank you," she whispered, uncertain if she was expressing her gratitude for the knowledge Rosalie has given her or the apologies offered. 

Some part of her doubts if any wolf could know the extent of her pain.

A child she had been when the tribe and her father fell, when Leto first fled and Ameta was killed by the bear, when she was tricked by Remo into an abusive household. A yearling when she reached Teekon, she had known peace for only a few months before Leto returned and the locusts befell the Wilds. A famine and loss followed, the demise of Rosings, a horrendous rape and being tortured for her attempts to warn those nearby of her attacker. 

She had recovered briefly only to accidentally find herself pregnant, to be tortured again and lose her children. A year spent alone, trying to piece together all that remained of her being. A return to Teekon was met with hope and the prospective of a happily ever after with Kavik - only for that to all be ripped away by his lack of morals. 

By all rights, she should be dead at her own hands or lost in the throes of insanity. She had been, for a time, and even now on bad days she awakens feeling disconnected - unable to process or feel anything as she drifts through life in a third person haze. 

It's on these days that Liri seeks @Vangard and the warmth of his touch, which inspires none of the doubt that Kavik's had wrought time and time again. 

Perhaps Odin had been watching all along and it was a blessing in disguise. If not for Kavik's betrayal, she would not have met the Nord. 

"I think...maybe it was a good thing. It wasn't the first time he...hurt me in such a manner. There was a conflict involving him and our former Beta but I don't think I should get into that," the first is hesitant, the last weary as she rolls her eyes slightly. She'd said enough about the Tonrar and his wayward mannerisms. 

"But I think that perhaps I have found something, or rather someone, better and I think Kavik has too." She smiled gently, genuine in her hopes of happiness for the blended family Kavik had built.

tagging for reference/visibility

The woman seemed lost in thought, her mind dragging her through the dredges of her memories. Lie may have been to presumptuous in thinking them kindred, but she couldn’t help but feel a connection shared between castaway lovers.

“Alessia is indeed a special woman.” Lie had to agree, not to slight the other woman, but to emphasize the entity that was Alessia. Her black pelted lover. “It would seem, Kavik is drawn to special women.” Lie dipped her head slightly, referring to the pale northern woman. She had no words to describe the relationship that may or may not exist between herself and Kavik.

Rosalie had no intention of prying into the woman’s past any further. For her own purposes, Lie had already heard everything she need to know. Whatever was left unsaid was of no consequence. The petit woman had chosen her path, and there was no turning around now. She had children, and a lover that needed her.

“It was an informative afternoon, and I thank you for everything you have shared.”[b] She couldn’t help the smile that lifted her lips briefly, before falling once more. [b] But, I doubt we shall ever meet again, Liri Blackfoot.”

Liri smiled kindly though she said nothing. Her one glimpse of Kavik's wife had not been enough for a lasting impression - surely there was more to Alessia than a grief-torn heart but Liri would never know. Perhaps in another life, one that didn't feature Kavik, they might have even been friends. 

"Aye, it would seem he is," the healer hummed softly in agreement, returning the compliment. Rosalie had never quite answered her question about being Kavik's wife but his scent perfumed her as strongly as it had once cloaked the northron - Liri had drawn her own conclusions. 

"As I do you, Miss Rosalie," the fae returned gratefully, dipping her pale crown almost formally. "Perhaps not," she agreed though truly she was uncertain. Teekon was a large region and many things could happen within its bounds. Besides, if the Vale became established perhaps they would ally with Swiftcurrent Creek; they could all surely be adults and delegate together for the benefit of their peoples. 

"May the sun shine upon your family and your children grow like sprouts," the spirit murmured quietly by way of departure, offering a last smile before gathering herself from the ground and turning to head home.