Northstar Vale She said, stay strong. don't let them drag you along.

for my sistaaa @Kiran <3

After a brief introduction to the other rogues that had come to call the Vale home, as night was nearing and Liri's pack would be settling down to sleep, she led Kiran to the stone dwelling near the lily ponds that she had claimed as her own some moons ago. 

It had since taken on a further appearance of being lived in - a few knickknacks added to the collection within the natural alcove of the stone walls, a few more pelts tanned and tossed onto the bed she had made for herself, a larger assortment of medicinal supplies arranged in neat chaos - and was a testament to the few moons she had called the Vale home. 

"Make yourself at home," Liri offered with a smile as she padded to the cache where she stored a few of her catches. Most wound up in the communal storage pits but Liri found it easier to keep a few pieces of game within easy reach - particularly given that she seemed to be bringing home many strays these days who seemed in need of a filling meal. 

Carefully pawing aside some stones, she withdrew a rare catch, a chunk of goose from a drake she had captured after a flock touched down in the Vale. She carried the cut of plump fowl to the makeshift stone table and placed it on a shoulder bone platter for Kiran, nudging it to her with a push of her freckled nose. 

The female followed her to her home and it was beautiful. She smiled as she was led to her den and noticed she was nudging part of a duck towards her. “Thank you very much.” She expressed her gratitude. “So where up north are you from?”

"Far to the north," she chuckled softly, "my tribe resided in the boreal forests near the ice plains, near the arctic sea."

"They fashioned themselves the Moonrise tribe after an old legend regarding the origins of the moon," she confided, careful to avoid the tragedy that had later befallen her adoptive people. 

Could this be the woman that her mother had made her aware of. Maybe. She wasn’t particularly sure. “My mother mentioned that place when I returned home although I don’t really know what she meant.”

Liri's pale auds fluttered to life like snow-tipped butterflies - pricking attentively with curiosity. In her years residing in Teekon, the only true northerners she'd met were the Ateneqs. What were the odds of encountering another northnerer, moreover one from the same tribe?

"Your mother was Moonrise?" She asked in surprise, forgetting herself and speaking in the northern tongue subconciously. 

"What do you mean?" Came the next question with a slight cock of her head. Had Kiran's mother been Moonrise but not Kiran herself? How was that possible, assuming that she had been raised by the woman?

The woman spoke in a tongue she was familiar with but brief. “My mother stated she left before I was born due to her not feeling comfortable.” She left out her supposed father already had a family.

a note: Ectsi (Liri's mother) died before Jono (Liri's father) and their pups were accepted into Moonrise. Jono would have been single at the time when he and Echo did the deed. :)

"I see," she murmured, though in truth it was not much of a revelation. Still, she could understand feeling displaced within the tribe, given the prejudice she had faced as a pup on account of being born beyond the tribe's boundaries. 

"How odd that we share such a connection and wound up here, in Teekon, together," Liri pondered in bemusement, a smile slipping onto her lips. 

"What happened to you and your mother after you left?" 

Kiran smiled. “Well I was born into another pack that was willing to let her in while pregnant. I have 2 other siblings. She basically taught me the way of life, the basics as well as some of her virtues. Then eventually I began to want to wander. That’s what brought me here.”

"A splendid thing it is, to have a mother like yours," Liri wisped softly, a faint smile lingering upon her features as her gaze turned to the twilight aura of the outside world. 

"My own died birthing me and my siblings and my father, Jono, was...detached to say the least." A wrinkle appeared between her mahogany orbs as she recalled the fuzzy memories she held of her father. He had been a heavy drinker of barma, rough and quick to anger. Liri had spent much of her youth avoiding him - it is Leto who stars in her memories as a mixture of father and brother. He'd had to be both to his younger sisters just as Liri had played mother to Ameta. 

"But I had Naggä at least," she smiles fondly, recalling the wizened spiritualist who had been her mentor - defying all tradition in her choice of taking the foreign pup, Liri, under her wing. 

"She was something like a mother to me, or perhaps a grandam - my teacher in the ways of healing and botany." Without the elder, she would never have become the healer she was today. 

The shewolf listened intently to the other and that’s when a certain name she spoke in her life’s tale that caught the ear of Kiran. That’s when she let a nervous chuckle release from her muzzle. “Well this is interesting. I apologize but that makes name sounds familiar. My mother mentioned a man of that name and they rendezvoused with each other.” She didn’t know what this meant perhaps the other had a clue

A nervous, breathy laugh graced her ears and Liri's gaze was drawn back to Kiran with a glimmer of concern visible. She blinked in surprise at the next revelation, her heart pounding in confusion. Could it be true? 

A long-forgotten memory surfaced. 

She knew as soon as she padded into the den, silently as the phantom they had begun to name her, that she should have slept elsewhere for the night. 

Leto had gone, tucked away in some corner of the territory with Ameta. Liri had had lessons in herbology to attend and had returned home in search of her siblings - not quite expecting her father to be shit-faced. 

The girl froze within the entrance; even at such a young age she recognized the signs of an alcoholic stupor. 

Jono lay prone, half thrown onto his back having clearly stumbled about and collapsed. 

His eyes danced to her, a flicker of recogition burning within. "Echo?" 

"You came back. I knew you would. I could be...I could be good to you, to the girl." 

He struggled to rise, to reach for her, and in fear - Liri fled. 

"Your mother...she is Echo, yes?" Again she lapsed into her native language out of shock. 

She let the information sink in as she stayed quiet. It remained quiet for only a short time and the girl began to speak. This time it was of her mother so what she said was true. “Yes that is my mother’s name.

You are 'the girl.' 

Liri remained frozen, dark eyes wide in surprise as she regarded the daughter of Echo more closely. 

Though she had a good head of height on the healer Kiran possessed the same stock and strong frame, the same pale pelt dappled with onyx freckles (though significantly less than Liri), the same umber optics. There were a few differences in their features but the Iratze was stunned, wondering why she hadn't noticed it sooner. 

"We're sisters," came her soft lilt, something like awe audible in the husky tones. 

Shock was literally plastered across the females face. Surely she thought their resembled appearance was just a coincidence but it seemed not as she said the simple word of “Sisters.” She never thought it possible, she always thought that she had two siblings but now she had three and possibly more. “Wow.” She was at a los for words

"Indeed," came the healer's breathy, stunned agreement - followed shortly by a forced noise that might have been a faint chuckle. 

"I suppose it could be a good thing?" The fae ventured hesitantly, considering the unlikely odds they faced in meeting in such a coincidental manner. 

They did not know each other well yet but perhaps in time they would come to appreciate their newfound kinship. 

She was confused about the whole thing that conspired but she put a smile on her face and nodded. “Of course it is! I had siblings but we kinda grew apart. Well I guess I can say our siblings now right?” She said with a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, I guess so," Liri chuckled softly - as equally unnerved and intrigued as Kiran. It slipped from her face moments later when her thoughts turned to her littermates and she would have to inform her new sister that she would never meet them. 

"I had two littermates who would have been your siblings as well but...they're gone," came the wisp of her voice, a long-forgotten grief emerging. A forlorn smile graced her wan features briefly. "Ameta, my younger sister was...different; I'm unsure if she was incapable of speech or just refused it but she remained silent throughout her life. In some ways, she was brilliant and in others, she had the mind of a child. I took care of her, loved her."

"I miss her very much," the healer admitted softly. 

"Leto, our elder brother, was...feisty," she chuckled, "as a child. Headstrong as he grew and fiercely protective." The warmth was lost and though her face was turned away, to the darkened world outside, it hardened against Leto's memory. "But he was a coward. He has betrayed me twice and wherever he may be - he will get no chance to do so thrice."

She turned back to her newfound sibling, searching cautiously for some sign that such a revelation made her nervous about sharing a bloodline with the northron - for Leto was only the tip of the iceberg of the curse that seemed to plague her. 

"Hopefully, your siblings - our siblings -have fared better. Will you tell me of them?"

Kiran smiled at the thought of having a family again. Her short time alone was terrible and she longed for a family to give her comfort once more. "Me and my siblings separated at a year old." She knew not where they were or what she was up to.

"Oh, I see, well hopefully they are happy and healthy wherever they are," Liri imparted with a vague nod. She'd never met them and probably never would but she hoped they were well. 

She waited until the other pale woman had finished her meal before asking softly, "Shall we get some sleep?" The talk of her family had drained her emotionally as had the realization that she had a sister. Liri was ready to lose herself in the peace of sleep.