Nova Peak And I've been secretly falling apart.

As time ticked by since the encounter with Wintersbane in the grotto, her desire to roam was strengthened. The lioness couldn't shake that familiar itch, nor could she deny the niggling doubt that Nova Peak could ever serve as a home to her in the way Diaspora's claim once had. For too long she'd tried to pretend everything was fine, that she didn't need anyone else but her little girls, that she and Wylla could pretend one another didn't exist, but she'd been wrong to assume her life could ever be that simple.

Nyx had once been afraid of Grimnismal's leader. She'd been terrified of what she might know, of the grudge she was sure to carry. With the birth of Ciri and Elke, however, she realised that energy could be channelled elsewhere. The anxiety remained, of course, as it always would, but the fear had vanished. More recently, it manifested into anger - not just for Wintersbane's refusal, but for the way she and hers made Ciri feel.

Perhaps it was time for change. Mahler and the pups were all that rooted her to Sagtannet, and the girls were ol enough to make their own choices. It was with this in mind that Nyx sought her blonde-furred daughter that dreary afternoon, and beckoned for @Elke to join her with a soft call.

Elke had so very much to fell in love with her new home. Down in the south, the jagged and sheer rock faces of their old home were quite ugly in comparison to the views she now had. A mountain touched with thick evergreens, nearly constant frost and snowfall in the upper elevations. High up, you could see the glacier and the volcano battling one another, making the land misty. She wanted to venture there some day. And to the other side, the smell of salt from the ocean cliffs in the distance. She had yet to see the ocean either, but she would. As far as she was concerned, her father had picked the perfect spot for home. She felt she'd never leave. 

And then her mother called out over the dreary skies. Elke wondered if the rains would come yet again. Elke enjoyed the rain. Whilst big storms worried her for what they might do, she had come to truly favor an afternoon rain shower, fitted with an afternoon nap. Taking a yawn, she came over to her mother, sliding the length of her body along her own in greeting like a cat might, followed by a bump of the top of her head up under her mom's chin. Hey mom, how are you?

Though she knew that Elke did not suffer on Sagtannet's new claim as Cirilla did, Nyx felt safe in the assumption that her flaxen girl indeed felt the sting of disinterested pack-mates as well. It did not occur to her that one of her cubs had been spared the sharpness of Wylla and Phaedra's rejection, that she thrived and blossomed where her sister withered.

Always obedient, her little lion was quick to appear. Nyx welcomed her to her with a softly waving tail, a low croon of affection as a blonde flank was trailed cat-like along her limbs. "Hey you," she purred, shifting her crown just enough to deposit an affectionate kiss on her baby's brow when she butted it beneath her pale chin. "I'm okay. What've you been up to?"

Elke didnt suffer, far from her sister. Ciri had yet to tell her what happened to their newly known half sister. How she felt about living here...her sister had seemingly shielded her from that pain in order to keep up Elke's spirits. Elke's mind was high in the clouds, the stories of the other 'Elke' who had the power to make the rains and the Reindeer,  which made it snow. When she wasnt playing in snow, she was picking herbs, learning the trade from her father. Soon however, the fairies would end and the real world would rear its head. 

I've been looking for different herbs. Daddy's been teaching me how to help others. She had admitted, though her mom probably already knew. She pretty much knew everything.