Neverwinter Forest lxvii. hey, pretty mama don't leave me like that

@Themis (for Vairë <3)

It was true that her connection with Wilwarin was special -- as could be said for her relationship with each of her children. But Vairë was the daughter of her heart, cut from the same cloth that fabricated the dove. Even down to the fawn's appearance, which differed only slightly from her dam's. 

On an early morning, before @Makan or the other children had woken, Lótë tiptoed to side of the ayititti and nosed her gently. "Little fawn, come and see. I have something to show you," the mother whispered, tail wagging as a warm smile of excitement curled the corners of her lips. 

The morning had the bite of a chill, but not so much that they would need to don the warmth of fur wraps. The sun was warm against her fur as they slipped from the spine, limbs lengthening in a lope as she led her eldest daughter to the timberland she hoped to claim as their own. 

When they had reached the abandoned ulax Lótë had discovered, she slowed to a stop and turned to the beige youth. "It was once a village," the herd-stalker murmured, low and respectful of the spirit of the former community, as she padded to one of the old dens. "There are small treasures I have found here, things I have left in my spirit place." 

For the most part, the doe had found only the scraps of rotted furs and the dusty bones of old meals. But occasionally a trinket turned up -- a strange rock, an antler, a seashell long misplaced from the sea. 

Vairë’s sleep had been..troubled, as of late. The deer haunted her dreams, fleeting in the corners of her vision, but when she turned to look, he would be gone, fleeing into the brush. Old Doe was sometimes there, but she remained in the distance, sadly, watching as wolf and deer gave chase again and again.

As such, when her mother woke her, Vairë almost dipped right back into sleep. She managed to hang on, perhaps by a looser thread than she would have if she was more well rested, but the fawn managed to gather her gangly limbs into something resembling standing, and pushed herself to follow behind the dove.

Her beige pelage was swept by the winds as she followed Lótë into the valley beneath their high tower, casting a gaze over her shoulder once, before following in silence.

She only spoke when they got to the abandoned ulax, her eyes trailing over the remnants of people she had never known, and would never know. Her breath came in short, for a time, before her voice escaped her finally.

Who…were they? Do you know?

Lótë shook her head regretfully. "I don't. They seemed to have moved on long ago." It was possible that some tragedy or illness had befallen the former community. It was more likely, however, that they had simply disbanded or relocated. "Such things happen from time to time. Packs shift leadership or their members grow few and they scatter to the winds." 

The cloudberry turned speculative peridots upon the girl -- a soft look upon her face to see how her child had grown so. She phrased her next words carefully, aware that her first litter seemed to possess a fear of the outside world. 

"Vairë, what would you say if I told you I had been thinking of rebuilding this village -- of building a new one to be sister to Moonglow? I would not do this thing if it made any of you unhappy." She smiled gently, reaching out to brush her lips against the seven-moon's tawny crown. 

Her gaze moved to sweep over the wooded clearing they stood in, fallowskin diadem swivelling to take it all in. "The village grows larger in the mountain with each year. A time may someday come when it is full and others will have to disperse. I thought this to be a good thing for all of us. That we might found something new together and stay close to your father and other mother -- that we might be like the cousin Murre on a closer scale."