Neverwinter Forest Weeping willow

Panuk did not know what had called him to the dense forest. He had ventured far from Moontide, lured by the voice of someone he had never seen, never heard before. It was not like the woman’s voice that came in on the sea. This one was deep and rumbling. It told the island boy to venture to the heart of the grove, to the lake there.

Paws found shore. Pan looked out at the stretch of water with wide jade eyes. On the edge, just there in the sunlight, was a white man. Though shy, the boy didn’t hesitate to offer a yip of greeting to the stranger. His large paws plodded through the sand toward the other wolf - a wolf that carried no scent.

Closer and closer and then Pan paused.

The white figure before him seemed to swirl, like sea water and spirit combined. This was not a living thing. Still, the white wolf looked at Panuk and smiled.

Son of Samani and hunter Rodyn. Welcome to Moongrove.

Panuk watched the white wolf flutter, another appeared beside him and this one was -

Aunty? his voice fell, barely above a whisper.

Terrified.

Callyope had not seen her sister and could not find Kannoyak to ask after her too. It bewildered her so much! Where had they gone without a word? She knew she would soon walk to the glacier to see if they stole away there, much like a nosy younger sister pounding down her older's door.

She was prepared to go tell White @Elk this until —

Aunty?

Here was a child. Not one of Ariadne's come to ask after her.

This was nearly as bewildering. Her sister absent and a child in her place.

Who is aunty?

Her.

Who is aunty?

Pan leapt in fright. His chocolate coat stood on end, puffing him up even larger than he normally appeared. When he shifted his gaze away from the spellbinding duo, he saw that a physical being spoke to him. She was painted in concern, lining her features with creases. The young wolf regarded her shyly, lowering his snout so as not to appear imposing.

Aunty Ari. She’s-

He looked back to the water and frowned. Where had they gone?

She was there- With a white man. He spoke to me.

Aunty Ari.

Her heart grew with a sudden ache. A roar of pain within her chest that she struggled to keep trapped. No longer a girl of grief, she wanted to laugh!

He spoke to me.

She did not like that he looked to the water. That he spoke of the white man she could only assume to be the hunter. Surely it was not the Tartok man, was it?

What did he say?

She composed herself and gave him only a thoughtful, sincere look.

This woman was kind, or so he had decided in his youthful oblivion. She asked about Aunty Ariadne and the white man who had spoken. Pan wondered how he might pose this discovery, as he had not fully figured out the implications of it for himself. Life and death were so muddied in his mind and these spirits remained, they spoke to him! Death surely could not be so frightening, so hurtful.

He- He knew my parents. He said-

Pan looked fearfully toward the woman who listened. In his blissful walk had he not noted the marking of borders?

He said welcome to Moongrove.

Moongrove.

It was a wonder that her features did not contort with any myriad of emotions that swirled within her now. Her voice the soft strum of a guitar. Acoustic and somber.

Did Aunty speak, too?

If Ari was aunty, Callyope ought to be too.

She did not speak it.

No, Pan smiled.

The white man was there, just on top of the water. And he swirled like- like he was part of the lake. Aunty was right next to him! She smiled at me. I think they’re friends.

But where had they gone was the better question. The young druid sniffed at the shore of the lake, noting the body of a fish that had been left to rot in the sun. It had the mark of wolf fang in its flesh. Why would a perfectly good fish be left to waste on the edge of its home? While this was troubling, Pan’s attention was more prominently trained on the lake water where he had seen Ariadne.

She go for a swim? he asked the woman beside him.

Swirling, part of the lake.

She hoped desperately for this to be but a child's imagination. Yet she feared that if she wrote it off, that if she did nothing but whisk it all away, then there might be something important lost.

Amber eyes stared at the rotting fish, at the soft shore wanting to lap it back into itself.

She tried desperately to recall if she had ever seen her sister swim. She recalled times of her sunbathing by their birth home's lake but...swimming? She struggled to think of it.

Maybe.

She whispered.

I am the sister of Aunty Ariadne.

Did spirits speak to him now when she said that?

Joy stretched his features wide.

You’re aunty too!

It was good to know that his family stretched far and wide throughout the Teekons. Pan had heard many times from his father, of course. He merely hadn’t experienced it for himself. The young druid had been occupied with more fantastic things - voice and shapes that only he could see. The remnants of the once-living.

There is this fish, the boy remarked, nodding his round head toward the abandoned catch. With teeth marks. It must mean a wolf had fished on the edge of the lake. Ariadne could have been that wolf, or maybe the white man.

Aunty Ari! his voice called out to her, hoping she would appear from behind the brush and welcome him in with her warm smile.

Yes, I am your ajâtsuk.

She smiled, small and hopeful. For them and their new relation.

He was a boy who saw much and she smiled for that too. Even if it sunk her into lines of thinking that she did not like. Should she plunge in the waters? Should she see what laid within it? If she did and found nothing, then it would be a cut line.

If she never touched that surface than how could she know? She did not like that thought.

His voice called out. A child excited to see family.

Have you walked upon Moonglow? Maybe you can help look there.

Pan thought it curious that his newly discovered aunty would tell him to look for Ariadne on Moonglow, that his efforts could be helpful to them. He did not know that they searched for the missing girl. After all, he had only just traveled from the shore. It had taken him nearly a day to reach the forest where they both stood.

But-

The word was cut short while Pan pondered her suggestion.

She was right here. Why would I look on Moonglow?

The cheery smile did not fade or flicker from his round chocolate face. The young man thought his new aunty was fun and she had a sweetness to her that he enjoyed down to the very tips of his dark toes.

C’mon out Aunty Ari! Come see me.

The curious flicker of light returned to the lake. He saw the white man again.

She’s there! Nose pointed to the water.

No she wanted to say.

The boy (her nephew!) called out to Ari and was greeted by something Callyope could not see. It was terrible to want to shun any idea of spirits.

Because her sister could not be a spirit. Not a lake spirit, not a wandering one, not any kind! She refused this with a violent grip on her heart.

Talk to her. She encouraged softly.

She looked towards where Moonglow should lay.

This new aunt asked for him to speak to Ariadne.

Pan’s head tilted to the side, curious and drawn to the shimmering shapes of the two wolves on the water. They looked happy out there. He couldn’t quite fathom how they floated on the surface without sinking down into the dark. The white man was large, especially compared to aunty Ari.

Aunty Ari are you okay? Pan called out in question, waiting for her to draw nearer, away from the dark depths of the lake water and to the shore where her family was. Ariadne did not approach, though.

Wind whisked through the trees and ruffled the hairs of his ears.

We are sleeping, little spirit-talker. It was not Ariadne that spoke, but the large white man.

The white man says they are sleeping. Pan’s face became stoic, serious. He called me spirit-talker.

Sleeping.

Spirit-talker.

This was beyond her she had decided at once. Just as the boy had become serious, so had she.

Nuak, she called him nephew now. You take this title, spirt-talker, and go to Moonglow. You tell Moonwoman, your anânsiak, all of this. You tell her Callyope sent you.

She did not mean to scare him but this had suddenly become a matter she knew she needed more hands upon. She spoke with a great importance placed upon him.

You must do this quick. Will you?

And she internally begged him to do this. So that she may begin to find it in her to brave the waters.

This new aunt now had a name to match with her strikingly beautiful features - Callyope.

Panuk listened closely to the instruction he was given. Go to Moonglow. Speak to Moonwoman. Take the title the white man had given him and tell her everything. Though the boy was saddened to leave his aunts by the water, he could tell this journey was important. Callyope told him he must hurry and so the burly young wolf nodded his head in agreement.

Moonglow. I’ll see gramma. Do you want her to come here?

That didn’t matter, he realized. She could decide for herself if she would venture to the forest grounds. Pan shook his head, retracting the question with an apologetic flattening of his ears to his head.

I’ll be back!

And off he raced, through the trees and toward the spine of the mountain.

Part of her wished she could have seen him off the way that was proper.

With a hug or kiss and things for his journey.

Instead she needed to be here, to steady herself for whatever came next.

close? ;;