The Heartwood the stone remembers

tag is for ref but would love to have them meet once more <3

The sun hung low in the sky, its light caught in the branches like gold in cobwebs, warming the frost-bitten bones of the forest. Afternoon leaned toward evening, though the hush in the trees made time feel stilled, as if the woods themselves were listening. Aneira moved like a shadow cast in silver, her steps soft over the roots and loam that blanketed the ground. She had wandered from the heart of Fornesjka’s claim, not out of restlessness, but something quieter, thoughtful. A need to walk beside her own memories for a while.
The scents here were foreign still, but not unwelcome. Her breath curled in the air as she came to a slow halt by an outcrop of moss-strewn stone. A vantage point, if nothing else. She stood there, turquoise eyes sweeping the horizon, though she wasn’t truly looking at what lay ahead. She was thinking of what lay behind: Asterism Grove.
The name was a whisper in her chest, like snow falling on old stones. Had it fallen, too? Scattered like so many others? Or had it endured without her—stronger, perhaps, for her absence? Her mind turned to familiar faces: @Towhee, Ruenna, Pippin. Their presence had once been steady beneath her paws, as certain as the stars they had looked to for meaning. But stars could vanish too, burn out, or drift from view.
The forstmaiden sat down slowly, letting the silence settle around her like a mantle. Her path had taken her elsewhere, to new stones, new names, new ghosts: Fornesjka, Solharr’s claim. It had not asked for the weight of her past, only the truth of her presence. But today, just for a little while, she let herself look back.

GASP!

*abuses the tagging feature*

She didn’t intend to leave the caldera anytime soon, though she couldn’t stop thinking about @Rodyn and what he’d said about @Kukutux. How many times had the “moon woman” reached out to her in her hour of need? The least Towhee could do was pay a visit. But she was afraid of aggravating her leg and, besides, @Killdeer and Amalia needed her…

It turned out what they needed was some privacy. Exercising some discretion for once, Towhee howled to let them know she would be back within a day or two, then shuffled down the caldera’s northern slope to begin her trek. She paced herself, reaching the far side of Bramblepoint and walking along the river for a few miles before pausing.

When she looked backward, she mused to herself, Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go… Laughing under her breath, she swiveled to peer at the neighboring glen, then the forest ahead. She could try to cut northwest from here, though some instinct told her to stick closer to the riverbank, then spend the night in the cover of The Heartwood before heading due west first thing in the morning.

Towhee knew she’d made the right call as soon as her paws touched the carpet of softest moss. She sighed, slipping into the trees right at sunset. She didn’t intend to go far, though she’d barely walked a hundred yards before a pale figure caught her eye through the gathering gloom. She halted, her mind immediately going to that night when she had literally stumbled into @Hemera.

love it!

The faintest glimmer of movement between trees drew her eye, halting her steps. Aneira’s breath caught in her throat, turquoise eyes sharpening against the dusk: No, it couldn’t be. But it was! 
„Towhee!” she called, the name tearing from her mouth with a rush of breathless disbelief. Her voice rang through the quiet woods like the crack of frost beneath a sudden thaw. Without waiting for a response, she surged forward, her steps quick over the mossy earth, closing the distance with an urgency she rarely allowed herself to show.
She knew Towhee couldn’t hear her, not like others did, so she moved until she was in her line of sight, where eyes could meet and mouths could form meaning. There, under the dimming sky, she slowed just enough to make herself seen. A flicker of something warm crossed her usually distant face. „You’re real,” Aneira said softly, more to herself than anything else, and though her voice might not reach Towhee’s ears, her expression carried the rest.
The weight of seasons slipped from her shoulders in that moment. The ghost of Asterism Grove stirred behind her eyes, but it was this moment that breathed new light into the dusk. „Do you remember? Aneira, from Asterism Grove.”

I realized too late that I sent you a redundant tag, lol.

The stranger looked her way, their eyes meeting through the tangles of new growth. Towhee blinked when the woman’s lips formed her name, her ears tilting backward. They slicked fully to her head as the stranger rushed toward her, her turquoise eyes dancing in the twilight while Towhee’s only scrunched.

She tried to place her, though even when two words she hadn’t spoken in years—“Asterism Grove”—emerged from the woman’s lips, Towhee drew a blank. Her lips parted, orange eyes scanning back and forth across those pale features, and she could’ve sworn she’d never met this lady in her life. Was she going senile?

I haven’t even thought of that place in… literally years, Towhee breathed, her lips twisting as she remembered what had brought about its end. You’ll have to forgive me, as a lot of rocks fell on me back then. One must’ve knocked you right out of my head because… She paused, giving Aneira one more long, searching look. I’m sorry, I don’t remember you.

no worries <3

Aneira’s gaze softened as she took a steadying breath, her eyes drifting for a moment to the ground. The memories of Asterism Grove flashed in her mind; the roar of the landslide, the earth trembling beneath her paws, the way everything that had once felt so certain had slipped away like sand through fingers.
For a moment, her thoughts swirled in the silence. She could feel the weight of Towhee’s apology, but it didn’t break her resolve. The grief of that time was there, yes, but it had been tempered with years of distance. She didn’t want to burden Towhee with it now.
When she spoke again, her voice was steady, though tinged with something distant, a memory she hadn’t fully let go of; „I understand,” Aneira said, her words like the soft rustling of leaves. „The landslide… It claimed much. But there were others, too. The Firebirds. Do you remember them?” She hesitated, then added, „You didn’t lose everything after that, did you?”
Aneira’s gaze remained steady on Towhee, her turquoise eyes filled with a quiet sincerity, waiting for some flicker of recognition to spark. She wouldn’t push, she knew better than that, but the questions lingered in her chest, waiting for answers.

Aneira’s gaze dropped and Towhee could only stand there as she stared at the ground, perhaps lost in thought. She shifted her weight, glad to note her leg wasn’t bothering her much at all. As happy as she was to be living in the Hobbit Hole again, she kind of looked forward to sleeping on a bed of velveteen moss tonight.

She set aside that thought when Aneira spoke again, asking about the Firebirds. Towhee’s brow furrowed. Of course she remembered them. After the fall of Asterism Grove, she’d gone to live with them; taken over; and relocated the pack to the caldera. As for the woman’s other question, well… Towhee had lost a lot of things along the way.

Yes, though I… I don’t remember you being there. She supposed she didn’t need to repeat herself. Er, a lot of things have happened between then and now. We’d be standing here all night if I tried to cover it all, Towhee quipped. But what about you? Were you there during the earthquake? The landslide? And have you been in the area this whole time?

Aneira’s ears flicked at the mention of the quake; of that day. Her eyes lifted again, catching the last breath of light that filtered through the trees, and something in her expression shifted, not grief, not fear, something quieter, more solemn, like watching the tide come in with the knowledge it would one day carry you too.
„I was,” she answered after a beat, voice hushed. „In the Grove, when the ground split and the sky came down. I made it out... barely. Didn't look back.” Her gaze drifted toward the north, as if she could still see the dust rising in the distance, the mountain groaning under the weight of what it had done. „I'd met Wraen before it happened,” she added, almost absently. „She spoke of the Firebirds. I never joined them after the landslide; but I remembered the name.” She exhaled, steady now, though her fur still bristled faintly at the memory. 
Then her eyes came back to Towhee, more present again. „I wandered after that. North, mostly. Far enough that I could forget... or try to.” A faint smile curved her lips, not bitter, but knowing. „But forgetting doesn’t always mean healing, does it?”
The frostmaiden tilted her head, studying the older woman with quiet curiosity: „You made something new after the Grove, didn’t you? You always struck me as the kind that would.”

Aneira had gotten out and never looked back. She’d gone north, tried to forget. Part of Towhee inwardly squinted at this, though she couldn’t really blame her. She’d done the same thing, in a sense. Before she could dwell on it too long, Aneira said a name that earned a sharp intake of breath. She let it out with a little smile.

If they’d only met once, Towhee doubted Aneira would be affected by the news of Wraen’s death long ago. She opted not to mention it, which was easy to do as the pale woman posed another question that was somewhat impossible to answer. Towhee huffed a laugh.

I did a hell of a lot of things, she repeated, including running a pack or two. I’ve never left the Teekons, excepting a brief foray to visit my sister once. And I don’t suppose I ever will, at least not in this life, she mused, thoughts drifting to Wraen again.

Then she blinked and shook her head lightly. Even though she didn’t remember a thing about Aneira, she didn’t want to be rude to her. Besides, she was curious…

So, why did you come back?

Aneira paused for a moment, her gaze drifting to the horizon as though she might find the answer written in the pale light spilling over the land. The question was a simple one, but her answer was not. She could have given a hundred different explanations, none of them entirely true, none of them capturing the quiet pull that had brought her back to this place.
„I didn't really have a place to go,” she began, her voice almost a murmur. The frostmaiden lifted her head slightly, eyes flicking to Towhee before drifting away again. „I tried to move on, go north, forget. But things have a way of… following you, don't they?” She let out a soft breath, half laugh, half sigh, before her eyes shifted toward the distant cliffs, the stone beneath her paws grounding her in something that felt more real than anything else.
„I guess I just came back because it felt like I should. There's something about the land here... it keeps calling me back.” Her eyes lingered on Towhee then, a fleeting but sincere moment. „And, well, I ended up with Forneskja. The pull of their strength... it was quiet, but steady. I couldn’t ignore it.” Aneira shifted her weight slightly, the sound of the earth under her paws comforting in its simplicity. The pull might have been towards someone else, but the thought was quickly buried underground.
Her voice softened, like a secret shared between them, the weight of it tangible. „I guess you could say, I found a place to settle. For now, at least.” turquoise gaze drifted to Towhee: „Where do you live now?”

Towhee willed Aneira to turn back toward her when she spoke, which she did. But she must’ve been whispering, as her lips barely moved and the Redhawk didn’t catch a single word. Her own lips parted, though before she could say anything, Aneira began enunciating. Her eyes kept drifting away and flicking back, though at least Towhee could read her lips now.

I can’t say I’ve heard of them, she had to admit. I’m living at the caldera with my grandson and his mate, and some great grandchildren, if the next few days went to plan. Whereabouts is For—your pack settled? she wondered, not having caught the name in enough detail to attempt pronouncing it. I assume not far from here?