The Sentinels but hold the banner proudly, the truth will set us free

listening to ori, lost in the storm as i write these posts!

deirdre slept soundly, though her heart was profoundly disturbed. she had missed the moment when her sister had first traveled to the Otherworld, and so there was never any needless fretting or crowding, but deirdre fretted for different reasons, now. her young mind could not fathom it, or interpret that she worried over her sister leaving her then. deirdre could hardly bear it when their mother and father left, but withstood it because of the presence that had been there for Alltime. what did it mean, that separation?

she felt lost, so lost within herself. she blinked sadly at the Otherworld, who curled its finger toward her in invitation, who sent an inbound wind to brush a wayward tear from her cheek. only once had she truly felt desire to go into it, but she felt she could not do it! not alone! and did not think of emaleth doing so as a slight (as her reasons for doing such a thing only involved emaleth when she gathered she could not go to that place, not without her), but as a feat she could not do herself. how she wanted to!

a feeling swelled within her chest, a feeling that maybe, just maybe! she could. deirdre rose to all fours, and with her eyes still on the parted lips of the Otherworld, she approached it. only when she was at its edge did she pause, squinting against the light and mustering her courage. she wanted to go out there, but shivered against the windchill that bit at the tips of her ears.

!! i hope it's okay if i join! aria loves the bbies <3

The girl who bordered pup and adult had not yet met the prizes witches of Donnelaith. She'd heard much from Lasher, and knew that Dante was afraid of getting them sick, but she had yet to meet them. She had actually tried to stay away, after their birth she knew that she should probably give Blue Willow her space, and had only visited her once to get honey for Dante. It was probably a good idea too, no one had really given her permission to visit them, her only relation was her bond with Lasher- one that she wasn't sure Blue would approve of had she known. 

So no, her intention was not to find the black and white babes of the coast, it was instead to hunt. She tried to do so at least once a day, if she could find food she would not have to take from the caches, and it'd be helpful to both her and the pack- especially if she caught more than she could eat. It was coincidence that she came across the whelping den, a small white pup poking her head from the hole and squinting at the distance. Upon this discovery, Aria paused. Was someone inside? Would the pup attempt escape? She watched with pursed lips, wondering if the cutie patootie could see her. Her tail wagged with gentle excitement at such pure innocence, and waited to see what the pup might do.

her eyes took a few moments to adjust, and when they did she found herself dazed. her sight was growing sharper by the day, and all around her were things deirdre had not ever seen before; what she saw reminded her of her brothers gift, how some things jut from its side like open arms, but it was greater than that, so much greater! deirdre gaped, marveling how the things went up, and up, and up, unwittingly moving nearer to the Otherworld. there seemed to be a moment where she noted this, and looked at her forelegs, her paws seeds planted into the snows soil.

the reaction of deirdre was wrong; she ought to withdraw, but she obeyed the instinct to get away in a different manner entirely. deirdre sprung forward, but the tumbledown snowfield collapsed where it was soft and fresh and she rolled, now covered in the powdery substance. she lay on her back at the end of it, not at all far from the den, and looked upward at a spruce bough hovering overhead, as though protecting her from further damage. safe, she felt. and yet the conflicting feeling of danger presented itself. in not knowing what to do, she remained quiet for a moment to see if that was the proper thing. the cold would effect her soon, but for now she simply lay there, curious. she had not even noticed the other in the distance.

Then, the lil thing was gone. Aria froze, her heart pounding as she realized that the white witch had tumbled into the snow and rolled off- presumably not far. She waited only a moment for Lasher or Blue Willow to emerge from the den and, seeing as they didn't right away, she went after the little girl. She sniffed around quickly, doing her best to remain calm and collected, searching for the small babe. White eyes finally met the blue ones of the young thing, and she carefully nosed some of the snow from her belly and chest. 

She did not seem cold, actually quite content with the frozen 'pit' that she had collapsed for herself. The white girl smiled, a soft giggle emerging as she realized how thrilled she was to meet one of the Mayfair babies. Her tail wagged happily and she let out a gentle coo to the pup. "Deirdre, what are you doing out?" she murmured, lowering her head for the pup to perhaps paw at, or (with her baby senses) get a good sniff. "Do your parents know you're out?" 

She asked the questions without expecting a reply. She knew the puppy was incapable of speaking full replies at this age, if even words at that. She merely spoke for the pup to hear her voice, and for her own curiosity to be heard by the world. She glanced around the pup into the white surface. If the babe began to shiver, she'd scoop her up right away, but she could walk on her own (kind of) surely she could get a small peak at what the outside world was. 

"Snow," she said clearly, and repeated a couple time after. Unless the little thing rejected her completely, she kind of wanted to spend time with her- and keep her safe, ya know? She watched her curiously, watching for signs of danger from the cold and from any outside elements, a strange warmth growing in her chest.

deirdre's hearing was becoming better by the day, just as her eyesight was, but the cues of danger meant nothing to her. she went by the warnings of her loved ones, but if there was none of that she did not react fearfully aside from the get go, where she was frightened to the point of a mute, watchful stillness. such a thing was quick to pass in the presence of her family, who warmed her easily to others by their association, as she trusted them in all they did. in hearing the others approach, she did nothing to react but turn her head, intrigued by the foreign-yet-familiar sound. this she heard when The Source, The Giver, or The Two Bringers came (eilidh and casmir), and so it was a pleasant sound to hear.

the cub looked to the white being, mistaking it for one of the Two Bringers, the sweet pale one she so loved. the babe felt safer already, wriggling on her back as the other spoke to her. the flopping ears of the white witch were not so keen as to know that voices might be different, or to understand what that meant. she had not picked up on her mother speaking with her same voice, and her father speaking with his, and so on. deirdre knew very little, and so that this was not her sister was not for her to realize then.

her eyes were upon the other now, and settled warmly, complacently there. and the minute she spoke, deirdre listened without really knowing. deeeee, she responded to the other, smiling sweetly. she knew that word. was slowly but surely connecting it, but still could not be sure. deeeeeee? a tiny, pink-padded paw drifted to press against the leg of the other she believed was familiar (that she believed was eilidh, having never seen any in this hours light) as though asking, are you that? am i that? and then, another word captivated her: owww, eww oww?? she paused, ow-eyeeee, and she was watching, again.

when the other said a word she knew—loosely, of course, as the word for its definition was not known—deirdre rolled onto her side and hollered ecstatically, NNNOOO! NO! NO NO NO! her eyes glittering. oh, yes, snow!

calling in a wild @Casmir ? (: if you have time <3

The small pups antics were adorable and the heart of the white girl soared with happiness and a bit of jealousy. She longed for a family, even in her young age, and couldn't help but wish that this was her own little babe. Despite her blue eyes, the little thing looked a lot like her, and Aria sighed gently with longing. In all due time, she decided, moving on.

The puppy sang a high-pitched Dee!, which sounded a bit as though she was trying to say her name? She could not tell. Aria smiled as the pup batted at her legs her eyes shining with happiness. "Deirdre," she repeated softly and nosed gently at her belly, although she was aware that the pup probably wouldn't pronounce it correctly. She was only trying to see if the babe understood what a Deirdre was, in that it was her. 

The next word the pup sang was snow, but it came out as a loud NO and startled the larger white girl at first. But she soon caught on, realizing that the cute little ball of joy was not scared and was in fact quite happy. Aria's tail thumped against the snow and she sang with the little babe. "Yes! Snow! Snow! You're such a smart little witch, aren't you Deirdre?" she cooed, touching her squirming belly again with her black nose. 

any family is of course welcome at any time, too! @Eilidh @Blue Willow @Lasher @Emaleth

deirdre as of yet did not associate the saying of her name as something she should harken to; she also did not understand any given command, such as 'come here' or 'stop' or 'no'. she had become truly primordial in The Forgetting, but the truth of it was she had never understood a word any adult had ever said to begin with. in fact, it was only recently that she could hear in a way different to what she had heard from her beginning. that things had meaning was very nearly understood, but sticking to one thought on that line was quite difficult when the world brought on the distraction of another word. and she always wanted to say it! it filled her heart with joy to do it—ah, to see the joy it brought others as she did it!

when the other nosed at her belly—still presumably eilidh, to her—deirdre laughed and swatted violently at the muzzle in her reach, the reaction involuntary as she was tickled, and wiggled helplessly beneath until the end of it. of course, deirdre's violence was that of a butterfly wing brushing a flower petal, so harmless was it, but she was effected greatly by the gentle nosing of her sensitive stomach and she protested against it! it did not last long at all, but deirdre looked dismayed all the same that it happened at all, conflicted as she was to decide if she liked that, or despised it. even that she could not dwell on for too long, when her one-track mind was (again) set on a new—or old, as it had happened but moments ago, too—course, which she embraced whole-heartedly.

ES! ES!!! she crowed back, wriggling onto her stomach and moving to spring upward at the other, grinning winsomely, ISH! ISH!!! she quite liked that word, she did; she had heard it from her father in the fondest voice, and it set fire to her heart and warmed her even as the cold bore down from all around. the heat of it lasted but a moment as a knowing, sentient twinkle came into her eyes while looking at aria, her head tilting as she identified with the beauty of it, of witch—ish, as she had said—and she very well said, yes, that is right, because that was what she felt, but then again there was the forgetting, and that age-old look, seemingly wise and aware, morphed again into the lovely, genuine innocence that were her blessed, angelic features. it was then she began to shiver, winters bony fingers acting as knives sliding against her delicate flesh. she hadn't the stuff to last outside for very long at all, her adult furs growing (and as of yet, unable to be called noticeable) but not at all prominent to be a saving grace for her then.

The pup called out in a word that sounded kind of like 'witch', and the little mewls made her heart soar. Aria let out a giggle of pure happiness, and nosed gently at the pup again. It was then that she felt her begin to shiver, and the white girl frowned. "Snow is cold, Deirdre," she cooed to her, knowing that although she did not understand what it meant that perhaps one day the statement would make sense to her. 

She picked up the small thing softly in her jaws, holding her by the scruff. She moved then towards the den, which wasn't far off, and set the pup down at the entrance. She nosed her softly in persuasion to go back in. "Home, Deirdre. Home," she sang sweetly to her, wondering if the babe had ever heard that sound before. She wouldn't dare go into the whelping den, but she knew that the pup would freeze outside. 

last post from me!

deirdre was not sure what the other was saying, but even so she carved out the syllables said that formed shapes of things, though just the exoskeleton of it. the protective layer was true to its purpose, protecting the interior of the beastly vocabulary, but deirdre tried to dig in nonetheless. it was too early to be of any avail, but she was remembering the word, at least, by now. she knew she had heard the word 'snow' before, and 'cold', and 'deirdre', but the definitions were just out of her reach!

the babe went rigid as she was gently scruffed, giving to that instinct that enabled her reaction. before she could do much of anything, she was swept inside by whomever kept watch—a short thanks might have been given, though that was neither here nor there to the cub who understood nothing but heard everything—and swiftly coddled, brought back to a warm and stable state in no time at all! deirdre herself fell to an exhausted sleep, the one consequence of her fall being that she was so tired she could not even dream.

thanks for the thread <3

The pup fumbled back further inside the den, and she watched as the little thing practically collapsed into sleep the moment her tiny body hit the floor. The white princess smiled, a bit of bittersweet feeling washing over her. Now she would have to go, having no further reason to stay, and she'd have to leave the company of the cute little babe. Aria let out a soft sigh, murmuring her goodbye to the little witch. Her pale eyes turned to the landscape around them and, with that, she padded back towards her original destination.