The Sentinels The Seventh Hero Beyond the Engine

@Indra 

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Whenever Wraen thought of her parents, she felt the need to visit the former claim of Donnelaith. With nothing but memories about the two, this place gave her something solid to hold onto, a proof that they had once been alive and well. Now, when Maia was gone, she felt particularly lonely and had come to the sentinels again. 

Nothing much had changed since the last time she had been here. The forest was still healing wounds the fire had left many years ago. No pack had taken up residence in the abandoned halls and rooms that were reduced to rubble. Yet, if she focused enough, she could bring back dim memories of, what it had been here like, and her imagination did the rest. 

She had walked up to the very edge of the cliffs, sat down and looked at the roaring ocean below. Something in the view was captivating, scary and yet oddly peaceful.

her search for merrick yielded nothing; little did indra know her son bedded scarcely fifteen miles down the coast, hidden from all save the dark shadow that tailed him.

she knew she had to turn home soon. she loathed leaving laurel for any length of time, particularly given all that transpired. with the coast behind her indra made upwards, climbing the rocky steppes in careful strides. on the wind, she detected traces of another wolf. ears pricked, indra made one last bid to crest the summit — only to come face to face with a familiar friend.

As Wraen got older, her memory became more selective about the memories it kept. Events from her early childhood and youth became dimmer and with many people walking through the doors of her life and going away again, only photos of few were left hanging on the walls. It was not unusual for her to introduce herself again to a person she had met several months or even years ago and be surprised to find out that - yes - they had actually met before. 

No wonder that Indra's face did not ring a bell to her in the first critical minutes, during which she quietly and friendly acknowledged the presence of the other and tried to decipher, what motives they had for approaching. And only, when some significant details about the other's looks clicked together, was she able to paint the whole picture and add a name tag to it as well. 

"Indra - long time, no see," she said.

indra's steps -- confident before -- slowed as she came across wraen; she was looking for that flicker of recognition, that shift of warmth in her friend's eyes. she began to doubt herself - perhaps this was not wraen at all, she must have been mistaken -- she was just about to excuse herself shamefully when recognition swept through wraen's features.

relieved but no less troubled, indra's expression shifted to light concern. "how are you, wraen?" so much had changed since she had last seen her -- could she even catalogue the ways in which her life was different now?

"I have a new home, new friends, but the life has remained more or less the same. There is a bunch of children I help raising and taking care of, but which are not my own," Wraen told Indra, smiling and there was no bitterness in her voice for the fact that yet another year had gone by and she was unmarried and childless. 

"What about you?" she asked for lack of anything better to keep the conversation going. After all - there was a year-long gap and a lot to fill in.

oh, indra knew all too much about rearing children not her own.

the russet woman's face crumpled, then cleared, then grew troubled again. that blank slate that was her delicate face held all vortex of emotion, and if wraen happened to glance upon her, she would feel keenly the whirlwind of emotions left in indra's stare.

tidying her composure, indra sighed; what was new that was appropriate to share? what even was worth sharing?

she found little in answer, and so instead focused on the life of her friend; a life she could briefly dive into and imagine, and get away from the wretchedness of her own living. "i have a new home also," indra started (the "new friends" was conspicuously absent, for indra had few friends and cared even less to make them). "and children not my own that i tend to. where is it you settled?" her mahogany gaze passed over wraen sympathetically, and added in a soft tone of commiseration: "these children, did they lose their parents?"

Honestly Wraen had no idea, where Indra's first home had been. There was a vague memory of meeting her somewhere near the mountains and that had been about it. She racked her brain more and recalled that the girl been rather distrustful towards strangers. The tiredness about her countenance and somber shadow in her glance had remained the same though. The russet she-wolf did not give an impression that life treated her either gently or fairly and Wraen could not decide, whether she should feel sorry for her or rather be glad that those challenges had bypassed her. 

"If you look over at that peak there - looks like a moon on a stick," she pointed towards the looming shape of Moonspear's pride and namesake, "but do not stop there, continue moving along the coast until you have gone past that mountain range and see that peak from the other side - you are near my home. It's a nice little corner of forest that provides us with everything we need," for now. Come winter, Wraen would tell a different story. 

"Called "Firebirds" - you are welcome to visit any time. Or, if you are in need of a friend and a cozy and safe corner," she extended the invitation. "Not really - it's a family pack and all are inter-related to one another. A lot of kids, but also a lot of parent and grandparent and aunt/uncle figures to join in. And I am somewhere in the middle," she explained, smiling fondly. "What about you - where do you live now?"

indra's gaze followed wraen's direction, tracing along the distant and mist-studded peak. somewhere far beyond its stern and stony face, resided wraen's home. it seemed an insurmountable and impassible distance -- indra could not help but glance at wraen in surprise, wondering just why she had managed to be so far displaced from her new range.

the question at the tip of her tongue was never uttered, for wraen already had gone onto a different topic: the nature of their pack's dynamic. indra found it rather commendable that a pack could be that thoroughly well knit.. she wondered what it was like, or what it could be like, if she and laurel had ever had the luxury of a deep and inexhaustible supply of caring relatives.

"that is probably really nice for them." indra remarked, no trace of bitterness in her voice. "i'm living in easthollow now. it's actually next-door to where i lived when i first met you, run by my old pack-mate's sister." a tinge of something, maybe coldness, had entered indra's voice -- for she rarely recalled bearclaw valley with any fondness. "why are you so far outland?"

"It's force of habit, I guess," Wraen replied after a little thought on the matter. Yes, why indeed. "Pack life - especially so intense as mine at the moment - can get exhausting and taking a holiday once in a while definitely helps," she said. 

"I like to keep my options open - I go out and away and at the same time I scout the lands and learn about new hunting grounds or food sources. Living in Sunspire taught me that you can never rely on the territory you have claimed. There has to be a plan B, plan C and plan D," and the rest of the alphabet, if needed.

"I can ask you the same question - I might be wrong, but I am closer to my home than you are to yours?" she asked Indra.

taking a holiday, wraen put it. indra observed to herself this seemed a strange destination -- perhaps indra would have been happier if she too, put a foot outside of her home more often.. but indra was a homebody, through and through. the cloth she had been cut from had been damaged too often by those with irreconcilable urges to wander.. and never, in indra's heart, would she willingly take time from what remained of her family.

she winced now to realize, she was away right now.. but she was searching for merrick, and had a reason, right? jolted from her thoughts by wraen's inquiry, indra set her somber gaze upon the female and offered a passive smile: "yes, i am awfully far. i am looking for my son, merrick. he is about my height, darkish black, with a stripe of auburn (my color) along his back. you have not seen him in your travels, have you? i just wished to see he was well.." indra missed merrick terribly, and a sense of guilt stung her heart as she thought of both merrick and nunataq, now gone from her life of their own choosing (she was not too proud to observe the hand she had played in their departures, what with going off and leaving them just as her mother had done..).

the hole they left hounded her terribly.

"I do not think I have met anyone that would fit your description," Wraen shook her head in denial, when she had listened to the end of Indra's speech. She did not realize it then, but fate liked to play odd and cruel games. Merrick's mother could tell, what his name was and what he looked like, but could not pass on the memory of scent. Few weeks later after this meaning Wraen would encounter Vercingetorix, who would be looking for the very same person and had only a scent as a lead. Likely - she would never find out.

"If he is a grown up man, it's probably easier to hold on to the hope that he is doing fine and well," she suggested, knowing that her words would do nothing to soothe mother's worries for her child. "This spring and summer has been generous. How is your sister - Laurel - doing?" she asked, having recalled that there had been a sibling, who she had not met personally.

They spoke with each other for a long time and parted on mutually good terms and a wish to see each other again after a while. As it happens in life, such circumstance would never arise. Indra would die at hands of her own son and Wraen would be trapped in the Hinterlands for a long time to come.