Dawnlark Plains all that summer was fire and rain

if @Bhediya wants a thread :eyes: Otherwise, All Welcome! No need to keep it open for anyone.

It was strange to return to the plains. So much had been broken, here. So much had fallen to pieces. It was such an arbitrary place for their family to fall; the plains meant nothing to them. Sure, he youngest siblings (to her knowledge) had been born here, but they hadn't lived here.

Not even she had, in the end.

Easy mused on these things as she sat in the ash and snow. The soot, this time, was from the distant mountain peak, and not from the earth around her. It was funny, she thought -- one fire had gone out just for another to start in some distant land. But the world was like that. Life didn't happen just where she could see it, but everywhere, in every direction. It'd made her feel terribly small and alone, at first, but now she could only think it beautiful.

Without anything else to do, the shewolf lifted her muzzle and began to sing, as she had not done since being separated from her brother.

"Pick me a wildflower in the morning
and I'll hold it with me always where I'm going.
And when I feel sorrow or death is in my view,
I'll wear my wildflower perfume."

The name of Morningside was dying out in this land. Perhaps it was always meant to be this way, and that was why such misfortune always seemed to befall her kinsmen in this place. Perhaps she was assigning too much weight to the likes of fate.

"Tomorrow I'll be leaving before nightfall.
My kinsmen have now heard the siren's call.
And as the doves sail 'cross the ocean so blue,
I'll bathe in my wildflower perfume."

She wondered about the curse her father had often spoken of in her youth, and of the tragedy that'd befallen both her oldest siblings. Would the same thing happen to her, if she was to whelp? And where were her siblings? Dead? Scattered, to be sure. Was she the last of them?

"Still, pick two wildflowers every morning,
and wait in wake of true love's returning, 
and call for the bluebird every afternoon
to bring me my wildflower perfume."

Life was fickle. She was sure it didn't pause and think of her near as often as she thought of it. What a cruel thing, she thought with a sad whisk of her tail, to have been born with a heart. What a cruel, wonderfuly, beautiful thing.

finally some good freaking content... also can we date this for the 9th?

it was only going to be a short walk. one, maybe two territories away. sneaking away would have been easy, especially if she moved quickly. bhediya knew the potential consequences, the discipline that she might come to face.

instead of leaving without notice, she sniffed out @Pygmalion and told him the plan. whether he chose to follow or allow her to roam free, bhe was indifferent.

past the thick foliage of the intermediate cache was a field blanketed in white. in the distance, she could see the shadow of a stranger, their faint song ringing out into the wind. bhe remained silent for a moment and allowed herself to enjoy the serenade.

The 9th is fine! Here is the song, if anyone is interested

The song soon faded into the evening, and a cold breeze ruffled the shewolf's silver-splotched pelt. She almost thought she could smell the faint scent of lavender, and wondered if it was her imagination or something buried beneath the snow. As a girl, she might've gone looking for it, chasing after the magic of flowers and memories. As a woman, she merely smiled a small, wistful smile and stood, ready to take her leave. There was nothing for her in these plains. Her family was long gone, and her father's bones rested at the base of Silvertip Mountain -- the high peak he had often called Adeline Laughs.

Travelling now toward Easthollow, she became aware of another's presence; several times smaller than her own hulking figure, and so dark in color that the other shewolf almost looked like a shadow instead of a being.

"Hello," Easy hailed with a friendly wag of her tail, knowing that her size could be intimidating even to regular-sized wolves. Something tugged at the edges of her memories as she looked upon the stranger, but she could not quite make the leap that her heart was daring her to. It was only a stranger, and she might look like someone Easy had known but it couldn't be -- so she should stop being silly. "I hope I didn't disturb you," she added, still travelling closer at a slow but steady clip.

a moment of euphoria preceded the stranger's approach. the wind blew westward, directly into bhediya's face, and brushed gently against her closed eyes. it was a moment of reprieve. were it not for the sound of the stranger's approach, she might have stayed there indefinitely.

the distance between them was closing. bhediya took note of the girl's strange coat and wondered if she had also wandered up from the south. there weren't many of them, she thought. 

for a moment, she held that steady stare. not at all, she replied, offering a friendly grin. the staring continued. it was familiar, that pattern, but not familiar enough. bhe looked away, suddenly embarassed by her wonder. i'm sorry, you just... your coat, it's very pretty. 

it had the colors and it had the curl. they could have been from the same tribe, from the looks of it. are you from around here?

The closer she came to the stranger, the faster her heart beat; when they stood just feet apart, it was flying against the walls of her chest, light and free and sweet. Because she knew this woman, warm and maternal from her earliest days, but now small and airy and comparable in age with Easy herself. How young she must have been, the woman thought in quiet wonder, how young she must have been when we were born.

"Thank you -- it was a gift," Easy replied, wanting to laugh aloud but limiting herself to a soft huff of amusement. The words might not have fit the dam's question, but to Easy, it was an answer to all the things she had often thought in regards to this woman, her mother. It was incredible to think that this was the body that'd borne her into the world; this was the woman (the girl, she thought, she must have been a girl, back then) that'd stood alongside her father when Morningside was founded. The strong figure that'd stood as a strong tower over her and two other tumbling bodies, now dwarfed by all that she had become.

"I am," the woman replied, heart still skipping. The moment felt unbearable sweet, even though there was a sad little girl still buried in Easy's chest that begged, Mama, don't you know me? I would know you anywhere. Most of her was Easy; was a woman looking back at her equal with I want to know you  and I want you to know me writ across her heart. "I was born not far from here -- in the plains a few days to the south." But she let those words speak for themselves; she would not force this on the woman. "Are you?" She was not. "And what should I call you? My name is Blackbear."

it was a gift.

there was a shift in bhediya's being, one that was catalyzed by their sudden proximity. memories, they came slow, but they drifted into her mind all the same. the time spent looking for them, it hadn't been in vain! someone was looking down upon her, and one way or another, she'd found their favor.

as blackbear — no, ishara, progressed with her introduction, the surprise and shock grew on bhediya's face. i'm not, she whispered, her head shaking in disbelief, but i know these plains. they were far from the cuesta now.

i, well..., bhe continued, i don't... there was such a disconnect between the now and the then. she worried that trying to bridge the gap would come off the wrong way. there was a chance that this wasn't her, and that this was the result of an unfortunate coincidence. bhediya hesitated, but said, khoe, they called me.

cameo, please ignore me

She'd told him she was going, and Pygmalion very nearly let her go unaccompanied. Or, at least. . .unwatched. But his paranoia got the better of him, and so he waited a few beats, and then followed along, walking out into the open. There was another, there, and so he hunkered down near a snow-cloaked hillock, observing.

Pyg was too far away to hear or understand. But the shadowy girl that approached Bhediya was far larger; if she were to strike, he could be there within a moment's notice. His dark eyes fixed firmly on the scene, he waited—hearing each and every beat of his heart in the evening silence.

Something sparked in the mottled woman when she saw that she had been recognized; and the woman (her mother!) spoke words of quiet acknowlegdement. I am she; the one that made you -- even if the words that came out of her mouth were I'm not. And then, finally, she spoke her name. Daddy had always called her Akuti, but she knew both the names the woman had gone by in that past life. Easy couldn't help but feel she had inherited a lot more from the woman than her father had liked to say. It was implicit in her wording; she was not Khoe any longer.

"You called me Ishara," Easy told her with a small smile, and it was the first time in many waxing and wanings of the moon that she'd spoken that name. "I don't use it much, these days. Blackbear and Easy is what they call me." Which was not exactly what she wanted to say; how could she express all that was in her heart? Her mind was leaping like a fish upstream, from How often do we compare our differences when we should be trying to understand the ways we are the same? to When I was young, I thought about the things you took from me, but I never thought to thank you for all the things you gave me to I never stopped loving you; I just started loving other things.

"I'd like to get to know you," she said after a moment, when she found herself unable to say the rest. "Just you, as you are. Because you made me -- so much more than you could know."

there was a mixture of panic and relief. panic, because this was real, and that meant that there would be no more avoiding the past. relief, because isha- easy wasn't... she wasn't angry. bhediya thought back to the time in the den and remembered grayday's quiet plea.

i just want things to be easy.

you do? the swarm of emotions sat heavy in her throat. but i left you, and i... there was so much to say, so many apologies to be made. bhediya didn't think that there was enough time in the world. i tried to find you but i couldn't. and now... and you're here! what were the chances?

bhe took a moment to collect herself. where are the others? mirza and arushi, i mean. surely, they'd stayed together.

Easy had been angry. For a long time she had heaped all her woes on the woman before her, hating her because her last had been a transgression — but people didn't stop living just because you couldn't see them anymore. Just as Easy was not the little girl that Akuti had left, Akuti may no longer be the woman that'd left her. And regardless, Easy had done enough leaving of her own, by now. Forgiving Akuti had been a lot easier than it'd been to forgive herself, and if the other woman had had half as much trouble, Easy was sure she'd find redemption.

Whatever redemption she had to offer, she gave it now: "I forgive you." Oh, she still wondered at the reasons, still thought it had been a deep betrayal and a great injustice — but she had come out the better for it, and she didn't fool herself into thinking that leaving them behind had left Akuti free to live the easy life, without any pain or regret. Grayday had never said why she had left them, but he had been sure to tell them it hadn't been for lack of love. So she had suffered, and Easy was comfortable assuming they'd suffered comparably.

"I haven't seen Dauntless since just before Daddy died — but Lav's living in the valley with Sunspot. That's our aunt. She's got a mate and children of her own," Easy explained, feeling oddly reluctant to share this information, even if she'd decided to let the past be in the past. It was different, she decided, to pretend like Lavender had done the same. She realized that she and her sister had never spoken of their dam.

Some of the wonder was now fading. Easy searched the woman's face for answers, even knowing she would find none there. "What do they call you now?" she asked without judgement, bringing them back toward more present subjects; Akuti and herself.

even with dauntless going unaccounted for, bhediya knew that her children were safe. there was something keeping watch over them, something that she knew would protect them. another visit to maegi was in order, she thought. there's a pack that i'm helping to lead. it isn't far from here. and i have a mate. his name is pygmalion. it didn't feel like the correct title for the relationship that they had, but the moment was too fragile to add in the gritty details.

do you... where are you staying? it was the start of winter. the famine, it seemed to have ended, but it would be a while before the herds returned in their prior glory. easy was a capable young woman — of this, bhediya had no doubt — but even for the best hunters, this season would be trying. are you alone? they had room, and if easy was interested, bhe would have been more than happy to bring her to ibis.

Easy's features tightened briefly when her question was avoided, but she had already decided she would demand nothing of the woman. She let it go, and listened with interest to a brief summary of the woman's current state of affairs. Her ears perked at the mention of a mate more than at the mention of a pack.

"I've been travelling," Easy excused, which was a fancy way of saying she was not staying anywhere, at the moment. "There's no one with me, right now." But alone was such a strange concept to her; she thought it must be synonymous with lonely, and she was not that. Lonely or not, however, she was interested in getting to know the woman standing before her, and that would require time and proximity.

"I'm not expected back anywhere for a while," she hedged, not quite confident she ought to be suggesting this. "Maybe I could go back with you. For a little bit."

travelling. that wanderlust came directly from grayday, she thought. bhediya was content to stay in one place and take root, but day, he was always looking for something better. it was always for the family's sake. she admired that about him.

there's no one with me right now. bhediya grimaced at the thought of her child being out here all alone. she'd made it this far, though, so bhe scolded herself for doubting easy's abilities. i'd love that, she replied, finding her frown fading into a warm smile.

i can show you the way, then you can get something to eat. we don't have to talk immediately, if you don't want.

Despite having been travelling on her own, Easy appeared to be well-fed and neatly groomed. Her pelt was thick and plush — not as curly as it got in the summertime when her undercoat did not hold quite so much mass — but plenty warm all the same. It was clear that, wherever she had come from, she had not been suffering the same woes as this part of the world.

"You don't have to feed me," Easy said, trying out a teasing tone of voice. She was no longer accustomed to being nurtured, and the idea that Akuti might want to do so now made her a little uncomfortable. Not just because it felt a little to much like attempting to reclaim their past relationship rather than build a new one, but because feeding herself was part of what made Easy feel like her own woman.

"I'm ready whenever you are," she told the older woman, making a show of being ready to go. "It doesn't have to be a whole interrogation or anything. I'm not... I don't need anything. I'm not looking for answers. I just want to see if we can be friends."

i'm gonna start another thread, up to you if you wanna wrap this one!

friends. it wasn't what bhediya had hoped for, but it was better than strangers. a nod of agreeance. friends, then. the smile persisted as bhe stood and turned back toward home. the scent of pygmalion drifted on the wind but she chose to ignore it. this was a moment for her and her dau- friend to enjoy, without considering outside stress.

it's really not far. c'mon. bhe went a few steps ahead to create a sustainable gap between herself and the behemoth of a wolf behind her. she turned to make sure she was being followed before continuing to the territory.

The mottled shewolf thougth she detected a flicker of emotion in her dam's eyes; it wouldn't surprise her if her words and desires were not entirely in line with what the other woman wanted. Easy didn't want to cause her any unnecessary pain, but it was important to her that she was met in the middle in this matter; she had been hurt by Akuti before. Besides, she'd had Pema and Catori. There was no missing space in her heart for the woman to fill. Only what room Easy could make for her, if she proved to be a wolf worth loving.

It was strange to walk along behind her. Easy was accustomed to standing over and often outweighing most wolves, but it was really quite ridiculous how large she was beside Akuti. Ridiculous because she had come out of that body.

Easy offered a wry smile when the woman looked back at her, glad that her thoughts were safe inside her own mind.