Hushed Willows Aren't you tired trying to fill that void?

Set directly after the flood thread.

"@Teya," he breathed her name, featherlight on his lips as he looked for her among the wolves who'd gathered at the rendezvous. Still soaked to the skin and with exhaustion slowing his efforts in digging new scrapes, he thought it a good time to check in with his companion from the moon pool.

He did not see her with the others so, assuming she'd sought a more private place to rest for a time, the Shakti yearling ducked his head low to avoid the willow branches that he shouldered his way beneath. Tired eyes studied the area carefully in the dimming sunlight that came with musk's swift approach, and hoped it would not take long to find her.

he had taken a liking to teya, this sundance. the memory of him etched upon her cheek.  it was not a distant recollection, but one that had only just taken place. and so she plodded through the rain, head down. the sound of the newly-made faery's voice sounded, and she glanced to him, jaws clutching wet greenery.
nothing to be said; her clearwater eyes stumbled across the calm of his flaxen countenance and faltered away; debilitatingly shy, teya could only imagine unsound reasons for sundance's new interest in her.

It was in his nature, to find strong attachment in one wolf in particular. As a babe he'd practically glued himself to Olive - not entirely strange, for sons to love their mothers, but he could vividly recall the pain of her absence when she was gone from him for a moment longer than expected. Then Dorea had come into his life and he'd been smitten at once, always yearning for her company. His obsessive affection for her was likely the reason for her dispersal, after all.

But Teya. Sweet, gentle Teya. She had come to him in his sleep, sat quietly by his side by the moon pool with her shoulder to his. That touch had never happened, not in the real world, but he'd felt it all the same. It had to mean something, he thought, this yearling who was so desperate to connect with another of his kind. Everything had to have meaning.

"Hey," he greeted, tone softened, and offered a friendly sweep of his white-tipped tail as he briefly looked her over. She seemed... afraid? Anxious, as she glanced his way then away again, of what had happened to the densite, no doubt. "Are you okay? I... I saw you slip, and..." awkwardness in his words as he shifted, powder eyes looked downward at his muddied forelimbs.

there it was again, that glance. the way he spoke to her now. teya blinked, grinning shyly despite herself. cheeks bunched and burned; she blanched when he mentioned her fall. "you saw?" she demanded in a horrified explanation, wilting somewhat beneath the soft worry of the mab-made man.
"all right," teya assured sundance, punctuating it with a nod of her head. "you are faerie now," she marvelled softly, diverging their conversation from herself. "scary?" she asked softly of the secret ritual, though the girl was unsure that the boy could speak of such things.

She seemed surprised that her trip had been witnessed, maybe even horrified that this vulnerability had been scene. Sundance was immediately regretful for bringing it up, for embarrassing her in such a manner, and he felt heat rise beneath the fur of his cheeks.

His first thought was to apologise, but he quickly bit that back as Teya promptly steered their conversation in a new direction. She referred to his new title, one that felt foreign to him, and he mustered a bashful smile to accompany his beat of awkward laughter. "Yeah," he rolled a silver shoulder in a soft shrug, still unable to muster the confidence to look her way again, "a little. I wasn't really sure what to expect."

And he hadn't anticipated her face to be the primary focus of his initiation slumber.

unknowing of the gentle vision that had paraded through his mind during the ritual, teya found herself warming despite her earlier embarassment. the soft nature of his tone always gently insisted upon it. "maybe ... the forest. it welcome you back." he had come from here, hadn't he? then it was not just his transformation that had happened. 
but teya was not sure. neither did she want to assume. "brave." 
she was quiet then, not daring to look at him; they walked sidelong and in a brief silence before she tilted back her greyrust ears. "i think i ready."

She spoke of the forest, of how she suspected it had welcomed his return with his initiation. It was a pleasant thought, one intended to warm him, but as his pallid gaze swept the sodden land before them he felt reluctant to agree. The rains had been ruthless since Sundance found his way home, and he worried that this could be a sign of rejection.

"Maybe," the silverwhite answered in soft agreement to appease his companion, despite his growing doubt. Silence came between them then as the picked their way through the willows, neither looking in the direction of one another until Teya made an announcement. She stated that she was ready to ascend and, with a curious cant of a damp sterling lobe, Sundance turned his head to regard her.

His heart leapt as he looked upon her fine muzzle, and was at once reminded of his scrutiny of her lovely russet features in his dreamslip. "Yes," he agreed after a pause, and mustered a smile of encouragement for her, "I think you are."

he was very beautiful, teya thought to herself, not a statement she might ever utter. but it was not one that was new to her, this thought. she had no name for the charisma that chased his frostmoon figure with light, only that as he ascended toward the true nature of fae, he seemed to glow.
still woefully unaware of sundance's private thoughts, teya reddened beneath his encouragement. "what if ..." a thousand things to put there, and none of them fit into the puzzle-piece clasp. she swallowed, turned her gaze forward. "i afraid i will be weak."

Her uncertainty lingered, and confidence was something she appeared to lack. It was sad to see such a beautiful girl be so unaware of her real potential. Sundance remained silent a moment longer, eager to speak so that he might raise her up, but fearful of embarrassing her further.

"You won't," he said gently, powder eyes looking ahead to the sodden path they both trailed along, "and I... I will be there for you, if you'd like?" It only seemed fair that he be present for her ascension, as she'd supported him through his.

sundance's words were quiet, chosen, and yet flushed teya with such a sweetwater rush of relief that when she raised her face again, it was with a smile warily creeping to life upon her lips. "yes." 
hesitantly she beckoned him close, daring only to press her crown a tentative moment against his shoulder before drawing away and forward. her face could not be seen; it wore a thousand emotions and she set the green things down for the simple sake of having something to do.

Fading here  <3

He saw it, that glimmer of a smile that graced her muzzle. Sundance's heart opened to it, yawned wide in its eagerness to bring this aspiring faerie into its willing embrace. The yearling offered his own warm expression in return, fearful to reveal too much of his yearning for the closeness of another.

Then she reached for him, in a gesture that was most unexpected. Sundance draw in a sharper breath through flared nostrils, surprised, but he didn't shy from her. He stayed as close as she would allow, respectful of her space should she insist it, and was content to simply share in her company for as long as she'd have him.