Dragoncrest Cliffs the girl on angel pavement

She stood at the edge of a cliff, overlooking the sea, her gaze unfocused. The frigid air buffeted against her, tousling her lank white fur, scented with salt. Haunt didn't react to it. The young she-wolf hadn't reacted to much of anything since that fateful day on the moraine. She'd been catatonic ever since, in fact.

Something moved, she saw it out of the corner of her eye. She didn't turn toward it or acknowledge it it any way. She kept staring at the gray, wintry sky over the dark sea, yellow eyes distant and dull.

grief had aged erzulie into something hard and golden and timeless. it was this mask that appeared over the edge of the stone, and it was the still hollow mismatched gaze that saw the staring yellow eyes.
the girl had never spoken. barely stirred from her long and silent lapses. erzulie hobbled closer now with a faint cluck of her tongue, dropping a a salt fish between her paws and tearing flesh into a small pile she pushed toward the pale child.
"eat, cher." even though she had not. even though she could not.
erzulie's turn to stare off into the bleak expanse.

She did not acknowledge Erzulie when she sat beside her and began to tear apart a fish, though Haunt's nostrils quivered instinctively at the pungent odor, saliva pooling in her mouth. She could perform the essential functions of survival—eat, drink, move around—though all of it was done with inexpressive remoteness.

It turned out, she could also speak. "Eat," she repeated dully, "share." Her pale muzzle turned toward the pack's matriarch but her gaze did not focus on anything in particular before dropping vaguely to the scraps of meat. She bent slowly to eat the shredded fish, then licked her lips, sat up straighter and resumed staring at the ocean.

automaton. erzulie dropped her weary haunches to the stone and watched as the pale girl consumed the offering. "cherie," the harlot quipped back in spite of herself, seeking the blank gaze even though it had already faded away from her.
soon, however, the bare spot of warmth faded into cold again. erzulie looked upon the sea. "if you had been in de sea, you would know it could bring back every t'ought you ever had."

If she registered Erzulie's words, she made no indication. She just gazed unseeingly at the horizon, gray with winter and growing darker. The wind picked up, lashing like a whip now. Although her eyes remained dim, Haunt shivered at its bite. Her teeth began to chatter.

Then she suddenly grew still and life sprang into her yellow eyes. She blinked once, slowly, the muscles in her neck audibly creaking with tension as she leaned out over the edge of the cliff as if straining to see something in the distance. Indeed, a figure galloped along the crests of the waves, her antlered head thrown back as she dashed toward the shore, toward Haunt.

The closer she came, the more Haunt leaned. When the apparition came close enough to vanish into the shadow of the cliffs directly below, Haunt unthinkingly braced both forelegs on the stony lip as if preparing for a swan dive into the sea.

"ah, ah," erzulie warned, moving fluidly in a quest to press herself sidelong against the addled pale girl, urging her back from the edge with a low whine. "dat would not serve you," she sighed gently, though the harlot's own gaze tipped curiously over the side of the cliff, wondering what her ward had responded audibly to so suddenly.
something had come back to the sunlit eyes. such a young thing to be so devoid of a spark, and erzulie was glad to see it, if only for a moment. "come back, come back," she crooned singsong, stepping backward and seeking to draw the ghost with her, watching carefully to see if the life would persist or fade.

Quickly, a line of soft warmth pressed against her, coaxing her back. Haunt's face swung partially in Erzulie's direction and she did as she was bade, retreating from the edge of the world. Artemis hadn't been down there anyway. She had vanished.

"Come back, come back," Haunt muttered, eyes flitting hither and thither, landing on Erzulie and seeming to see her for all of a split second before dropping away.

awareness sharpening in the girl's gaze. "haunt," the harlot said softly, trying to catch the young one's eye again. "haunt. you be in sapphique. wid kaertok," she added, searching and hoping to see even the barest glint of recognition. 
she knew very little of the familial connection between the pale beast and the girl, or what it had taken before this point. it mattered not. she was here now, and so erzulie would search for some way to bring her back among them.

She repeated it one last time, barely a whisper, her voice dying in her throat when Erzulie said her name, twice. She blinked hard, almost as if struggling to resume proper consciousness. Haunt's head wobbled strangely for the effort, though there was nothing for it. Although her ears did sweep backward and a shadow passed over her face at the mention of Kaertok, there were no other signs that she recognized someone was speaking to her.

But whereas conscious behaviors had been subverted somewhere deep inside her, Haunt couldn't help her autonomic responses. She gave a great, sudden shiver as if her body had abruptly acknowledged the frigid temperatures and the icy, implacable wind. And once they began, she set to trembling quite violently, her teeth audibly chattering, though she made no attempt to fix her situation other than to hunker slightly.

poor girl, poor girl. erzulie swept her closer, sought to press her spice-hued pelt against the pale one of the girl if allowed. "come wid me," she urged, stepping back farther from the cliffline. she would take haunt to where the girl had rested since arriving. the expression that had passed across that empty young face upon the mention of kaertok gave the harlot some semblance of hope.
a cluck of her tongue; it was cold here, too cold to remain, and she waited for haunt to heed her into the automatic distant way that she had yet moved since arriving in sapphique.

Figured we could fade here and have another soon now that Haunt's more... interactive. :P

Whether she pressed closer to Erzulie because she was obeying the spoken command on some conscious level or simply allowing the physical pressure to maneuver her, it didn't really matter, did it? When bade to come nearer, she did, and when guided to follow the leader back to shelter, Haunt did what was commanded of her, all of it with a faraway look in her dull yellow eyes.