Saēna was beginning to wonder if she had a sixth sense. The clouds overhead were grey and streaky with the rain that pelted the plateau below. Mere hours ago, though, the sky had been nearly clear, with only a few wispy clouds to suggest wet weather was on the way.
Somehow, she knew upon waking it was going to rain. Maybe it was the damp scent that spread in the air prior to a rainfall or maybe it was a wolf's natural instinct. Maybe it really was a sixth sense that she wasn't aware of. As she walked through the rainy forest with her wet coat sticking out at odd angles, she smiled to herself and shook her head as though to mentally say, don't be ridiculous, you can't tell the weather.
It wasn't the first time she'd known rain was coming before it came, but she didn't let herself think too much about it. Whatever it was, it was a blessing. She crashed through some undergrowth and breathed deeply, savouring the petrichor that wafted up from the earth below, and emerged onto another used path. She stopped for a second to shake out her coat, then continued following the path deeper into the heart of the territory.
Amelie couldn't help but feel disheartned by the clouds. Somewhere along their velveteen bodies, the faces of those gone stared down on her. Yep, she was now seeing faces encrypted on the clouds. It was ridiculous of course but she could not help it. As she lied face-up on the lush rug of Autumn leaves, she could not shake the feeling of being watched by a particular set of silver eyes.
The memory of his face was to overwhelming right now, especially after what had happened. Amelie was sure he would've been able to see sense during the madness -- he would've probably been against Peregrine's desicion; he was smart and he was wise.
But he was not delicate -- not like the silky cloud canvas he was being portrayed on. "I never told you to go" she mumbled as she watched the cloud contort into a mushed up circle. Though time had soothed the pain of her heart, she could not affirm that the gash made by his words would ever be completely healed.
"Told who to go?" she asked nosily, stepping closer to Amelie. A lot had changed since she went away. Her trip wasn't very long, but Saēna had discovered a good deal of confidence on her own as well as curiosity. It was a bad sort of curiosity, the sort that got you into trouble for starting rumours, but it was curiosity all the same.
Her head swirled as she watched the last traces of his facial features fade into shapeless blobs of grey. It was sad to think that these strange apparitions would be the only way she would see his face again. After their fall out he had packed his bags and left her -- and his kids behind.
There was no second chances; not this time.
It was right in that moment, when she still remained on the floor with her head caught in the clouds literally, that the sweet Saēna approached; carrying a question that made the aspiring-healer to do a double take.
"Umm.. " she mumbled, as she rolled onto her side. It would be a lie to say that during her short 'affair' with Kisu, the innocent faces of his kids -- the very same ones she cared for each day-- didn't pop into her mind. Aside from the extense age gap, it was this last thought what stopped her every time.
Amelie thought about lying, but as she prepared her alibi in her mind she realized that not her concience nor her heart had the courage to fool the child. "Your father, Saēna. " she barked with a pained tune lined in her voice. She knew that after his disappereance both of his children had thought he had left them because of his lack of interest.
But there was more than that.
Though Amelie would never justify his negligence, she couldn't help but feel empathy for the guy.
Of course, Saena had a rather unique family, and so the answer was easily misinterpreted. "None of us asked dad to go," she said softly, "y'know, except that stupid cunt, Fox." Fox had definitely been the root of all of Saena's problems, she decided. Maybe Pied had known Fox and that was why she'd died—because Fox did something to her. It was too ridiculous even for Saena, who put the thought aside immediately and felt somewhat ashamed of herself.
She shuffled her feet in the dirt, then said, "d'you think she brainwashed him? I think she did something to make him her slave or something." Fox was the Wicked Witch of the West East, all right. Maybe Amelie would agree that something had to be done, that Peregrine had to be returned to his senses and brought back to the family who really cared.
Inside of Amelie's chest, the urge to unravel the secret behind the relationship she held with Saena's father bubbled up to her throat. Her silence had been left broiling for far too long, and even if the only other soul she had even spoken about Kisu was Fox (because she had pretty much forced the words out of her), she wished she could stop masking feelings that were destined to die anyways. Kisu wouldn't come back. And if he did, chances were that he wouldn't want her anymore.
Emptying the contents of her heart to the very child of the man in question might not be the wisest choice; but it was the only one in Amelie's mind. However, before another word could be pronounced, the pale teenager quicky changed shifted the conversation onto the infamous redhead that had torn the pack to pieces. She was a trending topic in the Plateu, and pretty much everywhere these days -- no matter what the topic was, her name was always mentioned here and there.
The yearling's lungs deflated like balloons, though she certaintly held a grudge against the rude and prying bitch, she did not believe she was the real culprit for Kisu's departure. ".. I don't think she had to do with that side of it.." she murmured. After all the havoc she had caused, she understood Saena's urge to blame her of every damage ever done. Though Amelie didn't like to contradict the child, she had to understand that she could not always use Fox as a escape-goat.
But again, without even stopping to consider her response, Saena begun to spit out theories about how Fox had re-programmed Peregrine's brain to make him a tool. Honestly, Peregrine could go fuck himself right now. The kind male that had greeted her when she had first arrived had died the moment he decided to go, and though the good memories would remain in her brain she didn't really give two fucks about what he did or did not do right now.
Without giving a response, and not thinking she even had one; Amelie raised her head again, her yellow eyes searching his face among the clouds.
"What are you talking about?" she flatly asked in a tone that was somewhat shorter than it probably should have been. Amelie was not only her senior, but also her superior. It wasn't right to lose her temper with superiors, but then, Amelie had just said she had something to do with Peregrine's disappearance and then denied that Fox was part of the equation. It didn't make any sense, and when things didn't make sense, Saena quickly grew flustered.
"I'm pretty sure she came in and royally fucked up my family," Saena said bitterly, "or did you not notice how she tore dad away from all of us without so much as a personal goodbye or invitation to any of us? And how Lasher came back to the plateau even though he loves dad, because she's so important to him now?" She frowned at Amelie, then, tied up in her misinterpretation and sudden misplaced anger that the yearling would even suggest Fox's innocence. It may have been true that Saena was projecting a lot of her problems on the red-furred ex-Alpha, but this problem really was her fault.
"I can't believe you'd even say she's not to blame," she finished coldly.
A pang of regret pinched her side as soon as the words slipped from her lips. Though she didn't know the truth behind her accusing stare, she felt the contents in her stomach crawl to her esophagus and block her traqchea. She flicked her ear in an apologetic manner, expecting for the girl to lash out with questions that would ultimately force her to reveal what had happened between her father and her.
But instead of that, Saena bombarded her former Caretaker with words filled with poison that seeked to expose the 'so obvious truth' of how Fox had been the one to drive her father away. As she spoke, Amelie scrunched her face into a confused frown, what did she mean it had been her who drove him away? Asides from the revelation he'd given Fox about his attraction for her, Amelie didn't know anything about Fox and Kisu.
Lasher? Wait what?
Suddenly the yearling understood why the girl was so defensive. They had been caught in a web of confusion the whole time, each arguing about something completely unrelated. Saena was speaking of her dad, but not her biological one but the one she had always known. Though Amelie couldn't know if Kisu had been a lousy father (since she didn't have one to compare him to) she had noticed his absence; and apparently his children had too. The fact that Saena didn't title him as her father was proof of that.
Amelie waited until the girl finished speaking, topping off her snarky remarks with cold disapproval. This was not the child she had seen grow up. And though she could've simply allowed Saena to walk away with hatred in her heart, she flattened her ears apologetically, though their connection wasn't the same as before, Amelie still loved and worried for the quartet.
"Saena, I'm not trying to justufy her actions. She is a bitch, I don't like her all that much either." she began softly, "I wasn't talking about Peregrine." she explained, waiting for the girl to remember that she had another father.
She opened her mouth to ask who Amelie meant then, but then it was like puzzle pieces sliding into place. Her jaws snapped closed on mid-air and her eyes narrowed slightly. "Kisu?" she asked slowly. Sure, Kisu had lent his genes to Saena, but aside from that, he'd been as much a dad as her uncle Atticus. In fact, Atticus being her dad was more plausible; he'd certainly been more involved in her life as a kid than Kisu really had, had been there for more events, even though she'd seen neither hide nor hair of him since getting back.
"He wasn't a good dad," Saena said quietly, "actually, he was a terrible dad. I didn't know he was my dad for a long time and then, when he told me, he took off shortly after." She carefully watched Amelie's face and silently prayed that the yearling didn't try to defend Kisu. For once, Saena wasn't exaggerating, and wanted her opinion of her biological father to be left right it was: in a ditch where it did her no harm
"Were you... involved or something?' As surprising as it might be to Saena if that was the case, she wouldn't find it wrong or shameful. Her family was extremely unorthodox as it was, so Amelie courting Kisu would have seemed normal.
While the teen stared away into the distance, the charcoal yearling fixed her eyes on her pale fur, as if the intensity of her yellow pupils would somehow make her turn to face her again. Eventually it worked, the girl turned. Only to give Amelie the most confused look, as if what the girl had just admitted to was the best kept secret.
The yearling's head bounced slowly as Saena pronounced his name. When it came from his own daughter's lips it was even more embarrassing. Her once strong gaze lowered to the floor as she listened to the pale girl she had cuddled and loved so much curse out her own father. The small flames left behind by the greyscale male tickled her belly, as if asking her to protest. But she didn't. She knew that everything Saena said was true.
Amelie hadn't even had the chance to meet her father, but she knew that even if she did now, it wouldn't make any difference in her life.
Involved.
Well it depended on what she meant by it. Emotionally, yes -- Amelie liked to think so. Though the feeling in her heart had been confusing, she at least had the certainty that he had loved her -- or so he had told Fox. (something that know that she thought about it, was probably bullshit).
"Yeah, something like that -- he bailed out on me too" she admitted in the end. Her lips pursing in a pained face before raising her gaze to meet Saena's
On that note, she sought Amelie's gaze with a frown. "You haven't seen Ty lately, have you?" she asked with a slight sideways tilt to her head. "She got into a fight with Junior and ran away. We haven't seen her since." It was possible Ty was out in the world lost and confused. While thinking that partly scared her, it also made her feel justified somehow—like Tytonidae had done something wrong and deserved to be alone out there, even though it was in fact Saena's fault.
Amelie recieved what could only be described as a condolence with a weak smile that faded as quickly as it had appeared. She had been mistaken about Kisu, not only because she had allowed him to toy with her feelings but because she had let him block the real picture. Kisu was not the victim, he was a lousy father.
The yearling knew nothing about Pied, besides than she had birthed Pura and Saena of course.
Wiping the male from her mind, Amelie twisted her face into a worried frown as she listened to the juvenile ask for her sister/cousin. "She fought with Junior?" she parroted immediately. The kids had had their squabbles in the past but by now Amelie had thought they had all mended their old wounds. "And she hasn't returned? Has she gone to the Caldera maybe?" she wondered aloud, she had been pretty much the only one that had voiced her support for Peregrine at the time he chose to leave.
She chewed on her lip for a second, lost in her thoughts, and then asked, "d'you think she really hates us? She said she did, but... she was joking... right?" Although she couldn't fathom why she cared what Tytonidae thought, given their shaky history, she found she didn't like the possibility of anyone hating her, least of all her sister.
With the whole heartbreak club talk behind them, Amelie took the opportunity to really see how much the child she had once craddled had grown. She was a little lady now, and like she had done she would soon begin to branch out in order to persue her own desires. The girl seemed afflicted by the dissappearence of her sister -- how could she not . Ty was the epitome of innocence, she was somehow blinded to the real world by a veil of fantasy in front of her eyes.
"Of course she was!! No one hates you and Osprey -- and you know Ty, she's a sweet girl who I believe couldn't hate you even if she wanted to" she barked, trying to reassure the love the sisters felt for one another. Though she certaintly didn't 'love' her brothers after going down her separate path she didn't hate them either.
There was something about the bloodties that blurred the feeling of animosity and blocked its path. Family was something that couldn't be broken by words alone.
"I hope she comes back soon," said Saena, glancing up at the sky. The rain was like a fine mist now and the sky seemed to have lightened a shade or two. "I should apologize. I won't change my mind about dad and Fox, but I guess I don't have to tell Ty that." As if seeking confirmation, Saena looked back at Amelie with a determined smile.
The tiny smile of relief given by the teen made Amelie's heart fill with tranquility, she was glad she had been able to soothe the girl's worries and that in the end their little misunderstanding had been nothing more than that. She smiled back at the russet patterned girl, hoping that aside from the sweet memories they had made when they were both younger would never be forgotten.
"We all let words slip when we're angry, she just doesn't see things the way we do " she barked, trying to make the young girl see that not even those who seemed to have everything frigidly calculated were excempt from making mistakes.
"Thanks, Amelie," she breathed, moving to press her nose gratefully against the yearling's cheek. Her tail swayed as she stood there a moment, glad for the other female's presence at the plateau, and then she drew back. "I'm training to be a Naturalist, you know. I knew it would rain today." The rain was still slowing, and showed signs of stopping soon. Saena shook put her fur and said, "I'm gonna go tell Junior that I got the weather right for once. See you later" She left the scene in high spirits, but never did manage to find Junior.
The juvenile's light touch sent a small ripple of warmth down her wrinkled heart, reminding her of the many great memories she had had in the Plateu. Still, the sensation soon faded as she pulled away, and waved her tail goodbye.
The news of Saena persuing the same trade made her chest swell with pride for a fleeting second, though she would've offered her own knowledge to the young girl she caught herself simply nodding silently.
Amelie wasn't staying for long, and Saena was done having people close to her walk out from her life. When she was gone, it was likely the teen wouldn't even notice anyways.
And just like that, with a small half-smile and a small dip of her nose Amelie watched the girl go.