Gone. No Njal, no Tuwawi. Danica departed to inform the incumbent alpha of Bazi's arrival, leaving the worn and tattered girl to gather her strength among the tall, dark pines. The air smelled of melt-water and ice. Bazi took a deep, cleansing breath, closing her eyes. Glaciers, rock, and ice had made up large parts of her biological family's range, and this was the closest she had come to arctic conditions since waking up on the borders of Swiftcurrent Creek. It smelled wonderful, but it did not smell of the family. Their dreams lay shattered her, and that thought chilled Bazi to her very core.
Presumably, the wolves denned in the forest rather than on the ice. That much water had to end up somewhere, and she guessed that the run-off pooled in a lake that in turn fed the forest. But it was too dense, and she was in no condition to explore. Bazi eased onto her roiling belly (it was struggling with fresh food) and began to groom her yellowed forelegs - something she had stopped doing two weeks into her incarceration.
Picking objects off the ground had served to ease the girl's mind somehow. With every little stone or feather she plucked out of the dirt she found comfort fill her heart and lungs. It was an unhealthy habit that would be frowned upon by most wolves but she didn't care. She no longer cared.
She often left the main grounds of the Glacier in search of new objects to collect. Though she had never missed a night outside from home -- save for the night her mother had gone missing -- it was safe to say Maera was out the majority of the day. Even with the savage lynx that captured her brother and lurred her father away from her still on the prowl, the fireborn child weaved her way away from the empty comfort left behind at the Glacier.
![[Image: girl_gang.png]](https://image.ibb.co/b82KNa/girl_gang.png)
The little scavenger sniffed over the floor with boredom, plucking a ragged feather from the cold floor and clutching it tightly between her jaws. Though it was nothing but trash, Maera found feather the most wonderful of all, not only did she love running the silky object over her face and nose but she had also found that piling them up helped made a plush pillow inside her hollow log; this one was dirty and tattered but would still be making the trip back home with the young Sveijarn.
There were times when one couldn't be too picky.
With the crumpled feather hangling from her lips, Maera prepared to go back home. A torn up feather was not a bad catch -- not in the girl's book. However before she could slip again into the yellow brick road that led back to her wonderland, a hoarse voice erupted from the earth.
She turned around, frightened but curious, expecting to find a witch or an evil fairy to plop in front of her. She waited, the feather still in her mouth, but nothing happened. She wriggled her nose in an attempt to catch a familiar scent but all she found was the tangy odour of decay and misery. More curious thab before she began to slide closer to where the cries has come from.
Her eyes fell onto a raggedy rug of white, that at first laid unrecognizable to the young pup. "Come out" she barked, while casting her eyes to the sky and then the trees around her, if only she knew that her best memory from home laid under her nose.
"Do you remember me, squish?" the yellow rag asked, moving haltingly in the pup's direction. It was a little upsetting not to be instantly recognised.. but she wasn't the girl's mother, or even related, and a few moons had changed them both.
Suddenly, Bazi had an idea. She gulped down a big breath and blew the biggest raspberry her lungs would allow, spattering saliva all around her.
As she waited for a strange critter to crawl down the trunk of the naked trees or emerge from the fog with news, or intentions of taking her with her lost siblings she barely noticed the frail woman dragging herself to stand. Bazi was not even half the woman Maera remebered her to be; her immaculate white coat had been stained with a dirty yellow that simply hung from her body like a rag, and her eyes though they remained as blue as the sky were now dull and empty. Like her, Bazi had gone through the same road to hell, and was now crawling back -- like hopefully the fire child would.
Squish.
It sounded awfully familiar yet strange in the woman's mouth. Her sweet voice had not been spared from the damage that the harshness of being alone could do. With the broken feather still dangling from her lips, Maera brought her ears towards Bazi.
She sniffed the air curiously, while stretching out her neck to look into her eyes deeply. Then as the not-so strange stranger she filled her lungs and splattered Maera with her drool, all the pieces fell into place. She didn't even mind being showered with saliva, hell it was the best feeling she'd had in a long time.
With an exasperated gasp that sent the feather flying to the ground and a small whine of joy she launched herself to her former Alpha's feet, covering them with wet kisses and happy tears, "BAZIIIIIIIIIII" she managed to shout between it all.
She'd never thought she'd get back what she had left behind, but for a moment she felt like she could have it all -- at least Bazi.
The little girl's body wriggled violently as she tried to climb on top of the female, even if she was no longer a tiny baby that could be picked up and cuddled like before (assuming there was even someone to do such things) she continued to push herself frantically close to the malnourished female's chest. She ignored the fact that she had various injuries and that she was probably to worn out to return her affection with the same strenght.
When she noticed, however, the prominent lunps of Bazi's ribs she stopped. Then after taking a step back and giving the white female a sheepish grin and a shrug in response to her question she asked one of her own "How'd you get here?" she barked with a slight tilt of her head. In the young girl's mind the memory of the trip was blurred, but not the feeling that it had been eternal.
Maera stepped back to examine the damage. Gaunt features, yellow fur - Bazi felt wholly self-conscious under the pup's curious stare. "I ran," she answered, folding one paw over the other. "But I fell into a ravine - a big, rocky hole - and my leg broke. I had to stay there and wait.. for a really long time. But Danica rescued me." Half true. Danica hadn't dragged her out of the hole, but she was the reason Bazi had not died of exposure on her way to the Glacier. "I'll have to go home when I'm better. I left my pack to visit you and your.. and everyone, and now they probably think I abandoned them." Bazi cocked her head to one side. "So what's been going on with you? Any nice boys here?" It was either that, or talk about the girl's broken family.
Maera's hazel eyes danced upon the woman's frame as she described her ordeal, falling down a hole, abandoning the Creek to check on them and having to wait out in the cold with an apparently broken leg. At the mention of this last part, the child --who had never had contact with an injured wolf -- jerked her head to inspect each and every one of the long pillar-like extremities the she-wolf sported. While it was clear one was not even brusing up against the ground as it should've been, she found it the thought of the seemingly good leg Bazi held up to be shattered on the inside.
now what did that remind her of?
The girl's eyes almost popped out if their socket as she understood that the reason that Bazi had had to suffer it all was to see them. But oh! What wouls she say when she realized there was no 'them' left to see? She was a one-man show now.
It would've seemed like the usually day-dreaming child would've allowed the brief mention of her now missing family to slip, but she was much more observant than she seemed. Her round eyes and goofy ears weren't just a decoration.
"You just missed them" she barked with an melancholic tone lacing her voice, "They went to find Lawus and a cat -- and flowers for me" she blabbered, not really wanting to elaborate on the tragedy but not wanting to let go her made-up explanation for it all go to waste.
"No. Ewie" she answered then, forgetting about her unspoken question and the pain that it was wrapped in to let her innocence and carelessness of the world take over once more.