Silverlight Terrace let death come

thoughts spin 'round her mind, betrayal sinking it's fangs mercilessly into her flesh.

it stings, that ariadne and her husband would just ...leave them. and couldn't even tell them! she had to 'hear' it from dutch! jr's mood sours, the dark cloud following over her head as ghost soars overhead; keeping her in his always inspecting gaze.

it only proved that she didn't know the wolves she called pack mates. not really.

jr huffs and kicks a small mound of snow, sending the powdery dusting of it flying. it does little to ease her annoyance, the upset nesting in her throat.

she is not bereft like the rest of them. witnessing the various emotions of these strangers that dutch calls his people, after they have been told the news.

she hears snow crunch and turns her eye to see a dark shape assailing a pile.

why are they so bothered? she slinks after them, wanting to understand. the way the stranger moves reminds her of one brother, while the emotional display makes her wary for the likeness towards her mother in a manic state.

still, sulukinak is curious and she croons a small sound — not knowing it would go unheard.

for good measure, and in the hopes it might elevate some of what she is feeling — these cloying things choking her, these invisible wounds that ache — she stomps on a deformed snowball, flattening it beneath her paw. the relief is immediate and disappointingly brief. without the ability to verbally talk through what she is feeling, it is just left to fester.

ugly and painfully.

towhee doesn't hear the noise meant for her, but ghost does.

the falcon descends and nips at her ear; the pain jolting her into an abrupt sense of awareness she hadn't had in the moments prior. a stupid, silly mistake that could've been dangerous.

she turns abruptly, golden gaze scouring the landscape until it falls upon the dark pelaged woman. towhee doesn't know her, not really, but she knows she is of moonsong.

an inquisitive tilt of towhee's head is given; too angry to feel embarrassed at her childish attempts to relieve the aggression her feels of being betrayed are morphing into.

the other woman is pouncing the snow. sulukinak is reminded of the way a fox will leap and dance as it seeks mice; she eyes the hawk as an afterthought, and lowers her head submissively when all eyes turn to her.

she slinks closer, stopping to sniff the snow, checking for food scents and to discern why the other woman was so agitated. there is nothing to explain it.

her tail sways, and she looks with a similar head tilt at the snow, at the woman, at the hawk; asking in a more comfortable silent way, what is wrong?

towhee, well versed in reading body language, is able to discern the question she reads upon the other woman's mannerisms and facial expression. it lingers heavy upon jr's shoulders in a way that gives her pause and consider what she hadn't before: if anyone else was as upset that ariadne had abandoned them as she was.

irregardless, towhee stews in it all the same.

she draws in a deep breath and lets it out in a deeper, heavier sigh.

she is not confident that this woman knows ptero, despite being apart of moonsong, but still towhee tries: -i am upset with ariadne.- she signs in ptero, golden gaze watching the other woman's expressions for understanding.

the other wolf makes motions that sulukinak watches intently, more like a cat witnessing motion than with true understanding. had she seen this before? maybe when dutch would practice. she doesn't know what it means, but can discern it is harmless.

when the dancing is over, sulukinak let's the tilt of her ears and subtle drop of her head tell them of her ignorance. she licks her lips and alerts her eyes for a beat, with the same intention.

red woman and her - man, she broached the subject but kept the word of nanuk to herself, for clarity sake - do you think they will come back?

this was the most recent upset among the village, so sulukinak presumed that was a thought plaguing many minds.

it comes as no surprise that the woman does not understand ptero — with ariadne gone now only dutch really knew it — and jr does not begrudge the woman this at all. she is used to others not knowing.

towhee pays close attention to the other woman's lips as she speaks; lipreading.

a soft sigh pushes past jr's lips, seething in her anger at the abrupt departure without any word — or so said dutch — offering her packmate a simple shrug of her shoulders to say: she didn't know.

and she wasn't so sure that she cared.

the other wolf was clearly unhappy.

but, they also did not seem to mind the idea of being without the red woman.

sulukinak inhaled sharply, as if deciding something — and then nodded. she agreed. i am glad they are gone. it did not feel bad to say it aloud. sulukinak did not feel guilt about it.

her man was angry. it is safe now. her tail whisked, and she sat, wrapping it around her feet.

it is ariadne's departure that bothers towhee the most, for she knew nothing about the man she called her husband and frankly did not care either way about him. but it proved to jr that she hadn't known the cloud woman, either. not really.

she wouldn't claim that she was glad that the cloud woman was gone, but towhee also knew that she wouldn't accept her back, either if and when she returned. her respect, once lost, was not something easily won back ... if she was the forgiving type. and towhee wasn't so sure that she was.

the next words about ariadne's husband cause jr's head to tilt; contemplative and confused. she states he was angry and that she hadn't felt safe and something twists in towhee's gut. something that she does not like. she does not know the story but there was clearly a story there, but she does not know how to ask to read it. or if she even wants to.

so, towhee does the best thing she can do: offers the raven furred woman a soft look of solidarity, hoping that under dutch's reign moonsong remained safe. in truth, towhee wasn't so sure she would be staying to find out.

the other wolf did not have further words. neither did they chase sulukinak away or take offense, not in any obvious way, and so sulukinak felt a small kinship growing between them.

she soon got to her feet, and shook some residual tension from her shoulders which had descended upon her when she had thought of the angry man.

as she began to wander again, sniffing at patches of snow or pine needles, she kept herself alert in case towhee wanted to speak further.

she was just as content to continue exploring, if they wanted to be left alone.