Stone Circle I just want you to love me like that

Go to Kvarsheim, their mother had urged. She'd shown them the way. Foxglove, truthfully, had not wanted to go — but what choice did she have?

She found comfort in the warmth of pressing her muzzle into @Petal's ruff as they walked, resting against @Dahlia's chest when they slept. Kvarsheim wasn't so far, not compared to the miles they'd already walked. When they reached the borders, however, Foxglove found herself hesitant. Kvarsheim.

She turned her gaze helplessly to her sisters, tail pressed tightly to one hind leg.

She understood.

Just as her mother needed to go and secure the safety of Dusty Rose, Petal secured the safety of her siblings. Foxglove and Dahlia were kept close — Petal had become slightly more prone to borderline-obsessive protectiveness. Hogging both of them at night by draping limbs or neck over them. She made sure neither one walked alone at any given time, either with one another or with her.

Perhaps her mother had known when she had been named Forsythia that she might also be low-maintenance but fast-growing.

She made to kiss the crown of Foxglove when the helplessness showed. Petal had become a herbalist when their mother had not been well. Now she became an emotionally-charged guardian for her sisters.

This will be good, I promise.

It will be different, but we will be okay.

Sven did not know the girls that came to thr border but they smelled a bit of their sister Reverie. Who their father had adopt3d. Sven was fast finding out that their father had given as much love to as many as possible who needed it. And he would strive to do so too.

A soft little smile a wag of his tail. Hello! You've come to Kvarsheim. How can I help you.

her mother's presence always had some element of randomness to it, at least since the fire that had stolen reverie's mind. she never thought it would be dusty that would take her away this time. somehow, this was worse. the complete and total absence read as abandonment. bitterness rooted deep, although she had kept it from reverie in the moment.

they had parted smiling. she kept her tears to herself. they came out at night. they stopped coming out at all.

caretaking was dahlia's job, now. she saw petal's anxious possessiveness, that if dahlia or foxglove slipped out of sight they might too disappear completely. she saw its lesser echoes in fox, how she needed to draw close for comfort.

dahlia would secure their future no matter the cost. thankfully, it seemed like they wouldn't have to fumble their way to a solution this time. there was no trading to be had. they just had to arrive.

so arrive they did. at the borders of kvarsheim, they were greeted before they even had a chance to call. they would be protected here.

hello, she says, breaking forward from the group, the young girl masquerading as some makeshift ambassador. i am dahlia. these are my sisters, foxglove and petal. she glances at them now in reassurance, though the thought they might be turned away sat deep in her stomach.

our mother, reverie ... she told us to come here. she has left to find her husband.

Foxglove softened under Petal's kiss, meeting her with a warm look and a half-hearted attempt at a hopeful smile. Her gaze flitted between her sisters for a moment — but a wolf of Kvarsheim was quick to arrive. She'd never seen him before, though the kindness in his eyes put her at ease some.

Still, it was a relief when Dahlia stepped forward to speak. Fox pressed her flank anxiously to Petal's own, eyes darting from Dahlia to the stranger and back. She swallowed hard.

She - she said we have family here, She managed — and for a moment her lips parted as if she might say more. But Foxglove only went quiet again, pressing more tightly to Petal now.

It was a boy who arrived. He seemed strong and he was colored in hues she had only seen at night. Some tendril of self-consciousness weaved through her. She knew she did not look the best. They had lived in the lowlands, but had they thrived yet?

Her focus was only upon Foxglove and Dahlia now. Continuing to comfort the former while she listened to the latter.

She did not think their mother would send them towards failure, but Petal was already thinking. Churning ideas in her mind to secure their continued life. A survivor's brain lived within her skull now.

Absent mindedly she preened Foxglove's shoulders and crown.

Sven nodded his head. Yes Reverie was our fadir's adopted daughter. Our sister. Please come in. WE'll get you some food and a warm place to stay, you can talk to us about everything later.

A wag of his tail. He wanted to reach forward and pull all the girls to him. Hug them tight to his starlit body and not let them go. They looked as if they had been through awful things and he wanted to fix it. 

My brothers Kristjan and Ujurak and I lead here. Come along. Do you need help with anything?

the welcome is instant and overwhelming. their basic needs now available at their fingertips, and for anything else all they had to do was ask. 

she had so many selfish thoughts. i want a place for petal to keep her medicine, and one for foxglove to keep her trinkets. i want for them to bask in sunlight and roll around in the tall grasses like little girls. i want us to go on adventures.

but it was her glass slipper, cinderella’s missing shoe. this was no fairytale, this was their life — their real life — and she knew not to ask for such frivolous things because if she did, the world would find some way to take it away from them. 

the words died in her throat before they came. she cleared it. 

i don’t think so, she says. no one was injured, and the basic offerings would take care of the rest. we’re all just tired. maybe once we’ve slept, we can figure that out.

sleep would take the dreams away, surely. maybe she would wake tomorrow as someone new.

i think we can fade here or in a reply if you'd like @Sven <3

It seemed so easily, being swept up. Dahlia had handled it all so flawlessly and this Sven man did not seem so terrible. She still was not wholly sure what to make of their adoptive relation. Maybe more confused than she was answered, but that was okay.

Everything seemed confusing in her life, anyway. What was one more thing?

Thank you, She beeped out on behalf of them all.