Ouroboros Spine pale moonlight

Angel Oak is heading off! She does not yet know that she won't be back for a long while, but that is my plan for her. Tagging @Arrluk & @Ajei for reference, but she is seeking out @Raindrop. All others are welcome to join and say goodbye. She will come back for visits, at the very least.

The herds were moving again. Not all of them, but the one that Angel Oak had paid special attention to, certainly. She felt a pang of loss as she watched the last one trickle over the hill and out of sight. She was already far from home, and the herd had been going further and further each day...

She wrote it off as a loss, but in her heart, the seed of a plan began to grow.

"I'm heading out," she said to her mother, hours and hours later. She was still a little breathless from trotting the last mile home. "The herd I've been watching is moving, and I want to see where they go."

She flitted around their small den, gathering things she wanted to take with her. Trinkets, mainly. Things she could trade. A few dried snacks that her mother always seemed to have prepared.

"I'll be gone probably about as long as last time," she said, tossing the last of what she wanted to pack onto her carrying pelt. She turned to her mother, eyes smiling despite the troubled look on her face. "But I'll come back in time for..."

They couldn't really know if the pregnancy had taken just yet. Angel blushed under her fur and let the matter lie.

"Rosa and Val will take good care of you," she said instead. "And Ludo, too. I'm sorry, momma — I know I just got back, but I want to see this through."

My baby. :’) *sniffles* I’m going to miss her.

She had slept in just a hair longer than usual, getting up just as her daughter came to her. She reached to nuzzle her daughter, greeting her lovingly. Angel wore a trouble look upon her gentle, sweet face. And when her daughter told her that she would be leaving yet again, she wore a bittersweet expression.

“Oh Angel.” She sighed, “Then you must go. I know how much you love to roam. You get it from me; and from your father” Maybe, somewhere out there in the great beyond, she’d run into her father and two other sisters.

Angel then moved around their den, picking  up trinkets and food for the road. She couldn’t help but tear up. Not just because her daughter was leaving, but because her girls had grown so fast. They were no longer round little fluff balls. They had fully grown into their bodies now, and soon, they would be able to start families of their own. 

As far as the pregnancy, the hope was that it would take, but she didn’t want to get too many hopes too high just yet. 

“It’s okay. There’s no need to apologize.” Her voice was soft, and so were her sky blue eyes, now shining with welling tears. “I know. I’ll be in good care. But we’ll all miss you.” 

And this time she reach to bring her daughter into a loving embrace. Holding her tight, wising that she didn’t have to let go.

Angel laughed, giving herself easily over to her mother's embrace.

"It'll just be for a few weeks," she assured the woman, her tail whisking. "A month and a half at most. I'll be back soon."

But she appreciated this about her mother, and she knew she had good reason to treat every goodbye as it might be their last. Eventually, it would be true, and Angel didn't want to miss the chance to make her last words count. It sobered her, to hear her mother's emotional words. It made her pause and appreciate the moment.

"I'll miss you, too, momma," she said, lifting her head to look her mother in the eyes. On impulse, she leaned forward to lay a sweet kiss on Raindrop's cheek. "I love you so, so much. All of you."

But soon enough, she withdrew. "I'm gonna go find Rosie and @Ludo, too — but will you tell them again from me, next time you see them? And that man of yours, too."

She winked, flushed despite her incredible joy at getting to tease her mother about boys before Raindrop ever got the chance to tease her. But...

"Maybe I'll bring home one of my own," she suggested, floating the idea.