[ P ] Lacrimosa

Twigs and grass ruffled and gently snapped with each passing step of a young lady that was growing bored and slightly impatient as she paced back and forth as she waited most of the day away in the pleasant spring time weather. It hardly felt like Summer was fast approaching but it was drawing more and more near each day.

Gradient eyes would gaze out from the estate ever alert for the bodice of someone gilded in gold and perhaps now smaller than her as her body slowly filled out to its max size; forever miniature it would appear unless she suddenly had a growth spurt. She’d be forced to take little breaks here and there, resting under some shade whenever the small injury she endured would start to inflame but it wasn’t enough to keep her mind away from the prize and her plans, that was if they happened at all. Her eagerness was starting to fade as she looked up to the branches of the tree above, seeing the little rays of light flicker in and out between the leaves as they rattle softly to the caress of the wind. The sun beaming down but no longer high in the sky, having started to fall further and further down, though the warm hues of russets and golds still soaked up the landscape while a gentle breeze was enough to send a small shiver along one's spine. Evening was fast approaching.

Where was she? She promised.

Eleanor’s Day was coming closer and closer to a close, soon everything would be closed up and packaged away and with it any chance of her joy of partaking in festivities for the first time. A festival of colors and love, who wouldn’t want to go? Especially to a girl so set on fantasies of finding prince charming and a happily ever after. It would be nice to have some friends, even if fairytale romances weren’t on the agenda, she felt more and more alone lately. A sigh drifted from her, knowing she could have gone with a cousin or even by herself but she had wanted to spend most of it with her mother to have some more effective bonding time. For the most part the world seemed at peace enough to the yearling that she should be home more often, more personal time than when she was a pup but it felt like the case was rather opposite. Over the past month or two she had barely seen her. Maybe it was the child in her but she yearned for her mother’s attention and warmth again.

She promised. She would come, she never broke promises. She'd let out a soft whine, resting just a few yards away from her family’s territory, watching some wolves passerby a little further down the streets that lead toward the busy markets.

table ; bunny

Khepri Tiamat
follow me into the golden wild
stay close with your wounded eyes
absent when i need you the most
in the end, i danced with a ghost

---

Honestly, he didn't know what he was doing anymore.

Why had he come all this way... to find Sif?

Well, yes... but he didn't know why. He seemed to trail after her like a lost puppy, some unknown attachement tethering him to her and growing ever stronger rather than tired and thin with each laborious encounter. Maybe it was his desire, no his need, to take care of her and help her that pushed him towards her today. Maybe it was obsession. Maybe it was stupidity. He really didn't know at this point. He didn't even know if she even wanted to see him after last time. They'd parted ways after a while and he'd headed back home and she'd gone off somewhere no doubt to pull herself back together again. He had wanted to help her do that but it was something she'd had to do alone, he figured.

As the festival was drawing to a close, he left his home in Melrose to wander to the city to find her. He remembered where she lived, but barely.

Was that creepy?

Those accusations she'd spouted off still made his skin crawl and was he just proving her right by trying to find her now? He wasn't sure; he really just wanted to see her and make sure she was alright. That was all. His stomach twisted as he lifted his chin, catchign her familiar scent on the wind. Citizens walked the streets, this way and that, and he wondered if perhaps he was mistaking the aroma for something else. There was something off about it, but he followed it anyway. As he trailed through the crowd, he spotted a dark figure and his eyes widened.

There!

He felt a strange elation as he padded up to her, and while he still wore his usual somber expression, his tail waved slowly behind him. "Sif--" he said, patting her on the shoulder with his nose before recognizing his mistake all too late. "Oh-- I... sorry, miss." he said nervously. This girl was not Sif and he felt confused as he looked down at her, not knowing if he should just turn and leave and continue his search or blunder his way through an awkward conversation.

---

ACTION • SPEECH • 374

Her impatience was becoming more and more visible as she started to head toward the crowd, timid but willing as she ventured to hopefully find whom she was looking for tangled up with a vendor or a subordinate somewhere. Of course she didn’t get very far when she suddenly felt like she was being followed, a shadow floating around in a buzz but not quite finding its place to her right away, making her unsure if she should pause or move ahead even faster to get away from it. It was probably not even there, just a feeling, still so uncomfortable around a crowd of unassorted wolves being catered to or yelled at to leave the wares alone. Thieves to the rich; in a marketplace they were one and the same unless they carried contacts and connections that could garnish them better trades, something she was rather poor at but hardly her focus now as she could not barter for an individual. Could she? Probably not in this kind of set up but even then it would be more of a hostage situation she supposed. That was the last thing she wanted to think about; her mother in danger.

Sif--

The name caught her off guard, especially as it sounded pointed toward her, so much so she didn’t have much time to react when someone pressed their snout against her as if they very much knew it. A bubbling in her chest of excitement caused her to turn a bit more eagerly than she should have, thinking in the moment that her mother had just materialized next to her and someone was calling to her, that split second of golden hues tricking her even further. A big hopeful smile was draped dainty across her face but with an excitement that far exceeded that soft smile. That gold turned to rust the moment it entered her vision fully, tawny replacing her vision as someone a tad taller than her quickly seemed to buckle back in recognition. She had never been mistaken for the Captain before, so this was admittedly new to her as her smile became more docile and her ears flittered back before her tongue would run over her nose nervously.

“D-did you have a message for her? I could p-pass it along maybe?” she asked shyly, her ears giving a couple soft twitches, curious what this guy wanted but there was something familiar about him. Not his appearance so much as his scent, fairly certain she had caught it on her mother’s pelt on more than one occasion when she was still a pup and that unsettled her. “She… she’s my M-mutter,” she added after a second, avoiding his gaze. It was so strange to have that freedom now to wear that title with pride rather than hide it for seemingly no reason as her little stunt during the war brought her existence a bit too much to light.

table ; bunny

Khepri Tiamat
follow me into the golden wild
stay close with your wounded eyes
absent when i need you the most
in the end, i danced with a ghost

---

The girl seemed just as confused as he was and he could pratically feel his embarassment rising. Heat throbbed throughout his body as he stared at the girl, not knowing whether to just suck it up or flee like the fool he was. He let out a nervous little laugh, then took a step back and dipped his muzzle. “D-did you have a message for her? I could p-pass it along maybe?” she asked, and Khepri was about to shake his head no when she revealed that Sif was her mother. Puzzle pieces he'd been too blind to see snapped into place and the revalation was not hiddin in his expression. "O-Oh," he stammered out, his nerves fading if only slightly. "I'm so sorry, miss. I didn't realize." he said. He couldn't be sure if he'd heard Sif explicitely say she had children, but to see an alleged daughter of Sif stand before him now made him feel strange to say in the least. She was younger, much younger than himself but only a bit younger than his own daughter, he suspected. How did Sif find the time to care for her and do her duties within the Army? He blinked and realized that he didn't even know if this girl had a father and whether he was in the picture or not. His stomach twisted with jealousy, an emotion he was not familiar with at all. His brow furrowed slightly and he glanced about the crowd before looking back to the girl. He hoped he was not coming off as rude, or worse.

"I must've mistook your smell, but the crowd confused me... uhm, anyway, my name is Khepri. I was just checking in is all, I'm, uh, I was her doctor." he said. What was he supposed to say? What was too much, too little? He didn't wish to complicate anything within Sif's life, that was for sure, but all of a sudden he felt a little too unwelcome. It would explain why she'd gotten so mad at him over the idea that they'd done more than just rest together. "I don't think I got your name?" he asked, tilting his head slightly. It was moments like these he wished his memory was better.

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ACTION • SPEECH • 376