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[Tayui Aston]

Backdated to June 16; set in Ethereal Eclipse.

It was a beautiful day, but Tayui could not see it. Her own emotional turmoil coupled with the nature of the lands made it impossible to see the skies. Even if she cast her gaze skywards, she knew it would not register. Right now, nothing seemed like it was registering properly. Moreover, the area known to luperci as Ethereal Eclipse was a densely forested region, where not a ray of sunlight could penetrate. As she rested near a particularly old tree, she contemplated the meaning of this: there were infrequent clearings where the sun shone, but elsewhere, it was quiet and dark. The trees had grown tall and were almost barren near the forest base due to the lack of sunshine. It was strange but comforting. She liked that she had found a forest so riddled with contradictions; it reflected her mood well.

“Hello,” she shouted impulsively, flicking her ears forward to listen for her voice. “Echo, echo,” she added as an afterthought and she studied the way her voice moved through the trees. She then began to laugh, surprised she could even think such things. Her daughter was dead and all she could do was study the sound of her own voice. She was so self-absorbed.

Her laughter continued, growing quieter until it finally began to sound more like sobs than anything. Her daughter was dead and she was in an empty forest. Suddenly, the reality of her situation became clearer and she felt very, very alone.

[Alaine Winters]

table © Alaine
ooc: that was a beautiful post :3 thanks for starting!
wc: 500+

She had been wandering for hours now. A sense of hopelessness leached the land here, a guarded glade of tall pines and soft ferns, rustling and whispering to each other. The forest was beautiful, and the slender female figure was lost among the dapples of light, the shafts of sun that speared through the tangled balcony of leaves o'erhead. At her side swayed a leather satchel, brimming with various flora she had gathered in her meanderings.

In truth, Alaine had not realized her perilous situation until it was too late. Once she was lost, it became a truly stupendous thing - the haunted trees goaded her into walking in circles, each alike the other, until tears stung behind her emerald eyes and a frustrated pain beat beneath her ribs. It was an accumulation of so many things; the dam that held back her strenuous flow of emotion crumbled at the edges, a potent mixture of stress and utter exhaustion eroding her very mental foundation. The young healer had found her attentions in demand so often of late that her sleep patterns had been demolished, and as such she'd slept pathetically little in the past moon. The constant pressure of needing to perform, needing to be prepared for whatever danger loomed ahead, tortured the meek young lady, almost pushing her into a fit of nerves. At last minute she had escaped to the forest to gather more healing equipment, and... Well, here she was, wandering over her own tracks, watching the golden sun slip farther and farther away.

A headache began to pound at her temples, and now a tear did trickle forth, swiped angrily away by the back of one ivory hand. She would not cry, not after being strong for so damn long...

A shout shattered her thoughts. Immediately, the young colliewoman froze, as the wolven word echoed out in eery greeting between the trees. Floppy dog ears perked, and rubbing the last traces of tears from her eyes, the foreigner trekked carefully forward towards the source of the sound, her emerald eyes animated and wary. Wolves were a treacherous lot, and it was extremely difficult to predict whether they were of the hostile sort or not. It was not long before she came upon the sound-maker in question; A female, laughing? Sobbing? It was difficult to tell, but the sound had an emptiness to it, a deep mourning that tugged Alaine forward when common sense told her to flee.

She emerged from the trees cautiously, a slender cream shadow in comparison to the brilliant ivory and tan of the other's coat. Pausing between two trees like a doe, it took Alaine a moment to summon up the courage to reveal herself.

" Miss? Are you alright?" The collie-woman's voice was soft and lilting, the wolven words twisted with the thickness of her musical accent. It was clear that she was not a native of these areas, but she dearly hoped that the woman would not object to her presence.

Speak think walk

[Tayui Aston]

Aww, thank you! As was yours. :)

When Tayui had recognized her loneliness, she had begun to weep. It had been more because she recognized that loneliness was a luxury. When you knew your time alone would end and that soon, you would see someone else, it was a luxury. But when you did not know how long the solitude would last, then it became a curse. Now she realized that all the times she had spent cooped up in her den were luxuries she could no longer afford. Without the promise of a family waiting for her, her isolation was no longer a breath of fresh air, but a constricting fog that burned her insides.

Ironically, while Tayui had been pondering the meaning of loneliness and crying over her abandonment, another canine managed to hear her. Tayui had been so lost in her own thoughts that she had not heard the other female approach; when the woman called her name, Tayui flinched and whipped her head around to see who had found her.

She frowned, trying to place the scent and the appearance, but found no home for either one. This was someone new: a stranger or passerby. Forgetting about her sobs, Tayui wondered how the other female had found her. The arctic luperci considered replying with a common yes, fine, but could not bring herself to do it. She could not lie anymore. Not now, not again.

“No, not really,” she replied at last. While Tayui would have had good reason to lie to this stranger, she did not have the heart. She wanted a connection or some semblance of reassurance from someone. She needed someone, anyone, to talk to.

[Alaine Winters]

table © Alaine
ooc: slooow reply. sorry! :I roll-over for translation.
wc: 300+

The strange she-wolf flinched, her head whipping around with such surprise and animosity that Alaine froze in place. She was a doe in the forest, wary, uncertain, poised to flee - Here was a creature who had the power to destroy her if it so desired. Alaine knew of her own fragility, and knew that in combat she had not the size nor the skills to defend herself against any but the most ill-equipped wolf. As such nervous fear constantly dogged her heels, waiting for the chance to snap, to prove her mind-felt weakness correct.

However, the Cour des Miracles Apothecary was noted that the woman's eyes were glittering with unshed tears. It was not them that gauged Alaine's shock, but more so the hollowness, the emptiness of the she-wolf's gaze. Here was a creature who knew pain, who knew grief. The healer's kindred soul hearkened towards her.

The woman's reply grazed the air, softly, truthfully. The forest around them was a secret-keeper, silent and foreboding. Slowly, the collie-woman approached, her eyes kept always on the tan and ivory female, each of her lean muscle strung tightly so as to burst into flight at the first sign of aggression. Her lack of faith in strangers was utmost and whole, but this woman, she was... She was different. Emerald eyes, wide and owlish, noted each of the other's features in turn, committing them instinctively to memory. When finally they stood but a few meters apart, the foreigner held still, her auburn curls dancing merrily about a surprisingly young face.

"Is measa cneá tá sin de croí." Her musical voice lilted softly, emerald eyes keen as she spoke seemingly to herself. One ivory palm was thrust out, to shake in greeting. " I am Alaine Winters, a healer. Can I help?"

Speak think walk

[Tayui Aston]

351. What language is that? :O

Her first instinct to every move the other woman made was to flinch. Her primary reaction to each word spoken was to hesitate, move away, and flee. She had not been like this before – before Noir’s death, she had been friendly and amicable. Tayui had liked to think of herself as particularly laid-back, worrying only when necessary, which was usually over her children. Now, the offer of words, which she so desperately desired, left her feeling awkward and uncomfortable. This was the same feeling that had hounded her all throughout her journey from Quebec to the lands of Bleeding Souls. And now, the spectre had returned, taunting her and reminding her of all that she once had. Tayui felt horribly lost – all of these feelings were confusing and disturbing. While she had wandered through the forest, she had longed for contact; some sort of connection that would verify her existence and make her feel real again. Now that she had it, the first thing she considered was how quickly she could flee.

She hated these feelings. She hated how the other woman’s soft words only made her heart ache more for the sing-song melodies her daughter would always hum. While Tayui did not understand the other woman’s words, she knew the intention. She appreciated the effort, but loathed the effect.

Tayui tried to avoid the other woman’s gaze, turning her head to one side. She could see that the doggish luperci was trying to get a better look at her, but Tayui did not want to be seen. She disliked the thought of anyone associating her pain with who she was. She wanted to keep this a secret until one day she could keep it no more and it would burst forth with the fury of torrential rains.

While Tayui understood what the other woman, Alaine, was trying to do, she still thought it would be useless. But she did not know how to say no, so instead, she offered a less concrete answer.

“Perhaps,” came her reply, softer than the last. “I don’t know what to do,” she added honestly. She did not know how to convey any of what she was feeling to Alaine or whether she even should.

[Alaine Winters]

table © Alaine
ooc: gaelic :3
wc: 300+

Her open palm hung limply in offering, slowly receding to the cream woman's side as it was silently declined. Maybe the people of this woman did not acquiesce to the common shaking of hands that the wolves of her new home often used in greeting, in their Optime bodies in any case. Her lack of appropriate etiquette made Alaine nervous, worried that she may have offended the other woman, however the soft feminine voice rewarding her ears suggested otherwise.

The distance between them remained, even as the young healer studied the stranger with owlish intensity. She'd yet to be informed that staring was rude; Perhaps that was because back home, Alaine was often more likely to the meek aversion of gaze, the timid submission of a lowered head. But something about this tan woman pulled at her heart, a tug of recognition. It was as if she were witnessing a small portion of herself, burdened within someone else. A women's pain was found here, shared between the two of them, although its vastness was less in the young collie woman due to the breach of time she had endured. Old memories remained just that; Old.

The ivory woman's head was hung listlessly, her gaze cast away from the collie-woman. Alaine wondered, with absent clarity, about the Shae's fate, her past and future. Were the two women supposed to meet here, in this lonely graveyard of trees? Another blanket of silence fell over them, broken finally when the healer dared speak.

" Neither do I." Her reply was cryptic, reminiscent of some sort of understanding that might have passed between them, some sort of unspoken union that joined tarnished souls like silver threads of hope. Although her emerald eyes lingered still on the strange woman, Alaine moved aft to sit cross-legged at the base of a tree. Her legs were sore from overuse in the past few days, and Alaine suspected that if the woman was going to attack her, she would have done so by now. Settling the leather satchel of healing equipment beside her on the ground, the young collie-woman gestured to the smooth ground before her with one ivory hand, before setting about mindlessly rubbing her calf muscles to release the tense knots that had gathered there.

" Perhaps, bean luí, you might like to tell me about it?"

Speak think walk

[Tayui Aston]

348. Ooooh! :D That's pretty. And sorry about ignoring the action -- I think I couldn't read the text at the bottom of your table and didn't see it. XD

Softly and gently, Tayui’s mind began to piece itself together. It was a wonder she was still able to form complete sentences after being given such horrible news. She could only be glad that she had not seen the dead body; she doubted she would have been able to recover after that. And where children could block out memories and hide away their pains, she knew she would have to live this for the rest of her life. She could not deny herself this memory or this knowledge: it was true that ignorance was bliss. While her other daughter was still missing, at least she had that sliver of hope that she might return: her beautiful daughter with her sea foam eyes.

As Tayui tried to push aside her guilt, she slowly re-entered the present world. The collie woman was still there with her clawed hand hanging awkwardly by her side. Tayui hoped the other luperci had not injured herself – it was at a rather odd angle. For a moment, these musings distracted her mind long enough for her to clearly hear the other woman’s reply, and then, her question.

Tayui closed her eyes and exhaled softly, then slowly began to shake her head. She did not shake it in reply as a no, but rather, to indicate that she had no answer. Her shoulders rose and fell, shrugging slowly in unison. Neither of them knew what to do: they were just old widows, lost in the forest.

“I don’t want to burden you,” she replied, opening her eyes. As soon as she saw the other woman’s gaze, she dropped her eyes to the ground, following the movement of the other woman’s hands. Tayui watched in silent contemplation before blurting: “he killed my daughter.” There. There was no going back. “I didn’t love him. But he was her father and he killed her.” It was more a statement than an admission, as if Tayui thought she had nothing to be sorry for. She had so much to be sorry for that she did not know where to begin.

[Alaine Winters]

table © Jacoby <3
no problemo! :3 and thanks! wc: 300+

Her arrival seemed to have made the other woman nervous. Perhaps, Alaine wondered, the stranger had been craving the solitude that she herself had departed to find. How peculiar that fate should bring two wandering pairs of feet here, to this time and place specifically. Two souls joined by irreducible wounds to the heart and mind. Her soft jade and emerald eyes gazed patiently upon the other, twin pools of mineral stone, ancient in their depths but young in the frame of her doggish, pixie-like face.

At her suggestion the ivory lady began to shake her head, but to Alaine it seemed not a dismissal but a denial, a self-containment, a dam to the building walls of grief that she could see seeping out from the she-wolf's every pore. Still rubbing at her tender leg muscles gingerly, the Apothecary waited patiently. When the woman spoke, her voice was soft, lovely - It had not to it the harsh ring that many high-speakers had, the hollow accent that sounded distasteful to the foreigner's floppy ears. Instead, it was low and mellifluous, the chiming of mourning bells. Her excuse was left hanging in the air, as the milk-and-cream damsel merely waited, her gaze lingering still on the other's prone form.

Then, her heart did spill out, for just a brief moment when control slipped and the truth was told. That same truth hung there, fouling the air with it's unbelievable horror, the nightmare conjured by a simple loosing of the tongue. Alaine's previously concerned but mellow gaze became acutely sharp, a horrible twisting starting beneath her breast as one mother, momentarily, felt but a pinch of the overwhelming loss of another. To lose a loved one was always a terrible thing, a painful thing, but by nature? Death was the course of things. The old passed on and made way for the new. But for a parent to outlive their child, that was always a tragedy. Unaware that she had done so, Alaine released a quick and horrified exhale, her body freezing slightly.

There was little to be said. A soft silence fell once more. Alaine would have offered sympathy, but to be sorry was usually a hated thing, and to be felt sorry for was even worse. She knew it by having lived it.

"That is... That is an evil thing that has been done," An indignant pain swelled within her for this other nameless woman. The deeply embedded scars in her shoulder, a branding from her own past, tingled in reminder. "Your loss is terrible, croimáthair." She rose silently and took a few elegant steps towards the other, wanting to offer something, but knowing not what; She would offer her ear, if the other wished still to speak, and her shoulder, if tears were to be shed.

Alaine Speaks

[Tayui Aston]

367.

Tayui watched as the other woman kneaded her legs, wishing she did not have to spread these sorrows. She wished so many things could be true and right again, but recognized that there was no way to make someone return from death. While she hoped Noir could some day come back to her as a ghost, just so Tayui could make sure she knew she loved her, no matter who her father was, she did not want to hold out for such a miracle. Shaeniire had returned to her, and so had Fly at one point. But Ember – the one whom Ember Phoenix was named after – had not returned, and it had taken two years before Agani found her in the flesh. No matter how many ghosts Tayui had seen, her experience would in no way make Noir more likely to return to her.

Tayui whipped her head up in surprise when the other woman exhaled and focused her gaze back on the wolfdog’s features. Her heart raced for a split second, but now that she realized the noise was not a threat, she could feel herself calming down a little. Tayui tried to look away when the other woman spoke, but found herself drawn in to the other’s sea foam green eyes. Tayui could not help but think how similar Alaine’s eyes were to Ocèane’s: pale, but so very full of life. Tayui clung to the possibility of life, holding the shade of green so sharply in her mind that she worried she might give herself a headache.

It was a small price to pay for hope.

Tayui flinched when Alaine stepped forward, and then relaxed slightly. She reached out with her hand, hesitating for a moment, before taking a step closer as well. She moved to place her hand on Alaine’s shoulder, frowning somewhat in concentration. Simple physical contact had never been this difficult before.

“Yes,” she agreed. “But, thank you. For…” Tayui trailed off, unsure of what Alaine had done so far. She could not find the words to express herself. But suddenly, inspiration: “helping. Croimáthair,” she added, attempting the word, stumbling over it, and letting her slight Quebecois accent to colour it differently.