sleepless long nights

The better part of the morning was spent diligently marking the borders; the matriarch was seemingly tireless in the task, leaving very near no stone unturned in the process of it. But tireless she was not; her mind ran as wildly as her body ever did as of late, and the matriarch felt the need to rest even if only for a short time. That in mind, she made her way upward to one of the nameless mountains hidden nooks; it was near enough to the borders for her to respond swiftly, should she be called, but far enough where she need not worry about being happened upon by some witless stranger who would choose to avoid a scent marker. 

Into the cavern she went, and thrice did the matriarch circle before she curled up into a ball. Enough time passed in her sleep where soon, she adjusted her position to lay upon her side, stretching in the ample space and huffing a contented sigh. Her breathing was deep, and slow—but despite that, Hydra only dozed comfortably. Now and then, her ear might twitch to display that while her body rested, her mind was still prepared to respond to potential threats should she hear one.

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Enter Elke!

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The world had gone black, cold. There was a stillness about her, a vast and silent emptiness. She found peace there. Peace, what she felt she had lacked in such a long time despite how short her life had been. And the cold was fine by her, she enjoyed the crisp cool air. Enjoyed the howling winds whipping threw her fur.... She thought she could feel it now, perhaps she was wrong.

How did she get here? Where was here? The phantom faced girl didn't think she cared really. Without her family, what was left but the shell of her once self anyway?

She stirred. A feeling- she stirred and then thought she felt a warmth at her side and the thump of a heartbeat. It was soothing, comforting and she curled up tightly against it like a newborn pup would do to its mother. She breathed in and the smell of forest fur and herb made her smile. It reminded her of a woman she once loved. A woman who was as strong as she was beautiful, who had taken Elke under her raven wing when her father had pushed her out from under his own.

“Hydra...” She breathed the name, now nothing more then a memory. A memory of the dead, like herself. The great star had fallen from the heavens and struck their home. There was no one left.
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Warmth, suddenly. As natural there as her own sisters. Her children, when young, would rest there... one of their names came to her then, even as her own was said and another came to mind. Hydra. No dream. Her eyes opened in a snap, and she looked around—she had not heard the tread of any... the warmth at her exposed belly, then, out of the ordinary. She had not come here with any... 

The scent that struck her caused Hydra's tail to beat the slate earth unbidden as she rose halfway. Could it be? Beside her was her niece, and Hydra thought of the joy her sister would feel to know that one of hers was here... and of her own. “Elke,” Hydra crooned, raven muzzle moving to gently nose the girl between her shoulder blades—hoping to feel her, too. To know that this was real, that she was real—that the girl was no trick of her mind, nor dream. With bated breath, Hydra reached to feel for herself and decide whether this was reality or delusion.

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There was a thumping then, the beat of happiness, one she had heard time and time again. A rhythm she made whenever she was around her little family and then her large family when she had grown the knowledge of it.

Movements at her side drew the warmth off of her and she whined with a protest, then a lazy and tired grumble. She was still so tired, so happy in this silent darkness and was not ready to leave it. Life, for the most part, had been quite hard for the girl. She was reluctant to go back to it.

Then a voice spoke her name, a voice both soothing and haunting. She knew that voice. The touch to the soot at her shoulder blades caused her body to prickle, like a spark shooting through her skin. She takes a deep breath then as though she had been holding it all along. Pale lavender eyes open, blinking rapidly, trying to focus on the figure in front of her. The mass standing there was a darkness, like the darkness which she had slipped into happily for so long- how long?

And those blue eyes, deep like the endless depths of the sea. “Hydra...” Was that really her or the ghost of her? But if she could touch her, then was she a ghost too? An alabaster muzzle extended to touch the woman's chest. “....How?”

Obviously, hella confused.
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Hydra felt the supple skin of Elke shift as the matriarch nosed through the furs to gently press and coax, feeling the warmth that indicated life and the physical form of Elke that removed all doubt toward the questions she may have had. The wondering question mumbled from the girl not yet entirely awake was not something Hydra had the answer to. Was it the power of desire? Her will and Nyx's combined? She could not be sure. “I do not know,” Hydra admitted, shifting nearer to the young girl, “but we have been looking for you, here. Your mother and I,” she hummed. Nyx. She would want to see her daughter, and Hydra would never be the one to prevent such. “I will call to her,” she informed, before carefully rising to make way to the mouth of the nook she had found. Loosing a low, summoning howl to @Nyx the matriarch, once finished, returned to her nieces side.

Sniffing none too absently at the she-wolf, Hydra noted the absence of her sisters scent. “We search for Ciri, and my sons and daughters, too. Have you seen them?” she wondered, daring not to hope; Elke smelled only of herself, and with that in mind the matriarch moved to begin to groom her so that she would wear the scent of her family, too, once again, so long as Elke allowed such.

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She didnt know. Hydra spoke, coming closer so that Elke may still feel her warmth and be comforted by her. She was still very much an adolescent, a pup that was still in need of these things more then others may.

The matriarch explained how 'we' have been looking for her and that this 'we' was her and Nyx, her sister, Elke's mother. A sudden overwhelming excitement filled her pale purple eyes. Happier even now then before to have both Hydra and Nyx here with her now. Now her tail was beating the ground this time. But...

A sudden realization and as Hydra moved away to call out for her mother, Elke's golden ears pressed to her head as she backed her forelegs up into a sit. “They had both gotten lost when the snow storms came...” A month of endless snowfall and ice. “Then the star struck...I fell, I blacked out.” She thought she'd been crushed... Elke murmured as Hydra began to groom and Elke moved her pallid muzzle to sniff and dig along the hairs of Hydra's scruff. She smelt alive, felt alive... “I just woke up here with you. I dont know how I got here, where...” A whine, anxious as she pulled away. “Where are we? Is this the afterlife ?”
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Not quite there yet, feel free to skip me for a round or two if you guys wanna cary on!

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She rested quietly, having roamed the nearby lands for most of the day and long into the evening. By the time she'd returned to the nameless mountain where her family chose to make their base, exhaustion had crept into her bones to remind her that despite the mysterious circumstance that brought her there, she wasn't as young as she once was. The tawny Ostrega curled close to herself within her lonely hollow and willed the night away, so eager she was to progress with her hunt in the morning.

Sleep came easily, but it was without dreams, and something drew her from it. Eyelids fluttering open, Nyx' sable ear twitched at some faraway sound, some distant request for her attention. Unfurling, the lioness lifted her head and pulled herself to her paws, and recognised the tone to belong to her brother's mate.

She couldn't decipher whether the request was urgent or not, but she held no desire to keep the Queen waiting. Nyx pressed on from her little cave and out into the cold.


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Elke spoke, and Hydra listened; there was a strange, haunting familiarity to what she said... and yet, Hydra attributed it to some shared dream. “This is no afterlife,” she drawled, “as you can see, I live and breathe. Your mother, too,” she hummed. She could vaguely remember what Elke spoke of... but that, too, felt like a dream. True, but imagined. “And many others. There is Bronco, Desdemona and Altair, your uncle, Dirge, and more... Osiris looks for your other cousins that have not yet arrived,” she hummed, your sister unspoken but thought of all the same. 

Moving to continue to groom her, Hydra sighed, “I am glad you are alright, and here with us again,” not ashamed to admit it. While she yearned for her own daughters, Elke at least was returned to them... and this was more than a comfort. It was renewed hope.

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It was true that they both lived, for they both breathed. They both were warm and pliable, not stiffened and cold with death. And Elke felt a pang of hunger in her gut, surely something she wouldnt have felt if she were no more then a spirit. Spirits didnt need to breathe, eat, drink or shit- right?

The young girl found herself nodding to Hydra and yet she still had her doubts. Who knew what the afterlife was like anyhow? Maybe they could feel one another because they were both dead. Maybe in the afterlife you were meant to still feel the pleasures of livelihood. She didnt know but she would find it out to that she could be certain of her placement (and everyone else) in this new world.

Her aunt spoke of all those here now, some she had once had a horrible nightmare of that they had been murdered by a bear. Just like she had thought her sister and mother had frozen in a storm. Just like she had thought to been crushed by falling rocks. A nightmare, a horrible, horrible nightmare... right?

Elke panted, a sign of her anxiety. She moved so that her spine might press to Hydra's chest between her forelegs. “Whatever may be, may be...” She purred then, hoping that wherever the rest of their family was, they were together like they were, happy at least with who they had still. “All those still missing, maybe their together, like us. Happy.” She could only hope for the best even though she felt she was secretly expecting the worst.
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“If we are fortunate, we fill find them—or they, us... as you have,” Hydra hoped aloud, nosing her niece who had moments ago seemed lost in thought. Whatever conclusion she had come to, though, it seemed she had accepted things as they seemed to be here... as Hydra, by now, believed that they were. “I am simply glad you are home to us again,” Hydra drawled in earnest. Wrapping a foreleg protectively around the girl, feeling her spine press against her stomach, the matriarch hummed, “your mother... she will be so happy to see you; she will be along any moment now, I think,” before she set to grooming the young cub to soothe and comfort both. 

Once Nyx arrived, though, Hydra would remove herself so that the mother could greet her daughter proper. Hydra would never dream of getting in between such a moment, hoping within herself that sooner rather than later her own daughters might appear while she tended to her niece, relief for her own arrival quite evident.

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She was exhausted, and the pads of her travel-worn paws nipped in reminder if her fruitless hunt for displaced family. With gritted teeth she pressed on across the slopes, the snow and the frost, all the while wondering why Hydra required her of all her wolves to see to whatever task she had in mind.

Nyx supposed she should be warmed by the comradery she shared with her brother's mate, but her day had been a tiring one and her body yearned for sleep. As she at last rounded to find the night sister with another, however, all the aches and pains that'd slowed her disappeared in an instant. 

“Elke?” The name of her daughter, a wavered whisper on the mountain breeze, and yellow eyes widened with surprise as Hydra unfurled to reveal a most precious gift. She glanced briefly in the Alphess' direction in search of confirmation, but her stare was swift to return to her pallid cub and she emitted a strained whimper of disbelief.

Paws quickened, her stride brought her closer with haste and Nyx reached desperately for the gilded half of her heart.


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She nods delicately to her aunt's first strand of words and spoke then, “Its good to be home again.” For whatever reason she did feel good again, happy again. After having left her home at Nova Peak, she had felt a sorrow from being detached from her father. Then her sister and mother had been lost by her, then she had thought she had lost so many more of her blood. Perhaps it was all magic. Magic like her father had spoken about, like the great reindeer that could make the snows and the little wolf, Elke, who could make the rains.

Elke decided then that if she were not dead, magic had been the cause for her horrible dreams. They had been planted their to allow her to know not to be so gloomy, that far worse could happen and she should ne happy for all she still held dear to heart.

Silent there a while longer while coddled, Hydra's shifting away caused a grumble of reluctance though a voice touched her silken gold ears, pulling her attention from the dark woman. Head lifted to meet the tawny wolf with brightened sunny eyes and Elke squeaks in excitement along with her mother's whimper.

As she rushes back up to her paws, Nyx closes the distance between them and Elke nearly falls against the weight of her mother's front, body trying to curl up against and under her as she had when she was but a tiny pup. Her tail beating hard against the earth as she squirms, tongue licking at her mother's chin and cheeks.
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There was the golden lioness; Hydra nodded to her, and when Nyx came closer Hydra was quick to adjust her own position to accommodate the others actions. Looking long enough to see the two and their happiness, Hydra felt content for a moment as she moved to linger out in the open to grant them their privacy as well. A pang of yearning was felt as she realized that none of her own daughters had returned to her, yet... but she pushed the feeling away, holding onto that yet.

Having seen Elke was unharmed, Hydra did not think her own assistance was needed further... though she waited all the same in case it was, remaining in earshot as she drifted to inspect these surroundings further, as though she might find something—or someone—else.

Feel free to skip me for the remainder of the thread, but give me a ping if Hydra is needed. She'll probably hang around for a round or two before going to patrol in case Nyx or Elke needs her for anything!

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