Just like the seasons changing, so has Gabriella. Since over the few months of time that had passed, and her recent disappearance and sudden return, Gabriella had improved on her speech, but not necessarily her attitude. More or less, it had been discovered she had developed an anti-social personality disorder, so anything Gabriella did, she couldn't feel guilty about it because she didn't think she did anything wrong and she found it easy to blame others for their issues within the world, and not just her own. It was sad to see, but that didn't necessarily mean that she didn't have loyalty to her pack. Since coming to Tortuga, she had discovered a sense of responsibility. Even without Pi. Pi was just another ghost of her past, and it was possible she would never see him again. At this point, she felt no sadness, or worry, about her brother. She had no one, and that was how she liked it. During the summer heat of the middle of the day, Gabby was found dipping herself into the waters. Her countenance was soft and unreadable; she hid her thoughts and feelings from others that could have been spying on her. More or less, this was how she grew to be. Every step she took into the water was like a graceful movement of a deer. Not even the water splashed from her slender paws inserting themselves into the liquid embodiment of the river. The sounds of the smooth running creek were all but dulled minus the sound of occasional dripping from her belly where places of the river were deeper than most. Stopping just short of the middle, Gabriella gazed at her reflection and the deep ember orange of her eyes. It was as if she was trying to gaze into herself to discover who she was. Gabriella had been called many names; monster, demon, freak, weirdo. More or less the intention of those words were to insult her and make her fear or feel bad of herself, and yet, she couldn't bring herself to feel such emotions. Gabriella was confused on how to make her feel such things, being that her disorder she couldn't control. Or understand. Gabriella knew that she just had no way of feeling such things even if she was meant to in a certain situation. What did it mean to know one's self? Did it mean that you knew your weaknesses and knew how to deal with them? Or did it mean that you knew yourself better than anyone else? Standing there, Gabriella barely recognized the face looking back at her with such a gaze that looked more or less like someone dead; emotionless and expressionless. No life within the eyes of the gazer, and no spark of a flame that signified that she was alive. Just a dead, unimportant, piece of flesh magically put to life by some greater being who thought she had a purpose in this world.

Table by Pann, Image by Amanda

The female moved with serpentine grace, not a sound to be heard as the svelte female slithered her way though the shadows. Head was carried low, tail licking at her heels as she padded easily along. Her choice of sticking to the shadows made purely on the sweltering heat that came along with the sunlight. It was too much to handle and it wasn't even as hot in the mountains as it was in the rest of that lands. She wasn't built for the summer heat! Gods it was brutal, she needed to find water soon or she felt that she would melt and disappear into the dirt. And that wouldn't be good thing with everything she had planned for this pack and herself. Even now in this time of silent pondering her mind was a whir and was still cranking out ideas and formulating plans even as her conscious mind focused on getting herself to some water. That delicious, cool, life giving liquid that was almost making her drool just thinking about it. They couldn't have that, it was far from lady like after all.

The creek that her paws led her to was a slow moving on, meandering its way through the mountains and though it was wide it was not terribly deep anywhere she could see. Head was swiftly shaken, dismissing the torrent of thoughts and allowing herself to focus on her most basic, animalistic needs that currently happened to be water. A lazy smile traced it's way across her lips as delicate paws were placed one in front of the other to guide her to her goal. It was clean, clean and crisp. The sharpness of it hitting her as she lowered her maw to drink and found it to be so cold that he teeth began to ache. But stills she gulped it down, letting the freezing sensation coat her entire throat and fill her belly. Soon it felt like she was sitting at the base of Clouded Pass with her brother all over again, huddling together for warmth in the colder winter days. It was a perfect, refreshing drink. It helped bring her core body temperature down in a way that made her actually enjoy the warmth of the sun.

She sat slowly, haunches lowering to the ground as tail flipped to the side and out of the way. Eyes closed and face tipped back to feel the sun warm her red coat. But what was this? A slow drip drip drip caught her attention and ear flipped towards the sound. There was something or someone in the water. Eyes opened and followed the way her ear had turned towards the sound. A female was about half way across the river heading towards Vi's side but had stopped to gaze upon her own reflection. Head tilted slowly, curiously as her expression was viewed. She didn't seemed to be looking at herself in an appreciative or vain matter but more with a 'who is that?' look. Vi lifted herself from her seat easily and moved downstream more towards the female. She was quiet, careful not to disturb her even as she gazed at herself. Not one to get wet and risk looking like a drowned rat, Vi seated herself adjacent to the female while staying on the bank so that they were facing each other. "Like what you see?"
The words fell from her lips in an easy purr as her usual sly smile slid across her lips.


Speech!

(Sorry for the wait. Had a family emergency.)

Gabriella hadn't seen or smelled the visitor coming, but she heard the voice and the voice of the visitor resonated in her head. It echoed as the brain took it apart to analyze the words, and then string them back together in efforts to not lose her train of thought until she could make a response.

"It all depends... I am not sure what I am looking at. Something I do not appease to, or a me I no longer rexognize. How life changes us, it's very appalling."

Gabriella responded as she finally shifted her orange eyes upward to look at the one who spoke. The fem was similar in shape to her, but her coloring was different. The reds and oranges that were flowing throughout the coat of this lady was very astonishing, unique and almost god-like, but at the same time, Gabriella knew it was but a Tortuga wolf.

"Reflections from the river are just like looking at the opposite of yourself from another world. Though you can stick your feet in, you still don't pass through to the other side. More or less, your other self is what you discover in order to call it out and home back to you. If only I could remember."

Gabriella spoke as she looked to the river again and gazed at her reflection, pondering the moment some more. Then, Gabriella looked back up to the female. "What do you see, when you look into the river?"

((no worries, sorry for the wait on this too >.>))

The red female sat delicately, one forepaw lifted in an attempt to keep the white fur clean from the slightly sandy bank. She had never enjoyed the feeling of things in her fur and for some reason the feeling of things between her toes such as sand. It was one of the main reasons she avoided beaches so much. And though this wasn't so much a beach, the shore more pebbly then sandy she still shifted uncomfortably, each forepaw lifting and shifting after a few moments to shake each out and rid her toe of pebbles. But as the female spoke Vi's attention returned to her new company. Head tipped curiously, as her words floated softly towards her. She didn't respond, simply meeting the female's gaze as she lifted her eyes. She seemed familiar, an old face in this pack but absent for a while. Had Vi accepted her? God she couldn't remember, it had been so long ago and her memory seemed to be getting worse and worse.

More words floated towards her and Vi lifted herself slowly, suddenly curious about what exactly this female was seeing. White paws broke the surface and she stayed in the shallows, gazing down at her own reflection curiously. Muzzle lowered slowly, nose touching the surface and causing ripples to expand from there and outwards. What did she see? For a long time sharp orange eyes studied the identical ones staring back at her from the shallow water below. "I see darkness and sadness. I see sorrow and pain. Apparently this other world isn't very nice..." she said slowly, the rippled warping and twisting her features into something malicious and from nightmares.

Slowly eyes lifted once more and she tipped her head curiously as she looked at the female in the middle of the river before her. Was she coherent? She seemed a bit strung out, vague and distant like she wasn't quite sure what was going on. Could she carry on a normal conversation? "Are you from Tourtuga?" she asked finally, though she smelt Tortugan it was vague and strange, probably smelling damp and water logged because of the river. Further conversation would be judged on this simple question, seeing how well she could answer and whether she was actually a Tortugan or not etc.