Cendrillion did not know what had drawn her back. The majority of her early time here, on this continent was had hardly been happy. She'd lost so much in her early life and it had been her father, and then uncle she'd lost here. One had been a loss she still grieved and carried with her, the idea of her father's body left in the snow, growing cold even as she was led away by her uncle... She'd been a child then, she hadn't known of course but she wished she'd thought to sear the last smile he'd given her into her mind because even now it was fading. Her uncle's loss was... Well more literal, she'd simply lost him one day, and she'd never seen him again, but neither had she found any indication that he hadn't simply walked off. There was much suffering, much grief here...

And yet. There was a sort of melancholic longing she felt tied to this continent too... The budding of a young crush. She hadn't understood it at the time, she'd been so wrapped up in her grief that the feelings that had been brewing had been tied up in it too. But now, she could understand it for what it had been. She was older, wiser in many ways, though this felt particularly foolish. She'd struggled to settle since she'd left Boreas years ago, and maybe she was just grasping at straws, drawing on the single strong positive feelings from her past to finally feel like she had a place to go... It was probably childish...

Though she guessed it was probably too late to turn back now, now that her paws were once more on the shores of the continent. She wasn't sure she'd ever been here specifically, but the small woman, she'd hardly grown since she'd last been here she would always be tiny it seemed, had found a place to tuck herself among the roots of the mangroves, a nice cozy place to rest after such a long journey, a place to hunker down while she considered what her next steps would be. She lay on her stomach, curled slightly though her head remained up as she allowed herself to rest, allowed herself to ruminate.

"Speech"

Image by Honrin

Etoile was totally and utterly lost and it'd been that way for months now.  The fae had nowhere to go, no friends, no ties to these lands.  Her cousin Noëlie had been nowhere to be found for almost an entire year now and as of about six weeks ago the ancestors stopped guiding her through the stars.  She wasn't sure what sin she was atoning for, but she was almost positive none so grave had been committed to justify the loneliness she felt.  It ran deeper than she could even dream to describe. It took everything in her to keep going, to stop herself from shutting down, but she wasn't even really sure why she was trying.

The perfume of another caught her attention.  It was unfamiliar yet familiar at the same time, nostalgic perhaps but Etoile couldn't quite place how. She decided to investigate, because really what else was there for her to do? And after a bit more walking and seeing the girl resting things started to click into place. "Cendrillion..?" her voice was soft, weary and tentative as if her eyes could just be playing a cruel joke.


”Speech”  ’Thought’

Feel it soft and as pure as snow
Fell in love with the fire long ago

Maybe she was more tired than she'd thought and at some point her eyes slipped closed, her head bobbing slightly but still managing to remain upright. She couldn't have dozed for too long though when a voice pierced through her little nap, at first she thought it was a dream, as it so often was when she heard that voice. It was deeper though, maybe a little more world weary than her mind ever made it and her eyes slowly opened. Words fell from her lips before she'd even really processed what she was seeing. "Etoile?" She'd learned to speak with a little less hesitance in the the last few years, but her voice was forever soft, she simply did not have the confidence needed to be loud.

Cendrillion's limbs protested as she started to unfurl herself, rise to her paws. Gods okay maybe the trip had been harder on her than she'd realized, a moment to relax had let the time and effort seep into her muscles. She stumbled once while trying to pull herself up to her full height, barely much taller than when she'd left as a young woman. Then she just- Stood there... Not sure what to do with herself. So she contented herself with just standing before the other woman for now and that was what they were now weren't they? Well that thought hurt. Did she even have a right to feel sad about the parts of another's life she'd missed when she'd been the one to leave, when she wasn't even sure what they'd been beyond... Well at least friends... She hoped.

"Speech"

Image by Honrin

Etoile watched the fae struggle to for a moment as she attempted and almost failed to position herself standing upright.  The starry canine took a few worried steps closer in case she had to catch her, but stopped and awkwardly settled once it was clear enough that Cen was going to be alright.

"Wow, it's been a long time, hasn't it?" She commented, unsure of what else to say as she made her best attempt to stop staring at the woman like she was some sort of ghost. "You look good.."  A half truth.  Cendrillion looked good in the sense that Etoile still thought she was one of the most beautiful wolves she'd ever seen.  Truth be told, however, the fae in her current state looked exhausted and perhaps a little worn from heavy travel or some other strenuous activity.

”Speech”  ’Thought’

FEEL IT SOFT AND AS PURE AS SNOW
FELL IN LOVE WITH THE FIRE LONG AGO

Cendrillion smiled to herself when she saw Etoile start towards her when she stumbled, she'd have done the same and it gave her some comfort to think that despite it all the instinct to help her wasn't dead. She took in the words, understood them but it took a moment for her mind to click over to the right language, she'd spent the majority of her time amongst her mother's family and while the common tongue of Boreas was sometimes spoken among them they tended to speak her mother's tongue, she was largely fluent in both but spend enough time hearing mostly one over the other and it can take a moment to swap over to the other. She felt the heat flood her face as Etoile commented on how she looked, it was probably just a comment about the way she'd matured but it still made her blush.

”I- Uh,” She started finding it a little harder to swap over when speaking, ”It has been a while.” She said nodding and doing her best to hide just how hot her face was. ”Thanks, you do to!” And she meant it, she'd always thought Etoile was stunning, she'd known her family was full of color but there was something about the night sky that painted the girl, no woman now, was like nothing she'd ever seen and if she let herself she could stare for hours. ”Have you been well?” It was awkward still, it felt like there was something of a gulf between them, something she was eager to jump right over but was too nervous to still.

”Speech”  ’Thought’

Oh, don't let's ask for the moon.
We've already got the stars.

Such a simple question, to ask how someone has been.  However there were a couple of different ways one could answer that question, and Etoile at to take a brief moment to weigh those options.  The fae thought it better normally to tell the truth, however she really hadn't been doing very well and she wasn't sure that it was appropriate to just start trauma dumping right off the bat to someone she hadn't seen in so long.  The courteous thing to do would probably be to tell a lie, right?  Plus, if Etoile scared Cen off now... She'd missed the fae after they'd last parted... And she really didn't want to be alone again.  

"I've been well."  She finally settled on her answer and let the words form, smiling gently at the familiar stranger.  "And yourself?"

”Speech”  ’Thought’

FEEL IT SOFT AND AS PURE AS SNOW
FELL IN LOVE WITH THE FIRE LONG AGO