Hazy Shade of Winter

Gaze roving back ad forth, she spent a good while considering the options before her. At least four paths could be made out between the closely growing briar plants, four unknowns. It was at the same moment that she opened her mouth to call to her little avian friend and ask what path he thought that should follow that she caught a scent, drifting through the bush lazily moving with the fog that swirled beneath her paws. It was strange, yet all too familiar. Who might this be, skulking along through the undergrown this fine winter day? Ears swiveled left and right, searching for any sign of their position relative to her own.

She didn't have to wait terribly long before she heard a tentative voice calling out to her. Her little monochrome warbler friend came to land on her cranium at the same time she laid eyes on the speaker and froze in place. The bird was all but forgotten when she came face to face with him. How long had it been now? Was it too long, or maybe not long enough? Peering at his tall form, some distance away, she couldn't deny ven for a moment who this was. It was as if she'd jumped into a frozen pond in the dead of winter. Her system was shocked, this face and the memories that accompanied it were like cold water washing over her. Try as she might, she couldn't really convince herself it wasn't him. It was. Yet if this was Zephyr, what should she do? Their last encounter surfaced fresh in her mind, serving to further dampen her previously high spirits.

It was true that she'd not reacted... very well, when they had encountered one another that fateful day. Of course the same could be said of him... Taking a few cautious steps, rather than reply she would move to begin closing the distance between them. Caelum stopped at the edge of the clearing, now much closer to the man who she found her heart still seemed to yearn for. Her breath caught in her throat, eyes becoming glossy and softening with a look reserved for him alone. She didn't know whether to cry, be angry, or something else entirely. The sense of control she'd been feeling was slip ping out of her paws before she'd even noticed it. At the mercy of her emotions, Cae's ears flicked back, betraying her unease for a moment before the words came.

"Do... do you hate me?" She mumbled with a sheepish expression. She couldn't fathom why these were the first words in her mind, there was so much more to talk about. No longer strong, she felt as if she was but a delicate ivory leaf, trembling before his paws. Biting her lip for a moment she summoned the courage to blurt out in a surprisingly loud voice, "You were wrong! About that night, I mean. I didn't run away, but you never let me tell you what happened Zephyr..." She wanted him to know the truth now, while she still held his attention. She didn't want to keep leaving things unspoken anymore.