See you later

It seemed as if she wasn’t the only one who was hesitant and even a bit shy. The woman’s look was one of surprise, or so Avani surmised; then it changed into something the wolf couldn’t quite identify as she got her answer. A little grin tugged at the corner of Avani’s mouth in amusement as she beheld this stranger coated in mud, and she resisted a small little laugh. It seemed as if the woman hadn’t expected to be caught covered in mud by someone. “I see that,” Avani replied steadily, amusement flashing in her eyes.

She opened her mouth to speak again - to offer if the stranger wanted help, if she didn’t mind it, but then it closed wordlessly as a look of confusion flashed across her face as the wolf approached closer without a single word, seemingly investigating her. Her ears flickered back nervously; what was going on? This was - bizarre. That was an understatement. Avani was confused; this wolf was so familiar, and she was acting like this, and Avani didn’t understand anything.

So confused, so startled, that she was utterly surprised when the mud-covered female abruptly sat, flinching slightly as she was gaped at. She backed up a few paces, her ears fully flattening on her head at this female whom Avani did not understand one bit. It just made her even more uncertain; why was she acting like this? Why was Avani feeling so uncertain, her mind and heart seemingly at war - because this wolf was so eerily familiar, that her body kept telling her it was someone who it could not possibly be, because her mother was dead. True, she hadn’t been with all the bodies of her family, but it had been three years. Wouldn’t.. Wouldn’t if she was still alive, wouldn’t they have found each other before now? And yet, here she was standing in front of a woman who should not be here.

She whined quietly, so quiet that the woman wasn’t even aware that she made the sound. Why? Why was this happening? Her mind protested what her body, her heart, what her instincts have already told her. It wasn’t possible - it just… wasn’t. And yet, she was staring into well-known cerulean blue eyes. The longer she stared, the longer the truth cemented into her mind, leaving little room for doubt.

And… Avani didn’t know how to feel. She thought that she’d be overjoyed. She thought that she’d be ecstatic. She thought that when she gazed at the familiar lines of her mother’s face, she’d see home, and family.

All she saw was the face of a stranger, belonging to a wolf who was strong, well-built and well-off, who bore no scars, who wasn’t there when Avani saw her siblings literally ripped to shreds. Who wasn’t there days after, when Avani was hoping and begging that someone would come back alive.

The tears on her mother’s face made her ears flatten even further, and when the older woman stepped closer, close enough to touch, Avani flinched away, backing away from the black-and-white woman in front of her.

“It’s been too long,” she whispered raggedly, half-crouched a few feet away, her tail tucked, ears flattened, though the fur on her neck was standing straight up. She didn’t say anything else; she couldn’t say anything else. No, she was lost, stuck staring at the woman whom she should have been happy to see, but was only horrified and upset to see.

"Speech" "You"