Future in the Storms

Wind whipped at her, stinging her ears and eyes, yet she remained sitting on the wall, gazing out through slitted eyes. Her mane rippled almost frantically on the capricious fingers of the wind, an iridescent, shimmering snow-white banner against whipped dust and loose grasses borne by the wind.

Her entire coat was rippling like the seas of grass behind and around her. The rain hadn’t struck yet, but it would, if the giant bank of roiling, mountainous thunderheads on the horizon were any indicator. Far from being her time to act as sentry, she was here, thinking.

Her mother was getting no better from the illness she’d sunk into. More than emotional, now, it seemed the funk that had overtaken both Solveiga and Aramis had truly manifested and festered into a physical ill. There was hope, though, in the form of her twin.

She’d realized Aramis was really beginning to come out of it. More than the dull responses she received in the past when she tried to engage them in conversation. He was actually leaving the territory. Alone. What had triggered the awakening, she wasn’t sure. Perhaps it had just been time.

But she knew at the bottom of her soul and her heart, and her very gut, that her mother would not show the same awakening. In the same way she’d known Gwenevere was dying, she knew her mother would part from the world of the living, too.

Her chin tipped to her breast, canines prodding her skin through her buffeted fur. The sigh that hissed through her lips was whipped away on the howling wind. She had been so hopeful, when she’d seen her father and mother and Aramis coming home in time for her first meeting. So hopeful that it would mean joy and strength would fill the pack.

Life didn’t work that way.

Slowly she turned her eyes and scanned the lands beyond the wall, squinting through the harsh wind. Now that Aramis was… well, again… would he be ready to join the working tier? She had no doubt he would be a healer.

A heavy splat smacked her muzzle, almost right between the eyes, and she gave a startled gasp, blinking rapidly. The first splat was followed by more, and soon the shimmering Spirit was forced to run, ducking into one of the hide sentry shelters to evade the sudden heavy, soaking downpour.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think