An old hag, cackling at the world

Theory, unaware of the presence of death, whos wings had fled with the presence of the young girl, would eye her warily. She answered Shaye as through her question had been for her, but the older wolf just knocked a paw against the closest tree, eyes a little glazed over, and didn’t explain herself.

Shaye didn’t give a yes or a no to the girl, but she sat regardless. Her young form, an inch taller than Shaye, was lean and strong and young. There was the start of wiry muscles that hinter of warrior training, and a youth in her gaze that could make any old wolf envious. It was yet another reminder that Shaye’s generation was done, and Theory’s would have a chance now to burn brightly, to make something of this world in a way Shaye never could.

The Abaven Heir spoke, her words a gentle rebuke, and Shaye only smiled at her. “No, your raising wasn’t as kind as mine. You had to learn fast” she admitted, an acknowledgment that her words hadn’t been a comparison to Theory’s life, only a parallel from which to see one side and then the other of who Shaye had been, to who she was now.

“You were never the only option, you are so young, and I could have picked an older wolf. I could have picked Corvus, who has been here as long as I was absent. Ody, who has always had a hero’s heart. Brandr, who wants stability for his family.” she said, naming a few of the wolves who stood out to her in Abaven. “But none of them have the same passion for change as you do. For bettering what already exists. You look at something, and you think ‘I can improve on this’ Abaven needs that, more than ever” she told the young girl, pride for Theory in her voice. “Some of us…” she paused, and Shaye’s name seemed almost spoken on the air. “Can not stop living in the past, remembering what was, and wishing things could be again. Some of us have lost too much to hope for a brighter future, a point that moves us so much further past where those we had lost had been.” there were tears in her eyes, and voice, but she ignored them, instead, she shook her head and smiled at Theory. The expression was just a little too wide, to false, and she tapped the bottle between them. “You sure?” she asked, before grabbing another lick of the bitter liquid.