things change, friends stay the same

A long stretch of silence fell between them, heavy with loss. It was almost a physical touch bearing down on them both. Silent tears fell as she listed her head up towards the sky, finding the sun letting her eyelids fall shut. Warmth kissed her closed eyes, a balm against the everlasting nights that had kept the land captive. "I'm suddenly feeling my age," she said quietly. Aurielle was six? She barely looked it, but when your fur was already pristine white, perhaps it was easier to hide the way time turned them all different shades of grey. Rhyme's face had been so mottled and whitened with age by the time he had passed. "My sister has already married and had children... but I have Abaven, and all of them look to me. I'm worried that perhaps the changes I have planned won't be well-received by everyone, but my heart calls me to this," she said earnestly.

"And yes, the changes - I've also brought good news. A different direction for Abaven. I'll be opening a school on the eastern coast, welcome to wolves from all walks of life. The focus will be primarily youths, but it will be open to anyone who wishes to learn." Theory paused for a moment, then gave Aurielle a brief rundown of how she hoped it would work - professors to teach important skills, visiting students staying in the dens they had been working on in Crystallum Cliffs, and hopes for a neutral place where all would be welcome to gather in the pursuit of education.