Strength in numbers

A gentle smile pulled at her features once Ricin seemed to absorb what she told him while looking at his brother, speaking about how much he cares for Chade and his agreement over her idea of fate. Hearing that he was grateful to be with her, with their band, warmed her heart and made her hug him a little tighter. When she set out to create this group that she hoped would one day evolve into a permanent pack it had solely been for her family to establish a place of their own in these lands—a place where they could practice their beliefs in peace and live their lives how they wanted to live them. As time went on and they slowly gathered more and more wolves that they took under their protection, she was beginning to realize how much more than that it was. Seraphina, Chade, Ricin, Irilyth, Kichi, Relm... None of them shared any blood relation to her, but she knew she would still defend them as if they did. They had become a different kind of family for her, one born out of care for them instead of obligation.

His tired, red gaze found hers again as he told her that he didn't want to leave and instead wanted to live here where he could prove his worst fears wrong. Her smile widened as he yawned, clearly fighting sleep, his eye lids drooping as he continued on about how he would sacrifice anything to stay here with her. He truly was such a sweetheart, a pup too kind for this cruel world, clearly the gentle side of Chade's hardness. Before she could respond he blinked open his eyes for a moment to ask her another question, this time catching her off guard as he addressed her like his mother. She blinked with surprise, her ears flicking uncertainly. He reminded her so much of Nirvana in the early days of her pup hood before she fully understood what happened to her mother. Her niece would refer to her as her mother and back then it had been hard to correct her. She had loved the girl as much as she now loved her own children, but in the end she had made it clear to her niece that she had certainly raised her as her own and considered her a daughter, but she was not her mother. She had the same feeling now looking at Ricin's sleepy face, but she didn't have it in her to correct him. At least not right now. "Of course you can, darling," she replied with a little smile. "You know you can. You don't need to ask."

Eventually the exhausted boy slipped away from her and she loosened her embrace to let him go, watching as he moved over to Chade's side to snuggle up to the darker colored boy. Seeing them together reminded her of her older sister and the way they would lay much like this through the night for most of their days as pups and yearlings and it made her chest ache with longing for the family she had lost. She tried not to think about Kallisto too often, but when she did it was always with yearning and sadness over the fact that her sister was taken from her far too soon. In the end her sacrifice had been a worthy one and an inevitable one, but it still pained her. Manea was pulled back out of her own thoughts when Ricin suddenly opened his eyes again and questioned her, wondering if she was going to be here when he woke up and whether or not this was a dream. She smiled again and got up, padding over to where the two boys were laying to give Ricin a gentle kiss on his cheek. "I'll be right here when you wake up. I promise. Now get some sleep." She waited till Ricin's eyes closed again and she saw his breathing even out into little, sleepy snores before she quietly stepped away, moving toward the front of the den to lay at the entrance just to make sure no one would come in and disturb the sleeping boys, her thoughts still thousands of miles away.

Manea | Temno | Ciemny