i've aged a year this week

Past weaning, life had gone in two extremely different directions for each of the siblings. Fate had a funny way of dragging things back together, and still, it seems they're destined to cross paths once more. Though they orbit each other now, wearing the grass bare beneath their paws, something cosmic has slid into place. The pair of birds are perhaps the first to feel it, the first to understand. Their gazes lock across the circle. Adhara's companion remains stock still upon her shoulder. Waiting. Watching. He's silent and knowing.

The broad was, in all likelihood, dead. Good riddance to that one, really. At her father's name, Adhara tenses even further. Her gaze is burning where it takes in the stranger before her, and her teeth flash once more. This time it's far more deliberate, far more pronounced. "What's my father to you?" The words are venomous. The father that hadn't been anything more than a tall tale, a story. A genetic donation, chosen by the empire. Still, he'd been the father that she'd been told of, the warrior, the reason that she was so tenacious and near impossibly strong for her size.

"Who are you?" Though Adhara had dodged the question when asked, now it was her turn. Curiosity raged inside her, along with something much, much stronger and much darker. It's only now that she asks, never once stopping in her movements, never once pausing their careful, delicate dance.

"Adhara"