I've Been Thinking, I Want You To Be Happier

Feeling a draw or a connection to something beyond the misty, heathered land she dwelled in wasn't something entirely unusual for her. She had been visited by one of her sons on a couple of occasions. This was something different though and a soft, distant voice she didn't recognize caught her attention, pulling her forward with a confusion and a curiosity. Willowy limbs carried her slowly at first and then faster and faster until she was bounding through the foggy, indistinct land, feeling like she was reaching for something that was narrowly escaping her time and time again. Then she found something she had never seen before. She skidded to a stop, panting lightly as she reached a darkness that was dotted with stars that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Her brows pulled together and she stared into it with her mismatched blue eyes for a long moment, hesitant and uncertain of what she should do.

She glanced back over her shoulder, back to the fields of soft greenery and muted flowers behind her, and was just about to turn back when that soft voice spoke to her again. “Okay, I’m going to wake up now. Come back with me!” Her gaze snapped back toward the darkness toward the youthful voice of a pup and her heart tugged in her chest. She didn't know how much time had passed since she left the living world. Her only gauge was seeing Ignis in his visits and seeing how her little boy had aged. She knew that time had gone on without her and all of her children were well into their adulthoods—perhaps even some past that point as well. She missed her children with every fiber of her being and hearing this girl's voice...

Her ears folded back with uncertainty and she closed her eyes, drawing in a breath as she stepped forward, feeling the ground change beneath her feet until it felt like it was simply not there at all. She was afraid to open her eyes, feeling weightless and lost and unsure of where she was going or what was happening to her—at least until that same voice spoke again and she suddenly felt the soft grass beneath her feet and the cool air of a breeze blowing through her fur. She blinked open her eyes as the pup called for their mommy, her gaze widening as she looked out over the very real, very solid world around her. It wasn't a land she recognized, but it wasn't the land of spirits she had grown accustomed to. She turned, her gaze of blues landing on the young pup that was coated in muted purples, watching the joy and excitement suddenly die on her features when their eyes met.

As the girl expressed how she wasn't her mother, Zuriel's heart clenched and her ears fell back against her head. "Oh, darling..." she said softly as she turned and walked over to where the girl was, the necklace she wore swinging gently against her chest. She reached out gently to the girl, unsure if she would actually be able to touch her or not and feeling such relief when she found that she could. Her dark-tipped toes lightly brushed away the girl's tears, feeling just how damp and tear stained her cheeks were from what she guessed was quite a lot of crying. "I'm sorry I'm not who you were looking for," she replied, feeling tears starting to sting at her own eyes as she gave the girl a sweet smile. "I'm not your mother, but I am a mother and it's been a very, very long time since I've gotten to see my pups. But you know what?" She held out a slender foreleg, inviting the little girl into a hug if she wanted. "I've found that sometimes a good hug does wonders. Maybe we can be sad together so it's not quite so hard."

"Speech"