Wake Me Up When September Ends

Walk | Talk | Think

She was glad that the girl did not hesitate to step inside the den and did so willingly. Her friendship with Ocena might have been distracted at the best of times, what with the both of them tending to their families seemingly on their own, but she had always tried to keep that door open between them and their children, wishing to cling to what little bit remained of the pack life they had once all lived by. She missed it desperately, the busy bustle, the close company. The safety.

A question was posed regarding the absence of the many bodies who typically shared the den with her, and though she had known that her small time away from them had been direly needed the timid mother wolf felt her ears tip backward guiltily. "They're with Knight Cloud," she explained, "He's been helping me when I need it. Raising so many pups is hard work." She smiled with near laughter, but the guilt still coursed below the surface of her expression, unable to hide what it was she felt from being projected even to this young wolf. She gave up the attempted lightheartedness and instead added with gentle frankness, "They shouldn't be far."

Oracle had scooted past her to settle near the back of the den where Mercianne had been curled up upon her arrival and Merci moved to lay nearby, listening as the troubled looking pup began to spill what it was that had been weighing upon her mind so visibly. The news was worrisome to the healer. She had known of Gargoyle's prolonged absence, but the news of Ocena disappearing was new to her. She had always supposed the other woman to be busy or distracted with her children, possibly even trying to keep their ragtag group of Snow Rogues together while she herself searched for her missing daughter, but it seemed she had been wrong. Was there possibly a connection between the two disappearances? Was there possibly a connection between all the disappearances? It was probably too big of a leap, but feeling paranoid enough already Mercianne was almost willing to consider it.

But as the poor distraught girl voiced the single most terrifying thought that had been plaguing her, Mercianne could only think of her sadness and need for consolation. "Oh, dear," she murmured gently as she scooted forward across the warm earth of the den, moving to curl her smaller frame around the girl's shoulder and nuzzle the back of her neck consolingly. How could she tell her that everything was going to be okay when she was partly convinced it would not? When her own daughter still remained lost and apart from her family, from where she should have been? "I'm so sorry, Oracle." She took a moment to quietly reassure the girl with a few soft licks across the top of her head and another nuzzle against her cheek before meeting her eyes. "You know I'm always here for you, right?" she asked. She could not promise Oracle that her parents would come back, or that her siblings were no far, but she could at least, with certainty, promise this.