Hope and Despair
10-30-2013, 09:02 PM
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Walk | Talk | Think She was growing quite desperate in her search. Kestrel had been missing for weeks now, without any signs of her disappearance popping up anywhere. No one around the Cove had seen nor heard anything the night she had gone missing, but why should they have? Of all the pups in Mercianne's large litter, Kestrel had been the quietest. In fact, she had been nothing but silent. It had taken her brother, Crow, for them to realize that her quietness had not been by choice but by nature; she had been born a mute, devoid of the ability to talk or laugh or yip or howl. Even to scream out in terror in the middle of the night. If only she'd had her voice, Merci had wondered, beside herself with grief. If only her daughter had been whole and sound she might have been able to at least warn those around her of what was happening, to sound the alarm when no one was awake to hear the quiet scuffle. Despite the lack of evidence, Merci was convinced that her daughter had been taken. It was the only thing that she could think to explain her disappearance. She had never shown signs of wishing to leave or venture off, and even when she had it had never been very far. She had been respectful of her mother's wishes and the boundaries she had set up for her children, never causing her any unneeded stress. At least until now. Her searches at the beginning had been in the immediate area, hoping to find the girl holed up somewhere either lost or waiting for help. But each day since had lessened that hope and brought the cold reality close in on its heels. There was a very real chance she might not find her daughter in the way she remembered her. There was a very real chance that by the time she found her, she might already be gone. Giving into the despair that those thoughts brought with it, however, would only have crushed her. She needed to cling tightly to the hope of finding her again, of being able to have her daughter back, and so she did. Her travels this day brought her clear of the Cove, her boys told to stay there unless they could all agree to go somewhere else together as a group, at least while she was away. Considering what had happened to their sister, she hoped they would heed her warning and continued to think of them as she skirted the edge of the glistening waters. It was not quite winter yet, but the chill in the air told her that it would be a cold one, which only made her search for her daughter all the more important. What was it that Oracle had said? Sleeping in the snow? The creamy white she-wolf made herself pause and close her dark brown eyes, purposefully drawing in deep, calming breaths as she repeated to herself, I will find her. Kestrel is okay, and I will find her. It took a minute or so before she could open her eyes again and stare out across the waters without feeling her heart ready to skitter its way clear out of her chest. Her gaze followed the lines of the trees where they peeked out from beneath the waters, leaves littering the surface in places while the evergreens remained heartily defiant. Had she not been preoccupied, she might have considered how beautiful the location was, how lovely the trees situated within the water would look once winter rolled in in earnest, but instead she found herself staring out across toward the other side of the flooded wood, wondering if perhaps she was merely on the wrong side to find her missing Kestrel. |