dreams of tomorrow

It was strange how two wolves so similar in just about everything somehow happened to be almost exact opposites in everything else. Kangi had started off her life fairly early on alone, tragedy stealing her mother away from her and tipping the youngsters life upside down. Though she had mourned her mother she realized that of that hadn't happened she wouldn't have met Prospero or Talon or Nuka or any of the other wonderful wolves she had come across. Her thoughts often drifted back to her mother but she had none of the abandonment issues Talon struggled with. Even Prospero's sudden and abrupt departure had left her saddened for a short time but in the end she knew everything happened for a reason. That was how she liked living her life if at all possible, without regrets. But this one was hanging around her neck like a noose. She hadn't felt this bad about parting ways with anyone else. But maybe that was because for the first time in her life it was she who had ran, fled the pale ice king and his kingdom and at the same time leaving her best friend in the dust. She hadn't even gathered the courage to go back and see if she could find him. He was better off there after all, he wanted to be in a pack and the lady looking after him there seemed to truest care for him.

She should have gone back. Before she had terrified herself at her promise to join his pack she had made a conscious effort to see Talon at least once a season even if sometimes she had been unable to track down her friend. The time he had left Seracia with his other friend had been the last time she had been consciously worried that she would never see him again, having lost his scent and his trail. But as fate would have it it seemed Alacrita wasn't as big as she had worried and they had found eachother by chance. Now... She didn't want to be found, didn't really want to face the shame and guilt she felt over having disappeared without a word. She remembered the heartbreak he had endured when his mother had disappeared, his father having gone long before his birth she vaguely remembered. Now she was just a bitch who had added to that heartbreak. Would he forget her? Hate or and spit on her name every time it crossed his mind? She wouldn't have blamed him if he had and yet with all her heart she hoped that wasn't how it was for him. She hoped that maybe one day they would meet again and play and prance like the had so many times before then part ways friends once more. Though the leaving was getting harder and harder for her. She didn't really want to leave him but his pack terrified her.

Maybe he would come to her island? Maybe there were better packs around? There were so many options that they could have explored together and yet here he was alone, not even sure if she could find him if she wanted to. Golden eyes blinked open, head tipped back so all she could see was the rocks surrounding her little beach and the slightly cloudy sky above. It wasn't getting late but the sun was hitting the clouds and lighting them on fire like it did at sunset often. Here it was simply a normal occurance. Then like something out of a dream he would appear, and though she did not recognize his face at first from the distance it was hard to miss the missing limb that burdened him. She couldn't move, waiting for herself to wake up and yet praying that it wasn't the dream she thought it was. He couldn't really be here could he? And yet a bark would crack through the air around her, a tentative greeting and slowly the tiny woman would roll onto her stomach, eyes wide and jaw hanging on its hinge in disbelief. He was here?!?!? No emotion touched her features not for lack of them but due to her inability to even grasp what she was feeling at that moment. There was some panic, guilt, sorrow but almost overwhelming that all there was that elated joy she had always felt in his presence.

But unlike all their meeting before she held herself in check, not allowing herself to run at him and throw herself into his embrace. She didn't deserve that. So instead she would pushed herself up into a seated position, slowly like a hunter worried about scaring off her prey, and then finally lifting her haunches so she was standing completely. "Talon...?" there was an obvious hesitance and uncertainty in her voice as she breathed his name, not even sure if she was saying it to him or if she was still trying to decide if he was real or not. A few tentative steps were taken forward, long legs beginning to close the distance between them as she allowed her eyes to explore his form. He looked good. "What are you doing here? Your far from your pack. Won't your king be displeased?" She couldn't even look at him, couldn't bring herself to face him fully if this was truly him. But even as she said the words she knew the long was always displeased with Talon. The very thing she had come to love most about him he had hated, thought it was a burden on him and the pack. "I'm so sorry for leaving..." She could barely whisper the words, now standing just beyond touching distance of him, tail lowered and ears tipped back in shame. That was all that mattered. She had left him and she had run, he had never done anything wrong.

Speech!