Cold gray eyes surveyed the lake region with its myriad wolves mingling in the warmth of late spring that did not seem to warm her. The festival seemed to be going fairly well thus far and little had needed her attention, allowing her mind to wander darker paths. She didn't do regret as a rule, but oh how she wished things had turned out differently. Raisa should be here, Raisa who had given her the idea for opening the bl?t to all lands, Raisa and her children who had faded from Katja's life. Oathbreaker she was for failing to protect them to her last breath. Had Raisa died, out in the wilds? Alone, without the protection of the one sworn to die by her side? What of Val, the little valkyrie with such fierce independence that she'd refused to return to her pack? Sindri vanished without a trace - she had assumed the Olympians had taken her but the only scent she'd found entwined with theirs had been Kassander and Svetlana, who she had lost the battle to keep. Sindri must have vanished before she'd finally limped home from her ordeal. Sigmarr, oh how she'd failed him. Taken as her own apprentice at a young age at his request, to mold into a proper warrior, but she was unable to give him what he needed - emotional stability, a family - and he was drifting away from her as surely as any of the others. And Au?ra...
The dark female felt cut adrift, alone once more, the foreigner again despite her time here, despite the fact that she was alpha to a pack now. She wanted to retreat to her den in the steppes rather than endure the noise and laughter and happiness of the festival, she wanted to brood alone but Freyja had given her this charge and she would see it through. She would not subject anyone to her foul mood however, and watched the festival from a distance. Close enough to see anything that might need her attention, far enough to hopefully avoid interactions of her own. Striped tail curled over her black-booted feet, the inscrutable viking woman perched upon the land she laid claim to, so remote, so secluded, and tried to reach out to her gods as she had so many times before... but the gods were silent.
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