She had left. She really, really left that pack; the pack she had been in since she arrived from her family. She left Natalya's side, the woman who had taken her in when she was younger. No, the woman was leaving her. Leaving, then dying. She didn't ask Hani for help, she didn't warn her. Natalya had simply cut her off at the meeting, so Hani had left. She was angry and hurt. Somehow over those sharp feelings, a numbness had clouded over her. She felt dead inside. Like a mouse that kicks and thrashes once or twice even after it has been killed. She had to get rid of these feelings. She felt that if she didn't she would explode. Part of her wanted to lie down and rot to death while another part wanted to run and fight until she was too broken to move. Both were bad options, very bad options. What was a good option? Those plants that brute had shown her long ago. The ones that altered your feelings. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad. Hani didn't care which she experienced. She found them and ate them heartily. The bitter herbs stung going down. Maybe she was eating them too fast, but that wouldn't matter in a moment. She took the extra time to drink some water and get away from the lake. She didn't care if she lived or died, but she didn't want to come off her high half way between. After being a safe distance away, the creamy girl plopped down haphazardly and waited for the medicinals to kick in. Speech,

West... It wasn't a direction she headed often but today she had awoken early and departed her new home, leaving her family and pack to rest before heading in the lands she had met the little grey girl in who had found her the plants she was once again seeking this day. Long limbs would carry her languidly westwards. It was easy to find the willows the second time, and even easier to find the beloved plants Zuriel had led her to last time she had been here. Dione would move slowly, long limbs finding easy purchases on the soft soil as she danced her way through it. Head was held low, ruby optics darting as she searched for her herbs only to spot a rather forelorn looking female. The tiny woman would pause mid step, immediately focusing on the woman before looking ahead again. Should she go? Should she say something? She kind of just wanted to find her plants then go home but she wasn't sure. With a sigh Dione would turn slowly and slip towards the woman through the willows. "Are you okay?" Dione would ask softly, head tipping as she came to stand a short distance away.

Hani focused on focusing on nothing. She looked in front of herself blankly, allowing her vision to blur. She tried to relax her muscles as much as possible until she couldn't feel them. The medicine began to work. Less and less could Hani feel her nervousness. She became more calm. The blurred vision before her began to dance, the colors becoming something more bright. A shape came into view, green and wolfish. Was it grass? Was it a wolf made of grass? It's maw opened and flowers fell out, bursting to life as they fell, then drying up and dying as they fell to the ground. Hani leaned up, looking at the wolf. This must be a god. The god of life? Hani's eyes widened, and her maw hung open, "Do that again. Please do that again." She urged the god to open it's maw again. If Hani could see the flowers falling from it's maw once again. Hani wondered if she could get a touch, maybe a taste, of one of those flowers. Why had the god presented itself to her? What could this god want? Speech,

Dione knew that face, there was awe there but there was also a hazy look to her gaze, a glaze over her eyes as she stared up at Dione in complete and utter awe. The green woman would grin, her lips parting and stretching into a wolfish smile as she slowly lowered her haunches to the ground before the woman. The woman would speak a moment later, asking her to do it again, pleaded for her to do that again and Dione could only guess that she wanted Dione to speak again. Dione loved hearing stories when she was high so maybe this woman was having a good trip at least. "Would you like to tell you a story my dear?" Dione would ask easily, her voice soft and more confidant though she made sure to keep her words smooth and soothing at the same time. Was this woman a stoner like herself or was she running from something like so many were when they turned to drugs? It mattered not to Dione, she was content being the sober one here...

The god came and sat next to her. The green life leaking from her coat and on to the ground where she was perched. Hani kept her eyes affixed to the god, sitting up slightly, sloppily pushing into the ground until she got into some form of comfortable sitting position. The god opened her maw again, the flowers falling with vivid colors then becoming ash on the ground. The ash was overcome by the life at the god's paws. A noise rang out, though Hani couldn't decide if it was coming from the sky or the grassy wolf of life. It asked in she would like a story and Hani slowly nodded, blinking for what was probably the first time since seeing the wolf. She opened her eyes again and began to trace the wolf's form. She was sprouting grass and small trees from her head. Her legs were made of the mosses that covered trees. Her underside, what Hani could see between her paws, was made of the darkened soil like that near a lake. All of her body was teeming with life, but her eyes, Hani was stunned by her eyes. The woman's eyes were blood, the semblance of life itself. Hani's eyes locked onto those orbs for quite some time before she remembered the woman had asked her a question. Had she answered? She didn't remember. She nodded again, humming a little this time, her eyes never leaving those of the life god. Speech,

Whatever this girl had, Dione wanted. She liked so at peace even though she was scarcly blinking and something about her breathing sounded a bit off. Dione would ask the sweet girl if she wanted a story and the girl would nodd, an oddly sluggish motion as she attempted to push herself up into a seated position. Dione would allow her mouth to remain open because whatever it was that this girl seemed to be seeing and enjoying seemed to be coming from there, purpe tongue easily visable through her teeth. Lips would twist up in a small smile. She knew the perfect story. " According to a Haida story, in the beginning the world was in total darkness. The Raven, who had existed from the beginning of time, was tired of groping about and bumping into things in the dark. Eventually the Raven came upon the home of an old man who lived alone with his daughter. Through his slyness, the Raven learned that the old man had a great treasure. This was all the light in the universe, contained in a tiny box concealed within many boxes. At once the Raven vowed to steal the light." Dione would murmur, her voice soft and easy to try and keep the story and to woman as relaxed as possible. "He thought and thought, and finally came up with a plan. He waited until the old man's daughter came to the river to gather water. Then the Raven changed himself into a single hemlock needle and dropped himself into the river, just as the girl was dipping her water-basket into the river. As she drank from the basket, she swallowed the needle. It slipped and slithered down into her warm belly, where the Raven transformed himself again, this time into a tiny human. After sleeping and growing there for a very long time, at last the Raven emerged into the world once more, this time as a human infant. Even though he had a rather strange appearance, the Raven's grandfather loved him. But the old man threatened dire punishment if he ever touched the precious treasure box. Nonetheless the Ravenchild begged and begged to be allowed to hold the light just for a moment. In time the old man yielded, and lifted from the box a warm and glowing sphere, which he threw to his grandson. As the light was moving toward him, the human child transformed into a gigantic black shadowy bird-form, wings spread ready for flight, and beak open in anticipation. As the beautiful ball of light reached him, the Raven captured it in his beak! Moving his powerful wings, he burst through the smokehole in the roof of the house, and escaped into the darkness with his stolen treasure. And that is how light came into the universe." Dione would finally turn back to the woman, a smile easily Streatching her lips as she studied her before motioning for the woman to look up towards the sun. Raven had put it there for them... Though Dione herself believed more in the greek mythology she had always loved the Native American lore.

The pair would sit for a moment before the story began. The god's maw hung open and Hani could see tiny plants forming on the edges of her lips with every breath. The plants curled out in the delicate green of life, then died, shriveling brown, then black before they dropped. Every breath bringing and ending new life even at the surface of this being's maw. Her tongue was a dark color, like the sky just before a moonless night. Could she, maybe, turn inside-out to make night time? Maybe she could just turn over onto her back and her stomach was night? Where was the moon, then? Inside her? The story started and snapped Hani out of her fixation on the woman's day and night. Oddly enough, this wolf told about the beginning of light. Who was Haida? Maybe that was anther god's name. As the woman spoke, Hani's focus blurred from the dancing colors of reality as she focused on the story. The raven and its quest for the light- Hani could see it all. As the bird grabbed the light, she saw it's blackness lightened to a purple, like the tongue of the god before her. Once the light was in the sky, did the raven turn into a wolf, or back into a raven? Hani refocused to see the woman in front of her. Without much further thought, Hani decided that the raven must have transformed again into this wolf. How else would she guard the light? This god herself was possibly both life and death; day and night. Hani blinked again, remembering that the story had been finished. The god motioned towards the sun and Hani directed her attention to it, then back to the woman, "Thank you, Raven." Her words came out lazily, awestruck. It would be hard to tell if she was calling the woman before her Raven, or if she was thanking the Raven of the story. In Hani's mind, they were the same. The raven teeming with darkness while the wolf overflowed with color. Maybe they were opposites. Friends, siblings, maybe lovers? Hani didn't know how gods worked, but if they could transform, Hani had no doubt that the woman before her was the raven. Speech,