It was midnight in the den. Gendry was asleep, his tiny chest rising and falling rapidly beside the two toned girl. Zlata had been watching him, unable to control her thoughts. The recent news of her mother's death had not come easily to her. Silver orbs would trace every lane of the cave walls, wondering if she may find an answer there. Had it been her fault? Aurora had only been trying to regain her family and Zlata had left them selfishly, unable to handle the stress caused by her feuding family. Leaving had not caused her family to get closer as she intended, it had ruined them instead. Every wandering thought came to the same conclusion; it was her fault. Zlata let a lung full of air loose from her chest and lay her chin against her front paws, glancing again at the kitten who had become so attached to her. Hadn't Aurora had a cat? Cor...Cormarin? No that wasn't it. Cor...something. He had been so kind when she was still nursing. What ever had happened to him? A part of her wondered if Gendry and Cor.....Corvusi! That was his name. She wondered if Gendry and Corvusi were somehow related. All cats were, right? As images of cats fluttered across her mind, her eyelids fluttered shut against her mother's eyes. Suddenly she was in the mangrove, watching as Australis wandered away and smelling...Aurora? Speech,

It was strange, being out of the mortal realm. While it was beyond all description to see her family again, and be reunited with those she'd lost in years past, she longed to be with the family she'd left behind. Her children needed her, despite their hatred for her after she left, Magnus probably had taken her death very badly. She had no idea what was going on in the world she'd parted from, but she could only assume someone missed her, could only hope there was a wolf who mourned her passing. It was a faint dream, knowing that her children hated her, her lyubit might come to loathe her for abandoning him as it were, and Song... she didn't want to think about what Song might be feeling. Her best friend. Another name popped into her head, Siarvon. Her once upon a time partner in crime, the man she'd come to know well, despite his latent comings and goings. Did he even know she was gone? Her thoughts drifted earthbound, and so did her surroundings, moulding into a perfect replica of her beloved mangrove. The air was humid and smelled of fetid earth, the water hardly moved, and moss grew in heavy clumps all across the roots and trunks. It was a beautiful sight, one she missed seeing for real. Her powerful paws struck the roots with a fluid grace as her long legs remembered how to move upon them. Liquid mercury pools examined the shadows and the crevices, missing them dearly. A pair of eyes she recognized stood out to her, and a small, sad smile came to twist her ebony lips. Zlata. Her daughter, the silver pelted babe she'd birthed, whom she'd sought upon the day she met her death. "Such a pretty young thing you've become, my dear." Silken lyrics would murmur, their faint accent never having lost it's grip on her vocals. A slow step forward, holding the mirror pools of her child, her flesh and blood. It was amazing to see the girl again, even if it might just be her imagination. Corvusi Speech Aurora Speech Others

The young girl could not keep the smile from her features. It had been too long since she had seen the warm face of her mother and the eyes that she had inherited from her. Zlata rushed forward, surprised that her height allowed her to press her ebony muzzle into the shoulder of the sweet giantess. "Mommy..." The word rolled off of her tongue as if she had spoken it a million times, yet she had only uttered it once to the woman. A term that reminded her of the better times; times when their family had been whole; times when their perfect family would all be together and sharing the love that flowed so freely through their veins. Tears of joy would well in her eyes as she took in the familiar scent that once lulled her to sleep. Slowly and with reluctance, Zlata pulled away from her mother and looked into her lightly hued eyes. Could she really be standing just in front of her? "Mother I am so sorry...I never should have left you...and Australis and Magnus. I feel like..." Guilt flooded over her as she looked around the mangrove, realizing that they were alone. Would she be able to see Magnus and Australis if they too had....If they...Her tail drooped considerably, her eyes squinting shut as her ears flattened against her skull. "It's all my fault...I miss you so much. I should have never been born." Her eyes scanned her mother's face, waiting for some sort of confirmation of her fears to appear there. Speech,

Wolf from dawnthieves, manip by Ocena. Character belongs to Denden! Her daughter's voice poured into her tall ivory audits, and her small smile grew just a fraction. Such a lovely young woman Zlata was indeed, she was going to grow into a lovely lady who would win over every heart in Alacritia. The sensation of her child's muzzle rubbing against her shoulder was muted, as if the nerves under her flesh were half asleep. It was odd, but at least she could feel her babe's touch. A gentle caress from her salmon tongue would be placed between the ebony audits of the young girl, and the alabaster queen would smile just a little and nuzzle her daughter's tiara. The little one apologized, for what the pallid woman did not know. When an explanation slowly came forth, the lady would shake her head ever so slightly, still keeping her small grin upon her features. "My dear, it is okay." She would croon in a gentle voice wrapped in it's warm accent, her muzzle would tilt downwards, haunches falling gracefully to rest upon a root beneath her. She lowered her crown somewhat so she could look into the youngsters eyes, meeting identical orbs. When Zlata spoke again, a knee jerk response made her tongue lash instantly for a reply. "Do not say that!" She snapped, her placid demeanor falling away for a moment. Slowly she built it back up again, a shuddering breath coming into her lungs. "My dearest daughter, nothing is your fault. It was my time, the gods did not want me to be with you anymore. There is nothing wrong with that." Silken vocals would murmur, a slow blink of her eyes assuring her utterly calm state. She had made peace with the fact that she was dead, and that was the end of it. "Your father and I loved you and your brother from the moment you were born, and it was that love that bade me follow you in a quest to bring you home. It was no one's fault that the gods had other plans, so please do not blame yourself." She continued, reaching out one broad paw to bring her child closer. She would aim to pull the smaller she wolf in toward her breast, and tuck her silver cranium under her own chin. "speech!"

The youth burrowed into her mother's bosom with ease, turning into a puddle in her embrace as light sobs racked her shoulders. Her ebony muzzle would lift and take in the scent of the alabaster giantess, wondering if what she sensed was real or a memory. Did wolves carry scents in the afterlife? She was still so young, with so much to learn and none to teach her. How would she ever live a normal life without her family to guide her? "The gods were unfair, mother. I am alone, you are dead, and Magnus and Australis have chosen their own paths away from Ludicael." Her silver opticals would turn to ice as she discussed the men of their family. Where had they gone? Had they given up all hope? Aurora had been the only one to care, and she gave her life for that cause. Her nose scrunched in distaste at the thought. Aurora was all she had ever had, and now she was gone. Zlata could have stayed in her mother's embrace for the rest of her life if the gods hasn't been so cruel to punish her for leaving. The girl sniff led and tried to remove any spite from her words as she spoke again. "What am I to do with my life, with the gods keeping me from my happiness?" It was a question she knew only her mother would be able to answer, for she would take advice from no one else on the matter. Even after all that Aurora had put the family through, Zlata would always look up to her as her only role model. Speech,

Her daughter dissolved into a fit of sobbing, effectively breaking the alabaster queen's unbeating heart. One paw would wrap about the steel coated girl's petite shoulders, holding her as close as she could manage. Thick, silken derma would welcome the salty liquid as it fell from the youngster's moonstone pools, a dark stain growing upon her bosom. Slowly, the paw wrapped about the child would drift down her spine lightly. She could feel the ghost of her daughter's pelt, it was soft as her own, fine haired. She would grow into a beautiful young woman, without a doubt. She let her babe cry, for sometimes that was what helped the most. She remembered crying often after her family had departed to this very place. And then the smaller she wolf would speak, her expression growing cold and stony. The pallid woman knew that mask well, she'd worn it for months on end. Was her daughter to become like her? That would be a horror indeed. No one deserved to turn out like her. While the snow coated giantess had loved much in her life, she'd also felt too much pain, kept everything bottled up and hidden. No one should feel that kind of emptiness, feel like they always ripe to burst at the seams with the burden of their secrets and horrors inside of them. Especially not lovely young Zlata, who still had a chance. The mention of her mate and son brought a lightning strike of pain flashing through her breast. They had left the girl on her own? Magnus was still able bodied and capable of taking care of his children, had left them? Righteous fury boiled beneath her cool skin, and she would be sure to give her beloved a piece of her mind if she encountered him in a strange in between place like this. Australis' disappearance would come as a surprise, however. He'd cared for his sister when no one else had, and he had left? Slowly, she would lower her muzzle to cast a liquid mercury gaze upon her daughter's features. She would smile a small, sad smile. "I'm sorry, my lyubit. It is unfair of them to leave, but they most likely had good reasons. I too, had my reasons for parting with you, whether you choose to believe that or not. But I will keep these reasons to myself, for a later date. You are still too young to quite understand, so there would be no point in telling you yet." Silken tones would coo, and once more her salmon tongue would reach out to caress her child, sliding across the planes of her cheekbone, even now just starting to add angles to the girl's face. When the babe spoke again, her words made the inky lips of the icy she wolf twist into a smirk of grim amusement. Slowly, she would lower her chin to the top of her daughter's head. "You must find your happiness for yourself, somewhere you think you can start anew." She murmured, wisdom from a soul much older than the body it had last inhabited pouring from lips that had not always spoke with such knowledge. Once she had been young and reckless, but not for long. "I never got a chance to tell you about my past, did I?" She inquired rhetorically, her voice thrumming through her very bones now. "And I have a sneaking suspicion that your father did not either, though he doesn't know all of it." She murmured next, a small, dry chuckle reverberating through her. "Well, let me tell you of my life before I came to Alacritia." "A long ways from where you were born, in Ludicael, there is a place that was once a lovely, lush forest. It teemed with life, with birdsong and the calls of every creature you can imagine. That is where I was born. My mother's name was Lily Svetlana, and that is where your middle name came from. My father was the King of our pack, his name was Shadow Lunashka." She told her daughter in a quiet, nostalgic tone, sounding lost and faraway as she began to get wrapped up in her tale. "I was raised as their firstborn to be the princess, and later the queen. So I did not get the chance to live as any child did there, playing and laughing and wrestling. I learned how to hold myself like a princess, how to respond properly to those who spoke to me." She continued, remembering those times quite fondly. Youth was a blessed thing, purity all one possessed. "Then my brother was born, his name was Falcon. I loved him dearly, and taught him all the secrets and hideaways I'd found in my year of life yet." She chuckled, the memories drifting back as sounds of distant laughter and wondrous whispers. "Eventually, I was trained as an assassin, both to guard our home and give me the skills necessary for battle if it should strike our home. Not soon after, my sister was also born. My mother named her Twilight." She crooned, remembering both the fright of the birth and the amazement as she saw the tiny face of her newest sibling, her only sister. "However, before that chance to let her grow up in our lovely home could arise, a fire broke out. Our home was quickly engulfed in flames, and we were forced to leave and find a new one. We travelled across vast places, deserts and mountain valleys, tundra's and jungles. Along the way, we searched for a new home." Silken vocals would sigh, her voice long past cracking under the emotional stress. It was a long time ago, it was over, there was no changing it. "One place looked very good, it had plenty of prey and a great river, but it was home to a band of nomads who were not keen to have their current home disturbed. We were attacked, and my father was killed... Right in front of me...." She whispered, memories of blood and fear and a single word whispered with a dying breath. Run. She pushed those thoughts away, focusing on the rest of the story. "So were many others.. However, we kept going, my mother, brother, sister, and a few others who had survived." She continued, remembering the sounds of her family sniffling away their sorrow and holding back a torrent of tears that could have together created a river. But water could not be spared then, the journey was still ahead. "Not long after the raid, my brother was mauled and eaten by a grizzly bear. We had no time to mourn, we had to keep going." She breathed, closing her Iridium optics against the flood of remembered nightmares. "As we crossed through a great desert with a forest of mighty cacti, my sister was stolen by a hawk. We were now just two, my mother and I, wandering in search of a home." She whispered again, her breath even despite the remembrance of such a great loss. "After we crossed the desert, we came to a forest of great redwood trees, like there are up in the northern lands. My mother died there, starved and dehydrated. We were barely a days travel from Alacritia." She breathed, voice finally daring to utter a final crackle as the pain of remembering crashed down over top of her. Despite her mother being here in this place with her, she remembered having only Lily's face in those horrible times. "When I arrived there, I found Ludicael, and the woman who was Queen of the pack, her name was Jupiter. She took me in, allowed me to live there. There, I met Song, and your father. Barely a year later, you and your brother were born." She ended, a small smile playing at her lips. Those joyous times had collectively been enough to hold back the horrors of her times before then, almost completely wiping them from her mind during her time there. Almost. She could still remember the times where she'd woken up choking on tears and screams. Slowly, she would raise her crown, strong despite all the things she'd faced. Her iron gaze would fall upon the shining features of the babe she'd borne in times of nothing but joy, and smile. "I want you to take this hard time, and learn from it. Go off as well, if it suits you, find somewhere you can gladly start anew. Find friendship in a strange place, fall in love, start a family of your own when the time comes. Raise them right, bring them up and give them the childhood that I was not strong enough to give you." She crooned, her smile assuring and confident. Regret still swelled in her chest, that she hadn't been able to give this lovely young lady a youth that she should rightfully have, that she had been entitled to by birth. She held optics that were a mirror of her own, and tried to use only her gaze to tell her daughter that everything would be okay. She of all people was full well entitled to say that. Everything would always be alright, and if you didn't like where you were in life, go somewhere else and try again until it was right.