Kaira was still so new to this world, but her curiosity had already gotten ahold of her. She wanted to go see her mama! All on her own!! She was eager to ask her mama all the questions she possibly could and to hopefully listen to a story or two Recluse had! But more than anything, she wanted to just be near her. She still hadn't quite comprehended the depth of death yet. But she did understand that her Mama Recluse wasn't as here as Momma Sparrow was. Kaira found a spot far enough away from the others that she didn't fear waking up without wanting to, circling a few times rather excitedly before flopping down and curling up. She focused real hard on her breathing! After all, Momma Sparrow had told her the only way to see her mama was to be asleep. Slowing her breathing down, she did her best to let her body relax, even if she was super duper excited to see Recluse. Soon she felt herself drifting off, before feeling almost like her body was detaching itself from her own. Then suddenly it was like she snapped back to reality, but she still felt so light. But she could see herself still, she just felt weird. She couldn't place the feeling, so she decided not to dwell on it. "Mama Recluse?" she called. This was her first time trying while she was alone. Now she felt nervous and like somehow she hadn't done this right. But even so, she kept her overly excited smile on her face and hoped for her mama to show up. "Talk"

Recluse felt like she was awake much more than she slipped back into the dark as of late. That was probably not true but since she was really only aware when someone had called for her it was easy to believe. Whether her daughter knew it or not Kaira's desire to see her was what roused Recluse. Bringing her back to wakefulness, and incorporating her body... Or whatever it was she used to move around and appear before others. Cherry eyes opened to a familiar landscape. She'd learned that the living could change it sometimes, and even strong desires from the dead on occasion... If her first meeting with her husband upon his death was anything to go by. Pale paws glided slightly over the ground, not flattening the grass nor making any noise, it still felt to her like there was a buffer there, a thin membrane that kept her from really making contact with the earth... Or anything for that matter, including the living. Which was the biggest source of consternation at this point in her afterlife. Recluse did not need to hear the sweet tones of her daughter to know who it was that had summoned her, she knew when she first woke, even before full consciousness flooded back into her. She could tell who it was. So she wasn't surprised to find the girl, wasn't surprised she was even alone but she was curious. "Kaira!" Recluse smiled at her daughter, even as she approached to close the distance. "My sweet girl, how are you?" Once she'd believed it possible for the spirits of the dead to see what happened in the world of the living, now she knew that was painfully untrue. She was, well, dead to the mortal world. Relied on her visitors to know what had transpired. The woman reached to try and nose at the top of the small girl's head once in range, trying very hard not to think about how it still didn't feel quite real, how her youngest children would never know what her touch had felt like in life. How old were they now? By her estimation old enough to be leaving the den soon, if not already. Kaira had the look of a pup who would likely outgrow her, after three litters filled to the brim with children that had dwarfed her Recluse had learned the signs, the telltale size of paws primarily. Though it did make it hard to guess exact ages, since she had no frame of reference for time anymore. "Poisons" & Venoms

Image by Hagon