Stormson pt. 4

Rose blinked her eyes open as Derron lifted her off her mother's lap. "But I'm not sleepy," she said instinctively, putting up the bare minimum of fight required every night when her father tried to put her to bed.1

Derron smiled. "Neither is she," he said, looking at Luna stretch in a way you usually only see in cats who've fallen asleep in the sun. She looked at the two and smiled. 2

"Go to bed, sweetheart."3

"But Talon's not even home yet."4

"That's because he has to take care of something in town."5

"'Lora's in trouble again?"6

Luna put on a thin smile she used whenever Rose accidentily said something best kept unsaid. "Yes sweety, Starthorn's in trouble again."7

"So if I get a charge when I'm big, and they get in trouble all the time, I get to stay up, too?"8

"It's bedtime NOW, sweetheart."9

Rose muttered something into her father's shoulder, falling back into semi-conciousness. Luna sighed and rubbed her temples. She really shouldn't fall asleep yet. She has to wait for Saro to some home; there was rumor of a drought in the west that needed rain, and Saro was speaking to the plains wolves of the area.10

Derron came back and put his arm around her. She leaned against him and sighed. "Rough day?" he asked.11

"Not yet...not ever really. Saro's trying to find out about the drought in the west. Things seem to be fine, but..."12

"But...?"13

"Nothing. It's stupid"14

"What?"15

"One moment we're being chased and followed, with Gods and Godesses and mother...the next we've made a home and found a community, with friends and family. It's never that easy."16

"It's not been a moment Luna, it's been years."17

Her wings twitched involintarily. "It's never that easy."18

Rose's glossy eyes looked out her back window, meeting, shockingly, nothing but trees. That was the trouble with living in the middle of the thickest forest on the island...too many trees. She sighed. She really wanted to go to sleep, but she wanted to wait for Talon. Whenever he came home from late nights, he would always stop by her window and tell him one of the stories that mama and papa didn't want her to hear. A lot of times he would tell her about Alora. Mama and papa didn't like Rose to hear hen she got in trouble; they thought it would inspire her to do the same. Her favorite thing about Talon's stories was that he used Alora's real name. Alora. It was a pretty name. Too bad she changed it; Starthorn wasn't as pretty. Rose knew her mother didn't like it when she used her real name, but sometimes she let it slip. There was something about names that gave a chance to start over, mama had said. That's why Lady Saytre had people do it. This whole place was a chance to start over.19

Rose flexed her opaque wings. They weren't shiny like mama's, and they didn't really seem to be solid, either. She wished realy there weren't so many trees here. How could she fly with all these trees in the way?20


Saro's feet padded the ground as he ran along in an easy lope. It was nice to know that he could run through these woods so calmly. Wolves in the midnight forest could be very territorial; he was lucky his mate, Lita, was one of them.21

He didn't know how many there were, but he knew they claimed the whole forest that covered the southern quarter of the island. They were far more intelligent than any of the other packs, they had all banded together to claim the whole forest. He had to speak to the smaller, dustier wolves that lived on the plains to try and find out if there was anything behind rumors of drought, and had found it shockingly hard to find any wolves coupled to a human. Then back in his memories he felt something. There was a wolf and a girl and a god that didn't do as he was told, and Saro's memories from the past and memories of more recent times melded, and he lost whatever it was he was supposed to remember.22

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