I watch the city burn, these dreams like ashes float away...
Dreams had never played quite so prominent a role in Lilitha’s life before these recent days, another cycle of dark times shaking up their relatively safe and settled existence and spreading madness and chaos, waking the dark in beqanna’s residents that had been slumbering and at relative ease for so long. She slept, her newfound daughter curled tight against her chest, limbs tangled together, tiny belly growling at first. Lilitha hadn’t figured out how on earth she was supposed to feed the small tangle of limbs and fluff, and water could only go so far to satisfy her hunger.
But the baby tossed and turned and dreamed as well, and Lilitha kept fitful guard over her. When her rumbling tummy subsided, she assumed it had given up for the night to sleep. She suspected differently when she finally drifted off and dreamed of a stranger whose appearance shifted fluidly back and forth between male and female, between near-solid black with a cute little yellow splashed moon on one side and a lovely mocha-roan, patches of each spreading across their skin. The stranger smiled softly and murmured words her waking mind forgot, brushing their muzzle gently along her side and examining her with a warm wash of energy that melted tension from her body and left her utterly relaxed.
She didn’t understand the dream, but when she woke their baby food dilemma was solved.
She nudged baby Singe out of her lap and guided her to nurse, perplexed and grateful and disinclined to question what miracle had given them what their little family needed to survive. Singe clearly felt the same, because she nursed with the enthusiasm and abandon of ravenous youth, whuffing softly and butting her head up against Lilitha in her excitement. “My little firefly,” Lilitha crooned softly, nuzzling the softness of her hip with a brush of her nose.
Life was a smidge easier when they didn’t have to fret over baby’s hungry belly, and the pair of them were much more relaxed as they strolled through the woods today. Not enough so that Singe was willing to leave her new momma’s side, but Lilitha was entirely alright with that - she wanted her new baby close too, wanted the reassuring brush of skin on skin, the soft touches that helped them ground in each other, that reassured them both that they weren’t alone.
And before too terribly long, they were even more not alone. The pair came across a motley trio, colorful and eclectic and quiet. “Hello there,” Lilitha said softly, and her smile grew a little as Singe hid herself against Lilitha’s side once more. “My name is Lilitha, and…” She tilted her head a little with a puzzled narrowing of her eyes as she focused on the older male. Something in the shape of him, or the way he moved, or the way he held himself seeming almost familiar but juuuuuuuust beyond reach. “And this little love is my girl, Singe...”
She took a tentative step forward, perplexed by how...how he just felt like he fit here. “Do I…?” Know you? She tore her gaze away from him to look over his companions, a small girl made of what looked like glass and a boy who--oh. Oh my. She stared at the boy, lowered her head to get a closer look at him. Black softened with just a hint of smoke, a white blanket covered in purple spots. His eyes were wrong, but he was the spitting image of…
“Ruan?” she asked, brow furrowing. She closed her eyes, breathed them in, and...ohhh. Oh, she’d know that scent anywhere, wolf and ice and woods and man. She followed it, took another step closer, raised her head to face him again, eyes still closed as his scent washed over her. “Ruan?” she asked again, opening her eyes to meet his glacial blue ones. Was she imagining--no, but she couldn’t be, could she? It...had to be him. Hope lit her eyes, making the gold a little brighter, and she tried to talk herself down with logic. It couldn’t be him, not after all this time, not looking so different. But how many purple-edged wolf-souled men could Beqanna really hold?
...your voice I never heard, only silence.