Fel looked up, water dripping from her maw. The river here was cool despite the rising heat of the warmer months. She sighed and slowly waded into the water before suddenly plunging below the surface. In a second, she was up, shaking her pelt to and fro to rid it of excess weight of moisture. Then, making her way toward the emerald hills again, she eyed a particular promontory. The sun was setting, after all, and she wanted to catch the last rays. The beast did not enjoy the view out of pleasure for beauty, but tranquility and solitude helped her think… And there was a lot to ponder about. There would be change coming to Agavos with the new pups, and she could not help but wonder if it would have some negative result, and then there were the dreams… Cold eyes glanced up, after which the body followed.

There was no sign of large predators or worthwhile prey. The rabbits would be in their warrens by now, and Fel’s snout was a bit too large to try to shoot down one of their entrances. The old fae simply lay down upon that grassy ledge, soaking in the spring air and last rays of the sun. As she looked out, she realized that the rolling hills were covered in flowers, some of which were the violets. Fel thought back to the sea of violets, then to the ring of fire, then to her drowning with an eerie serenity in the flowers with the warmth inside of her. It had to mean something, she thought. She didn’t quite like not knowing the depths of her own psyche. But sometimes dreams are only that and do not cross the border into reality. With a deep sigh, the raven wolf unleashed a puff of pollen which the wind carried away into the eternal void of cyclical life.

The soft swish of small paws moving through the grass behind her did not go unnoticed. But the raven beast knew that gait well enough, and was further reassured by the hint of its pack scent that accompanied it that she did not stir from her position. Soon enough, her creature approached her with a verbal clue to her presence, and still, Fel did not move or respond. She knew Narla would not expect a response either. She wasn’t one to talk too much. Her lifeless orbs latched onto the sky’s dancing hues, trying to derive what life and joy they could from the fading sun like leeches. But their power was not strong enough, and they remained as cold as before. Fel exhaled again, deeper this time, and rested her head down on her paws, still looking up to the fiery heavens. In a thoughtful rumble, she asked the other, “Where do you find the joy that dances in your eyes?” The question was not given for her own instruction. Fel did not rely on pure happiness to fuel her body with liveliness, for she had enough determination, will, contentment, and sense of duty to inspire a hundred lifetime’s worth of raging against the dying of the light. But she did often wonder what made the others keep going. It had to be one of two things – neither of which she had ever truly found. Fel could not grasp them, and received only their illusions. Therefore, they must not have existed to anyone except for in terms of a biologically programmed lie that encourages both self-preservation and the continuation of the species. The black fae was a defect. She broke into the truth – her truth. But if it were so, what was the fire that nipped at her haunches right now?

Fel’s gaze was forced from the abyss that stretched ahead of her, which had such a magnetic pull upon her that she seemed to lose her sight to another realm, to a little bushel of flowers given to her. Call it a bouquet, if you must, but that is not what intrigued her. It was, be it by fate, that the flowers were exactly those that followed her to no end. It was so very peculiar, and though it did not evoke any sense of alarm within the old fae, she felt some other, stranger feeling rise in her chest. It was warm, pleasant, and terrifying. It was both vaguely familiar and also completely new. She had felt it before, muted in her dreams. But now it engulfed her fully, almost suffocating her. Fel closed her eyes, concentrated on breathing, and rumbled in response, “I appreciate the gesture, but I quite frankly don’t know what to do with picked flowers. As for the reason, you’ve no need to be grateful. We made an experiment, and I intended it to be a fair one.” She raised her maw back up to the heavens.

The feeling subsided, only to be reinforced in the second wave of conversation. The philosophical idea of the motivation of others crawled away from the fire in her, leaving her body and fleeing into the cool darkness behind them. Her black nose twitched slightly as a hint of that disturbance. It had not really crossed her mind that she could be, by her very presence, somehow valuable to someone emotionally. Of course, she was valuable to multiple wolves as an asset to the pack and themselves, but this was different. Perhaps she did have one true “friend” after all. She wouldn’t ever truly know without discussion, and even then she might doubt it. But the beta’s resolve was stronger than this surprise. She did not react, nor did she respond to the creature. Instead, she had a single thought run through her mind, calling for an equally single action. All Fel did was softly flick her tail to her closest side, thump the ground invitingly, and then allow the banner to retreat as if nothing occurred. The slightest hint of a smile, the most genuine of all smiles in her past years, tugged at the corners of her lips.

Fel closed her eyes as the other rambled, taking a deep breath and feeling her lungs expand to their capacity, holding it in for a moment. And then, the release. The feeling that made her nervous left through her slacking jaw and moved away, leaving only a pleasant-feeling confidence - much like the kind she always carried, but nicer. It was not a haughty confidence, but simply a feeling of knowing what she was doing and what she could do. The brutish wolf waited for her companion - her creature - to sit beside her. The latter seemed to be nervous, but for once, Fel did not know why. She had no reason to be, and besides, nervousness was not in the nature of the dingo. If anything, Fel would expect for her gregarious side to show through now, as she was in no immediate debt to Fel and was not in training.

The bouquet remained untouched. It lay there with a pleading tremor every time the wind passed along their hill. But once the dingo had settled down, Fel’s large maw drooped to look at them. ”I believe…”She paused pensively, reaching with her massive paw and separating one violet stem from the rest with her claws, ”that I shall place one onto one of the kindest,” she trimmed the stem with her claw, ”most valuable, and most important creatures I have ever met.” For a moment, she had picked up the flower between her toes and made it look like she would place the decoration upon herself. She smirked, pleased with her own joke, and instead transferred it to her maw where she could delicately place the flower behind Narla’s ear. Fel huffed softly, looking the other fae over through her unchanging, icy orbs. The little thing was shaking, and so she removed her gaze from the tawny body and let it rest upon the horizon. ”I shall plant the rest,” she added with a brisk, practical tone. Fel would not verbally address the other’s… fear, was it? But she did gently press her body against the other, breathing deeply to guide her into a calmer rhythm. Once they were both breathing at the same tempo, Fel dropped her body gently onto the ground, letting her hips roll onto the side and her legs to spread behind her companion.