Closed Mama Bear

[Denen Sunsinger]

8 Fall, 512 AV The only way to endure in Endrykas was to move forward. Perhaps that was why, he thought, he gave such a chance to the tiny cub he was currently wrestling with. Of course, Denen knew it could not last. One day soon, the cub would be too big to play with, and would, though accident, injure someone. Denen could only hope that Oriana would right the curse she had placed on his husband by then. Denen prayed that when she came, she would give the boy back his body, that the child would not spend his life being punished for the slight the goddess felt had been dealt to her. On all fours now, with his tunic hung loose about his hips, he pounced at the cub, growling playfully. The bear bawled and scampered back and forth, while swinging a paw at his adopted mother. Denen's back was covered with his first Windmarks, a wide tree spanning from his shoulders to his lower back. It was not often that he showed them, thinking his bonds to be a very personal thing, but the Pavilion was safe. Denen did not feel threatened here. His hair—which was, thank the gods, growing back—fell into his face as he laughed. It wasn't his typical, silent laugh, either, but an excited, thick sound that the bear cub sought to mimic. Denen couldn't hear this, but he ducked down, getting his face right in front of the cub's and roaring as ferociously as he could.

[Mealla Stormsong]

Though it had been days, - weeks really - since she’d become Sama’el’s apprentice, Mealla still could not help but feel somewhat of an outcast – a stranger looking in as the Pavilion came to life around her. She’d never been good at social situations, and she didn’t particularly know what to do to make it better. She was not a Sunsinger, but a Stormsong, and that made all the difference in how she felt. She was just a guest. An intruder. Someone who had nowhere else to stay. It did not help, either, that she was sure that Sama’el viewed as her burden. She wasn’t particularly skilled, and likely she was holding him back. If only he’d just admit it and say that he wanted to get rid of her... She could go to someone else then, and go back to studiously ignoring the fact that she was utterly alone in the world, and that she was miserable. Sama’el was off somewhere, no doubt attending to Watch business that would get her killed if she was so much as involved, and boredom had finally forced her from her tent. There was only so much time that you could spend staring at the wall, pacing, braiding and unbraiding your hair before you were driven crazy. She stopped just on the threshold and looked about, still unsure as to whether this was a good idea; she still could not wipe the feeling that she didn’t belong, didn't fit. Finally, her eyes fell on the man that she recognised as Denen. The deaf one. He was playing with the bear – the cub – that accompanied him everywhere. Mealla still didn’t fully know the story, and she found herself staring, watching, completely entranced. She’d never seen anything like it before.