cold memories (open)

[tovaana]

Caesar;

His bones ached from the cold. He was weary of the constant cold, as it seemed to seep into his thoughts and memories. His blue eye and gold eye traced the white horizon for life, but there was nothing as far as the eye could see. Caesar hadn’t found it within himself to leave, it had been the last place he had seen Pearl, and while they had been separated, he thought no ill of her…in fact, and he worried about her safety. He worried that maybe she had reacted badly to their previous conversation; perhaps… she had changed her mind on how she felt about him. However, he guessed the best and the worst, that she hadn’t fled because of him, but because of something else. He only hoped she wasn’t in danger.

Without her by his side, he had slowly slid back into a more bashful creature, less confident and sure. He found himself missing her joyful company, and he realized it had been too long he had been without any company in general. His frame shivered as a breeze swept by, his speckled back shifting his muscular shoulders as he tried to find warmth. It reminded him of that time – no… he had to stop. He had thought all last night through the wicked storm how he had wished he had Pearl’s warmth by him… he was beginning to realize how unhealthy it was to dwell on memories for too long.

What would she want him to do? Be happy. How? He wasn’t sure. But self-pittying was not the answer, he could at least be sure of that…if anything.

With a small ‘hmph’ he pulled his paws up high as he walked, picking his way through the deep powdery snow. He quickly found a spot that he found himself often, a place that was ridden with the traces of his existence. Paw prints and dragged snow trails were all over the amphitheater like area. It was cupped by forest and faced the meadow. He went to work, moving snow from stumps and making clearings that were easier to traverse. It wasn’t the best living conditions by himself and was certainly no den, he would need to leave soon to hunt for himself… Then he would probably leave the meadow…if he could bring himself to do it.

[L]

AVIS WREN

This is not home.

No, thought Avis. This is not home.

She had walked for what seemed like days. There had been no end to it - the screaming, the turning, the blood pouring in great floods from the faces of wolves she had never seen in her life. She remembered the dark face of her mother, her glowing cyan eyes, the power that rushed through her veins and shook the earth with every step that she took. A great, magical wolf. Avis had always admired her dam. And her father - stalwart and strong, his feet rooted firmly to and through the ground. He glowed with a god's essence, and his very breath shivered with power.

No, thought Avis. This is not home.

She could feel it fading. The blood of kings and queens and gods simmered in her, until the magical energy that had always filled her soul had boiled away into nothing. It had hurt, to feel the power leave her - it was innate, inborn, and now, it was gone. She had fallen through countless portals, and tread too many lands to count. And all the while, the magic drained from her until she had become as mortal as the wolves of her homeland.

No, thought Avis. This is not home.

She turned. In the distance, towered mountain ranges, drawing her curious gaze. They sung to her in a way she had not known in a long while; the presence here was so different and yet it felt familiar. Avis felt a pang of homesickness strike her in the breast, and she clung to the remainder of the old scent that lingered on her fur. You can do it, she told herself. You have to do it. You can't wander forever.

I know, she wanted to say. But I don't want to.

Against her will, her feet moved towards the mountains, and found an entrance. She realised very suddenly that they stung, small, sharp stones digging into the soft flesh of her pads. The skin had grown calloused, and old blisters had formed new skin over the aged wounds. It would be good to stop, even for a little while. Yes. That was a thought worth thinking.

She entered.

"Speech."

[tovaana]

Caesar;

It wasn’t like there had been no wolves that had come to the valley. He had seen a few trickle in and out of the meadow, but had kept to himself so far. So far, he had felt no desire to reach out to other life-kind. He stopped working, realizing that much of what he was doing was busy work, but perhaps trying to make his situation livable. His breath came out in large puffs of warm air hitting the cold. Caesar’s chest rose and then fell, rose and then fell, and he could hear his heartbeat rhythmically in his ears. He took a couple bites of the powdery snow that he had pushed to make a bank and let the mouthfuls melt in his mouth and soothe his parched throat.

Right, he should hunt, eat, and then continue his journey…even though it was without Pearl. Or, maybe he should look for her? What if she was in trouble. He bit his lip a little while he mused about his future actions, and without conscious thought he moved back toward the valley. There seemed to be a dark speck growing larger. Perhaps he had noticed it earlier, but thought it was a deer or other creature. The winds carried a wolf’s scent and for half a heartbeat he had wondered if it was Pearl returning. It wasn’t Pearl’s sweet floral musk, but something earthier – like pines of a forest. A female wolf, but not Pearl. He realized he had been holding his breath and turned away from the scene, back to the small clearing where he had been moving snow around in.

“I’ll be back.” He breathed quietly, and sat down. Just a few more minutes. He’d get his courage up in a few more minutes to leave; it’d be his courage or hunger that drove him.

[L]

AVIS WREN

A vaguely wolf-shaped figure grew in the distance. It was odd, Avis thought, that she should encounter another creature this far out from her lands. She thought of her mother, who had been carried screaming into the world from the hips of her grandmother - they had been very real, very tangible things then. The closer she got to the wolf, the more detail she could make out. He was a bulky creature, boxy, and heavily muscled. His coat was ashen, flecked with silver, as if a blacksmith had smelted sparks onto his fur, and they had burnt metallic.

She drew nearer; noticed the sun-gleam in his eyes. She seemed to freeze, then, like the chill had settled into her bones, past her thick coat. His scent drifted towards her but she paid it no heed - she could only stare at the eyes - his eyes. One was golden, as bright as the summer sun. It was as if someone had bled her dry while she had still been a god and molded the ichor into his socket. The other was a striking cyan; this one tugged her soul.

Mother... Avis thought before she could stop. His eye seemed to glow with the intensity of all her mother's magic when it flooded from her paws, her claws, and her eyes. Her mother, who flung herself into battle and died at beneath the teeth of another wolf, her mother, who resurrected herself when she had ascended to godhood, her mother, who had left her power at the feet of the world and expected nothing in return. How it hurt!

Avis' breath caught in her throat.

Her ears flicked. A sigh escaped from the lips of the man, a sigh she almost did not hear. He spoke under his breath, but she was close enough that it did not escape her sharpened ears. When Avis spoke, it was with a foreign, lilting accent. Her voice flowed like she did, swiftly, smoothly, as if her approach, and her words, were inevitable. "Hello."

The wolf tilted her head. Her face was a mask of calm, breathing normal. She would not let him see her weak, not yet, and not now.

"What's your name?"

"Speech."

[tovaana]

Caesar;

He heard the female’s light foot tread approach through the snow. Caesar turned after a moment or two had passed in which the noise of her approach had stopped. He recognized her scent as the one he had just identified a moment ago, it was the first time that a wolf passing through had bothered to come see him…not that he cared particularly, being alone was more comfortable and required less work. He scanned briefly over her form as she greeted him; she was a little shorter than average, so seemed smaller in Caesar’s large presence. It was almost annoying how he was comparing her against Pearl, but he found himself doing it anyways, and in the end not sure how he ever confused this dark earthy wolf with his vibrant softer edged Pearl.

“Hullo.”

Caesar stopped at the stranger’s eyes, but he became distracted from the details by her question and accent. His head tilted slightly in curiosity.

“You’re not from these parts, are you?” Forgetting the common courtesy of answering questions before asking more. He was once more drawn to her eyes, realizing what it was that drew him to them – the color was similar to the veins of silver in his own coat.

“I’m Caesar.” He amended, after clearing his throat and turning more fully to face the female.

[L]

AVIS WREN

“You’re not from these parts, are you?”

His voice was low. Avis watched him steadily, appraising the male as he was surely doing to her. His eyes found hers, catching and holding them, locked. He stood a giant, towering over her smaller, lighter form - yet she noted the differences between them. She was slight, and he was heavy. Her legs were long and lean and her frame was slender; everything she was juxtaposed in the presence of this hulking creature - dare she call him a beast? The girl graced him with a smile, sharp and pointed, just as the rest of her was. Lips curved upwards into a jackalesque grin.

"A perceptive one, you are." Silver eyes flashed in silent laughter. Good mannered, lighthearted, teasing. Avis shifted a little, canting her hips to one side. She stood firmly on all four feet - her head raised high. It looked as if she had been royalty, once upon a time. It looked as if she had been something other than mortal.

Or perhaps, that was just a dream.

"It is my pleasure, Caesar." Said she. Though her voice sung in ways unfamiliar to this land, the warmth within the words was unmistakable. "My name is Avis Wi-." -No. That name was no longer hers to use.

"Avis Wren. My name is Avis Wren."

His body shifted so that he look straight at her. She was caught in his eyes once more, but she shook her steady, striking gaze free. "Would you tell me more? About this place I have come to."

"Speech."

[tovaana]

Caesar;

He shrugged the slightest at her conclusion about being perceptive, eyes wandering away and then zeroing back on Avis. He saw the way her eyes danced with light amusement, but his own insecurities made him wonder if she thought him a fool. He was, wasn’t he? For staying here so long? She stood tall, all sharp angles, someone who seemed to know who she was. Caesar naturally stood tall, as he was already tall, but he held himself contrary to his conflicted feelings.

Caesar’s large head bobbed when she said it was a pleasure, silently agreeing with her. It really was nice to finally converse with someone, he had been silent for too long. She then fumbled on her name, and then repeated the name twice, as if she was convincing herself it really was her name. He tilted his head the other way for a moment only, wondering how one could be confused about their own name, but being a polite creature he did not point out his observation.

Using a smile of his own, he moved his gaze instinctively toward the mountain in the distance when she asked about where she had come to. He’d known other wolves with accents (his brother being one of them) who had come to the valley ignorant, he had once been one of them. He had come with a dreary past that haunted him to a land full of promise and light. Caesar assumed that this female had no clue about the mountain or any of the packs that sprinkled the valley.

“Welcome to the valley of the mountain…” He paused, eyes still trained on the mountain. He had heard things about the mountain, but had never gone to see if the rumors were true. He believed them enough to not feel the need to see for himself. Faith was enough for him.

“Well, for one…” He wondered if it would be too much to start with the mountain, perhaps he should start small. Tearing his gaze away from the mountain in the distance he turned to Avis Wren’s silvery gaze. He tried to remember what it had been like when he had stumbled into the valley, but found his memories repulsive and decided it was not a time to remember. “There are five major packs in this valley. A couple you should steer far away from, unless you like… dark things. There’s actually a lot to tell… is there anything in particular you’re hoping to learn?”

[L]

AVIS WREN

”… is there anything in particular you’re hoping to learn?”

There is very much I would like to learn, Avis wanted to say. As if it was not enough that her spirit had wandered for what seemed like aeons upon aeons before finding an anchor in one of her relations. As if it was not enough that she, the most sickly of her immortal brood had taken ill and died alone. As if it’s not enough that you’ll never see anyone you know ever again. Coming to terms with it was a monumental task in itself.

Earthen-furred creature found her gaze drawn to the man’s direction of sight; she too, peered at the faraway mountains. The unmoving, unshakeable mountains - but in time all things would fall and crumble and return to dust. From dust we came. It was a morbid thought, yes, but a thought nonetheless. Molten silver eyes found the peaks of the grey beasts, met them with her piercing stare. The girl - who was still a girl - released a silent, haunting breath into the air. She did not miss the way it dissipated as a cloud of vapour. She had been born with fire in her veins before - how she missed the taste of embers in her mouth! Her mother had never been one for fire, but her father had wielded it with all the control his title implied.

Her voice was hollow when she next spoke. "Tell me of your gods." Yes, their gods - his - Caesar’s gods. She had been one once, not a god, but a child of one. She had run with the stars and watched her blood as it dripped silver ichor onto the mossy ground. She could have painted all the starlight in the sky with a single glance of her eyes; it had been exhilarating, to know one was bred from and for power. She shifted a little, drawing herself up to her full, less than average height. Maned wolf build enhanced the slenderness of her frame, the slight form, the endless legs, the thin muscle corded around her bones. "And what is so dark about the packs you mention?"

"Tell me, Caesar," Avis murmured, lulling accent in his ears. She was much shorter than him and even so it seemed that perhaps... perhaps she had once been something more... "Are you afraid of the dark?"

Metallic gaze flashed; seemed to dance and gleam on onyx visage. "My land is a place rife with magic... with dark wolves born from the heat of the sun’s fire. Wolves who would not hesitate to slay a thousand children. And where great men and women forced the cold moon to bleed..." She spoke hushed now, quick, like she was telling a story of a fantasy world too far away to even imagine. "Flame ran in their veins. But I was a child of the sun and moon, not any of their precious, pure children. And still, immortal."

She grew quiet. "My apologies," Avis said stiffly. "This is neither the time nor place to reminiscence on memories from long ago."

"Do you have any alignments in this valley, Caesar? Family? Packs?"

"Speech."

OOC:

[tovaana]

Caesar;

He blinked in a shocked awe… gods. How did she know they had gods? He had been a stranger to the valley once and had not known about gods, were there other gods? He surveyed the stranger with a new eyes, enlightened ones. She then continued to speak, and he let her go on, since he was still chewing on the information she had hinted at. She changed direction in the conversation – asking about the dark packs. His stomach got a little queasy as she asked about the dark packs, but he kept attentive with his ears pressed forward.

Afraid? No, no, no. His shifted uncomfortably. He had never had any unfriendly encounters with the dark hearted wolves. If it wasn’t fear, what was it? It was sickening, that’s what it was. The things they did to others in the name of Geist. Speaking of which, she began to reminisce on times that were unfamiliar to him, but he felt like her hushed tone was speaking of something like… home. But the picture that she was painting at first was horrific and then she was speaking of herself… It was… a lot to take in.

There was a lull in her story; she became quiet, fading into silence. He wanted to speak, but his brain was on fire. Her voice stiffened as she apologized and he shook his head, motioning that she didn’t need to apologize.

“Well...” The stranger and her musical tone had entranced him. “I guess if the opposite of darkness is light – then I am that… and Taboo is the goddess I would answer to.” He had not said it outright like that before, but it was not distasteful on his tongue. Caesar smiled, trying to lighten the mood after her story that had almost left her… sad? Why would she leave? Or had she no choice in the matter?

It wasn’t like he was avoiding the question about family and pack, it was just he wasn’t all that sure about it all that at the moment. Just a year ago he and Pearl had been talking about starting their own pack, he had run into his brother, and… it seemed his past kept coming back to haunt him. He cleared his throat and continued, “Here there are only three, well, four gods. They actually offer gifts to wolves in the Valley I’ve heard. Taboo gives to the good, Geist to the evil, and Sheba to those in-between. Then White Magic offers healing to those injured.”

“So… you had magic where you’re from?” Her rhythmic voice made his simple tones feel inadequate.

ooc// so, i adopted this character, I'm still getting a feel of him <3 xD

[L]

Avis Wren

Had, she said. Was that sadness in her voice? Now... Avis lifted a paw and tried to call fire to flicker upon it, but not a single drop of magic remained in her system. She shrugged. It might as well be a dream.

This male was kind, it seemed. He almost glowed from the light that she presumed shined within him. He had also spoken of good, neutral, and evil wolves - and what of those? Such alignments had never met her fancy, but perhaps it was a simply a way of this land. Lyrical voice expressed her confusion. Do you not feel restricted? To be labelled... I can only imagine what it must be like to determine your path from birth. A hapless smile split her lips apart to reveal gleaming silver teeth. Thank you for your gift, Caesar.

She said it as if his name was important. It was, wasn't it? To have a name, an identity, a purpose. She said it as if his name was all that was necessary in that sentence. She'd learnt it from somewhere - you'd to use a name wisely, for insignificant as the words were, names bore weight.

Before this... no. I'm sorry, you wouldn't understand. Avis inhaled; presently, she paused, and gazed towards the mountains Caesar had shown her. I'm here because there was nothing left back home. Not after I died. Ah. She wished she could take the words back, but it was too late. Her tail lashed behind her.

Everything's changed, she said, with a wistful sigh. You said you answer to Taboo, so you must be good. Has she gifted you anything?

"speech"

[tovaana]

Caesar;

He didn’t really understand it. Magic. It was probably why he had not gone himself to the mountain. He blinked at her while in thought, as she explained that she had…had magic. Caesar couldn’t imagine losing magic, as he had never had magic – but he had lost things before. He wondered if it was more like losing a friend or something more vital, like a leg. One thing he did understand about magic was that it helped you do things easier, or things you could never do before.

Oh, he had been labeled all right, but it was not with the good alliance. It had been with weakness. He swallowed uncomfortably, but her smile that split seemed to settle his discomfort of his past. “I suppose, if you let it restrain you…but I don’t feel caged in my choice.” He shrugged simply and would have sat as well, but the ground was cold, even if he had moved the snow around. She had also thanked him, but he did not feel that his information was worth gratitude, it seemed a common courtesy to offer information to a stranger to the valley. He wondered if she would stay… He wondered how she had lost her magic and if the white gods would resupply her with it…Was it something you could run out of?

He watched her with his duo gaze as she cast her gaze toward the mountain, as if she was fishing for something she knew would not be there. His paws shifted when she told him that he wouldn’t understand. While she was probably correct, he felt a little resentment – that is, until she said something about dying…

“No, she hasn’t gifted me with anything…but I also haven’t asked her for anything…”

He cleared his throat, suddenly feeling as if he may be going crazy. Caesar took a glance behind her for a fleeting searching gaze. Yes, she did have pawprints leading to where she was, so she couldn’t be an apparition.

“I’m sorry, but did you say you… died? Like, you’re a ghost or something?” His head was tilted and he features reflected confusion as he spoke. She had been correct in him not understanding, but he was sure he understood death. This Avis Wren did not look like death to him.

[L]

AVIS WREN

“I’m sorry, but did you say you… died? Like, you’re a ghost or something?”

She looked at him then, straight through him and out, and perhaps in that moment her eyes softened and a sort of forlorn longing seeped into them as slowly as the sun did weep over the sky. Her stare was saddened, in the way that only one who had seen a good many things and lost them still, could. And it was as if her heart plummeted from her chest, far beneath the earthen ground underfoot, into the core of the unfamiliar land that was no longer hers, and was lost. This land hummed with no magic; this land devoured any form of divinity that had turned her blood silver; it erased all signs of the wolf she'd been before.

Avis watched, and said nothing. She wondered if Caesar had died before, or come close to it, but how could he? He eyed her in disbelief; his mind could not comprehend the vastness or the breadth of the situation, and she felt that if she had even tried to explain it to him, he would not be able to accept it. But what did she know? What did she know besides the cruel taunt of Death, besides the chill of the air before she slipped into sleep, besides the stillness, the all-encompassing stillness that washed over her even as her heart ceased to beat?

What did he know of such things?

What did he know, indeed. A simmering rage bubbled deep within her breast, clawing, scrabbling, screeching within her to be let out and unleash her fury at the world. She longed to rake her own nails down her face and leave it torn and bleeding, blood dripping heavily out onto the unforgiving soil. She wanted to rip away all of her life and return to the quiet embrace of Death and yet, she could not, could not dream of the listless in between, could not stop to think of the drifting lull, could not even imagine the cold that was constant and complete.

Her anger melted away.

What could he know? This knowledge was not for mortal minds.

But wasn't she mortal, now?

The reluctance in her heart relented and she sighed. In that moment she seemed older, far older than her youthful visage suggested, and the weight of years seemed to rest heavy upon her brow. Her figure seemed hunched against the brunt of the winter; there was no wind, and yet her coat seemed to move gently to the beat of an invisible breeze. Her silver eyes were downcast, tired, and she looked up at him with nothing but exhaustion in the furthest reaches of that metallic gaze so bright it almost seemed to glow.

"You are young yet," she said, as if she were not two herself, as if her true age slipped by like grains in an hourglass, as if the immature figure she bore were little more than a passing thought. "And I have been dead for very long." A mirthless laugh removed itself sourly from her jowls, a bitter irony in itself. It did not do to remember the things of old, but her spirit and her body were two very different things and her spirit was oftentimes more in control.

The girl, barely on the cusp of adulthood, reached out a light paw. She extended it to Caesar, to the stony grey of his chest, and then his face, as if giving him time to retreat and put some distance between them, before she touched the soft fur of his cheek with the slightest pressure. "I am no more dead than you are." She lingered there, caught in the moment, before the bubble burst and her paw returned to the ground.

"It does not bear remembering." Avis murmured, and she rose to her feet. She shook off the snow that had clung to the black of her fur, letting it fall to the soil as clumps of white. How could she do anything more? This world was new and unfamiliar and it was not friendly. Not at all. "Enough about me. Have you any family here? Relations?"

""

OOC: Well hello, long emo post

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[tovaana]

Caesar;

As he watched her visage fall with sadness Caesar felt momentarily displeased with himself that he had caused such a feeling to come over the female. He blinked, shifting uncomfortably, not sure if he should try to comfort Avis Wren or not. Of course, he wouldn’t know what he was comforting her from. There were a myriad of emotions that seemed to dance behind her gaze, and his confusion deepened.

Ah, but there it was. It was her silvery eyes. Pearl also had silver tones in her gaze, flecked with glitter so that it shone in the sunlight. Still, they were not the same, and it was pointless and quite annoying that Pearl kept popping up into his thoughts. She had been his world for a year or so and she had changed him. When he had been with her, it had been easier to feel sure of himself. How could he be like that, without her? Pearl had been his solution and now he felt weak for having used her like a crutch. While he could wonder all the while how to lift himself without using the happiness of others as an emotional prosthetic, he still knew that he missed Pearl for more than just the happiness she had stirred in him.

Then she spoke finally and he tilted his head the other way. She was calling him young as if she were not, and his confusion turned into a growing frustration. “You speak in riddles, Avis Wren.” He said rather plainly, rebelling the idea that she was treating him like a pup.

When his companion lifted a paw he flinched, not because of the idea of being touched was horrendous, but because he still wondered if she was a figment of his imagination…a ghost indeed. It had been a while since he had spoken to wolves, perhaps in his solitude he had come up with a creature that was opposite yet remained some similarities to his Pearl. No, not his… Pearl was her own and for some reason or another she was not there to be his.

He did not move away though when she touched him lightly, proving that either she was as real as him, or he had somehow included touch in his imagination. Though, he was quite certain that he would not allow his imagination to irk him so, asking himself about familial relations. It was the cue that told him he was not all crazy. The touch reminded him how he had truly missed the company of others, as awkward as it could be.

“No.” He said, his voice still tight. Emotions did not spill from him with the lie, he knew at least his brother was in the vale, but she had not specified where ‘here’ was, so he did not count it as a lie, but evading story telling. “I was new in the valley a while ago too.” Caesar offered, continuing the conversation politely. “I made a good friend though, like family you could say.” He took a short breath between phrases. “Her name is Pearl, though I haven’t seen her in a while. If you come across her in your own travels, be sure to tell her I’m looking for her.” Caesar managed a small smile, which was not hard when thinking of Pearl.

“I’ve been here a while, but I haven’t seen much of the Valley, so I’m planning on doing a little more exploring.” Then he did smile. “Which I guess you’ll be doing too, being new and all. Especially coming at such great lengths to get here, passing through death and all.” He said this casually, as if what she had said had made sense. It didn’t. But, he guessed she had meant it figuratively? Hadn’t he gone through trauma in his pup-hood? Death of his innocence. Perhaps that was what she had meant. This theory put his confusion at rest and allowed him to relax again.

[L]

AVIS WREN

“You speak in riddles, Avis Wren.”

Something like frost shimmered in the cold depths of her silvery gaze. Is that so? Mused the girl, who was not truly a girl. But then again, mortal aging had never been her forte. Her head tilted, just slightly, to the right. She watched him, watched him closely with an intensity that had not been there before. Ah, but he was young, he would not understand... Even now she told him the truth, that she had lived once and now lived again; and yet he could not perceive the possibility. He could not look past his own mortal bindings to that which was eternal - and it was death, Death, their eternal mistress.

How could Death be female?

...Her family had always been inexplicably tied to Death, after all.

Her touch did not linger on his fur. It was coarse, as she'd expected. In a sense, Avis craved the juxtaposition, the barrier between dreams and reality; it was a line she oft walked and in Caesar, she had found some semblance of the line. His fur was rough under her pads, aggravating the blisters present. It sent shards of pain splintering up her legs; but she did not cry out. Instead, she relished it, knowing that with pain, came the assurance she was alive.

Alive! Alive once again! How tortuously pleasant, to know she had the second chance to embrace Death once more.

Avis listened, patiently. The low smile on her maw never wavered, and neither did the ice in her stare.

“I made a good friend though, like family you could say. Her name is Pearl, though I haven’t seen her in a while. If you come across her in your own travels, be sure to tell her I’m looking for her.” Tolerance, she told herself. Let him talk. Perhaps in his words there would be information she could use; she had never been one to shy away from ambiguity - why should she stop now? Even if he phrased it as if he were her commanding superior, or had been too forward in his speech... well, why force a lonely boy to suffer?

(Privately, she could think of many reasons to do so, but Avis was nothing if not merciful.)

“Which I guess you’ll be doing too, being new and all. Especially coming at such great lengths to get here, passing through death and all.” How... quaint.

"Yes," Avis said then, with a dip of her now-righted head. In answer to both his not-request and his last sentence. Even if he did not quite understand her mannerisms, he was correct in his presumptions. A perceptive fellow - or perhaps one who was simply using his brain.

Either way, Avis found it a strange relief.

"I must be going," said she. Presently she brought herself to her full (short) height, shaking herself free of the snow that had gathered on her fur, little as it was. It would not do well to leave it on and become susceptible to illness, especially not in a new land. "Thank you Caesar, for your time." Use his name. Make him feel important. Having his good opinion is always beneficial. Her small smile grew slightly wider as she turned, the ice in her eyes melting into something warm.

"Farewell."

""

OOC: -exit avis-

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