Aye, theres the rub... (Timewalker)

[TaeaDawn]

The moon slid across the sky, it’s silent accent into the heavens watched by a pair of eyes that refused to see anything else, but the celestial. The trees around her, the leaves blowing in the wind, the flicker of firelight as it played with the darkness and shadows around her. She saw only the moon and stars, too numb and terrified to see the world around her. To see the world around her was to remember…..

 

 

Gray light. Nothing bright or piercing, just dull gray. The sort of gray that made you stare at it for hours upon hours when you had nothing else to do. Nothing to watch, nothing to play with. No windows to look out or doors to leave. No food to eat. Only a small water skin with a little water in which to survive for the light only knew how long. So she stared at boring white walls with gray light and tried not to remember her capture. She tried not to remember pain and torture, the threat of worse to come if they opened her cage and let her back out. She didn’t want to remember, not the pain of torture, not the fear for Joran and their friends, not the loss of glorious Manetheren, the Mountain Home and only home of her heart. She didn’t want to remember….

 

 

 

...Drowning. Water. Parched just moments ago now too weak to fight the currents that were inexplicably pulling her under. Where had the walls gone, her white walls and gray light and hunger and lack of stimuli? How had she been dumped in a river? No, don’t think. Don’t remember. No time to remember. Swim! One hand over another. Focus. Kick. Hand, kick, hand, kick. Make it to shore. Don’t remember the panic of nearly drowning before. Don’t remember being separated from Joran that fateful night. Fight to stay alive. Fight to the other side of the shore. Dirt! Her feet struck earth! She had made it! Dragging herself onto the rocks and scraping hands and knees, elbows and shin, she crawled out of the water until she was safe enough to collapse. Don’t fall asleep. Don’t dream. Must move, must warn the others! They know where you’ll be meeting! They’re hunting you now! You are the prey! Don’t fall into oblivion! You must move! You must remember!

 

 

 

...A village in the shadows, a woman’s cool hands on her face. She remembered crying. She begged the woman to send word to the others. She didn’t seem to know who she was talking about and the woman’s accent was so strange that she had to fight for understanding. Where was she? She pointed to her eyes, golden as if to show to the world the branding on her soul, to explain who she needed to get a message to. The woman finally nodded understanding, then set her down with a drink and a cool cloth for her forehead. The woman kept babbling but the words became an incoherent stream that simply passed her by. She couldn’t remember why she was there anymore, couldn’t seem to focus on anything. What was she supposed to remember?

 

 

 

...Struggled awakenings and hands holding her down, clouds filled her mind and she couldn’t understand any of the voices that she heard around her. Cool drink was brought to her lips and she drank greedily, not understanding where she was or how she got there. Water. That’s all that mattered. She didn’t want to remember anything else. Bone weary and soul tortured, she could feel it, and for now she didn’t want to remember. Didn’t want to know the pain that threatened to overwhelm her as others tried to sooth.

 

 

 

...Remembrance. It came with the soft hint of voices that peeked into her consciousness though she tried to force sleep to stay longer. Sleep, blissful, ignorant sleep. Painless and dreamless sleep. But remembrance had to come. Her confusion subsided as she opened her eyes and listened to the others outside her room. They thought her crazy. She spoke of things they didn’t know, with an accent they didn’t understand. The voices understood though and they echoed her pain in her mind as she told them of her loss, of Joran and Manetheren, of the other Wolfkin who would be hunted down and killed because eventually they would torture the information out of someone. Light, they had tortured her for it and she had known nothing. Remembrance. She didn’t want it. S he wanted oblivion. She wanted sleep. She wanted to join Joran…

 

 

Joran. She took a deep breath to keep the tears from coming again. After all she had been through his loss was the hardest to bare. She had no way to deal with the pain of it, no way to explain to the people that watched her about who she was. They had no knowledge of her and her kind. That in itself was troubling. Still, she knew they were out there. She just had to find them. These people thought her half mad and saw her eyes as an indication of that.

 

So after 5 days of care and keeping, she snuck out of the house in the late hours, taking only an extra set of clothes, a blanket, and a little food with her as she left to find her way back to her kind. But she didn’t want to remember tonight. She didn’t want to remember her capture by Darkfriends and their painful lessons in obedience and what a woman was willing to lose to protect her secrets. She didn’t want to remember the Gray lights, or the drowning water, the incoherent wakenings, or the coherent thoughts. She wanted to remember nothing.

 

But the voices were back. She looked across the fire, still struggling to understand the world she now found herself in, and a wolf appeared around her fire. No words or interaction were needed really. She knew him, had felt his constant presence since she had first woke. He came closer, getting the scent of her though he knew it well enough, then sat beside her. After watching her a few minutes he sighed and laid down, lending her his warmth.

 

"I will guard your dreams from remembrance. Sleep now, Timewalker.”

 

[Wayfarer]

This was an unusual journey in Anton's mind. Well, all of his journeys tended to be unusual for one reason or another, but this one because it had almost been over before it had started. He had taken a leisurely couple of weeks, travelling without any particular destination. As a tracker, while it was his duty to go and find those who were coming into their howling, he liked to get around and pick up news where he could. His feet were always itching to travel and it proved advantageous, depending on where he was, he was sometimes a lot closer to someone that needed help than if he had remained in the stedding, and if not there were other trackers that could pick them up.

 

But this was strange, No sooner than a couple of weeks travel north and the wolves of the area had contacted him about someone new they had found. Yet also someone old, someone they already knew and spoke to which was confusing. Maybe one of the wolfkin was hurt, but he didn't recognise the picture that came to him. Leaves that were caught in the wind rode it with a light ease as they never touched the ground, always shift. Autumn Flight. There was another name coming to him, a sense of a great passage of time, Timewalker. It puzzled him, but Anton supposed that he would find his answers when he found the one who had the Wolves astir.

 

The sun had been gone for at least an hour when Anton discovered the camp. An older wolf, Broken Twig, was asleep by the woman's side who likewise seemed to be bereft of consciousness. Sitting his things down gently, Anton wandered over and took a good look at her. Light blond hair and taller than himself by perhaps three inches but what was most noticeable was her scent. Hurt. A lot of hurt, pain, sorrow, all of that and more came from her. Worst still, Anton didn't recognise her at all, had she possibly gone through the howling herself unaided? The wolves who had called him to this place had indicated that she had a sense of both her human and wolf self, balanced.

 

It was perhaps a good hour after his arrival but Anton had a pot on the fire with a stew boiling and bubbling away. One of the wolves had been kind enough to bring a rabbit and Anton had foraged for whatever herbs and wild vegetables that could be found. Fortuitous finds and more fortuitous was that the meal was ready when he heard her stir behind him. Turning to be buffetted by a chaotic mess of emotions, Broken Twig roused and he could sense them exchanging thoughts even as he held his hands up and spoke. "I am Anton, the wolves called me here to help you. They call you Autumn Flight and Timewalker, but what is your real name?"

 

More confusion, no response but then the fear he sensed was lessening. Broken Twig was reassuring her, but that didn't help. Repeating himself only got more confusion, it was at that point that he wondered if she could speak at all as she said nothing. Opening his mind towards her as he reached over for a pair of bowls, he began to present her different images in the way of a wolves.

 

An image of him walking and then cocking his head as if hearing some unknown noise or message, then walking off the track. Of wolves communicating to him, leading him to her. Of him as a senior, an older wolf to watch out for the younger. As he did these things, he put both of the bowls on the ground and carefully poured the stew from the pot into the bowls. Sitting the pot on the ground to let it cool a little, Anton produced a pair of spoons and taking up the bowls he approached her slowly and carefully as he held one of the bowls before him with a spoon for her to take.

 

She reached for it slowly, but as soon as she had the bowl and the spoon she was quick to move away. Too many emotions to sort out the tangle, Anton resigned himself to doing things the old fashioned way as he walked over to his things and took up his rations bag. Carrying it over to her, he placed it between them and opened it up, revealing bread, a cheese wheel, a waterskin and some other things. Taking his belt knife out, he reversed the grip of it and sat it ontop of the cheesewheel. With their dinner ready to proceed, Anton looked at her carefully as he noted her golden eyes and pointed to himself with his spoon. "Anton."

 

He then gestured to her.

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

[TaeaDawn]

Rememberance tickled the edges of her mind though the wolf had promised to keep watch. He kept watch in his own fashion though and the things that poked into her memory weren't the harsh lessons she had learned recently, but something gentler and more soothing.

 

When the wolf began to stir from her mind though, the images began to turn again to something less horrific than the truth, but more terrifying than she could sleep through. She woke with a start then blinked her eyes as the scent of food caught her even before her eyes could make sense of what she was seeing. There was a... man.... by her fire....cooking. She blinked a few seconds trying to understand what was happening.

 

The wolf nudged her slightly and when she looked at him he reassured her that it was real. This wasn't some delusion she was having or a dream. He spoke, but the words were hard to understand. Light, what had happened to people that they spoke so strangely now? She tried to understand, tried rolling the words over in her mind, but it wasn't working. After a few days she had begun to understand the woman that had been caring for her, but this man she couldn't understand. Which made him all the more dangerous to her. She knew the depths humans went to when they misunderstood. She kept her distance even though the wolf at her side tried to reassure her that he wasn't a threat.

 

And then she felt the soft tug at her mind and images began to flow from him. It was then that she realized what she had taken for granted from the beginning. His eyes. Golden like hers. She had so seldom been near people outside the pack that she had come to accept it on sight. She took a deep breath, feeling more relieved than she thought possible. She had been afraid that her kind were no more and the need to find them had been part of her reason for leaving when she had. To have someone find her already was a relief even if she was uncertain about the man before her.

 

He offered her a bowl of stew and though she was cautious about it, she needed to eat. She had been hungry for too long to pass up food so soon and she backed away with it to keep him out of arms reach. she began eating the stew quickly, but slowed as she watched him get something else out. He brought more food out and sat it close to her and he sat on the other side. She tensed as the knife came into view but he quickly turned the handle for her use, not his and left it with the food.

 

In surprise she watched as he repeated one of the words again, until she realized that he was giving his name. Pain welled up inside her at the thought of her own. She pushed aside tears, though she felt the glistening in her eyes. "Timewalker." She said slowly, hoping he would understand.

 

[Wayfarer]

Frowning as the woman spoke, Anton had to say what she had said a few times until he suddenly clicked. Timewalker. She had given her wolf name, or rather how best it could be summed up. Anton wasn't sure what to make of that, had she simply misunderstood or did she no longer remember what her true name was. He needed to try again, maybe she would understand him a second time. Pointing to himself, he gave his wolf name slowly, Farpaw. He then pointed to her and said her wolf name, Timewalker. He then pointed to himself once more and said Anton. For the last time he pointed to her, hoping she would understand what he was driving at.

 

"Farpaw." She said, watching him. "Anton." She knew what he wanted from her but she refused to give it. Her name had become too painful to hear when everything that she had ever known had died. The new name the wolves had given her suited her just fine. She put her hand on her chest. "My name is Timewalker." She said slowly, hoping he could understand. This would be a long conversation if he persisted on her human name.

 

She decided to try to talk to him. She had wanted to find her own kind after all. Perhaps this one would be able to help her learn more of what had happened in the world. "Thank you, for the food."

 

No name? She had understood him though, the hurt had flared with his question when she had realised what he had asked. Not a topic to brush on then, at least for now, that would be something for Miryana and the Sages to work on. What she said then took him a moment to understand, but then he nodded even as he tried to think about how her accent worked. If he could imitate it, it would make it easier for her to understand him in turn. They were using the same words, it was just the way in which they were said that made it difficult to understand. "You are welcome. Where are you from?" A question that Anton punctuated with the image of a den, a sense of belonging.

 

The feeling and image were too strong and she found herself staring at him through a cloud of tears. She shook her head. "It's all gone." Her accent was thicker because of the emotion in her voice and she realized that he probably couldn't tell what she was saying. It didn't matter though. The horrible feeling of solitude was back again, the knowledge that she was alone and without anything she knew. "Manetheren is gone. The wolves and the others, all gone, all long dead." The words were more than she could bear and she pulled her knees up to her chest to hug tightly, burying her face from the ever changing world and the stranger in front of her.

 

Anton couldn't understand the words, but the scent that and feelings that flowed out of her said what needed to be said. She had no home anymore, wherever it was. Maybe she had been driven from her home sometime ago due to her eyes, she wouldn't be the first person to have suffered so. But how did she get here without having been noticed sooner? There were wolves who should have sensed her long before. That wasn't important now, what was important was the grief that was taking her. Setting aside his unfinished bowl, Anton stood and removed his cloak. She didn't even seem to notice as he wrapped the cloak around her as he held her, murmuring what things he could and trying to use images to try and help her as best he could. Broken Twig seemed to have a similar idea as he leaned on her other side and was similarly communicating to her.

 

It was the warmth that first began to sooth her. The warmth and then the feel of security, of arms wrapped around her that would comfort and heal. Images of safety and caring, of hope and the fresh day all came to her and she took a deep breath against the onslaught of other emotions she felt. Guilt for feeling, however fleeting, safe and warm. She pushed away from the stranger, from Anton, because the pain was too close and too real and his comfort though welcome was something she didn't think she could have yet. She needed her time to grieve and to mourn. And not just for Joran. For her world. Everyone she had known, every place she had ever been, it was all different now.

 

She shook her head as she looked back at Anton. No, Farpaw. She had not given her name. It didn't seem right to call him by his birth name. She shook her head as she looked at him, staring back at her in confusion. "I have a long way to go before I am ready for such comforts Farpaw."

 

Surprised when she pulled away from his arms, Anton's cloak was still hanging from her shoulders as different feelings flowed from her more strongly, in particular guilt. The words she spoke took a moment to decipher, but when he did his jaw dropped open as his face went red. That hadn't been what he had meant at all, she had thought that he, she, him, he managed to get a glimpse of what Zierna must have felt like when he had first found her and her wolfish nature that tried to assert itself was creating certain urges within her. The words came out in a flurry as he tried to make up for the mistake. "I'm sorry I didn't mean it in such a way you were crying and I was ju-"

 

Realising that she wasn't understanding him at all because he was speaking so quickly, Anton shut his mouth. Maybe she understood the tone if not the words, he wasn't sure but either way he felt off balance. Realising her hands were empty and her meal was unfinished, Anton reached over to the bowl and then offered it to her wordlessly, wearing his embarrassment on his sleeve as he did so.

 

He spoke quickly and his words were a jumble to her but the color of his face and the way he reacted left her to understand that he was embarrased by her words. She took the bowl from him again, but this time she sat closer to him, not trying to push away. She hadn't meant to upset him really, just... she had felt bad, felt betrayed that she could for a moment forget her pain and just take comfort.

 

She took a few bites of her stew and watched as he took his own back up again. Curiosity got the best of her after a few minutes though. She needed to know more about the world and the man beside her seemed her best chance to get it. "You travel far?" She asked.

 

Anton had been surprised that she had moved closer to him but he said nothing about it. He was still ashamed at the thought that he had been seen that way. No wonder Zierna had been so jittery, and although he'd felt a little embarrassed by her unintentional feelings he hadn't felt like this. A predator was not something he was usually mistaken for. As the minutes stretched out, the silence was finally broken as the woman spoke. Digesting the question as he swallowed a bit of stew, Anton answered slowly. "From the Sea of Storms to the Mountains of Dhoom, from the Aryth Ocean to the Dragonwall."

 

She took a deep breath, his words still not making sense to her. But she needed to move, needed to know what had happened in the world since she'd left it. She shivered slightly and nodded her head more at the sound of his voice than the words. "I can go with you."

 

Looking at her, Anton nodded as he realised what she meant. That made things easy, unlike when he had to bring Speedy to the stedding, that boy had been so argumentative that Anton had almost wanted to pull his hair out from frustration. Speaking slowly to make it easier for her, he also tried to mimic her inflection and accent as he spoke. "That is why I am here. I am a Tracker. I find others, bring them to safety." Onto that he tacked on an image, an image of the stedding where other people lived, others with golden eyes.

 

She smiled at Farpaw as his words becoming more recognizable. It was still off, but the words were understandable and she hadn't had to focus too hard on it. "I would like to meet others again. I have been long without my pack." She said, a shiver coming over her as she thought about what she had been through since she had been separated.

 

It was the choice of words that caused some concern with Anton. Pack. But then, he never felt he entirely fitted in any one place, it was part of why he was always moving and always searching. Well, that and his need to satisfy his curiosity which could get him into all sorts of trouble. But she was still waiting on an answer, one he gave with a smile as he nodded. "There will be people there who can help you, that can answer questions that I cannot."

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

 

Anabel

Timewalker

[TaeaDawn]

Anabel nodded as she listened to FarPaw. It was hard, having to focus so much on what people were saying, but he was trying to modify his speech it seemed and that helped. The images he sent did also, though sometimes the contact made her hurt. Too much of herself seemed to have been lost, too much reminded her of another time and place. The days she had laid awake in the woman's house had been painful as her body had healed from her treatment and as her mind had tried to put everything together.

 

She didn't understand anything. She didn't understand how the world had changed but it had. The woman who had helped her had been able to get that much across. Manetheren was long gone, only a memory now and the rest of the world had changed almost as much. The woman spoke of places she knew nothing about and people that she had never heard of. And yet a part of her had held out a small amount of hope. And then the wolves had come. Their presence had comforted her at first and she had put aside questions until her body had recuperated some. When she had rested more though, the questions began and the answers the wolves gave had only confused and complicated things.

 

The didn't speak in such terms as countries, but she was able to see through them the far places that others lived and in those places she knew the wheel had moved on without her. The people she had known, the pack that she had run with, they were no longer alive and that realization had hit her harder than anything else.

 

She took a deep breath, forcing away tears and memory. She had to focus on the here and now. Nothing else mattered. If she let herself fall backwards into that trap, she would never survive. Light, something she didn't want to, but Joran wouldn't have wanted that and neither would the others. Someone had to remember them and who they were. She was a poor specimen of the men and women she knew, but she was all that remained.

 

And yet, a small hope. Maybe they had been wrong. "Your pack, your people, do they come together still?" She asked, hoping that their brethern had found a way to stay safe together. "Have you heard of one named Joran?" She asked.

 

Timewalker

 

[Wayfarer]

There was a time of silence as Timewalker accepted his words and seemed to be mulling them over. Such thoughts were accompanied with spikes of grief and pain, but there was control where there had been none before. But whatever was going on in her mind, Anton couldn't be sure. Perhaps she reminisced, perhaps she thought about the possibilities ahead, perhaps she thought about going back to sleep. Whatever it was, she soon spoke again though her questions caused him some confusion even as he responded. "Yes, at a stedding where no others go. And I do not know a Joran, but I do not know everyone at the Stedding. I am a Tracker, I spend most of my time on the road and out here in the wilds."

 

She gave a small shrug of her shoulder and a small, sad smile. "I didn't think you would have known him. It was a small chance. The wolves do not remember him anymore. There was little hope the memories of men would."

 

Frowning, Anton couldn't say he was able to make head to tail of all that was happening. Maybe she had a head injury, those were known to cause strange behaviours. He'd received a couple himself and the things he'd done random things while being concussed, if she had some problem then Miryana would be able to attend to it at least. Still, it was a very strange choice of words. Maybe she was imagining it all, but what else did she imagine? "I don't think I understand. The wolves know all other wolves and wolfkin."

 

Her smile faltered slightly as she took a seat on the ground again, the wolf at her side coming up to rest beside her for comfort. She shook her head through her tears. "But how long will the dead be remembered?" She asked quietly, sighing deeply as she continued. "Not near as long as their ghosts haunt us I'm afraid."

 

It wasn't insanity, madness was one thing that wolves could sense and if she had been mad then he would have known. Maybe she didn't realise she was made and therefore there was no internal conflict, hence why she might have had a head injury. But she had also appeared out of nowhere, the wolves had said nothing of her beforehand and the wolf packs were all united. The more he tried to figure it out the more he confused himself, and with her last words he was left where he started, nowhere. Refraining from a sigh as her tears flowed, he spoke softly instead. "Why don't you tell me your tale? I don't understand."

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

 

Anabel

Timewalker

[TaeaDawn]

"My tale?" She laughed, but there was no joy in. Bitterness filled her for a moment but she refused to allow it to remain. There had been a time when she had laughed often. "You make me sound ancient." She looked around at the woods around her then gazed into the fire. "Perhaps I am now. I don't know how to reckon such things anymore. I don't expect you to understand because I don't understand myself, but perhaps in voicing it, I will be able to find some semblence of peace. Joran used to say the sharing of fear often lessened it, and I fear I am losing my mind."

 

She took a few minutes to gather her thoughts. Where would one begin? "I am still training...was still training with Joran to become a tracker when word came of Manetheren's Fall. We were too far away to get back, but the wolves told us of a gatheing of our brethern. We were on our way there when I was separated from the others when the boat we charted began to sink. I nearly drowned and while I was still weak, I was taken by Darkfriends." She shivered in memory, but her eyes remained on the fire.

 

"They... tried to find out where the gathering was. The last time they spoke to me, they put me in a room with no windows and no doors, nothing but a dull light that came from nowhere. I don't know how long I was there, but suddenly I was in the river again and I was fighting to stay alive in the currents." She looked up at him then. "A woman found me near the water's edge and brought me back to health. The wolves tell me that the world I knew is gone." Her hand ran through the fur of the wolf beside her. "And they named me TimeWalker."

 

 

[Wayfarer]

If not for the crackling of the fire, one would have been able to hear a pin drop in the grass that was underfoot. As far as wild tales went, that was certainly one of the wilder ones that Anton had ever been told. If he was understanding her correctly, then she beleived that she had been alive during the Trolloc Wars. She had been training with a Tracker then and had been taken prisoner by Darkfriends. They'd tried to get information out of her, then they had put her in a room that didn't even sound possible. Then she had just appeared in a river and she had been rescued by a woman who helped her regain her health.

 

Two things gave the story credence. The first was that there was no sense of a lie coming from her, she definitely believed every word that she spoke. The other thing was that the wolves believed her, and furthermore they had dubbed her Timewalker. They sensed that she was out of place and time, or they believed her to be at least. Anton had been far and learned much. Indeed he had heard stories of men with golden eyes long before he had met one and thought them just a tale told by the fireplace and had only learned to accept it when he had Matronas. Still, this was something he struggled with, to have lived all that time? Not even the Aes Sedai lived so long.

 

Of course if he accepted this, which he would have to because her and the wolves weren't leaving him much of a choice, then how was he to explain things to her? Had it been explained to her yet? If so what? No wonder she was grief stricken, she knew that too much time had passed and everyone she knew was dead. Not only that, but Manetheren had fallen. How did he explain that the wolfkin disappeared for a time and had only started to regather and become a people again? Or of how the world had changed? Of how the Trolloc Wars were both won and lost as the Compact was shattered? That all of her companions and her people had died as had their nation.

 

"If that is true then..." The words, thats what Anton needed, and he needed the accent to make it easier for her to understand. "The Fall of Manetheren occured over two thousand and two hundred years ago. We have legends of the Wolfkin of the time serving Manetheren, but Wolfkin were scattered and lost for a very long time. It is only over more recent years that Wolfkin have begun congregating once more at the Stedding to the south. At least, that we know of, we only have remnants of those times known to us."

 

She was quiet at that, so Anton decided to sum events up as best he could. "After the Fall of Manetheren, the Trolloc wars continued for over a hundred more years but the war was eventually won. The nations of the Compact were broken though. Many nations formed and for hundreds of years fought, a man called Artur Hawkwing united them all. His death around a thousand years ago undid that. The nations reformed until they are what they are today. The lands of Manetheren are a remote part of the nation of Andor, forgotten for the most part. Yet the Band of the Red Hand has risen again, as have the Wolfkin. If any place would be your home, then it is where I will be taking you."

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

[TaeaDawn]

She gaped at him, listening in stunned silence as he spoke. 2200 years? It was impossible. She tried to wrap her mind around it and found that she couldn't. Even she didn't believe herself anymore. Panic welled up inside her and she buried her head in her knees, pulling them up closely to her chest to block out everything else. His words continued though, talk of things she had never heard of and never cared to. The wolfkin had disappeared? How could they have disappeared? So much of who they were was part of the land, part of the wheel itself. Or perhaps her kind was destined to stir only when the world was in trouble. It was a terrible thought, that she found herself in another troubled time and place and that the wolfkin might be lost again. She shook her head, trying to deny the thought.

 

She looked up as he spoke of the Band of the Red Hand and she pushed herself to her feet as he spoke of a place to call home. What had home been to her? She had been a young woman when the wolves call had come to her and when her eyes had changed she had fled her home for fear that her family might be hurt because of her. The pack had found her, Joran had found her and from that time forward she had called him home. The only place in the world she had come close to calling home had been Manetheren.

 

A sob escaped her lips, welling to the surface and the panic threatened to take over. She looked around wildly, looking for anything that seemed familiar , but even the sky seemed odd, the stars no longer held their usual places in the heavens. "No. It's not possible." The words came out in a rush as if forced. She tried to take a deep breath but couldn't, only shallow catches of breath between sobs as she fell to her knees. She felt something soft then, something familiar. Soft fur on her fingers. Strong arms. They weren't the right arms, not the same fur either, but they were comfort and familiarity all the same. They were something to ground herself in as she struggled to take a breath. And a deeper one. She focused on just breathing. In and out. The feel of the others beside her and around her and the knowledge that they were trying to help.

 

Anabel/Timewalker

 

[Wayfarer]

Anton had hesitated at first, but he had gone to hold her again even as Broken Twig had gone to comfort her. What she had suspected of him be damned, it seemed she hadn't known and now it was hitting her all at once. Struggling to breath as she was wracked with sobs, shaking like a leaf in the wind, it was some time before she began to reassert control over herself. Catching her eyes as she looked up, Anton didn't hesitate as he asked. "Do you want some water?" An easy question and one she answered with a nod. Standing, he let Broken Twig keep her company as he fetched the waterskin and brought it back to her. Squatting down beside her, he uncorked the skin and offered it to her.

 

She took the skin offered and took a small sip. She closed her eyes for a minute, then took another drink. When she looked up at Anton she gave him a small smile. "Thank you. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to..." She shook her head, looking down at the ground. "I knew they were gone. I didn't have any way of knowing it had been that long. The woman that cared for me didn't understand..."

 

"Hey." Prodding the woman in the arm, Anton was shaking his head at her as he spoke gently. "You don't have to be sorry. I can't say I understand this, and I'm still struggling to believe it its so incredible, but you have a lot to deal with that much I do know. The wheel weaves for a reason though, perhaps this has happened because you are needed here. The Wolfkin and the Band of the Red Hand are rising again, things of Manetheren past and now you have come. That is something to think about no? But whatever answers are to be had, we shall find them at the Stedding with the Sages who will be able to help you more than myself for they have all the knowledge that we possess."

 

Anabel took another drink of the water and handed it back to him. "Then I will meet these Sages of yours. Perhaps they will be able to fill in the gap of time that I can't account for. Either way, I would be glad of your company." She said, offering a small smile.

 

Reaching over and squeezing her arm with a smile, Anton nodded. He wasn't really sure what to say to the last, especially because of the earlier mistake. He chose to speak of something else instead. "Then we should get some rest, finish your meal while I take care of the rest. We will leave early tomorrow, the sooner we reach the stedding the sooner we shall have your answers."

 

Corking the waterskin as he stood, he let her get back to her meal with Broken Twig for company as Anton took care of the rest. Packing away the rations, unfurling the bedroll, feeding the fire, attending to everything else that needed to be seen to. By the time Timewalker had finished her meal, things were ready. The meal and the stress of everything along with the warmth of the fire had made her sleepy, so she didn't even think to question where Anton would sleep as she took the bedroll when he suggested it and quickly after passed out. Reclaiming his cloak, Anton wrapped it about himself as he settled down to sleep, thinking about the strangeness of what had occured and what he had learned until he slipped away into the refuge of dreams while the wolves kept watch...

 

 

Anton Averdal

Farpaw

 

Anabel

Timewalker