Sister Getaway

AURORA HELVIG

Taking a calm breath in, she would enter the manse with a high head, doing her best to be fine in a place of so many memories of a briefly happy time in her life learning and teaching at the same time. Part of her had hoped to at least see Lyra as she travelled along the halls to where her siblings might be, but the girl was nowhere to be seen and she supposed that was fine. She couldn’t hope to always see a face that gave her a little bit of comfort with Nassar no longer here to greet her.

Her head tilted a touch as she heard some noise only for Haskell to zoom straight past her. What on earth was that boy up to? She didn’t study it too long before continuing on to the room he just escaped. She’d smile softly to see Sheik with a book in her paws, putting a bit of easy in her shoulders as she approached her younger sister. "Hello my little wormy," she teased warmly as she gave the girl a soft lick on the forehead. To refer to her the worm part of a bookworm had been only a means of affection and hardly an insult. She hoped that was how the other would take it.

"I was going to ask if you wanted a d-d-day out, only you and me but if that book is good, why n-not read it to me?" She went to lay down next to her, glancing over Sheik's shoulder to try to see what exactly she was reading, wondering if she had read it before. Maybe she had improved since they last read together.

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As Haskell finally left her alone, she returned to the book she'd pulled down and placed on the floor. She lay before it with her hind legs splayed out behind her and her tail waving in the air as she flipped through the pages slowly. She hadn't read this story before but it was quite interesting and a little scary if she were being honest. She was absolutely hooked!

A voice startled her out of her reading but she smiled up at her sister warmly when she recognized it as her sister. "Rory!" she said, using the name she'd used as a younger child still. It had been easier to say than 'Aurora', what a mouthful!

Aurora lay down next to her, asking her to read the book aloud, and Sheik felt a blush warm her cheeks. Her father and Aurora had been the ones to show her how to read at all and while she was decent at it, she still felt embarrassed by the mistakes she sometimes made when pronouncing words. "Okay!" she said, still obliging despite that feeling of dread that filled her from the prospect of messing up. She cleared her throat and placed a paw on the page so that she could follow along with the words. "A... a large house made of ca-candy... stood before the two children. They stared at it in awe, their bellies rum-rumbling with hunger."

As she went on, she told the story of Hansel and Gretel to her sister. A sinister witch lived in the house made of candy and intended to eat the children! Sheik shivered once she got to that part and then looked back to Aurora, her eyes wide as dinner platters. "Are witches real?" she whispered.

AURORA HELVIG

A soft giggle escaped her at the little name only her baby sister ever called her, finding it cute but an odd choice. Rara she would think would be the easiest to say but Rory it was, she didn’t have a heart to even try to change it. It was that little splash of something special and it brought a warmth to her heart to know her sweet little sister had a little something no one else would take from her. It made her fur ruffle around her neck a little out of glee, her tail swaying from side to side as she took her seat.

It wasn’t long before a story was being uttered out loud, quickly coming to learn which story was being read. Hansel and Gretel weren’t one of her own favorites, but it was nice to see someone else enjoying it. “You don’t make fun of m-m-my speech issues, no need to get hot b-between the ears over a little trouble with a word. Just go slow and sound it out. Mama can’t even read and I still love her just as I l-love you,” she hummed and gave her a little nuzzle, trying to make her realize it would take more than a little fumble for her to ever judge someone for something like this. Every little slip of a word, Aurora would gently encourage the novice reader along, more than patient enough for the both of them. It was nice to be the one read to for a change too. It made her want her own little ones with every passing sentence.

It would take her a second to snap back to attention when the story was done upon feeling the shiver from one body to the next. Her tail would drape over her gently, realizing just how big she was getting in the process. Sheik was no tiny little furball anymore, soon she would have plenty of ambitions that might not be approved of by everyone.

Her head would tilt about witches and her ears perked upright, staring at her for a second before doing the smallest of shrugs. “It depends on who you ask. Culturally, Soarian wolves do, they even have w-w-witch trials from what I understand. Nobles are less likely to t-think them real…I don’t particularly think so, but I was cursed once,” she mused, though it felt like a long nightmare back then. “Though I’m pretty certain this s-s-story is just one to teach children not to trust sssstrangers.”

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As her sister laughed, Sheik smiled. She enjoyed making her sister happy and enjoyed even more the times they got to spend together. She adored her older sister perhaps even more than she knew. At her encouragement, the tawny girl felt a little braver and continued the story a bit, sounding each word out and taking her time to figure out just what the book was saying. She wasn't the best at reading yet but she would get there with the help of her sister and father. They were both patient teachers and for that she was very grateful.

As their conversation turned to talk of witches, she learned that Saoran wolves at least believed in them. But that this was more so a cautionary tale if anything else. That made sense. "So kinda like the fae?" she inquired. She didn't get to hear many stories about them, being the product of a Mainland and Lowlander but she wasn't deaf to the stories she'd heard circulating about them. They weren't really real... they were just tales parents told to keep their children in line. Right? She couldn't be certain but she'd never crossed paths with any of these things. Yet her brother had fallen victim to a real monster, some other wolf. These were the kinds of things she was more worried about than fae or witches.

"I definitely don't trust strangers anymore," she said agreeably, her tail tapping down on the ground behind her before she curled it against her legs. She had been such a naïve girl but bad things kept happening and skewing her world view. She couldn't see things with such rosy glasses anymore. And yet she didn't want to give up the thought that everyone was inherently good, or wanted to be. She sighed and tipped her head thoughtfully as she looked up at her sister.

AURORA HELVIG

At the mention of the fae, she would pause for a moment, falling back to a time when life had changed so much and was when she had first truly tried to be free. When she had gone on her adventure to the Highlands to get information about these mythical beings in a quest to find out why she wasn’t reaching maturity despite being an adult. She had lived more years than she looked, and it was only recently that others seemed to even express seeing her as an adult at all even though she was in the prime of her life when she should be having children of her own. Those travels had allowed her to meet Lorelei and Gwydion, find Elias. It all felt so long ago now, trapped once more in the southern hemisphere but in part by her own choice now. To stay close to her siblings and attend school and give Victorian a little peace of her not getting into trouble.

“Maybe. I never d-did find my answers about the fae but real or not, it led to magic of a different kind,” she smiled brightly as her tail swayed behind her. Without it all, her new siblings wouldn’t even likely exist come to think of it. In her absence, Khepri had taken care of her mother, sick with that horrid plague. She wasn’t entirely sure what all happened in that time, but they had grown closer, even she could tell. To think she should be thanking an illness for softening her own mother up and allowing others in. That wasn’t right. Nothing was right but the outcomes had been good for everyone in their own ways.

“Mama’s culture isn’t so different f-from theirs. You should ask her for some stories. She ussed to tell me all sorts when she’d take me to her birthplace as a wee one, it didn’t sound so different f-f-from the fae I researched. Bring up Loki,” she added after a moment, knowing the kind of trickster Loki was apparently in lore. He sounded so much like the fae in the books she read, if not a little worse.

A softness aligned her features, more than normal, at the lack of trust the other carried for others. She couldn’t blame her. Carefully, she would lean over to wrap her head and neck around the younger girl’s shoulder, tucking her close to her chest. “Caution is a good thing but not everyone is ev-v-v-vil. I may just be naive but for how shy I am, I always try to help others. Even those I know nothing about,” she said softly. “Of course, that doesn’t mean r-r-run up to the next scary man you see, we have gut feelings for a reason,” she chuckled, sliding her head back some to look down at her with an endless warmth.

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Sheik looked up at Aurora as she smiled, her tail wagging as she spoke of magic of a different kind. Her own blue eyes were alight with curiosity as she sat upright, abandoning her book as her attention shifted to her sister. "What magic?" she asked. While nobody had ever proved the fae were real, plenty believed in them nonetheless. Sheik wasn't sure she was one of them who did but maybe that didn't matter and maybe it was the belief keeping them alive that made them real enough. Tipping her chin up slightly, she eyed Aurora and wondered just what she had discovered when she talked about finding answers about the fae.

However, she was now bringing up their mother and the stories she used to tell and Sheik smiled -- she loved hearing stories, so she agreeably nodded her head. "I will!" she said. It would be a good way to learn about where she came from, too.

As the conversation turned a little more somber, Aurora wrapped her in her arms, and Sheik looked up at her, nose brushing against her sisters chin lightly. "I know everyone isn't evil but... now I know there are evil wolves out there and it scares me. I just hope I never meet one but... I might, given that I want to join the Army when I'm old enough. At least, I think I do." she said. She was still contemplating it but she didn't have long now before she had to make a choice.

"What did you want to do when you were a kid?" she asked her sister curiously.

AURORA HELVIG

That gaze would become alight with happiness, unaware of the change in herself at the thought of talking about it as she looked away from her sister in thought, reminiscing in days before she ever gained a backbone. “Exploration. Friends. Life. Danger! It is all so exhilarating, t-truly. Sometimes scary things are the best part of life b-b-because it can lead to something new you may have never come across otherwise. That is magic to me,” she chuckled softly, thinking of how afraid she was of just her own shadow just a year ago. Now things were different. She made choices of her own, explored and now even learned love outside of the familial kind. Without strenuous circumstances, none of that would be part of who she was now. Of course, she wasn’t about to give the girl advice about entirely disobeying their mother, but she was tempted. That had been the biggest danger of all, and it had cost just as much as it had created.

“Good girl,” she hummed softly, her tail giving one content flick. Hope that no strain would come in between the two was all she could hope for, if only so Sheik didn’t have to endure the same pain and loneliness.

A shiver was passed into her by the nuzzle, feeling like she’d never get used to chin touches, usually the one doing them instead of receiving them. It was often a sign of respect in their kind, though she felt like her sister more did it out of affection than anything else. Who would respect her? She wouldn’t think a girl as much of a scaredy cat as her would ever be looked up to by another, even those of her own blood.

Ears would tip back as she listened to aspirations that hadn’t been so different from her own at that age. A pained smile would surface at the very thought of one of her siblings getting to be a soldier while she had never been granted that wish and even as an adult it was well out of her reach. Though as it was turned around, some surprise lined her features before dodging those blue eyes that looked up at her. “I wanted to be a medic in the army, to keep Mama safe. S-s-she wouldn’t allow me to though. I took lessons in medicine behind her back from my doctor and even asked Nassar to t-t-teach me to fight. That second one I wasn’t so lucky to pull the wool over her eyes. Nassar asked Mama if it was alright and I only learned minimal self defense as a r-r-rresult,” she replied, gaze rather distant and sad. “At least now I don’t have to hide my m-medical training anymore,” she smiled and finally looked back down.

“Where is your conviction in your d-dreams? Got cold feet or are you just letting the Tiamat and Asguat name make you think you have to be a c-c-certain way?” she swiftly circled back around to the focus being on Sheik instead of herself.

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