[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... ke_ane.gif[/imgright] She found them; it feels like she has lived another life since then. And yet she comes back no wiser to who she is. She built herself off the vision of her sister and then her sister went where she could not follow. Now that she finds them again, she is sunk in cowardice to approach them and yet she is overjoyed to see that the family has grown.

She doesn't think for even a second that they aren't aware of her presence. She is sure that they know she is lurking nearby. They must also then know that she is no threat, no enemy, for no one comes to bullrush her away. It is like they have accepted this strange watcher and she wonders, for the millionth time, if it is because of the pelt upon her back. It says wolf. It sings with the wolf buck and his children. Underneath it, she is but kin. She knows the melodies and harmonies and yet she cannot join in. She is lost.

Lightning Strike curls up for an afternoon nap between her pets. They are worn from hunting and play. The buck, Heritage, has taken his children on a chase and she is remiss that she has no pack. No sister. No mate. No children. No mother. Life is a lot like drowning, she imagines. Sleep is far easier but even as her eyes close... There's too many feelings to fall asleep now.

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@Moonstone Dazzle

It was out of the corner of her eye that Keepsake first noticed her: the doe. She was draped in fur, gaunt and thin in a way that reminded her of a buck she had known, once. A buck no longer with her, who had grown and changed with family. At first, she had worried- feared that perhaps this doe had some motive, some drive to continue following her and her children. All she ever did was watch. It confused Keepsake, worried her. Why did she stand silently by, looking at them like they were something she hated and envied? Didn't understand?

One afternoon, when Heritage took the puppies to hunt, she made her decision. On quiet hooves, she went to find her: the doe. The stranger who haunted her visions, both waking and asleep. She was quiet and sure, not doubting this. Not letting herself doubt this. If Heritage had anything to say... well. They would be able to discuss it later. They always did. Worked to find one another somewhere in the middle, where they could understand one another more easily. But she would always walk that extra length, always work to find him. Now that she had him again, had him and the puppies and their life, she would not lose them again. Would not let herself lose them, no matter what.

She approached with her own wolf at her side, Bygone at alert with the other wolves present. He was silent, steady: an ever-present reminder of her love, even when he was away. His ears flicked, and Keepsake gave him a reassuring nuzzle as she approached. Keepsake tipped her head to the side, regarding the stranger.

"Is there something I can help you with?" She asked, words gentle and soft. Not demanding, simply seeking. Keepsake remained at a distance, not wanting to startle her.

"You've been following us for some time. You're more than welcome to come and meet Heritage and I. The puppies. There's nothing to be afraid of."

She thought she was dreaming at first. The words, however, were not the words she dreamed of from the doe. Those words were harsh and accusatory; these words were kind and soft. The dissonance was what ultimately jolted her out of her not-sleep.

She blinks, takes in the golden brown hooves and the paws of wolves and looks up to find the doe looking at her. She doesn't exactly cower; if anything, she blushes fiercely and is more than thankful the wolf pelt shades her cheeks. She feels caught, a surprised rabbit caught in the gaze of a potential predator and unable to take the chance to move. She gulps and then begins to speak.

"I didn't want to intrude...," is what eventually comes out of her mouth. The skin beneath her pelt warms more at the embarrassment. She didn't want to intrude so she has become a stalker instead. She grimaces at the thought. "I mean, I, saw him and thought I might find who I am," she tries to explain. She doesn't mention her sister or the idea of mating with him. This is a family, she knows, and she does not wish to break it apart. A shame fills her belly because she believes that is what her sister would do. She would kill these puppies and this not-wolf doe and take the buck for herself. But that is not who she is. And that's the problem. Ever since she was born she has never really known who she is. Kin? Wolf? A mongrel mutt? Motherfather, she wishes she had her sister's fierce belief and hard-headed arrogance to know that much.

"It isn't an intrusion if you're invited, is it? Now you have no excuse," Keepsake responded, shaking her head gently. She had not been incorrect in her assumptions- that this doe was a spirit much like Heritage. Uncertain of her meaning, her being in this world. Struggling to find if she was a wolf or no. Heritage was... well. She did not know if she would call it lucky or not, the physical attributes of a wolf in his being. His ears, his tail. There were things that he could ground himself in, could remind himself of the beast and the hunter which called to him. This doe... she had none of that. A pelt that seemed to be her safety and her home where nothing else was. Keepsake felt for her, in that moment. A loneliness and isolation grown of not knowing, of not finding the answers to her spirit.

Keepsake smiled brightly, a knowing look in her eyes.

"He's wonderful, isn't he? His name is Heritage. Meeting him... him and his children. It might be what you need," Keepsake agreed, her answer still light. Still careful, not putting too much expectation onto the stranger.

"But... he doesn't have all the answers. To what you think you are. He's still figuring that out himself." Even if they seemed they had found a happy medium, somewhere they understood one another, Keepsake knew it still haunted him. Still plagued his mind, and no amount of assurance would ever completely soothe that away. All she could do was be there for him. Love him, no matter what.

"I'm right, though. Aren't I?"

"If I'm invited," she muses hesitant and wistful. She curls her tongue in her mouth, considering, before rising up with a slow nod. "I would like to meet him and them and you, too," she admits, still tentative to voice thoughts aloud.

She listens intently to the description of the buck, nodding in agreement, "He's beautiful." The word is not tinged in romance or desire, but there is hope there. So much hope and a slight streak of sad envy. "He may be a piece to help me find what I am. My sister is like him. She has the fur and a tail and ears like these wolves. I was not, am not." It's a precipice to mention her sister. And it feels like falling when the word passes her lips. They were born with everything; she was born naked with nothing but a sister to follow. And then that sister went off, on a journey alone. She has nothing to draw from.

"You...what are you?" she asks eventually. She doesn't really know this doe's identity. It doesn't sound like it's a wolf since she refers to the children as puppies but what is an identity anymore... A belief, she supposes, but she doesn't know what she believes. Wonders what he and the children and she believe. She's never quite managed to be certain of herself. Just others.

"And you are," she replies, so there is not a question to it. She is nothing if not kind, loving- it is who she is, who she has always been. Keepsake finds them, the ones who need her, need something the world has not offered, and cherishes them. Loves them in ways they have not known. There is something in this doe, lost and lonely, that has that same pull. The same tug of someone that needs her care. Keepsake finds that her eyes, her expression have gone soft. There is no way she can turn this doe away, not seeing her vulnerable like this.

Well. Wolves travel in packs, don't they?

"Perhaps... perhaps finding who you are is just what you need," Keepsake offers, not wanting to put the stranger's whole identity onto something so simple. It is something she has watched her Heritage fight for so long, something her puppies have seen in themselves and had to overcome. What are they? What are you? Keepsake mulls this over, considering it. In reality, she doesn't have an answer. There's no definition, no simple way to put to words what she has found, but for this doe she will try.

"I'm Keepsake. I'm the mother to my puppies, mate to my love, and... well. I'm myself, too. Regardless of what I am to anyone else." She blinks, smiling.

"I used to live in my father's shadow. He was unkind, unloving. Always seeking more for himself than what he had. I suppose it is why the MotherFather tasked me with softness and love. And so that's what I give, where I can."

Lighting Strike blinks, enraptured at the notion of just being oneself. Mother, mate, love are all such simple words. None of them fits her, of course, but then perhaps she has been running so long and so far to find herself that she lost herself to begin with. She feels lost, at least. Lost and never quite right. She is either too much or not enough it seems. And always defined by her sister. She's never dared to see who she might be herself without her sister's words and fur and snarls and rage. It's all quite tiring really...

She stands as she listens about the doe's father. And she cannot help nodding in agreement as she thinks of her sister. So angry, betrayed by the Motherfather. She doesn't want to be angry; she isn't angry. She's just lost on the wind's breeze and her sister is the wind itself. She freezes, for a second, as she considers that maybe it's right that she and her sister part ways for awhile. She'd like to learn who she is and what it is she wants in life.

"I am Lightning Strike," she finally introduces herself to the doe. She is not Sound of a Thousand Paws but she has been running for too long. It's time to stop and find herself, whoever that may be. She doesn't think beyond that. She doesn't have that ability yet. Instead, she thinks only of wolf and kin and this inbetween. Maybe she is a little bit of everything or nothing of these things at all.

“Lightning Strike,” Keepsake repeated, finding the taste of her name in her own mouth. It did not seem to suit her now, but she could see it. Strong, fast. Like a wolf. To strike like the lights from the sky in near silence. The cry of thunder after, with her kill. There was an odd flutter in her chest, and Keepsake found herself giggling with the thought.

“Well, Lightning Strike. If you want to come with me... I’d love to see who you are. And get to know you myself, too.”

"I would like that, yes," she concedes with a nod. She has watched this family for awhile and now she cannot give up the chance to meet them. And as much as she wants to meet Heritage and the puppies, somehow it is Keepsake that feels like that steady pulse of a heart. The doe may be a companion to soothe away the inner tumbling and rumbling of her mind. Not as a mother, as she never had one of those; not as a sister, whose heartbeat was frantic with rage and unrest. For all the words that she knows, she has never had the family or friendships to explore what other roles there might be next to her.

Motherfather, she's been too far away from kin. It's driven her into a solitude, a shell of uncertainty. She's forgotten who she is, not that she ever really knew who that was. But she remembers, vaguely, a time when she was at least sure that she existed. That she was real. And now... She needs to be something. Someone.