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Coli shrank back at Alexey's loud laughter, startled by the abrupt sound. She relaxed after a moment, realizing that the young woman hadn't meant to scare or insult her by it, but she was still left wondering how she was supposed to react. She herself hadn't laughed in a long time...
Coli stifled a little gasp, her hands flying up to her muzzle. "A sister?" she squeaked, her blue eyes filling with sadness. "I didn't know that Firefly lost one... I would have had a sister...!" She shuffled her footpaws in the snow, gazing down at the ground. That was a surprise... Well, Haku wouldn't want another girl, would he? He hadn't been too fond of his first... Alexey continued talking, and Coli listened quietly. She felt a small flicker of anger when the pretty Koios femme mentioned Haku's reaction. "What do you mean... it didn't work this time? You mean because of the pack being there? That... makes them lucky," she breathed, leaning heavily against the rough wall of the building they had met beside. "Me, Haku, and Cercelee lived all alone together in the middle of nowhere. When Da- I m-mean, Haku, started acting funny... like he wasn't himself... I got Cercelee to run away from home, so that she'd be safe. I guess if we had been in a pack, both of us would have been safe..." Coli's posture slumped, wilted by the unfortunate circumstances that had left her such a fragile shell of a woman. Perhaps she had been wrong to come here after all - seeing how everyone seemed to be better off than she had made her feel jealous and lonely. Unless that was the result of living a year of complete and utter solitude in the forest...
"Alexey, do you have siblings? Is that what you would do in this case, go see them no matter what? I... I want to, but, maybe it would be better if they didn't know I existed... They could pretend they had a happy family, a normal one..."
