It's normal for someone to talk like that; makes it more real, since real people talk like that and not all proper like Ralla. She's just little miss happiness 
"I love fireflies," she commented nostalgically. "I can't wait till summer here. Back where I come from, fireflies filled the plains and forest like miniature lanterns. I wonder if there are summers like that here...?" Despite coming from such a cold, snowy climate in the first place, nothing could ever replace the ephemeral springs and summers that had graced her once-home. But she was saying that before she had even witness her first spring in AniWaya, so she was getting ahead of herself then.
She listened--enraptured in the tale--and her eyes grew wide when Fox realized just what the white really was. She was actually saddened by the tale, but it wasn't as if she hadn't heard similar tales where sadness taught the true lesson. "I think the moral is just that; vanity is a dangerous thing." She ran her fingers through the trailing strands of her low ponytail that she had pulled over her shoulder, letting the beads strung near the ends run through her palms. With flattened ears she recalled the vanity of some of her tribe. "It was tradition, where I came from, to decorate oneself for celebration and rank. But you know, there was once a wolfess who was very much like Fox. She wore long ear-hooks that hung down to her ankles." For a wolfess who didn't like to be reminded of abandoning her previous pack, she spoke of them often enough. But they were her best comparison, since they had once been the only land and pack she had known. Even with all the new memories she was making in AniWaya, it didn't mean the old ones just disappeared. Since seeing her brother, it hurt less and less to remember. Eventually, they became passing references that she used without much of a second thought.
"Fire was also a precious portal of sacrifice in my old tribe," she continued, reaching out her calloused hands to skim the outer thermals of the Great Fire, "and the wolfess did not respect it. One day, when she was dancing too close, the ear-hooks caught on fire. They burned easily, and they were so tight to her ears that she couldn't get them off. Her ears then had scorched holes, which she foolishly covered up with more ear-hooks." She laughed a little, then, even if the humor was morbid. She did not remember the wolfess; she had never known her name. Ralla had always been too busy to know anyone's name but the higher ranks. If she had a tail for every time she could relate a problem or song to a story, she'd have thousands of tails. But a real life example? Harder to come by. And so it was that she agreed whole-heartedly with Nian.
"That was a wonderful story, Nian; don't sell yourself short. I'll be sure to tell it to whoever has ears to listen." she smiled as warmly as her hand was now that it had skimmed the embers of the fire, and she felt it almost pulse with the power that the Great Fire symbolized. Vanity indeed... Is it vain that I want to be a true part of this tribe...? She had once asked Chief Dawali what it took to be a true member, and she had indefinatly been assured of her status as an AniWayan thereafter. But she knew all about the 'true AniWayans' from the stories she learned and told Desiree. Never would she take for granted what was given to her that day she had arrived at twilight--the cusp of dusk and dawn--when she had been allowed to cross the metal fence.
"I offer my stories and songs whenever you wish as well, Nian. That, tending to the Great Fire, and caring for my tribe are the reasons why I am here."
Moon walks. "Moon talks." Moon thinks.
![[Image: RallaP-1.png]](http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp275/ShadowLycan22/RallaP-1.png)