The small flame burned at the end of the long match, flickering in the Sun’s dieing light. It danced over the wick, and refused to light the small stand of sting. The candle sat in the lantern, awkward and refusing to move. Anu twisted her hand, frowning at the effort but with another moment of hardship the candle blazed with the smallest illumination. The old lantern’s door creaked as she closed it, and the Dreamer stepped back and looked up.
The Manor stood in the distance, large and welcoming as it always was. The Sun touched the roof, descending after spending its day on a clear blue throne. It fell faster and faster at each given day, with the change of time and seasons. But it was the tree that Anu looked at, her blue eyes glowing with each soft light the decorated the wide tree. The lanterns dotted the branches, tied to with a heavy twine. She had only manage to fix one to the highest that would hold it’s weight, the soft flickering sitting alone at the very top. The rest filled the creature’s middle and lower limbs, making it glow. She smiled, softly with satisfaction and blew out the match.
Anu turned, to face the circle that had been created. The pumpkins of Haven’s patch decorated the corners, and the space did not lack the Horticulturists’ touch. She didn’t speak to the wolves that stood around, preparing as she was. The celebration seemed bittersweet, when she first thought of the event. Yet, as she watched the shadows grow longer and longer beyond her footpaws Anu began to feel the joy in the occasion. A year, a single year had passed and so much had occurred. She could not forget the hardships, and yet they disappeared as she thought of all that was to come. Fate was not always fair, and each had known such truth. And yet it could be sweet, loving, and compassionate. If it wasn’t they would have come this far.
She looked to her daughter, it had been some time since they had sat side by side, and now she was at her first year. A soft smile graced her maw as her eyes came to her Commander, but no words playing on her tongue. Without a spoken word Anu let her nose turn to the sky. Her lips parted and her voice rose to the air. A call for celebration rang through the early night. It filtered into the growing tendrils of dark and asked for those who wished to come and remember that it was one year ago that a few wolves had wanted this place as their home. A few wolves that forged a pack that lived for a basic principle of love and trust. They had earned this right, and for a moment in time they would celebrate the Dreamers that they were.