SSWM - 730
The long hallway was dark, silent other then her paw steps. She used no candle to guild the familiar path, and the wolfess knew which floor borders to avoid to keep her approach quiet and still. The candle she had held hours before had long been burned to nothing more then a puddle of wax. Dawn turned the darkness of night into the haze and dim light of day. The snow and wind calmed with the turning of time, leaving no more then the drifting dust of a new snow. Beyond their walls lay a picture perfect winter wonderland, the colors of the bleeding sky reflecting in each crystal of the landscape. Trees’ boughs held cushions of white, branches clinging to small droplets and collected flakes. But the wolfess merely stood in the hallway, her paws slowing and stopping at the door that was all too familiar. There was a tire in her shoulders, and desire to sleep lingering above her eyes lids, making them heavy. And yet, the scent that lingered between the cracks of the door and the frame that surrounded it brought new life to the elder wolfess.
Words that had passed between she and her best of friends had lifted fact and truth from her chest. They had calmed her fears and at the same moment reignited them all the same. Still she was not alone in the worry, and she was the only one to understand the follies of beasts beyond their door. Haku would be monstrous, no matter where the Crimson Dreams wolves stood. They could only do so much, save attempting to destroy him. The lives of those she loved were not worth such a thing, and she breathed easy knowing her Commander believed the same. It was best to protect, and stand guard, to be still and silent in the dark and ready for what may be peering beyond the shadow. Anu stood before the door, her hand reaching out slowly to the handle.
Opening it the woman let the door moved with its own weight and felt the warmth of the coming day filter through the window and onto her face. The teapot sat on the dresser that furnished their room. Blue eyes looked at for a single moment, before resting upon the sleeping creature that lay upon the bed Anu had known only to be hers. Never had she had another under the blankets that lined it. They were new, gathered from the city, specify for the female that rested beneath them. The timber colored wolfess took the small steps that it took to close the distance. She was secretly surprised in a way that Colibri still chose to sleep here, since Anu ad been so cold and weary of her presence, but beyond relieved that she had not decided to leave. There was a silence between them. Anu did not know who had let it take over the pair, but since they had arrived home from the Dahlian lands neither had spoken more then necessary. The attack had traumatized them both and Anu was so grateful that the chocolate woman had survived that she moved gingerly around her as if she was a fragile doll of porcelain, just waiting for a simple vibration to crack its surface.
No more. Truth had been spoken, and Anu would no longer allow herself to not show how grateful she truly was. The guilt needed to be lifted, the ease back in her step and it was the moment to truly heal, let the healing beyond the physical form to begin. The female had been so worried that Colibri would suffer from infection, that she bleed to death or she would never function as she had that what lay beyond the water like eyes she held was forgotten. Anu leaned forward towards the bed, slowly and softly resting her light form onto the side of the bed. Eyes danced over the creature and she breathed a single sigh, words inter laced with the breath,
“I’ve missed you.” This night, these days the weeks. All of it was lost to her, time left that could not be recovered. Again she had forgotten to fulfill her promise; again she had let the young woman down. It was her duty to protect her, every bit and once again Anu had been unable to shelter her entirely.