706 Do you mind if this is dated something after Dec 28 and before Jan 1?

Nothing was permanent, it was a universal truth that Nayru had come to understand. Just as the water froze and melted and transformed every year and the river tore at the banks and molded and changed the river banks, everything and everyone was constantly shifting. People especially were constantly creating themselves anew and being molded by those around them, whether the changes were noticeable or so subtle that one could be fooled into a false sense of permanence. "I'll love you forever" never meant "I love you forever", it only meant "I love you for as long as I am able" or "I love you until my feelings for you change". Nayru knew this, despite not knowing love, and she also knew that she was helpless to change the fact. It was merely the way of the world.

The issues laid heavy on her heart that day, as she strolled the river banks of the stream leading out from Oberon's Spring and into the ocean. Already Dahlia de Mai had changed so drastically since the time she had arrived, and only now had she noticed. Her core group of Dahlians had stayed constant, Gideon, Bris, Conor and Saluce, but they were not so stable it seemed. Conor and Bris had brought into the world another soul. Eclipse was growing at an alarming rate, as puppies were prone to do, and Nayru was amazed to see the changes that took place day by day. Eclipse's body was not permanent by any means. Saluce could come and go on a whim it seemed, and though he had returned shortly after their bitter encounter what was to keep him from leaving again? Only his word that he wouldn't, and as Nayru knew, words meant little. Saluce couldn't stay forever, none of them could. If their own paws didn't take them away, death would someday. Perhaps the most terrifying thought for the fae was that Dahlia de Mai itself wasn't permanent. It was only as stable as its members, and as living beings none of them were as stable as they thought.

Yet it wasn't Dahlia de Mai that clouded her thoughts as step after step brought the tiny framed female along the stream. Gideon was. Gideon and his feelings and thoughts were also in a constant flux and lately Nayru had trouble understanding him as wholly as she had in the past. Idly slim fingers fondled the crimson amulet that hung from the delicate chain around her neck. A gift from the boy, and she didn't know quite why but whenever she touched the charm she thought of him and was happy. He had never made her anything but happy in the past, but the feelings she felt now were new. Strange. Nayru too was vulnerable to the natural flow of the universe and the natural evolution of her body, mind and spirit. To pin point when these changes had occurred was impossible, it had been one of those subtle changes that she had overlooked. Taken their friendship for something permanent, incapable of changing. She had been foolish.

Without realizing how long she had been walking Nayru reached the shore, the ocean before her and the stream pumping it's fresh water into the salty liquid. Crimson eyes swept the beach, the water, the sky. It didn't look the same as it had the day before and the knowledge of such changes caused a pang in her heart. When she could walk no father without resorting to swimming the two toned girl turned about and walked back in the other direction, her mind once more lost with the images of others. It was a rare event for her to let herself be so fully absorbed in her own thoughts that she forgot her surroundings. Never did she allow herself the luxury when she was outside of the pack lands, and even within Dahlia de Mai most of her musings went along with her over vigilante habits. Every scent and sound was detected by the girl, she never let herself be caught unaware but for today. Perhaps she couldn't help it. Even the most structured of canines lost themselves at times, nothing was permanent, nothing was certain, not was completely reliable.

550.

Head lower she moved up the stream, back towards the springs. Her thoughts had turned to Melee and Range, who were growing quickly. Whenever she saw them it seemed they had sprouted since the last time, double sometimes in size and certainly intelligence. Gideon had been doing a great job with them, and Nayru couldn’t help but be proud of both him and the pups he raised, although why she should be proud of any accomplishment not her own she wasn't sure. So immersed with these thoughts that although she heard the footfalls she did not think to look up, although subconsciously she knew a new scent was suddenly on the wind she did not think to look up. It was only when the voice broke through her own inner monologue did she consider looking up.

Head snapped up and ruby eyes were quick to discover the figure of a light coated girl before her. The small short, black patched girl inhaled sharply, to analyze the scents that clung to the fur of the other. Smiling, Nayru knew who the other was right away, although she did not look familiar to the fairy girl. Saul had looked familiar, or almost familiar, and Nayru thought back to the last time she had seen all of Gideon's siblings. Before Drey had taken them off to who knew where, she had only been glad then that Gideon had decided to stay as he was the only pup she bonded with. It seemed so long ago she scarcely remembered Drey coming to Dahlia de Mai at all, she couldn't recall the face of Ascher either. Gideon had told her that Ascher and Shiloh too had returned, but she had yet to run into either of them.

"Hello there." Her voice was soft, barely louder than the sound of the running stream beside them. The girl was hardly as big as her brother Gideon had grown to be, but even so few were as short or slender as Nayru, who still seemed to retain a lot of her innocence as well as smallness despite being fully grown finally. For a long moment she only regarded Shiloh, trying to remember all Gideon had told her, but there really was nothing to give the pixie any idea of the being Shiloh really was. He had only told her that she had returned, and that now all the siblings were together again. Considering Saul and Gideon's dispositions Shiloh was likely to be kind and polite, but one could never be certain.

Would Shiloh know who she was? Nayru didn't know how well Gideon and his sister got along, how much they spoke, or why Gideon would have any reason to talk of Nayru. Bris might mention the girl, or even Conor, but so like a ghost Nayru was she imagined that when she was not with them they hardly noticed, they probably did not speak of her. This was fine, she preferred it to be so, but she also wondered if ever her scent clung to the Victorian home when she visited. She wondered if anyone she didn't know of, knew of her. Lowering her head respectfully to the girl, Nayru's melodic voice offered and introduction "My name's Nayru." And she waited for the introduction of the other.