The girl tiptoed out with proper caution (the sort that Poe herself should have taken now, and many times before) to take a look. She appeared curious and unfamiliar with the general concept when the joke went over her head, which probably meant that she hadn’t hit the age that most kids in the region shifted and began investigating the imitation-human life of the city. In a life that knew nature’s lines and rhythms, the man-made world seemed nonsensical and harsh, or so it had in her own youth. It brought a bit of a smile to the dark one’s lips while she continued analysing the wolf’s features from a closer range. Just as the recognition began to creep in, it was interrupted by a question. “It’s pretty straight forward,” she began, bounding the rod a little. “There’s a hook with a bit of fish stuck to the end. A bigger fish will—hopefully—try eating it and the hook will snag its cheek. So when it tries to swim away I’ll feel the pull on the string, and try pulling it all in. I make it easier, this pole’s got a little wheel that I can turn to wind the line back up,” she explained, pointing out the components as she went along. She shrugged the quilt-dress tighter around her back, sealing out a draft. “Have you got family in these parts?” she asked, and just as the verbal connection was drawn it connected in her head. Kaelyn—she looked almost exactly like Kaelyn. The white wonder of a packmate from long ago, with a tongue like a whip—contained by the first lips that had kissed her own. A quiet, strange little laugh bubbled up, certainly misplaced when lacking the train of thought she’d taken, but she did no more than smile to explain it. Perhaps this girl had been why Roman had left so suddenly. He had always been infatuated with the idea of a family, although the fact of which had never really settled into his bones—which was just as good a guess as to why she was here alone. |