I have been in ramble mode recently, so it felt really short to me, I feel bad though because I end up writing a gazillion words and then hope that people don't feel obliged to match me lol.
Soran was lost in thought, her hand moved carefully over the slate, forming each letter carefully, placing surnames next to her offspring's names now, counting which ones bore her own surname. It was a fair few, Haven had been given her surname by Naniko and had seemed more than happy to pass it along to his own children. It was strange for the eboyn lady, her three own children's surnames not matching one another, Dhalia had been given her father's surname, something that the dark lady regretted now, perhaps if she had not bore his name then she would be less like him, she had been a little firework, a loose cannon, much too much like her father. Khaden himself bore Soran's surname, he had looked so much like her that it had been difficult not to select that name for him, she hoped beyond hopes that he had become like her, perhaps a little more stable than she had been in her youth, better equipped to deal with sorrow than she had been, but she hoped he had inherited a good heart. As for Conri, his surname had been a concoction entirely of Soran's making, she had not wanted to give him his father's surname, she had been unable to forgive herself for what she had done and what he had done, so he had been named Church Hollowed, after where he had been concieved and also a small piece of his father's name, he had chosen to drop that himself, and the dark lady could not blame him. If she had had her chance they would have all been Aatte's, their father had never been a father to them, in fact he had just been a brutal psychopath that had attacked their mother... He didn't deserve them to bear his name.
This reverie was broken by the scent of an unfamiliar wolf, the ebony lady had been staring through the white words on her, lost in her thoughts, picturing each of her children, turning them over and over in her mind, her red daughter with the wicked smile, her red son with such sorrow in his eyes and her own little shadow, her dark son with his green eyes, he had been cold to her, but she could not blame him, she had abandoned him when she was a pup, he was bound to feel a bit betrayed by her. She had worked to build a bridge between the pair of them and it had almost worked and then they had both left again and now he was gone and she had no idea where he could be. The obsidian lady sighed as she thought this and looked up, her emerald eyes roving the lands until they fell upon another black wolf, a male with a tattoed face. Soran smiled slightly as he spoke, looking at him properly now, moving her slate and resting it next to her on the tree branch, she kept hold of the chalk though, turning it over and over through her fingers as she listened to him.
"Good morning to you as well. I'm Soran, Soran Aatte." The lady replied pleasantly, although she was feeling sad about the situation with her children, she was always polite to those she met. Besides she could never hope but to make a new friend, making connections all over the lands made her happy, it meant that she knew someone no matter where she went. It meant that no matter where she was there would be a friendly face and ear, someone to talk to, someplace safe to go. She had never been particularly nervous meeting other wolves, coyotes she would be nervous of sometimes, but that was because of the war, she remembered Inferni attacking Aremys and had never been able to forgive them for it, surely there must be many polite and friendly coyotes, but Soran still found it difficult to trust them entirely. But other wolves, they generally seemed to be nice, besides she could handle herself, if the worst came to the worst she had a rather heavy blunt object to hand. Though she doubted this male would try to attack her, most attackers didn't give a pleasant greeting.
