Reclaiming Pack

[Thalia]

Sierra asked her how she’d known to use the dream in such a way, but Nimeda only shrugged pleasantly where she sat on the ground. It was like breathing or blinking or laughing; second nature. Though not something she should probably encourage in others – she’d been told that several times, and she was always more wary with one of the kin. Sierra had the wolves to keep her from wandering paths she shouldn’t even if she tried it though.

Soon after the conversation continued over her head, and Nimeda’s attention drifted. Tides of old memory still tugged. She didn’t really want to be here, not because of the company, but because of how easy it would be to lose herself again.

“No one’s ever asked me that before,” she said, the next time she was spoken to. Not in this lifespan anyway, at least so far as she could recall. She knew it was unusual, but she’d also never shown any interest in her Other until Noctua sought to find her in the waking world. The echo of his disappointment with whatever he’d found there still felt like bands of iron around her chest. Noctua’s chosen absence from her life since then yawned like an abyss, accepted but mourned deeply. It made her eyes glassy, reminded her that grief was not only something ancient. “You love him very much,” she said instead.