Golden eyes continued to watch that dark lantern, and she never moved. Her ears remained forward, the black wolf carefully listening to the festivities. All seemed quite hushed, a gentle sort of celebration she wasn’t quite sure she understood. She heard some - a way to contact lost loved ones? Her pelt shuddered at that. Facing the ones she had loved and lost would be her reckoning. One day she would be forced to truly atone for it all, but she selfishly was not eager to hurry that along, facing them: Trusten, Jasper, MJ, Harold, Felicity, Isabella… no, Ashetta did not want to contact the dead. She doubted they wanted to hear from her.
She kept track of all those familiar scents of her family and friends, her eyes glancing to those she could see now and then. She avoided looking towards one smell in particular, couldn’t bear even looking at him. She didn’t have the right to.
With her attention on that lantern and the mess of smells and clamour of sounds, she almost didn’t notice the small child that had caught sight of her and was moving quickly towards her. The smell hit her first, mixed thickly with wet paint, and her eyes flashed as they snapped to the form of a black-haired, blue eyed little girl making her way over. Ashe pushed up to a sitting position, massive paws digging into the dirt as her eyes went wide - no one was supposed to even see her, let alone approach her. She should have been more still, become nothing at all, but then that girl was there before she could move to run.
Wide golden eyes blinked down at the little girl as her paint-covered hands pushed into Ashetta’s thick coat. Smears of bright color interrupted the unbroken black of her fur now as the little girl smiled up at her, and the wolf tilted her head down at child, ears perked forward as paint was smeared over her shoulder, her chest, over the side of her face. Who was this? A child unattended just.. Strolling up to a wolf. Ashe dropped her nose down to brush over the little girl’s shoulder, eliciting a small giggle from her as the wolf scanned the gathering of people. Her parents had to be around somewhere, right? She’d return the smile and take the excuse of being covered in pain to leave. She started sniffing the air as the girl continued finger-painting on the wolf, seeking out a scent similar to the child’s -
Snowy pines and sea mist, leather and work -
Her eyes settled on Kalt within moments of catching his scent, and he was heading straight for her and the little girl. Her heart suddenly skyrocketed in it’s pace and now every instinct was roaring at her to run, to get away from here - why had she stayed? She only wanted to see what all the lights were about, she didn’t need to stay.. But the little girl was dropping her hands and looking back as the man approached, and she caught the word ”Papa”. Ashe blinked up at him as a realization struck her, and she didn’t know what to make of the way it felt in her chest as she looked down at the little girl. Kalt’s little girl.
She hadn’t really thought to wonder whether or not Kalt had moved on too.
Ashe shifted where she sat, and there was now a raven-haired young woman sitting just in front of the little girl, looking down at her with eyes just about as curious as the child’s. The girl’s eyes seemed to glimmer up at the paint-smeared assassin, and Ashe made herself smile at her. ”I’ll bet you just made a lantern,” she said softly. She then turned her gaze back up to Kalt, and her smile wavered, her eyes guttering as she rose smoothly from where she crouched. She didn’t move forward, not back, didn’t move in any direction at all. Leave, Ashe, it’s time to go.
”I should go,” she said quietly, eyes flickering across his face before she tore them away, her heart getting too light in her chest. She was about to make true on that, to say farewell to Kalt and his.. His daughter.. But the sound of a near-panicked voice had her snapping her head around to its source.
Her mother, calling out to her father and.. Her eyes locked upon Vervain, and.. Was that Remi on the ground? It didn’t matter how sure she was that her presence in the lives of her family was entirely a bad thing, she wouldn’t ignore this. Ashe flashed wide blue eyes up at Kalt then, and she wondered if he would follow as she turned back towards the commotion, breaking into a jog to close the distance. ”Mom?” Ashe called as she approached, and she quickly assessed - a healer tending to an unconscious Remi , Vervain leaning over him. Devrum had been called, and the assassin glanced about for him as she stood far enough away not to crowd the huntress and the shapechanger. Every nerve was alive, and she suddenly couldn’t take her eyes from Remi. ”What happened?” Did someone hurt him? What do I need to do? As soon as she was sure the hawk was alright, that her mother had this, that her father did, she would go. She had to leave. Still it pinged in the back of her mind, waiting to come out when whatever this crisis was passed: He had a daughter.
ashetta
it's live or die my way.
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