Muddy River — The Shape of Dreams

Caedwyn rolled over to meet her eyes and she found herself wondering what he was thinking. He smiled at her as he stared, and she wondered if he was happy to be here with her. It was hard to forget what she'd done to him, hard to forget the pain she had put him through. She remembered it like yesterday, finding him washed up along the shore of the river. She remembered how he'd gotten each one of those scars on his face - scars from her very own teeth. She had damn near tortured him and here he was, laying beside her and smiling at her with his vibrant yellow eyes. He seemed happy. He seemed more than happy. It didn't stop Enya from wondering, however. "You deserve more than what I've given you." he said softly to her. Enya smirked at the comment, rotating her own body onto it's side so they were now laying face to face, knees to knees. "I know" she responded quickly with typical Enya fashion. She let out a tiny huff of amusement, a short laugh. "That's why we're doing this together, isn't it?" She shifted her head slightly on the soil to grow more comfortable. A paw reached out to extend, touching him gently on the shoulder. "So we can both earn what we deserve." She meant it, too. He deserved far more than she'd ever given him. He deserved a home, a place where he could be happy, he deserved a family to love and care for. He deserved to be respected and admired. This was his chance, and Enya intended to do everything in her power to ensure that it happened. She would, naturally, speak her mind if they differed in opinions of how to rule their pack, but it would be privately. She would never pull a move like she had on Ixora again. That had been wrong on so many levels and to this day she still regretted her actions.  Caedwyn's gaze shifted from her own to the trinkets tied around her neck. She retucked her extended leg back up against her, then bent it in a way to hold her trinkets out and up for him to see. "Something like that" she answered softly as she pushed herself up into a half-sit, letting her necklace dangle now so she could point at each trinket with a toe as she spoke. "Do you remember the black dragon that raged war against Vrolga? He was huge, a wingspan large enough to cover half the jungle with his shadow. Vrolga, ever the fearless pack that it was, launched their selves at the beast to defend their lands. Naturally, I was at the front and when the beast had landed, I took the opportunity to mount the beast, holding on for dear life as he took flight." She had been so stupid and reckless in that fight, and yet somehow it had all worked out in the end. "I don't think he expected a wolf to climb atop his head and strike at his eyes while mid-flight, but that's what I did. My venom did it's work, and the beast was forced to land once more. There he was finished. This is a prize, one of his smallest teeth he had." Some of his smaller bones had been used in her armor set, but the sheer size of the majority of them were simply impractical to use as decoration. "It reminds me to never underestimate my opponents regardless of the circumstances, and to never back down." Her toe then pointed at the crystal behind the tooth, "This here helps me channel my clarivoyance magic. It's possible to see without it, but this significantly reduces the drain, allowing me to see glimpses of the past, present and future for longer. It was a gift from a witch, Ember." She missed that witch terribly, and found herself quickly wondering if she'd ever see her again. "These," Enya then gestured at both of the paws hanging from the necklace, one on each side. She smirked and chuckled as she pointed at them. "Were also gifts of a sort. When I was at my darkest, these two wolves decided to try and take advantage of me. Drunken as I was, I still managed to escape their advances. The next morning these were delivered by Charlie, a wolf of Casfura. It was payback for their unsightly actions, he said. I've had them enchanted so they will never rot or reek. They remind me to never overindulge, and to always keep my guard up."  Enya's ear flicked - the torn one - and she sat up further to exist in a full sit. The paw that she had been using to point at her necklace shifted to the notch on her ear. "This is from my own daughter, Arachne. It was repayment for running out on her. It evened things up, she said." She chuckled, smiling at the memory of her lost daughter, "She was still so young, but reminded me so much of myself. I miss her terribly." She shifted her body to expose the bite mark on her hind leg. "A monster alligator I fought in Vrolga, defending a pack mate. It was a demon, as a matter of fact." She lowered the paw she was using to point with and shrugged both of her shoulders. "My first true test in Vrolga, a fight with a large tiger. It was the first time I'd endured actual combat, supported by both Ixora and Andromache." Saying each of those names made Enya's heart ache inside. "These are all part of my story, in the end. Even after I learned how to heal through my Will, I chose to keep and maintain the scars and items. The shoulder piece on my armor - the skull of the giant anaconda that nearly strangled me to death. The various bones it's made of, lesser creatures that had challenged me or proved worthy in combat. I used to have quite a hoard back in Vrolga, but between everything that happened with the shifting of the lands, my exile and re-entry, then finding my way across multiple planes of existence, I've lost the majority of it."  Her smile waned as she spoke out loud a fact she knew to be true. "In the end, they're all just things, but I worry that when I get older I won't remember. Perhaps I'm being overconfident, thinking that I'll live long enough to have to face such a problem." Her smile regrew on her muzzle, "Ah, look what you've gone and done, Caed. You've managed to get me monologuing." She smirked at him and relaxed back into a lay, landing with an unph and tucking her legs back up against her after fiddling with her necklace.  "Speech."