.:Peace.of.Mind:., .:Estrella:.

[Pheonix]

"Do not cry my daughters. Even though my body has deceased, set your eyes upon the night, and see my spirit dancing with the stars, for I will always be with you..."

Torment. To be tormented is much more than one being troubled by her own thoughts. To be tormented is to be dead inside, to be a walking, breathing corpse, to lose the fruit of life. To breathe is to fill one's self with life, though torment makes these satisfying gifts of the living worthless. To be tormented is to be confused, lost inside one's own hollow self. To be hollow, one must be rid of all a child's innocence. Torment...is death.

She will never be tormented. She will never be filled with nothingness and misery. She will not be death.

For she has the santifying gift of her departed best friend, her protector, he Mother. She was given the innocence of her Mother's stories.

...

"She" is that of a young dove, a young, free-spirited creature who is retricted by grief or the cruelties of life; she is Estrella. She is the one you see dancing in the rain, singing to the moon, and racing with the wind. She is a beholder of innocence.

Estrella does not allow herself to be tormented by the loss of her beloved, nor does she miss her, for she had never left. Although her physical, earth-bound form is lost, her spirit still is there with the beating of her heart, with each breath she takes, within her soul, guiding, sheding light upon the darkened paths of the undecided.

Estrella can still see her if she looks deeply enough into the night sky with her spirit, dancing with the stars among her ancestors.

She will never be truely gone.

With her Mother's guidance was Estralla able to stumble upon the glorious land sof Stolen Prophecy...

It was dawn: a new day, a new beginning. The sun lay far in the eastern horizon, the moon and stars disappearing until night was upon them once more. The warm, late summer breezes blew across the landscape, combing the emerald grasses, making them dance like ripples in the water. Creatures took heed of the new day, awakening and beginning their daily activities. One of these creatures was a young wolven, dubbed Estrella.

Estrella gently rolled back her drooping eye lids, revealing a stunning array of streaked-blue black pupils. Lazily, she ros eher rump into the air, a yawn escaping her vocals as she arched her small, slender body, streching. Signing in contentment, the dove gazed around at her surroundings, eyes still half asleep.

As she calculated where she was, a strong smell licked at her nostrils, making Estrella's auds fly towards the heavens, eyes now wide and aware. She took a cautious step forward, from the shelter of her temporary "nest" under a sturdy evergreen tree. The smell still mocked her senses as she starting walking in the direction of the strangely familar smell. It was the smell of other wolves, apparently an entire pack, judging by the intensity of the scent.

Estrella's gate rose to a steady trot, following the scent with percise percision, weaving in and out of trees and over fallen logs. The sun had just let the last of her brilliance rise from the horizon, now sitting low in the mid-morning sky, when she found her pads sitting upon the grounds of a vast plain, mist hanging over the land like a heavy fleece blanket.

She had found was she was looking for--the others.

[Miriban]

The older being still moved with the grace he had once held eagarly, although now his innocence had been battered for more then three years. A coat that had once befallen on many minds relating to the words handsome draped across thin yet broad sholders, rugged and streaked with grey. The colours were dim and flat, the hazel, tawnys and oak browns robbed of the youth that it had once been given. The even greater change from baby, to youth, to elder was the brute's eyes. They appeared haunted, almost always downcast, a beautiful green-brown colour wasted on the beast.

Broad paws didn't let him linger on the past, and he moved forward with swift, powerful strides still. Dodging the trees that had fallen or were still standing, he glanced up at them feverishly, remembering when he had once been a newcomer here. It had seemed so welcoming, so bright, so safe. Many had died here, though. Those many were not forgotten, but they had died still. Natural forces couldn't be sheltered from. Feelings couldn't be sheltered from them, either.

Vast plains of dirtied grasses streached before him once the male looked down once more. Spotting a figure, a feeble smile fainted upon his lips as he surged forward once more. The wolf was eight years old; a healthy one barely lived past ten. Keeping the secrets of his forlorn lover lost, he looked up to meet Estrella with a smile once more.

"Hello," The wolf began, each word spoken carefully, as if he said them too fast they'd be swept away into eternity. "I'm Joven, the pack Healer. We've not seen newcomers here in.. Gods, I don't know how long." Usually one would smile at this; a flash of sadness was the only thing that crossed Joven's muzzle. "Ace and Miriban, maybe even Gedeon would love to have someone their age." Of course, Estrella wouldn't know what he was talking about unless she had heard of their pack from the far north. Gedeon was four now; a full grown male. Miriban was three; Diablo's child - and Ace was his own dear one-year-old.

[Pheonix]

The sadness that had overcome this wolven's mind was truely haunting, Estrella mentally mesmorized by this. Sadness was of forgien circumstances to her young mind for she had lived a sheltered life of fairy tales and simple pleasures. Her own mother's death didn't even seem to sway her, for she did not understand "death". Estrella's naive nature made her unaware and ulnerable.

This is why the torment that tortured this poor brute's face was so dreadful--it frightened her.

"Joven..." Estrella repeated, her voice soft and delicate, her pools of coal and blue scruntinizing his expression.

Why was one of such capapilities so sad? If he is able to heal another, shouldn't that leave warmth within his heart? Surely a healer must not be plagued by torment and death? Thoughts of this raced thorugh her mind, as she looked upon Joven with a soft and warm expression, though they were tainted with that of pity for his saddened soul.

"M'lord, may I ask for shelter for the time-being? I haven't anyone at the moment, and I feel quite alone. I'll try not to be a burden." she murmured, her innocent black-blue pools staring into his saddened green ones, "And I will offer to assist in any way that I must."

[Miriban]

Her innocence made Joven's heart wrench with hope, something that hadn't filled him for a long, long time. The eyes of a sacred blue-black stared back into him, seeing him truely as everyone else did. A smile graced his features, making him seem less haunting and more welcoming as she spoke.

"I think you may. Beware of Dhracia - the Alphess - Ceres, her mate, Veraz and Xerxes, the betans. They've lost more then you can imagine on these lands, and will not take tresspassers lightly." He smiled slightly, dipping his head. "I will let your sent be on me, and if you allow, me on you, so that they know that their healer accepted you. I know I'm not supposed to, but Veraz has gone into childbed, bearing three stillborns. They are mourning - they don't need to be disturbed." Moving forward, he rubbed his bodice, thin and wary, up against hers slightly, withdrawing quickly away.

"Come, meet my daughter."

Ooc;; Ack, terrible post.><

[Pheonix]

A small smile illuminated Estrella's features, nodding, but it quickly disappeared, her heart wearily pulsing its sincerity.

'These lands...grief stains them like blood upon the ground. Like a haunting memory it torments these poor souls... I-I have never felt such a strong of feeling...as sadness.'

It truely confused her in usch as way it broke her heart, its contents threatening to pool from her orbs, though she dare not cry.

Estrella could not understand the true meaning of loss, and what she did not understand was bringing herself grief as well, it hanging like a damp cloth over her happiness, trapping it.

As they prepared to depart, words escaped her lips: "I am Estrella."

[Miriban]

The male only smiled, nodding at her name. Estrella. It was a pretty name, hanging on the tip of his toung as he rolled it over in his mind. Careful not to use it too much - Joven knew that he himself hated others repeating his name to fix it in their minds after he had told them it - he smiled, tail flicking side to side, hanging low between his haunches. "Pretty name," was all he commented.