[CLOSED] Lost in the darkness

[ylgr]

WHO: Lyanna Stark (ylgr), Finnick Odair (fishermansweater), and Annie Cresta (treadswater),
WHEN: March
WHAT: Her brother is gone. Lyanna is going a little sad feral wolf maiden at the loss. Fortunately she’s made a new friend-shaped acquaintance who gets the needing to be a sad feral wolf. (And her new friend-shaped acquaintance's boyfriend.)
WHERE: All over Gazin.
WARNINGS: None, probably

Ned is gone. His things sit in the room in the inn they share when he’s in Gazin, Pantheon sits in the stables alongside Sona. But there’s no sign of him. She’s searched and searched, spoken to all those who live in Gazin that they’ve seen, spoken to, worked for... and nothing. No one has seen him. She rides out, day, after day, after day. Searching the woods for him. All the spots they frequent regularly.

Nothing.

He’s gone. He’s gone.

The ONE thing about this place that she loved, that made it easy to be here, is gone. Her dearest brother, someone she’s not sure she’ll ever see again in Westeros. He’s gone from her. She’s lost her brother all over again. She can’t breathe, can’t think, with how her heart breaks. How she aches for the loss of her family.

A part of her is missing.

She can’t stay in Gazin anymore. She can’t. So she gathers some of her things and flees, into the woods. Into the trees, where it’s quiet, and she’s alone. She hunts, and she works, earning gold for the goal she and Ned had shared, here. To build themselves a sort of Winterfell, a place they could call home. She only returns to Gazin to bathe, tend to Sona and Pantheon, and turn in her quarry. Then she returns to the woods. She doesn’t know when the wolves started following her, but they have, and they don’t seem intent on causing her harm. They seem curious. Almost friendly. Like calls to like, perhaps. She is a she-wolf, after all. She’s a Stark. She takes to tossing them scraps of her hunts. Having conversations with them as though they can understand her. And they stay with her. Hunt with her. They make a very unusual pack, but she finds she likes it. As much as she can bring herself to like anything right now. But their company is... welcome. (They remain in the woods when she returns to Gazin. Waiting for her to return.)

There’s a cave, far out in the trees near the river, that she uses for her camp. And at night she returns there, builds a fire, and sits there, gazing into the flames, tears streaming down her cheeks. Unable to take how it feels, how there’s a hole in her heart longing for her brother’s company, lost and alone and heartbroken in her sadness, she screams, pouring out the loss and sorrow into the night. As though mourning with her, her two wolf companions howl.

Comments

[ylgr]

Lyanna doesn’t... expect company. She doesn’t expect anything. But there’s the sound of people, of footsteps and voices and someone calling out. Her wolf companions are instantly on their feet, teeth bared towards the sounds of voices and footsteps. (She’s been calling them Suvion and Jelmor. Suvion is the black wolf, and Jelmor is the sort of tawny grey. ) She reaches out, settling a hand on each of their backs. “Easy,” she tells them, voice soft and only for them. They don’t... relax, exactly, but they’re no longer the smallest measure away from growling.

“Who’s there?” she answers, voice remarkably steady despite her anguish and the tears trickling down her cheeks. Ready to let her wolves go and grab for a weapon should she need to.

[treadswater]

Everything that is in Annie from the Games, from the Career Academy, is telling her not to reply. To melt away, now that the element of surprise is lost.

The rest of Annie squashes it. This could be a very stupid idea. But this isn't the arena, and people have been kind to her. Like Bucky. Like Lyanna and this sounds like Lyanna.

She can... She can try to be kind in return.

"Annie." No, that's too soft. "It's Annie. Lyanna? And. Annie and a friend."

[fishermansweater]

Finnick's not unsympathetic, despite what many people in Panem would think. There'd been real pain in the scream they'd heard, and having decided to approach, he wants to try to help, if he can. They're challenged, the reply making Annie look -- and sound, for a moment -- like she wants to hide, to backtrack on deciding to investigate.

But then she speaks again, her voice stronger, and she names Lyanna, the woman who'd been first to help her when she arrived.

Finnick reaches for Annie's hand and squeezes it in the dark.

"And Finnick," he says, his voice firm but calm. "I know Annie from Panem."