[ P ] le coeur de la mer

The days before he left were the hardest. Bastien grew irritable and morose the more the anticipation of his departure set in. It was his desperate bid to make the process easier on Vela. Maybe if she resented him for his behavior, she would miss him less and the farewells would come easier to her lips. Her safety and health were top priority but rationalizing it didn't make his emotions easier to contend with.

By time the final day dawned, the guilt he felt for isolating himself in his own misery would overcome him, and Bastien would seek out his wayward ward in the peaks where she liked to explore. He often found her out in the wilds when she was troubled. Her adventurous heart was something he was proud of and admired despite how much it worried him, the jaded man prone to fretting over her safety. Mist veiled their home and few other wolves wandered this far north, but that wasn't to say no one would ever trespass on the lands claimed by the Grier family. He could only hope the maid he'd employed to oversee her care could defend them if the moment called for it.

"Vela," Bastien called out, peering through the swirling fog with illustrious crimson eyes. They were the only spot of color in this wintry wonderland surrounded by snow-covered stones, dark pine trees, and a grey sky above.


@Vela

the world...

He was leaving again.

He needn’t have said it. Vela always knew. She tracked the days like someone religious watches out for the oncoming rapture. Dreading every second that ticked away, too anxious to sleep because that would mean one less day, one less hour. It was like every time he came home, she had to learn how to let go of him again. As much as she prepared, she also…forgot. Kinda. It was more that she was so happy that her heart forgot, but her mind didn’t.

She tried not to let it show, because that would make him worry and she didn’t want him to be worried, but she would miss him terribly. So much so that it made her stomach twist and her heart hurt. After a while, she found it hard to be around the both of them and not focus on the fact that soon he would be gone and she wouldn’t know when he’d be back! So she found refuge in the forest she loved dearly, tucked away in a large fallen tree, where she could mope as much as she wanted.

The quiet lasted for no more than an hour before she heard leaves crunching underfoot. Her brows furrowed in annoyance, assuming it was her nanny. She’d say something to distract her, probably about lessons tomorrow, and then she’d tell Vela that her feelings were valid and it was okay to feel them and UGH! She did not want to talk about any of that right now! So she curled into herself tighter, grumbling sadly under her breath. But the voice that broke the silence wasn’t her nanny’s at all.

Oh, geez. Part of her wanted to remain hidden, but then he’d worry and that would defeat of the whole purpose of NOT worrying him. Sighing, she wiped her tears and crawled out of her tree, cursing under her breath when knocked she head against the roof. “I’m here!” She called out in response, trotting in the direction she heard him. Stubborn leaves clung to her underside no matter how she tried to shake them loose, but that was the least of her concerns. It was better he thought her happy and exploring then crying her little heart out in some tree. “Father?”

...shall love her

template by bean

Dirty with dead leaves and debris and spat out of the fog like a creature straight from the area's mythology, she was a humorous sight to behold. His sorrowful gaze softened with dim laughter and affection as she came into view. "Lawmaker will think you're off your head if she catches you like this," he warned her without reproach. The help was an incorrigible woman, but Bastien couldn't begrudge her methods; she maintained the home, finances, and Vela's education all on her own. He owed her everything for that.

Swollen red rings encircled Vela's eyes telling Bastien that she'd been crying. Even though he expected it, it still made his heart constrict in his chest. Reminding himself that leaving was a necessary evil in order to make the world safer for her didn't soothe the raw, gaping, and roughly Vela-sized wound it created.

"I won't be away as long this time," he offered, though they both knew there was no guarantee. If he was lucky, he would only be gone a week or two, including travel time. More likely it would be months and the season would change before he returned to the mountains. Maybe that was why their home was nestled in such a drab, forbidding area. Tir Na Nog was eternal, consistent. Just as unchanged when he returned as when he left. "I want you to come with me to the mountain's base. I'll show you the best places to hunt and fish, and you can tell me what Lawmaker is teaching you."

@Vela

the world...

“Cleanliness is next to godliness!” Vela replied in her nanny’s voice, shaking off the remnants of her brooding. It was one of her favorite sayings, though she herself never quite understood. “I don’t understand that. You’d think,” She added in her own voice, nose scrunching,“you’d feel closer to the gods or fae while out in nature. Not tucked away in your house, clean.” Vela didn’t believe in any god or fae, anyhow.

Home was home. It’s where she returned to after the day was done, and she loved it. But home wasn’t where the adventure was. The adventure was outside her doorstep and beyond. Nanny could think her wild all she wanted, but Vela knew something greater lay in store for her. Until then, she’d continue to wander her forest and get as dirty as she wanted!

Though her heart hurt, Vela turned to her father with a knowing smile. “I know.” It’s what he always said, and though sometimes he was right, more often than not he was gone for months. Seasons would change. She’d get older, taller. Nanny would get older. He would get older. She searched his face, trying to picture him an elderly man, but found she didn’t want to. She loved him too much to imagine a world where one day he wouldn’t be there. They were young, and everything was alright. No amount of passing seasons could change that. She wouldn’t let it.

Perking back up, she hopped around him, nipping gently at his sides. “Oh, alright! Let’s go right now! I’ll race you!”With that, she takes off ahead of him, her tinkling laughter trailing behind her.

...shall love her

template by bean

"She is not so literal as you are, cridhe beag (little heart)." Ten thousand worlds existed in Vela's mind, but at the end of the day she wanted tangible facts, things she could grasp and explore with her own paws. Faith, then, was often a topic they did not speak on; her investigative mind rejected ideas that several years of life made him more open to. Bastien had enough sense not to elaborate further on the saying's true meaning to avoid risking the reckoning that was sure to follow infringing on the nanny's carefully crafted method of keeping her ward, and by extension their home, clean.

If Vela was curious about his evasive response, it was consumed by mounting excitement. Bastien's tail dared to wag, infected by her jubilance. "No fair!" He barked a laugh as she bounded away, showering him in grit and leaf matter, without even a countdown. He decided he'd let it slide; her legs were much shorter, after all.

Bastien approached the edge of the slope and leaned forward to peer down. The mountainside was studded with pines that grew denser that closer they got to the foothills below. Vela was a speck bobbing down a well trodden path, and he waited until he could no longer distinguish her pale peach fur from rock and gravel she sprayed in her wake. His haunches tense, powerful legs pushed off, slamming upon the earth with force. Bastien sailed downhill like a beast formed of the clouds and fog come alive to lay siege on the world below, swallowing the distance between he and Vela with great bounding leaps. "Faster," he urged breathlessly, "Don't tell me this is as fast as you can go?" It was both a challenge and encouragement, gently pushing her to best him.

@Vela