Another story.
A Lyestra/Jakara tale!
The forest was a wonderful place. There were trees to climb, streams to splash in, and animals to watch and play with.
On this particular day, a bouncy Jakara had woken Lyestra not terribly long after dawn. Knowing full well that neither of their parents would let them wander this early, they simply avoided asking and snuck out of the same window Jakara had snuck in to begin with.
It had rained the night before, and the ground was soft beneath their bare feet. This also meant that there were puddles, which the two girls delighted in jumping in. The wetter the other got from the splash, the better.
“Hey look!” A thoroughly soaked but grinning Lyestra knelt in the mud next to one formerly large puddle. “Are these wolf tracks, Jakara?”
The slightly taller and far scrawnier girl leaned down. Absently brushing blue hair out of her face, she squinted. “Huh. Yeah. I think so.”
“Let’s follow them!” Ly jumped up and started to track the prints back to where they came from. They were clear enough that she was able to move at a slow jog, her keen eyes easily picking out the trail.
Jakara tilted her head. Thought a moment. “Okay!” As she followed, the girl prattled on. “I like bears better than wolves, though. They are really big! My mommy said she had a bear when she was younger.”
“Wolves are totally better than bears! Bears are smelly. I want a wolf.” Lyestra stopped to untangle her long and unruly hair from a tree branch, muttering words she wasn’t supposed to know under her breath.
“I thought you were gonna be a priestess like your mommy. Priests don’t get wolves. Hunters get wolves.” Thoughtfully, Jakara helped free her friend.
“If priestesses don’t get wolves then I don’t wanna be a priestess!” Ly stopped as the trail vanished in a whole muddle of prints. There, under the shelter granted by a couple of huge boulders and fallen trees, was the wolves den. With more curiosity then sense, the two girls crept forward.
“I hear somethin’.”
“Yeah.” Lyestra peeked into the den. They weren’t greeted, as they ought to have been, by an angry maternal wolf. Instead all they saw was forest litter, and two fuzzy bundles of black and grey fur. Pups. Left alone? “Maybe their mommy and daddy are out hunting?”
“They don’t leave pups this young alone though usually, I don’t think.” Jakara bit her lip. “Maybe they lost their mommy or daddy. And and…maybe they have to be left alone? Or they won’t eat?” She tried frantically to remember her mother’s lessons on animal behavior, but so often she hadn’t been paying a whit of attention.
“Isn’t there a..a…a pack? Or…something…I don’t think we should be here, Ja-” Lyestra was distracted as one of the pups, with no more sense than they, barreled out of the den and attacked her bare foot. She yelped and jumped back, but that just made her more fun. Before too long, two night elf girls and two young and scruffy wolf pups were wrestling on the forest floor.
The pups tired first. Jakara and Lyestra both scooped one up, and the sleepy wolves didn’t protest. The two girls looked at one another, in silent accord. They turned and walked towards home.
“But they were left all ALONE!” Lyestra sniffled, hugging herself tightly as she pointedly avoided the stern gaze of her father. “And they came out to US! And and we played and then…”
“And then you brought them home with you? Where the hell is your sense, girl? These aren’t pets! They’re wild animals! Now what are we supposed to do with them?” Verisai Shadowbane grabbed his youngest by the shoulders. “Dammit girl, look at me.”
Lyestra tiled her head back and stared up at him, eyes wide. “I just…I wanted…it was _friendly_.” Her voice trailed off into a faint whisper.
“That’s just stupid. You don’t take animals-perfectly healthy, wild animals-and take them home, Lyestra, because you feel like it. Now Jakara’s mother is going to have to take them and see what she can do to return them to the wild. I don’t know what your punishment is yet, girl, but I can promise that you won’t like it. You have to learn to THINK, child! What in Elune’s name are we ever going to do with you? Your brother and sister were never this much trouble. Go to your room. I need to talk to your mother.” The warrior shook his head and gave her a light shove towards the hallway. “Go. Now.”
“At least…at least the pup was nice to me. _He_ doesn’t care that I’m the…the youngest and the…the w-worst.” Lyestra spun on one muddy heel and fled to her room.
Verisai turned and reached one hand out towards her, speechless, but did not follow.