Lost in thought (open)

[Casandra Lightheart]

Cas had a lot on her mind. She had saddled Rider and just took off. Emilia had agreed to watch the kids if she was not back, they liked Iluvenis and Gwen, the twins had told her Gwen was a wonderful story teller. The twins taken care of she swung herself up onto Rider and looked at Kjay.

"Lets go boy."

She just started riding she wasen't even sure where she was going till she found herself infront of the waterfalls. She swung herself out of the saddle and looked at the area. She took a deep breath. She unsaddled Rider and took off his reins; she was not worried about him running off. She left him to graze in the new spring grass.

Cas went out onto the rock that sat was over water and drew her knees into her chest. She just sat there and stared at the waterfall. Her hand was holding the heart around her neck; her thoughts returning to him as they had done in so often in the past month. He had been gone so long, she really did miss him.

She reached into her bag and began to write. Here in this place, the one place she had been avoiding, the words for her letter finally began to flow from her.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

A nice walk in the cool, crisp air of the day was something that she needed. Many things had taken sway over her calm exterior and she was finding it hard to conduct herself in a more logical way.

If it only were not for this light forsaken chain.

Could be that her problem was that she blamed her lack of control on something that wasn't really the problem. Avoidance. Scapegoat. Both of those terms may apply. Whatever the case may be De'Ryanna choose to take a respite in the Eastern Forest and the tranquility of the waterfall.

She wasn't the only person there. As she drew nearer she saw Casandra sitting alone and writting. Should she, or should she not. Meeting and talking to people hasn't been her fortune lately, but things could change. Besides, Casandra wasn't young and immature.

Small clearing of her throat as she brushed her hands down the front of her long skirt. "I've always heard it said that there is peace in the water though I don't know how much weight to give it."

[Casandra Lightheart]

Kjay heard her coming and was already looking in her direction as she came up. He knew her scent from the Inn and just laid his head back in Cas' lap as she aproched.

Cas looked to the voice when she heard it. She smiled as she saw Ryan. She put the letter back in the bag. She scratched Kjay behind his ear as she stood up and smiled softly.

"Hello De'Ryanna, I would like to think it is. I have been avoiding it but I just started riding this morning and ended up here. I guess I needed to be here."

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

"We are often lead to places for a reason when we let our feet do the walking." It was a metaphor and she assumed that Casandra would know it.

Kjay was spared a look, a studying look as she rested her eyes upon him for longer than a few seconds. It was another animal. Albeit she had nothing against animals but with the way she felt now, it took a restrained will not to narrow her eyes at it. To keep this meeting a friendly one she cracked a smile instead and took a few steps to the water fall.

"Besides the cool of the winter season, has there been any other reason for you to avoid this place?" Intrusive? Maybe, but that is how she was.

[Casandra Lightheart]

Kjay looked back at her his eyes studied her as well. He would keep direct eye contact till she looked away.Had she narrowed her eeys at him he would have responded in kind.

"Yes, I was led here for a reason."

She understood the metaphor, for what had kept her away. A look of saddness crossed her face.

"It reminds me of someone I am missing very much."

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

She wasn't going to pay attention to the wolf, as long as he wasn't bothering her, she wasn't going to bother him. That was her plan anyway and she was going to try hard to stick to it. There was something not quite right about that beast and the thought of it tickled down her spine. A long exhale and she gripped the sides of her skirt.

"Is the person you are missing dead or have they undertaken a long journey?" The running water started peaceful before it was a small mess where the two met, and then it panned out again. "Is that why you are here, at the water? For the symbolism of how you are feeling?"

[Casandra Lightheart]

She smiled softly as she thought about him.

"A very long journey, business he said when he left. That was seven weeks ago."

Her hand went the the red and gold glass heart that hung from her neck and closed around it. Was he truly ok?

"I guess I just really wasen't expecting him to be gone this long."

Kjay was different, whenever she glanced at him he would be looking up at her with almost human understanding in his eyes. One got the sence that he could understand human speach. He sat right next to Cas not moving.

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

De'Ryanna got the feeling that the wolf knew everything that was being said between the two of them, but that hardly served for her to change her manner of speaking. Neither did it cause her to change her tone. She was looking at the wolf now, a hardness in her brown eyes as she studied him. Man, beast, she wondered if he could change forms or if he was stuck this way?

A growl was nestled in the back of her throat but she swallowed it down. It seemed as though Casandra was having guy troubles. If it were not for Kjay sitting next to her, De'Ryanna would have stepped closer, but for now the distance was good. "Many things can be considered business." Her mother went away on 'business' a lot and it would keep her away for months at a time. When there was work to be done, it had to be done and she never said anything of it.

"You did not expecting his departure to be this lengthy? Tell me then, what do you know of him to make you miss him so." She remembered that Donald told her to be polite and pose her questions as actual questions and not pointed request.

It was something she'd have to work on.

[Casandra Lightheart]

He understood her perfectly, he knew her for what she was. He also smelled Gawain and Airtia on her. He was not sure why she disliked him. There was something in the way she stared at him. Yellow eyes specked with green looked back at her. He could have spoken to the animal part of her mind, but he was not going to give that away.

He could change if he wanted too but not like she was thinking. He was a human soul traped in the body of a wolf that would never die of natural causes. He really was unsure how he had come to be in Casandra's posession, just that being with her was the first thing his wolf mind remembered. He felt the need to protect her and had since he was a cub. When she was dead and gone he would stay with her children.

Cassie was scratching Kjay behind his ear, he seemed very intent on Ryan but he was not growling or tensing up. Nor was he trying to put himself between Ryan and her; Cas let it go.

"Yes many things can be concidered business."

She smiled.

"I know that to me he is kind and gentle, considerate. When he is with me he can make me feel like the only person in a room full of people. His kiss lights a fire in my soul. Even with the twins back and taking up a lot of my attention I still find myself thinking about him. There are so many reasons that it would be impossible to put my finger on any one thing."

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

Kjay was being studied to see if he was a source of opposition. Would he be a hinderance to her, or would he let her be? Of course. De'Ryanna took the cue from Casandra that Kjay was not in a mood to strike. The large wolf was settled by it's master. A very small, and very quick, flash of black passed De'Ryanna's eyes as she took a single step forward towards the pair. There was not only the scent of her parents on the girl, but also the essence of that other wolf.

"You talk as a woman in love." De'Ryanna, personally, had very little experience in that area. She may speak years above her age - and even act like it at times - but she was still a young girl with limited 'real world' experiences. The statement was given to Casandra with a very slight raise of her right brow. Aside from the smile she had displayed earlier, this was the most emotion she expressed so far.

Her words were simply that, words. Although they were sometimes calculated, they held no sympathy or malice towards the situation because all she knew of it was what she was being told. With that information she was left to draw her own lines and come to a logical conclusion.

"You feel these things, yet he is away from you, and you are tired of waiting." A motion of her hand to the letter that Casandra had been writing before she arrived. "Or are you merely writing down your feelings in hopes he will get them."

[Casandra Lightheart]

Kjay cought the scent of that other wolf. He was still unsure what to make of him. Kjay knew he was not a very nice person but he had not yet tried to hurt his human. The woman in front of him smelled more like her parents and so when he took a step forward he just continued to look at her. He did not move towards her.

"Care for him? Yes. Falling in love with him? Probably. In love with him yet? No."

She was honest.

"No I am not tierd of waiting for him. The letter I was writing was an explination of something that happened a few weeks ago, and also that I miss him. That way he will know I have been thinking of him while he was gone."

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

This had to be part of things she did not understand, or perhaps it was simply due to differences in upbringing. Whichever it was, De'Ryanna did not see why Casandra was writing this man to tell of what she had been doing. And she would say as much.

"You are either very honest, or very foolish, for wanting to explain to him something that he has asked." Ryan was honest in the fact that she did not lie, but she never volunteered anything either.

Since Casandra was sitting and De'Ryanna was not, the fact that one was looking down upon the other couldn't be helped and she could maintain her standing position for a considerable amount of time. Her hands moved from holding the sides of her skirt to being clasped lightly in front of her. "You would do so and then tell him that you are missing him?" Finally, something that really was asked as a question. Though it was slightly retorical.

"A shunk in a flower bed still smells."

[Casandra Lightheart]

She smiled.

"He already knows what I did, I just wanted to explain to him him why. I was trying to find out if he was ok, and I let my lack of sleep and temper get the better of me. I said some things that I should not have to people that have worked for him for a very long time."

She took a deep breath and let it out. She was not aware that she had sat back dow but she must have at some point. She now stood again.

"So yes I would tell him I was sorry for my actions and then tell him I miss him."

She smiled at the last comment.

"And once the skunk leaves the air clears."

She thought a moment.

"Some reason I feel I need to do this, and coming here has helped."

[De'Ryanna Aybara]

De'Ryanna hardly knew what to make of this woman. Aside from the fact that they have been carrying on a conversation without the use of names - which was perfectly fine with her - Casandra touted herself as a person to give unneeded information and apologize for many things.

"If he knows of your failing and nothing has been done to you, then perhaps your words of apology are directed to the wrong person," spoken in a slightly patronizing voice. "Don't apologize to the master when you offend the dog." She had said the things were done to the people this man worked for, not the man himself, and this is why De'Ryanna was having a hard time.

Kjay may not appreciate the tone, but at least there was no growling. Simply straight talk and that stance that carried a lot of aires.

"Maybe you should merely write the letter for yourself and not appear to this man, who has been gone for a very long time, with apologies wrapped in smiles." Men don't like a woman who was always watching and apologizing for the things they did. It made them seem unsure or marked them with guilt. But as she assumed, Casandra appeared to be a very honest person.

[Casandra Lightheart]

Cassie know who De'Ryanna was, and she knew who Cas was, there was no need for introductions.

"It was something I said about that master that offended the dog."

She used Ryan's own analogy. She had already written the letter to the butler. It was sitting there waiting for her to finish the letter for the Marques. Now that that was almost done they would both be sent.

"Besides the letter to the one I spoke with was written weeks ago. It will be delivered with the one I am almost finished writing."

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