[Nako] Since You've Been Gone

[Shilo Moro]

It had been months since the growing pup saw her family. Well, her immediate family that is. She had been living in the confines of the Wastelands ever since her father had dropped her off when she was a couple months old. Why it was her that he picked to send to live with his mother rather than one of her two siblings was something that she had not yet figured out. Perhaps it was because her brother and sister seemed to be glued at the hip. They always included her in everything that they did, but at the end of the day she was aways alone. All in all she was glad that she had been living with her grandmother. She missed her parents but somehow she felt that this was where she was meant to be. Somehow the Moon had a plan for her and this was part of it.

Moro was now a year old. She had los most her puppy features and was looking more and more grown up everyday. She had even come to the age where she had picked her lunar name. She went with the name Shilo thinking that it just seemed to fit her. Beside gaining a part of her name that would remain with her until her dying day but she had also gained a whole new world of knowledge. Her grandmother was a very educated wolf. She was taught histury, the sciences, and anything else a wolf could think of. Not only had Jaimara expanded her already rounded knowledge, but had introduced her to reading the markings that humans once used. After teaching her the basics, she had handed her over to Aria Riversong, a wasteland astrologer, who was probably the most versed wolf in literature that was still living. This shy, quiet red she-wolf even knew how to read things in other languages and was still able to understand them.

Today the young wolf was nervously pacing back and forth just outside the barn as she waoted for a visitor. An important visitor at that. At least to her he was important. Shilo had not seen her father in months. She had bonded closely with him when she was younger and then he left her. He visited, but as the days marched on he came less and less until noothing at all. Shilo had heard talk of him coming back around. The reason for his visit was unclear but Shilo did not care. Her father was coming.

[talon]

Nako was saddened by his tardiness. The beta hated waiting on wolves who said that they were going to be a a specific place at a certain time and felt the same way about any times he was late for a gathering. But Nako had been neglecting this meeting for months, torn between looking for Fey and patrolling the borders of Project Clearlake's territory. Meeting with Moro nine months after he had first dropped her off at his dames den and four months since he'd last seen her. Yes one could say it had been quite a while since he last saw his youngest offspring.

Nako plodded along the muddy game trail in-between the tall grass of human farmland. He glanced at a white feather out of the corner of his grey eye, thinking about it's owner. Ol' Winter surely had been a good friend, helping him through a hellish patch in his younger days though she was also there to enjoy the plentiful good times. It was safe to say that Nako truly missed the snowy feathered Gyrfalcon.

One of the many things he missed.

But he had a good reason to look forward to today. The human den that just poked above the grass offered the old beta a hope that one of the things in life that he held dear was close by, and just waiting to be met.

There was nothing like a relationship between a father and a daughter. Nothing.

[Shilo Moro]

The she-wolf's ears twitched as a new scent entered the air. She knew that scent. It was so familiar. It was the kind of thing that only triggered one word in her mind; home. Her father was here. That was one distinct scent that the young wolf would never forget in all of her years. Most wolves in Shilo's situation would probably feel something close to hatred toward their father for practically abandoning them. Not Shilo. She loved her father and was just excited that he was coming to see her.

Shilo lept down from the dirt pile she was standing on and jogged toward her father, wagging her bushy tail "Daddy!" she gleefully shouted once the grey wolf came to her view. Her speed increased until she was running toward him, only stopping a few feet short of her father. Shilo's whole body moved side to side as her tail vigorously wagged back and forth. "Oh daddy, I've missed you." she said with a smile, nuzzling his thick fur.

When she had calmed down a bit, Shilo back away enough to leave a respectable distance between them so that they could converse like normal wolves. "How have you been?" she asked, wanting to know how her family was doing back in Clearlake. As much as she missed them, she loved spending time with her grandmother here. "There is so much I have to tell you'. You won't belive the things that grandma has taught me." she rambled on, just wanting to tell him everything that had been happening in her life the past few months.

[talon]

Nako gave a warm smile as he was verbally ambushed by his favorite daughter. Moro squealed the daughter-to-father call, tail wagging as if it wanted to remove itself from her lithe body. The gap quickly closed between them due to the she-wolf's speed, and his well... limp. She slowed down just before they collided thankfully, Nako not sure as to whether his old bones could handle a collision from a spry young female.

She delved her muzzle into his fur, licking and nuzzling him in affection, the grey male doing the same. His tongue caressed in between her forehead and ears before she broke away, leaving his tongue lolling out up his mouth in a steady pant. She seemed more jittery and excitable than since the last time he saw her those long month's ago. Moro rambled off about how she had things to tell and show him that his mother had taught her since being dropped off.
Nako also had things to tell her things, many terrible things.

"Well, lead on, first your stories then mine." Nako managed to rasp out with a slight smile, Winter's feather blowing into his peripheral vision once again.

[Shilo Moro]

The young she-wolf was much too excited to notice the prominent limp that her dear father had acquired during her absence. It was just so exciting to finally have him return to her! From what she could tell, her father was just as happy to see her. Of course he was not as exuberant in the method in which he expressed his happiness, but from what Shilo knew of her father, this was quite the display.

She had so many things to tell him. Where would she even begin to start? Her amber eyes slowly drifted to the right as she thought of something to start with. Ah-ha! "I have a Lunar name now." she said with pride. "I picked Shilo. My name is now Shilo Moro. What do you think?" she asked her father. She quite liked the name, but for some reason she felt that she needed some sort of approval.

"Oh! Guess what? I can read!" she exclaimed. "Grandma taught me how to read books. Human books. With their words, their strange markings. They all mean things. It's amazing what books hold. It makes me wonder why all wolves don't know how to read. We could learn so much from them. And we could even add our own! Do you know how to read? Oh this other wolf who is actually a member of the Nomads, her name is Aria, is even more skilled at reading than Grandma is. She can even read and write things in other languages! After Grandma taught me the basics, she let me go with Aria to learn the finer points. I'm no where nearly as good as either of them, but I can read!"

[talon]

Nako smiled, watching his daughter think of something to say with a tilt of her head, proudly telling him her lunar name that the moon had selected for her. Nako gave a nod of his head at her asking whether he liked it or not. Shilo was definitely a good name for his daughter.

But she would always be Moro to him, at least that's what he wanted, her to stay young and healthy.

Didn't every parent want that?

"Ah, Aria; timid thing, but very knowledgable." Nako thought as Moro rambled on and on about how she could read. Nako was proud of her for learning such a difficult but useful skill, no easy feat to learn to read.

"Well well well, Aria; Mother certainly knew who should have taught you, that's for sure." Nako shifted topics after taking a shaky breath.

"Moro, I've something to tell you," Nako released a sigh, deciding against it but knowing that she would ask. So he shifted to another event that he was already going to tell her, the death of Winter.

"Winter died not to long ago young one, her heart gave out." Nako turned and showed her the wing feather from his avian friend dangling from his ear, a single tear rolling down his face.

"You can see why I'm upset, I've told you the story of how she and I met right?"

[Shilo Moro]

Shilo beamed when her father approved of the name she had chosen for herself. She did not care if anyone else liked it, just as long as her father did. She was always out for his approval. He was her hero, her biggest role model. She wanted to be exactly like him when she got older. Her grandmother had told her to become her own self, but Shilo thought that her own self could also be a bit of her father. He was what made her strive for excellence.

"Grandma's a good teacher." she added in as if she were a pup adding her simple two-sense in. "Did she ever teach you to read Daddy?" Shilo asked with a tilt of her young head. She honestly was curious as to whether or not her father was ever taught the same skills that she was currently studying. If so, why did he not teach her himself? Of course this place, the farm, had much more to offer academics wise than Clearlake did.

when Nako spoke up again, Shilo fell silent, sensing that what ever it was her father was going to tell her would be hard for her to hear. What had happened? Had someone died? Her heart began to beat faster as she anticipated his next words. When they came the smile that had been plastered on her face immediately fell. "W-winter's dead?" she asked, her eyes growing watery. She had loved playing with winter when she was younger. In fact she considered Winter to be more of a friend than her brother and sister ever were to her. "N-no, I d-don't think you ever did. At least that I r-remember." she answered, holding back her tears.

[talon]

Nako's eyed his daughter warily, surely she could have taken the news of Winters passing a lot worse but still. Friends die. Family die. Everybody dies. It was the first in Shilo's life, and there would be more losses for his daughter to experience as she grew up. How she dealt with them, depending on who they were, would be entirely up to her.

Whether it was a mate, like he had, or a stillborn pup, like he had, the emptiness a wolf could feel from loss was mind-numbing.

"There there, it's ok baby, daddy's here," Nako plodded up to his daughter and wrapped an arm around her neck in a comforting embrace. "It was just her time Mor-... Shilo. Winter went quietly in the night about a  half moon ago."

His daughter was sniffling still, Nako brushing the string that held Winter's feather on his ear against her own right one, transferring the feather to her.

"I'm sure she'd want you to have it,"

He heard her answer his question about if he'd told he true story about how they met.

"It's unimportant now, don't fret your head about it." Nako whispered into her ear. He ceased the embrace, asking another question.

"Well, do you want to take me to your den or should I drag you back to your brother and sister?"

[Shilo Moro]

Shilo shakily sighed, swallowing her tears as her father's foreleg was wrapped around her shoulders. "You can call me Moro still daddy." she mumbled, hiding her face in his fur, just taking in his familiar, comforting scent. "A-at least she went peacefully. That's all I would ever want for her." Shilo quietly stated after her father told her the bird had gone quietly one night. The young she-wolf just wished that she had more time to spend with her father's old companion. Winter had been there for her when she was alone as a pup, when her brother and sister forgot her. Winter had been a great playmate, babysitter, and teacher. Shilo really did miss the creature.

"W-what?" she sniffed, as her father put one of Winter's feathers in her thick fur. She would cherish that forever. She never understood why some wolves wore things around various parts of their anatomy until now. They wanted to keep a piece of those they loved with them even after that individual had been lost to the concious world and had returned home to the Moon. "Thank you." she said, her eyes lcoking with his. "This means a lot to me daddy."

His words made her giggle softly, forgetting her tears for a moment. "Even if you dragged me back, they would still be too engrossed with each other to notice me." As sad of a statement as it was, it was more than true. That was a fact Shilo had come to accept a long time ago. "I want to hear the story of you and Winter." she said, looking at him. "Besides, I've been here long enough I can walk myself back to my den. What I'd really like to do is go home and see mother and those two goons I call siblings." she said affectionately.