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The Labors of Lily Marks--Part 2 (WIP)

The sound was coming from the deep forest, and unless Lily was very much mistaken, someone was crying...

Intrigued, Lily set off into the gloom, following her ears. It was fairly straightforward, if slow going, but for a while the sound of crying didn't seem to get closer.

After awhile, Lily heard the crying getting louder, at about the same time the woods got even thicker. This part of the forest was so dense that she had to squeeze through undergrowth often. Lily was glad for being furclad because clothes would have made it much more difficult to proceed. Plus, they'd be destroyed.

She squeezed between two thick branches, and almost fell into a tiny clearing. The source of grief was there. She was a Wolf, but petite, the same size as Lily. Her fur was mostly white, no, a pale blue grey, and was accented nicely with darker grey. Her figure and proportions combined with her coloring to create a stunning specimen.

My goodness, Lily thought. She's almost as beautiful as I am!

The Wolf was furclad, like Lily, and she was still sobbing. Lily's vow flashed through her mind: "I will protect and nurture anyone entrusted to my care." Well, she's here, and I'm here, and she's upset, so I guess that puts her in my care, sort of.

Lily sat beside the strange, sad, beautiful Wolf, and, because it seemed like the right thing to say, asked, "What's wrong, child?"

It took a moment for the Wolf to notice Lily, so great was her grief, but once she did she threw her arms around Lily and started sobbing again, this time putting words between them.

"Oh! I'm so glad to see you! I don't know how I got here. Well not here here, but... There wasn't anybody where I was first...and I kept running, and looking, but I couldn't find anyone, and...the forest kept getting thicker and darker...and I pretty much gave up hope. I don't know what I did to deserve this, or where I am...

The Wolf sobbed for a while longer, and when Lily thought she was beginning to run out of tears, she said, "My name's Lily. What's yours?"

"Muireann," the Wolf said, and started drying her tears.

"Well, Muireann, why don't we get up and go somewhere nicer. I'll show you where I live, I think you'll like it."

Muireann said, "Really?" Then she seemed to remember something. "You won't abandon me like--?"

Lily rose and held out a paw. "I promise I'll stay with you as long as you need. I also know someone who may be able to help." She cast an appraising look at Muireann. "I think we need to talk."

As they emerged into the nice part of the forest, Muireann paused and looked around. "It's beautiful," she declared.

"Thank you," said Lily. "It reminds me of a place I knew as a mortal, but it's even nicer here."

"I've been places kind of like this, but not really. I'm from Ireland, by the sea.

"I haven't noticed a sea here, but there's a river. It's this way."

Shortly after they came within sight of the river, Muireann started talking.

"I wanted so desperately to spend time with Daddy. He never spent as much time with me as with the others. No, that's not fair, it only seemed like he never spent enough time with me. He did, and I enjoyed it, but never appreciated it as much as I should have. I always wanted more. Why was that? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense now. Plus, he died so young. And I thought the only way to spend enough time with him was to wait until I went to the afterlife so we could be together always.

"A little before I died, I learned he was an Ancient One. He will keep reincarnating, so I won't get to see him much, if at all." She shook her head. "That doesn't seem to matter so much anymore. Why did I feel that way when I was a mortal?"

"It's easy for mortals to get...railroaded, I think the term is," said Lily. "They get caught up in something because they believe it, and unless they have a very good diagnostic system, it can consume their whole lives. Heaven knows it did mine..."

"You had daddy issues too?"

Lily chuckled, "No, kind of the opposite. I--" She stopped. Her sixth sense told her that admitting to Muireann that she'd struck a pup was a phenomenally bad idea. "I was a total bitch to my two older pups and ignored my youngest completely."

"Why?" Muireann asked. "I know Furs have way more pups than Spirits, and they don't treasure them like we do, but why did you treat yours that way?"

"Our third pup was unplanned, and...unwanted." Muireann's look of horror prompted Lily to continue, "I see now that there were circumstances around his birth that I hadn't a clue about then. A whole bunch of things seemed to pile up on us at once and we couldn't deal with them all. I took it out on the boys and my husband. We both took it out on each other actually. And on the boys."

Muireann looked at Lily with equal parts horror and compassion. She made a decision and hugged the Fox. They stayed like that for a while, then separated.

"Thank you," Lily said. "I didn't know what I had while I was a mortal. Seems like that's fairly common. In ignorance, I threw it away." Lily smiled. "But something good came from it. I was able to focus on what I want going forward. I also made a vow to...everyone I meet. I will be as good as I can to everyone from this point on."