New Beginnings (Olkhon Island | Baikal Lake, Siberia)

[Tenzin]

Tenzin nodded, thoughtful. Wolves did not always understand the humans to which they were bonded, and old and wise as Thorn Paw was, Tenzin also valued hearing Sierra’s assessment of the man pup who caused such anxiety. He frustrated his mentor in the dream, and apparently also his own mate if she was not certain he would find his way back to her. But Tenzin accepted the difficulties in learning late, and in finding one’s own way. She did not wish to think ill of one of the kin, and Sierra and Tristan had been travelling together for months prior to their separation. If there was anything untoward in his character, perhaps owing to his blood, she was sure Sierra would have become aware of it before now.

The question turned her golden gaze briefly down to the tattoo in question. Both her arms were bare, and she had purposefully made no effort to hide her Athari marking. For Sierra to have discovered it amongst the colourful tapestry inked all over her skin, Tenzin reasoned she must have had an encounter of some kind in her past – not just the friend she spoke of, but the little sting in her scent just then which revealed something less positive. She turned her arm so that Sierra might see clearly where the serpent samsara was nestled, which felt odd and natural at the same time. “Meaning same, am sure,” she said. Her muscles were loose, her hands relaxed in quiet communication of her lack of threat. Then she twisted slightly, to show the ink of her upper arm: a woman dancing into the kalari snake pose, surrounded by the celestial heavens.

“Is meaning of Star Dancer. Light that keeps darkness at bay. My people fall far from path, but I learn far in the north. Is different there, is learning, and when I change I accepted.” She gestured briefly to her face and the bright gild of her eyes. “Hiding normally. Most still see monster. We not.”