Life was grand for the small girl as she played beneath the shade of her forest home. The towering trees offered endless entertainment for the girl’s wild imagination. Today she raced around the forest floor, as well as she could on her short, puppy legs, jumping into the air with the biggest of smiles plastered on her face. She chased the beams of light the filtered down through the limbs so high above, leaping at the particles of dirt that sparkled therein with tiny jaws snapping closed on nothing but thin air. She landed with a fit of giggles before taking off again. In her mind what she saw were fairies and sprites darting in the sunlight and all she wanted was to catch one, to talk to them, maybe they could even give her some fairy dust!

Her imagination had led her far from her original destination. Initially she had been heading to see her friend Zelda to see if she wanted to play with her this afternoon. All of her siblings were spread out today and it would have been the perfect opportunity to the two girls to spend some time together, but as it were she had been distracted chasing pixies and it led her closer to the borders where eventually voices caught her attention. For a moment she stilled, head tilted to the side as her large ears pricked forward as the disembodied voices floated toward her. She fantasized for a moment that perhaps the trees were speaking to her, like the way the wind rustling through the leaves sometimes sounded like whispers. The voices of her father and brother however banished the notion and in an instant she was dashing towards them once more.

She burst into the clearing just in time to see Asariel emerging from the trees as well and to catch the last bits of conversation between her dad, Coza, and the dark woman on the ground to called herself grandma. Grandma! Ever since meeting their aunt Celeste she had asked more and more about their family and even though there had been a kind of sadness in her daddy’s voice when he mentioned their family might be coming here excitement had tinged through her small body. Vortigern confirmed everything and even the shyer Asariel approached the dark woman and that set her white lined tail wagging so hard even her back end shook. (She had been trying to follow Celeste’s teachings of appropriate tail wagging, but in moments like this she couldn’t quite control herself.)

Even with the impairment of her back end wiggling like a fish out of water she quickly made her way toward the huge white wolf who must be Azrael. “Grandma! Grandpa!” she sang as she danced toward them, weaving under Azrael’s chest and between his huge front paws before clambering to Andromeda. Let’s be honest, an adult lying on the ground and on a pup’s level an open invitation to become a playground for any pup in sight and Astraea was no different. She clambered atop her grandmother’s back, a woman she took after quite a bit from her dark coat to the smattering of stars-like marks that trailed from her nose all the way back to her tail. “I’m Astraea,” she said in her light voice after Asariel’s introduction, scaling her grandmothers shoulders. The words were barely out of her mouth before she tumbled down the other side of Andromeda’s dark body and landed upside down on her back.

Tiny paws flailed in the air for a moment like she was treading water as her eyes split of violet and gold landed on her dad. “Hi daddy!” she chirped, “why are you upside down?” She giggled even as she said it before rolling over and righting herself and going to stand by her siblings, eyes turning to her grandpa as Coza offers the idea of them living in a den close to their own and her smile grows even wider. “Oh yes , grandpa, you can live with us! I’m sure dad and Vort can dig out some more space for you!” She had grown a bit starry eyed at the thought of snuggling up into even more of her family every night, the effort it would take to extend their already cramped den was collateral that didn’t even cross her mind. On small, white tipped paws she danced closer to the imposing form of her grandfather that didn’t seem to trouble her in the slightest. “You’re gonna love the forest, grandpa! There are trolls and gnomes and fairys here!” she offered before giving him her biggest, tooth filled grin.