Hello :3

wow sight the picture you made of Herla's feathers braided is probably my favorite thing ever!!!

The new gold foil art of her is stunning, I really adore those gold foil styled pieces you do. So lovely. Yay bios!

*sneaks on to leave a comment then vanishes again for another 6+ months*

@Graveyard: Ahhhh ;_; Sorry we haven't been around either, forest hates us.

@Soli: Ah Helios, I just want to pinch his cheek. These are great gifts too, The wolf pelt would make a great new winter cloak and I really like the idea of using the silver rings on Herla's small horn nubs. Never considered any sort of decoration for them, love it! Thank you <3

tracking!

Good to see Herla once in a while

Thank you Flyleaf! Herla and I don't get in forest enough for my liking anymore either. And it was great to see Caer again Liertau, I enjoyed getting to spend some time with old friends.

And now I have to zoom off back to work! Good evening to you both <3

Bye , bye
"Hugs"

Thanks Wake! And gosh thanks for reading too, I just expect that nobody ever does ha!

Leto had been busy this winter, despite being rarely seen -- everywhere around his little Birch nesting place you could see traces of activity. Today, when he emerged from the underbrush, his pelt shone with health, and the fat reserves he’s built up padded his well-defined muscles. After a few weeks of hesitation, he had at last come to a decision: tomorrow he would go on a Journey. See the world outside the endless forest, and do it by himself; and now, he felt properly prepared.

With a slight hurry in his steps, he made his way up to the hill in the birch where his family had made their home. The trees cast long blue shadows on the ground and the sun high above did not yet give any warmth to the tall dry grasses in the Birch; this didn’t seem to matter to the birds, who were already singing their greetings to spring.

The buck inhaled deeply. Most of the frost had given up its grasp of the earth, and it smelled wet, living; he was a little sad to miss spring, but he knew this was probably the best time to go.

With sure-footed steps he approached the birch glade. "Hello?" he called out, hoping he’d find if not whole, at least a part of his family there. Before he continued, he bent back and adjusted the large leather pouch Verve had made for him. It was nearly empty, save for a few lengths of rope and some willow bark.

The large irish had mostly been watching his youngest daughter go at her various activity's, keeping his head as still as possible to not disturb the birds perched on the higher tines. He'd gotten hold of one of the books, attempting to 'read' it whilst keeping his head up as high as possible. Since up close, it was just a blur. He could still not read, though, but the images he could look at.

His head turned at Leto's arrival, scaring the birds resting on his tines. For a moment he took in the scene, Leto's bag and lack of accessoires, even the tear was missing. And it looked like he had been training. Somehow the sight was familair, and it made his stomach drop. He had maybe sort of hoped this wasn't going to happen at any point in time again. Yet at the same time, given the nature of the buck and their talks in the past, it was ineviteble.
The stag gave a nod of acknowledgement, but stayed silent for now. Letting his wife and daughter do the talking.

----
Just gonna add him to this, I won't slow you down promise ;_;

((@Mis, of course it's fine! <3 ))

Herla returned Leto's affectionate nuzzle, bumping her forehead into her much taller son's chin, a small smile still on her face but her own stomach flopped a bit when she saw how nervously he stood before her and the sinking look she'd glanced in Gehirn's own expression moments before. While the mother hadn't been privy to any other discussions to give her a clue what this might be about, she had a feeling it might be something she didn't like. Or at the very least, would be difficult for her to hear. She kept her smile in place, open and gentle though the fine lines about her eyes might have shown a bit of strain as she waited for her son to say what he was going to say.

When the boy...no Herla corrected herself, Leto was very much a man now at nearly 3 years of age, but at any rate when he declared his intention to go on a journey, the mother's heart thumped in her chest, her mouth going dry, she swallowed, "Ah, I see," she answered, trying still to smile though her eyes were already welling up of their own volition. The doe had never been very good at 'stoic.' And this was coming as a bit of shock to her, being the first time she'd heard of it. Her other children had traveled alone before of course. Ciel. Verve. And she wasn't as starkly fearful of travel as she'd once been in her past. But still, she'd never heard Leto wanting to leave before. She pursed her lips though, determined to be strong about this, smiling to hold back tears, and gave a firm nod to her son, "You're a smart and strong buck, I know you haven't made this decision lightly. I'll worry. A lot. And even though the Wild Hunt doesn't seem to be a danger to you, I'm sure you are well aware there are plenty of other dangers." She wanted reassurances of course. Of his planning. Of his safety.

Neela didn't share any of her mother's fears or trepidations, her own heart leapt in excitement, "A journey! Like Verve? By your self? On your own? Where will you go?" the questions came rapid fire, giving no one a chance to answer before the next one was shot off, "I want to go too, I want to go on a journey, CAN I COME WITH YOU TOOO?" she near vibrated with excitement, her feet hardly staying put on the ground underneath her.

“Aw, mom,” Leto said, nuzzling her again. Of course he saw his mother’s worried expression. “I’ll be careful, I promise. I know there are dangerous things out there,” he replied, then turning to his father with a slight chuckle. “Well, yeah. I’m prepared and ready and I don’t think I can do much else. And I love the forest, but it’s… very small.” The taste of India when he was young still lingered, it seemed. And tales of family and friends’ travels had only made him all the more eager to see the outside for himself. He bumped his head into his father’s chest. Seemed like he had inherited the Irish’ amount of fluff.

And then Neela. “Wow Neela, slow down,” he laughed. “Yeah, I’ll go on a journey like Verve. On my own! And I don’t know where I’ll go. Something different from this, I hope,” he replied to his little sister with a big grin. “And maybe you can come next time. If you’ve grown a little and mom and dad says it's okay,” he said, considering her height, wondering how much she’d have grown when he came back. Judging by her current rate, who knew? “I’ll find something cool to bring back to you, I promise,” he continued, bending to rest his head on hers. His beard made a nice black wig for the kid.

Gehirn nodded in reply to Leto's words. "Yeah, I've heard those words before. And it is small, I know that. I expect you all eventually to come tell your mother and me that you're off to explore." It wasn't a fun expectation, and it'd likely scare him to the core each time, but that's what children were for.
He looked at Herla, sniffling away, couldn't help but smile. "You're not that unreasonable." He added in, though kept quiet mostly.

"Being tiny doesn't mean you're not older." Gehirn replied to Neela, lowering his head towards her. "Your mother is pretty small, but she does fine travelling on her own too. If she'd want to." A glance towards her.
At the mentioning of stocking Leto up with all their food, his head raised again together with an eyebrow. "It's alright. Take whatever you need, I'm on a diet. Apparantly." He chuckled, then turned to look at Neela again. "You can't drag those cakes off to your 'appartment' and call them yours, love."

((So sorry that took a while, I've just been coming home from work and crawling into bed at night, ha ;_; ))

"Aye, I don’t want to think of the rest of them going just yet, let me wrap my mind around this one first," Herla chuckled, "You won't starve husband, you're married to a witch, my cooking pot is never empty," the mother joked to lighten the mood, but it was clear she was strained, parental worries not forgotten.

"When I get older, even if I'm still tiny like mom, I'm going traveling too, to amazing places," Said Neela. "Hey!" Said Herla. "Dad said!" the child chimed, bouncing around her brother excited, "And it's alright Dad I already took some honey cakes to my 'apartment' and if you get hungry I promise to share them with you."

Herla might have given Leto a slightly dismayed look when he admitted he hadn't thought on bringing any food with him, "Did you think food just grows on trees or something? Well sometimes it does but that's besides the point, what if it's not edible?" Herla muttered not actually chastising Leto but not able to hold off fretting entirely. Frankly food wise, she'd have been far less worried if her other son's like Johan or Ciel had gone off without rations, like her they could forage and eat grass, her other children had always been a bit harder to keep fed, and Herla had only become expert in food storage and cooking because of this. She would never see her family go hungry if she could help it. The mother tsked silently to herself and taking Leto's bag, stuffed it with everything she could lay eyes on in her pantry, various salted meats and jerkies, dried fruits, tubers and nuts, and then, the honey cakes that Neela herself brought out of the pantry in sacrifice to her brother's voyage. When Herla handed the small satchel back over to her son, he'd find if significantly increased in weight. "Thank you for letting me help, it makes me feel better," she said looking up into the her son's crimson eyes, eyes that matched her own and his father's. Her own expression still sad it also held a bit of pride as well, as she stood back as if to take one last solid mental picture of her child before he left on his first solo journey. "We did good I think," she nodded, giving her husband the same sad intermixed with proud, smile.

Ahh my finger slipped

*inserts a late track here.*

Reading Herla's story has been something that played an important part with me coming back to TEF. It inspires me so much, and this character is so gorgeous.

This bio is really breathtaking, and is an important part of our Forest.

Tracking this lovely lady.

I feel like this belongs here XD But happy mothers day to all you beautiful mum's out there ^^ <3

And belated replies here:

Thanks for the track FallingTooFast.

I hope you found the antlers LeafSky.

Herla thanks you very much for the Mother’s Day wishes, Sannosuke. <3

Thanks for the track arme.

I hope you are Ok , we did not see you for a very long time here !
Sends "Hugs"

I miss you Sight <3