She's sitting on top of me when I open my eyes, her snout thrust into my face so that she carefully misses my nose and instead puts her own nose up by my eyes. "Natrinaaaaa..." My sister's voice trails out teasingly. She's very beautiful, at least by our pack's standards. She is a beautiful pale white color with just a hint of gold, like a lily, and brown speckles down her back. She's ever so slightly on the small and skinny side, to the point where she looks young and innocent, like a pup. Just like the rest of our species, she has two fur covered horns sticking out behind her face placed right on top of her ears, and those distinguish her as something very powerful and potentially dangerous. We all have them, but ever since she was little, Lotus's Verhamera Horns have been bigger than anyone else's I know.

In the present moment, she is anything but a powerful and dangerous foe. She is my sister and currently she has her back leg on my tail, because she knows that irritates me. I groan, trying to roll back onto my stomach and finding my escape blocked by her daintily small yet impossibly firm paws.
"There's no escape." she says in an ominous tone. "You will be forced to do something productive."
"Lotus, go away."

"Natrinaaaaaaaaa!" she says teasingly. "You know you can't hide away from the truth forever! Alas, you will have to get up and potentially even help with the garden."

"Why don't you do it? You're the special one." I mumble, closing my eyes.

She looks pouty before stepping off me and rolling back onto her own stomach in a submissive position. "Surely, you can't mean me! Look at how small I am, Natrina!"

I get up, thankful that she's finally off me, but also with the distinct impression she's teasing me, especially because we're the exact same size. "Respect your elders." I tell her in the fond but patronizing and slightly aggressive tone our mother uses when she's keeping us in line.
"Of course, oh great one. Let no one forget that you're almost one pawlength of the sun's voyage older than me. The sun was really taking its time, wasn't it?" Her eyes gleam with mischief. "If it had been in more of a hurry, you might have a real age difference to lord over me."

I sigh, but she's already won. I'm up on my paws and leaving the den where we sleep together. Our mother made it for us not too long ago using her plant manipulation skills, making the vines grow thick around the sticks we had arranged to make the frame. Though her craft is far better than most of our tribe's, and our tribe's is much better than most Canis who have figured out how to manipulate plant growth, it's still very new foliage and sometimes it gets drafty. Hopefully my winter coat will grow in soon, but it's still very early for that.

Lotus, trotting happily by my side, makes her way into the center of the pack's camp. We've lived here since we were born, which means a new move might soon be on its way, but I've heard that the alphas are reluctant to leave.
If it means we'll be staying here a while, it can be nothing but good news. This place, small as it is, has been my entire world for my whole life. The seasons have come and gone eight times, and here we are where we started: the end of summer, where it begins to grow cold.

Our mother is deep in the garden, as she usually is. Though we are carnivores, my mother has always believed in peculiar habits. She seasons food to keep it fresh and hide the smell of decay. She uses various herbs to cure the ills of the pack. She talks to her plants, which she claims helps them grow faster. While they do grow far more quickly than wild plants, others usually claim it's her powers that makes them grow so quickly.

Lotus believes that the talking helps.

I pretend to because it makes her happy.

Our mother does not notice us when she approaches us. She has my greenish fur, which is just a few shades too bright to be useful camouflage, and Lotus's pining amber eyes. Right now, she's working amongst the zinnias, which are her favorites. They don't serve much of a purpose, but she always pretends they do and mixes them in with the herbs that actually work. It's an odd and contrived plan, but I guess she's willing to do anything for something she loves.

"Hello?" I ask, but she doesn't look up.

Lotus looks at me and nods silently and just a bit reluctantly. In a deep and masculine voice, she booms, "Alstroemeria."

"Fen, is that you?" Eyes wide, our mother wheels around, and then says quietly, "Oh, my sweet daughters. Haven't I told you not to do that?" There's that scolding tone again. She doesn't know I'm not afraid of it anymore.

"You wouldn't hear us if we didn't use it. You're always so busy with your flowers." Lotus complains.

"I have to focus if they are to grow. They just wanted to hear a story." she says quietly. "Everyone deserves tender loving care."

"Well, I want to hear a story too!" Lotus insists, stepping out from by my side.

"I suppose we could make a deal..." She bends down to Lotus's height, so that she's looking us both in the eyes. "You two have to help grow the garden while I tell the story. Lotus, the tansy is getting awfully neglected over there. Natrina, the poppy needs some extra care as well. If you two help out, I could start from where I left off. Alright?"

Lotus nods giddily. I smile as well with one deft dip of my head. I try to wag my tail and look interested as I head towards the poppy. Staring down at the plants, I focus my whole being into the earth like I was taught, imagining the roots coming from my claws until I, too, am tethered to the soil. With a deep breath inwards, I reach out towards the poppy plants and sense the life inside of them. Unrelentingly, I drag time onwards, mentally pulling them into the future, watching them grow ever so slowly upwards.

Meanwhile, I can hear the first humming tones of my mother speaking. I close my eyes and let the flowers continue to grow as I divert just enough energy to the world around me to make out the words.

"Verhamera called her canine creations from many worlds, whether they were prey, predator, or ruling species, she took them all in and shaped them into the original design she had so desired. Amongst the species she drew forth from other worlds, this was the species she treasured the most, and gave the best gifts. She gave them two horns on each side to match her three, the power to warp space beneath their paws as she possessed, but above all gifts the best one was her love and affection, which she promised to her chosen species forever. However, she did not recolor their pelts, which were in every color known to the eye, and so many more.

'These,' she said, 'are the symbols of your past. Bear them with pride, for no matter what you were before, you are honored here.'

So the meek and the strong were joined in her ranks, but still they were quietly muttering amongst themselves. Many were doubtful. Few did not have questions. However, the most prominent one amongst the many was the fear of death itself.

'If this is paradise, why will we perish?' cried one of the elderly.

Gentle Verhamera knew that she herself could not break the rules of space and time, else time and space would become meaningless as they were where she reigned. 'I can not stop time from passing,' she told them, 'however, fear not, for I have given you three afterlifes, that your spirits may never depart this world. For those who desire oneness with this new world, when your legs fail, your soul will return to the earth and your magic will be freed. For those who wish to never perish, when your heart stops beating, it will be rekindled by the energy within you and given in spirit to another who will live after you have, baring your mark. For those who desire to live on after death and reunite with those death has stolen, once you are torn open from the neck, you will own the space beyond reality as your own for you and your kin.'
'Which of these realities will be offered to us?' asked one in the crowd.

'All three will be given to each of you in time,' Verhamera replied, and the crowd consented. 'For now, live, laugh, and run the earth which I have made green beneath your feet. I must depart you for now, but soon I will return and with me will be my angel, anointed in flower crowns and cloaked in bright white wings.'

I look up from the poppies, snapping back to reality to find that my mother is gone again, looking back down at her plants. Lotus looks up at me, her concentration similarly broken. I look up and see the sun is halfway through the sky already.

"She's busy again." Lotus says quietly.

"That's what we get for being the gardenkeeper's daughters." I say. I sigh, shaking my head slowly. "You know what? Someday, I'm going to do something better with my life than growing plants slightly faster. It's not even a cool power."

"I bet if I tried I could make them come up immediately." Lotus says quietly. "I've been practicing."

"So why don't you just do that?"

"If I'm better than Mother, she won't ever talk to us again. The plants are the only thing that makes her happy."

There's a silence between us that seems to stretch on for years. There's things we'd rather not talk about, subjects that don't need to be bought up.

"If it makes you feel better, you make me happier. You're one of the best things that ever happened to me." I tell her, nosing her gently. "Plus, you aren't some weird plant-obsessed herbivore."

"That's what everyone thinks we are." Lotus points out.

"Do you think that?"

"No."

 "That's what I thought. Now let's go get some food- plant growing with mythological lore in the background always makes me hungry."