Where the Ancestors Sleep

a 20ft-tall grey wolf, an absolute unit.

has very poofy white fur with grey markings

wields an equally large greatsword between her teeth (she sheaths it in a custom black-leather harness where she also keeps things like her phone)

her harness has a collar with a silver nameplate that says “Hey! My name’s Sif. I’m really smart and great at communicating. I can write, too. Feel free to talk to me like anyone else.“ courtesy of one Zack Fair

not a very well socialized doggo

has an fantastic sense of smell and will probably warm up to you more quickly if you smell like something she likes (she can actually smell your soul if you’re close enough)

incredibly intelligent, but can’t speak in any human tongue

strong sense of duty and honor (basically a wolf-knight)

never abandoned her role as guardian (loyal doggy friend)

Suddenly, Sif throws herself forward, lurching into a full sprint and kicking up the snow around her. Due to her size, she might bury a few cars behind her while sprinting towards one Zack Fair as fast as a bird can fly, but if she notices she doesn’t seem to care.

She knows her friend is a lot more durable than the average human... but surely she plans to slow down and not collide with him at full speed...

...Right?

Although Sif knew that the tree had been restored to it’s previous glory, she knew it wouldn’t grow a new coat of leaves until spring to show it -- therefore, the most extreme changes so far had taken place in the cave under the tree. The only visible change so far to the outside of her den was the Wolf Knight’s sigil above the entrance way, but that was just fine with Sif. She was much more interested in showing her human friend the inside of her house anyway.

Reines knew she was spotted. Denying it was pointless. All she could do was grit her teeth and bare it as she was inevitably fussed over again. 

But the woman’s words weren’t ones filled with mindless fawning. She knew her? Reines focused more fully on the new face, but… nothing. This was someone she did not recognize.

They surely had to be wearing a mask. Who did she even know that would take this form?

Taking advantage of the ground beneath them, Reines managed to scratch out a messy, ‘wHo?’ Writing anything more was an unnecessarily large undertaking for her miniature form. 

Sif read the writing and sighed. “Tis truly sad yond human senses art so weak they leave thee blind to the ways of the world. Of course thee wouldst not recognize me. Alloweth me to introduce myself in thy native tongue.” She placed her hand over her -- now much more human -- heart.

“I am Dame Sif the Great Great Wolf -- comrade of Alvina the Cat, leader of the Forest Hunter’s Covenant, and of Artorias the Abysswalker, Gwyn’s Fourth Knight.” She felt a thrill at being able to use the word ‘dame.’ It was the first time she had spoken her new title out loud.

Suddenly she stops. There’s a gate in front of her that she can hardly see, but the sudden smell of iron under her nose alerts her to its presence. 

Deciding the snow bank near the gate is as good a place to rest as any, she slowly lowers herself to lie down. The cool snow is soothing to her aching legs and scarred muzzle.

After heaving a long, tired sigh, she quickly falls asleep.

He wasn’t upset to be taken away from the mists.

The sounds of gunfire, echos of it everywhere, the sound of the familiar sound of Shinra military boots around him, and suddenly he was picked up by the scruff of his shirt and pulled away from it, and everything else shitty in his life seemed far away from a second. Still, she seemed careful, and he swallowed as he heard people walking through the forest. “Those are…Different soldiers, but still, I’m being chased by-” He was surprised when he was set down, looking up at Sif, and then jumping slightly when the voice came from.

Nowhere, really. Mako eyes looked around, and then up at Sif, and then to wherever the voice may have been coming from (in front of him?) to listen.

“Little Sif?” He couldn’t help but snort, until he was called: “’Undead’, huh?”

“Probably not some kind of Chosen one - definitely doubt that one.” He stood up, looking up at Sif. “Not Chosen, technically undead, but I’m Sif’s friend. Not really sure what’s going on here, but I’m more wondering where you are than anything else. And a bit worried about the probable battalion of soldiers following me around this mist.” He shrugged up at Sif, a forlorn and tired smile on his lips.

“It’s not the first time, not even the second time.”

“Is it really so hard to believe yond Sif wast once, like all living things, born small? Maybe it is so. Our Lady hast not been the size of a common wolf since ere the creation of humans.” The voice seemed amused. In the blink of an eye, a grey cat the size of a grizzly bear with a too-large mouth and jagged teeth appeared in the window without fanfare. Simply there between one second and the next.

“Well met. I am Alvina of the Darkroot Wood. I command a clan of hunters who track down defilers of the forest graves. This cat also has the prestigious honor or being Sif’s long time compatriot. She does not have many.” Sif leaned down and greeted Alvina with a gentle nuzzle and a wag of her tail, treating the older one with all of the kindness a considerate friend would show an elderly cat. Alvina laughed and pushed Sif away with her paw, who huffed grumpily in return.

“Doth thee doubt thou art the protagonist of thy own story?” The cat gave a high pitched cackle and Sif pinned her ears back in displeasure. “Well indeed, thou art a strange one! A humble human, and more, a chosen!” Alvina laughed again and this time Sif showed her teeth. “Nevertheless, I feel some liking for thee as does Sif, clearly. My advice to thee: do not doubt thy own importance. Thou has touched many chosen in many worlds, therefore one might see thyself in a supporting role... but what is a chosen if not one who changes the worlds of others?”

When Zack spoke of other soldiers, Sif used the underside of her jaw to pull him back against her chest, sheltering him in the crook of her neck. Alvina looked at him curiously.

After a traveling for a little while, the mist pulled back a little to reveal a forest of dark vegetation where the moon was always full and it the night was endless. Sif’s ears twitched as she listened to invisible hunters move between the trees, but she knew they wouldn’t hurt her. To attack another of one’s covenant was to betray their own family in this world.

She set Zack down in the remains of a ruined stone building, the roof and one of its walls gone completely, and perked her ears towards an arched window opposite her.

After a few seconds, a voice spoke clearly though there was no one there, as if directly into one’s mind.

“Little Sif, thou art present! When I felt thy soul leave this world I feared the worst. I smell the scent of another world on thee, but thou hast fared well to find me again. A joyous family reunion tis this!”

She resumed sitting in her spot next to a kiddie pool filled with full-sized candy bars. Next to the plastic pool was a painted sign that said: “For those who can pass the Guardian Beast, What awaits you is a great feast!”

“He’s gonna cook it up for the people at his restaurant. So other people are gonna eat it.” The guy on the TV yells a bit and then there’s a shot of the food going into the garbage. “Well, okay, not this guy’s food. This guy’s food is going in the garbage hey-” A noise of protest escapes him as he reaches for his corn chip snacks as she sniffs them, and then it turns into a groan as they’re tossed out the door. He does a mental check…Second to last bag - so he can avoid ordering groceries until tomorrow…Maybe.

“That’s-” He pauses and frowns, looking away from her stern gaze. “Yeah, something like that. Usually I like to go out and yell a little, or maybe hit something, but right now I just.” He flops back down on the couch, looking exhausted. “Mmn. This one feels different. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people have come and gone - even from my own world. It even gets like…Jumbled, you know? Sometimes they know me and sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they have this freaked out look in their eyes. But never Sephiroth. Even when we weren’t getting along, I wasn’t just some…”

He stops, sighing. “I wasn’t just some ghost. Someone walking around that shouldn’t be. Or worse - someone that it seems like didn’t exist. Ugh.” He looks at her form. “You look like you did on Halloween. It isn’t Halloween already is it!?”

She noted Zack’s disappointment at the loss of his ‘food’ but she could only bring herself to feel a little bad about it. If he wanted food she’d gladly get him something that wasn’t... whatever those were. She sat across from him and listen patiently.

“I... can not claim to know exactly how thee feels. Whilst this one has, too, past on in mine old world, those kindred spirits whom I met here were estranged from mine own self long before mine death. It would benefit mine friend Alvina to keep this one’s fate a secret for as long as possible, so it appears news of mine passing has not spread far.” She sighed and studied the floor in thought.

“However... If I were to meet mine dear friend Artorias here, who did pass on long before mineself... I would indeed be confused and untrusting.” She looked up again to catch Zack’s eye. “Though, in the end, such a meeting would bring mineself joy. To meet one’s dear friend again and to know that they live on in another world... Yes, the repetition of it is difficult, but does it not please you to know that you are giving those who knew you peace?”

If she were in her normal form, Sif would merely lay down on top of her friend and crush the sadness from him; it always seemed to work with Artorias. However, something told her that her current body wouldn’t elicit the same reaction. It was all too easy to imagine pointed ears on Zack’s head, drooping with rejection. Slowly, Sif placed her large hand between where she pictured his wolf ears would be, if he had any, and gave his head a gentle pat.

Zack was…Well, where he had been the past few days. There wasn’t really ever a moment he’d viewed the castle as lonely and cold but that was changing now. As evidence of Sephiroth’s existence slowly faded away as he continued to live his life here, it was as though those tendrils of chill were creeping back in. A continued reminder about how he’s been left behind by most people he’s known that had not permeated these walls until now.

He hadn’t realized the door was unlocked, but he recognizes her voice from Halloween. “Oh, must be something going on, huh?”

He’s laying upside down on the couch in his pajamas, cheesy corn chips making a messy everywhere. Spiritos, his favorite.

“Yeah, uh, that…Happened. But hey, it’s cool you get to walk and talk again. Not that it’s much of an issue that you couldn’t before.” She also had every right to check on him, as he hadn’t left home in days, and…Well, he was here. Laying upside down on the couch as Pantry Nighterrors was playing on television. “This guy on Pantry Nighterrors kept refrigerated food in his pantry. Pretty much a no-go.” His usual jovial attitude was pretty muted.

“Perhaps he should not hunt or purchase food he does not intend to eat.” Sif glanced at the television box and the meat shown didn’t look inedible to her, but that was neither here nor there.

“Speaking of food,” she snatched the bag out of Zack’s hands. Giving the contents a sniff, she recoiled immediately, disgust written plainly on her face. “If one could even call this food. These... things have no nutritional value.” She turned to hurl them out of the still open door and onto the lawn before stepping over to stand above Zack, looking down at him with hands on her hips.

“There is indeed ‘something going on’. Though, that appears unimportant in the face of whatever personal strife has afflicted thee.”

“Knight Zack,” she calls out. “I respect the privacy of one's den, but as thy friend I am exercising the right to check up on thy health as I realize thy packmate hath left this world.”

It’s an odd feeling that wells up in her. She will miss Lord Sephiroth, though she didn’t know him deeply, and certainly not as well as Zack... But it’s also the first time she’s ever referred to someone as her “friend” out loud and in spoken words.

Putting that feeling aside for now, she realizes she hasn’t properly announced herself.

“It is I, Great Grey Wolf Sif. The meddling of the false gods did allow me to taketh a humanoid form once again.”