Stone Circle that nu nu

con't from joining thread -- attn: @Valette and @Nanook !!

 

Sesi kept to her sisters hip, deferential in every manner. She looked around the territory, wide-eyed and full of wonder. So, this was home now? The location had very little bearing to her, but the Apaata knew for certain that this time, this time, the answer was yes. She felt it in her weary bones as she had never felt it before. Her family was here. That was home. 

Now and then Sesi would stray to sniff at the earth where Valette had passed through. The vaguely familiar scent of Nanook was there, too. Their scents had changed over the years, but that single thread of familiarity, that which would never change, was what she knew and what she held onto. Her tail waved as the scent of their other sister grew heavier here. Sesi pranced gaily toward her sisters hip again, her plume swaying behind her.

She had been ranging the border opposite Illecebra when the woman’s call had rent the air and, despite the distance between them, Nanook turned without a tarry. That her name stood first perplexed her, and drove her quicker all the same. Perhaps her sister was still unwell with the grief of Keoni’s death. She could still feel the sting in her paws from the scrape of the icy dirt as they’d dug the grave to bury the girl. Death came to all - yet she couldn’t shake the anger that it had come to her.

Even with her hastened pace, she knew she wouldn’t make it to the border in appropriate time - but she tried. Hurling over tangled roots and weaving between trees, her focus ranged so thick on the chase of Illecebra’s call that she noticed little else, until she crested the final stretch toward the territory’s outer bounds -

And saw absolutely nothing.

The harsh bite of a foreign curse hissed through her teeth, and she turned with nostrils flared against the air. Valette’s scent seemed recent, along with Illecebra’s - and a third. Fiery eyes turned in their projected direction - a trail that probably cut straight through the diagonal path she’d just made to get here.

With a swift turn, the Apaata tore after her quarry to meet her sister and to inspect this newcomer herself - whomever they would be.

Valette smiled as she walked into the territory. Her sister! Her sister had returned. She was in a bad shape but it was nothing some TLC couldn't fix. Valette wanted to walk to one of the caches so the girl could have a decent meal. She felt that Sesi was almost shadowing her. Valette didn't mind. At least she stayed close. She could imagine that being in a territory could be quite intimidating. Luckily, Sesi did start to use her senses a bit more. She sniffed the ground here and there. It was a good sign.

Valette turned when she heard someone approach. Nanook! Valette woofed at the incoming sister. Valette had always been the darkest in fur color, then came Nanook, followed by Sesi, and then almost-albino Xan. The monochromes. "Nanook! Look who it is!," she spoke and then nudged Sesi's shoulder. She wondered if Nanook would recognize her sister. Now they were all back together, except for Xan. At least, the sisters were together.

The approach of Nanook was firstly heard by Sesi, as the wind was not in her favor. The more-feral-than-not two year old found herself back at her sisters hip, submissive and baring her fangs in a clear show of submissive fear rather than aggressive. Though the coat was vaguely familiar, they had each aged significantly. It was only when Valette spoke the name of her sister that Sesi began to whimper and groan, army-crawling apologetically toward Nanook for her error. 

This was no stranger! This was her sister! 

Her ears were completely flat atop her head. She had made a mistake to wrinkle her muzzle at all, though it had only been to let the then-stranger know she knew who was top dog and that she did not want to fuss over it. Now that was doubly true, but there was a great deal of affection Sesi felt toward the other in knowing that this was the very Nanook she had been searching for, just like she had sought Valette! She loosed long whines, and once she was entirely before Nanook, she went from belly-to-the-earth to belly-to-Nanook, bearing her stomach in a show of intimate trust. Her tail beat against the earth as she wriggled, hoping to be forgiven—in her excitement, she rocked to her feet and moved in a submissively squirmy fashion around Nanook, hoping to placate her with submissive licks. 

Surely, Sesi might be crowding her as Sesi herself hated to be crowded, but she had regressed in the moment to the mindset of an unleashed dog at the dog park just getting outside for the first time in its entire life. And, really, that's what this was—she was this excited. But fortunately, Nanook was given a break as she rocketed toward Valette with an impish, giddy yip. My sisters!

Desna's voice led her the final stretch of steps through the frosted trees, and her gaze fell to the pale wolf, a stark contrast to her sister's darker fur. Her new scent mingled with the familiar, and the Apaata sucked in a searching sniff. Fresh, foreign, and altogether wild. She exhaled with a puff and turned her sharp gaze to scour their recruit. Befitting the small and nymphish thing that hunched in a submissive curl beside her sister's hip.

Nanook quirked her brow, bemused by her sister's remark. But before she could muse any further - was she supposed to know? - the girl was upon her, and left Nanook to startle back with stiff and jagged steps. In that moment, the two couldn't have looked any different from each other - the pale wolf a squirmy pest on the ground, and Nanook, stiff like a pillar of the ice she had once kept around her heart. The noise had her ears pressed slick against her skull, and the sheer presence of this stranger brought a curl to her lip. She pressed much to close, much too fast, and without much thought, Nanook struck out to snap the air in front of the newcomer's face as a warning to Back. Off. just as the girl turned to rocket back toward Desna with equal excitement in her steps.

She left Nanook as a hunched and bristling beast, a sharp mess of confusion and irritation. Ire sparked through the ends of her fur, and she lashed her tail with a snap above her back. "Who is this." She demanded, for whoever this was, she was certain this was someone she neither remembered nor knew.

Valette was ether surprised that Nanook reacted the way she did. Perhaps Sesi was greeting her a bit too enthusiastic. Valette cleared her throat as she watched the interaction between the two. Nanook seemed to be lightly irritated, perhaps not even lightly. "It is Sesi! Our sister!," Valette spoke to Nanook with a hopeful tone.

She nudged Sesi in a friendly matter, hopefully she wouldn't be too offended or perhaps even scared. "It must have been a long time you have seen each other," she commented. For her it also had been a long time but she never saw someone as submissive as Sesi.