Bearclaw Valley my isle of golden dreams

@Indra

Thick grey plumes of cloud stretched out across the sky, dappling it in shades of charcoal and silver like wisps of startling contrast. He felt a queer sort of kinship within the drastically different. He was a dark crow amidst a pack of wild savages. All of them, save for Indra. The young Frith-touched girl had found a way to weave herself with him. Tadec could not help to look at her with fondness. Her blood suggested that she was far too wild – too wolf – for him. It left him with a bitter taste in the back of his throat. This emotion could not be swallowed, but he hoped that he would find a way through it. She was different from the rest. She was with many faults, and he found that he was drawn to each of them, each in a unique way.
 
That day, he sought the Redleaf girl with a bent head and quick paws. On spindly limbs, the moonlighter trekked across the valley until her scent was strong enough to taste. Tadec waited for a moment, holding her unique aroma before he released a soft yip of greeting. “Indra,” he spoke, fidgeting in place. “Indra want to go with Tadec today?”

indra had devoted nearly all of her time to guarding laurel's den - in the cheerless cold weather, she found exhaustion had seeped into her bones and blurred her vision. unbeknownst to her, she had drifted off into sleep -- a slumbering gargoyle propped against the stony slab of laurel's den.

a yip awoke her, and she blinked sleepily, tadec's thin muzzle and bright penny eyes swimming into clear focus. a yawn pressed forth from her mouth and she canted an ear towards the den -- laurel seemed asleep, and the puppies, while nosy, were making noises the redleaf had come to associate with content. indra rose to her feet in a stiff motion, stretching out one hind leg and then the other before asking "where?"

The red girl rose from her place beside the mouth of her sister’s den. Tadec could smell the air of youth, knowing it was a challenging time for mothers and families. He was respectful, keeping his distance and speaking only in soft rolling whispers. Indra approached with sleepy eyes, causing a pang to slice through his chest at having woken her. It would be worth it, he knew, once he took her to his hidden gem. It was likely that many others had found the blue cavern spring, but the thief felt it to be his own small corner of the earth. It was a hideaway in the crying wood, and he wanted to share it with her.
 
“Tadec surprise Indra,” he explained to her with a fleeting smile that revealed his pointed fangs beneath his dark lip. “Will be gone into dark. That okay?” the nimble creature inquired. He wanted to make sure that Indra’s sister – the one that was to be left alone – was taken care of, so he turned his attention away from the red girl for a fleeting moment. His ears stood tall atop his head. “Tadec will get hare from stow,” he told her. He had created a small cache not too far from where they stood, and he had recently added to the stocks with two voles and the hare. “So Indra can feed sister.” Then, he fixed his gaze back on her and beamed, expecting to whisk her from her home for only an evening.

indra shook her head slowly, her skin wagging in the aftermath as her shake shuddered down her spine. when tadec mentioned a surprise she perked up, though she cast a doubtful glance to laurel. she was loathe to leave her sister -- for any amount of time -- but they were well rested and she had taken cares to bring laurel meals often. curious but reluctant to leave her post, indra offered an unsure smile. "could we come back before then?" she asked, almost pleaded -- though tadec's promise of supplying a hare somewhat eased her worry and his subsequent grin seemed to reaffirm her gradual acceptance of the offer.

quickly indra glanced into the den to inform laurel of her departure, and then as she resurfaced she nodded, swallowing her apprehension with a careful smile. "where are we going?"

The sun struck girl had questions, but before he answered any of them the dark fiend darted to his nearest cache and collected the meal he had promised. The nimble crow returned with sides heaving gently and set the catch at the feet of the worried sister. His relationship with his family had been a stressing one; it had taken his venture from their side to miss them, and even still… he did not know the closeness that Indra shared with her sister Laurel. It was something he would never understand. In spite of this, he did have a knack for care, and he was eager to depart with the tailless woman.
 
She told the mother of her niece and nephews that she would be leaving. He could not hear the mumbled tones from where he stood, but Tadec splayed his ears respectfully and waited for her to return. Once she had, the dancing champagne colors in her eyes caught him and his mouth curled upward. He swung his muzzle and motioned for her to follow him from the den site to their designated path. The question that hung in the air was of their destination, and he danced a small trot in place, gleeful in her acceptance before responding in a reverent whisper, “on an adventure.”

as the male flitted about like a crow indra watched him, content as he returned with a hare. the redleaf made one last pause, scanning their environ carefully with all faculties: ears, eyes, nose -- no intruder or lingerer remained, and she was content to leave after the wisplike male.

he mentioned an adventure and indra's chest fluttered -- it sounded promising, but should she? should she really leave? guilt wrought its thick tendrils around her confidence and she slowed, though she kept in line behind his sunken pawprints as she watched his sooty form bob ahead. "what kind of adventure?" she finally called, rallying up the abandon to set after him at a sweeping canter.

Her form fell behind, and Tadec wanted to slow his pace so that she might catch up once more, but he refrained and continued at his quick canter. If he were to falter, to slacken his quick steps, they would surely never make it past the valley’s entrance. His heart thrummed softly as he pressed forward, and only when he heard her voice call from behind him did he breathe again. It was relief that passed through him, touching the very tips of his nimble toes. The question that she posed was the kind of adventure he sought to take her on. The smoky thief tossed his head so that it pointed straight above him and called back, “Tadec cannot know the answer to that question.”
 
Slowing some so that she could return to a place nearer to him, the spindly halfling turned his head back over his shoulder and panted softly. “We find out together,” he then told her once she had gained on him. The crow knew that the journey would be well worth the end, but he only hoped that the Redleaf would find it just as magnificent.

indra remained unaware of the hesitation that hurried tadec's steps -- as they crested the summit that marked bearclaw's borders he finally relented, and she was able to pull alongside him in a pant. his enigmatic answer was met with a brief squinch, but no scalded reply pressed from her muzzle.

instead, she deigned to let him take her wherever he willed, though in the back of her mind she still fretted over laurel and her brood.

as he turned back to her to share they would embark upon this together, she was only slightly reassured; she afforded him a slim smile, casting her gaze about her. the meadows they were in were still familiar to her -- surely, wherever they were going, she would find out soon enough.

In her eyes, he could see the disquiet that caused her to glance back. Instinct told him that she would continue to worry about her sister the longer they were gone. Tadec had only been in the valley pack for a short time, but he had yet to cross paths with any who harbored ill intent. The worst of the brood was their leader – the white fang – who seemed only to have issue with the fact that the moonlighter was part coyote. It was bothersome to imagine that this would cause anyone distress, for he believed it to be a fine trait to possess. If it had been of his choice, Tadec would have been whole in his sharing of the coyote blood. They had always been his true kin, anyway.
 
The small smile that grazed her features was not enough. The spindly fellow spun in a circle, quick as a whistle, and then faced her with a wagging tail. The eagerness about him was overflowing, enveloping every aspect of his dark figure. “Don’t worry, Indra. Sister will rest – will be fine when we return,” he promised her with a small curling of his lips and a sure bob of his narrow skull. He knew that the pups would be safe by their mother’s side while Indra was away, and she would be back before she even noticed having left.
 
Once in the meadow just outside of the valley, Tadec glanced to where the glade was for a fleeting moment before turning west and peering at the dark wood that sat beyond the claim of the pasture. The tip of his tail was alive with an electric enthusiasm. The sun was starting to set beyond the mountains once they had made the halfway mark in the meadow. It would not have been long before its light faded, and the sky was illuminated with the twinkle of faraway stars.

though she had attempted to be sly in her fleeting glances behind her, nothing escaped tadec's notice. she was quick to firmly adjust her course as he spoke -- while he did not chide her for her worry, indra still felt somewhat at unease. eventually, that disquiet would fade -- but for now she was as fretful as a hen dislodged from roost.

in the end, laurel would be fine -- but it was not laurel explicitly indra worried about. no, it was the other shadow in the vale, the wolf that had challenged her sister. indra would never let that rest, and she swallowed yet another impulse to glance back as furtive or as futile as it was, laurel was well beyond sight.

as tadec pirouetted quickly in front of her she rolled her shoulders, struggling to rid herself of the blanket of anxiety that cast over her -- in many ways, it would have been easier if they had started sooner -- like tadec, indra's gaze was drawn quietly skyward and she studied the sun's descent with solemn silence.

then, tadec turned west, his tail twitching as if set afire -- she stopped alongside him, her ears perked forward as she tried to forget about being needed in bearclaw. laurel would be just fine without her a few hours, tadec was right, she was sure of it. "okay. what now?" she inquired, her gaze set inquisitively on blackfoot forest -- the last swath of treeline before the meadow was terminated.

The veldt gave way to the tree line that marked the forest terrain. They were close enough that he could drink in the scent of the wood; it was musky and dark within the weald but brimming with the life of small prey and birds overhead. The sun had dipped down below the range of the mountain peaks and the earth was painted in muddy chocolates and ink. The sky overhead had adopted a faint glow of pink for only a moment before it vanished and left way for navy to take hold. Tadec turned his sharp features toward the inky stretch above them and sighed softly. A frigid wind tousled the fur along his nape, forcing him to seek shelter within the first row of trees that led into the wood. Turning back to Indra, he offered her a small smile and then breathed deep the richness of the new terrain. He felt safer in the seclusion of the forest – not as open as their valley home, or the meadow that sat between the two terrains.
 
From the depths of the timber, a sharp cry sounded against the startling night air. The thief turned sharply, and his lengthy ears stood rigidly atop his narrow crown. With searching eyes and a curling of his lips that left room for his incisors to poke from beneath the hair on his muzzle, Tadec searched for the singing hombil. With a tentative and shaking voice, he released a high-pitched cry of encouragement to his fellow moonlighter. The fox returned with another sharp call, followed by another, and soon the forest rang with the noise of the hombil. His tail twittered behind him and he turned to look at Indra with a pointed and smiling face.
 
“Indra sing?” he asked hopefully.

duskfall vanquished the last embers of the sun, and the world sat in a roiling pool of navy and burnished orange. the temperature, along with the light, fled in a matter of minutes -- indra felt the wind bite her heels and she looked after tadec as he slipped like a thief into the dark confines of the coniferous forest.

around her the scent of loam and wilderness -- bough and fir -- she sucked in a deep breath and exhaled shakily, as if unshouldering for the first time the worries that weighted her.

a cry, sharper than any call she could summon, suddenly rent the forest and in a matter of moments the copse was alive with the chatter of night-stalkers and moon-dancers -- indra turned to tadec then, his fine features illuminated by the gentle waxing of the cold-pearl moon. indra sing? the question seemed almost preposterous, were it not for the chorus of cries that crescendoed behind them. with a grin and a shrug she threw back her head in a tumultuous howl, joining the thousands that heralded the oncoming night.

we could def archive here or with a closing post from u <3 and then focus on the main thread we've got/have an updated one soon

It would have been easy to claim that the crow was shocked at her joining howl; not because he believed she lacked the ability, but because he had imagined she would find it a silly notion. Instead of shock, though, his dark features came to life with sheer delight. The nimble crow could not help but to feel the sound of her voice flow through his slender frame and send him into a prance of joy and encouragement.
 
Tadec found his own voice in the form of a high yip that sounded through the wood, calling out to the night hunters and the creatures of Inlé to hear him. The pale light from overhead shone down and lingered against the hairs of their pelts, seemingly dancing with them. The thief forced his legs to cease movement, knowing that they had grown closer to the destination he had set for them. With a gleeful glint in his orange gaze, Tadec stretched to nip at her – nothing more than a gentle beckoning – and then darted in to the darkness of the wood.