Dragoncrest Cliffs with a crew that’s bound to pack them in

This is going to be an experimental journal of sorts - singular replies welcome - I am just trying to find a way to tack so many life changes in Val’s threadlog.

day one of the girls being gone. val learned from both chacal and mireille that they’d departed for the rise — the first leg of a youthful adventure.

he remembered being so young— at the time he’d considered himself quite old enough to travel, thank you — but watching the girl’s backs as they slid into the tangle, he saw how they were still a long way from grown.

he trawled along the western fringes of sapphique, catching and eating a small hare. mireille’s newest litter was hale; their eyes all opened and personalities becoming more apparent by the day.

soon chacal’s litter would follow. val looked forward to the arranged playdates between the cousins, only feeling a slight tinge of melancholy to think that someday they might disperse as the many others had done.

sapphique would see them thrive.

day two.

val did one last sweep of the borders, shoring up some markings that had lapsed with mireille’s indisposition and chacal’s inevitable birth. he did not like the idea of leaving them — but suzu relayed troubling news, and sapphique must answer the call.

it’d been a long time since he went to the mainland. he kissed each of the soft heads of mireille’s babes, gave the seasoned mother a gentle nuzzle, and then he set for bluepeace where he’d meet those that agreed to several days of hard travel.

with the yearlings on their own adventure, the cliffs were unusually quiet. val set his sight on the days ahead, a vague sense of trepidation in his breast.

dated 4.13.2024

day three.

they left with full bellies, sent off by the proud faces of sapphique. he knew that those remaining on the cliffs were perfectly suited to defend themselves. nothing -- and no one -- had threatened these halls since drageda, now a distant memory in the halls of the dead, and ancient history among the living.

still, he fretted.

keeping a game face on, val turned to his crew with a merry wink. he realized with a start it had been so long since he saw etil; not since the boy was all floppy ears and burdensome angles. would he be a man, now? would his face have grown, would he carry the gaze of his proud maman peering out of that darkened mask?

the crew made for rivenwood, @Suzu in the lead.

it could be said for certainty that val hated very few things in this world -- but leaving @Suzu behind was one of them. she was an adult, capable of her own choices, but it didn't make parting any easier.

he was largely silent as he and @Thibault returned home. they'd stayed long enough to get their energy restored, and then they were on the road. this time, val took the time to explain to thibault the dangers of the mainland. he entertained any and all questions the boy had, disposed by a strange sense of melancholy he had not experienced in some time.

the road stretched out before them. that night, he dreamed of an old spectre and held the boy close.