Firefly Glen young folks

>:)

in the middle of the night, maggak left moonspear with no warning.
it was may and the sun was bright and warm, which meant that in mere days, maggak would turn from girl to woman. and that meant that she must be sent abroad, somewhere not of her own choice, somewhere full of people she did not know! it loomed and crept ever closer, and as it did, the thought of it brought her dread instead of excitement.
it had never truly occured to her until now that ultimately, she had autonomy — was that not the whole point? she did not have to go where she did not want to!
it was a brash decision to slink off down one of the well-hidden trails. she whispered to @Acrux her haphazardly-built plan as dusk glittered between the trees, as she always did, trusting only in him; i want you to come with me, she'd said to him. i don't want to go anywhere without you. but ultimately, that was his choice, and this was now hers.
this brought her to now, creeping through the harsh darkness of the glen and trying her best to avoid the bog. she huffs out a shuddering sigh as she weaves between tendrils of greenery, guided only by the intermittent sunglow of the sanctuary's namesake.

he knew of the path stretched before him in expectation to become a man — but it was not a path of his choosing. it was the way things were to be, but he did not wish it! and so when maggak came to him with whispered songs of leaving, he did not think twice before hurriedly following after. 

she could have asked him to follow her off the cliffs of moonspear to the fiery pits of hell, and acrux would have done so with the loyalty of a blind man. he would have jumped from the summit to the swallowing earth below if she'd done so first. he adored his family, respected his mothers, doted on the babes he now called siblings, but there would always be one above the others — there would always be maggak. 

he could not think of a time torn away from her that would not bring heartbreak, but perhaps now he did not have to worry over such thoughts. he brushed alongside her as the pair of them slinked through the glen, the small lanterns hovering above offering the only illumination amongst the bog and thicket. "where will we go?" he asked with a cautious step taken to the side. neither of them had explored much of the land beyond their home, but he did not think it such a frightening prospect with his sister by his side.

acrux was not far behind her. this warmed the heart of the starlet, greeting him silently before inviting him along her path. she shielded him from the muck, letting her own feet get dirty, and kept close to his side, attached at his hip as if they were magnetized.
they had been separated once. he had been hurt once. and never again would she let either one happen.
anywhere we want, she whisper-shouts back, that same goofy, mischievous grin taking hold of her velveteen face. she watches as a firefly flutters in front of his nose. to the sunspires, the desert, the ocean. the world is our oyster!
she paces an inch or two ahead of him to seek out a clear path. we're headed north right now, i think. but where do you wanna go?

she laid options before him, each considered carefully as they continued to press through the grotto's muck. they knew mountains for they'd bloomed upon one. the thought of the desert for a pair of new travelers was perhaps a bit much to swallow. "how about the sea?" he suggested with a glance to read his sister's thoughts.

the northland was home to much of their extended family, and should they cross any during their excursion away from the spear, they could play off that's all this was. they were off on a stroll to explore the countryside — this was all any questioning relatives would need to know.

the last time he'd been to the ocean it had left a bitter taste in his mouth. the journey there and back again had been one of loss for all involved. but they were older now, and perhaps the sea would not mark a sour stain any longer, but symbol the beginning of a new chapter.

the sea! while a younger maggak thought it to be stinky and boring, the idea of it appealed to her much more now. we'll go to a beach, she suggests, tail swinging up and into a wide waving flag of white. i think i remember there being a forest near moontide. and like, cliffs n' stuff. but there's gotta be more beaches other than moontide, right?
she was merely thinking aloud now. they were both rather naive even in teenagedom, oblivious to the landscape beyond tales others took with them to the moonvillages; but this did not discourage the eager girl as her brows knit together inquisitively. we'll figure it out, i think. i know the coast is north from here, so maybe we just keep going north until we find it?

and so it'd been decided, to the sea it was! maggak speaks of a beach, and he lifts his snout in humored thought, "probably, the ocean looked pretty big last i remember." surely there was another beach amongst the edge of ocean life that was not occupied.

maggak's voiced thoughts were met with an encouraging nod. "guess there's only one way to find out," he announced with tail flag-like and a paw lifted forward-high in triumph. "to the sea! or wherever else north might take us" he cheered with a playful grin.