Wolf RPG

The disappearance of Requiem was difficult for Suzu to fully comprehend. Her questions were innocent, but seemed to wound her mother when she asked for clarification. As a predator, she knew what death was- but something about this was different. Was Requiem really dead? Did the eagle eat him or drop him? She couldn’t stop herself from asking those questions- and the answer of “I don’t know” wasn’t satisfying. 

What she did understand, however, was that danger lurked in the sky. If Requiem was small enough to get carried away, then she was in danger too- and would be for some time, as the smallest of the children. 

She lived in shadows, and hovered in the mouth of the den, leery of leaving unless there was an adult whose paws she could trip over. Visitors were frequent, which provided her some relief from being stuck at the den out of fear, but it did not soothe her completely. 

Even on a beautiful, sunny day when she could see for miles she remained pressed against the side of the den’s mouth. She’d been told they’d be moving soon, once Chacal found a safer place for them, but until then, Suzu would remain where she felt safest.

There was a heaviness to their entire family. Even Etienne had fallen silent. The vibrations his only solace. He did not speak to those around unless spoken too, because there were no words in any of the languages he was learning and knew that spoke of the pain he felt. Req was gone and he felt hollow, strange.

Etienne found Suzu hovering near the entranceway. A favorite haunt of hers as of late. He moved up beside her and plastered himself to her side. Not even caring if she didn't want his atttention or his physical presence. He needed something, some sort of solace and he got it with vibrations and he could feel hers. Her chest, her heart, the sound of her breathing. They all brought him comfort. She was still here, still alive.

He gently preened at her ears if she would allow him, nibbling at her fur. Trying to give comfort or comfort himself he wasn't sure.

The soft pad of Etienne’s paw steps was one she recognized, and without taking her gaze from the sky she accepted his company. As he leaned against her, she too leaned into him, feeling safer with him by her side. Her brother knew how to console her, in the same way that their mother did. She allowed it for some time, almost allowing her eyes to drift close- before she gently pulled her head away with an appreciative whine, and opened her eyes again.

She tilted her head back and looked up, frowning. The sky was clear, not like it had been the morning Requiem was taken. And only gulls wheeled overhead. A sign they were safe, as the gulls would scatter if the predator showed up again. She drew a heavy sigh.

Etienne was learning his families paw steps. His sister's gentle minced ones. Theo's large brutish ones. The way his mother seemed to dance and float all at once. He liked to listen to that. He liked the knowing of who was near, by feeling and sound alone.

Eti followed her gaze. The gulls wheeling and diving. The sight of even them leaving him uneasy. He wasn't sure if he would ever get over his genuine fear of birds even as a fully grown adult someday, but for now he was content to sit in the silence. His sister could lead the conversation if she so wished. Though truthfully, he was pleased just with her company and presence.

He lay a a paw along her back at her sigh, but didn't preen or press. Just a gentle showing of support to his one and only sister.

Étienne seemed to sense her heartache- it was something they shared together, this loss. She leaned her head against his shoulder and remained that way for some time, crying softly. She let the tears trickle down her cheeks and patter against the ground. 

She wished there was something they could do. Some way to speak with the birds and send them out in search of the eagle that had taken their brother. 

With longing and loss in her voice, she tilted her head back and sang out, her voice a siren of pain and sorrow, wishing there was some way she could sing her brother home.

Etienne didn't move from his position, allowing sister to let her tears run dry. Her snot and water mixed in with his fur, and still he didn't move. He did hum softly a song he had heard their mother and others sing as they slept, hoping the vibration would help her a little as it did him.

Etienne did not trust any bird now. So had he been privy to Suzu's thoughts he would have balked at such a thing as letting the birds find Req.

Eti lifted his own muzzle and joined his sister's voice with his own. Letting the emotions he often felt about this unfairness drip from his lips like water, and flow into the world. There was no taking them back now.

Their voices twined together, high, sweet and innocent. It was a sound that would make their mother's heart ache to hear, but there was some solace for them for having chosen to stick together, and help each other through their feeling of loss. 

Once she had finished howling, she looked up to Etienne with big, glossy eyes. "E come back, yeah?" She begged. Their mother had explained the scenario to them, but she wanted to hear it from her brother. She still had hope.

The sound would forever lay curled in Eti's chest. The vibration of it, the feeling of it. All of it. But his heart hurt to hear all the pain in Suzu's voice. It drove him crazy. He wanted to fix it for her. She deserved the world.

Eti ran a paw over his sister's ears, and down her fuzzy neck. 'e isn't back yet, but 'e'll come back. Granme says dat t'ings get lost, but dey come back. Granme says even s'e be lost befo', but s'e came back too. An' if I 'afta w'en we can go. I'll go find 'em.

Sometimes, things got lost. But sometimes, they came back. It was the words she hoped to hear, and she was reassured- momentarily. If Grandma had gotten lost and had come back, surely Requiem could too...Mireille and Sobo had gone to search, and she believed her aunt and uncle had what it took to track down and bring back a lost child. 

But when Etienne mentioning going as well, she buried her temple against his shoulder. "Non, Eti," She moaned. "Don' go. I don' wan' you go too." She said. "You hafta stay," She begged.

Eti had taken solace in his granme's words, and it seemed Suzu did as well. He smiled, glad he had managed to help her a little bit. She was his only sister, and he wanted to take care of her.

Gentle face against downy fur, and oversized ears, stood to attention, but he lay his cheek against her head and spoke softly.

Okay Suzu. I won't leave you. I'll stay rite 'ere wit' you. I promise.

It was a promise freely given, that also carried heavy weight and he didn't realize then the implications of what he had done, but he knew deep down, that with promises came things like keeping them, and he would need to do so.

She felt a bit better, now. She leaned against him for a moment, soothed. She could hear the push and pull of the waves against the shore in the distance, and felt the breeze lighten a bit, and turn. She lifted her head from his shoulder and stepped into the light a bit, blinking and sniffing. The tide had changed, she thought. It was something subtle, but changed the pressure in the air. 

"You t'ink, Eti," She said softly. "Dat what Grandme mean...t'ings dat go, an' come back. Is like de tide?" She said, looking back to him, before she turned her gaze back toward the forest that stood between them and the cliffs. "Even dis far, we can feel de tide...You t'ink...Requiem can feel it too?"

Suzu had leaned into him. Sweet sister scent swirled around him. Familiar. Familial. Love. Eti could hear it too, and feel it even in the ground beneath their feet. It was faint, but it was there. Tugging. Pulling. Churning.

I 'ear grownups say. Ocean calls to all. So, yes I t'ink 'e can feel it. An' i bet it reminds 'im of 'ome. Tells 'im we are still 'ere, just waitin' for 'im to come back.

Eti followed behind her, and then stood beside her. His own nose quivering in the air, ears tilted forward, golden eyes on the horizon and the tide.

Is beautiful, yes?

The more she thought about it, the sadder it made her to think that somewhere, her brother might feel the tides change, but not know his way home. "I wish it pull him back to us." She murmured quietly. She'd begun to notice the way the weather changed mid-day, when the breeze moved with the shifting tides. Unlike Etienne, she felt the movement more in the air, and in her sinuses which felt the change in pressure. 

She looked out across the water thoughtfully, and nodded faintly. It was beautiful, but she couldn't help but wonder sometimes if the eagle had dropped Requiem into the waves- too far from the shore for even the tides to bring him home. She wouldn't voice such thoughts- it seemed a sin to think so cruelly of the ocean when they had no real signs that it had taken him away. 

"How do you t'ink it goes?" She asked instead.

Eti stubbornly refused to think of the bad things, that could happen. His brother was safe and happy somewhere. He had to be, because Granme said that the ocean took, but gave back. And things got lost, but found their way back. And Granme, she wouldn't lie.

Me too Suzu.

He also wished fiercely to be able to find their brother and retutn him safely. But Eti knew he couldn't do such a feat. One he couldn't leave his manman and suzu. That would be a cruelty. And he was too small.

'ow Far?

He looked at her, unsure if that was what she was asking.

"'Ow far, yes," She said, chuckling when she realized her omission. "Do you t'ink dere be land on de ot'er side? Do you t'ink it be salty all de way t'rough? If river water flows to de ocean, den surely in a few years, won't de ocean be fresh water too?" She asked. "De rain, too. It be fresh water...So won't de ocean be fresh someday?" Of course, Etienne wouldn't likely have the answers to these questions, so they were more rhetorical than anything. But well worth sharing the notion, she thought.

Eti frowned in thought as she listened what felt like 100's of questions, but it was questions he also wanted the answers too. He tilted his head and hummed quietly under his breath, as he thought of how to answer her.

Well dere 'as to be rite? After all, utters walk from lands all de time to 'ere. So dere must be land. Ocean is always moving, so river is always moving. Dat I am not sure of.

Etienne studied the push and pull. Dose are questions for granme's and Manman's.

Suzu had many questions. Questions that her brother likely wouldn't be able to answer, and questions that perhaps even her own family wouldn't be able to answer. If they had not been across the ocean, how would they know if there was anything on the other side? Unless..."Per'aps de birds know." She answered. 

She paused for a moment, before she gave Etienne a nudge. "We ask dem." She said, tail wriggling with excitement that she allowed to buoy for a moment before she whipped her head back and began to imitate- to the best of her abilities- the shrill call of the gulls that circled overhead. The birds didn't react much- save for one that seemed to tilt its head slightly in her direction- but shrieking like that certainly was fun!

Eti stared at the birds with mistrust after his sister spoke of them might be knowing things. It didn't sit well with him, the creatures with beady dead eyes, that watched them. The things that took his brother. He didn't know how he felt about them, yet. They were awful beasts for now.

He stared at her in surprise and shock. Ask dem birds?

There was an unsuriety to his gaze as he looked to Suzu and then back to the birds, but before he could voice his discontent. Her maw parted and she screeched like those creatures. Eti's ears hit his head, the sensitivity of his ears, causing tears to dance along the edges of his eyes, but this made Suzu happy. So with pained ears, he joined in her raucous cry.

She forgot, sometimes, that her brother held more of a grudge toward birds than she did. Great, giant eagles, of course- they were bad. But gulls? She thought they looked stunned, confused- and that made them almost a little bit adorable. She was glad when her brother began also making the ear-splitting gull noises with her, and looked up in time to see the one gull with the crooked leg circle twice, head tilted, before it flapped its wings and flew off. 

"Oops! I t'ink maybe we insult him," She said with a giggle. She noticed the pained expression on Etienne's face. "Awwww, you don't t'ink I 'ave a beauuuuuutiful voice, Etienne?" She asked, fluttering her eyelashes at him. "I suppose when someone t'ink 'birdsong' dey don't imagine sea gull screams, hahah!" She commented.

Eti wouldn't say it was a grudge. A deep loathing perhaps for birds. Did that make him want to eat them, no. Hurt them, possibly. But probably not. There was a gull above them, it circled and then flew off, and all Eti could think was he understood, this was a noise louder than he was even used too.


Eti chuckled. Of course you 'ave a beautiful voice, Suzu. It was jest loud. My ears 'urt wit' loud t'ings.

He shrugged a small shoulder and shifted. But watched teh birds fly away. I don't like dem birds, but dey are kinda pretty w'en dey are flying like dat.

They blocked out the sun and shadows danced along the sandy shores. He liked how it looked against teh backdrop of gold.

What he admitted to her would be remembered. While she loved to get excited and show off her vocal athleticism, she'd try to remember, from that point on, that she could also sound excited at a whispering level. Etienne was her gentle, sensitive brother, and she loved him all the more for being who he was, and letting her know if and when things bothered him. 

The birds, still, seemed to be in the grey books. But he seemed to be willing to overlook his grudge for gulls. It had not been a gull that had taken Requiem away, and Suzu had been learning what gulls ate...And that menu did not seem to include anything that wasn't from the shore. She was glad he could forgive gulls, at least. Suzu liked them. And in return, she wouldn't make him interact with them more than he was comfortable. "Less go see if Maman 'as some food, ehn? I be gettin' hungry."

Suzu as always took what he said and let it flitter into her heart. She would not be so loud for him from then on. She was free spirited and happy and he loved that she was. He was a little more reserved. Though he did love to play. Just noises bothered him.

At her admission of being hungry he nodded and smiled. Race you to manman, Suzu!

He called out, his voice trilling and chirruped with happiness.