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+--- Thread: Emberwood many the miles (/showthread.php?tid=32460)
many the miles - Moor - January 24, 2019
Although they'd been travelling at a steady clip, Moorhen had been sure to stop them often for naps and hunting. The kids, grown as they were, still seemed like babies to Moorhen, and she didn't want to wear them out. She was still worried about Szymon as well; he was not completely recovered, and his frame was probably still a little too lean to be wasting energy on such frivolous things at this trip.
"Stay close," she warned the kids, releasing them once more to get all their wiles and wiggles out of the way. But they'd been good thus far, and she wasn't quite as worried about losing one as she'd been when they first set off across the sandbar. Not quite as worried, of course, was still a great deal of worry for Moorhen, but she'd at least calmed down enough to let them wander out of her sight.
The banded woman laid down and began grooming her paws; there was a thistle in one of them that had been bothering her for several hours, but they'd not stopped for long enough to see to it before now. Too, she was growing anxious about her scent. It seemed to be getting stronger, and she certain felt very weird - but she didn't want to draw attention to herself, so she simply tried to ignore it and defied anyone else to act differently around her.
RE: many the miles - Koi - January 25, 2019
The spindly little wolfdog lay on her back, looking up with drowsy cerulean eyes at a brilliant yellow canopy of dancing leaves. It was the first time she’d seen an aspen grove, and the symphony of trembling foliage reminded her of the Labyrinth. Sometimes the quaking leaves sounded like a cheerfully burbling brook — but when the wind rolled through, causing the pale grove to shimmy and sway, it hushed and shushed like the waves that kissed Wheeling Gull Isle’s shores. The idyllic atmosphere acted as a soporific for the tuft-eared seven-month-old, and in no time at all, her seabright eyes drifted closed and her breathing grew slow and even with sleep.
RE: many the miles - Lucas - January 26, 2019
For the most part, Lucas was content to keep on walking, so he found Moorhen's insistence on breaks a little trying, but he knew it was for the best. He would walk until his legs were sore and then walk some more if he had his way. It was just his nature to wander, as it was most males before him in his combined bloodlines. He felt certain Currituck, who had also done a fair amount of traveling in her life, was just as well equipped for this as he was, but the others[mdadh]particularly the gentle Koi and the fragile-seeming Szymon—didn't seem quite as up to the task. For their sakes, he was able to still his wanderlust for these rest stops.
The forest was magnificent even in winter, and he felt quite sure he'd seen one like it when he was traveling with the troupe. Maybe it was the very same one. That would mean they were getting close to Bearclaw Valley, and that made his stomach giddy with excitement. It seemed impossible to settle down enough to rest with that on his mind, so for a time he paced through the forest, sticking close to the group but ranging far enough that he could hear nothing but the susurrus of the wind. Eventually he did return to them, selecting a spot near where Koi was dozing and curling himself into a giant fluffy ball of Lucas to try to catch a few winks.
But he didn't fall asleep; anyone who approached him would see his pale blue eyes drifting lazily across the trees, defying him the peace of slumber.
RE: many the miles - Moor - February 08, 2019
It took some time, but eventually her paws were cleared of all sharp poke-y things, and she took a moment to look around at her travelling party. Everyone seemed calm and still, but her sharp eyes settled quickly on Lucas as she saw that he was awake.
"What is the name of your mother?" she asked after a long moment of silently crafting the clumsy sentence.
RE: many the miles - Lucas - February 18, 2019
Lucas was half expecting to lay there in silence until Moorhen ushered them up and out again, but the dark-haired Akhlut had other ideas. His liquid blue eyes rose when she addressed him and he answered promptly:
mom.That was all he had ever known her as. But there were other clues and he was more than happy to share them without being asked, because he loved to talk.
She never said her name but she's brown like this,he said, indicating his cinereous forearm,
and she's sisters with Aunt Indra. She's the prettiest wolf I've ever seen.That wasn't some kind of Oedipus remark, either. Lucas loved his mother but not like that. Still, he thought she was beautiful in the way any loving son thought their mother was, and his memory of her was even more pristine than the real Laurel.
Do you know them?he asked, but he was betting not. It seemed very unlikely a wolf from the coast would know the wolves of Bearclaw Valley, which he imagined to be very, very far away.
RE: many the miles - Moor - February 27, 2019
Ah. That answered her question. Moorhen was a little relieved that he was not one of Venninne's children, as she would have been sorry to tell him that his mother had already come and gone. She didn't know Laurel or Indra quite as well, and she'd been closer with the latter than the former, but the answer was still, "Yes." She shoved her nose against the dirt to help relieve an itch, and then snubbed a forepaw over it instead. "Her name is Laurel," she added, realized it was quite sad that he didn't know her name, and also potentially problematic if that was allowed to persist.
She licked her nose to rid it of dirt and thought about how Laurel was quite pretty. "I lived in Bearclaw Valley with my husband and our wives," she explained. "I knew them both. And Xan." Her eyes flicked over him, looking for signs of the male in his countenance. They seemed very different to her, but Moorhen still had an inkling that this was Xan's son.
RE: many the miles - Lucas - March 01, 2019
There was so much Lucas knew about his family, being attentive and observant as he was—the sadness in Indra's eyes, Piper's favourite food, Wyatt's favourite hiding spot, his mother's favourite kind of stone—and yet there was also a lot he didn't know about them anymore. He'd never learned his mother's name because it hadn't been important, and perhaps if he'd known it, someone would have returned him to his home. There was no guarantee of it, but who knew? And now he couldn't claim to know them at all. They remained in his memory exactly as they were when he left... but he would be truly foolish to think things hadn't changed since then.
Laurel. A beautiful name for his beautiful mother. To Lucas, she would always be Mom. The other information was more interesting, anyway.
Did you really? I don't remember you or...Wait, what?
How'd you have a husband and wives at the same time?He wasn't completely naive about all the different family dynamics, as there had been same sex couples with the troupe and his own family wasn't exactly orthodox, but what Moorhen claimed simply didn't make sense to him. You either had one or the other, or so he thought.
Didn't know Xan,he said with a shrug. The most he'd known about the man was that he was the leader of Bearclaw Valley... and some leader he'd been, considering Lucas had only even really seen him on one occasion, when he was very very little. That he was Luc's father wasn't something the boy had any inkling of.
RE: many the miles - Moor - March 04, 2019
The boy's question was answered at first with an ineloquent shrug. It hadn't been all that clear to Moorhen, either, who'd been about Lucas's age (she thought) when she'd first met Wardruna. Now that she thought about it, perhaps it was a bit odd. But those times were behind her, and it wasn't as though she'd performed her wifely duties for the man - she wondered if he'd been her husband at all.
"My husband had many wives," she said after a moment of contemplation. "I was young. He did not tell me why." Or rather, she hadn't thought to ask. It'd seemed like quite agreeable at the time, so she hadn't bothered to question it.
On the topic of Xan, she had very little to say. He'd seemed nice at first, but had turned out to be a wholly underwhelming leader. From Lucas's reaction to his name, he seemed to have become an underwhelming father as well. Perhaps she was mistaken, though, and Lucas had been sired by some other wolf. Things had gotten awfully confusing in the months before she'd left.
"Who else did you know?" she asked, laying her head down on her paws but continuing to gaze at the younger wolf. She searched for the other males she had known in his features, struck by the thought that he might be a child of Wardruna's after all. But the timelines didn't add up; she was sure she would have known about it if Wardruna had impregnated another while she was still around.
RE: many the miles - Lucas - March 05, 2019
He didn't totally understand it, but that was just how Moorhen's family was, Lucas guessed. Just like his family was a conglomerate of children, both biological and not, raised by just two sisters looking to make their lives better. His situation obviously wasn't strange to him, so Moorhen's must not be strange to her. What was strange was having a husband at such a young age. He giggled nervously and said,
I couldn't have a wife at this age, I'm too young! You were too young!Maybe her husband was really young, too, and maybe they'd been really good friends all their life or something.
Or maybe Wardruna really was just a gross predator who collected young girls like trophies... But Lucas hardly ever thought such negative things about anyone, so he didn't come to that conclusion. He assumed it was just a case of young love. The multiple wives thing didn't seem nearly as weird to him.
Uh well my sister Piper and my brother Wyatt,he said, mentally counting,
my cousins Nunataq and Marten and Merrick but they were like brothers and sisters too. Ummm... Oh, uncle Tadec! And there was a grumpy guy called Stigmata and a wonderful magick lady named Mona.And that was about it, as far as he could recall. Bearclaw Valley had been very small and intimate even before he left.
RE: many the miles - Moor - March 18, 2019
Perhaps she had been too young as well. It was something that she'd thought of on occasion since she'd been removed from the situation. Sometimes she was tempted to feel bitter about the experience, but she always came to the same conclusion: "What is done, is done," she said with a hint of wry amusement. "We are now parted. And I am not too young anymore." So it was a moot point. Moorhen didn't mind talking about it, but there didn't seem to be anything to rehash; nothing had been taken from her but time, in the end.
Moorhen listened somewhat dubiously as he listed off several names she did not recall from her time in the valley. Most of them, it seemed, were of the generation that'd been born shortly after her departure, so it made sense that she did not know them. Thus, she gave an apologetic shake of her head. "I leave before your birth," she told him, "I could not meet them."
RE: many the miles - Lucas - March 20, 2019
She had the right of it. Lucas, too, believed that what was done was done, but in a hopelessly optimistic way. Things could only keep getting better. That's what he believed the saying meant. For that reason he nodded with a smile; she wasn't tied to her husband any longer, and while that was surely a sad thing in its way, she didn't seem melancholy about it. So he didn't bother dwelling further.
What made you leave?he had to ask, though he thought he knew the answer already. Although Lucas had left Bearclaw Valley quite by accident, believing the troupe would bring him back after a day or two and still failing to see how nefarious they were, he'd known for some time that its ranks were defective. He couldn't remember the Alpha male doing anything noteworthy, and his mama, bless her heart, had children to worry about. The pack had seemed more like a loose group of wolves without direction than a group of wolves banded together in unity. It wasn't surprising that that lifestyle wasn't for some.
Still, he had to ask, if only because he liked to know how others saw things.
RE: many the miles - Moor - March 24, 2019
What made her leave? That's a good question, because mixed never really made up an IC reason. Luckily, a recent thread with Jarilo gave her an idea.
"I was chasing the wind," she replied with a wry smile, "and I chased it all the way to the islann. Coelacanth found me there. But she knew me before, too. From when I was small. So I stayed, because I wanted to be small again, and she wanted to let me. And now I am big."
It was a little more than the younger wolf had asked for - and a little more than Moorhen had ever said about her decision to leave in the past.
RE: many the miles - Lucas - March 31, 2019
Chasing the wind was something Lucas could relate to a little. In his bones were Reek's genes and DeMonte genes from generations of DeMontes who had changed their name to Redleaf years ago. Both of these sets of genes were rife with wanderlust, and it was apparent in Lucas as well, who yearned to wander where his heart desired. So he understood the breeze's call just a little; it was partly what led him to the troupe, and the grander adventure thereafter.
Wanting to be small again, he also understood. He'd never been in any hurry to grow up, and the result was a large, man-sized wolf with the cherubic smile and attitude of a boy.
I get that, I think,he said, letting his ears drift off to the sides to survey the surrounding woods. He smiled, with a little chuckle, and said,
Coelacanth seems really nice. Like everyone's her kid.
RE: many the miles - Moor - April 15, 2019
Conversely, Moorhen's lineage was far more settled. The Cairns did sometimes wander, but it was with purpose. Her mother's side remained on the red earth they were born into. Of course, Moorhen knew nothing of this, and the family she'd been adopted into was known for its wandering souls. Moorhen had heard their stories: the Earthstalker, the Spiritwalker, the siren sisters, and Coelacanth herself were all wanderers.
"Yes," she agreed, looking back toward the island with a warm, wistful expression on her face.
Shall we close this up?
RE: many the miles - Lucas - April 18, 2019
It seemed they were at the end of their conversation. He watched Moorhen's face for a short while, trying to read her expression as she looked away, and then he settled his broad muzzle over his ankles and let his eyes drift slowly shut. Imagine that. She knew his mother and his aunt. Maybe the world wasn't so vast after all...