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+--- Thread: Redtail Rise are we living a life that is worth the harm (/showthread.php?tid=53519)
are we living a life that is worth the harm - Aventus - December 04, 2022
Having thoroughly swept the lands near Redtail Rise with no trace of his missing son, Aventus returned home at last for more than a brief respite. He had ascended the peak to the north and descended into the adjacent grotto, had combed the treacherous Tangle to the west, checked every forest and cave in the vicinity that he could locate. He had gone as far as the eastern glacier.
Atreus was nowhere to be found.
Exhausted and melancholy, he climbed to the higher reaches of the Ridge and looked across to the southern mountain range, flexing his sore paws against the cold stone. He would need to build his strength back with a couple days of good rest and food, but after that...
Either Atreus was dead, or he had gone much further than the man expected. He could no longer search without Ancelin at his side. Aventus had promised, and he meant to honour that. His remaining son deserved more than being left behind, but Aventus could not rest until he found concrete evidence of Atreus' fate. He could not accept another loss without doing all in his power to uncover the truth of it.
Greater than any of that was his flagging trust in his pack to care for Ancelin.
Thus was his next course decided.
The weary Bitan dropped to his belly and swept his gaze over the forest below, letting his held breath unfurl as smoke before his eyes.
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Avicus - December 05, 2022
a flash of fire ahead, a plume of smoke before it.
Avicus walks toward her brother, the weight of the world in her stomach.
he's back from looking for his son. and nothing she can say could counter whatever he's feeling.
he'hh gone?she asks, though it's not really a question. she'd known from the moment he'd left her that Atreus was forging his own path.
she just wasn't sure if Aventus could accept it.
but her eyes are soft, anyway, and fixed upon her littermate's dark face.
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Aventus - December 11, 2022
Aventus was still working out a route in his head when his ears tipped instinctively toward the sound of an approaching wolf, soon followed by his sister's slurring voice. Tension melted slowly out of his shoulders; there was no sense in putting his anger about his son's disappearance on full display for anyone, least of all her.
I will find him,he vowed,
if I must walk to the ends of the world, I will find him.Or what was left of him. Atreus came from cunning and capable stock but Aventus struggled to understand how his son could have gone so far on his own. Death seemed the more plausible explanation.
It was the conclusion he had drawn about Arielle as well, but this time he would not give up until he knew for certain.
Ancelin wishes to search with me. I mean to take him far east.
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Avicus - December 17, 2022
she deserves his anger—though she's not sure if he's even aware their conversation had been what had driven Atreus off—but will accept the lack of it nonetheless. her brother is deflated; she can hear the hollowness in his voice.
and she understands perfectly his conviction.
wha' if he doesn' wanna come back here?Avicus posits, as if it's a hypothetical.
he been away. . .noh' happy—her muzzle is stretched in a frown, tinged with both frustration for her nephew and pity for Aventus.
she cannot have wolves without loyalty to the Rise. and if, should Atreus be found, Aventus chooses to stay beside his son—who had so fervently cast off his allegiance to her—then she will have to count him among their defectors, too.
it will be a sad day, and yet, the writing had perhaps been on the wall since their infancy.
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Aventus - December 26, 2022
That will be his choice,Aventus replied, pulling his forepaws closer to his body in the snow. It was entirely possible Atreus was happier elsewhere, and if that was the case, Aventus could hardly tear that away from him. He had lived his entire life under the scrutiny of his father, whom he had sought to impress no matter how much he internally disagreed. It would be all too easy to do the same to his son, but he did not want that.
I just need to know that he is safe. Not being happy is only one reason he would stay away. You know we have enemies.They were few, but they were the sort who would stop at nothing to harm a child of Merrick. Or a grandchild of Merrick. His sons knew very little about their grandfather, but it would not be hard to work out the family resemblance in bearing if not physical appearance.
Sighing, he glanced up at his sister and asked,
did you know you wanted children?
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Avicus - December 26, 2022
choice. it isn't something she'd mulled over much. she hadn't considered her spawn's inclinations and—
yeah,she answers, nodding firmly.
i needed 'em. needed 'em to go on. carry on.
her brows lift as she regards him—does he feel the same?
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Aventus - January 09, 2023
It was impossible not to admire the certainty with which his sister lived her life. Even from a young age, Avicus had always known what she wanted and hadn't been afraid to leap for it. Aventus, conversely, had only reached out for things he felt were achievable, hesitating to go any further than what he could easily grasp, and that hesitation had always come at great cost.
Not me,he admitted.
I didn't want to subject any child to the life we had.So he had tried to take a different path than his father. So he had tried to be better for his sons.
But he had failed at that, too.
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Avicus - January 15, 2023
in contrast, Aventus has always been a thinker. she both admires the way he can delve beneath the surface of things, but doesn't envy the moments when he's stymied, trapped between his ruminations and what must be done.
she's liked him best when he's given into the savagery, the nature they were born into.
Merrick wahh' mad,she answers reasonably.
our life then. . .nohh' 'hhe life we've made here. he prayed; we hunhh'. he killedh for noh'hing—we kill for. . .
Avicus struggles for the right word, then finds it.
life.
there would be no bloody sacrifices or strange rituals on the Rise. their children would do all they could to survive, but whatever was beyond would be left to them.
i'm nohh' him. you're nohh' him.
thank god.
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Aventus - January 19, 2023
Avicus was right. She usually always was. It didn’t stop Aventus wondering if he should have continued to follow his father’s crazed path after all. Perhaps then Arielle would still be here and Atreus would not be gone, or maybe it was Aventus who yearned to be gone now.
There could be no pain in the afterlife.
He always knew exactly who he was,Aventus mused.
Mother, too.He doubted very much that Merrick or Astara had ever doubted themselves or questioned the choices they had made. He felt Avicus was much the same.
Something fundamental to Aves' sense of self was broken a long time ago, leaving him unmoored even now.
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Avicus - January 25, 2023
the mention of their mother brings her throat tight, as it always did. she steps back, mouth moving silently.
i wan' her back,Avicus says simply, speaking of Astara.
with a quiet, gentle nod, she acknowledges Aventus's journey and then moves away, back to her patrols and hunting and duties.
she hopes he'll find his son.
not just for the Rise's sake—for Aventus, too.
RE: are we living a life that is worth the harm - Aventus - February 08, 2023
Me, too,Aventus agreed quietly as the familiar burn of unpleasant emotion caught along his cheekbones. No mention of Merrick, which made sense to him. The madman had signed his own death warrant in locking jaws with his aunt, but Astara had done nothing to deserve her grisly end. She had been sick and unable to adequately defend herself.
He bid his sister farewell with a soft thump of his tail, then rose up on exhausted limbs to seek out his remaining son.