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+--- Thread: Dragoncrest Cliffs This place of loss (/showthread.php?tid=65895)
This place of loss - Shadess - May 01, 2025
A pack meet just so everyone can be caught up to speed icly and anything else that may need said. Tagging only the adults.
@Sobeille, @Lafayette, @Lucette, @Yura, @Astera.
@Sobeille, @Lafayette, @Lucette, @Yura, @Astera.
And just like that, another woman of the seas turned to salt water mist and disappeared from her life.
Shadess stood atop the great red arch which overlooked the bay. She looked down at the thought stone, the last place @Chacal went and did not return. A conch shell placed on top in silent farewell.
As the day fell to twilight, the skies a brilliant deep blue glow and the children would fall silent to sleep, Shadess descended the rock face and through the redwood.
In the blue blades of the meadow, she sat down near the vibrancy of the fireblood trees. It is in this place she calls for those few who still remained standing as Sapphique.
RE: This place of loss - Sobeille - May 01, 2025
it wasn't like shadess to call them without reason. loathe to leave the children, but compelled to answer, sobeille trotted stiffly towards bluepeace alongside yura. her pace was slow and measured given her recent injuries -- but still she pushed herself faster than she should.
she found her younger sister sitting composed beneath the eaves of a large fireblood tree. something about her expression chilled the emerald, who slowed with a concerned wave of her tail and a look that clearly conveyed: what is wrong?
RE: This place of loss - Yura - May 02, 2025
"You need to rest, Sobeille."
But she had known with certainty that the call of a Sapphiquian was not something to be ignored given the current circumstances. With a final, sloppy kiss to each of the babes' foreheads, Yura had scampered after her friend until they approached the edge of a grove of trees that possessed flame-kissed leaves not unlike Firemother's own.
Even with Chacal's blessings, Yura still felt out of place. Each wolf here was family to one another, and it bothered her more than it should as she settled quietly near Sobeille, glancing at each girl's expression with a questioning look of her own. Something was wrong.
RE: This place of loss - Lafayette - May 02, 2025
lafayette was not himself when he answered his sister's summons. this bedraggled, unkempt man was far from the kind-eyed genteel youngster once before.
and, yet, he came, dragging himself along with heavy step to sit in glassy-eyed query.
what now? he wondered. and why had shadess called them? his gaze cut sideways toward sobeille in faint question; his older sister had taken much command, especially of the babies that had been foisted upon them all of a sudden.
had something changed within their ranks?
did any of it matter?
lafayette's shoulders sagged, jowls drooping in a wolfish frown.
RE: This place of loss - Lucette - May 03, 2025
Lucette was a silent ghost at the periphery, a ruddy shadow trailing after Sobeille. Silence had shrouded her in the days following her return from the sea; if anyone had asked after her absence, she had not answered. There was little to tell, in truth; she remembered nothing.
And far too much to contend with in the here and now. Of her family, few remained. The youngest of them would inherit Sapphique, it seemed, and somehow Lucette felt empty in this knowledge. No elders to guide them now; only salt and sand, wind and waves, long night ahead before the dawn. Her mother was dead.
Lucette settled wordlessly, somewhere between Lafayette and Sobeille, and watched Shadess expectantly.
RE: This place of loss - Shadess - May 04, 2025
First to arrive was her sister Sobeille. Of no surprise to Shadess.
All our elders be gone now...A murmur from her lips as she looks out over the blue meadow and the woman Yura sits down, trailing after her sister. Then, as she turns back to Sobeille,
Did matant speak wid you, before?
Now one by one the twins would come. That was all that would come. This was all that was left.
Chacal spoke wid me, earlier dat night... Of a decision she and Mireille made for Sapphique's future. She made me Carnelian. A place of Roja at her side.Or at least, Shadess had expected that she would be at her side. To futher learn from her and grown into the position of leadership for which one day Chacal herself may retire. It was not meant to be. Shadess was not to replace Mireille at Chacal's side, she was made to stand alone in this. But she couldn't.
Sobeille I want you wid me, as Carmine.Despite her wants, it was up to Sobeille to accepted. Shadess did not think she would object. Sobeille's desire to protect and serve Sapphique was well obvious.
Lafayette will take my former place as Laramite.Their brother's placement in the ranks as one of trust would remain. He was the only adult male in the ranks currently and it was something Shadess was perfectly fine with remaining that way. Lafayette may be one of that last of men within Sapphique to hold weight of rank. Lucette, only just returned, would stay exactly where she was. She had yet to prove she would be sticking around this time.
RE: This place of loss - Sobeille - May 05, 2025
somber silence lingered. sobeille and yura arrived shortly before a bedraggled lafayette and withdrawn lucette. they formed a circle around shadess, eyes and ears turned as the auburn girl spoke.
at first, disbelief seized sobeille. a stirring of hurt came alive in her gut. maman and tante had both passed her over — despite being the eldest daughter of their thinning tribe?
what had she done?
once the momentary shock subsided, sobeille reminded herself that maman and tante had been very sick; perhaps fever clouded their judgment. though sobeille had been robbed of her birthright, it did nothing to diminish shadess deserving the rank by her own merit. she only wished maman and tante had spoken to her, too. being promoted to carmine couldn’t soften the blow of knowing her maman and aunt avoided her.
a long, mournful minute passed between them. when sobeille’s gaze turned to each of them before resting on shadess.
an’ tante chacal?she asked, voice quiet against the distant thrum of the sea. what of their aunt? sobeille trusted shadess deeply, yet a flicker of some hidden emotion crossed her yellow gaze once she realized only shadess had been there to hear her tante and maman’s final wishes.
RE: This place of loss - Yura - May 06, 2025
Shit, they looked terrible. As Shadess and Sobeille engaged in quiet conversation, Yura took it upon herself to eye the growing, gaunt crowd with an expression of pity. She recognised Lafayette from the seal hunt, and could have sworn she was seeing double had the twins not sat near enough to one another to see the stark difference in stature.
All their elders were gone. The moongirl felt her eyes widen in surprise that something like this could happen. Her thoughts strayed to Moonglow, to Kukutux and Aiolos. She knew they were not eternal, that one day their spirits would be called to the dancing lights and yet she could not imagine the village without them.
Once upon a time, she had yearned to take their place. Now, she saw apprehension in Shadess' gaze and thought the task insurmountably difficult.
But it must happen for the future of Sapphique. For the babes they'd worked so hard to save. Yura was apart of their destiny now and selfishly pressed her pelt against her friend in quiet support. Sobeille was most deserving of leadership, in her eyes.
RE: This place of loss - Lafayette - May 07, 2025
he might as well have been a corpse in the rain, the way the news fell upon him and barely penetrated. the main points were clear: shadess would lead, with sobeille at her side. lafayette given a token role—quite generous, given his gender—
"an' tante chacal?" asked his older sister.
probably dead, like de rest of dem,said lafayette dispassionately—not necessarily meaning to be overhead, but making no effort to conceal his voice, either.
after all, it wasn't as if it was a stretch. if chacal were still alive, she would be here.
he sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh, feeling as if he'd prefer to just dissolve into the earth, feet first, at this moment.
ma fanmi, let dem be safe in your 'ome,he murmured in quiet prayer.
RE: This place of loss - Lucette - May 22, 2025
Lucette listened in silence, but her mouth twisted bitterly with each new insult. Both littermates set above her, and nothing for herself. Nothing but to watch.
Her expression smoothed when Sobeille asked after Chacal, but only to hide her stormy thoughts. Rebellion was already brewing behind her venom-green eyes. She would not submit to a littermate.
Probably dead, Lafayette supplied, earning a sharp glance from Lucette. Her gaze softened just as quickly; all the grief seemed to have struck a sickness into him. He couldn't be blamed.
He was probably right, anyway.
RE: This place of loss - Shadess - June 08, 2025
Sobeille's question heard. There to linger for which Lafayette would answer. Her jaw tenses as teeth grit, ears flattening on her head suddenly as though he had knocked the wind from her, yet the 'ooph!' was missed in her. Instead, she answers,
I dun t'ink she will be returning from de sea, sista.A murmur on her lips, silent again as the other two had become. Her head lowers. Two Queens had risen to power, yet none smile this day.
RE: This place of loss - Sobeille - June 19, 2025
how could this be?
sobeille wrestled with the self-same bolt of emotion that tore through lafayette. as she looked upon each of her family's faces, she saw a storm: black and billowing and threatening to consume them all.
the impulse to infight left her. this was not the future her maman would want -- or tante.
but how could she know in her heart what either wanted, when both had simply... given up?
her mouth twisted in a similar manner as lucette's, but it was yura's steady presence that reigned the emerald back in. though it killed some great part of her, in that moment sobeille vowed she would fight until her last breath for sapphique: no matter the cost, no matter the crucible placed upon her -- she would not walk out into the sea or simply fade away.
not when so many of those still among the living needed her.
early spring would forever be a time of grief for the emerald. her jaw clenched as she steeled herself, a rough nod given before her gaze panned to each.
we go on.
maman and tante may be among the lost, but sapphique still stands.