Blackfeather Woods night shift

for @Nemesis and/or @Cicero, @Potema, @Seff, and @Terich-mir! please let seff and terich reply first. tagging @Damien for clarity although his player is on absence <3

with her farewells said and a conversation held with terich-mir, the pair gathered seff and departed larksong grotto one dawn. vuk did not know how long they traveled; they set their pace around seff's own and ate little, so anxious was the scarred girl to approach the woodland. and she did not know how they would be received — this was difficult for her, so shy a creature.

unbidden as the feral scent of the gloomy woodland entered her nostrils did images of the unnamed ridge wolf appear, seff's true father. vuk wondered why she thought of him now. perhaps he had intended for his son to be raised in a more feral clime than larksong provided; perhaps there was some latent part of the wolf in seff that would be encouraged here. whatever it was, vuk was strangely comforted by her thoughts.

the trio of demontes halted at the borders, and here vuk called gently for the pale woman potema, singing to her that seff had returned to stay.

throughout the journey Seff's excitment had not ebbed, yet oddly he found himself, at times, thinking of the two girls long behind him now. they hadn't seemed the happiest, especially not Laurel, the girl he had taken an unprecidented liking two. but when the trees loomed before him and the border was before him, did he howl to the sky, joining in his mother's song with a voice filled with excitment, calling for Potema with such a joy that almost seemed palettable. he slipped forward to step on the border, gazing into what had been his home for months and considering a moment slipping in to find Potema, yet he had an idea that would be ill recieved.

so the boy waited, eyes aglow as he ran through a list of herbs in his head, determined to show his mentor how he had so well remembered all the herbs he ought have to. he had remembered it all, and as he looked to his home before him and his mother behind, he felt once and truly complete, and his pure joy showed it.

She was close to the end of her first trimester. She did not think she was showing, at least to the untrained eye, but she felt it. She did not feel the flutter of life behind her skin, instead only feeling indigestion at best.

She countered these feelings with her herbs, which she gnawed on gently, the taste bitter as the juices released in her mouth, but she swallowed it down, and not a moment too soon. Her ears perked at the familiar sound. She leapt to her feet, excitement taking hold of her.

She ran to the border, all but ignoring the older, feminine cry and the sight of the white and black female as she approached the small brown figure. She smiled; he had grown. Seff.

Sorry for the delay! <3

Terich did not hold any love for the strange religion that had infected Larksong Grotto, but he would miss Jhala and her babes, and even Reek, too, as he was the man who had saved his family those many months ago. But his heart would follow Vuk and Seff anywhere, would make sure his son was his in name as well as deed. He had not been a very present father in Seff's youth, but Terich swore to himself that he would be from now on. 

Terich stood beside Vuk and Seff, his voice silent for now. This was not his place to call for Potema, but he would not leave them to do this along. They sought membership here, the place where Seff had been taken, and had flourished. The thought that his son had flourished elsewhere made him sad, but he remembered the vow he made to himself, and sought this new home for his son's sake.

It was surprising to see a child return to the dark woods, and so willingly delivered by what Cicero could only imagine was a relative or pack member. He wondered if there was a catch, or if they were all here to stay. The Woods had been hospitable enough, although Cicero could not help but wonder where and how Potema had found him in the first place, the boy. Yet it did not matter for now; they could use some fresh blood, and with interest Cicero slunk towards the borders when he heard the call for his sister.

She was there before him, a beacon dividing the three strangers from the Woods and from his sight at first. As he slunk through the shadows and trees they came into view, closer, and he was intrigued by their appearances — mostly that of the woman, who was coated in the same monochrone colours as he, except with more white. She lacked the bonyness that he had come to possess after the famine; his cheekbones still stuck out and eyes appeared sunken, ribs showing. He had always been narrow, but never as much as since the famine.

"Seff," he said while Potema greeted him warmly, his face neutral and posture more distant, though there was a mild smile on his face. He then turned to the adults, curious. He did not speak, instead waiting in silence for what was to come, what they wanted, beside handing back Seff.

it was potema who approached first as the last echoes of seff's song died away; vuk glanced at her son with a twinge of bittersweet excitement dancing in her soul. she went largely ignored, which stung, but the patchwork wolfess straightened all the same. if this was her role, if she must earn the respect of the blackfeather wolves, then so be it.

drawing strength from terich, vuk turned her attention to the lanky man that approached, carrying the obvious bearing of a leader. sweeping her ears against her skull, the woman fought for control over her tongue and addressed him in a quiet tone: "i am s-seff's mother, vuk, and this is h-his father, t-terich," she introduced. "when seff w-went m-missing, your p-pack took h-him in."

she was fearful now, but determined to reach the end of her monologue. "i l-looked for h-him but it was potema w-who p-protected him. seff wanted t-to come b-back, and i -- w-we -- w-want him t-to be h-happy. m-may we j-join you?" she finished in a low whisper, afraid of what the man might say, or potema's scorn. "i do not w-want to l-lose him again."

then she was there, and Seff beamed as his tail wagged an excited rythm behind him. "Potema!" he greeted n turn, though joy was evident in his tone and stance as he stepped forward, nudging her shoulder with affection as his blue gaze swept up to hers, his joy expressed fully in that single glance. 

but then another arrived, and the boy stepped back a pace, at his mother's side once more as he greeted Cicero with a bow of his head and a  slightly submissive stance he had picked up on after his many months in this world. "Hello, Cicero." he greeted, glancing to the other with a small smile as his mother spoke, her stuttering the most natural sound to him, but perhaps alien to others. she introduced the three, and Seff glanced quickly at his father.

He had wondered, once or twice, why his coat held such a tawny hue while his parents bore pelts of greys and whites and blacks, though his father had blue eyes, perhaps the same as he had. His memories of his father were fewer then of his mother, but they were tender, and Seff thought, as his father did, that he ought to spend more time with his father. Perhaps he would even ask why his coat differed from theirs to such a degree; but now was hardly the time to think of such things, he realized as he glanced at the two Blackfeather wolves once more.

She pressed her nose to his head, kissing him gently as her tail wagged behind her in excitement. After a moment pressed against him, she moved, letting him greet her brother Cicero. She turned to the two wolves, the black and white woman she had met before, and an unfamiliar, pale male. These were Seff's parents? He looked nothing like them, not favoring either of their pelts, only the mother's eyes. She frowned, looking at Cicero; what did he think?

We cannot let you join simply because you are Seff's parents. She tipped her head back, howling for @Nemesis and @Damien. She had no jursidiction in this; it was their decision over hers.

She knew nothing of the boy Seff; nor his comings or his goings. Briefly had she spotted the odd child about their lands, yet, he was never her problem nor her responsibility. However, admission into their lands was. She traveled at steady pace, reaching only to hear the last stuttered plea of the mother, something she instantly felt a pull towards. While she had no connection to Seff nor his parents, she could understand what one might do for the sake of their child; what lengths they may go to for their kin's happiness. However, it changed nothing; detachment was in her job description. The dark woman broke through the trees, coming to stand beside Potema in her inquiry. Moments of silence lapsed; the Silencer simply observed the small family, taking in their features and potential assets. Nothing in particular stood out to her but the broken appearance of the supposed mother, indicating one of many things to her. Fragility; the ability to be easily altered. Truthfully, the dark woman was a monster; she preyed on the weak, the blind, the innocent; as did any dictator undisturbed by the process of brainwashing. Vuk, as she would come to know her, was something of great curiosity to the woman. Such a tiny thing held no business in the dark woods, but simply by the will power to see her child happy did the female find the ability to pucker up the courage to even present herself at their borders in the first place. Perhaps her perception of the female to be timid was misplaced, it did not matter; her interest was already hooked.

The man — however — held less of a demenour of anything particularly interesting at all about him, leading her eyes to wander away from the male all together and back to the mother, her focal point of pure curiosity. “What use do you hold?” She looked to the family with critical eyes. There was little room left in their forest for more, and each space was used sparingly to the utmost confidence that each and every one would succeed within the dark woods. It was not the case with all, and she found herself working more to get rid of newcomers than to admit them. Never mind their position of blood parents to a boy she did not know, she would only be satisfied with admitting them the last places within their ranks, should they prove to be of any use at all. She did not care what it may mean, should they fail; Seff and his parents did not matter to her. Her interests lay in the sole curiosity she had for Vuk, and the chance that their Brotherhood may be completed once more with only the best assets to their disposal.

Blackfeather woods was no sancturary for the weak, and she admitted no acceptions to the fact.

Sorry for the delay!

Terich watched the wolves of this place greet his son, and part of him wanted to bristle at the affection and rivalries he saw there. But Terich knew better to display such animosity at the border of a pack he wished to join, so he simply observed what was before him, making sure to keep close to Vuk in her time of need. As she spoke, the blue-eyed wolf watched the others for signs of laughter, of mirth at her stutter, but none so much as blinked an eye at it. At least they had some intelligence. 

Then the one called Potema called forth the alpha, and a wicked beast strode into their midst, eyes and ears only for Vuk. Her gaze lingered on him for a fraction of a second before she looked to his mate, to his son, with sharp eyes. Her words were pointed, asking what use they could be, and Terich glanced at his mate before replying. I know a little of the healing arts, and can tell good herb from bad. I can set and bind bones. He didn't want to over-inflate his usefulness, so he stopped there. After a moment he added, I am also good with children, weaving stories and histories together for their education. He had rarely had an opportunity in the grotto to display such skills, but perhaps here he could finally put it to use.

Cicero did not think it necessary to bother Nemesis and Damien with such matters, for he thought himself and his sister well capable of making decisions. It did not take long for Nemesis to arrive, however, and she was quick to take charge of matters and demand their usefulness.

Usefulness only got one so far, though, for it was often a magical click as well as supply and demand that made it so that others were or were not admitted into a pack. Blackfeather Woods was no different than other packs in that sense. Cicero remained patient and stoic as Nemesis asked the questions, though he had many other questions on his mind, such as, 'Are you Seff's biological parents', or, 'Do you know what kind of pack this is', or, 'Have you killed anyone', but he did not ask them. Such talk of personal and, he hoped, philosophical subjects would have to wait until a later time, presuming they be accepted.

Truth was, they needed the wolves. Winter was approaching rapidly and there were many children to feed. They needed the wolves to feed their young and old — and frail — and Cicero thought these would make decent enough additions. "They seem healthy enough," he said to his sister as well as Nemesis, adding his five cents while he then sat down, looking relaxed, as he continued to observe.

sorry for my delay too, i didn't realise it was my turn again since i last checked. i'll keep better track of it from now on. :)

potema spoke, and vuk fought the terror that threatened to climb in waves that closed over her head. surely they would not simply take seff and turn herself and terich away? that she could not abide -- she could not lose her boy a second time. even to know that he was here and not wandering about was something vuk would not suffer, and she sought terich's eyes for a moment, attempting to draw strength from her mate's presence before searching for the words to answer the question asked of her.
the patchwork woman could think of nothing that she could call a skill, and trembled beneath the cruel jibes of her mind. giving birth to dead children; you have been blessed in that way, it whispered. perhaps it was raas; perhaps it was vuk herself. giving yourself to men who will not have you, her psyche added again, until at last she could take no more and lifted her head to take in the gazes of the blackfeather wolves.
"i h-have n-nothing," vuk whispered. "i am n-nothing. only h-his m-mother. seff is the r-reason i d-draw b-breath. i h-have n-nothing to offer y-your p-pack, b-but i c-can l-learn. i w-will b-be w-whatever y-you w-want m-me t-to be. p-please do n-not separate me f-from m-my s-son. i w-will l-live even on y-your b-borders if it m-means i c-can be c-close to h-him." she did not mean to weep before them; her sides heaved with the shuddering breaths of effort to hold back her tears, and she fixed her eyes upon the woman who had stared only at her, the obsidian demonness who held vuk's life now in her grasp.

Potema's words sent a flicker of nervousness down his spine, and when Nemesis, in all her dark glory, approached in the manner of a nightmare, his uncertainty increased. Surely they would not be turned back, not now? 

His fathers response was as expected, average, though the boy had not known that his father knew any of the healing arts before this moment. Perhaps, should he have, he would have sought him out and asked for instruction. Yet his thoughts were swept away by his mother's desperate words, and in a moment he had retreated to her side, standing alongside her and glancing at her with a look equal parts awe and love. She would do this all, for him?

He ought to speak, stand for her, yet for a moment he was simply to flabbergastered by all she had sacrificed for him that he was stunned into silence. He truly ought to say something, but his mind was wiped clean of what he could, so he simply stood by his mother's side, fur brushing against hers as his gaze turned to the silencer, waiting with trepidation.

She watched as the others judged the wolves for her. Seff she watched, seeing the horror on her face as Nemesis arrived. What the Silencer had done to her apprentice she did not know, but it did not sit well with her that she trepidation lingered on his face. The parents, Vuk and Terich-mir, gave their claims for their positions in the pack, but Potema had no true say in this. She simply sat by, letting them speak. The man claimed some knowledge of healing, which would be helpful as the winter came, but the woman simply wanted the presence of her child. She could not deny that, but that was not enough. She looked to the others, waiting for their verdict.

She was hesitant to accept a family, they tended to leave altogether when they found the dark forest could be no home to them. She would not waste her time with a rag-tag group consisting of a weak looking woman, her quite plain son, and a man that looked very out of place among them. It helped that Potema seemed to vouch for the boy, but Seff's family was a difference story. The dark woman could take a chance, a chance with the mother's capabilities and the father's will to learn. A chance that needed to be made, or so they would be left depleted for winter. “You will learn, adapt and achieve or you will leave,”  Was her final verdict, eyes glossing over each before taking her leave. Potema could show them around, the dark woman had no wish to cosy herself with any after such a request. Nemesis detested giving, especially when the reward was so vauge and the possibilities were wide open. She was an advantageous creature, and she would see that the family paid their dues. The Dark Master had no problem casting them out in the dead of winter.