Sun Mote Copse my car goes pshhh pshhh

I’m not sure if his bid to join Atautsikut will pan out, so this is vague! Anyone’s welcome. :)

Someone had mentioned a Sun Mote Copse and pointed him in its direction. Caracal stood at its edge now, head tilted slightly. Why was that name so familiar? He stood there, wracking his brain, for the better part of ten minutes. It didn’t come to him, so the yearling shook his head and plunged forward into the woods, eager to see what he might find.

He kept his eyes peeled for any new growth. Sialuk had taught him enough that Caracal thought he might recognize some of the plants she’d described to him. If he did, he should totally collect them and put them… somewhere.

It seemed that Land and her new apprentice had the same idea, taking advantage of a nice afternoon to scout the copse for herbs.  

"Caracal, hey!" Lane called out for the boy's attention. When they were face to face, she commented, "Pretty here, isn't it? My friend Meerkat was born here. She called it Sun Mote Copse." Veteran had passed that bit of information on to Lane when he'd showed her the copse himself. Poor Veteran.. Lane could tell from the way he'd spoken of her that he missed his Coach Meekah.

He stopped to sniff at something clinging to a bare branch on the ground. It looked like shit, honestly, but it smelled earthy, maybe a little sweet. Caracal gingerly touched it with a toe, then threw all caution to the wind and bent in to give it a little lick.

Right then, someone called his name. He whipped his head up and turned his back on the strange tree jelly, smiling broadly at Lane. He waved her closer, replying, Hey! Yeah, it’s—really? Caracal blurted. So that’s why its name was familiar. Wait, you know Meerkat?

And then it hit him. Not only did Lane know his sister, the two of them had actually met before! Caracal’s jaw dropped as the memory suddenly hit him. He wasn’t especially surprised he’d forgotten all about it and it seemed like he wasn’t the only one. Abruptly, the yearling began giggling boyishly, delighted to discover this forgotten connection.

Yo, Lane, we totally met before! I came to Duskfire Glacier with Meerkat back in, like… winter sometime. We only met in passing. He kept chuckling, recalling, And I think I’ve met the Alpha too, uh, Isso…yuck? Okay, nope, that wasn’t right. He’d tried. Guess it’s a small world after all, huh? he quipped with a smile.

omg, would never have remembered that they'd met before. xD

"Yeah, she a good friend. A great scout, too.." The fact that Caracal knew Meerkat's name did not surprise Lane as much as it should have. Somehow, the two of them seemed connected in her brain-- it was probably why she'd brought up Meerkat in the first place. Lane racked her memory. 

Caracal beat her to the punch.

"Oh!" Recognition dawned, and Lane laughed merrily. Right! Meerkat's brother! He looked very different to her now, all grown up and away from his sister's side. 

"Sure is!" Lane agreed with his small world comment. "I knew there was something about you." she shook her head, laughing again. Antha had probably thought little of Lane, accepting the boy into their ranks without asking him a single question. At the time, Lane wasn't able to explain it, but her gut had told her that Caracal was one of them. 

"Have you visited Meerkat since she went to live by the coast? She mentioned a boyfriend, and I've been wondering how that turned out." Obviously Lane's memory was something less than a steel trap, but she wouldn't forget something like that. Running off with a lover to live by the sea was just about the most romantic thing she'd ever heard of, and she liked to think that Meerkat was living out her days in some kind of never-ending honeymoon.

I totally forgot, especially since he was an NPC! I had to go digging through Meerkat’s thread logs last night to confirm my suspicion, then edit my post! Lol, I thought it seemed fun and organic that they might not recognize each other right away. :D

The pair of them reveled in their discovery, their shared laughter mingling in the early spring air. Caracal found himself staring at the sight of Lane’s smile, his heartbeat quickening in his chest. How could he have ever forgotten a pretty face like that? In the back of his mind, he dimly recollected her search for sap.

Wondering if she’d recall if he jogged her memory, he opened his mouth to ask about the sap and whether it was related to medicine. Caracal clapped it shut when Lane asked him about Meerkat. He blinked several times as he processed her words.

No, I haven’t, he admitted, about to ask whereabouts she lived when another question popped out of his mouth. Hol’up, wasn’t Isso-hard-to-pronounce-his-name her boyfriend? Look, he wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box but he distinctly remembered a vibe between his sister and that guy. And they’d come looking for him at the caldera after that, together.