Redhawk Caldera yellowtooth

reyes was gone. tierra. his mothers. she could not remember now where he had meant to go, only that he had never come back.
she was at the lake for once, staring out over the water toward the little island which held so many dismal memories, and so many ones of beauty.
he was gone. maybe he had never planned to come back.
teya knew she should look for reyes, and she would. but now the image of him deciding she was too much and opting not to return had lodged into her mind. it was hard to shake.
and she refused to think about it. teya swallowed hard and looked around for @Sorana as she turned and headed deeper into the caldera.

Sorry for the wait on this one, do you mind if we bring it closer to present day?

Sorana approached the cusp of her fifth month earth-side. Her father was gone. Her mother's attention was pulled in many directions — the direction he had gone, the direction of the younger pup, Shenanigans, and the direction of Brecheliant as a whole.

Sora was experiencing a wealth of feelings too large for her to handle, of late. She was disconsolate where her father was concerned, because she was old enough now to know he wouldn't leave her intentionally, leading her to believe something must have happened to him. She was nervous and listless whenever her mother wasn't around, but then she was guilty for feeling that way. She was somewhat jealous of Shenanigans whenever Teya gave the girl the attention that Sora craved, and she felt even worse about that, because Shenanigans had no parents of her own. Sora wished she could be like her friends, with two parents who loved each other and them so much, they would never leave on a trip they might not return from.

The only negative emotion she didn't feel in abundance over it all was anger. On rare occasion, there would be a spark of it — that her parents had fought so much, her memories of Reyes were interlaced with conflict; that Teya could not give her the time she desperately needed; that her father had left at all — but more often it was self-loathing, the underlying belief that Sora simply was not good enough to deserve any of these things.

Today she was sad. Teya would find her draped over a fallen log, staring into space with her lips turned down.

not at all, let's bring it present lol <3

some part of her wanted to step down. 
a further part wanted to take sorana and start over. but she shelved that almost at once, because she loved brecheliant and those who lived here. and because she was not about to run away and make life harder for her daughter than it already had been.
the idea of the seasons changing to winter without a sign of reyes hurt teya more than she would admit to a soul. sorana was growing, hardly a child anymore, and almost to her full height. she was them both, though in her husband's absence she saw more of reyes than herself.
sorana too looked like his mother, rosalyn.
and where was teya in all of this?
her daughter was sad. the raven watched the girl a moment before approaching to nuzzle her ear and sit close.

Sora was locked away in her mind so deeply and dangerously that Teya's approach went entirely unnoticed before her ear was touched. The girl flicked it once and blinked back to reality with a small start. She was quick to arrange her features into a smile when she looked up at her mom, though it didn't quite reach her eyes.

Hi, mama, she said, pushing herself up into an awkward sitting straddle. She wanted to make the most of this time with Teya, as she did whenever her mother had a moment. The last thing she wanted was to bring down the mood, so she tamped down her emotions and attempted to hide them. The smile strengthened, no matter how fake it was, because she really did relish the time spent with her dam.

D'you wanna go fishing? Or... Or we could try and catch a bird, if you want? There, bubbling on the edge of her voice, was the insecurity that had found a home in Sorana, the uncertainty, that need to confirm that Teya wanted to spend time with her in some way and wasn't just here because Sorana wanted it.

"let's catch bird, baby," the violet said agreeably. her smile too did nothing to dispel any of the mist clinging to her vision. the days and weeks and months went on, and she was realizing she no longer loved reyes. and she was no longer sure what to do if he came back.
reaching out a paw, she ruffled sorana's ears and turned away from the water. whatever happened, she had to focus on her girl. she had to focus on sorana.
they were all they had, after all. brecheliant was their home. their extended family were the other kids, maia and eljay themselves. but fundamentally teya was lonely, and wondered if her daughter felt the same.
but she was never sure how to ask. how to speak to the growing child. "what kind bird, sorana?" the raven opted to say, trying to lift the atmosphere by sheer force of will.

Wrapping here so we can focus on the new one. <3

The smile that lifted Sora's lips when Teya mussed the fur on top of her head was more genuine. She even managed a small, bubbly laugh as she ducked her head and raised her leg to paw her mom away. The opportunity for a heart to heart, as always, slipped away from them in favour of a distraction.

Oh! A hummingbird! she said, beaming now with excitement. She'd seen them flitting about the flowers and found it hard to believe they were birds at all. They looked so much like dragonflies, the way they hovered in place, and they were so tiny and fast! Catching one was nigh impossible, as she would soon find, but her mother had never failed to humour her daughter, no matter how fanciful her ideas.

Sora led the way with bouncy steps, feeling almost light with the anticipation of chasing a hummingbird. Ultimately, they never found one, but managed to catch a grouse they accidentally flushed from the undergrowth to make up for it.