Blackfeather Woods Of a dollar to earn

He was worried about this land.
There didn't seem to be many wolves.
Not passing through here at least.
He was bored and he was really wanting to just...live.
Winter was nigh and with just him and @Marisol...he doubted they'd survive long.

He trudged the borders in a rather shit mood.
Nothing was going his way. Had it ever in the first place? He'd grown up without this 'dad' thing. His Mother had...moved on considerably.
Moon had disappeared again.

He felt like throwing himself down and giving up.

It was no different from when they'd left it. The forest was labyrinthian, its twists and turns as familiar to him nonetheless, he could trace them in the darkest night and still know his way. It was unnerving to breathe the stale autumnal air clutched within the wood, though. The musty smell of rotting leaves and the thin veneer of frost mingled with the memories of those he once knew here; he thought of Relmyna first, of Fire next, and the many dark bodies he slew in his stupor.

And then Titmouse spotted a body lingering where the light seeped in. The thinnest bands of light caught upon an amber coat, and he was transported to the hollow—to the fire, to the screaming of names and the shrieking of children—and he froze on the spot.

He almost missed it.
Standing off in the spattering of bushes and ferns leading up to the woodland.
Maegi's ghost.

Well, not her actual ghost but the one that was as fucked up as her and always followed her around. In truth, the man creeped Rowan out.
The youth stopped to look at him properly.
Watching with that one, haunted eye.
A shiver shook his spine.

"Where is she?"
Presuming that this man didn't just follow Maegi to murder her when she was well and alone, she might be around here. Returning perhaps.
He hoped so.

The red licks of flame in the grass. Embers inside the trees, contained by the bark. Smoke gushing from somewhere, everywhere, blacking out the sun—and the screaming, the screaming of the children—!

Where is she? A voice tumbled to him. Titmouse focused on it, banished the terrible memory. He did not immediately know the face upon which he gazed but he answered in earnest: Not far. The twin ghosts were rarely separate these days.

Titmouse took a breath to steady himself, seeking composure while tasting soot in the air. The chaotic din that they'd left behind in the hollow was in the past, now. So was Blackfeather—yet here he was, stepping back in time. He did not know the boy, having forgotten some specifics, but the boy's scent was pervasive among the trees.

Blackfeather would always find fresh blood, he grimly thought.

Good.
So it seemed that he was just attached to her some other way. Maybe like how Mama and Connor were.
He nodded, looking around as if she'd emerge at any given moment.

He remembered seeing her for the first time. A faint memory, but she was smiling. Happy. Content in this world. Joyful of seeing new life in her home, and having her own -- Rowan fully believed they were her own biological children, because why wouldn't he?

Alas, it seemed that the man was stuck in time.
Poised. Scared? Hmm, no. Something was wrong.
"What is it?"
Was Maegi hurt? Was there something behind him? Rowan swivelled his head quickly to check should there be some silent creature behind him.
Though he thinks the man would have a worse reaction than just staring if the Daedra materialised.

The boy looked around, seemingly concerned with the shadows at his back. Foolish of him to be so flighty; if the forest wished to harm him it would find a way, and it would not puppet Titmouse to do it. He returned to himself upon hearing that voice ring out again, and turned his attention away.

The air was cold and dead, with the only sign of life being this boy's scent and one other, intertwined with it. Titmouse sighed. Are you pledged to this place? Are you the forest's keeper? Better him than me, the ghost thought.

They had eventually made their way into the labyrinthine forest, settling in once more to old rhythms and habits. But it was empty—emptier than it had been for years. She was reminded of the time after the war, when Cicero and her brothers had departed. The days waiting for someone, for anyone, to appear.

The scents she found, the sounds she heard—she chalked them up to ghosts and memories. 

Until today.

Maegi had been following her mate at a distance and was startled to hear conversation ahead. Brow furrowing, she moved forward at a quicker clip, slipping through trees, stumbling through brush. Eventually, she entered a clearing, her bicolored gaze lighting upon her mate, who was questioning. . .

Rowan? the pale woman asked rhetorically, jaw slackening in surprise. The last she had known, he was living in the mountains. Not with her, no, just next door, he and his mother having refused the move to Diaspora—

She felt old ire rise up within her, and was disturbed at the intensity after so much time had passed. He'd been a kid, after all, beholden to his family. Now he was grown, and he had returned, and she looked him over, noting how the childish pudge had faded, how the boy she had once known had become a young man. 

You came back, Maegi marveled, and offered him the faintest of smiles. After all, she'd cared for him, once—a feeling that might yet return.

He turned back, assured there was no demon looming behind him.
Only to see the strange man looking...was that disappointment? Possibly. Rowan had forgotten how to read the expressions of others. It was a process currently.
"Currently," he replied. He knew the woods were ever-changing and his life wasn't worth much in the time of the woodland.

Then, he saw it.
To flash of another pale, marred face dipping through the trees towards them.
His ears pricked. Now it would be the strangers turn to look behind him. Unless he were so in tune with Maegi that he just knew she was there. They probably did some crazy ritual together and the Daedra partnered them together for life.
Rowan made it up as he went really.

His tail wagged before she could register it was him.
His head dipped, ears slicking back with a soft whine, but didn't approach.
He didn't want to get closer to that man and...it had been so long and he wasn't a child. He didn't know how she'd react if he greeted her like he'd greeted Tundra when she came back.
"Of course I did," he grinned. How could he not?

Titmouse trembled as a brisk wind flowed between them, feeling like something spectral had walked across their path; then there was Maegi emerging, and he calmed. The man drew his one-eyed attention to his mate's beautiful face and the corner of his mouth twisted in a little smile.

The boy must have been significant to Maegi. While he could not remember Rowan at all the pair had a moment, and Titmouse felt a tremulous jealousy flutter in his breast; as it withered he turned his attention to the shadows and stalked away from the pair of them, leaving them to converse if that was what Maegi wanted. He seemed preoccupied, staring at nothing.

Of course, Maegi replied, and felt ugly thorns twist 'round her heart. She had shattered his life once, when she'd insisted what remained of their pack move to the mountains. She never had forgotten how upset he had been at the prospect of leaving. Now he had returned. Did he still hate her for it?

She watched Titmouse leave, her mouth pursing briefly in concern. Then returned her gaze to Rowan, lost for words.

It's good to see you, she said sincerely, taking a step closer to get a better look. You've grown up. Well, obviously. But what else was there to say but the obvious?

An apology? No. Maegi wouldn't apologize for the choice she'd made; it had been out of caution, of a need to get away from this cursed place when the ground had trembled and taken her children. It had been for survival, and she would never feel sorry for that.

She tilted her head, listening to the quiet but distinctive sounds of the forest. Is there anyone else here with you?

He grinned, tail wagging.
She was back! She'd brought that thing with her but she was here!
"It's been quiet. My friend has..been absent. I think she's gone."
His voice trailed off softly as he watched Titmouse walk away.

He glanced backwards as if Marisol would appear.
She didn't.
He looked back to Maegi.

"Where did you go?"
He meant after the mountains...perhaps she was there the whole time, but he wouldn't know. Or mind. It would be his own fault for not looking.

She frowned, replying, I'm sorry to hear that. She knew what it was like to have someone, and then. . .not. Too many faces and come in and out of the woods, most of the time without a word of farewell. It was manageable when there was other company to keep, but to lose one's only friend?

We'll be here for a while, at least. I reinjured my leg, Maegi explained, gingerly extending her stunted limb before returning it to its place.

Where did you go? Well, to Mahler's pack. And then beyond. We searched for Sakhmet—didn't find her. Then Mou and I found this lovely hollow several days' travel from here, and we stayed.

And then what? She didn't think she could answer. She could hardly think the word 'fire' without her chest tightening and her heart threatening to shatter once more.

What about you? I thought I caught your family's scent along the borders of. . .that scarred woman's pack. What was her name again? Maegi couldn't recall. She had been angry with the Asenda-Blackfeathers at the time. Now, in the wake of a somewhat reunion, she couldn't muster even the slightest pique.

He nodded gravely but looked to her leg with more interest.
"You're more than welcome to, of course." This was her home. He was here to keep it safe for her...to keep it perfect.

"I'm sorry," he murmured at the mention of Sakhmet. He vaguely remembered the soft girl, offering to Peryite. He wished she was still here too. But if this hollow was so...perfect. Why didn't they stay?
If she wasn't telling, he wasn't asking.

Then she flipped the question on him.
"That was Courtfall, her name was Andraste​. I then came back here when I...she died," he swallowed, remembering the thick mourning air, the absolute despair, "I returned here and was taken in by a man called Black Hat. He was pretty cool," he chuckled softly, "we went on a trip someway south, then when I returned, I ran into that bitch again and she beat my ass," he lifted his head, revealing the thin scaring running down his neck. He looked back to her, "Rusalka took me in, Tundra was there, but then she met some wolves who she knew and left with them. Something about her family. I met Moonshadow on my way here, she's in the pack up the river, Kaistleoki. and now I'm here." He shrugged. All in all, he hadn't had it too bad.

"Moony is gone too," he mused. He'd seen her, and Mother mentioned her being sick and she had to leave before hurting someone. He just hoped she was safe.
He glanced in the direction the man wandered, wondering if he was spying on them.

She smiled briefly, awkwardly. She supposed they should have asked permission before settling down here—but she truly had thought his presence here was only a trick of her imagination. She hadn't ever expected to see the boy again. And now he was master of the forest; they would ask permission from here on out.

Maegi listened, enraptured, as he took her through his adventures. He'd been to many more places than she had, involved with names she didn't know. . .but a smattering of names she did. Rusalka? That was familiar. Tundra was all too familiar, and the mention of her and Moonshadow warmed her heart. How she missed her old confidantes. . .

Moony, she whispered, shaking her head. That's too bad, Rowan. I hope she's safe, wherever she is. In a perfect world, Moonshine and Sakhmet had found each other. At least in her perfect world. Remnants of her old flock, alive and safe, finding home in one another.

She followed his gaze then looked back at Rowan, tail swinging gently behind her. Care to walk with me for a while? she asked. I'd like to know more about your plans for this place.

fade out here?

Yup!

He smiled softly, feeling a hard lump rising in his throat.
In his short year of life, he'd lost so much, and was yet to gain that back.
Would he ever do so? Or where the Daedra too cruel for that?
They didn't speak to him, so why should they deny him?

"I hope so too," he echoed softly.
Maegi suggested a walk. Again, hesitant golden eyes glanced to the path where Titmouse had disappeared.
"Of course," he smiled, taking a step to the side to invite her to walk in the forest with him where he'd tell her of his plans and dreams, and perhaps she could voice hers too.