Stone Circle I will (not) go pt.2

Some music to go along with this post. I'd love it if you would give it a listen while reading!
TAGS: @Valette

Snow fell softly outside of the shared den. His tired eyes watching the small dots softly drift inwards and outwards every now and then before joining the small sheet of blanket set across the grounds. It was only when the wind was particularly rough would they travel in towards the mouth of the cave, ruffling his fur and melting upon impact.

Inhaling softly, he looked beside him to where Valette lay,  her small body tethered to his for warmth and shielded from the cold, curled so tightly he could only see the top of her head. During the night his ears tipped back to listen for her breaths, so shallow and small in slumber, but a sign that she was still here. Still with him.

Swallowing a lump in his throat, the man exhaled his breath into the darkness of the cave before mustering the strength to nose her awake with light touches. 

Valette, he croaked with a burning throat. Come.

Tired eyes stared at her, lids heavy and folding at the corners of which were crinkled with age. A smile blessed his face as she rose to stare at him, and without a word he turned to shed the warmth of the cavern for favor of the frigid night, the snow fall covering his back, welcoming him into it’s embrace.

Stalking through the land with muscles laved with ache and pains, the elder slipped every now and then upon the trail. His legs first, then body would clash with the earth, sending snow in his wake and grunts spilling past his maw, but he was determined to stray his mind from the pain, to continue onwards with steady breaths which would disappear into the frigid air. 

---

Growing tired with each step, Greyback sought to stop and rest at the crest of a hill. The land so dead, so white with snow that it was barely recognizable. The mountains, once sharp and black, were now dulled with the cover of white they almost blended in with the sky line, and the snow, so blinding it was hardly worth trying to figure out what was up and down. 

Love, My love. 

But a voice, so calm, so surreal, pulled him from his thoughts, his worry.

Greyback…. Love….

Squinting his eyes into the white air, the man tried to see, tried to listen and follow the oddly familiar voice whispering on the wind. 

Where are you? 

It echoed again and again, pulling him deeper and farther into the unknown before opening up to a figure of white. And there, standing before him, was a face so familiar and almost lost in age he shook with tears of joy.

It’s been so long,  they whispered. 

He agreed silently, smiling happily and approaching them through the mist,  tail wagging behind him. 

Am I to go with you? Is it time? He questioned softly.

The figure nodded. A reply he expected, something he had been preparing for and making peace with...But something within him still didn’t feel right, still didn’t want to let go, and as he paused to think and look down he swallowed his ever-dry throat. The wind battering against his sides picking up in strength. The cold stung.

But… Valette. I can’t leave her. 

He looked behind him, battling against the cold and squinting towards the direction from which he came, and to where Valette hadn’t followed him... Why hadn’t she followed him? 

She will join us sometime. 

A long silence stretched miles and miles.  

Deep within Easthollow the remnants of him laid, still snuggled against Valette within the ever-inviting den and proving warmth that was slowly fading with time. Come morning he would be stiff against her, 
cold and still,
 gone and waiting.

Valette had been vast asleep. She slept the best curled against Greyback while the winds were raging outside. She felt so safe being protected by him. During the night, she thought she heard her name coming from his lips. Her ears twitched and she slowly lifted her head. To her it seemed like he was mumbling in his sleep. A soft smile turned on her lips, a sleepy soft smile. "I'm here, always," she whispered softly and licked his cheek lovingly.

The female curled up again, warm against his body. She often slept lightly these days, but Greyback mumbling things always woke her up in a good way. She was remembered he was dreaming and that the next morning he would wake. Valette closed her eyes happily because that was what Greyback brought her; happiness and so much love. She sank deeper into dreamland with the warmth of Greyback next to her.

What woke her up in the morning was the cold. A groggy frown came upon her face. Did Greyback leave for a patrol? She didn't like him outside in the cold, his coat was not what it had been. Though as she turned, she noticed that he was still there. She knew instantly. Her Greyback was no more. A tear rolled down her cheek looking at her mate. Valette studied his handsome face and let out a soft smile. "You can rest now, love, you deserve it."

Valette was proud to call Greyback her mate, and in her eyes he was still her mate. He was the one that never left her, always stayed by her side. She had been lucky with him. His death was so peaceful compared to all the others. She hoped hers would be as peaceful as his. Perhaps that was why she was not sobbing uncontrollably at the moment. She was happy for Greyback, and feeling blessed herself that she was able to stand by his side for so long.

Oh, but how she would miss him. She felt that not many knew the warm-hearted and silly side of the man. Or how he called her Lady Valette all through their first year of knowing her. Even though she had a soft smile on her face, tears were rolling down it as well. She loved him so deeply and it hurt that she was never able to talk or hold him again. She snuggled against his side but it wasn't the same. She pulled herself away from him with pain in her heart.

"I know you would never leave me," she whispered. She had seen him grow older. Valette had watched him struggle with age. She had been mentally preparing for this, secretly. She didn't believe her mate would hold out until spring. "Now I will just carry you in my heart until I will see you again." Valette swallowed thickly and then pulled herself from the den. She was met with cold wind tugging at her fur, a stark reminder that she was alone. That was when grief settled into her heart and she started to sob.

A shaky howl with grief echoed through Easthollow, calling for her family. @West Tyree @Polaris @Kove @Xan @Laurel @Merrit @Kallik @Ikiak @Zola

"Am here, Va-let."

Zola was perhaps lucky or unlucky to arrive at the scene first. She had never met the man that her new matriarch called mate, yet it did not stop her from grieving all the same. Her eyes were downcast as she looked from the body, her shoulders slumped.

She was still new to this realm, to this land and to this pack. She did not know what else to say other than 'sorry' and sending a prayer to her gods. Greyback was not of her tribe, so her gods could not receive him. Still, the gesture would be appreciated to make sure he was recieved somewhere.

Bowing her head, she stood a few steps behind Valette and uttered in her native tongue a soft farewell.

The cold of winter wasn't what woke him that morning, it was a call. A howl filled with grief and pain, the melody shaking on the wind, and it had come from his mother. Whatever grogginess he held was quickly shaken as something stirred within him. A feeling West had grown accustomed to lately, though its familiarness did not take away the weight. The woodland boy made his way to his paws, escaping the warmth of his shelter to head into the storm that awaited him.

Each step chilled him, though it wasn't the cold that shook his body. It was Valette.

No no no no no—

His steps quickened, the lightly blanketed snow torn behind him as he raced to his mother's side. He nosed her, almost as if prodding silently. Who was it? How could this happen again? Though the words were never needed. Another had beat him to the scene, Zola. He had briefly heard her words, that she too was here before her mumblings turned to something he could not recognize.

West's gaze turned to the mouth of the den, his gaze darkening as he saw his father's slumbering body. Why hadn't he come? Shouldn't he hear the news as well?

Of course, pieces were slowly fitting together, though denial burned in his chest. Valette had been lingering near the dens for some time now. "Your father," she had said, "just his age, nothing serious". Death was imminent for all, something easy to forget with those who died too young. From the siblings he lost to the strangers who veered their borders.

The truth was he was only familiar with one kind of death, that which was unjust.

He had not prepared for the soft death of an old life.

A cold washed over him, freezing his bones as he stood like the stones they held dear. Perhaps time was passing by without him, though if it was, West was completely unaware. He remembered when Polaris first joined, how she claimed the world to be cruel and unjust. It all seemed dramatic to him at the time, surely there was good to balance, though it seemed each day tried to prove him wrong.

Newt never came home, Clay did though in pieces, and now the stone that he never imagined leaving had fallen over. No one was safe, even if Ursus never existed, those who never left the territory were just as much at risk of leaving forever. What was the point? Why had he killed to protect those he loved if his loved ones were just going to leave one by one anyway?

A rock seemed to settle in his chest, a weight he struggled to bear as it tried to suffocate him. He was breathing, but it didn't truly feel like it. Something told him to run, though it became apparent that rocks filled his legs as well. He was useless, and all he could do was stare silently. It was too quiet, even with his mother's sobs and the prayers of their newcomer, it was quiet, yet somehow that silence was deafening.

Heartbreak was never so loud.

It was evident from the sound of her voice that there was something terribly wrong with Valette as she called. Laurel withdrew from her solitude to meet the call, somewhat uncharacteristically so; she did not like pack meetings and they always made her nervous. She arrived and glanced around, seeing a few others who all seemed to pull towards Valette to soothe her grief.

Not Laurel, who might have felt awkwardly inclined to do so if it had been just her and Valette, but in the large gathering felt out of place; as though it was a family's reunion of which she was not truly a part, and she had only stumbled upon the meeting by accident. She stayed near the outskirts of the gathering and watched, waited for Valette to speak or for something to happen.

Laurel had been terrified of Greyback throughout her time in Easthollow, and now he was gone. Even the dark pillar that seemed to tower over her every day since she had seen him banish her saviour could fall. She stood in silence, feeling conflicted.

Valette looked up, Zola was there, and soon followed West. She looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Your father--," she couldn't say it. But the male probably knew already what happened. The matriarch shook her head. "Greyback passed. Peacefully," she managed to say, trying to pull herself together, but it was hard. Greyback had been with her for so long. She couldn't imagine her life without him. Without his thundering footsteps behind her.

Valette spotted Laurel too, and she knew that the female was uncomfortable coming close to others. She appreciated her coming her. Valette pushed herself up in a sitting position. Feeling miserable. "He had a good and long life. We shouldn't be sad," she said through her tears. She wanted to celebrate his life, maybe later. "We should get him to the father stone," she spoke then, mostly to West. She hoped more would come since Greyback would not be easy to move.