Redhawk Caldera my love is a life taker

backdated to 7/20

Phox knew he had to make some time to catch up with @Fennec. She was, after all, his oldest child in the vicinity. Not only that, but word on the street was that he was now a grandfather. That was something he knew he wanted to experience firsthand, and so he began searching for Fennec’s scent among all the other familiar (and unfamiliar) ones here.

He knew he could have called for her, but he wanted first to watch her for a moment. He did just that, eyes settling on the blonde fur and milky grey eyes. She looked so gosh darn mature, and part of Phox felt especially old in that moment. Not in a bad way, but the way one realizes that their time on this plane of existence isn’t unlimited. Niamh’s death had something to do with those feelings, too. Thinking of her now filled his heart with an emptiness he wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with right now.

He shucked the thought from his mind, put on a smile, and called out. Hey Fennec!

Word hadn't quite reached Fennec that her dad was back yet. If it had she'd have likely made a beeline for him as soon as it did - @Killdeer in tow. Instead she was presiding over her son's playtime, one ear turned towards him as she silently listened to him scuffling around in the nearby growth. He'd tried to lure her into playing earlier and she'd been a little snappier than she intended. Hell, that was kind of a going theme these days.

Phox's arrival was a welcome occurrence and distraction. Dad?! Wait, you're back? She got up and, with a gently waving tail, went to meet him. His scent was a mix of a lot of things, most of them unknown. Where'd he been? She'd heard about Niamh, but not what happened to him.

At first she'd nursed a bit of a grudge about it. At this point she went in immediately for a hug, just relieved that he was finally home.

Tagging you in in case you want to join and meet grandpa!

Snappiness was all but forgotten at the appearance of a newcomer, for whom Killdeer sprang up to greet with wary eyes and bristling fur, remembering the altercation at the border.

He looked a lot like Grandma Towhee, but he smelled different—like, it obviously wasn't her. But he didn't seem all that unfamiliar, and Ma seemed to be happy to see him.

Maybe there wasn't anything to be worried about here.

Hi, Killer piped up, giving the man an intense round stare. Hungry as he always was, he reared up on his hind legs and began to prod at the stranger's cheek, looking for meat slurry, good manners be damned.

Fennec acknowledged his call with a questioning one of her own. Apparently, word hadn't gotten around to her yet, and he grinned at the befuddled look on her face.

Just for a few days, he replied. Before he could continue, a feisty little thing came barreling out at him with bristled fur and a whole lot of pep. -And you must be Killdeer,- he said/signed when his grandson(!) greeted him.

What a wild, wild world. Again, Phox felt like he had missed so much about this year, but he knew he had plenty of time to make it up. It was so strange to think that this pup was Fennec's son, but Phox knew it shouldn't be that strange. He wondered if his own parents had ever met any of their grandchildren. Hadn't Wildfire's first litter been born before Phox was? He had a hard time remembering the timeline of everything, not to mention he would not have been there for it.

Fennec's cheer disappeared somewhat when he announced he was only here for a few days, but she was glad that he got to meet Killdeer.

Killer, this is my dad. Your grandpa. She smirked. I've always thought 'pops' had a nice ring to it. Or, even better, 'pappy'. She snickered, lightening her own disappointment with the joke. Oh god, she'd love it if she could get him to start that as a thing for the kids.

She didn't know what she wanted to know - mainly because she didn't know what he knew. Some of this news wasn't hers to deliver, she felt, and some of the things she wanted to know she wasn't sure she wanted answers to. She'd pretty much assumed, at this point, all of them were dead aside from him. But if they were, and he wasn't staying, that probably meant he hadn't found anything.

Where are you going next? She asked, choosing to follow the least direct route to get at least a bit of what she wanted to know.

Pappy, he echoed, and laughed. But no meat came from the man's mouth. A little disappointed, he sank back, but he soon became engrossed in whatever conversation ensued between his mother and. . . "Pops."

Torn between interest and hunger, he sat, eyes wandering, following any sort of distraction that might catch them.

skippable!

"Killer." Whoooo boy, he was gonna be a handful. Then again, hadn't his mother always been a handful. Phox wondered what Fennec would have been like if her mother had survived to see her to adulthood, but he supposed it didn't matter too much now. Camilla—and now Niamh—were gone. Perhaps he was cursed.

Fennec snapped him out of his inner monologue with her question, and Phox perked up.

Back to the youngest kids. Peregrine and Vesper are their names. There was a third, Prevost, but... we don't know where she's gone. They were raised by a couple—Maegi and Mou—who found Niamh dead, but saved the children. Phox knew it was a lot to take in, so he let Fennec digest.

The news he had was pretty intense, so much so that saying so was almost an understatement. She'd known Niamh was dead, but that her kids had survived was both surprising and extremely interesting from the objective place where Fennec stood as a healer. She'd met Maegi before but didn't draw the connection - now, however, she made a mental note to do so. She wanted to know how they'd managed to do something that sounded so impossible - perhaps they were witches of a sort too.

I heard some of that. Meerkat was back a while ago. She hadn't heard it directly from her sister, who had been weird as fuck when she'd been here about avoiding her, and instead gotten it somewhere along the grape vine of pack gossip. I'm glad you found them. Talking about her step-mother hurt for a variety of reasons, not the least of which that it hit close to current troubles in her own sphere. So she focused on the positive bit of news - that and her dad's apparent plan with it.

You're joining their pack, then? Even just months ago that news would have upset her, but surprisingly, Fennec understood completely. Motherhood had changed her perspective in more than a few ways. Where do they live? Maybe, when Killer here's a little older, we could come by and see. He loved playing with his aunts and uncles (well, uncle, at least) so much, she imagined he would have a field day with that.

Phox was glad that he did not have to be the first one to give the news of Niamh's death to everyone. He still scarcely believed it himself, even though he knew it was the truth. Phox didn't want to believe it anymore than he wanted to believe that Prevost was still missing. There was little he could do about either of those situations, though. He had searched for both Niamh and Prevost, and he had come up with nothing. Who was he to say that Maegi and Mou were lying about such a thing? There was no reason for them to do so.

It's not so much a pack as a few of us making sure the kids are growing up alright, Phox admitted. Our home base is Blacktail Deer Plateau for now, but I'd like to see if the kids and their caretakers are open to moving back here once I get back to them. Back home.

Redhawk Caldera had always been his home, and Phox knew he would always return here.

It was really good to hear him say that he was going to try. A year ago Fennec wouldn't have understood, but now she did. There was no way she could have come home if Killdeer wasn't here, and for once, she didn't even really have to struggle with it. Instead she just went in for a hug and relished, for a moment, the familiarity of it. She'd never be tired of her dad's hugs no matter how old she got.

I hope you can come home soon, and they come too. Killdeer could use a few more friends. He's, uh.... yeah. She smirked. Her kid was great, but uncle Caracal was teaching him some interesting things. Especially with... everything, having a few more boys to run with couldn't. Sphyra was awesome but Tierra was something else. Fennec was glad her son hadn't chosen to latch onto his more noisy and less friendly cousin.

The hug was unexpected. Not because Fennec had never hugged him, but because she had so rarely initiated it. Perhaps being a mother really had changed her, much as it had changed him. Ah, how the cycle repeats!

Me too, kiddo, Phox replied when she shared her hope with him. Although he had thought the plateau would become something, it felt clearer with each passing day that they could not maintain things as they were. With four kids and only three adults to care for them, he though they would all have a better chance here at the caldera.

With a mom like you, how could he possibly be anything but perfect?! Phox asked, feigning shock with a grin. He knew she wouldn't be able to see it, but sometimes he felt like Fennec could hear his facial expressions.

You're my dad, you have to say that, Fennec replied, though she was obviously pleased with the compliment. Things were a lot sometimes, especially holding down the fort lately, and it felt good to have someone acknowledge she was doing an okay job. More than Phox probably intended, or could know.

Hey, Killer! Let's show grandpa some of those moves I taught you. Fennec said suddenly, drawing them both into a game to push past that sentiment pretty quickly. If he wasn't sticking around, then Fennec was going to try to make sure Killdeer got at least a little time to get to know him. And what better way than to play?

fading this here <3. Since I've been so slow and it's so out of date