Stone Circle you shall find that

though the dawning morning was clear, cloudless, there was evidence of an overnight snow squall — fresh snow dusts the familiar path that nanoq treds.

not home but to the place with the most familial significance for him.

only to find that a pack has lain claim to it. something ugly seethes beneath the surface, lingering like a burn in his chest. if nanoq were not such a masochist: he would leave.

he would turn and ignore the ache in his cracked paw pads. he would keep going. ever onwards to where ever his legs led him.

but he cannot stay away from the stone circle for too long, which was the deciding factor to why he lifted his head heavenward, silver moonbeams touching upon his muzzle and let out a low howl.

She poised like a standing stone beneath her mother’s arch. The morning breeze shifted around her. Cold, and still without the promise of spring.

A howl touched the air.

Taktuq lifted her head and strained her eyes to see who made the call. The speck of a wolf shifted there upon the snow, tall and alone - and she rose to meet him.

Silver paws carried charted a swift course, the little hill that led to the outer plains giving her the high ground. She surveyed him from a far, and as she neared. Gunmetal, with fur to withstand any winter. Bright eyed, and lined in moonlight. Ethereal here upon the plain.

Salutitsinik, moonlight traveller, she greeted, though she knew by now very few on this side of the wilds held her mother’s tongue. I am Taktuq Ateneq, of Kvarsheim, of the land of standing stones. And her gaze, though dancing, implored him to speak.

it is not long before nanoq is greeted; imperial jade gaze taking her in upon her approach. silver and cream, not unlike the colors that ran heavily within his own family.

she greets with a word that feels familiar; nostalgic, like a memory trapped within thick fjord ice. but if he knew what it meant once ...if knows no longer.

memory forgotten and regained had not been seamless, had not been perfect. there are still gaps, areas of shadowy voids.

greetings, nanoq offers with a dip of his head in deference. there is a twist in his gut as she speaks of the standing stones. home. i am nanoq greyback, he offers his own name. a lost son of easthollow. the pack that had called this place home before your ...kvarsheim.

the word feels cottony on his tongue, a tangle of spun spidersilk; unfamiliar.

There was… a familiarity about him Taktuq could not place. She had never met the man, for she was sure if she had, she would have remembered him. A giant among his peers, he cut a striking figure against the dawning sky.

Only, when he spoke, her eyes lit up.

Nanoq Greyback. A name of kindred and hearth. Though she had never heard the two together, she had heard them apart, within Easthollow, this place she thought all had forgotten in the annuls of time —

All but her. All but him.

All at once, she found herself drawn taller, drawn forward in a lean filled with excitement. Her smile brimmed and her tail filled the air with a generous sway.

Welcome Nanoq, lost son of Easthollow! and she laughed, because she could not contain herself! I am daughter of the same! Daughter of Nanook and Siarut, and niece of Valette. Valette! Was it her she saw, in the lines of this man’s face? Yet he carried her own mother’s name! She looked upon him with new eyes, bright and warm with affection, as kin surveying kin.

memories stir.

spiderwebbed, covered in layers of dust untouched. a leatherbound book with yellowed, curled pages found in a decrepit, decaying box in an attic.

nanook; his sister.

valette; his mother.

which would make taktuq his niece.

nanoq was not the name i was given at birth, he admits; quiet, a secret for only her to hear. i was born newt, son of greyback and valette. imperial jade gaze softens even as pain of losing his family — though before him stood one so not all! — and then his memories and the slow process of regaining said lost memories jabs at him mercilessly.

that would make you my niece. nanoq states the obvious, without knowing what else to say.

she is late!

late, late, late! too busied in her own mind with a million worries. there is a relief when she sees that taktuq is already there. the stranger among them is, well, handsome. in a way that made her halt with a tepidness in her eyes at once. unbecoming a leader.

she thought that somehow, someway, one of the stones had come to life in the shape of this man.

softly, she cleared her throat and arrived, closing in on the two of them. unaware of a reunion of sorts occuring!

hallo.

a soft dip of her head to the stone man and then she looked to her polar bear taktuq.