Moonspear sweater weather

After her foray with Seal, Meerkat decided she would relocate to the healing ulaq to see if the lower altitude would hasten her recovery. After only a few days there, she felt quite a bit better. Thinking she was on the mend, she returned to her family’s ulaq further up the mountain… only to wake up in the middle of the night with a particularly terrible coughing jag.

She returned to the healing den, her symptoms once more improving over the following days. In fact, Meerkat slept through the night for the first time in weeks and rose this morning feeling refreshed and restored. She didn’t feel completely over her sickness but she felt well enough to step outside of the hollow tree and call @Njord to join her for a chilly, misty morning walk.

Njord awoke to frost.

Monarchs had migrated. Leaves were falling. And, when nature began to slip into its seasonal slumber, men awoke.

The ruy had begun. Deer, moose, and dall sheep vied for breeding rights. Their calls and the sound of clacking antlers could be heard among Moonspear’s foothills. Soon, it would be the time of the wolf… but not until snow fell. Yet, Njord’s blood could not help but begin to run hot.

The cold had also inspired the man’s winter coat to come in. A few shades lighter than his summer pelage, the extra fur hid new scars he had earned over the summer. Freshly coiffed and majestic, Njord loped across the territory, limp-free and feeling invigorated.

He heard Meerkat’s call. Her stubborn illness lingered and she had switched back and forth between their family ulaq and Sialuk’s healing den.

“Mo leannan,” Njord responded, his voice like an echo of his wife’s, “’ow are ye feelin’?” Njord drew near and ran his nose through the fur on her neck, investigating her.

He didn’t make her wait. The instant Njord appeared, striding toward her, Meerkat’s heart lifted. She smiled demurely as he ranged nearer, his nose skimming a familiar trail along her neck. It never failed to warm her, sending little jolts of electricity to the tips of her toes. She returned the favor, combing her teeth through the fur framing her mate’s face before pressing a lick to his cheek.

I’m feeling… Meerkat said, prepared to say one thing but then pausing as she reflected on these past few weeks.

Being bedridden had given her a lot of time to think. Her mind had been particularly restless these past few days in the healing den. She drew in a deep breath and trapped it in her lungs as she looked at her husband’s face, then to the mountainside behind him. Meerkat took a moment to take in all their surroundings before blowing out the breath, low and slow.

Come with me, she said, reaching for his paw and grasping it, giving it a quick, reassuring kiss before dropping it and moving away.

She didn’t go far, smiling at her husband’s surely questioning expression as they fell into step along the foot of the mount. Meerkat didn’t speak until they matched their stride perfectly, six of her footsteps syncing with four of his. She pointed her nose north.

I want to move to the copse, mo chride. Our girls are growing up and finding their own ways in the world. They don’t need us as much anymore. This village is strong. It can spare us too. Even if it’s just the two of us, I want to make it ours. I want to be settled there by the time we bring more children into the world.

Meerkat gained her husband’s undivided attention as the couple shared a few minutes to fawn over one another. Njord cherished moments like these. It felt like a proverbial bubble formed around them; like any worry or stray ruminations were repelled by the love and peace between them.

When Njord felt her peck on his cheek, the man pressed his broad forehead against hers. He took a deep breath, lungs filled with the scent of her.

Meerkat’s voice sounded clearer. Less congested. Then, she asked him to follow - the command sealed with a kiss.

At first, Njord thought his paramour led him somewhere private for… intimate things.

But there was a different way about Meerkat, perhaps only perceivable by her partner. The way the light refracted in her amber iris and the distant focus of her pupils alluded to thoughts of the future. She walked with purpose. Determination. Njord’s ears turned towards her, attuned and at attention.

Then, Meerkat shared her heart. Njord’s sapphire gaze twinkled with emotional elation as a fishhook-shaped grin formed crow's feet in the corner of his eyes. Their page was turning and Meerkat had a quill and ink ready.

Sun Mote Copse. Their own village. Children.

“Aye,” Njord’s husky voice breathed the word. His eyes darted in their right hemisphere as he ordered his thoughts. “Our time… our life is too precious tae make our dreams wait any longer,” he agreed as memories of the summer days spent with Meerkat exploring the Copse had been derailed by the hellcat and Moontide’s tragedy. “An’ you’re right about this village. Moonspear an’ its people are strong. New recruits ‘av arrived. Our daughters are findin’ their own way. Soon, Seal an’ Orca will be travelin’ tae learn the ways of others. It is time.”

Once again, it felt like the stars were aligning.

“It will no be easy settlin’ a land in winter,” he cautioned. The man recalled Kigipigak and Sakhmet cultivating the land of Qeya River alone. “But Ah wouldnae have our path go any other way. Let's walk it together.” Njord was certain they could overcome any challenge. Plus, they would have the neighborly support of the Moon villages.

He became a man inspired and wanted to take action. “Let us call Sialuk first, an’ then our daughters,” he suggested. “After, you should rest an’ gain all of yer strength back. Tomorrow, Ah will travel tae tha Copse an’ set tha border once again.” Meerkat had given her man an axe and hammer. He stood prepared, ready to build his wife a home.

Although Njord had planted the seed originally, the vision of their life in the copse had really flowered inside of Meerkat by now. All the same, she prepared herself in case he expressed any concerns about the timing. She vowed to keep an open heart and mind for this entire conversation, paying special attention to each and every word that left her husband’s lips.

He did caution her about the season, though otherwise Njord seemed just as ready to begin the next chapter of their lives. Meerkat’s eyes sparkled as she kept her lips firmly pressed together until he’d said everything he had to say on the matter.

The instant she sensed he was finished, however, she pushed a paw against his chest to stop him. Instead of saying anything, Meerkat first threw her arms around his neck in a happy embrace. When she withdrew, she couldn’t resist pressing a kiss against his other cheek this time.

I agree we should call Sialuk, then Orca and Seal. I’m sure none of them will be surprised, since they’d already spoken about this with each of them. I want the girls to know they’re welcome to come with us but that it’s entirely up to them. One way or the other, we won’t be far, supposing neither daughter dispersed to travel properly, which was a thought for another day. But on that note, The next time my mother travels this way, I can ask for her help in getting us settled. I think she’d like revisiting the copse.

But there was one point on which Meerkat intended to gently counter her husband. It was time to tell Njord the truth of the matter. Maybe it was the thin mountain air or, for all she knew, she might’ve developed an allergy to the evergreens populating the mountainside. She wasn’t a medic and didn’t seek to diagnose herself. She just knew she felt better at lower elevations. And despite the motes that gave their future home its name, she could breathe easier there.

Grasping his paw again, she caught his eye and told him, I don’t want to wait even one more day, Njord. Seal and I went to the copse the other day and I felt so much better afterward. Staying down here has helped too but I think I’ll actually recover more quickly there. She paused, gazes still holding. I want to go there today.

Meerkat pressed herself into Njord’s arms. He held his woman tight, her face in the crook of his neck.

My cup runneth over, the man recognized fondly. If you had asked Njord in January, never could he have imagined today.

The plans continued. Meerkat embellished them. It was like watching the frame of a house being raised. Every small step, connection, and conversation were like the nails, lumbar, and shingles. All together, they fabricated a dream into reality. 

Today!

His gaze followed the ebb and flow of Meerkat’s animated expressions.

Of course, there was a small desire to refute her. To oblige his partner to rest before such a grand undertaking. It was his precious person’s health, after all.

But at the heart of it, Njord did not want to wait one more day either. He trusted his mate’s decision.

He stacked his paw on top of Meerkat’s in agreement. “Verrae well,” he breathed. Njord pressed his forehead to hers, cupped the side of her face, and took a deep inhale to prepare himself for the big changes they were about to commit.

“Let us go tae her,” he suggested. @Sialuk was, after all, currently a mother to four growing bairns.

Together, they arrived at Sialuk’s ulaq and invited her for a private conversation outside.

They exchanged pleasantries about the autumn colors, the children, and Seal’s apprenticeship. Then, Njord began. “Sialuk, Meerkat an’ I av’ decided that time is right tae establish a village of our own in Sun Mote Copse.” His eyes twinkled with merriment, vibrant and full of vitality.

Please feel free to continue without me, if you like. Full permission to PP Njord and/or Seal.

so excited for them!

When Njord and Meerkat came to Sialuk, the starwoman was not surprised. She excused herself from the bustling ulaq and turned her ears forward to listen as Njord spoke of what was to come. It was not the first she had heard of the young family moving to the copse, but it was the first she had heard in some time. Sialuk had not known if the two would rekindle their desire to make their own village, but the force behind Njord's words was clear.

Blessings upon your family, Sialuk said, her eyes laying upon Meerkat's a moment longer. Will Seal and Orca join you? The Ostrega held Seal in particularly high regard, considering her recent interest in working with the ancestors and what lay beyond. Would their children want to stay with the home they had grown to know, or would they strike out with their parents into the unknown, to support them in this new endeavor?

Njord indulged what Meerkat might have called impatience, had they not been waiting months for this day to come. She grinned as he grasped her paw and touched his forehead against hers, pressing that smile against his cheek before they began the climb to Sialuk’s ulaq.

If their head was saddened or surprised, she didn’t show it. Her eyes sparkled as she offered her blessings. Meerkat felt an immense rush of gratitude for her longtime friend. Slipping from her husband’s side, she pressed her muzzle to Sialuk’s, then embraced her.

We will let them decide, she answered. If they choose to stay here, which was quite possible, especially considering Seal’s burgeoning attachment to Sialuk, they know they’ll be welcome at the copse anytime, as will everyone here, of course. Thank you, Sialuk.

Meerkat would miss her. She would miss the girls, if they chose to remain here. She would miss the mountain itself. She and Njord had rebuilt their entire lives here. Moonspear would always hold a very special place in her heart.

we can wrap here if you'd like!

It made sense that Orca and Seal would choose their destiny. The two were nearing adulthood, their coming-of-age ceremony just around the corner. Sialuk was eager to see both of them blossom into young women, finding their path along the way. She remembered a time when she had been there. While there had been many stops and starts to get where she was today, she was glad to be where she had ended up.

I will visit soon, she promised, giving both Njord and Meerkat an embrace. It would be difficult to see such close friends go, but Sialuk knew they would never be far.