Sun Mote Copse baby if I got you, I don’t need a parachute

Miles beyond where she had first started, and a hell of a lot hungrier, Orca felt ready to join just about anybody if it meant getting a full meal. She sniffed for any whiff of carrion, but the wind brought to her something far better than that—something she has not scented in some time—

Her family! Orca had, for now, gotten over the indignation she had endured of being and feeling “left behind”. She threw her head back and called for “ma” and “da”, but was sure to tack on she’d be happy to meet with whoever answered.

She wouldn’t have ordinarily left her week-old offspring for anything, though Meerkat asked @Fennec to keep an eye ear on them while she stepped outside to relieve herself. After emptying her bladder, she padded in circles around The Taigh simply because it felt good to stretch her legs a bit. The fresh air was nice too.

She ducked back inside but before she could settle, a cry cut through the March air. Meerkat sucked in a breath. Surely someone else—@Njord or @Stingray—would hear too and go to Orca. She should stay here, with her needy neonates.

But, I have to go to her. Will you…? Assent came quickly. Thank you, Meerkat breathed, spinning on a heel and moving with haste toward the far corner of the copse.

Orca! she shouted as soon as she clapped eyes on her daughter, who looked taller and slenderer than Meerkat remembered. Oh, Orca, she repeated, closing the distance and unhesitatingly throwing her arms around the girl’s neck, tucking a sobbing breath in her swarthy ruff.

Narrator, here: Orca liked to pretend to be tough. At her young age, she felt more wolves would take her seriously. For the most part it seemed to work; there was truth in “fake it til you make it” she had come to find. And maybe Orca could someday grow to be truly tough, but… well, cut back to Orca:

She could have cried to hear the voice of her mother. No, wait—she was crying. Orca didn’t know just how much til she heard her voice, and best yet saw her face. Whimper-whines devolved into elated yipping yelps as she closed the distance between them. For any size disparity there might have been in height, her mother had much on her everywhere else. Orca would be quite easy to throw around, and she stumbled as they collided. 

But she matched her mothers love with an abundance of kisses, and for every one from Meerkat came thirty more in rejoinder. Orca sniffled, snuggled and settled into her mothers arms, and asked, can I stay? her accent not at all diminished from her time away. Perhaps because she hadn’t spoken much otherwise, there had been no other accent to grow accustomed to.

Yes, of course, Meerkat replied instantly, pulling back with a sniffle. Oh, I’m so happy to see you, she breathed, reaching up a paw to tenderly cup her daughter’s pale cheek. I’ve missed you so much, worried about you even more. Where have you been, mo chride? What have you been doing? You’ll have to tell me all about it.

Leaning in to kiss Orca’s cheek, she touched the yearling’s slender elbow and motioned for her to follow. Meerkat turned her body to lead her prodigal daughter into the copse, though her head gimbled resolutely in Orca’s direction. She could not tear her eyes—shining with happy tears—off the face she’d missed so much.

It hadn't occurred to Orca that in her absence, her mother would know that she had been gone. For some reason, given the physical distance between them she imagined that she had been... forgotten about, perhaps. But looking to her mother now, and hearing her, she recognized the impossibility of that. And now came the guilt, but it lasted briefly as the wave of gratitude and happiness hit her harder than anything else. 

But for the guilt, she would not allow her mother to know of the hardships she endured. I saw so much! It'll take days to tell ye it all, she answered with a smile, but that we have, aye? And as her mother nosed her, Orca smiled and followed after her. She was, if possible, less inclined to remove her gaze from her mother—who was just as she remembered her. Vibrant, with the figure of motherhood, and beautiful. A third of the picture of home—Seal and her father completed that portrait. Both of which she thought she could smell... 

My favorite place was a place that was like the one da, and ye, told Seal and I of. The ground was strange to walk on, and stayed in my paws and my fur for days... when I thought I saw the last of it, another speck would show up! And the water... she wouldn't mention how it almost stole her away, but, I met a very good friend of mine in the water. They taught me all about swimming in the waves, perhaps the only friend she had made on that journey, truthfully. 

Smilingly, she eased into a topic that had nothing to do with her travels. Where are we?! This is a bonny place, she complimented with a wave of her tail. And though her own heart preferred the ocean of all places, it yearned more fiercely for the figures that were here.

Of course, she said, hoping this meant Orca meant to stay, we’d be happy to have you as long as you’d like to stay.

Her daughter regaled her with a brief story about the seaside, by the sound of it. Meerkat made sure not to let her distaste of it show on her face as she listened to the familiar lilt of Orca’s voice. She was curious about the friend she’d met—or made? Had they known one another before?—but then the next question distracted her from asking her own.

This is Sun Mote Copse, Meerkat said, hesitating now.

In Meerkat’s mind, Orca’s sudden disappearance was the direct result of being told about her parents’ plan to relocate here two seasons before. Perhaps the timing had always been coincidental, she mused now. Orca didn’t seem in the least resentful about finding her family here in this place.

I would love to show you around, she said quickly, and our first stop will have to be The Taigh, the den the pack shares. There’s someone—two someones, rather—I’d like you to meet.