Starglow Basin darkwoman returns

@Zoug @Koa she has no respect for continuity. Anyone else is free to stop by.

She hadn't felt safe in Moonpack for a while. 

Her legs trembled, her breath shaking and felt need of something else. 

Belly rounded with pregnancy, she still felt able to travel. No mate to take her elsewhere to dry her tears. And she stank of wolf. It was wrong, so wrong— 

Her mind tore in two, before going back to sandland. Needed to know S'ari and the coyotes were okay. To tell them of the loss. 

 a yap-howl filled her ears. But she did not speak words.

And she hoped he'd arrive soon. 

Someone would come, surely?

this is a long shot as i think he is too far away to hear her <3

zoug raised his head, listening to the sounds of the desert.

the children grew. their mothers fed.

his body ached, to be moving so often and for so many hours in pursuit of prey. but @Koa had always been close. and now @Narses and @Hazelnut might be here to aid also.

if one was close, he meant to send them off into the rolling sands for a longer excursion. zoug wanted the location of pronghorn, to see if they could be driven into the ravine. 

with a wolf close and two nursing tribekin, he would not leave, and made this clear with heavy eye upon the entrance to the den, then a gaze turned to where s'ari lay with her young ones.

Darkwoman's paws lay out in front of her, and she shook off sand. 

A stretch, and she kept walking. She'd find tribekin, sooner or later. She had to. 

Her mind chased circles around inside, what would she say? 

Gut starting to feel tingly, she stopped for a moment. 

And kept going.

Tribe-kin?

Would they want her in desert? After all - she did leave.

eventually, zoug took his turn at the furthest of the ravine's borders, splitting his time between the reinforcement of markings and the eternal hunt.

and when he saw the shimmery figure of familiarity on the horizon, the clan male squinted his single eye and barked out one note.

tribe?

It was a familiar voice, the one which called out to the Tribekin and with cousin and Candle held up in their dens with new pups, Ko'a was tasked to answer the call. 

Zoug remained near the dens, reluctant to go far. The smell of wolf was near. The smell was on... Kusuma? If S'ari had made any in the Tribe aware of where Kusuma had been, Ko'a did not remember it. 

Black coyote, you return to Tribe with gifts, yes? Though Kusuma did bit bring trades or food, she brought life within her. This was apparent. Yet could Tribe safely feed for more pups and nursing mothers?

Kusuma brings news. she started, stopping to breath for a second. Sad wafted off her. ... Talis is dead. Wolf kill him. Would kill Kusuma if Kusuma no run. 


She shook, and quieter, she muttered, No longer want to be elsewhere.

it was a fair question, albeit one that kusuma did not answer. the single eye of the clan male narrowed as she spoke of talisman.

so they had both gone to the wolfland of the mountains, if his nose was correct about the vestiges of her scent. kusuma was also heavily pregnant, a fact that perturbed zoug only because he did not know who had fathered her young. talis — or a wolf?

"now you know," the coyote grunted, perhaps too cold in this moment. but it was concern which drove him. "wolf. never trust. kusuma welcome back. must help hunt. seven born." she would have to assist him until her own time came, though there were slowly a number of gathering hunters.

The emotional tide changed quickly. Kusuma brought news which hit Ko'a deeply into the deep of her chest. She sat quick, lifting a paw to curl at her chest and was quiet a moment, as though with a need to catch her breathe. 

Talisman and Kusuma had left to live among the world of wolf. It was a poor decision which led to the flame-point coy's death. 

The deep sadness Ko'a felt could not be erased from her features. She had meant for his beautiful pelt to be passed unto her own pups. Instead... 

This one makes poor decision and the cost is death. Some might have been shocked at Ko'a's own sharpness, following Zoug's hard words. It was the loss of Talisman which wounds her, shrouding the happiness to see Kusuma again. Yet Kusuma was welcome back all the same. She was coyote. The stupidity of her must have come from her jackal side, while Ko'a's anger came from her wolf. 

Ko'a left as swift as she had come, more eager to throw herself back into work.

Kusuma's litter be born soon, Kusuma thinks - less than a full moon's cycle. Talis live on, in them. her whine was instant, her own voice as quiet as the morning breeze, and Ko'a's words only hurt the grieving woman more. 

They made her almost regret her decision to return. 

She knew better than to show her face to the coyotes of sandland and tribe.

Kusuma does not think she will add many to tribe. Her belly wasn't round enough to justify that thought. Not when she had seen that wolf so round- 

Hurts.

She turned around, legs shaking, but she couldn't bring herself to leave. Kusuma... sorry... for leaving. Ruined everything. Stupid.

"kusuma. stay." the harshness of ko'a had been warranted. two tribekin had gone away with the wolves. now one was killed and one returned.

"raise children in tribe. be with own kind. we not forget talis." he had risen to his full height now, glancing after ko'a. "talis in her mind." the younger man had existed there for the woman a long while he suspected.

zoug waited. he would not turn kusuma back into the wild no matter how many cubs she carried. he did not want her to go. and he would not beg, for either of them. tribe was safest for tribekin, but she must choose.

What even is Kusuma's kind? she yapped back, sharper than she meant to and full of the sort of anguish only one in grief and guilt could make. It'd been an awful week for the woman and she was on the verge of collapse. Cut her some slack, she did just witness a murder.

Kusuma not full coyote and not full jackal. Does not belong in wolfland, wolfland only lead to death. Does Kusuma belong anywhere? Own kind gone. All coyote-jackals nowhere near sandland. Kusuma is alone. Only kin Kusuma has is litter.

She shook, nearly gasping for air as sadness wafted off her like an overripe rabbit. 

is Kusuma just... bad for other to be around? was she just the unlucky black cat of canids?

"your kind not wolf." neither was his. neither was that of ko'a. his single eye burned. "you not alone." bad things had happened after she left. now she was back. it was simple to him that she should stay away from wolves.

"tribe welcome kusuma." she had paid a hard price to return. zoug half turned now, gesturing toward the ravine. soon he must go and hunt again for the mothers. he waited for dark cloud to speak again.

Her heart still burned with regret, images of that day still raw in her mind. 

Tribe grow. Kusuma still shape to hunt. 

Hunt. Hunt. 

HUNT.

Do anything but think about it.

Do anything but think of how cold she felt. How alone. She was surrounded by even half her own kind and she still felt she stood with none at her side.

Kusuma should be happy. They welcomed her back. 

Why? Why? Red claws of anger raked her but outside, she was steady. 

So why were the pawsteps in the direction of tribeplace so hollow?

kusuma eventually chose to come with zoug.

he led her in silence through the ravine, pointing in the direction where s'ari had made her den. "s'ari that way."

the cave was where he took kusuma. with wolves forbidden from its shadows and candle there with their brood, he hoped it would comfort the dark tribekin.

zoug brought meat, looked at her once as if to commit the details of her face to memory, and then left again.

Darkwoman followed, heart hollow. 

Her paws tread across ground she once more thought did not belong to her. The coyotes of tribe had moved on without her. 

K'oa's anger toward her, she felt, was deserved. 

So why did it hurt to be close to the coyotes again?

With that, she departed, a shadow upon the sand and a hunger in her belly.