The Tangle fall in line with me

tags are for visibility, this is for rae! let me know if you are nearby and want a thread; mercy will be making her way to sun mote

Mercy had a burning desire to see the world. She knew that if she didn't, that desire would consume not just her mind but her flesh, too.

She had agonized over the decision to leave. Her family had been through so much, it seemed like there was never a good time. It was stupid. It was selfish.

She thought she had kept the fire tamed but one day, she looked away for just a moment and found her fingers burned. In fearful confession she had spilled her guts to her parents. Her relief was immediate and their encouragement quickly washed away any worries she might have. She had left the wilds brimming with the naïve confidence of a newly minted scout.

She hadn't expected her journey home to take so long. "Come back to visit, Mercy," said Erzulie. Yet half a year was lost to the incident that landed her the scar that — if not for the brilliant cape of red she wore — would define her physique. It started on her right shoulder and trailed down her leg.

She had met @Raelle on the outskirts of Eresta, a sister pack of the one she had once called her own. She shared the news that Vixen's parents were no longer at Sapphique, though she didn't know where they were now. Mercy only knew one thing — that she was going to find them.

She never realized how homesick she was until she set foot in her homeland again. It was here, she recalled, that she had parted ways with her family. @Meerkat and @Njord, those she owed her life to. Her littermates, @Stingray and @Swordfish. Her playmates, @Etienne and @Mireille. Her guidepost, Erzulie.

It had all felt like so long ago. Mercy, they had called her. In the outer wilds she had come to shed that nickname, now answering to Vixen, bestowed to her upon her birth.

She was rarely sentimental, but as she and her traveling companion wove through the tangle, she found herself looking wistfully at the knotted branches. It's — was that a lump in her throat? Umm, it's weird to be back here.

Things had been different at Eresta. Different, but not better. Raelle had worked hard to help Sapphique's sister pack gain its bearings in those first weeks out by the sea, to carve out a place of her own among their gem-wrought ranks. But it had never really felt like home.

So she hadn't questioned it too much when Mercy sparked into her life like flames bursting from the brush. She hadn't questioned their friendship, nor her own inexplicable desire to follow when Mercy professed her desire to find her family. She'd simply gone with it.

Rae had left Eresta with promises to return — if not to them, to Sapphique. One day. Maybe by then she would know herself a little better.

For today, though, she was happy not thinking too hard about any of it. Easier to focus on Mercy, to zero in on that rare flicker of emotion crossing her features as she spoke. Yeah? Rae's voice was low with sympathy. She'd never been too good with words, though. Careful. Mireille keeps her den 'round here.

She was being a lame friend, wasn't she?

So like... this place is special to you, then, huh?

Vixen wouldn't have noticed if Raelle hadn't lingered with her — after all, she wasn't the best at reading other people. Besides, she would have been grateful for Rae to have just brushed past it. She was already such an emotional wolf that she didn't need to add any fuel to that fire.

And yet, Rae asked, so Vix paused to think about it. There wasn't much she held close to her chest; things and places and even people were all so transient and fleeting that she left little room for sentimentality in her life. But this place had brought back valuable memories of the few she did love.

I guess so, she says. I said goodbye to Mireille here. My ma and pa, too. She skirted the details. They were hers to keep, and she didn't think they'd mean much to Raelle.

You know, we could still stop by Sapphique, if you wanted. Her parents weren't there anymore, but that didn't mean a visit would be pointless.