Wapun Meadow But he left it in the bag with the tag still on

From the rendezvous site in Bearclaw Valley, it was a lot easier to look up and see the sloping entrance to the pack territory. Lucas spent many a day lounging atop a boulder (only the shortest ones; his bulk was too much to hoist to the top of a taller rock) staring out in that direction with ears pricked and imagination running wild. It took him quite a few days to work up the nerve to go there, though. He was curious but not fearless, and worried that someone would follow him out there and get in trouble.

Curiosity won out in the end; the boy couldn't quell his desire to see what was out there beyond Bearclaw's walls. With a surreptitious glance around him, the chubby cub scurried across the shallow part of the river, around the boulders dotting the rendezvous, and up the slope at a totally stealthy and totally sexy duck-walk. Once he made it past Reigi's old sentry point and the hill itself, which ended with him sitting down and puffing at the top from exertion, the cub found himself in a sprawling and astoundingly beautiful meadow.

"Ohmygosh," exclaimed Lucas as he toddled away from Bearclaw's entrance, not too far but just enough that he could sink euphorically into the nearest natural bouquet of wilting wildflowers.

wiggles my timeline around a little bit... i think i can put this right before they split, after they've met the kiddos.  if you think it's too super unrealistic you can DM me and I can just delete it. :)  Might just be a cameo if he doesn't see her.

When the time comes for the raven to part from her children, it is harder on her than she anticipates.  She pulls herself from @Komodo and @Yakone and for whatever reason finds herself pulled towards the walls of the valley that hurt her so badly with no intention in mind.  She just needs.. closure.  She needs to see it, acknowledge it, and move on.  Her children are happy.  Even if they are not in her arms, they are happy.  And truthfully, isn't that all she wanted for them?

It is when she sees another child rolling through the flowers that she freezes and reality smacks her in the face.  It is not safe for her here.  She stands momentarily rooted to the spot.  This must be Laurel's then, because certainly he is not hers.  Her mismatched eyes soften before she remembers herself.

If he notices her, she might stay and interact with him if the urge to bolt does not become too strong.  And if he doesn't?

Well, she'll never have to see the valley again.  It was time for her to move on.

The flowers weren't as fragrant now as they were at first bloom, but hints of their perfume still remained. Lucas gathered them close to his chest as he flopped down into them, inhaling deeply and emitting a pleased sigh. He hoped the flowers would always be around for him to enjoy, but they weren't looking so well these days. He carefully inspected them, his lips drooping down to match the petals. They didn't seem as happy as they had been.

A shadow caught the corner of his eye and he lifted his head, freezing at the sight of... was that Nunataq? Lucas' brows peaked on his forehead as he slowly rose to his feet, calling out, "Nu?" in a voice that wavered with hesitance. He took several steps forward and only then realized his mistake, for this woman was much too large to be his half-sister. Unless she'd grown very quickly indeed... but he'd seen her just the other day and she had been normal sized, and he was old enough now to not be so easily fooled by his imagination.

"Hi!" he chirped, straining forward on his toes to beam at Reigi, though he didn't scamper toward her like he would a Bearclaw Valley wolf. Lucas had the sun shining out his ass and was as friendly as could be, it was true, but nowadays he wasn't totally incautious about it.

She lowers herself into immediate submission.  Her stomach grazes the wildflowers, pert pink tongue darts from between her lips as she tilts her head in a curious fashion.  As he speaks her ears sweep forward on her crown, and her body quivers against her will.  She very nearly breaks from her position and bolts away.

But she doesn't.  She hears her daughter's name and she crumbles.  Nu mama, she offers simply, Nuna, Marten.  My baby.  H-haff sister, Konne.  With me.  It is a poor explanation, but it is all she has to give.  She creeps forward towards the boy, still crouched, and her lowered tail beats a tattoo against her hocks.  H-hallo.

He is big!  Much bigger than her children had been.  He is a beautiful, perfect mix of his parents.  The thought both intrigues and revolts her, but she is capable of separating the parent from the child.  He, at least, seems much nicer than his mother (who would never be caught dead frolicking in wildflowers).

Reigi's behaviour wass nothing like the other wolves he'd encountered; where mama and auntie Indra were dominant in their adulthood and represented the unquestioned authority of Lucas' life, Reigi was strangely submissive. He didn't understand it and read it incorrectly, freezing in place while she trembled, unsure of what he'd done to make her upset. "'M sorry," he tried, pressing back his beige ears. That he didn't know what he was sorry for didn't matter.

Another trait separating Reigi from Nunataq was that she seemed capable of speech, whereas her lookalike daughter never uttered a word. The masked female began to say things that didn't make sense, and Lucas frowned, rocking back onto his chubby haunches. He shook his head, rounded ears flapping. "No, auntie Indra is Nu and Marten's mama," he said, but there was a thread of doubt in it. If Indra was truly their mother as Lucas had always believed—because his father had been all but entirely absent from his life and therefore wasn't around to explain Indra's adopted children—then why did Nunataq look so much like Reigi? "I think," he added, voice wavering as his frown deepened. Maybe he wasn't so right about it as he thought.

They had a sister named Cone or something. He tucked it away somewhere in his mind, that he might share it with them later, once he knew what was really going on here. Although he wasn't sure what to think now—of Reigi, of Nunataq and Marten, of aunt Indra—he was extroverted and kind at his core, and her greeting made him smile. "I'm Lucas," he introduced, beating his tail rhythmically in time with hers. "Why don't you live here? With Nu and Marten and Cone? If you're their mama, I mean."

She froze as he did, and her ears swept forward as she curled around herself, eyes darting as she waited for a blur of red or white to come and punish her.  But it never came.  No, she said gently at his softspoken apology; she did not have the words to assure him, but he had done nothing wrong.

To appease the boy she stood to her full height.  She wondered why he had not been taught to fear her, as apparently her own children had.  His words then hit her — that Alexander would hand over her children to the very woman that caused her to leave was a betrayal so cutting she would have to digest it later so that it did not bleed into her interaction with this charming pup.

I am mama, but.. but may be?  In-ndra, mama too.  Although the answer seemed easy it was difficult for her to muster; she would not tarnish the red woman's name despite her hatred for her.  Maybe if he were older.  But for now he was just a boy, and he did not deserve to have this seed of doubt planted in him yet.  Redle-eaf, do not like me.

The corners of her eyes creased as she pulled her lips into a smile, and she offered an appeasing whine to the boy that had once, as he was being born, caused her so much grief.  Things had changed since then.  Lucas.  I am.. many thing.  No name.  Redleaf know Anna.

She canted her head north, in the direction of her island.  New wolf, know me 'Io.  All baby welcome, ah, visit? Some time.

He didn't get it, despite doing his very best to understand what Reigi was telling him. Indra was their mama, but Reigi was also their mama, if her word was to be believed. And Lucas, good through and through, did believe her. "Nu and Marten have two mamas?" he wondered, hoping only to clarify. He didn't know how it was possible, but he also didn't question the logic behind it; maybe they did have two mamas. He only had the one mama, Laurel, but she was the very best mama without a doubt.

"Auntie In and mama are nice," he supplied helpfully when Reigi claimed they didn't like her. He hadn't heard this story. He still believed Reigi, because she seemed like a nice wolf and nice wolves always told the truth, but he had never seen the side of his family that she had seen. He wasn't seeing the side of Reigi that they had seen. So much was up in the air for Lucas, who only knew them all to be warm and loving. "Maybe they like you now? I like you." Surely if he liked her, then they would too.

"Thassa pretty name," Lucas opined. But that wasn't her name anymore, she explained. Now she was Io, or... well, something that sounded like that. "Oh. Why'dya change your name?" Not that 'Io wasn't nice, mind you. Lucas liked it as well. Changing your name wasn't something he knew was possible, but it made sense to him now that he'd met someone who had. After all, no one knew your name 'til you told them. You could tell them any name and they'd think it was you. He was too honest for that, but liked the idea of being someone else for a day. She offered to let them visit and his tail picked up at a faster speed. "Coooool, where d'ya live? We can all come visit someday maybe! Nu and Marten and Wyatt and Piper too!"

This child asked a great many questions, and she had precious few words.  She did not like to see the confusion on his face (if only because she knew she caused it), so she offered a small weary smile.  Maybe.  All she knew was that she was their mother; if Indra had stepped in, then so be it.

She sincerely doubted that Indra and Laurel would tolerate her now.  But she wasn't about to tell this poor, optimistic child every fearful thing they had done to her and the spite she had offered them in turn.  I like you, she parroted.  And she did!  This child was sweet, so sweet.  She wondered what Bearclaw would do to him, given enough time.

Xan give me Anna.  Starshine give me 'Io.  She dipped her head at the boy before she supplied, Lu can give me name, too.  More or less she responded to them all, as long as they were kind.

Un-nn-der-sea, she struggled, Island, north.  All baby welcome.

She was right to worry what would become of him, perhaps. He didn't know it now, but he belonged to a broken family unlike other families, and his mom had belonged to a broken family, and her mom before her. There was a long line of heartbreak and mistrust in the Redleaf family and Lucas was bound to one day inherit it, too. Perhaps it would come in the realization that his father was a deadbeat who never visited; perhaps it would come upon realizing his brother's sourness was inherited from somewhere. Perhaps it would come when stories of grandma and grandpa were never filled with fondness. Maybe he would only find it when he had little ones of his own, or a mate to disappoint.

However it came to be, Reigi was right to worry, but Lucas had no such concerns. He didn't know his family history, he didn't know heartbreak, and he didn't know the struggles of his mom or his aunt or Reigi herself in dealing with them. He knew only his own world, where aunt Indra was tonnes of fun, mama was wonderful and caring, and Reigi was a sweet friend who found him in the flowers.

"Oooh!" he exclaimed when she shared all of her names—she had a lot! She even offered to let him come up with a name for her, and he giggled and wiggled in place. "Only if you names me too!" he declared, and then trapped his tongue between his front teeth while he consulted an imaginary list in his head. He ticked off names as he went, deciding they were too cliche, or too vogue, or too downright self-important.

Finally he found the best name of all and proudly announced it with the slightest puff of his chest: "Dancer!" Nothing was better than dancing, so Dancer was an awesome name to have. He wished it could be his name, but evidently, you had to be given names by others. He did a little spin in place, a bit of a wolfish pirouette if you would, and then said, "Unnersee, okay, we'll all come someday! Pink-toe promise!" A lofty promise indeed, but Lucas never broke a promise.