Fox's Glade i had held it a world away

set for 10.15.18. whenever! <3

even with all that had gone on, mona had not forgotten her invitation to @Piper. it was one of the only things that had kept her buoyed during the chaos that had ensued following poor lucas' disappearance from bearclaw. she herself was only newly returned from a trip toward the coast; it remained to be seen whether or not her messages would be returned with word of the child.
the man from the darkened coast was on her mind, but tonight mona pushed thoughts of even him aside. it was a night of magick, the mayfair decided; it was a night for piper to reclaim what youth was left to her after the events of the past moon had forced what seemed like an early maturity.
assuming the girl joined her on the borders following a low-pitched summons, the redbird set off toward the glade, a relieved smile wreathing her muzzle, one that grew with every step.

While Mona hadn't forgotten the promise she'd shared with the young Redleaf, Piper had. In all that had happened, she had entirely blanked on the fact that the beautiful red woman had offered to take her to the glade to hunt for the magic homba. What magic could possibly exist when Lucas had been missing for weeks?

The girl had – rightfully – given up on the premise of such fairy tales. All that she had wanted, and all that she had set herself to do, was to get her brother back home. So, when the call for her sounded at the opening to their valley domain, her ears drew up on her skull and she narrowed her brows in confusion. It took several long moments for her to realize why Mona would be asking for her on the edges of their claim. For a moment, Piper thought she had called so that she might aid in her search.

On long legs, the Redleaf girl ran to where she had heard the summons. At the edge of the valley, she could see the flash of red ahead of her, yards and yards away. Regaining her wind, Piper cantered to close the remaining distance on her mark. “Mona... you're going to... the glade?” she panted, drawing up alongside the woman.

at piper's approach, the sound of her softly feminine voice, mona's countenance lit with a gentle smile. how much piper had grown since they spoke of the homba! and although the firebird knew it to be an altogether vainglorious thought, the beauty of the younger girl coming into her own made mona feel somehow older.
older — ruined, in some way. piper, to the mayfair's knowledge, had not yet known love, nor its caustic sting. and so she was whole in that. loss of one you loved was different than the loss of self, mona had determined. but now was not the time for selfish thoughts.
"a while ago, i told you we would go to the glen." her murkwater gaze glimmered with an invitation toward adventure. "and i think we could both use some fun." with a glance that rested on piper a moment longer, mona turned and began to set off across the short expanse to the herbaceous alcove of foxes, trusting the girl would follow.

It was nice to be met with a smile like that. Although she had thought about canceling their trip into the glade, it was difficult to pass up on the company of someone like Mona. There was a good portion of her that believed she didn't really deserve to have fun. She had other things that should have been occupying her time. Somehow, she convinced herself that she could search for signs of Lucas in the glade.

“Yeah, I guess you're right,” she agreed with a small nod.

If the young Redleaf could have heard the doubts that flashed through Mona's mind, she would have snapped at her with a razor sharp tongue. Of all the pack mates that Piper shared, the Mayfair girl was easily her favorite. There was something to be said for a person who could draw in the fiery child and calm her the way that Mona did. She was an astounding creature.

“How have you been?” Piper inquired somewhat awkwardly, knowing that small talk was not her forte.

piper moved alongside her, a gentle inquiry on her lips. mona drew a breath. part of her wished to fib a  bit, provide a little white lie that would not sunder the calm of the chilly evening. however, piper deserved a good deal more respect than that, having stepped up into a role for which those her age were not ready. her work had not gone unobserved.
"i am saddened about lucas and worried about laurel, but i am also focused on preparing for winter." this time, mona did hold back her true worry: that they would not be prepared. small game was scarce, and easthollow had more mouths to feed. would they be able to remain where they were and survive?
"how about you, piper?" the mayfair murmured turning to glance into the girl's eyes. the glade loomed not far ahead, and soon they would put aside their woes in search of the elusive beast.

The young Redleaf listened to Mona talk about her mother and her lost brother with an ache in her frame. The red woman stated that she was preparing for winter, and the young girl turned her gaze toward her with a serious countenance. Ah, she marveled at the idea that adults could so easily overcome the grief they felt. Some days she thought it to be a weakness. Then, she realized just how much her emotion drove her to do things that were not intelligent or logical.

The importance of her actions was that they were driven by what she felt was right.

“I haven't stopped thinking about Lucas. I don't think I will until I know he's safe,” she answered honestly. There was no way to make that come off as being apathetic, no matter how hard she might have tried. It may have been adult to focus on what needed to be done instead of what was wanted, but Piper had not yet learned the lesson of sacrifice. She knew only what her heart urged her to do and that she could deny or accept its pleas.

would that mona had known piper's thoughts! she was not far from girlhood herself, and still trembled beneath the weight of it often. piper's determination was an inspiration to the mayfair, even if the younger wolfess did not think it so. her paws carried her beneath the weight of dark, and they had come finally to the glen.
now the cardinal turned her swampwater gaze upon piper, sorrow glimmering there. "i understand. and ... it is all right. it is all right to grieve, for however long you feel that way." rowan had never rushed mona nor cortland through their grasp of the world, casmir there to guide. mona knew it to be beneficial. an encouraging smile, and she turned back to the shadowed place. 
"are you ready?" came her breathless inquiry, edged in a restrained excitement.

Mona was quick to assure her that her grieving was alright. It wasn't really something that she needed to hear. It wasn't truthfully a grieving process that she was going through. It was almost as though she felt nothing for the loss of her brother, but she had seen what it had done to her family. Piper had grown into the stage where things were still being discovered, and her emotions often caused her more trouble than she cared to admit. Oftentimes, she did not understand why she felt the way that she did, and she rarely knew how to cope with those feelings.

As it was, Lucas was missing and she had seen a significant change in their entire family dynamic. It wasn't that she didn't miss him – she did – but she wanted to feel as though she was contributing to his return home. Sitting on the sidelines with nothing to occupy her time was not the way she liked to handle things. She was a doer and it was not in her capacity with her familial ties. She had debated breaking those ties for a short while, but she would never divulge this information to Mona.

Once they had neared the woods, the red woman turned to her with an excited inquiry that caused Piper to smile. She nodded her head eagerly and instinctively hunkered down in preparation. The young Redleaf could not help but to feel excited at the prospect of finding the fox that Mona had told her about. Perhaps, she could talk to him and he would help her to understand what she needed to do in order to bring her brother back home.

the girl nodded, and mona fell to the task of navigating the shadows. this was what they both needed, she thought, the cold air bringing to her the scent of fox. yet it was not any fox for whom mona and piper searched that evening, but the homba, a fierce and magickal beast whose lore had been imparted to mona by tadec.
tadec, coywolf mystic, and since she considered indra her sister, that made the man her brother-in-law. warmed through by the realization of family, mona lifted her muzzle to scent the air, glancing sideways at piper to see what she made of the darkness.
a high-pitched, yipping cry broke through the darkness, and faded, swiftly followed by another, and then a lower call, more a crooning howl. mona's hackles prickled with delight: could this be the creature itself?

The young girl did not need any prompting to stick close to her red leader. Piper moved alongside Mona's flank with an intent expression on her youthful features. The pale yellow of her gaze searched the underbrush for anything that would give them a clue that they had stumbled on something great. Every so often, her eyes would dart to her company and she would mimic the movements that were shown.

It was not until the yips of unfamiliar creatures sounded in the air that Piper felt her heart racing. The length of her ears shot forward and she drew her head up, hoping that she could see something... anything. There was a tenderness to the way that her limbs froze and her paw hovered in the air before being placed against the rough earth.

The croon was remarkable to her; she had never heard anything that had sounded quite so mystical. Darting her eyes toward Mona, Piper offered an expectant expression. The tip of her tail wavered back and forth with excitement. “Homba?” she whispered reverently to her leader, brimming with hope.

some youth restored to piper, who had grown somber and adultlike in the wake of lucas' disappearance. mona could not properly articulate it, but she was relieved to see what appeared to be weight lifting from the younger's withers, eyes bright as piper glanced to the mayfair. 
a flashing smile lit mona's features — she nodded happily and darted forward toward the eldritch sound, careful in her dash. while she did not believe foxes would attack the larger wolves, she wished to be courteous. this was their domain, after all.
the call sounded again — scarlet ears cupped toward the low tones. they were closer now; she and piper must stalk carefully if they were to find the fantastical beast tonight.

The smile that was received was stunning, even to Piper. She peered with wide eyes into the emerald green of Mona's gaze and felt her limbs spring to life with the eagerness that was conveyed in that look alone. Without a moment to wait, the scarlet woman turned her crown toward the sound of the mystical fox and plunged into the glade. The fiery child followed as best as she could, fighting against the rapid beating of her heart and the tautness of her limbs.

Piper did not hesitate to stay close to Mona; she trusted the woman with all of her heart. For a fleeting moment, the fiery young girl had all but forgotten the thought of her lost brother. The thought of finding something that was truly magical was enough to push her forward – no fears or hesitations. As they delved deeper into the wooded terrain, Piper slowed her pace alongside Mona and searched the brush for signs of their elusive Homba.

they were both consumed by the magick of the place, and mona was relieved, proud, satisfied, to have piper at her side. she tensed, pausing, as a long dark shadow seemed to pass through the brush to their left. a trick of the night? or perhaps it was something more, a god of the glade, the yipping of the other foxes a tribute to their king.
silently she rushed after the shade, which seemed to glide rather than run; mona kept a respectable distance between herself and its aura, for who knew the violent magick held by deities? the forest began to thin, and soon the red woman found herself alongside the girl within a small clearing, where fireflies hovered quietly, and a pair of lantern-eyes glowed from across the way.

Piper’s breathing grew heavier as she tried to keep up with Mona. They seemed to race through the brush at a speed that she’d never known before, but the premise of finding the creature that she so longed to see was too much for her to cease her movement. She could feel her heart thrumming wildly in her chest, but the Redleaf girl did not slow down and she did not express her discomfort in their jaunt. There was something in the air that lured her forward.
 
When the two women finally passed through the brush and entered a clearing on the other side, the wildfire of a girl was stopped dead in her tracks by the glittering lights of the fireflies that danced around them. She drew her slender muzzle upward and peered delicately at their features, stretching out until she was only standing on her hind legs. She followed the glow of them until her eyes latched onto a pair of looming optics that sat in the dark just beyond where they stood. It was there that she froze and her breathing seemed to stop.

both of them gazed across the glowing dell at the gleaming eyes before them. like twin lanterns, they burned with an unshakeable force, unblinking, and somehow all-knowing. mona swallowed. she did not wish to approach; something told her the magickal being would only disappear again if she and piper drew close.
and so she steeled her nerves, and called across the small clearing. "are you the homba?" the cardinal was not sure she expected an answer, for who could know if her words were discernable? 
the pair of eyes wavered, blinked for the first time, and there came a laugh like the rasp of dry leaves.
who seeks me?
mona was stricken; she could only stare at piper in silence for the time being.

It was Mona who seemed to have found her voice first. Piper was still in awe that they had even found the creature. It might not have been confirmed, but she believed it to be true with all of her being. The creamy length of her legs shivered against the hesitation that hung in the air. That was, until the sound of a raspy laugh floated through the brush and struck against her ear. The Redleaf girl jumped in her place and looked to Mona with wild eyes.
 
Holy shit! Holy shit! They’d found him. The firefly could hardly contain herself as she leaned forward with a wide smile and searching eyes. Once she’d heard the voice of the creature, she felt most of her fear vanish from her frame. There was too much in the realm of possibility for her to simply hold her tongue. While her mind was racing a million miles a second, the Redleaf did all that she could to hold her ground.
 
“I’m Piper and this is Mona! My uncle Tadec told me about you. Are you really magic?” the girl sputtered as quickly as she could, mentally reprimanding herself for sounding like an excitable little child. Still, she glanced toward Mona with an excited wag of her tail. She could not cease the rapid beating of her heart.

mona was shocked; piper was overcome. but the younger of the pair was the first to find her voice to question, and mona listened eagerly as she inquired in the homba's direction. the cardinal might have gone about it more carefully, but the low laugh sounded again, and she could not help her own from answering, filled with a girlish excitement. 
they say i am, and i suppose they are right, the still-unseen deity murmured, tones flickering with amusement. 
welcome, piper. welcome, mona. cousins to my kind.
the cardinal shivered delightedly as he spoke her name, glancing to piper with an encouraging glance that suggested the girl ask more of the homba.

please kick me in the face if i make you wait this long again <333333

It was him! It was really him, and there were so many things that she wanted to say but she had never found words to be so difficult to conjure in her life. It was like the mystic being had sucked every last thought from her head and filled it with cotton candy. Then, all of a sudden, everything seemed to sputter back to normalcy in her mind. She leaned forward with eager delight and a wild grin on her slender muzzle. The pale moon coloration of her eyes searched the darkness for a better look at him. She wanted to recount every detail to her mother and to Tadec when she got back.
 
“How old are you? Do you have kids? Are they magic too? Do you only live in here? Has anyone ever asked you to grant them a wish?” she rattled off without taking even a single breath of air. Once she had finished, she made a shuffling movement with her paws before forcing herself to hold still and wait to see if he would answer all of her many inquiries.

ur okay! we should prob wrap this up and have another newer one tho <3

mona was unable to hide her own soft laughter as piper spoke again, her exclamations ringing out toward the feral eyes that seemed to blink with an uncommon fondness. i am ageless. many winters i have, longer than either of you could count, came the rasping whisper. children too, numbered as the stars.
the young mayfair was overcome, having no voice to add of her own, only enjoying the beauty of the conversation between piper and the homba. 
yes, only i, child. a chuckle. i like to be alone.
there followed a pause, and then the unseen deity spoke once more. what would you ask of me, piper?

yes please!

As soon as the magic beast remarked that he preferred his solace, Piper closed her mouth and took a step back. She felt as though she might have intruded on him, even though he was more than hospitable in his greetings and conversation. The young Redleaf wondered if she had been too overbearing to the man who preferred solitude to the company of others. She had bombarded him with a number of questions in a short amount of time.

When he asked her, though, what it was that she wanted from him, Piper peered at the figure with a hesitant shortness of breath. Her feet fidgeted for a moment before she lowered her skull and flattened her ears to her head. “My brother...” she breathed softly. It was all that she could think to ask for. Then, she turned to Mona to see if the scarlet woman had any requests.

<3

her brother.
mona's own spirit seized with pain at the sudden subduing of piper before the homba's words. she knew the seed of it writhed in the girl, despite the joy she had shown here tonight. there was a long silence, but the mayfair knew he would speak again.
and so he did, the ancient whisper wreathing out to embrace them both: he is not lost forever, and will return.
the pair of glowing eyes across the clearing blinked once, as if to drive home the magick one's prediction; then all at once they had winked out, leaving piper and mona alone in the glade with the yipping of foxes as a backdrop.
turning to the younger, the cardinal nudged her shoulder reassuringly. "if he says it will be, it will be, piper," mona whispered, searching the girl's gaze with a smile. "let's go home."
trusting that the other would follow, she turned, beginning to melt into the shadows that would lead them back to the borders, and the safety therein.