Blacktail Deer Plateau burn the cars

*plays Adele's 'Hello'* scarab's timeline is kinda, uh, messy rn? i'mma just wing it. tags are for reference!

EDIT. there's some others (possibly?) jumping into this. please let @Rowan reply first.

with the crowning jewel of his collection — the petrified sandpiper — clutched tightly betwixt his jaws, rowan and a few others in tow — which is a bizarre thing for him — he is struck with a wave of deja vu as he splits from the remnants of blackfeather woods and heads north, towards the plateau that houses rusalka. deciding to part from @Maegi and her motley crew wasn't an easy decision for the plagued prince and it kept him awake the night prior. maegi meant a lot to him and he hoped that she didn't harbor any ill will towards him for his decision to try and rebuild bridges with his family. the illusionary spectre that seems to haunt him more often than not makes things ...difficult. he isn't sure how to explain it — if it even can be explained — but he'd cross that particular bridge if and when he came upon it.

finding his way to the plateau hadn't been too terribly difficult thanks to his recent trip with maegi though his process was slow-going thanks to the snows from the blizzard that had passed thru the other day. besides trekking thru the snow, there was the fog that hung thickly over the lands. khepri takes his time despite the seething impatience he feels. nevertheless, he tempers it as he tempers the omen who paces in and out of the corner of his eye. of all the days to suffer the omen's presence ...it had to be today.

his steps slow as the scent of the borders grows stronger and when he thinks — hopes! — that him and the small ragtag band of followers he's amassed is an amiable distance from them he tips his head back, after setting his crowing jewel at his paws, and lets out a howl announcing their presence to any rusalkan near enough to answer.

Tags just for reference <3

He was mad. He had to leave the woods because Maegi had decided that she didn't want to lead. Why put yourself where you shouldn't be? He knew that the others wouldn't follow him if he tried to lead, so he'd rounded up his family and left with Khepri. He felt bad for Minnow, who'd never had the chance to spar.
But that didn't matter now.

They trekked far, it took them just over a day. Unless their nap had lasted all night.
Anyway, they were here now. @Moonshadow and @Moonshine were going to hunt whilst he went with Khepri to the border. The other probably didn't want him to, but it would be safer. To make sure he was safe and Rowan was happy he was happy.

They approached, and Khepri howled for a leader. He waited, almost nervously beside him. Waiting for someone to recognise Khepri and admit him to the ranks. And they'd all be happy.

clementine had disappeared again. nieve was the only remaining of her brood. rosalyn had returned, and caiaphas some days later, but her children were all but gone. 
plunged into the fathoms of a darkness from which she feared she might not recover, erzulie was heartened by the blossom of scarab's call upon the wind. her son, her beautiful son — it was a slighter woman that came to greet the wayward boy and his companion. her smile glowed golden upon scarab, and relief lit her countenance, but truly her core had turned to a cool stone.
how long would he stay?
immediately ashamed, erzulie swept forward to kiss his ears. "rosalyn has come back," she murmured, eyes quietly sheening with saltwater.

it did not take long for someone to greet him and when she does, khepri feels his heart sprint within in his chest at seeing her. manman, he croons as she moves nearer to kiss his ears. his tail sweeps back and forth agains this huanches, ears fluttering back against his skull as she mentions rosalyn's return. both of the suns of his life were returned and reunited beneath rusalka's banner ...nieve too, he knows. so should he, he thinks. he is not sure whether his life favor to maegi is paid but there was nothing that spoke that he could not make the trek to visit her — which he intends to do in the future.

i want to come home, he admits, like a child whom had tried and failed to live out on his own. he is rusalkan born. this is where he belongs, he thinks. unstable or not. if...if you'll have me. and then, remembering that it wasn't just erzulie and himself he says, as a clear afterthought. oh, this is rowan. he's a ...friend — not that khepri was all that adept at making friends. his mother and sister are in one of the nearby territories. i don't think they're joining, though. khepri says, glimpsing over at rowan just to be sure he was right.

He watched the shared affection. How a family should be; the bond. He had that with his sister, but the one with his Mother felt so strained. Perhaps this time will mend that.
He waited patiently, hanging back a little bit. 
This was their moment.

He nodded in agreement, and it seemed Khepri would be safe here. 
"My family will be traveling to a pack we think we will like. I don't know." He didn't have much knowledge of what his Mother wanted to do, but he didn't know why they wouldn't stay here.
But it felt strange to do so.
He wanted to go home.

"of course you can come home," erzulie murmurs. he was so solid within her embrace, so very real, warm, flesh-and blood. he was alive, and suddenly amid their happy meeting, the grief of the past weeks was rising, burning. but she would not let it spill over now; erzulie blinked away a tear or two and stood back.
"bonjour, rowan," she murmured to her son's companion. "scarab is lucky to have had you." as she spoke, she felt the sadness subside. why did she not cry and shout? were her feelings truly existent? shaking the thoughts away like cobwebs, she glanced between the two. "we do not have much, but i will not be lettin' my son come home wid'out feedin' him." 
first though, she tilt back her head and called for @Aningan. "he is king heah now. but he will not deny you." erzulie would not allow it.

Distant, secluded by his own doing; he wasn’t sure what he was doing anymore, confused and consumed by it. His challenge months ago was driven by the desire to hold down the fort until Caiaphas made her return—but now that she had come and gone in the same breath, he wondered about his own place within the pack. When a distantly familiar voice broke the silence, he was hesitant: he could respond or he could hang back, forfeiting his rank over to the first to respond instead; he considered it for a strong minute, swayed only by the joining of another, more familiar voice.

If someone else still thought to request him, then was it really his feelings alone that should contribute to his decision? Would he be failing them if he chose to do whatever he pleased? The possibility alone that he was being selfish made the decision for him, turning about and making his way towards the gathering in the outskirts.

When Aningan arrived, his gaze drifted from the woman to the boys, lingering on Scarab longer than the other; his brows pinched together, deep in thought, before a single memory was dragged to the surface. “Turtle saviour!” he greeted him by, now knowing what those creatures on the beach were called. “Are you back to stay?” Although he was glad to see another face from the coast returned, he wondered why the one he had wished so desperately to return was the only one to not remain.

Exiting Rowan as Khepri is inactive

The boy smiled, nodding to the adults that had joined.
Khepri was home and safe and Rowan had no more part to play for him.
So he turned, wandering away to find his Mother and sister and perhaps help them hunt.

aningan came; she was relieved to see how he addressed her wayward son. their meet soon came to an end; she found herself wistful in a way she had not before, a melancholy that spread into marrow.