Redhawk Caldera quiet on set

I'm dating this for Saturday. Please let @Alyx post first!

Caracal followed behind Alyx in increasingly dejected silence as they made the journey back home. Every footstep took him further from his mother. She was in good hands with Raven, he knew, having watched the woman at work. What Caracal would've given to stay there, looking after his mother and learning everything he could from his aunt!

But Towhee had sent him home. She'd insisted he was needed at the caldera. She'd tasked him and Alyx with informing the Redhawks of her diagnosis. She had been so gentle and quiet in her insistence, reminding him not to argue with her because it wasn't good for her health. She had effectively tied his hands with that one.

When he saw the caldera in the distance, Caracal's heart twinged and he stopped in his tracks. They were really here, without mom. Tears flooded his eyes. Now that Towhee was far away and his outburst couldn't hurt her, he let himself lose control. He sank to the ground and wailed his fear, grief and misery over the situation.

He did that until he was spent, then sat up and wiped his nose with a sniff. Head still hanging low and feeling more than a little foolish, he gave Alyx a sheepish glance, then resumed walking behind her toward their destination.

The trip back was largely uneventful until they could see the caldera looming on the horizon. Alyx felt awkward in Caracal's company. She didn't know him very well and didn't think they had much in common besides Towhee. The trip there was comfortable with the Sovereign's presence to tie them together, but coming back without her just felt weird. More than once she found herself chewing the inside of her cheek and casting helplessly about for conversation topics to distract her little brother, who grew more despondent the further they went from Towhee.

When he suddenly hit the deck and started bawling, Alyx hovered nearby, patient but uncertain. Turns out she wasn't the best big sister in the world. Wasn't he, like, almost six months old now? Alyx couldn't imagine throwing a fit like that at six months old just because her mom wasn't there, but immediately she knew she was wrong and felt guilty for it. She had had an outburst about Niamh not spending time with her, it was just different than this, and she remembered how much it hurt to be called a crybaby for it. Caracal didn't need her to humiliate him; he was probably already humiliated enough.

She'll be right as rain and back before you know it, Alyx said when he calmed down. Raven's supposed to be the best healer, like, ever. She turned her nose back toward the caldera in hopes it might placate Caracal if she didn't openly look at him while he recovered from his meltdown. When he was ready, she returned his grin with a shaky smile and kicked it into a light trot. She was eager to be home. Do you wanna give the official report, or do you want me to?

Alyx's reassurances made him feel better and worse simultaneously. Caracal blew out a breath, blinking away the tears that pricked at his eyes and threatened to resume falling. He refused to break down again. Still working on regaining his composure, he nodded and fell into step as she closed the distance to the caldera's borders.

Caracal wasn't entirely sure he could give the report, not without risking another emotional outburst. Towhee had tried to tell him how important it was for him to memorize her message and convey it to @Ruenna and the rest of the pack. His heart squeezed. He didn't actually understand much of the diagnosis itself, though he'd memorized the details. It was really the prognosis that mattered anyway. He'd learned those terms from his Aunt Rave.

They crossed into Redhawks territory and Caracal slowed, then stopped, frowning thoughtfully. He thought about calling the Sovereign but it would probably be kinder to go to her, considering her back problems. Besides, he thought he needed some more time to really pull himself together. He began the ascent in silence.

Halfway up the caldera's sloping side, he paused to look over his shoulder at Alyx and changed his mind. "Can you do it?" he whispered, the quiver in his voice giving away the fact that he was nowhere near feeling strong enough for this task.

Alyx was prepared to call at the borders, but Caracal took the lead and silently padded straight on in. Alyx hesitated only momentarily before following suit. It felt eerie to walk into the caldera knowing that Towhee was not the presiding leader, but she was a Redhawk. She had no reason to feel uneasy.

Yeah, buddy, I can do it, she said, trying on the warm and reassuring tone Niamh had always used with Rosie. It felt all wrong and caused her throat to constrict with emotion. Alyx wished she could be the big sister to Caracal that Fennec had wound up being to her, but she had no idea how to do that, and no recollection that all of her older siblings had also failed spectacularly at the role when none of them were around for her childhood.

So she followed in awkward silence to where they could find @Ruenna, or really any other Redhawk. Towhee wanted them to report to Rue directly, but Alyx would settle for Fennec or Phox if they found them first. She was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, which she saw mirrored clearly in Caracal. For his sake, she did not allow herself to mope, but all she really wanted to do was go lie down somewhere.

Ruenna had heard the boy's cry echoing out from a distance, and she reacted to it as any mother would. She had helped raise the boy from birth, and she would know his voice anywhere. 

She pressed towards the border as quickly as her limp would allow, which was not all that quickly at all, much to Ruenna's frustration. As a result, she would intercept the young Redhawks somewhere between the border and the pack's rendezvous point. 

Her eyes slid over Alyx, to whom she offered a grateful nod. She did not know the girl well, but she did know that the girl had gone above and beyond the call of duty as a newly rejoined member. After loosing Niamh, Ruenna could only imagine how stressed she must be with Towhee so sick. 

Even as she acknowledged Alyx, Ruenna did not hesitate in closing the distance to Caracal. He was holding himself together, but his cry of pain still echoed in Ruenna's ears. Ruenna curled herself around the boy, laying her head over the shoulder that was nearly level with her own (when had he gotten so tall?). She lifted her outside limb up to hug him close. 

Towhee had not returned with them, and Ruenna did not-- could not-- yet think about what this could mean. She simply poured herself into the hurting boy, delivering the silent promise that his Auntie Woo would always be there for him.

The instant Rue appeared and rushed to embrace him, Caracal crumbled all over again. Although deeply embarrassed, he clung to his auntie with all his might, sobbing into her ruff. He didn't stop to think about how it might alarm her, he just selfishly drew in her succor. The comforting feeling of her arms around him was second only to Towhee's.

Crybabies make for short posts. :')

Ruenna arrived promptly, but all the Sovereign's appearance did was make Alyx feel like some kind of awkward third wheel. It was clear from the way they interacted that Ruenna and Caracal were closer than Alyx felt with anyone lately, leaving her to stand off to the side, fidgeting. Suddenly, she regretted having gone at all. She agreed to accompany Towhee with the intention of seeing her twin and getting her head in a better place before she had to deal with everything else, but Caracal's meltdown was stressing her out all over again.

Maybe she wasn't big sister material after all.

Um, Alyx cut in, Towhee says she's sorry she can't come back, but she's been diagnosed with bleeding in her stomach. Raven called it ulcers. It was brought on by stress and Raven wants her to stay for a few weeks and get some proper rest to help them heal. She thought that was about it. Alyx chewed her lower lip, trying to think of something comforting to say to Caracal, but she simply didn't have the spoons for it when she was still aching from the news of her own mother's death. At least his was still alive. He didn't have to act like the world was ending.

I'm gonna just ... go, she said, gesturing vaguely off into the distance before taking several backward steps and then turning to flee to somewhere a little quieter.

Caracal began to sob, and Ruenna hugged him tighter, trying to ignore her sense of alarm at his strong emotion. Thankfully, Alyx cut in and delivered the news, which was actually fantastic given what Ruenna had been led to expect. 

"Oh," Ruenna breathed. Overcome by her own relief, tears began to well in her own eyes. "Thank you, Alyx.." Before Ruenna could find any more words, Alyx made her hasty departure. Ruenna did not overthink Alyx's behavior. Some wolves preferred to cry in their loved ones arms, and some preferred to work out their emotions individually. Alyx had always been very independent-- or that was the impression that Ruenna had gotten. Rue would track her down later to get the details. 

Her attention turned back to Caracal. "I'm so proud of you," she murmured, swiping the tears out of her own eyes before the boy could see them. "You've been very brave, and such a good caretaker for your mom. Aunt Raven's pack is the best possible place for her right now." Raven's medical skills were near-legendary. 

When Caracal seemed up to it, she would usher him further into the pack's boundaries and encourage him to get some rest. No doubt exhaustion was responsible, in part, for the strength of his emotionality.

Alyx left but he didn't react, too busy trying and failing to get control of himself. The boy eventually hiccuped himself into silence. He had heard Rue's words and turned them over in his mind. He understood that his mother was in good hands—it had only taken fifteen minutes with Aunt Raven to realize she was a masterful healer—but what Caracal didn't get was why he hadn't been able to stay by Towhee's side.

"Why?" he questioned softly, big, wet eyes lifting to his auntie's face. "I'm not brave," he whispered, swiping at his snotty, teary face. "And I can't help my mom if I'm here," he added, struggling not to lose his composure a third time. He already felt like a complete crybaby, disgusted by the smear of fluids he'd left on the Sovereign's shoulder.

He fell into sullen silence as Ruenna led him away to rest, though if she tried taking him to the Hobbit Hole, Caracal would not go willingly. It was where he'd spent so much time looking after Towhee. He couldn't bear being there without her. No, from now on, he would bed down elsewhere.

"Of course you are brave," Ruenna countered softly. "You travelled an awfully long way to get the the Frosthawks-- probably twice as far as Sphyra and Tierra have ever been. That's very brave, in my eyes." Ruenna generally tried not to weigh the pups' achievements against one another, but Caracal was in real need of a pick-me-up. 

Ruenna swiped her tongue over the boy's face a few times-- he was a mess for sure, but she'd cleaned up far worse messes of his when he was a baby. 

"You absolutely can," she argued. Caracal was at an age where he could certainly be helpful, if that was his desire. "You can help take care of your sisters and cousins. You can look after our caches, or learn medicine from Fennec, or train in any other trade that you would like. Any way that you can find to help the pack will also help your mom. With all of us pulling together, we can make sure she doesn't run herself into the ground again." Ruenna would have to speak with Alyx a little more thoroughly before she truly understood the cause of Towhee's sickness, but she knew in her bones that the stress Towhee had been under hadn't helped things. 

"C'mon, let's get you settled in," Ruenna coaxed. Once Caracal was settled down, she would seek out his sisters to pass on the news to them.

He made no reply when Rue countered him, though he did listen. He cringed a little when she tried to clean him, not because he didn't want her touch (he did), but because he was still feeling quite embarrassed about his emotional outburst. Gods, what would his twin sisters say if they saw him?

They came to a soft patch of grass not far from the stream, within view of Hobbit Hill but far enough away that Caracal didn't mind it. He flopped down listlessly, then let out a gusty sigh. He looked around to make sure Tierra and Sphyra weren't nearby before curling tightly into a ball, tucking his nose under his tail and squeezing his eyes shut.

He popped one open just before his auntie shuffled away to attend to things more important than overgrown babies. "Thanks, Auntie Woo," he murmured, perhaps too softly to be heard, then hunkered down in the grass, trying to disappear.

Caracal cringed away from her tongue, but Ruenna paid that no mind. If he hadn't flinched away from her demonstrations of affection, she would hardly have believed he was a teenage boy. 

The exhausted boy dropped down in the grass, selecting a spot that was as good as any, she supposed. She placed a few licks on the top of his head and began to move away. 

She hesitated when she heard him murmur under his breath. She hadn't caught his words, but she replied back with a soft, "I love you." She then padded away quietly, off to find the boy's twin sisters.