Dawnlark Plains rhythm romancing

keeping things super duper vague <3

val knew better than to look back. he knew better than to think too deeply, otherwise he might wake again the plague of guilt which hung over his back like a heavy shod demon.

he limped north, more wary now than he had ever been. there was no returning to ursus. with only a vague inkling of where the coast was, val continued his slow trek uphill until he came to an open plains scoured in years past by a hungry flame.

MINE

 

Restlessness trailed her like a shadow, snapping at her heels and urging her to stray from Sapphique and head inland. She passed by the glacier and remembered with a woeful sorrow the beautiful, brindled lady she’d met long ago and how she had been the first to enchant Chacal’s heart. 

The thought almost brought tears to her eyes, for some reason. Her emotions seemed so vivid the past few days and she would go from crying with adoration over her youngest siblings to being seized by the zombies and spending all her energy cruising along the beach.

The days were longer and warmer now- perhaps she simply needed to thaw, dissolve, and awaken just like the earth. 

Nevertheless, she froze when she saw a dark figure treading toward her in the distance. His tread was broken by a limp and he appeared to pause at the edge of the plains. She watched him, and squinted. Her nose twitched, and when she caught his scent, she jerked her head up, suddenly.

She stepped forward, her gaze fast upon him, frightened if she moved to fast he might disappear or run away. Her tail lifted only slightly- just enough to begin waving slowly from side to side as she willed him to catch sight and scent of her, too.

keeping mention of Indra vague but if she is with feel free to pop in!! <3

there that scent came again, laced with salt and sand. val's heart sung a moment as he scanned the meadows, half-expecting the sea to rise in his vision from the weeds. he recalled the ocean was noisy -- and no sound save larks and little birds broke over the spring grasses.

but that scent; it thumbed at him rudely, insistently, naggingly -- until at last val's gaze locked on a distant silhouette.

he froze. the distance distorted chacal's figure, and at first val's heart leapt in his throat as he thought the impossible: it was aventus, come to kill him for his betrayal to the bear.

rather than run, val was seized by a slow terror which broke when the figure's tail began to wag wildly. he tested the air again, wild and feral in his bearing. but that scent...

chacal?

She went north, unaware of what drew her that way. Her legs churning, so that her copper body became a streak through the trees. There was no sense left within Indra. She would run until her heart gave out.

The girl was oblivious to being tailed and it was good she did not look back, for seeing the leggy boy behind her would've been the tipping point.

Even when Indra did eventually stop it wasn't a choice she consciously made - she skidded, scrambled, spidered her way along, desperate beyond all measure, until she hit a burm and went down hard among a tangle of ferns.

Behind her was the boy - and it wasn't until he called out a word that Indra noticed him fully anyway - who she met with the wild eyed stare typically reserved for prey animals.

Every inch of her body screamed at her to keep going, but she couldn't. It felt as if she were locked within herself by a sudden excruciating pain; her muscles could have been peeling off the bone for all she could tell - the feeling was so violent that she immediately began to dry heave and hyperventilate at once.

The wildness in the eyes that looked at her stung the way cold, salty water made a wound sing. She lowered her head, turning her ears back in friendly deference. There was no mistake to be made- it was Val. She was sure of it. Every inch of her being begged her to bound toward him and pounce him, grab his ear and drag him to the ground with it so that she could wrestle with her brother as they had when they’d been children. But the chilling fear and apprehension she saw when he looked at her held her back. If she scared him away…She might never see him again. Such a thing was unforgivable. 

A name was coaxed from his lips and she sighed immediately with relief when the recognized it. Her tail spun in full circles and her eyes filled with happy tears. She nodded, and the motion caused a tear to streak down her cheek. ”Brot’er,” she croaked hoarsely, and swept toward him with as posture as non-threatening as she could possible manage, hips and head held low. 

But when she heard a sudden thud and saw a patch of ferns rustle in the corner of her eye, she flinched and froze. She could hear wheezing, hacking breaths. She could smell fear. 

While at Sapphique with her mothers, she was a leader- fearless enough to chase strangers and confident enough to fend off a foe- her surprise made her feel vulnerable and insecure. Val had always been her shield, her protector; innately, she trusted him. She went to mouth his name, but nothing came out. She wilted to his side, to become his shadow once more, and peered past him nervously.

it was her. he wanted to cry. he wanted to grab her and scream and tell her to RUN

but the bear was behind them. his logical mind knew his fears were unfounded. aventus’ head had been split open. and arielle..

he shuddered. chacal spoke and it was something rare and cherished to val, who had left on the tail end of her verbal growth. any question he had died when he heard a thump; his fur flew on end with an instinctive jump.

harsh breathing. fearful. val’s ears pressed forward as chacal assumed the timeless position of his shadow; how seamless they fell together, despite the miles and months apart.

val craned his neck, peering into the bramble. the unmistakable sheen of copper peered back, eyes wide like cornered prey. indra! val whispered in disbelief, a new flood of relief overcoming him to see he had not lost her after all.

The strangers spoke quick words that Indra couldn't hear for all the pounding in her own ears. She looked to Val when he hissed her name, only to avert her eyes immediately.

Licking her lips in excess. Rocking back and forth at first - she would be pacing if she could stand, but her whole body quaked uselessly instead, and as Val drew closer Indra froze with her ears slicked against her head. Her tail, tucked so close to her belly she looked to be missing the appendage entirely.

Tiny whines wheezed out of her. Shuddered breaths returned the rich scent of soil and fern to her nose, but she couldn't speak. She couldn't move. All she could do was sit frozen there in panic.

Another name- this time, one she didn’t recognize but she did pick up on something that sounded like relief in his voice. She drew alongside him and peered down toward the wolf whose breaths came in heaves, and her cautious facade melted into concern when she realized this was a young wolf- not quite a yearling. 

Her own insecurities fell away and maternal instinct flooded in. She moved away from Valravn, so she might approach the young, exhausted and fearful girl from her other side. 

”Shhhh,” She soothed, sinking to the ground. She was no medic, and did not know if perhaps this Indra suffered from some chronic respiratory condition or if she was having a panic attack. ”breathe, breathe, slow, slow,” She sung in a soothing voice. For each word, she drew in a quiet, relaxed breath hoping Indra might try to mirror her. ”Breathe, breathe, safe to breathe,” She lilted, focusing her own breath so that it was steady and calm.

indra was terrified. in that moment he was incredibly grateful for chacal. she swooped in as if she had known indra her whole life, instructing her in better command than val could ever muster.

he hung back. he did not know yet if indra grasped the full significance of their escape -- how now, they were survivors to a tragedy no wolf should have to endure.

val did not want to stay here either. almost pleadingly, he turned to chacal. she -- we -- can't stay here. in time, he would tell his sister all he could about his stay with the bear fanatics.

already the memories were disintegrating like a crumpling dream. yet aventus and arielle's faces were all too real when he closed his eyes. they tried to kill her. he fumbled, realizing it would make no sense to chacal. can we go home?

The stranger tried to get closer and in doing so, stole all of Indra's frenzied focus. She still could not look them in the eye. Her body was shaking, her breath ragged and hardly slowing with Chacal's prompting. She tried to make herself smaller and more hidden.

Her attempts at calming the child did not seem to work. And the urgency with which Val spoke made her believe that perhaps they would be doing the right thing by getting a move on, and getting her further away from this area. Her jaw dropped when she learned the vague details about the extent of the danger, before she nodded and stood up.

”Come come wit’ me,
We go to my home, out near de sea,
Calm, peaceful and free you will be,” She urged, hoping they could get a move on and take both Val and this young one back to the coast.

<3

in the days that followed, val would tell chacal anything she asked. for now, he was tight lipped. even his sister's song could not lift the terror that frayed at his gut.

indra was all that mattered now. he kept close to her despite the diminutive form in which she twisted herself.

if there was any light at the end of this tunnel, it was the promise he would soon see his family again. for this, a surge of gratitude swelled in val like a wave and buoyed him closer to home.