Dragoncrest Cliffs Retrograde

Njord felt like an enemy in his own home.

No act he did was right.

No conversation ended without tears.

Nearly a month had passed. The autumn vibrance of the leaves had faded. The frost had come. Still, the heartbreak endured.

He had found a new densite on the fringe of Fireblood Stand, but decided against suggesting it to Meerkat. Change seemed to trigger deep emotions.

On this day he traveled to the gravesite on the sunset overlook. There, small mounds of rocks marked where their fallen rest. No moss grew. The saltwind was too frequent.

The seafarer plucked a few small stones and made a cairn. Da, he thought.

Njord slumped to the ground and laid his head across Merlin's adjacent site. He squeezed his blue eyes shut and listened to the crashing waves below.

he had spent a lot of time wandering.

so much that he wondered if anybody even really thought much about him anymore. not in some sad, mopey way. he just figured maybe they thought he grew up and went off. like loko, right?

and as such he had remained blind and oblivious to the drama that he might return to.

although he was certainly surprised to see njord!

especially...here. very briefly he panicked that he had missed something awful and terrible. so he did what he figured would be most appropriate. crouching low so his belly just barely met the earth, and softly worked his way over towards njord.

who could have very easily noticed him by now.

it was no secret that quennell did not know stealth.

hey, he whispered very softly.

The sound of shuffling steps joined the ocean’s cadence. Njord reluctantly opened his somber eyes to see someone he would have never expected. “Quennell?” his voice quietly flexed, caught off-guard in the middle of a private moment.

Erzulie’s son had been just a wee lad with a ruddy coat when Njord saw him last. Now, a month older than his own brood, Quennell was on his way to becomming a strapping young man. The colors of his fur has bloomed with age, and Njord couldn’t help but eye the cadmium red of his nape and think Sveijarn.

The seaman remained where he laid, drained of energy. Yet, he managed a weary smile.

“Where ‘av you been hidin’ lad? Out adventurin’?” he wagered.

he had not realized how much he had liked introducing himself as quen until now. but still he smiled and nodded.

he didn't notice how different the man may have looked from the last time he had seen him. all that really mattered was that he seemed to be back home. gently he laid down next to him.

oh, uh, yeah. he laughed a bit sheepishly. a boyish grin plastered across his face. ya been home long? his tail tapped behind him. radiating warmth despite the chilly sea breeze that ruffled their shared vermilion.

The youngester took a place besides the redtail… and Njord would not shun his company so long as Quennell’s mood remained fairweathered.

His attention turned to the way Quennell shrugged off his question. A wry, knowing smile found its way onto the man’s face. It seemed every young wolf wandered as they approached adulthood. Coincidentally he wondered where Loko had traveled and how far.

“Aye, a few weeks now,” Njord reflected bitterly. The words were like sand in his mouth.

had it been that long, he wondered.

maybe it was here and now that he realized njord looked different. how different all of sapphique looked if he really stepped back to take it all in.

both of them suffering a sense of impostering, even if for far different reasons.

oh. he offered. doing his best to keep his voice light. he could not explain the sudden things he felt. nor did he wish to drag njord into them!

sorry i didn' bring you anyt'in'. he mumbled, but offered a soft press of his shoulder into the older man.

Quennell would not be capsized by Njord’s sullen mood. When their shoulders touched, the redtail silently sunk into it. Sometimes words didn’t need to be said. A friendly touch was enough.

A weight left Njord at that moment.

“Och, I dinnae be needin’ things,” he scoffed lightheartedly. “But ye are kind ta be thinkin’ it. Tell me… what did ye see on yer travels?” His ears tilted forward, the air about him noticeably lighter.

quennell became a blossoming flower and radiant star when asked about his travels.

so he sunk down properly, laying on his belly now but leaning into njord some still too. finding a sense of family with the rugged older man. no different than he had with meemee or his own blood.

i be seein' sea monsters.

he declared with a hint of mischievous pride. holding out on details in favor of being asked.

“Sea monsters?” Njord echoed, the words stretched out to intone his amazement. “Now there’s a tale I must be hearin.” Njord crossed his paws, as if he settled in, and made a gesture with his muzzle to encourage the lad to share.

de ugliest sea monster.

he broke into laughter already and the story had hardly begun!

i be fightin' off birds. real piratin', y'know? surely njord knew such things! although admittedly he didn't know if the man was a pirate, but meemee had taught him how to fight off sharks. they were both probably pirates at some point! den dis big, smelly beast come a'climbin' up de rocks...

Njord laughed with Quen and it felt good.

He cocked a brow as the lad continued and added a hum or nod to signal that he followed long.

He sucked in a breath.

“What did ye do, lad? Fight tha creature off?” he asked, voice spun tight from anticipation.

njord and meemee continued to be very good for stories. he appreciated the way the man egged him on further with the story telling.

oh i got 'im good! he barked, tail thumping hard against the ground. he was not prepared for quen! i stuck the gulls on 'im!

he could hardly contain his laughter!

the truth of this story mattered not.

Quen’s jolly spirit was as bright as his laughter was loud. Njord chuckled from the belly, his red tail thumping the ground off-beat to the lad’s. “I’m sure ye sent that Dheamhain back to tha depths from which it spawned!” he jeered.

“I see ye like telln’ tales,” Njord observed. “I ‘av a few of me own. D’ya wish tae hear?” he asked.

it felt good.

for all sapphique was a women's place and he respected it, it was sometimes better to be a bull with the men. rugged and rough. laughing and jeering. quennell had missed this kind of thing.

oi! you gotta be telling me! he encouraged as he broke free of his laughter.

The young buccaneer indulged his cohort. Though Njord’s mind was in a better state, he could not help but reach for a melancholy memory.

His eyes passed over the mounds of earth beside them.

“Has yer maman ever told ye tha story of Shardik’s attack?” he asked.

if they had, quennell had not held onto the memory of it very much. besides. stories could change and he wanted to hear njord tell a story. not his maman.

i t'ink you be tellin' me it. he offered warmly as his tail beat at the earth for a moment before he settled his head on his paws. eyes remained looking upward, at the newly scarred face of a man he adored.

The violent attack was so vivid in the Njord’s mind that it hardly felt like a memory at all. The seaman’s teeth ground together as he turned to Quenell, pruning the worst details from the story he was about to craft.

“There will be tryin’ moments in yer life, lad. Testin’ ye,” the man cautioned as if he recited a forward in a book.

“Sapphique was new. T’was our first winter on these cliffs... late December. Tha air was frigid… a blizzard was brewin’. Ye could smell it.” Njord set an ominous stage.

“We didnae ken it, but a bad spirit ‘ad followed us from tha Moors. He appeared like a wight. I remember hearin’ ‘is devils cry roarin’ cross tha sky. Then, we ‘eard Chacal scream.

“T’was Shardik. A monstrous bear, the size of ten wolves, with fur dark as the Saltmarsh’s mire. Red blood was glistenin’ over ‘is mouth an’ throat.” Njord dragged a paw across his neck. “That’s when we saw ‘er – Shardik had taken the life of a dark-haired lass.”

Njord winced at the recollection. How terribly Raleska’s body had been mutilated! He decided against speaking of Quenell's older sister. It wasn't his chapter to tell.

“He was teasing us, ye ken? Sapphique was enraged! One after another we dove in tae fight,” Njord became animated and snapped at the air with his teeth. “I felt bear-flesh between my fangs and tore at it ‘ard as I could!!” His lips curled for effect. “Shardik struck me away. I looked up – we were all red as tha fur on yer back.”

Something akin to PTSD made the hair of Njord’s nape bristle reflexively. “I went in again, an’ again… Sapphique drained tha beasts’ blood till he moved no more.” A pause… Njord’s tone changed.

“T’was not without great sacrifice,” he reflected sadly. “Two of tha noblest men I ever knew gave their lives tae protect tha pack. I was lucky tae ken them. Call ‘em my mentors. Friends.” His eyes swept over to the cairns and the graves they watched over. “We buried tha three of ‘em here, lookin’ over tha sea so that they may forever ‘av peace.”

I am horribly sorry for how long this sat. let's fade?<3

it was a nightmare.

the kind to stick with a boy for the rest of his life. if it shook the likes of sapphique, it would make him tremble in his fur. he did not like the likes of this kind of story, but it was important.

this he knew in the way njord spoke, in the way those involved were impacted.

the talkative boy felt without words now.

if njord would let him, he meant to sit in silence with the man now. to stew upon the warnings in the story and the strength of sapphique.

and to think of those lost, who he had never seen, that gave him a life with their sacrifice.

Yea!

The moral of Njord’s morbid story landed. Yet, even though it had the intended effect on young Quennell, the lad’s listlessness brought the seaman no joy. Guilt left an unsavory taste on his palette. Quennell had been kind enough to share happy and adventurous stories… maybe Njord had gone a little too far.

It seemed, even now, it remained difficult for Njord to pull himself from the mire of his troubles.

He sighed a breath out of the nostrils and leaned into Quennell. A knowing presence. A comforting touch.

The two would stay for a long while before departing the cliffs together.