Dragoncrest Cliffs mythmaker

lenora had gone away. her wanderlust too great for even jorunn to try and guide.

with it had come a grand ache, deep in the core of jorunn. it had resided there since the girl had departed. she doubted it had been hidden from @Erzulie or even @Rosalyn. and yet she had not found it in her to speak on it. quick to deflect it or ignore it all together.

somedays she became wordless, adrift.

that would be today.

but siren's bay called to her and she sat upon the edges of the shoreline. watchful and contemplative. a thousand miles away, upon some other plane of thought.

erzulie kissed the back of jorunn's head, lips feathering upon the edge of the skull beneath the salt-crystalled fur. she settled beside her lover and moved the kiss to her cheek, drinking the emerald in for a long moment.
"talk to me." her two-toned eyes shone with knowingness. yes she had seen it and now, now she would speak upon jorunn's retreat.

she felt hunted.

not even in an awful way, but the knowingness of erzulie pierced her time and time again. a bleeding heart for her lover.

i do not have words for it. she admitted. a soft breath on the sea breeze. these feelings had been far removed from her life. now they breathed down her neck akin to a love. it hurt to see her go. in so many ways.

the words for this particular longing remained on the back of her tongue. hidden beneath the veil of a frown.

erzulie, who had borne so many children, felt she understood the specific longing upon jorunn's face. she allowed the sea-winds to smooth them both, facing out toward the cold water of the bay.
"it be a world of hurt to watch a child walk away. look at meerkat," erzulie observed. "mercy has gone to travel. letting her go was an agony to her mot'er." she inhaled, shut her eyes. "even when you want dem to go. even when you love dem so dearly you know dis be t'ere happiness."

she felt like an imposter.

words of a mother, about a mother. jorunn had not been the girl's mother. that woman had not even tried to make her daughter stay. that woman had let sapphique be where her daughter grew. not her birthlands.

i was not even her mother. the words choked her for a moment. stung at her throat and eyes.

"when she cried or needed help, to whom did she go? who guided her here? who introduced her to de sea an' our ways? what is dat if not mot'ering, jorunn?"
she kissed the other's head now, wrapping a forelimb around the strong shoulders.
"de t'ing about mot'ering is you can do it every year."

she wanted to cry. she wanted to weep.

she wanted to be angry at faces that were not even here. she wanted the girl back too. she was a swirl of so many things at once.

"de t'ing about mot'ering is you can do it every year."

that choice is not mine, no? she laughed, sad and tired. leaned into the forearm alongside her. the wind ruffled her.

body and soul.

erzulie smiled. "is it a choice you be wantin' to make?" the saltwind was sweet; it played upon each of them and then together, blowing their sea-kissed pelts until the furs blended.
as it often did.
as she wished it to be.

did she want to?

she thought of the business of the mothers. she thought of rosalyn. she wondered how her own children might complicate things. yet she could not know anything until she asked.

she leaned her muzzle closer to erzulie.

what will it do? to them. to sapphique. unspoken. if i want it.

she grinned.
"women in sapphique be havin' babies, jorunn." it would make her one of them
erzulie felt chacal would. but she was not sure mireille was ready, despite the fact that the girl would be a woman in the springtime.
the whole conversation suddenly dazzled her for many reasons.

i want to try.

she confessed softly. yet there was a tangible line of fear below. the last man she had drawn blood from. she had looked at none of them the same since.

she closed her eyes, prepared to hear her lover's voice once more.

"so we speak wit rosalyn first. an' den we go to speak wit chacal." aspiring mother to accomplished maman.
elation heated her soul; she kissed jorunn softly and then lightly. "you have all of us to help you. no mot'er here is alone."

rosalyn first.

she realized all at once that she could not do this if rosalyn said no or held any doubts. she did not want to do it if the older woman held doubts.

even while kissed she considered these things. gently pressing her forehead into erzulie's for a long moment.

she knew erzulie would know, still she must speak it.

if rosalyn says no, then i speak no more of it. and she meant it. in a fierce, sharp way. like her lover had said. the choice was each year.

suddenly she no longer wished to consider the years ahead.

"oui." that would be the end then and she would allow it to be. they must be united, the three of them.
she held jorunn close now, and there passed moisture into her eyes, that her lover should want to join them and bring forth children in the old way they had always done.

fading <3

oui.

yes. them all. her lover and lover's love. sapphique. as they cradled one another, she would be cradled by the power of sapphique.

she thought of the future.

and appreciated the now.