Dragoncrest Cliffs all hours we chilling and maxing the flow

val made his way to the roja den by nightfall. he hadn’t had much luck hunting anything of significance, but he had one small trinket from glintwater: a young catfish he’d managed to extract from the frozen bank.

he hoped he’d avoid meerkat — or was he he hoped he saw her? he vacillated between wanting to make things better and burying them in the sand. more importantly, he wanted to become part of his family again.

ducking his head as he got close, val chuffed between a mouthful of fish. if @quennell or @swordfish were awake, they’d likely hear him if meerkat didn’t get to him first.

it was pathetic.

him being the it.

if anything he had only proven he was not fit to be a pirate. that he could not lead a crew by any means. so when somebody came calling, he had half a mind to stay where he was. holed up in a corner of the den.

but truth be told he could only sleep so much and he currently felt between doses of medicine. which meant he was sleepless for now. in an uncoordinated manner he made his way to the mouth of the den. then blinked bleary eyes at the shadow who was there.

not usual visitin' hours. he grumbled, but there in the back of his voice was an attempt to grapple with some sense of humor.

he also had no clue what hours faces came and went, seeing as so far a lot of his recovery had been sleeping.

val didn’t know what to expect when he got to the den. a bear? a cub? an angry meerkat?

he paused as a shape met him: young, lithe, reminding him entirely of his adoptive mother. much older than he remembered, too. for a moment something akin to sibling jealousy stole over val: here was someone with an undeniable link to erzulie, something val would never have.

he pushed the fish towards his tailless comrade. other than the jilted gait, quennell looked much better than val had expected. well, i’m not a usual visitor. i won’t tell maman. he managed a soft wink, dispelling the unwelcome thoughts that had briefly taken light from his normally jubilant demeanor. so… i heard you ran into a bear. following in your maman’s footsteps, huh?

he did not think he recognized the boy fully. not in the way he should have.

a softly squinted gaze, but his hunger and loneliness destined him to set any wariness aside. this was sapphique. the bear's rage did not reach him here, this other boy did not meet him with scorn. or worse — an abundance of pity.

'pose... he eyed the fish. wondering if it was bad form to devour as much as he could handle. maybe he should have passed it along to sword.

guess dis jus' a test 'fore i pirated. seems i ain't be fit for it as i t'ink.

slowly he began to eat.

val set back on his haunches as quennell contemplated the fish. when the boy dug in, val allowed him time to eat before he spoke again.

quennell looked, talked, and spoke every bit like a sapphician. val, in that little cave, never felt further from his family. he pushed the thought away brusquely.

nonsense. we got the bearcurse in our blood. he shrugged, recalling his own unfortunate encounter with shardik. how often had that bear chased his parents, before he was but an inkling in his true mother’s womb?

did you know before sapphique was formed, a bear chased maman and mama to the beach? he paused, trying to remember everything he’d been told in bits and pieces, sometimes from erzulie, sometimes from rosalyn or raleska. of course, there was also the ever present absence in his life of his true mother — another thing stolen by the bear.

you are a lot bigger than i remember you. i’m val. looks like the bear only made off with your tail? i’d say that’s a fair deal.

bearcurse.

he could not help but think what a good name it would be. maybe he would strike out on his own still. bury his guilt in loneliness instead. take on the name that seemed to mark his very flesh now.

njord be tellin' me 'bout shardik. the name strained on his tongue. a foul taste in his mouth as his hind legs ached softly and he carefully (awkwardly) laid himself down. den not so long after i be goin' an gettin' me an' his son mauled by the spirit o' shardik.

a bleeding of his guilt into the air between them.

is quen. sword be restin' still i t'ink. bear got 'im on his side. big ol' fuckin' claws...teeth too.

he grumbled, feeling plenty justified in his use of foul language.

you be comin' back home den? or you be like loko?

he missed his other brother in a strong way then and there. along with a flare of intense jealousy that his brother may be far from this coast.

val was thankful for the fur on his face then, which hid the drain of all color upon hearing shardik’s name.

the very one. val said through gritted teeth. if njord had told quennell of shardik, then val need not speak of what was taken from sapphique that day.

val didn’t mind the cursing. in a way, he’d been like that at quennell’s age too. he tried not to laugh at the spirit of shardik joke, even if it made his heart sink to think the creature might somehow still manifest evil on this earth. i be coming home now. he admitted, though guilt darkened his tone. he’d been gone for so long he didn’t even know the newest generation of his family. he wondered if loko would come to learn this bitter truth too. where did this happen?

he was oblivious to their shared brewing.

but his gaze steadied on val some. curious and wondering. what kind of stories had the other boy collected in his time away from home? he had wanted to ask when a fair question had been lobbed at him.

beyond de tangle. up on a peak. not de rise. higher den dat. he shifted his hips behind him some. then splayed his legs behind him in an aching stretch.

dun tell me you be goin' after it?

the boy was serious and grim all at once.

quennell took to the ground. in any other circumstance val might have laughed, but the mood was grim and no smile etched his features.

it seemed the bear had been high past the tangle. good, he thought grimly — let it stay there. but still this did not answer the troubling thought: this was not so far from home, and bears were no allies of the seawolves.

i’d come back with worse than a missing tail. val surmised. what kind of bear? black? brown? the former he and a capable packmate might have a chance of chasing out of the territory… but the latter presented unpleasant problems and the possibility of slaughter.

he could not find humor in thinking that an older kin might come back worse than him. quen already knew how lucky he had been.

he had no wish to test the luck of another against the horrible beast.

brown. his throat tightened some and his tongue swiped over his lips.

are dey mad? sapphique.

he sought to move away from talk of the bear directly, more focused on the possible impact that had been caused.

val hid the deflation that he felt in his gut. perhaps this was shardik’s mate, come to exact revenge on them all.

he was grateful to see the topic swivel to something else, but he was perhaps the worst person to ask. who? your moms? val couldn’t speak for either, but they’d never struck him as unfair. you ask asking the guy that has been perennially gone the last year. you may as well ask a fish what the sky air tastes like. but i doubt they’re mad. you made it back alive, i think that’s what’s most important.

his ears splayed some at val's wording. asking a fish what air tasted like. he did not hide the tired scowl that crossed his face.

a'ight.

he shifted awkwardly. tried to stand but found it impossible to do so by himself now.

would ya 'elp me up? mamans will be mad i be out too long.

he wished to lay back to rest and set the bear aside for now.

val had a penchant for saying the wrong things, it seemed. much like meerkat, quennell’s expression changed just enough to show val he had said something undesirable, but what?

he moved into action almost immediately upon being prompted. from a general glance of quennell’s wounds, val guessed the easiest way to help him would be to physically pull him up somewhere by his scruff — but this was, in wolf speak, a rather demeaning move.

instead val positioned himself along the boy’s flank, offering his own body as a crutch. here.

he welcomed it.

even if he had explicitly asked for it, nobody had said val needed to help. the shadow seadweller very well could have called a caretaker to come help him.

quen knew he had also allowed his misery to get the best of him.

would you be comin' by tomorrow too?

he swayed on his very few steps back towards his corner of the den.

val tensed his muscles as he waited for quennell to rest against him. the last thing he wanted was to drop his brother - or worse, make things any more painful than they already were. don’t jostle the package, and all that.

a flush of genuine surprise rose to his cheeks. tomorrow? sure. but don’t be expecting any more fish. that was a stupid one, they’re usually smarter than me. he joked, watching solemnly as quennell limped into the den.

it was in that moment he wished he was more like his mothers or sobo; that he might fix quennell some sort of ointment and things would all get better. instead, all val had was bad jokes.

he puffed a laugh. mainly because anything more might rattle him enough into stumbling.

he leaned into val a bit deeper for a moment. tried to remind himself that whether he knew the man well or not, he was family. more so than the way he considered all of sapphique to be family.

der be a whale. down on de beach. me an' you split de fat dat is left, ya?

he began to attempt his descent into lying down upon the den floor, hoping val would keep him steady while he did so.

i'd love the follow up thread but that is entirely up to you! <3

HELL yeah! want me to make one??

val kept steadier then than he ever had in his life. quennell was nursed gingerly to the ground — a feat that val wished chacal might see, for she would never believe her clumsy and roughhousing brother could be so gentle.

he didn’t mind helping. if anything, it gave him purpose and a brief sense of belonging. he might be alienated from his family, but if he was here helping, maybe he could repair the frayed edges of his own doing.

quennell spoke of a whale along the beach. val’s stomach performed a hidden somersault. whale fat sounded delicious — but the beach.. i’m on it. what about your mate? he want anything? val gestured to the presumably sleeping shape in the corner.

go for it!! last from me <3 :D

twice o' much fat for 'im.

he could not help the miserable look that settled on his face now as he gazed at the sleeping swordfish. how awful he still felt about the whole thing. perhaps...maybe they would talk it out. during one of the rare moments of them both being alert.

t'ank ya, val.

twice as much fat for him. okay, val could do that. he just had to avoid the water and pretend the ocean doesn’t exist.

easy, right?

once quennell was comfortably on the ground, val surveyed the den. he heard the rustling of someone outside - no doubt one of the revolving family members standing guard. don’t worry about it. val assured quennell, his voice barely a whisper. goodnight.

exiting the den, val didn’t go straight to the beach. instead he took old footpaths that he knew by heart, a trail that carried him deep into the sequoias where he made his den.