Dragoncrest Cliffs But Icarus climbs higher still in the sky

The waves pulsed slowly at low tide. A glimmering first quarter moon hung above the horizon, its light shattered across the rippling surface of the ocean like a cast of shining diamonds. With the waves so withdrawn, it was an excellent time for Suzu to check the fish trap she and Swordfish had made- though thus far, it had failed to to much more than catch long ribbons of kelp that dried in the sunlight, and had turned the wood dark. 

Still, she was hopeful every time she went down the beach to check, though that hope had begun to fade. And every time she checked the trap alone, it reminded her that Swordfish was away...How long had it been, now? She wondered to herself as she approached, and saw that little was left behind by the tide aside from more glistening, wet kelp. She dug around in it, to see if perhaps a crab had gotten tangled, but nothing seemed to have been trapped. 

She left the trap and headed for the long, flat stone that sat halfway up the beach, never truly being submerged by the tides. It was a nice place to catch the sun in the daytime, and now, at night, it was a fitting place to indulge her melancholy. She hopped up on it, and flopped down on her belly, staring out to sea. 

She couldn't remember exactly how long Swordfish and Quennell were supposed to be away for- but the days dragged on, and she couldn't help but feel that they'd been gone away too long.

Theo saw his sister by the shore. She seemed lonely and frankly sad, so as Etienne has done, in his caretaking way, Theo went over to her, to make sure she was ok. "Hey Suzu, whats up? Why ya seem so down?" He asked, sitting next to her and wrapping his tail over his paws

She wanted to mope- but her brothers were always welcome company. She still revelled in the relief that came whenever she saw Theo, returned home safe and sound. She moved over so he could join her on her thoughtstone. 

”It is Quennell an’ Swordfish,” She admitted. She was not one to keep secrets from her brothers, after all. ”Dey ‘ave been gone for…Longer den I expected, maybe.” She looked wistfully out at the water. ”Maybe dey intended to be out dis long, I just…I thought they would be back by now.” She said.

Worry furrowed her brow.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe they feel they should follow paths that lead them away from these areas. Or maybe they will be like me. Gone for some time, maybe longer than expected, but then realize they miss their home and want to come back. Either way, you will always have me and Eti. I promise I will never leave again. And perhaps if they do decide to stay out, we can find them some time, and then you will be able to visit them." Theo said, in a calming tone.

"How does all that sound?" He asked, realizing he'd said a lot.

Her heart felt as though it were being squeezed when she considered the fact that Quennell and Swordfish might find somewhere else that they might want to live. Getting lost or being delayed were different reasons, but choosing to stay away from the place they called home seemed unfathomable to the girl who was so strongly rooted. She frowned, and uttered a soft exhale. How much could she mean to someone if they would choose to go elsewhere, and only be available for visits? 

She mustered up an appreciative smile for him, though. "Please, do promise me dat." She said, giving his cheek a nudge. "Don't ever leave again, OK? Not for...Not for long." Obviously she could allow him the freedom to roam and explore- but she wanted him, too, to be moored in Sapphique. It was a safe harbour, one she felt they should always turn to when the seas got rough.

"I promise Suzu." Theo said genuniely. "I learned a lot in the Rise but this, this is home. Sapphique is my home for now and forever." He vowed. He nuzzled his sister comfortingly. "I love you, Mama, Eti, Erzulie, Meerkat, and everyone in our home. I would never leave again." He said.

"Now, you want to go hunting or something? Perhaps we could even play-fight like we did a lot as younger kids." He suggested.

She would do everything to hold her brother to his promise. She was fairly convinced, but still dreaded the thought of one of her siblings wandering away again so much that the smile she tried to pull onto her features wavered slightly. She was still naive to the way of the world, but her instincts were sharp. Some of her faith had been rattled the day Requiem had been plucked away from them, and when soon thereafter, Theo as well had gone missing. 

He suggested playfighting and she rolled her eyes. In the very least, his suggestion was a distraction, but Suzu was not the rough-housing type anymore. "Theoooo," She groaned, but she stood up nonetheless. She was not in the kind of physical condition to fight, anyway. Her brother had a size advantage, but she had also become quite plump from eating so much from the whale. "'Ow about we go hunting, down in de tide pools, eh? I do not like playfighting anymore," She said, hoping he might be convinced.

"I 'ave never 'unted in de tide pools. You will have to 'each me." He said. "And dats cool dat u dont want to play fight anymore. I still do a bit but maybe Eti will want too." Theo said

"Well den lucky for you, because I 'ave learnt every'ting- almost- dat dere be to know about hunting in de tide pools," She said with a confident laugh, and a toss of her head. Her family was a crew of shoreside scavengers, after all; all of the adults seemed to be an encyclopedia of knowledge on the fine arts of hunting in the pools left behind in the rocks when the tide went out. 

Given the fact their conversation had begun near the thoughtstone, they were quite close to the tide pools, so she hopped up onto the dark rocks, and trundled along, looking for a nice, deep tide pool. "Hmmm...I t'ink my favourite one beee....Dis one!" She said, indicating a tide pool that was about as big as a kiddy pool- and and only about two feet deep. 

Barnacles lined the rocks, though now some of them began to bleach in the sun while they were exposed. "We look in an' see....De best t'ings be fish, of course, but dey do not often get left behind in de tide pools, dey move as fast as the water- or faster! But we look for t'ings dat crawl like...Mmm, Starfish, like dis one," She said, pointing at a purple starfish, attached to the side of a rock. "But dey be not nasty. What we want is crab, or sea urchin."

Theo looked at the starfish admiringly. He loved to watch the fish, and didn't like the idea of eating one or hunting one. "I think dey be too pretty to 'unt, any of dem." Theo said sadly. "Even de little silver fishies." He said, acting like a pup over the idea of hunting fish. "But if dey be good food in winter, den i guess i have to learn to 'unt dem." He sighed.

It was sweet that her brother thought that the fish were cute, but also kind of dorky. She, however, liked this about him as she was practically a scientist as well, and liked to study the creatures before she tried eating them. Some were definitely better than others, and she would forgive her brother for not wanting to eat things if he found them too pretty to consume. 

She looked into the water, squinting as the surface rippled. "Yah, it be easier den hunting land prey in de winter," She agreed. "No snow to wade t'rough, an' in a pool like dis, dey can't run very far." Suzu herself had thrived by eating mainly seafood; it preserved her energy, and allowed her to store the nutrition rather than burning it off every time she hunted. "Hmmm...Oh, look! A crab! Perfect," She said, as she spotted a green crab trying to huddle against a stone. It blended in well with the shadows beneath the surface, but she'd learned to pick them out by looking for the shape of their claws. "Watch dis," She said, and she reached for a piece of driftwood. 

Reaching straight into the water for the crab would give it the advantage- so instead, she grabbed the stick by one end, and began dipping it into the water. She prodded the crab several times, and it refused to move at first, likely trying to insist that it was in fact a rock, and not a crab...But eventually, it reached out with its larger claw and grabbed onto the stick. Suzu gave it a gentle tug at first to make sure it had really clamped its claw onto the stick, before she pulled it out of water and set it down onto the rocks. 

The crab did not let go of the stick, and remained somewhat attached to it. 

"See?" She boasted happily.

Theo watched the whole time as Suzu tricked the crab to grab onto the driftwood. He was intrigued by the smart process, but unsure how exactly it worked.

"But how do we kill it now?" Theo asked, unsure how to kill something with pincers and a hard shell. He'd only killed things by snapping their necks, breaking their backs, or biting their throats. But he didn't know what was where on the crab.

She grinned. "I'll show you how." She chimed. "Dese pinchers? You do not want to go near dem. You can give it something to hold onto, like dis stick- an dat will keep dem from pinching you. But generally, you sneak up from behind it," She said, side-stepping and moving with the crab until she managed to get behind it, "An' den you grab it by de back side of it, an' crunch." 

She swooped forward and grabbed the crab from behind. It waved the stick in the air and gently bonked her on the head with it. But when she brought her jaws together, the shell cracked- and the creature's movements slowed. She set it down, and waited for it to stop moving. 

"Now, it can be eaten! You 'ave to crack de shell an' pull it off in bits but de crabmeat is good!"

Theo watched everything his sister did. "Can I try da crab? And den try to catch one?" He asked

"Of course!" Suzu enjoyed sharing the art of catching crabs and other seafood with anyone who had time to listen to her teach. She pulled off a shard of the crab's shell, exposing its interior, and scooted it toward Theo. "You can try dis; I go back to lookin' fer anot'er one," She said. 

She padded up to the same tidepool they'd been at before, but considering how long it had taken to find the first crab, she didn't feel optimistic about them finding another one there. She moved over to the next one, which was like walking from one universe to the next- a whole different host of sealife lived within it, and she sat down, searching the dark tidepool waters for the signs of a crab.

Theo gave the piece of crab meat a sniff, slightly recognizing it from when he was younger and couldn’t hunt his own food, and was just fed what the pack had. He ate it slowly, trying to figure out how he felt about it. He decided it was pretty good and did as Suzu just had, removing a shard, to access another piece of meat.

He then padded over to where his sister was and gazed into the water. “You find one?” He asked

Watching the things that moved in the tide pools was mesmerizing. Everything from the ripples of water, the reflection of clouds overhead, and the little things that moved below the surface. She knew to approach the pool from the West in morning, and from the East in the afternoon- so her shadow did not give her away and frighten all the life forms into hiding. She spotted a coven of barnacles clinging to the rocks, an orange starfish that moved almost so slowly she thought it wasn't moving at all, two urchins and eventually, the shape of a crab. 

When Theo approached, she smiled. She reached out, her paw hovering over the water, casting a shadow that might make it easier for him to see down, past the reflections, and into the water. "Here," She said. The crab he'd eaten had not released the stick from its claw, so she found another one, and set it down in front of her brother. "Give 'im a poke! You'll see!"

Theo poked at the crab. It didn't do anything at first, pretending to be a rock, as Suzu's had, but after 2 more pokes it grabbed onto the stick, presumably trying to stop its 'attacker', though it had just fallen into his trap. Theo turned to Suzu and smiled, pleased. He forgot what to do next though

She watched, tail waving, as Theo offered the stick to the crab, giving it a jab or two in order to provoke it, before it finally reached out and latched on to the driftwood. She caught Theo's shimmering gaze seeking her approval and she let out a soft, happy whoop. "Yes! Now lift 'im up out of de water, an' bite down into 'im from de back, while 'e still holds de stick!" She reminded him, pattering her paws upon the stone in excitement.

Theo nodded and lifted the stick up, the bright-colored crab still stuck on the other end. It was still, seemingly realizing it had fallen into his trap, and probably trying to pretend to be a rock. But he knew better. He reached over and bit down into its back and he felt his teeth crack it. The crab was still before, but now it was in a dead stillness. He lowered it to the ground and pryed it off the stick, before turning to Suzu again, eyes bright, tail straight up in pride. "I did'ed it!!!" He said very happily.

wanna fade and have another so Theo can get closer to having his hunter trade?

Suzu pattered her feet on the beach in excitement as Theo hoisted the crab out of the water and dispatched it without getting a snip from its claws. 

”You’re good at dis already!” She exclaimed joyfully.

i think he's good now but we can def still thread the 2!

Theo smiled. "Tanks Suzu." He said with a smile. "it be gettin late, lets 'ead back." He suggested, and without waiting for a response, led the way back to their home.

fading here