Stone Circle propinquus

germanicus had been gone many days. he was not without offering, however. in proof of his repayment to kvarsheim, he had brought an early fawn. having gone first to swiftcurrent, he now came to find the one he had lost and would not again.

the leadership had changed. he sent up a note to @Gunnar, @Tauris, and @Taktuq, announcing that he had left the prey beside the stones.

and then he spared no moment, and went to @Aquillius, eyes glancing once for the healer. "my son. how do you feel?"

”What you need to do is sit still.”

You’re about to pull all my hair out! How can I?!

Aquillius’s haunches twitched away again in anticipation of pain. The healer woman (he wasn’t about to use her name when she was about to try and rip half the hair off his haunch) gave him such a stink eye he quailed momentarily, ducking his head down low to his paws. Immediately, she went to ripping through the dried moss clinging to the wounds, his yelp rising briefly before it was all over.

His paws had crossed over his eyes at some point, Faun’s breath rolling over the wounds, before she backed off. He raised a paw to glare at her, while she stared cooly back, even twitched her tail. Amusement!

He huffed at her back when she started to leave, dipping her head to the frame filling the doorway, before she ducked out of his line of sight. His eye found his father, and he immediately stalled on what to say. Did he say anything? Could he say anything?

Are all healer women as..intense? He asked instead, wincing through a voice crack.

She has been akin to a military commander. Perhaps twice as bossy.

the eagle gave a vague smile. "it means she is apt in her work." his eyes alit with approval on the woman.

in another life, he might have asked for her hand as a third wife.

but he was beyond inflicting such. and he knew he would always carry what he had done to fennec deep inside his marrow.

"i came to see how you fared. i will stay for some time and then i must return to riverclan for a short while."

The parting words of the woman were a simple ”Don’t let him break himself!” that Aquillius sneered at. He focused on his father, tucking the unharmed ankle beneath his chest with a teenage grumble.

I thought they were meant to be nurturing and kind. It was a weak complaint, just an excuse to steer away from the topic of how he felt. He let it hang in the air for a moment, before he sighed out a low breath.

I am alright. Faun says I am healing at an average pace for someone young. He had zoned out halfway through that lecture.

"that sounds right." germanicus set his eyes a silent moment on his son.

"i have pledged myself to kvarsheim for a season, in return for gunnar's hospitality to us. once my debt is served, i will go east, and i will bring you if this is your wish."

for they had only just met once more.

East.

Aquillius had never been East. He’d gone south the last time, southwest to get to the beach he’d ended up on. East was new.

He turned his head in that direction.

East was an area he didn’t know. But he wouldn’t leave his father, not after finding him.

East. And then where? He asked Germanicus, face breaking into a wry little smile.

"then i would like to leave the teekons."

he had no idea of the children which waited in riverclan.

the yellowpaint eyes were unreadable. "will you come with me or will you stay?"

He would leave.

Nothing waited for Aquillius in this land. Nobody waited to see his face, nobody relied on him to get through their day.

He nodded, slowly at first, then faster.

I will go with you. I have nothing keeping me here. Aquillius had made no loyalties to anyone but Germanicus himself.

fade here? gotta have an updated one after his dads trial LMFAO

a nod as his features warmed.

"then we will go together, when i have hunted for kvarsheim and when you have healed."

before such, he felt that he might visit akashingo, if only to see pharaoh a last time.