Dragoncrest Cliffs twilight stone

As soon as she realized that Sobeille was safe, and Suzu was fine, Astera slowly started slinking away. Maybe, just maybe if she got away, she could have a nice, long nap before facing her packmates. She spied Mireille motion her to come forward, and she knew she could not disobey not just her aunt and Sobeille's mother, but the pack leader as well. Hanging her head in shame, she trudged forward with an apologetic expression. Oh dear...

sobeille was seized from one shoulder to another; she patently endured the kisses of her mother, not understanding what all the fuss was about. transported neatly under the strong crook of her maman’s arms, sobeille sulked. this baby jail was too strong!

she gave one or two half hearted kicks as she sized up suzu. why was she hunched in the sand, was that milk dribbling from her mouth? sobeille’s little brow scrunched, first in confusion and then territoriality. 

her attentions turned to the focus of maman’s interest: astera. sobeille stilled, trying to lull maman into a false sense of security. her plan lacked longevity — it was only a moment later that she unsuccessfully squirmed from her captor bonds, little grubby paws reaching for astera with a high squeal of need.

When she reached the tunnel, she could scent that Mireille had fled through already, and she was grateful her sister had been swifter than she to reach the beach. She could only hope that by the time she reached the sands that Suzu had been able to hear her, and fight the riptide. She'd told her children what to do- but she also knew that Suzu was neither an active wolf nor a fit one. If Suzu could not fight the current, then both she and whichever child had been with her would be lost. 

She squinted her eyes against the light as she galloped out of the tunnel and onto the beach, ears flattened and muzzle agape as she sucked in breath after breath of air. Mireille had a child, wriggling and alive, beneath her wing. Astera looked sorely ashamed and woebegone and Suzu was on her back on the sand but even from afar, Chacal could tell she was breathing. 

Sobeille was the child that Suzu had been carrying, but why? Suzu looked exhausted- an act of heroism, sure, but why had it been necessary? She looked to Mireille, knowing her sister had just experienced the first, enfuriating bout of terror that came as a cost to motherhood. She reached to reassure Mireille, breathing hard still, before she turned to her overturned, soaked daughter.

Surely she knew better- but Chacal wasn't above leaping to conclusions.

"Berceuse, catch your breat' an' say-
what 'as 'appened here today.
You know what riptides be!
It is so easy to see-
Why, Suzu, why?"

She asked, exhasperated. Had she simply not taught her children enough? She would not have her children be so foolish, if it meant that their judgement might endanger the lives of their younger cousins.

Her cheeks flushed as she caught her breath, and she rolled an eye toward Mireille, though she was too exhausted yet to properly register what she'd done. Cardio was definitely not for her, especially not when the chosen method of exercise brought her to the thin line between life or death. "Uhuh," Was all that she could manage, even when she should have been flattered to have been compared to her Grandmaman. She certainly didn't feel like Erzulie right now. She felt as though Erzulie would have cut through the waves like a knife, whereas she'd been tossed about like an empty bottle. 

She turned her head to hear Sobeille's voice, though, and finally seemed to catch up with the amount of oxygen her body needed. She sighed, to see the child obviously unharmed and seemingly unaffected by the peril she'd caused. That one was more like Erzulie. She gestured wordlessly toward the child and huffed, a wan smile pulling at the corner of her lips as she settled her head back onto the ground. 

When she opened her eyes again, her mother hovered over her, and it sounded as though she was being accused of having taken the child into the water, in spite of there being obvious signs from the beach that there was an undertow. "One wave," She gasped. "One wave, it took her. One wave- all it took," She said between breaths. She looked toward Astera, and her expression hardened slightly. The violet-eyed girl had been the one who had ignored the telltale signs of the riptide, though she was just a child herself. She was too tired to explain the entire story. She turned her head to Mireille, and exhaled. "I'm sorry."

mireille could not quench the feeling that something had gone on here; but then sobeille was leaping from her arms toward astera, and she was grabbing for the soaked infant once more, jaws parted in consternation.
when she had recaptured the baby again, mireille looked at her sister, not wishing to undermine any sort of parental rightness over suzu's actions. and so she smiled at chacal, and patted her niece's shoulder, and held little sobeille miette in her arm. "you acted rashly, but if you did not den i do not know what might have happened," the obsidian said quietly. 
peace now, peace; neither of them had drowned, and all had learned a powerful lesson in guarding little ones from the chaotic power of the mother ocean.

To Astera, it seemed that neither of the adults really knew the truth of what had happened, that she had taken Miette in the water, not Suzu. She felt even worse, seeing that Suzu seemed to be the one bearing the blame. Her mother was here now, and Astera felt obligated to tell them the full story, however much trouble it got her in. I...I just thought I could teach Sobeille to swim. The young pup seemed unfazed her her brush with death, and Astera wondered how one could be so lively after nearly drowning. I came down here to explore, and I didn't know she followed me. I took her to the water. She paused, taking a moment to calm her nerves and continue the story. Suzu arrived and tried to stop me, but it was to late... a wave already took Miette. I am sorry. Astera concluded with a meek apology, and looked up, trying to read the faces of those around her. This would take a very, very long time to be forgotten.

feel free to pp bringing Miette back <3 ty for the epic thread!

sobeille learned no lesson. her fat, greedy eye was upon the crystal which now laid forgotten. 

the murmur of adults was drowned by the waves. the amethyst crystal gleamed. sobeille squirmed angrily against her maman’s grip while astera spoke the truth of what transpired and suzu sat in a puddle nursing her recovery. 

sobeille muttered darkly between the crook of her maman’s arms.

She felt ashamed that her daughter had potentially risked the life of one of her sister’s children- and that Suzu was so out of shape she seemed barely capable of performing a rescue when she needed to. It might be time to send Suzu off on an errand, to get her in better shape. The pack would have to be able to depend on her, too. Mireille praised her daughter, but Chacal felt more could have been done. 

Until Astera stepped forward and meekly explained that she was at fault, for having taken Sobeille to the water. Suzu, it turned out, had merely been trying to resolve the situation, and Astera had been the one to endanger the child’s life. 

She told herself to go east; and to treat Astera as she would any of her children. But some part of her couldn’t help but feel a slight rift develop to learn that one of the children she’d saved- the one most unruly and selfish- had almost caused Sobeille to drown. 

She kept her cool. She reached out to apologetically nuzzle Suzu, hoping the touch would convey the emotion that she could not put into words. 

She turned to Astera, a dark and cold shadow. 

”You ‘ave learned a lesson today. 
Never again, did disobedience I say.” She said. Her voice was calm but low and her form softened as she reached out to touch Astera, now that she felt the child was punishing herself enough.

”I will teach you, Astera, Chéri. 
I will teach you de ways of de sea.” 

She had some learning to do- but there was no point in keeping her from the ocean when it was their most bountiful resource. 

Sobeille remained as resilient as always. She cat a glance to her sister, humour finally finding her eyes. Her sister, as well, would need to do a lot of teaching in order to guide feisty little Miette, who would live to cause chaos another day.

Suzu felt relieved that Astera chose to tell the truth- something Suzu would have otherwise buried. She still held a drudge against the girl for endangering Sobeille’s life but considering just how blasé her young niece was about it all…Clearly no harm had been done. 

She couldn’t help but feel that this sort of thing would happen again and again, with each generation. Even Miette might go for it again- she definitely looked the sort to push all boundaries. 


”I’ll help too,” She said, having been encouraged by her aunt’s praise. ”Dis one will be a handful,” She chuckled Welty, gesturing at the firecracker child.

last for me! <3

at last the truth came out. mireille watched astera as she spoke, admitting all to the older girl and the women who stood above her. in that moment, despite having not been born among them, the obsidian accepted astera with the last fullness for admitting her mistake, not avoiding it or begrudgind the reactions of those who knew better.
chacal handled the scolding, and if astera were to look her way, she would find a firm emerald stare eyeing her back, supporting the words spoken by the tanzanite. in all ways must they stand together. mireille felt that swimming lessons on their guarded beach should be held underway, and later would mention it to her sister.
"she keeps my heart running fast!" mireille said of the little one, touched for a moment that so many generations surrounded her daughter. and certainly her grandmothers watched. 
in time she gathered sobeille and exchanged nudges with her nieces and sister before carrying the girl off, back to the tangle, the mossy den, and the safety of being away from the sea.
for now.