Hideaway Strath satio

@Towhee was about. 

he had not forgotten the woman who had been close companions with his first wife and mother to his second. lamenting briefly that no matter where he roamed, he would find faces familiar.

he would not be found avoidant. and he would not be found searching.

the strath was a bone house he patrolled in complete silence.

Aquillius wasn’t one of hers, though if she wanted to include him in her visitation rotation, then who was going to stop her? She headed to the strath again today, hoping she wouldn’t actually find him there. But if he’d gone elsewhere, perhaps she could trail him.

Alas, his markers seemed pretty fresh as she approached the gateway. Towhee refused to enter, though as she sniffed, she thought she caught a familiar scent. Her orange eyes squinted, her mouth partially opening like a cat demonstrating the Flehmen response. Only in Towhee’s case, it was simply stink face.

Well, she rumbled aloud before suddenly raising her voice to the volume of a low-flying airplane, THIS IS AWKWARD!

by way of greeting, towhee's voice thundered through the undergrowth.

he turned to regard her tangerine eyes with a slight inclination of his head. "lady towhee," the imperator enunciated, turning to face her.

"i trust today finds you well?"

and was fennec soon to arrive behind her? germanicus did not doubt this was a possibility.

He strode forward, looking just as she remembered him. Towhee snorted at his greeting, eyes narrowed slightly. She couldn’t help it; there was something comfortingly familiar about his mannerisms. Well, he had been a prominent part in one of the most memorable eras of Towhee’s life.

It does not, she answered his pleasantry. What the hell have you been up to, Towhee asked, resisting the urge to call him “sonny,” even sarcastically. She went with the ole standby, ImPeRaToR?

why was his life of any interest to his former in-law? the tactician was still.

"i have been attempting to restore my relationship with my children, towhee." the voice was impassive. the eyes unreadable.

"have you and yours settled close?" he might rethink the tuktu after all, knowing that redhawks never traveled alone and truly not wishing to inhabit an area where this particular family reigned.

it was shame rather than dislike, shame hanging about his neck as if it were a millstone.

Germanicus was as unflappable as ever, which was also a strange consolation. In Towhee’s defense, she’d experienced a lot of tumult and loss lately, so things like the Imperator’s staunch personality were like some peculiar security blanket.

Why do they need restoration? Towhee couldn’t help but wonder, then shook her head. No. I mean, one of my older kids has claimed the copse where she was born. But I don’t ‘settle’ these days.

She paused, thinking. When was the last time she’d actually seen and spoken to Germanicus? Was it the day she and Maxim had left for Epoch? That couldn’t possibly be right, could it? Towhee’s unfocused eyes stared ahead, then she blinked.

Maxim is long gone, she informed her former comrade, wondering if he cared.

germanicus did not answer. towhee had always bordered invasive with her questioning, though he understood it to be a show of camaraderie. at least it had been so in the past.

her older child was here, a younger woman, possibly with a husband and children to come. his mind worked coldly, swiftly. this meant perhaps four months of solitude here before he must move on.

aquillius was not fit to be around others at present.

"epoch too is long gone," he rejoined, though his yellowpaint eyes spared towhee a moment of contrition. "now we are both wanderers. it suits me more these days."

He didn’t really react, nor say anything for a moment. Now the cold, impassive look on his face struck her as less wistful and more maudlin. Towhee took a step back, glancing downward just in time to miss it when he broke the silence, though her eyes flicked back to catch his comments about wandering.

It's not the same, she thought, prickling a little. We’re not the same. Germanicus probably drifted because he was incapable of forming deep bonds, connecting with others meaningfully and setting down anything but the shallowest roots. Towhee, meanwhile, couldn’t possibly pick between all the flowers on her family tree.

You know, I never got your side of the story, Towhee said next, seeing as we evidently couldn’t be arsed to keep in touch after I left Mereo. But as someone who’s very recently realized just how fucked up it is to only get one side, I’d really love to hear your hot take. Why did you marry my daughter, just to leave her for somebody else?

the question came. germanicus did not flinch. "'ruenna divorced me the day she and alivia left the wilds. it was a loss i had not anticipated. i married fennec because i felt she and i were well-aligned on children, on marriage, on mereo. but hers was not the failure."

he was here and alone. did this not suggest he had failed again? and for him to explain his propensity for men when it had gone unexplored until crowfeather — germanicus could not do it. 

he had been unhealed and selfish. now he was both those things, sans a wife to torment with his emotional shortcomings.

No, Towhee agreed readily.

She of all wolves knew Fennec was high-maintenance but it wasn’t those tendencies which had driven Germanicus away. He’d left her—and abandoned Mereo—for some other love. Towhee had originally believed he might have gone back to Ruenna. But clearly that wasn’t the case.

Fennec never told me who. I thought it must be Rue, but… if not her, then who? Who was worth turning your back on literally everyone and everything you’d ever built?

He’d really raked Fennec over the coals, so no explanation would likely sway Towhee. But her eyes bored into him, burning with morbid curiosity.

"i departed for someone i once knew well, someone i once traveled with for a long while."

but no more would be forthcoming. germanicus felt he had answered enough. "have you truly come to resurrect the ghosts of our marriages, towhee?" he asked, veil slipping enough to show the fractured surface of a tortured man who found himself caught in the ouroboros of consistent self-destruction.

Yup, she answered even more readily this time.

If she saw the chip in his armor, she didn’t relent. If anything, Towhee drove at him harder now. Her eyes blazed as she pictured Fennec’s face.

Don’t cop out. What was her name, Germanicus? Are you even still with her? Or did you leave her too? You really hurt my daughter. The least you can do is answer for it.

"and i will answer to fennec, if i ever have the chance again." she was mother to a scorned daughter and objectively he comprehended her anger.

but he guarded crowfeather ferociously. his beloved had already suffered through two of the roman's marriages and then discovered the horrible reality of who he was. "i am alone." let it suffice.

and so germanicus did not say the name. he dipped his head in a tight bow. "goodbye, towhee," he rejoined, moving to give her a wide berth as he continued on his way.

Good, was her cuttingly quick riposte this round.

She seethed a little at his refusal to give her details. Towhee wondered if Fennec actually knew the identity of this wolf. She supposed it didn’t really matter; there was nothing constructive they could do with the information. Still, his withholding rankled, as did his bow and subsequent departure.

Baring her teeth and bristling now, Towhee could only offer a parting, Fuck you, Germanicus, to his back.

it was fitting. he heard and accepted. towhee was right to detest him. anything less after how he had broken things with her daughter would have been suspicious.

it cemented who he was.

what he had become.

his patrol was finished, and thereafter he sought the soldierly nature of @Aquillius to inform him of this conversation and how it affected his father's intention of settling here.

germanicus was open to suggestions.