Cerulean Cape Clouds will overspread the sky

Thread titles taken from Casting Crowns, When we all Get to heaven. @Boris, @Esma, join if you wish, there’s no obligation. :) Trying to keep things vague for you two.

John’s heart had almost seemed as if it would fly from his chest as he neared the ocean, felt the sea breeze. He looked back to Boris and Esma, a youthful excitement over taking his features. “This is the coast! Where things had started out, where I had been led to.”

As he strode down the hills, the sea grew closer and closer, and once he made it to a beach, he ran to the clear blue water. Oh, how wonderful it felt as it splashed on his body. After his wet jaunt, he trotted back onto the sand, shook out his coat, and gazed out at the horizon. His eyes swept the water, and all of a sudden, something startled him. He let out a gasp as his gaze landed upon the Island of Sweetharbor. His heart nearly stopped, skipping a beat. He almost felt drawn to it.

He shook his head, then returned to his followers, “You see that island? That was where Sweetharbor once called home, where the children I seek were born. Perhaps they returned.” He pointed to the island with his nose.

In the beginning Esma had been apprehensive leaving her home behind for good. But John was a pleasant companion, who she trusted fully, and therefore over time she got used to the life on the road. During the day she collected the new impressions of the vast world that was so unfamiliar to her, and at night she dreamt of Riverclan and her mom. There together they went from one altar to the other, leaving offerings and chanting prayers. She found that she did not miss the bear gods, but there had been some comfort and familiarity with doing the rituals with mom. 

While she never ran out of things to talk about with John, she really had nothing to say to his young friend Boris. She had given her name and exchanged greetings in the mornings and during the day, wished "goodnights"  and "sweet dreams" in the evenings. But beyond that there was a void between them that Esma did not know, how to bridge with words alone. There weren't any. Yet. Maybe. Maybe John's god would interfere and fix things. Or it would be his plan to keep these two from forming a meaningful connection. Or it would be the third thing - letting things run their course and trust that the outcome would be the best for everyone involved. 

The first time meeting the ocean was spectacular. Esma had grown up with the chant of water all around her, but never had she seen anything so huge and massive. It swallowed the Earth and hid it from sight. Tentatively she leaned down to sniff at the water that was washing against her paws and a small wave hit her squarely in the muzzle. She snorted and sprang back, hackles raised, then approached to have a look again. "Is it alive?" she called out to John, so preoccupied with her own observations that she had completely missed, what he had told earlier.

@Boris - I kept Esma's interaction with him vague. If you want anything added or a separate thread, where they get to know each other, let me know!

If Boris knew one thing, it wasn't how to talk to girls. Or children his age, for that matter. While he'd always had Ponyboy or Bronte, they'd more often had each other. And when they had each other, he'd had mom, or his own thoughts to keep him company. John was easy; there wasn't anyone who reminded him of John. But Esma was different. Nothing like his sister, but young enough to make him wonder.

Close enough in age for his words to fail him and form ill sentences. Nothing mean - just each one, lacking. A closeness in age which should have brought understanding drove the rift between them. He knew how to have protectors. He knew how to have parents.

He didn't really know how to have friends.

Emma neared the ocean first, following John to the lapping waves. Boris had seen the sea before, from a distance, but never this close. The sight shook his legs like before - awed at the splendor - but he only let the seafoam crest the tips of his toes, ears canted to hear how John would answer Esma, even though he was quite sure of the answer himself. 

Yet it was fun, sometimes, to still lose himself in that long familiar wonder.

I'm good with the assumptions @Esma ! He's a shy boy so it makes sense. I'd love for a thread where they connect though! Or try to <3

Esma followed behind John in suite, to the edge of the water. He was filled with joy, and looked back to Esma who had asked if it was alive. “Almost, but not quite.” He laughed, but then looked to Boris, who was a little more apprehensive. “And it won’t attack you.” 


He turned his eyes back to the water, to the island. “This is amazing, it feels so good to be back.” But when he looked at the island, he felt as if he must visit there, at least one more time. “I wonder if any of the Boys had gone back to the island”

“We’ll go a little farther west, towards that island. If you two want to keep exploring, we can camp her for a while. ” He offered them a chance to rest, because now he had two wolves in his care. If he had to, he would hunt, because his rations had gotten low.

Esma trusted John's judgement and therefore dared to venture closer again. She trouched the water with her paws and forced herself to stay put, when her body wanted to flee from, what it still considered a dangerous and new situation. She leaned down to taste it and scrunched her nose, when she tasted salt. It was so much different from the cool and sweet freshwater back at home. 

"I would like that," Esma replied right away and then cast an expectant look at Boris, who had been very quiet. "What is an island?" she asked next, surprisingly having never heard of that term before. "Is it the name of your previous pack?" she asked.

Sorry about forgetting this, life has been busy. Working a job and working on college finals. Phew.

Boris was still quiet, and Esma, still as inquisitive as ever. She asked what an island was and if that was the name of his pack. He gave a soft shake of his head, “An island is any piece of land that is surrounded by water on all sides. And my pack was Sweetharbor. It was led by two wonderful wolves, but few of us remain. Heda, she is the widowed alpha, but made her home anew back in the Rising Sun Valley.”

“I must go. I need to walk upon the island. I think I will stand the best chance at finding the boys there.”

He then looked to Boris, an inquiring look on John’s face. “I will leave my bag here, with you two. Soon, I will walk across the water.”