Qeya River flint pond

@Ksura, sun eater, and @Ghelan have come back, @Anselm & @Ezra assumed to follow! some IC delay to explain the lateness! single posts welcome and no posting order :D @Senka @Kekoa @Meleeys @Ilse @Sulukinak @Gideon (tagging @Darrow and @Redd for visibility, i know u both have threads in the forum!) <3

sun eater had not called out for grey man when it was decided they would depart. too much danger in that, alerting the gathering of moon villages and their assumed allies to his presence.

some rebellion to set foot in the wilderness forbidden him by exile, but sun eater was finished here. at dawn upon the third day, he gathered his son and sheep killer, saying not a word as he led them through the thickbranched forest and out into the flatlands.

his intention was to follow the coastline back into the taiga instead of another mountainous crossing, and it was to this aim that he led his wolves, ranging ahead. but sun eater had not remembered the great winter storms that the ocean offered.

a cold squall rose, lashing the sand and its cliffs. with them the clouds brought much snow and stood their fur to frosted end.

yet sun eater pushed on; he allowed little rest and only hunting along the way, wanting sheep killer and ghelan to understand in part what saatsine expected of their ability.

pathways through the taiga were cold, but sun eater eagerly followed them inland, and here his spirits seemed to lift. the river was not far off, he assured.

snow fell softly over the territories of the sprawling world, clinging to the banks of the river against a backdrop of air steaming above the cold river. for a long moment, sun eater only gazed at what he had claimed, and then he tilted his head back to call their arrival.

grey man come after. meleeys, sulukinak. i have brought a caribou boy for you to teach.

comforted thereafter, more relaxed in his stride, sun eater looked for movement among the cold trees, satisfied by the success of their time outside the earth possessed by his sun clan.

Very little could pull Kekoa from the lake, but the call of Sun Eater was not something he would ignore. Pushing to his feet he began the trek to where the man's voice had sourced from. He felt an odd excitement bubbling at the thought of the Caribou man's return. Sheep Killer's, too. Like a little boy jumping for joy upon the return of his father. But Kekoa was a man, as far as he was concerned, and they were no father's to him. He had no father.

He wished to tell them of his new abilities, what the mushrooms had gifted him. He had taken the time to pick out the fungi near the beginning of their trip, and for some time took them daily - more than once per day if the effects wore off. It made him ill, extremely so. But he believed such sacrifices to be necessary, for now he could see without their assistance.

Approaching where the call had come from he saw three - one a new face. His tail waved, curious. Once he would have glared - now his eyes were wide, dilated.

Ksura drove through storm winds like a salmon swimming against current- following the growing urge to return home and see his wife- and check for any sign of his children whom he now believed would become a part Saatsine too. 

The days shortened, and their tasks grew. Hunt, eat, travel…Hunt, eat, travel. He rose to the challenge readily as the destination sang to him; he would hunt, eat, and travel- and rest once he was home with Senka. It was tiring work, but the structure of it all felt right. 

Their borders had been maintained in their absence- he could smell Senka here too, and lifted his voice to sing out to her. 

Kekoa was the first to come and intercept their path, and was greeted with a friendly growl and waving tail. Ksura gave slight pause to see the wild darkening of the wolf’s eyes, but brushed it aside, figuring Kekoa was simply relieved that they had returned home, and with the child they had gone to search for.

The land was crisp, cold. Meleys grew older, yet still felt not an ounce of stiffness in her bones during the snows nor when she was on a long, cold march. She was still young yet! Mate-less now. Still, without grown children to admire on the runs. She would have to admire herself, then. 

Along the icy banks, she licked at its waters. Then a call sounded further downstream as the glacier waters swept toward the coast far from here. It was a rare instant when she wasn't in eye view of the herd. 

Now she comes, to greet her brother and his two accomplices on their mission, yet more importantly, @Ghelan. Already the boy was grown into a tall figure. His lame leg mentioned by his father noticed only when he moved. He seemed quite built, though she wondered if he had kept them longer then expected. 

Ghelan, I have been waiting to meet you, young buck. Her Lanzadoii spoke thickly, almost as a test, to see if he had learned it. Yet, also, because her common speech was minimal, yet perhaps not as much as Cen's Sun Eater's. I'm Meleys. She then adds, Your aunt.

teeny post before work ( and before my laptop dies, heh ).

leaving behind @Skaigona feels wrong, but he assures himself that she needs to rest and regain her strength. that when she does, she will rejoin them. surely she would, if only to be reunited with him and gideon. trusting that she will be ok on her own, he departs with anselm and the wolves his father had arrived with.

he studies them silently during the journey and then when they stop, and those who come to greet them; lingering close to his father's side.

ghelan stuck to his father's side throughout the trip, though giving passing glances to the redheadded boy who clung to his own. though he never made any effort to speak to him. what would they speak about anyways? "ow! do my feet hurt from all this walking. say, is it nice to be with your old man again?"

father beckons at the border, and wolves spill from all of the crevices of the land to greet the travellers. but only one had the confidence to speak once arriving.

hello. ghelan forces a smile. shame sent shivers through his body and a warmth to his cheeks that he could only barely understand his blood. it's nice to meet you. he stumbles through lanzadoii with an ungulate's grace, flashing a nervous toothy grin as compromise.

I've created a split-off thread here for Anselm and Ezra!

The marauders had returned from their coastal raid with Sun Eater's boy in tow. Gideon raced to the gathering the moment the call sounded, slowed only by the shock of wintry air and drifting snowflakes burning his lungs with each gasped breath. It had been long and lonesome without Anselm at his back.

Sun Eater's son received only a cursory glance as Gideon arrived amidst the milling wolves and cast about for his father. After his encounter with a haughty Darrow, he was hardly confident about meeting another youth. No, he was here for Anselm and to grow strong beneath Sun Eater's tutelage so that he might one day return to Rivenwood. Any attempt at friendship came secondary to that.

He found Anselm near the back and would have crashed into his father's chest if not for the flash of red and platinum fur between them. Gideon faltered for half a second before barking a disbelieving sound and charging through the crowd with his tails flying in every direction. EZRA!!!

He caught his brother up in a wolfish embrace, his shrill whines piercing the air between them. You're here! he said in a voice that hitched and caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob.