Shadowwyn Moor the mourning sun

The ridge stood like a jagged seam against the slate-colored sky, its rocky spines jutting up into the moaning wind. Below, the world stretched wide and pale, a barren scape broken only by the speckling of pine and the faint shadows of distant peaks.

Snow flurried down in fits, sharp and stinging against Gjalla’s fur, but she did not flinch. The cold was nothing to her—an old companion, a familiar ache settled deep in her bones. She had been born in this. Shaped by it. Her breath clouded before her muzzle in shallow bursts, vanishing into the tempest like all things eventually did. 

The black wolf missing an eye. The husband. The Chieftain. 

Sun Eater.  It had been days since Morwenna had left, and today, she would find her—would find them. They had left in a blur, left chaos and bitterness behind in Swift Current. Her lips curled in a faint grimace; an inconvenience, that bit.

Her silver eyes narrowed as she surveyed the distance, every muscle in her poised frame taut with intent. Somewhere in the yawning distance, movement. So, she waited, as still as the ridge beneath her.

---

@Sun Eater and maybe @Morwenna

morwenna’s step faltered, her eyes narrowing as she caught the scent—sharp and familiar, cutting through the icy air like a fragment of her past come to life. her heart leapt, recognition blooming in her chest, and she turned swiftly toward sun eater, her gaze sparking with urgency.

come, she beckoned, her voice soft but insistent, the warmth of their honeymoon momentarily tempered by this new purpose. she surged forward, her pace quick but measured, ensuring her husband followed close at her side. the wind whipped at her star-kissed coat, but she pressed on, her mind now consumed by the one name echoing in her heart.

gjalla.

when the dark ridge came into view, morwenna’s eyes darted across the landscape until they found her—a lone figure, strong and still, standing against the storm like a statue carved of ice. her sister, not of blood, but of bond. a piece of her soul she had thought lost.

morwenna closed the distance quickly, the snow muffling her steps. she didn’t hesitate as she reached gjalla, her muzzle brushing against the other’s cheek in a tender, affectionate greeting. the warmth of the gesture was mirrored in the smile that softened her features, a rare glimpse of joy in the midst of their tumultuous lives.

gjalla! she murmured, her voice laced with relief, her body angled protectively toward sun eater as he approached. morwenna’s gaze flicked between her husband and her sister, the two halves of her world meeting for the first time. she felt the weight of the moment settle in her chest, but for now, all she could do was hold onto the fragile spark of reunion that had found her in the snow.

any other time, sun eater might have lifted lip at morwenna's command, no matter how inviting. but she had kept him surprised and sated, blissful; she had kept away the shadow from his dreams and maintained the relaxed state of his hard body.

still he followed at a more ambling pace, tasting the air for his caribou and for any strangers. one; female; standing alone as morwenna approached. he watched their reunion with a closed expression, head high as he closed the distance between himself and his woman.

this stranger held that fragrance of freshwater and birchwood which sun eater had come first to associate with his wife, then the chieftains they had left behind. dichotomous his reaction, first appeasement and then wariness.

"she is blood?" he asked gruffly, though he stepped beyond the dark pair of she-wolves now, staring firmly in the direction of swiftcurrent.

Gjalla remained as still as stone even as the sound of approaching steps reached her. Her gaze was trained on the horizon, though she felt the shift in the air—a familiar pull, sharp and insistent. It wasn’t until Morwenna’s scent filled her lungs, like a forgotten song on the winter wind, that she let herself truly exhale. Her shoulders loosened minutely, but her stance held firm. 

When Morwenna reached her, brushing their muzzles together, Gjalla didn’t flinch. Instead, her head tilted slightly, leaning into the familiar warmth with the quiet strength of someone who had long ago learned to endure. For all her restraint, the ghost of a smile tugged at her lips—a rare, fleeting thing. 

“Mo,” she murmured, her voice low but steady, a deep current beneath a frozen surface. Relief, however subdued, was palpable in the way she said her name. The sight of her spirit sister, safe and seemingly thriving, softened something inside her. But Gjalla’s pale eyes soon shifted past Morwenna to the towering figure that followed.

A single ice-blue eye met her own before sweeping toward the distant ridge. She didn’t bristle under his scrutiny but held his gaze with quiet intensity, as unyielding as the winter itself. 

'She is blood?' His question was rough and clipped. Gjalla’s ears twitched, and she turned her attention back to Morwenna, a brow lifting faintly as though the question were absurd. 

Tentatively, the woman parted from the other to greet the man, stopping just short of his shadow. “No,” she said simply, the word crisp as frost. Her gaze lingered on Morwenna’s for a heartbeat longer before she added, “sisters by circumstance.” 

“You are Sun Eater?” she stated, her voice carrying an edge of something unreadable—approval, caution, challenge.

morwenna lingered near gjalla for a breath longer, her eyes soft but thoughtful as her spirit sister’s words settled in the air. sisters by circumstance. it was true, and yet it had always felt like so much more. but things had changed. she had changed.

at sun eater’s gruff question, morwenna tilted her head, her gaze flicking between the two figures who now shared her world. gjalla’s pale eyes, unyielding as ice, and her husband’s slate-blue stare, shadowed with instinctive wariness.

we might as well be, she said softly, a laugh threading through her words as she stepped back toward sun eater. her movements were deliberate, a quiet declaration as she pressed her shoulder against his. her place was here, by his side.

turning her gaze to gjalla, morwenna’s lips curved into a small, almost mischievous smile. ao issi ñuha zaldrīzes, she said in valyrian, her voice steady and proud as she named him. this is my husband.

her eyes lingered on gjalla, watching her reaction carefully. then, with a flick of her tail, she leaned into sun eater, her presence a silent reassurance to him. whatever unspoken tension hung between the three, she would not let it unbalance her. morwenna had chosen, and her choice stood firm.

i think she would like to run with us, if you'd allow it, husband.

not bloodkin, but chosen. he did not like hearing these foreign words in his wife's voice; she had come to be lanzadoii, and he rejected reminders of any past life.

they would begin anew, he and she; nothing might be allowed to lay grim and unsaid between the saatsine man and morwenna.

he heard the gentle press in the tones of this gjalla, and set his eye upon her as his mate wended their pelts together in warmth once more. it reassured him, and thus he was made suspicious a second time.

"i am sun eater. if you come to be saatsine, come now." his teeth glittered. "your chieftains not like me." another moment of trophy for him, a rising chance that the swiftcurrent warriors sought them once gjalla had disappeared.

very much he wished to carry morwenna off for their further enjoyment; to temper temptation, he pulled aside and gestured that his s'aa lead her sister up the snowdrifts while he waited to guard their departure.