Chimera Fields a crime so old as the sky and bone

Paging @Rian. Posting order: Rannoch - Rian - Cypress?

Cypress forbore from commenting on Rannoch’s brief telling of his time away; he felt a little silly that he hadn’t just went out searching for his younger brother, but none of that seemed to matter now. His conversation with Rian, blubbering and all, had been at once cathartic and galvanizing, and he was eager to discuss the prospect of leaving Neverwinter Forest with the O’Malley boy. Rannoch’s reluctance to return to the evergreens gave Cypress the segue he needed, and he butted encouragingly at his littermate’s shoulder with the bridge of his muzzle. “You won’t lose me,” he reassured the boy in his quiet baritenor.

After a beat, “I can’t go back to Neverwinter, either,” the raven confessed. “When mama and paw — afterward, I mean, Kjalarr and Aunt Kaskara decided to lead the forest together. I don’t think you met him, but Kjalarr was paw’s adopted son from a long time ago. He used to live on the coast, too.” Warming to his tale, “Eventually Aunt Kaskara stepped down and left the pack completely in Kjalarr’s control, but I felt like that was still okay because he at least knew paw.” A trace of bitterness laced his low timbre, roughening its edges with the undercurrent of a growl. “Noch, I’m sorry, but Allure, she…she disappeared, too. Nobody knows what happened. Nobody can find her. After that, Kjalarr stepped down — I don’t really know why. Maybe he went looking for her.”

He drew a deep breath, but his lips quivered at the corners and twitched into a snarl, the leftmost corner still quirked down in a permanent frown. “When Kjalarr stepped down, his mate stepped up. She never even met our parents. I just — I couldn’t stand the thought of someone else, an outsider, being in mama’s place. Ondine tried to stare me down, but she looked away first — and I wouldn’t submit to her. She tried to make me, so I tried to challenge her, but — well, I lost.”

Cypress blew out a breath that had gone all shaky with adrenaline, drawing his tongue across his jowls. “Awhile before that all happened, I started talking to our cousins again — mostly Rian. He told me we should leave together, and at first I didn’t think I wanted to, but now…if you want to go, Noch, I’m ready now. You, Rian, and I can all go together.” Rannoch’s return solidified Cypress’ decision to leave the sepulcher behind, and for the first time in a very long while he allowed himself to be excited about it. A new fire kindled in his lantern yellow eyes. “I don’t know if Rian talked to his siblings about it yet or if they wanted to go, but,” he threw back his head and called to their cousin in a long, sonorous howl, “guess we’ll find out.”