Dragoncrest Cliffs ti frè

referencing Jess's ooc note here

bastean! lafayette called out, pacing quickly, anxiously through the forest trails. 

the boy had disappeared shortly after mireille's death. the remaining members of sapphique had done their best to look after their younger kin, but there were enough gaps in their coverage that one had slipped away.

kote ou ye, frè mwen? he hollered. his voice was hoarse with overuse, and his throat burned as if he'd swallowed mouthfuls of saltwater. still, he persisted. bastean!

lafayette had picked up traces of the boy's scent outside the den, meandering a little ways before it abruptly. . .vanished. just as sobeille's scent had. was this another kidnapping? had the pirates somehow returned and stolen away at least part of their spoils?

bas—

something crunched strangely underpaw, and he stopped, picking up his forelimb and examining whatever lay beneath. a dark, oblong shape, like excrement, but without the smell. a tangled ball of fur, perhaps, but from what? 

he stooped lower to better examine the object, pulling it gently apart with his teeth. bits of bone—that was what had made the sound, perhaps—and further down, the top half of a tiny skull, half-cracked socket dark and empty. a squirrel's, maybe, or. . .

no, lafayette said aloud, horror clutching his throat, as something awful began to dawn on him. the tiny skull, and that fur—such a familiar color—

he tried and failed to call for his older sister, and instead turned aside and vomited, eyes streaming, chest heaving. bile on his tongue, the yearling began to slowly circle the object like one gone mad;

maybe he had.