Wheeling Gull Isle the story is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground

Komodo looked out across the empty waters; the silence of the place close to deafening. The islands had never been truly teeming with life, but it had been teeming with purpose. 

Here, though, there was neither.

Komodo, ever in tune with the vibrations of the earth, understood the imbalance the moment he recognized the silhouetted island cut against the mist rising above the briny channel. He heard the whispers of the gods brush against his ear; for some reason they would not speak loudly in this place, and it immediately concerned him. The high tide precluded him from immediately traversing the channel on land, and it was far too cold to take to the seas, so the santana sat in wait for the hour to turn more favorable. He was wordless in communicating this to the roving party, but when finally the sandbar laid bare in the weak winter sun, he led their quartet across. 

The island wolves had not necessarily been thriving upon his departure, but Komodo felt as though their survival had been secure. He did more than felt it; many times on his travels, the medicine man prayed to the gods to steward his wolves and performed ceremonies to curry their divine favor. He had bargained for the stormborn wolves' safety and good fortune with everything he had known. It had not been true abandonment, though the desolate island of that day might give the appearance of it! Had he known this would be the result of his leaving — an island as stagnant as the life upon it — perhaps other measures could have been taken. 

However, Komodo refused to take blame for this. He had one request of the council: that he maintain the freedom to come and go and he please. Anything less was, simply, a dealbreaker. The small group of leaders had agreed to see to Undersea’s wellbeing in his stead... and now, Komodo wondered what had been made of the council and their promise. Scattered to the winds, he was certain, but hopefully hale and healthy. Komodo made note to he would pray for them later.

Though Komodo did not feel guilty, the man certainly did feel somber. The wintered island had perished without the warmth and care of its canine caretaker, and it was always a sad occasion when something beautiful was, simply, no longer. Without prompt, purpose, rhyme or reason, the earthstalker curled his tail beneath his seat, pressed his ears sharply against his crown, tipped his chin to touch the sky and let loose a sad, honey-whiskey song.

@Sirimiri @Corten and whoever else!

Tipping back his own head, Brontide howled along with the younger male, his own sonorous voice more politely sympathetic than truly sorrowful. He had not walked this island, had not known its inhabitants, and aside from wondering where his niece and nephew had wandered off to [he assumed, as everyone who knew them tended to, that @Amoxtli and Coelacanth were together], he wasn’t too concerned with the isle’s emptiness.

He was smart enough to avoid saying stupid things like, “Well, this is disappointing. What now?” but not empathetic or intuitive enough to know what to do for the Earthstalker’s obvious drop in mood. Brontide liked to keep things easy and simple. At a loss, he turned to his sisters with a low murmur of a whine. In a hushed undertone, “The little’uns wouldn’t need to move inland for the winter; they’re Cortens,” he mused, maybe a little loftily, “so they must’ve done it to keep the rest of the pack together.” He looked about, appreciating the prettiness of the place. “Shame,” he lamented. “It’s a pretty enough place.”

Sirimiri looked around, silently agreeing with her brother. She gave a tacit nod of agreement and stepped away from the others to process her own disappointment. It was upsetting not to have her little inkdark niece darting toward them, head thrown back and ears pressed forward, her silky tail flapping like the wing of a bird behind her. Of course it was. But -

"There's no sense in standing here and feeling sorry for ourselves," she said briskly, coming back to give Komodo a quick kiss on the cheek. She nosed Serein as well as she turned back inland. "Let's grab some leftovers and get a good night's sleep. We'll head back inland in the morning and ask around for her then. She won't have gone far from the ocean, and I'm sure anyone who's seen her would remember her."

With that said, the woman put it out of her mind. There really wasn't any sense in worrying about it, either. She knew that every day could be a wolf's last, and had known the last time she's parted with her niece that it could be their last goodbye. Still, to have her so close and miss her by this much... well, a good meal would make them all feel better.

The howls of the two men slipped away over the seas, likely heard by no others than the quartet present. He wasnot really sure how to handle the knot that sat deep in his gut. He’d known the moment he saw the island that whatever news it held would not be good — but it held no news at all! Komodo’s head swam with the possibilities, and none of them seemed to be what he wanted, so the earthstalker grit his teeth and turned to receive Sirimiri’s affections, having realized that the siblings were talking together in his periphery. 

“Yeah,” he concurred with their conjecture, though he had not been a true audience of it. He had confidence in them, and in this moment he trusted them to know the best course of action. His own negative was stifling and he knew he needed to cleanse; for how could he work his magics if his psyche were so off balance? It was always in these cases that his window to the heavens closed and he would find that no longer speak to the gods — that, simply, was unacceptable. 

Komodo turned his back to the churning seas, facing the others of his group. Finding Wheeling Gull Isle had never been the main purpose of his return (and their introduction) to these wilds, but it had been a side quest that he was particularly excited about. What now?

“There’s uh cave, ‘way from th’beaches,” he drawled, watching the route to their old shelter materialize in his mind’s eye. Though he had not been its discoverer, the santana knew it well. It housed the stormborn wolves during the great storm — housed Coelacanth when she did not know who she was; housed Aria and kept her safe from all dangers — and now it would house them, and only them. “It’ll be uh good place t’pass the nigh’.” and with that, he made to lead them to the cave, not expecting to hear any disputes.  

Serein had drifted away from the other three for a prolonged moment, her expression pained as she bit back her own wave of disappointment, but she offered a hearty chuff of agreement at her twin’s suggestion. “Sounds good to me,” she said easily, still mulling over her own feelings on the matter. She fell naturally into step with them, briefly stretching her muzzle to rub her cheek against Sirimiri’s shoulder. The pull of the sea was enticing, but so was the cave Komodo suggested. She — and most of her immediate family — trusted the Earthstalker completely, so she had no qualms about following his lead.

In the wake of his musings, Brontide was quiet — and it was some time before he said anything at all. This wasn’t totally out of character for Bron, who valued solitude and silence as much as song and showmanship, and neither was his seemingly tangential interjection: “Hunter’s Moon is soon, if Kirynnae guessed right,” he commented. “All the dogs were howling about it, last few settlements we passed through.” Brontide himself had no gift for reading the skies; if it rained, it rained, and he didn’t waste effort in trying to predict it.

Lost in thought as he was, it was a few seconds before he closed the loop: “Mom’s usually right about her hunches, so if we follow the sea lions, we’ll find them,” he pointed out, typically untroubled.

Sirimiri, too, followed obediently after Komodo, nodding along to her brother's words. It only made sense that they'd find each other soon. She didn't quite have the words to comfort the others, but lifted her voice in song. It was a short section of a larger piece, wherein a brother bids goodbye to a brother, promising to see the other at a pre-appointed time. They were blood, after all, and being part of one another would surely bring their paths to cross again.

Serein took up the brother's reply, praising Sirimiri's bravery and bidding her good fortune in her travels and expressing a fond hope that she'd bring a pretty girl when they next met.

Rather than go on to less applicable parts of the song, Siri repeated a quick refrain and allowed the song to fade away; she'd said what she needed. Presently, they came to the cave that Komodo had spoken of, and Siri brushed past him with surreptitious wink, the tip of her tail flicking his dark nose.

"Dark in here," she noted, though her voice was not disapproving.

 

Why do I always channel Rent when i’m writing Komodo?

The earthstalker’s memory of the path towards the cave stayed true, leading them in a direct route through the wintered foliage towards the center of the island — his mind worked best at these things, he believed. The experience of re-weaving across the island’s main highway was spectral, in a way. If Komodo shut his eyes — and at different times during their walk, he did indeed shut his eyes — he could hear the voices of the stormborne wolves, could smell their scents, feel their presence. There had been so much that he was proud of here; but now, there was nothing. Komodo couldn’t help but experience the hurt, but he would not let himself linger in it.

Serein and Sirimiri’s song faded into the sunset, though Komodo would admit he was only half-silencing to their scatting. He knew they were close. "Sea lions, y'say?" Komodo responded to Brontide passively, turning a corner and halting as the mouth of the cave yawned before them. The brute looked over his shoulder and gave them a crooked now ain't that somethin’? smile. Komodo stood back as the trio passed him and entered the cave, half-sneezing as Sirimiri tickled his nose with her salt-strung plume. He looked upon the wry female’s haunches as she sashayed into the cave’s shadows and exhaled heavily, feeling considerably lighter now that he he had put distance between him and the sea. Here, he did not have the ocean’s holy disappointments weighing upon him. “Our eyes will adjus’, thank god fer th’moon. ”  The earthstalker responded to Siri’s cursive concern, because the moon illuminated all things, and the nighttime would be here soon. 

Komodo’s gaze scanned the interior of the cave and he, unsurprisingly, found that nothing had changed. Every cranny was just as he had left it, albeit lacking the presence of the faces he truly wanted to see. Aria came to mind almost immediately, as she had always loved the sanctity of the isle’s caverns. He missed the sylph at time, but to be honest, Serein and Sirimiri’s affections were enough to keep him occupied for the time being. Still, he couldn’t help but muse upon the white shewolf as Komodo dropped his body to the cool stone floor, sprawled his legs out straight beside him and commenced his relaxation.  

hahaha! XD

Brontide flopped down unceremoniously in a tangle of sand-dappled limbs, his sharp ears still ringing with the dulcet voices of his sisters. “I like that one,” he commented with a grunt, dividing a sleepy smile between his three companions. Then, with typical abruptness, “Night,” he murmured, eyes closing as his breathing evened out and he began to snore softly.

Serein stretched out beside her brother, resting her chin upon his shoulders with a bemused grin toward her twin. “I don’t know how he does that,” she said, not bothering to hush her voice. Once Bron was asleep, he was asleep. Serein’s own eyes were heavy-lidded as she submitted to the rhythmic rise and fall of her littermate’s shoulders. It was an act more than anything else; she was trying to trick her body into a state of drowsiness.