Cerulean Cape I miss chasing down the morning light and all those sleepless nights

It's a beautiful day for a show, kid, said the old grey wolf with a smile that consumed his whole muzzle. Even his eyes crinkled at the corners, a sight that make Lucas tug his own cheeks into a sunny grin. What say you lead it today?

Squinting against the bright autumn sunlight, Lucas let his face relax into an easy smile while he mulled over the memory and strode down the stony beach. Some might say he was romanticizing a situation that was, by anyone else's definition, abhorrent. But he had gone willingly, misled or not, and every member of the troupe occupied a fond place in his memories even if their means of acquiring new members was questionable. All but Holga, though he believed she was just acting. Luc believed in the inherent goodness of everyone, even the crone.

He was drawn back to the present by the cold wash of sea water over his toes, and remembered that he was alone now. There had been a bad storm four nights before and the troupe wound up scattered. Lucas had been with Holga at first, but the arthritic old bat was injured and hadn't been able to keep up. Now he was alone, searching for the remnants of the circus and not knowing where to start. That didn't get him down, though; Lucas looked the part of an easygoing and confident young traveler who knew exactly where he was, though his surroundings were wholly unfamiliar.

@Reigi

'Io had never liked storms.  She did better with them now; she had Komodo's solid presence to anchor her through the worst of it and she felt safer on the island than she had felt anywhere else, even after the BAD MAN had savaged Undersea's inkdog.

She could often feel the storms coming.  They had a crackling energy, and she would usually become prickly and hunker down a day or two before they hit, as if her presence would ward away the booming thunder and the curtain of rain.  It was usually a few days after a storm before she felt comfortable leaving the island at all, but she was a creature that was wont to travel and her spirit was not sated for long, even with all she had.

'Io kept along the coast and allowed the frigid waves to wash over her ankles.  She had been slowly warming to the feeling of water across her body and no longer feared when it came to the shore.  Her eyes were trained on the horizon when she saw a sunlit form in the distance.

"Dancer," he had called her.  Her stiff trot turns into something loose and inviting as she takes several steps towards him, loosing excited barks in the young Redleaf's direction.

For all the things that Lucas lacked—a fit form, a sense of direction, any real aspirations beyond immediate enjoyment, and many more things—he possessed a few gifts besides his rhythm. One of them was an impeccable memory for faces, so recognition dawned instantly when he looked up for the source of the barking and spotted Reigi down the strand. He'd been looking for his performing troupe and didn't expect the sudden rush of relief that crashed through his breast at the sight of someone familiar.

Lucas made the most of being kidnapped by befriending and finding the good in his captors, but it didn't change the reality. He'd buried the scared little boy who believed he would never see a familiar face again, and that came rushing to the forefront when his eyes clapped onto Reigi's face. He tumbled over his own feet in a stumble, heaving his potbellied figure across the sands with a joyous yawp. "Dancer!" he called out with a windmilling tail as he kicked sand up behind him. His face stretched wide in an excited smile. Finally! Someone he knew, albeit not well. An acquaintance might as well have been a best friend to Lucas, who sought to close the distance with all the exuberance of the small pup he'd been when they'd met.

He had become so large since she'd seen him last.  From upon the horizon she thought he'd been the same size, but when he came close she could see that he was almost double her size, give or take.  Her eyes widened if only slightly in alarm, and her tail stiffened for a beat before it continued to wag.  

She'd never been able to come up with a name for him.  Good boy, she says kindly, looking down at him before casting her eye to the horizon in search of one of her lost children.  

No such luck, at least not today.  Still, she was happy to see him; even if he was not one of her children, he was a child, and there was still a softened spot that sought to be filled.  Come — um, visit?

He closed the distance quicker than he expected to—a part of him still felt like he was in a smaller body with shorter legs as well, so Reigi wasn't the only surprised one. He slammed on the brakes, skidding awkwardly through the sand and nearly falling on his face before grinding to a halt just in front of the smaller woman. He took very much after his father in the size department, though he was a little taller and a little less paunchy than his sire. In the dark of night when markings were rendered indistinct, Lucas might be able to pass for Xan... if not for the gentle, warm blue of his eyes.

Luc beamed when Reigi - and Io, and Anna, and all her other names - addressed him, and promptly plopped his meaty hindquarters down on the damp strand. His tail drifted over the sand in a relaxed wag, and he let his tongue hang from his jaws for a moment. She was just like he remembered, a larger Nunataq, though he imagined that his favourite (half) sibling was probably her size now. Maybe she'd even outgrown her mother. His heart thudded in his chest with painful longing, but it didn't show on his face, on which he maintained a pleased smile.

"Yeah! I mean... sort of." With a sheepish ducking of his head, the boy peered up at Dancer through long lashes and said, "it's kind of a long story." He was happy to tell it, but only if she wanted to hear it. In the meantime: "so is this Unnndersea? It's beautiful!"

His childish mannerisms caused her chest to squeeze painfully; he could have easily been one of her own, born only days apart from her children.  Was this how big Yakone was now?  Or Nunataq, or Marten? 

She met the kind blue of his eyes and felt her own begin to mist, but a beat later she bit it back down to something manageable, something she could swallow.  Next year, she wouldn't fail her children so miserably.

No, she supplies, turning her body to face the silhouette of Wheeling Gull and pointing like a hunting dog, there.  Come with?

He couldn't read the subtle sorrows in her face or guess at just what Io was thinking of in that moment, but he could almost feel the near imperceptible shift in mood. His gaze softened, though he offered no words for now, allowing Reigi to linger in her mind a few seconds longer. He kept his sights politely on her nose, one ear cocked toward the sea, and broke from this reverie only when she spoke again. His eyes flicked up to snag on the shrouded isle in the distance, and his lips creased his chubby cheeks into a wider smile. An island! He'd never been to one before.

"Sure. I definitely want to see it," he agreed, falling into step with the trim she-wolf. It wasn't like he had anywhere else to go. Holga and the troupe were who-knows-where, he hadn't the faintest inkling of which way home was, and now was as good a time as any to make good on his promise to visit Undersea. He regretted that Nunataq and Marten (and his other siblings, if they had wished) weren't accompanying him, which was the other promise he had made, but he felt accomplished in keeping one of his vows.

"How have you been?" he asked conversationally between gentle puffs as he pressed through the sand, slipping occasionally on his own inexperienced paws.