Neverwinter Forest young

same time as this!

normally, there were three occupants.. where was asmoses? liliana stirred herself from light slumber and blinked around the den, perplexed by her brother’s absence. seldom did she allow him to wander anywhere without her company which made the ordeal much more concerning.

how could she sleep without her comfort thing?

am - ma, she crooned. miriam said some prayer over her daughter, then allowed the girl some freedom to roam the surrounding area. don’t go too far, her mother warned. liliana stepped outside of the den and looked around, hoping that the speckled boy might appear.

Since the other one got archived I guess I can ninja this one after all. :P

He'd come from the other way from where Asmoses had departed. Though his heart wasn't really in it after all the drama that had occurred, he still had to deal with his responsibilities -- AKA all the children -- and so he'd brought a hare from the cache to Miriam to make sure they were cared for. He'd explain to her what had happened later, but he wasn't expecting to hear anything from her about it. So it went.

But when he arrived on the scene, one of the pups was out and about. Liliana. Mal was quick to try and swallow whatever bad feelings he had and put on a warm face for her. She didn't need to know what all had gone down. He wagged his tail and headed to the den entrance to drop the hare there before turning to greet his daughter with a light smile, Hey you. You're the only one out today? If she'd come close, he'd give her a kiss to the top of her head too.

liliana turned around with a quiet hm? to see whomever had appeared. unfortunately, it was not little asmoses, but big asmoses instead. she didn’t mind; this guy was fun, too, even if he was only good for half of the things.

she shrugged her mottled shoulders, asking, mo - mo? where had her brother gone? might have been the better question, but her vocabulary wasn’t quite.. there yet.

Wait what? It still took a second sometimes for Mal to connect what she said to words he understood. Asmoses? Probably. Asmoses? Is your brother not in there? He paused and swung his head back to the den and sniffed around. Well, he hadn't been gone too long at least? He turned back to Liliana, playfully nudging at her, D'you wanna go find him? We can go together. And it was probably easier to do that then wondering and worrying where his son had ambled off to. And then Miriam wouldn't have to worry either, he'd take both, she could take a break and a quick snack, and then Mal would bring both back together. Regardless, he sniffed around a bit from where he stood, trying to get an idea of what way they should go.

no, not there. where could he have gone? liliana knew that there was more to their home than the den, but she couldn’t quite conceptualize just how large neverwinter truly was. she’d once assumed that he hadn’t gone far, though that didn’t necessarily mean that he was close either.

somewhat defeated, liliana shrugged her shoulders again as an answer to mal’s offer. if he was willing to look for him, then who was she to say no? what go? she asked, lifting a paw to emphasize her question.

Huh. Was this the first time he'd wandered off? It seemed especially odd that the pair weren't together -- they seemed thick as thieves usually. He looked around, but didn't see Asmoses hiding anywhere. So he really had gone wandering.

Back to Liliana, I bet you can find him. I'm sure your nose will tell you exactly where he's gone, Mal said, reaching down to boop her nose with his. However, he wasn't going to put it all on her shoulders, so first thing was first, he swept his head around, finding the most recent trail, Let's look this way! He took a few steps, and would lead the way.

liliana could’ve done this on her own? well, why didn’t anyone say that! she hopped excitedly in the direction her father pointed, though unsure of how exactly her.. nose.. would find asmoses. obviously, some tracking lessons were much needed.

while her father took the lead, she followed dutifully behind, eyes wide to seek out her twin. mo! yana called, moses! there weren’t any responses (none she could hear anyway), causing a slight build up of frustration.

Once they'd gotten a bit away from the den along the trail that Mal had scented, Mal stopped, Ok. Let's stop here for a second. Ah, how to best explain it? So that nose of yours is pretty awesome. It can tell you who's been through here. If you lean down and sniff at where people walk, you might smell them. He dipped his head again, demonstrating before looking back at his daughter. Give it a try and see what you smell.

They should be far enough away from the den that it wasn't as well traveled, so she should be able to smell Asmoses' scent by herself if she was able to separate those of the world from the single scent of her brother. He wouldn't be surprised if it took a try or two though. He was confident she'd get it in the end though -- then they could move on to part two!

liliana listened carefully to mal’s instructions before making her first attempt. the ground smelled like.. mildew and rain, with her father’s obvious trail.. but was there something else? she stepped to the right to test another patch, and there she caught the faint trace of asmoses’s scent.

still, it was weak — much too weak for her to track alone. yana looked at mal with wide eyes, silently pleading for his assistance.

Watching her figure it out was pretty adorable. Just a little kid figuring out how the world worked. But hey, if it kept the siblings together and at least getting into the same trouble, that was probably better  in most cases anyway. 

When she looked up, Mal grinned. Got it, didn't you? Well, we know he wasn't at the den, so we just keep following and Asmoses should be at the other end! The closer we get, the more you should be able to smell him. He gave her a happy nuzzle, C'mon, we'll keep following it together. I think a little ways up ahead you can be the leader and find him. Okay, maybe a little bit farther than a "little" from her perspective. A couple more stops maybe. Then again, if she kept trying, maybe she'd pick it up quick. He wasn't 100% sure where that fell in the developmental scale of things.

He lead the way along the trail, making a bit more of a show for Liliana's benefit of sniffing along the trail than he might have otherwise needed to do. He needed to be a good role model, after all.

mal’s reassurance that they were on the right path quieted any remaining worries which might have lingered on her mind, allowing her to continue tracking effectively. asmoses would appear, she was sure.. well, somewhat sure anyway.

abba! she called after some time, i go! as her twin’s scent grew stronger, so did her confidence, making her more interested in leading their two-party parade. liliana didn’t wait for mal’s permission to dash off in front of him, remaining (somewhat) in sight.

It didn't take a horribly long period of time for the strength of the scent to build. It shouldn't be long. Mal watched her out of the corner of his eye, looking for that moment when she'd be able to track him easily. And honestly, it didn't happen quite as he'd expected. Liliana mentioned it, then nyoomed right off after the scent trail. Okay. She found it. No question.

Hey! We're supposed to be looking together! he called with a laugh, trotting on after her. At least catching up was still easy to do. But he wasn't going to totally overtake her, more just follow in her footsteps. It didn't matter how small she might be at the moment, he was pretty sure if he stood in front, Mal would get run over the instant she saw Asmoses.

cameo!!

 

So dad was comatose. Caerus had spent his days largely away from the living, huddled next to the zombie body of Cupid all the time. He slept in a burrow that was too small and cramped, but it was near dad, so he didn't give a fuck. He practiced hunting when he could, would bring little mice back to Cupid sometimes, wait a few hours for dad to awaken but instead give up and eat the thing himself. 

Today he was out wandering to find something again. When voices caught his attention, his ears swiveled- a laugh- and he crept forward as quietly as he could, though he was far from perfect. From the green foliage ruby gaze settled on his father, and his... sibling, walking together some several yards off. The girl dashed forward, Mal was smiling and living it up behind her, seemingly enjoying himself. 

How? 

Cupid had been hurt days before. Caerus was mourning. And here was his other father, laughing with his new child. 

Caerus turned away, and was off as quickly as he had come, uneager to reveal himself to them. Clearly they were happy enough undisturbed by the boy.

this thread is supposed to be happening at the same time as this one, so maybe we just fade with them finding asmoses?
jennifer and/or marzanna, let me know if this is a no-go.

it didn’t take long for her father to catch up, but liliana was too preoccupied with finding her twin to even notice. she kept her tail wagging high in the air, mimicking a poor pointer’s pose, until the trail grew to its climax with the sight of @Asmoses.

mo-sha! liliana called, missed you.

Mal didn't notice Caerus. And Mal's perspective was entirely different. There had been so much negativity, so much worry, lately that here the distraction of his younger children was a very, very welcome distraction. A wandering sibling was a much less weighty thing than having to worry about looming possible death. He needed the break or he'd go mad, and he'd tried to help Caerus too, but it was a far steeper hill to climb for his son than it was for Mal -- Cupid had never let him close. Mal had tried.

But Liliana had found her brother, and Mal would enjoy this little reunion, Okay you two, you can't go wandering off without your mom, alright? Come on, let's get back before she's worried! A sort of conspiratorial way of saying it. It would probably make things easier to get them home -- besides, he liked being the good guy, the fun guy, he had no idea how Miriam specifically wanted to discipline her children. But either way, Mal would corral them both and shepherd them back to the den where they'd started. Maybe Liliana could keep Asmoses out of trouble in the future -- though really it would be needed the other way around.