Alpine Lake soon she shall give them

alerting @Rosalyn to her departure, erzulie had set down along the coast in the company of @Rosencrantz. it was pleasant to be back toward the open water, even if her expectations of finding @Valravn had become more grim.
they crossed the moorlands, searched the edge of the slough, and passed into a land of waterfalls that muted her hearing and gave wet spray into the cold air.
yet she searched here also, beneath the boughs of pine and across ridges of mossy stone, looking closely for any sign of her son.

 

Once again, again, he set out for the search of the young boy who was missing. This time, Erzulie brought him along and no one would distract or deter him from it this time. They walked for the larger part of the travel in silence, the silent guardian only wandering away out of sight from time to time to see if he could pick up the boy's scent elsewhere - but he wouldn't be gone long until he found his place next to Erzulie again. They had to branch out every now and then, after all, more noses on different grounds made their tracking more efficient. 

They traveled far, the sound of water rushing filled his ears. The falls drizzle into the frosted sky in diamond dust - it would be beautiful if it wasn't so tragic that the boy was still yet to be found. Not a trace of him to even set them in the right direction. The man continued to wander, tirelessly trying every bit of land he could, at this point, he didn't want to lock eyes with the Alphess, afraid of the disappointment he might see within them.

disappointment, and a cold pragmatism as well. the last choice left to them were the firebirds. she did not know they had moved on, and more dire wolves lurked close; the harlot's pride and determination refused at once the notion. that she had an brief alliance with niamh for returning alyx did not mean that she wished to be beholden.
still — her gaze pulled toward rosencrantz thoughtfully, and she began to move to a place where the rush of the falls was more muffled. "dere be one pack nearby who might know where he has gone, but," a sigh, "i did not want to ask. we are agreeable but it is not a friendship."

There were still things lost to him on Rusalka, now Sapphique's relations with other packs. Now aware of the tension between them and the neighbours upon the next mountain over - now this, a new pack with a tension between them, though it seemed to be less vibrant than the mountain rage wolves. He couldn't be sure of them knowing where the boy is, but if she trusted them to be honest despite some old, bad blood between them, he would too. Who are they? Were they far from here? 

Do you trust them? He had to be certain. Even with the two of them, it was better than Erzulie walking up to them on her own - they were still going into a den of wolves, wholly outnumbered.

a sigh sauntering through the narrow fitness of her rangy shoulders. "i do not know." it was the truth. though rosencrantz was newly back among them, erzulie had never forgotten the ease the archangel had always brought. it was good to be open with him, vulnerable beneath his attentive nature.
slyly erzulie thought it was this aspect of him for which rosalyn had chosen the warblazed man, but kept that a tittering thought in her own psyche. "dey be de firebirds. once upon a time, de woman niamh came for rosalyn. old tensions. she followed rosalyn an' i up de coas', but i was ready for her den."
a wryness to her mouth.
"i did not know when we came back dis way, so long after dat time, dis land would be closer to t'iers den i would have liked." sweeping to scent for valravn. "a child was lost. solaire brought her to me. niamh's child. before dat we had met once to make an easy peace. when i knew who de babe belonged to, i brought her back." brushing dew from a fern. "easier, but not friendly, as you be seein' now."

Every name uttered by the mother would be remembered. Firebirds, Niamh, the story that tied them all together of lost children and uneasy tension. It confused him, and perhaps, he would simply be uneasy should any of them found their way to Sapphique's borders - maybe attacking them was off the plate for now until things were clear. Should they meet them while searching for the boy, maybe things would clear up further. For now, the clouds were dark and heavy, details just slightly unclear.

We can try. Are they far from here? And if things turned sour, they would turn back to Sapphique and avoid any form of bloody confrontation. It was worth the risk, at least as far as he knew and he was confident that Erzulie would feel the same if it meant one step closer to finding the lost child. Afterwards we can cover our tracks if need be. They already followed one of them before, whats to stop them from doing the same thing again?

"not a short ways, but not a long while. not as far as de mountains." somewhere in between, and erzulie was confident that she and rosencrantz would be able to find the pack niamh claimed. seeing no reason to remain as they were, she turned their trail toward the glade.
"dis place was all swallowed wid water not long ago," she breathed; the summer had seemed so long and thus existed in a smaller time than hot-months before. it was memorable for the swamping, the puddles, the flooding, the collapse of rock.
she pulled their strides together, becoming quiet as she set her gaze to searching again.

With a grunt and a nod, he signaled that he would follow Erzulie wherever they had to find the FireBirds. It didn't matter how far they were, provided Erzulie was at his side, he could go wherever she went to search for the missing boy of hers.

Is that one of the reasons why you moved? There had to be a reason for her to mention the flooding. It seemed in his time away he had missed a lot, more than just a bear... more than just some tension between packs, two if he was to count the friction between Sagtannent where they had laid claim to the mountainside. He hoped they would not move again, wondering where else the pack would go that would be safe for them away from any rivals or bad blood.

I'm sorry I wasn't there to help. In his tone the regret spoke for itself.

the courtesan paused, sides expanding with a breath that fell away into the halves of a sigh. "only de bear drove us away in de end." not rain, not the floods, and not the firebirds had threatened rusalka then.
but a bear. shades of ironsea. they had taken no chances this time around. 
erzulie reached to idly preen rosencrantz' shoulder. "we lost you an' tundra ' rowan all at de same time. i wish dat you would have said somet'ing. but i could not bring myself to hold anger all dis time. de past is de past. let it stay dere." voice warm as the harlot glanced up at their archangel and continued on.

So the bitch he met in the moors was telling the truth after all. A bear had indeed come in and dispersed the group before his arrival. It didn't feel pertinent to share with Erzulie just yet, the thought of bringing up that woman felt more or less like some kind of red herring should he bring it up now - and so, he kept quiet. Only soaking in Erzulie as she spoke on the matter while they moved. 

I was not aware of Rowan. To think three of them just wandered off, no wonder there was some ire at the beginning of his return. Surely it seemed suspicious, it all made absolute sense. No amount of apologizing would make up for what had happened, it was all bad decisions, unfortunate circumstances and unforeseen factors at play. 

In an attempt to shift the subject onto more pleasant talk as they searched, making their way to where the Redbirds resided according to Erzulie. He cracked a small smile, eye turning to the harlot. I prefer the cliffs much more than the moors. As if his opinion mattered at all.

erzulie paused, as if she was considering making mention of rowan. but it did not matter; he had been a young man, and like her own sons, had gone off to seek his future elsewhere. she could scarce hold such against him. "i do as well," the courtesan admitted instead, her gait adopting a looser speed. "de moors were so open. beautiful. but impractical when it came to de weat'er."
despite the history of the cliffs, she had come to feel affectionately on their behalf.
the forest was beginning to shift — she realized the copse was closer than she had thought, but where the scent of the firebirds should have hung, there was nothing.

Impractical indeed, for many reasons than just weather as far as the archangel was aware. No shelter from anything, spies could have easily observed them for miles all around and use the winds to their benefits. At least now, they had shelter from both the weather and prying eyes.

As the forest morphed into something new, he shot a glance over to the new queen mother, unaware of the thoughts roaming her mind but wondering where they were off to next. There was no scent of a pack to speak of and so he assumed their journey would continue to where she had remembered the Firebirds were - oblivious that this was once their home, and that perhaps Erzulie was just as lost as he was.

"niamh said —" and then erzulie's voice trailed off. perhaps it had not been a trick, only that they had moved on. a flick of her plume as she moved forward into the glade, glancing in each cardinal direction with a low sigh.
before she could speak again, however, the scent of others came to her, perhaps a newer group nearby. erzulie contemplated the new scent in silence. loathe to ask even the firebirds for help, she would not mention a lost child to perfect strangers. and yet her son had been gone so long — she glanced to the archangel, wondering at his assessment.

Erzulie cutting herself off had brought Rosencrantz's gaze upon her, hardening as she seemed to think and ponder over the scents lingering here. They were not strong, in the wind it could barely be called anything close to claimed - but someone had come and gone, perhaps passing through or moved on elsewhere. Erzulie's gaze met his, having no history with either scent or the "firebirds" in question, all he had for her questioning stare was; Is scent theirs? He too only interested in the group in question if they were indeed the birds and not some other group... the less who knew the better.

"no," the courtesan answered, voice growing cool as she returned to herself from the brief bit of wide-eyed inanity. "dis be where de firebirds once stayed. dat is anot'er pack," erzulie filled in, taking the reek once more of the several wolves who had come through.
she glanced to him, and grief struck the surface of her heart. "i do not want to him to put valravn in more danger by givin' him out to strangers," she sighed.

Solemnly he looked out to the empty area with which the pack had once claimed. So they were not here, nor was the child from the looks of it. His hardened gaze washed over the lands, despite its warm colour it was chilling with the lack of emotion within it. I don't either. He agreed without hesitation. Relaxing his gaze before turning to Erzulie, What do you want to do now? what else was there to do than continue to wander and search for the boy? Did she have any other possible ideas?

erzulie swallowed, sighed, turned back the way that they had come. "home," she decided in a word. "we look for him on de way." she would come out again before winter locked them into the clifftops, but she could not risk his surrender to the teeth of strangers.
a mistake, perhaps one vital, but one she accepted beneath her breastbone as mismatched gaze reached for rosencrantz. perhaps it would be best to take his lead upon their return journey; erzulie welcomed any chance that she had been wrong, and that valravn wandered close, only overlooked.