Redhawk Caldera I'll drown the urge for permanence and certainty

He remembered the smell and the tired sound of waves washing against a rocky shore. Salt and stillness. A subtle calm, thought it stilled him not. Familiar pictures, so distant now, appeared in dreams with unmistakable clarity. Lives lived; fruitless and abandoned. The ghosts of memory had come to haunt again.

He remembered fear. How dark the night had been with moon and stars alike blotted out by an inky black sky. How he'd kept himself silent lest he be spotted by a wayward patrol. It was as real as it had ever been, and it was always the same.

He was running again. Chest heaving with ragged breath and legs screaming for reprieve, Whip knew he would only be safe again with Themiscyra at his back. Only then could he stop and rest.

***

Whip awoke with a jolt and the fresh taste of blood in his mouth. The urge to wretch settled over him like a heavy miasma, yet he swallowed it back as the taste began to fade. It was but a remnant of a memory -- a parting gift of a nightmare lived. 

Emerging from a hastily dug den, Whip pushed pleats of freshly fallen snow aside. He found steady footing and breathed deep before shaking the snow that dusted his back free. There was something about cold air, he thought, something cleansing. With every breath, he could feel his center slowly return.

He was home. The Caldera hadn't changed save for the fallen snow, and as he looked upon its rise with a wistful bewilderment. 

As Meerkat approached her parents' home, she couldn't help but think of her last visit here and @Alyx's spiteful words. She drew in a breath and tried not to dwell on them or what her sister might say to her should they bump into one another today. She almost didn't want to howl once she reached the foot of the caldera, lest Alyx come chase her away or something, but Meerkat steeled herself and called. Perhaps the sound of her voice would have the opposite effect and Alyx would avoid her.

She knew Towhee wouldn't hear the summons, though perhaps @Phox or @Niamh would come (and hopefully bring her mom along). Meerkat would like to see any of them. Time was slowly knitting her wounds and she hoped the same could be said of them. She frowned as she thought of poor Primrose and couldn't help but wonder how @Quetzal was doing. Did she share Alyx's apparent hatred for her? She couldn't imagine the bubbly Q ever hating anyone but the last month had changed them all, hadn't it?

When a stranger's call came, Whip found the spell of his nostalgia broken. It was not for him, for though he was born here -- Whip was little more than a stranger. For a moment, he thought to disregard it and let some other wolf answer, one perhaps that could provide what this unfamiliar voice sought. A sharp inhale followed as a strange curiosity tugged at the back of his mind. 

Fine, he thought.

He trudged begrudgingly through snow back to the borders. The stranger he found was no more than a youth; some thin fledgling bird. Whip made a cautious approach, always wary, with head canted curiously. He chuffed once at a fair distance away and stopped.

She thought she knew just about every wolf that resided here, only that was proven false when a perfect stranger approached. Meerkat blinked but readily assumed a respectful posture. She wondered who he was and how long he'd been living here, certain she would find out soon enough.

He stopped well before reaching her and that gave her pause. "Hello," she replied to his wary chuff. "I'm Meerkat Redhawk, here to visit family." She didn't demand his name, as a guest at the border, though she did look at him expectantly, tail giving a few slow twitches.