Dragoncrest Cliffs vwayaje

upon receiving the news from druid and heda, mireille had not spared a thought for her mothers' permission.
instead she had dashed to find @Sobo. 
the prospect of going off with druid not only upon a trip of days made her feel some inscrutable way. "do you be knowin' what a caribou is?" she inquired when she had discovered him. mireille caught her breath, examining whatever he happened to be doing in that moment.
eventually she stepped forward and tapped his shoulder with her muzzle. "de rivenwood sisters are back. dey asked me to come hunt."

Ki sa ki yon karibou? asked Sobo without looking up from his task. He thought the question was possibly rhetorical. Mireille knew he did not know what a caribou was. He entertained it all the same. He loved his sister, so he wouldn't pass up an opportunity to hear about something that was exciting her.

Between his paws were two tough, dried pieces of kelp and a pile of mixed shells and pebbles. He sorted carefully through them, placing shells on one and stones on the other. He would rather be sorting herbs, but the air was too cold for them now. They shriveled and hid. He had plenty of stones and shells organized in his stash, but this just was mindless busywork to keep him occupied.

He finally looked up with weary eyes when she tapped him. His expression flattened at the mention of the Rivenwood wolves. How could she not think it was cruel to expect him to talk about her stupid friends that had made him feel so low? Good for ya, he said shortly, returning his attention to a perturbing stone with a bit of shell stuck to it. Which pile did this belong in?

her first irritation was that sobo was not happy for her. it was an innate and selfish response she would need to temper.
"yo pa konn sa yon frè ye, eh?" she said, cutting directly to how druid had looked downright cold at the appearance of sobo, and after he had spent time upon their gifts. "epi yo pa gen papa."
by contrast, sobo and mireille had a wealth of brothers, even if they only knew loko. and they had da njord, whom they both adored and respected she believed. 
druid and witch and heda were different. it had been their fault things had gone wrong, not that of her brother.
ironically, fatherhood in both rivenwood and sapphique had always been a different thing. "i am going to ask her. druid, i be meanin'." she arched a brow, trying to look sobo in the eye. she was still on his side. she glanced down at his items again. "is dat de kelp i brought you a while ago?"

Dey donna need ta know what a brot'er is ta show oders basic decency, he returned. Dey be old enough ta know we all be de same people, yeah? That was how he felt about it. Segregation based on sex was a concept he was somewhat familiar with — he knew fully well he and Loko would never be the ones to inherit Sapphique even if they stayed their entire lives in its borders because they were not women — but coming from others his age, and after feeling put out about his experience with their extended family, it touched a raw nerve.

I do not care what ya be sayin' ta Druid, he said, rolling the combined stone-and-shell over to the shell pile. He wanted to tell her that wolves as ugly inside as Druid was were unlikely to change. Tigers couldn't change their stripes. The other two weren't as bad as their ringleader sister, in his estimation, but no less dismissive of him simply for being a boy. He had lumped all three together, but did not forget it was Druid first.

Yes, he said, leaning back so she could see. It gets tough and stretchy when ya dry it out an' pull it, den it makes for good carryin'. See? He gingerly grabbed first one end of the kelp, then the other, and lifted up the pebbles in a precarious little pouch for her to see.

mireille frowned, but when she looked at sobo next, it was with eyes that held her brother's own pain. she could not understand. and knowing that there now was something fundamental at play which differed between her and sobo — it frustrated mireille.
"dis be nice," she praised of his skill. "i will bring you more kelp when i find it." now the sea had gone dark and cold. she did not think that it would give her such plants for a while.
mireille worried her lip. suppose sobo did not forgive her if she went? "den i won't be tellin' ya what i say to her. but if she wants to be my friend, den she will be knowin' how to treat a brot'er."
her statement was declared. final.
she would bring something home specially for him, mireille decided. "i hid somet'ing in de tangle." her eyes danced. "treasure."

He set the bundle down gently and clucked his tongue when two stones tumbled free anyway. Clumsy. He could not afford to be so clumsy when it was herbs he carried and someone's wellbeing on the line. All that she said made him feel a little better. Like someone was in his corner. He wasn't sure if he believed that Mireille would give up her friendships over it, but he chose to put his faith in her.

Ya do be a good sister, Mireille. De best of all sisters, he told her, lifting his head to meet her eye for a moment before averting his gaze respectfully away. It might seem to her as if he reflected the disinterest Druid and company had shown right back at them, but on the inside, Sobo was merely hurt and confused why they did not like him. He knew it was because he was not Coraline — surely they would have liked her even if she brought them no gifts — but the exact why of it still escaped him.

Why Caracal and Sphyra had been much more interested in Rosalyn, Erzulie and the sea than in him, an agemate who might be enticed to play. Now he was burned and unsure of how to make friends or if he even wanted them at all. Of course he did. Mireille's happiness with hers engendered a deep loneliness in Sobo.

His eyes glittered for a moment at the mention of treasure. What be dis treasure? but he figured she wouldn't tell. Maybe she was devising a game for him while she was away. It was just the sort of thing Mireille would do.

mireille tossed her head beneath his praise, downplaying it as much as she enjoyed hearing the words. he was the best of all brothers to her. loko had grown into his name. and coraline still felt very much like a younger sister, despite the fact that they were littermates.
she grinned at sobo, wrinkling her nose. "i not be tellin' you! what sort of treasure would it be if i did dat?" but her voice was teasing. she nudged his goldenrod coat. "i will give you hints t'ough."
arching a brow, mireille gestured grandly toward the tangle. "t'ree blue stones. one purple rock. an' a white ... t'ing. in order dey will lead you to what i left."
she laughed. sobo was smart but could he discover what she had left for him?

C'mon! he prodded with a halfhearted swipe of his foreleg toward her nose. He left his sorted piles alone then, rolling onto his side and reaching playfully for his sister's face. He knew she would not tell him even if he begged, but she agreed to some hints.

A scavenger hunt of sorts was just the thing to keep his mind off how readily Mireille was growing up, making friends, and getting to be involved in everything and how he still struggled to even speak to others. He committed her hints to memory, deciding he would go out tomorrow to search for whatever it was she had hidden. Maybe he could find a bit of gnarled bark or two to bring back and use for trinkets as well.

Ya be goin' soon, den? he guessed. Again came a wave of loneliness in his stomach. Ya be careful out dere, sè. It wasn't like he thought he could protect her at all — he was growing up to be pretty tall, but it was all offset by how timid he was outside his familiar little bubble. He did not think he could take on a caribou any more than she could. But he also did not believe her friends to be true ones, that treated her family in such a manner, and he did not trust them to keep her safe either.

Once she was gone, he would go to his hidden circle and entreat the loa to watch over her.

mireille laughed and stuck her tongue out. "no!" she sang to his entreaties, nipping playfully at his outstretched paws. "you just be havin' to see!" 
a somber moment. mireille sighed out and nodded. "yeah. but i need to talk to our mamans first. an' den da njord. you were first," she informed sobo, bumping his shoulder.
"you look after sapphique, frè," she told him, and flung a scarlet arm around her sibling, drawing him into a tight and wolfish hug.
she would lope off then, pausing to toss him a final roguish grin before charging in the direction of the roja den.

I will, he promised, but felt it was a rather hollow one. Sobo loved Sapphique. He loved the grand cliffs and the crystalline lake and the colossal trees. He loved his family. But there were things about Sapphique that Sobo knew he could never be part of unless great change came to the pack, the way he could never be part of Mireille's caribou hunt, and being its keeper was one of those things.

He simply knew that being a man meant that he would never inherit his family's legacy, so he could look out for them, but to look after them all, that would never be his lot in life. That would be Mireille, almost certainly. He could think of no better daughter-heir.

He watched her go with a sinking sensation in his gut, then turned back to his stones and shells. With a frown, he swept the piles back together before rising and heading off to the lake.