Firefly Ravine the moon shone full

eight days.
eight days since she had seen mireille.
she moved parallel with sobo, choosing to cover more territory for roaming. "mireille!" she called desperately from time to time, ears paling with tears.
why did this keep happening to her children
eight days and the season threatening to billow in her veins.

"mireille!"

the call chimed out into the winds, it summoned her attention even if she wasn't the one who carried the name. this call was far different than the one she had answered before.

she approached the stranger, silent but inquisitive. a tilt of her head as she kept her body language neutral.

her cry brought not mireille but a wisp of a woman. a stranger. erzulie swallowed her pride. "hello," she called, drawing closer. "i be lookin' for my daughter. she was lost after a storm on de cliffs. her name be mireille," the seawife went on, pulling in her breath. "bright red wid bright green eyes an' freckles. a stripe along her back." erzulie searched the other's face hopefully.

her features dropped almost immediately.

such sad news and a sharp pang of sorrow compared to the last call she had answered. how unfortunate that she could hold no good news for this woman.

i have not seen her. she offered in her softly norwegian accented voice. i can keep an eye out. where do i send her if found?

"to sapphique." erzulie turned back, gesturing at the seacliffs. her mismatched eyes searched the watcher. "what be your name?" she could afford to be courteous, even in her wild haunting grief.
she returned to her search, belly clenching with grief.

sapphique, the woman spoke.

Jorunn let her eyes move to look at the cliffs on the seashore. what a wonderful home, what a wonderful sight. who would ever leave? ah, well, she supposed it had been a storm to wash the woman's daughter away.

Jorunn, she offered with a small smile. hesitant to show anything such as joy to an anguished woman.

where does your daughter like to go? i adventure, i will be your eyes away from home. she offered with confidence.

"oh, she was born on de coas'. loves de water." she breathed back tears. "lately she has been goin' furt'er inland. she had just come back from a long trip on de taiga. likes to travel, dat one."
she wished this was all it was, a wayward girl who had wandered too far.
grief tightened her expression again. "i be erzulie."

i am new to lands but i have been through taiga by water. i will return and follow streams to see if she is there. and to see if she could return to Asmodeus as she had promised. the season ripening beneath her skin, in her veins.

she could be helpful while she floozed.

erzulie, she breathed with a smile. jeg ønsker deg vell. she mumbled softly as her tail swayed.

i will aid you here until we must part, you tell me what you must and i will do what i do.

how good it felt to do good.

she did not know the words that jorunn spoke. they reminded her of the woman that njord had plucked from the kelp and the sea. she had disappeared from their lands. 
erzulie did not want to think of disappearance right now.
"thank you," she whispered. "i have searched an' searched. i do not know where to search more." she looked away from the sea. "inland, i suppose."

jorunn would move alongside where erzulie went, content to keep the woman company. how quickly she took to the other as if it was her own sister.

have you rested between your travels for her, erzulie? she inquired softly, as her copper gaze looked for signs in the snow of somebody's travels. anybody besides them.

the obsidian shook her head. "no."
for the first time she realized how beautiful the other was. it was an unfair thing, to be so downed with grief in the presence of wild splendor. she was amused at herself, cruelly so. "i will rest when i find her, jorunn."
her eyes searched the horizon.

i will build your trust, she spoke as if she was about to tell a grand tale. a wild grin curled her features but it was full of nothing but adoration for such a dedicated mother.

i build it, i be your eyes for your mireille far from your sea cliff. i give you time to rest. you are no good if you are worn too thin to travel, sjømor.

she knew she could not stop the woman, jorunn did not hold that type of power over her, but she did feel compelled to help another woman in need. especially a mother with a lost daughter.

jorunn was so kind that erzulie almost forgot the world worked upon favours.
almost.
she looked around them, slowing her gait. the two-toned eyes found the face of her companion. "den i will hunt for us," erzulie decided. jorunn was kind, but the seawife did not want to be beholden. not now.

no, she breathed with a soft shake of her head.

i take no reward unless i succeed in search. you can promise a meal if i return with your mireille. her words firm but she still shone with kindness. she would not take from the grieving mother when jorunn could not promise that she would have success in the search.

understand deal?

erzulie gave a single nod. she saw no reason to press the issue, especially by the determination in jorunn's voice. "if you bring mireille to me, a place in sapphique would be yours, if you be wantin' it." more than a meal.
"i understand." she started to look for shelter along the coastline, finding it in a clump of boulders not far off.

she knew nothing of sapphique, but if they were full of women like erzulie, jorunn was inclined to take up her offer on that.

i will wear your sapphique name, sjømor, if i return her.

unless there was more to be discussed, jorunn would see to it that erzulie found her shelter fitting, and take off to fulfill her promise.

"merci." she had nothing more to add. the greengold eyes would follow jorunn. erzulie settled herself back against the stone.
she did not mean to fall asleep so fast, but it was swift and dreamless, the sound of the sea crashing in her ears.

jorunn would leave gifts when the woman slept. a hare she had found straggling along the edge of the ravine, not one plump but a suitable snack for the woman to make her way back home, jorunn hoped.

she also left a smooth sea stone she had discovered nearby. nothing more than a trinket, an object a child might fawn over for its smoothness and pale blue color.

regardless, jorunn would be gone by the time erzulie woke, already scattered to the wind on her hunt for the sea mother's wayward daughter.