Dragoncrest Cliffs I hope you find your peace, falling on your knees, praying.

Tags for reference, feel free to drop in. Set late at night!

It was late and it was dark; the sky was black, with the stars hidden behind thick cover of clouds. When Indra finally found her way out of the tangle she was met with a sprawling meadow that shocked her immediately. It was so different from the constrained paths winding through the Tangle; as soon as she was exposed Indra felt compelled to backpedal. She looked over her shoulder to the mess of trees behind her.

Her body was trembling.

Her steps, while deliberate, were slow and unstable. She listened for signs of danger in the manner of a trapped animal, even with the open expanse around her. All she heard were the creaking trees behind her and the sigh of a breeze through the grass, which was in some way, calming.

Indra did not dare go much farther. She hunkered down in the grass to catch her breath, curling in to a ball, waiting for @Val and @Chacal to emerge—but for all she knew, they had made camp for the night within the forest.

it had been years since val had been here, but the tangle was unmistakable. his heart sung to be so close! home!

he sought indra, curled nose to tail in a swath of open grasses. from here val could scent the sea on the wind. do you smell that? he ventured breathlessly into the warming spring air, eyes softly resting on the little ball of red close to his feet.

soon they would howl for his family. val’s nerves were a thousand small things buzzing up and down his spine, vibrating in his blood and pumping through his thrumming chest. to see his mamans, rosalyn and erzulie! what would their faces look like when they found their boy had returned? and what of arcelia, of clementine? would nieve remember him? would reginn be here also, ready to fondly nip him for being gone so long?

val had so many hopes — each of them trembling as they took wing along the balmy seaside air.

Strangers on the border. One was small, the other larger, and both carried the scent of Chacal on their coats. She'd been away for a time and now Rosalyn knew why, though she did not understand why her daughter had stayed with them. If it was just the child, but a child and another?

She did not recognize him.

It was apparent in the way she approached, her stare as standoffish as if they were a rival claim. They had respected the borders at least. If not, Chacal or no, she may have needed to correct it. They had no place within without her accompaniment.

You are on the borders of Sapphique. My wife leads it, with my daughter, who you've clearly met. And Rosalyn had no place turning them away. Yet here she was. Who are you? A question aimed at both.

Today, her mind wandered. And the restlessness charged the air about her like a brewing storm.

Chacal had taken the rear watch, to make sure no others had followed them to Sapphique. It seemed best for her to tail them, as any ill-spirited shadow would soon realize that her scent was also prevalent around the borders, and now that Val and Indra had acceptance through Chacal, the borders should fend anyone else off. 

When she caught up, her Mother already greeted them. She was surprised, though, not to see Rosalyn show more relief or even surprise. Slowly, dread filled her chest. Today was not a good day for memory, she thought. Occasionally it was a question repeated a couple times but this…She couldn’t see signs of recognition on her mother’s features.

Then again, Valravn had grown up, been away a while. She scooted forward to Valravn’s side, knowing that Indra might feel pinned and uncomfortable between them. 

”Mama!” She greeted cheerfully. She felt dread settle in alongside her heart, as she saw the way Rosalyn eyed Valravn like a stranger. ”It is my bro’der, Valravn! He has returned, an’ wit’ ‘is young friend, Indra,” She said. ”Dey have been t’rough a hard, hard winter. Dey come to live, safe, wit’ us.” She explained.

The sound of movement behind her, then alongside her hiding place, caused Indra to unravel. She was shivering as much from the salty wind as she was from fear. When Val spoke she partially stood up - wilted in posture - and looked with tired red-rimmed eyes upon him.

When someone arrived from the opposite direction Indra ducked and pressed herself close to Val. She didn't appear to care about personal space; there was comfort to be found where she wedged herself in to his side, like a gosling trying to hide beneath mother goose's wing.

The woman that came to them was a black void. Indra couldn't look at them at all; her own eyes stole glances at Val, then briefly at Chacal when she moved from the Tangle to join the pair, watching for signs of distress. If they were going to run from this woman Indra would be ready at the first sign of trouble.

It sounded like Chacal knew this woman. Val was in high spirits, which was all that really mattered to Indra, but the lost girl was too anxious to speak or do much beyond cower beside her friend.

silence stretched between them as val spoke. he took in a deep draught of the briny air, hopeful.

dark as his features were naturally, the grin that broke his face when rosalyn appeared was like a lamplight in the void. "maman!" he cried, joyous and tail wagging wildly. were it not for indra pressed close to his chest, and his over-protective pains to not disturb her, he would have closed the gap between him and rosalyn with bounding strides.

but something was different. his face fell as he saw coldness in her eye. chacal's voice rose to the wind besides him. was he gone that long? perhaps she only remembered his youthful face -- now he was nearing two years, and what an incredible two years it had been.

his grin fell away. as if to corroborate chacal's words, val spoke again. "maman! it's me, valravn!" the smile reappeared, dogged. "i'm home!

As both Chacal and the stranger insisted she knew him, Rosalyn's patience grew frayed. Not out of anger towards them, but because the name they gave was meaningless. He'd called her maman, but she did not know him.

Something was wrong. Chacal would not lie to her, she knew, and she knew that her own mind did. The coldness in her eyes faltered and was replaced, for a brief moment, with confusion.

This wasn't Reyes... had there been other sons? Her frustration mounted as the details remained in fog. You should see Erzulie. Rosalyn turned away, fur prickling with the same tension that laced her quiet words. She'll want to know.

Chacal could handle this. She needed to leave. There had been others... surely there had been others. Loko, Sobo, Reyes. Mireille, Coraline, Chacal... and nothing. Their names were gone, and who knew when (or if) they would reappear to her.

It broke her heart to see how ambivalent Rosalyn was toward Valravn. Chacal became suspicious of this, which seemed more than intended, but something…More sincere, more troubling. Her mother’s answers were occasionally odd, out of place and she seemed at times very distant.

She could not understand why Rosalyn would simply avoid what should have been a happy reunion, and insist that they simply go to Erzulie. But she wasn’t about to content with her mother when already she seemed to have frozen.

”I will take him to see Maman. She will…” She nodded hopefully- wanting to reassure him that Erzulie would remember him. ”Come with me, de two of you. You are home now, in Sapphique. We will go visit Maman, an’ you can meet de new babes. Our siblings from last year be aroun’ as well, but we take you firs’ to Maman, an’ den to find a secret space for you to be living in.” She said.

Val exploded with enthusiasm and it startled Indra in to cowering deeper, until the woman gave them the true cold shoulder and moved away. This was all very confusing for the girl; she wanted to run back to the cover of the Tangle, while simultaneously being too nervous to depart from Val's side; wherever he chose to move, she would follow at a low scamper.

The third member of their travelling group - Chacal - said she'd bring them to someone named Maman. The claim that they were home now sent a chill through Indra and she looked at Val pointedly, seeking validation, permission to move. This could not be home to her but, maybe, a secret place could be of use.

first it was val's expression that fell -- then his tail -- and at last, his heart.

there was no ounce of warmth in rosalyn's eyes. he'd played out this reunion so many ways, and had never anticipated this.

he misinterpreted it first as anger, and was at a loss until chacal spoke. dumbfounded, val glanced to his sister and then to indra. little, wide eyed indra -- who held his gaze questioningly.

val tried to smile encouragingly, but a knot had formed in his throat and it stabbed him now like a thorn. alright, let's go see maman erzulie. val nudged gently at indra's flank in a motion to reassure her, before he started after chacal.

how he wanted to look back at rosalyn, to see if it was some mistake! he restrained out of fear if he glanced back, the rest of his shattered world would fall to pieces.

they would find her at the roja den, watching aminthe and quennell tumble and wrestle in the short-cropped grasses just outside.
when erzulie raised her eyes it was to see chacal first, the lovely young woman who had taken up the role of tanzanite. there was a child with her, a girl so red that at once avicus came to mind.
and the third —
she stood sharply.
"valravn," she breathed, and moved toward him until she had pulled the rugged boy into her arms. he was not so boyish now; he was a man, but in the eyes of his mother he was her child. the mintglow gaze was soft with unshed tears. "i did not t'ink i would be seein' you again, tigason," erzulie breathed.
a chuff to her little ones. the obsidian's eyes moved toward chacal again, and then rested with curiosity on the stranger.

What she knew, and what she had observed and been told from the others all troubled her. Here was concrete proof of something frightening that had begun to change her mother. She showed no affection to Valravn- not even recognition. Simply passed him off to go and see Erzulie. 

She kept quiet while they moved along. Valravn was hiding his pain as well as he could, but she thought she could feel it as though it hung about him like a dark smoke. 

She knew Erzulie would know him, and was relieved to see him finally receive a fond welcome. Chacal too smiled, and was grateful that Valravn finally was embraced as he deserved. 
”Maman, Mot’er, she…I worry. 
She look at ‘I’m wid eyes cold, blurry. 
I do not believe she knew ‘is face,
‘Is name, too, she did not place.

‘E ‘as come home, for safety an’ peace,
Wid Ms. Indra ‘ere, so ‘er runnin’ can cease.”

Indra hurried to keep pace with Val, looking for Chacal too, as the surly woman made her own departure. The girl's tail was practically nonexistent for how tightly it coiled to her belly.

Then there was another woman. This one was warmer with her invitation, sweeping close to Val to hold him, and with her arrival Indra cowered backward. She ducked and distanced herself on shaking limbs, letting Val be the wall between them.

Her eyes flashed to the small bodies that the woman guarded. She stared at the children while Chacal spoke in her song like voice; an incantation if ever she'd heard one.

There were children here. This - maman - a mother? Immediately Indra's eyes widened and grew glossy. She heard Merrick's voice in the back of her mind: mothers aren't real.

it stung the boy beyond measure, but he carried on.

now to the roja den, led by chacal. he was ever so grateful she was here.

two babes played out in the open. val kept his distance, a tether to indra until erzulie appeared.

how he wished to rush in then, too -- but the memory of rosalyn froze him. it was not until erzulie pulled him into her embrace that his shoulders relaxed, the tension fleeing from him like a departing wave.

maman, val whispered, an ear tilted as chacal's song-like voice filled the air. he turned to indra, whose gaze looked momentarily glossy. maman, this is indra. he was quiet a moment, swallowing thousands of sharp emotions at once. indra, this is my mother.

erzulie was fully present as chacal informed her in the musical way that her daughter had always touted. indra was disturbed, then, and had not spoken where she had come from. and val was home, val was home. unable to keep herself from granting the prodigal boy a relieved smile, the obsidian now turned her attention upon the red child.
"indra," she said softly, hoping to catch the girl's attention. "dis be a safe place." erzulie offered a reassuring wave of her tail, then gestured to the young children playing just beyond.
"dat be your brot'er, quennell," she said softly to val, "an' your sister, aminthe."
how she wished she could name regin among them also.
"i t'ink maybe indra stays here wid me, if dat be all right," she murmured to their guest and to her children. "i have medicine to help you sleep witout dreams."
she recognized shock and trauma in the young wolf. indra should be kept under watch.

I know I just asked for PPC/NPC state for her, I just wanted to keep this moving for yall. ALSO totally didn't mean to skip Chacal omg, I can remove this if you want, it feeds nicely in to her thread with Sobo tho!! Sorry omg derp moment.

The scene that unfolded before Indra's eyes made no sense to her.

A woman there, with children; Val calling this one some variant of mother.

Their dark face turned to look upon the girl, softly speaking words that Indra didn't hear. A sharp ringing had begun, rising in pitch, until Erzulie's comments were nothing but white noise.

Shaking, Indra backs away - unable to justify what she was seeing with what she had been so harshly taught.

Beyond that white noise was Merrick's voice chanting the same mantra: mothers aren't real, mothers aren't real, mothers arent real mothers arent real --!

Breath caught in her throat, Indra doesn't wait for a chance to escape; she feels the fight-or-flight switch flip in her brain and bolts away from the pair of them. Her breath hitches in her throat — and somewhere in the distance she collapses.

HOW DARE XD. my bad, I didn’t realize it was my turn! <3 feel free to skip Chacal if you’d like :)

Chacal was so distracted by watching Valravn’s reactions that she didn’t notice the way Indra froze. He was back, and being introduced to their newest siblings.  She saw relief in Valravn’s physique, when Erzulie held him, and hoped that it meant he would stay. 

When Erzulie spoke to Indra, Chacal glanced carefully toward the younger wolf- who’d backed away a bit. There was something dark and wild about her eyes, and no sooner had Chacal turned to look to Valravn than the girl had bolted. 

”She…’as been t’rough a lot.” She explained softly, though she shrugged quietly. She didn’t even know how much Indra had been through, or why she seemed to distrust both Chacal and Erzulie so much. But she knew that she would have little chance at all in bringing her back if she went. ”But she seem pretty attached to you, Val.” She said. If anyone should go after her, she imagined it was him.

no sooner had he finished the embrace with his mother, indra had bolted.

for a moment val reflected on her words; they were wise, and if indra had stayed put, val would have advised her to follow erzulie home. he would have slept outside, of course -- but none of this mattered as the streak of red disappeared into the woods.

he stayed a moment longer to turn an ear towards chacal, who spoke between the two of them. he nodded in understanding, taking her subtle cue to slip off and follow indra into the woods.