Hideaway Strath I long for that look of surprise when you see your son rising at last

hope this is okay! <3 I’m very excited!!

@Fury brought him through the Strath, and it was funny, how much and how little he recognized there. He’d been young when their family uprooted to live in Redsand Canyon, and he was much older now.

But though his eyes darted over the land as though looking first at the landscape surrounding them, he searched, instead, for a glimpse of familiar white. For the home he found in his mother’s soft eyes. Hoping, perhaps, they would find her outside her den, because Turmeric didn’t know how much longer his patience could hold, how much longer he could wait for her.

He had already searched and waited so long, and it already showed, in how he danced ahead of Fury more like a youth than the young man he had grown into  during his long and lonely year away.

He hardly cared what Fury might think, what others would think. Turmeric’s voice filled the air with a single, repeated call as they pursued the freshest trail they had found of @Arlette: Mom! It’s Merry! I’m home!

Arlette's head snapped up when she heard a howl... directed at her? The voice wasn't familiar to her at all, but there was so much excitement in it. The howl had her baffled, and her heart pumping. Who could it be? She had her hopes light up of who it could be...?

She rushed towards the howl. Her curiosity and hope driving her towards the caller. The female quickly caught a scent but it wasn't that familiar either... or was it? She did smell Fury, so she went to that scent. She stepped into a cleared section of the woods. There she saw Fury and someone she didn't know.

Arlette stepped closer. Her face looked a little shocked, she stood before-- Derg? No. A young man! Her eyes took a moment to take him in as she stepped into the clearing, she could hardly believe it. Could it be? "T-Turmeric?."

Turmeric barreled forward - only to skid to a sudden stop when Arlette stepped through the woods before him.

She looked surprised, like she didn’t quite recognize him. But did he recognize her. The same beauty in her rose red eyes, the same feeling they gave him of family, safety, warmth, love.

“Mom,” he choked through a growing smile when he heard her say his name. He’d forgotten what she sounded like - but now that she spoke, he wondered how he ever had.

A giant leap, a laugh. His paws hit the ground again and he sprang forward to meet her with a hug, and a dozen or two dozen or twelve dozen kisses, “MOM!! I finally found you!” his laughter spilled over, and he shook from nose to tail even as he buried himself against her, “I never gave up looking.”

Arlette had a young adult barreling toward her. She instantly recognized him now, especially with the cries of 'mom'. It was her baby!! Well, not a baby anymore. Turmeric!! Arlette bounded forward too. She instantly responded in quite the same way with happy whines and showering him with kisses. She had missed him so much. She had feared the worst for her children but at least one was still alive.

Turmeric!! You are here! My baby!! She wrapped her paws around him, everyone around her forgotten except for him. Tears well up in her eyes. I've missed you so much, she sniffed a little. I'm so sorry. I-- I don't know what happened. She tried to pull herself together a little but after a brief pause she went back to showering him with kisses and licks. He was so big! Such a handsome young man. And... he looked so much like Derg.

I was looking for you too. I was taken. I don't know by who or what, but I was far away. I spend all this time traveling back to Teekon. I found Nyra at the Strath. Starting the Saints again. I felt it was best to join and get my strength back, she explained to her son. Gosh, she couldn't help but stare at him. Like he wasn't real. Your... siblings?, she dared to ask tentatively.

She recognized him - she recognized him! Turmeric didn’t know just how much he had grown, only that he did, by the way the way once towering things were smaller to him now. Like how he didn’t have to tip his head up to catch mom’s eye anymore, or stand on his tiptoes to kiss her.

I’m here, he leaned into her affection, and you’re here. he laughed, you don’t need to explain. I missed you, too. So, so much.

But she did explain, and what she shared brought a swirl of emotion he hadn’t let himself feel since the long days after the Saints had fallen. Taken. She had been taken, and soft anger flared in his heart - that seed of hatred - though his countenance did not change.

Only at the mention of his siblings.

Something dimmed in his eyes, and his once laughing voice grew softer. Subdued. I… had hoped they’d be with you. Funny, how his mouth quivered now, how the sadness and anger and great feelings of loss leaked through cracks the mere seeing of his mother had opened.

He wished she might hug him again.

Arlette was so happy to see him. She thought she would never see her children again, but apparently she had some karma left. She wanted him to explain why she left, because to her, she hadn't left. She had been taken. She still hadn't known why or who had done that.

The mother paused and took a soft sigh. "We will keep hoping that we find them one day," she spoke, and then couldn't help but pull the boy in close again. "For now we have each other," she spoke softly. She was so glad to see him. She hoped he wouldn't grow tired of her wanting to hug him and want him close.

"Come, I should get you a meal." She offered him a warm smile. "You should tell me all about your travels, if you wish."

He let her embrace him again. All for the better. Burying his face in her ruff, he could hide his watering eyes from her, and try to compose himself. But his breaths were staggered and heavy, and quivered when he said, I’m glad we do, despite a smile and a muffled laugh.

They pulled away. Sadness still traced him, but his lips pulled in a gentle and genuine smile. I’d love that, and he took up his place alongside her, noticing again how much he had grown. Deciding, now, that he would never let her be taken again. I don’t even know where to start, an easy laugh again. Shrugging off the memory of his siblings in favour of remembering the colourful road he walked without them, Hmm… oh! Oh, of course! I know a ton more about plants now! with a smile, he added, Studying them helped me remember you.

Arlette walked with him to where she knew a cache was. The mother would always want to listen to his stories and adventures. "Oh wonderful," she reacted. Maybe he could even teach her what he learned about plants. She was always eager to learn more about it. The female shot him a proud smile. "I'm so proud of you," she told him. There was also only pride in her voice. She was really amazed to see him like this.

"Did you meeting interesting people? Did you stay around the Strath?" She was curious how far he traveled. What he might have seen, or who he had ran into.

Not gonna lie, her praise felt pretty good, and whether he knew it or not he stood a little taller under the glow of her pride. Forgetting, for this sunshine moment, that he hadn’t been able to find dad or Mulberry or Thyme — because he had, in the end, managed to find her, and maybe he could rest in this awhile.

Oh yeah, I met loads! some of their faces, more clear than others, some of their teachings, a little more binding.

:Kinda came and went, he thought of :the woman he had sung with even here in these wilds, been all over round the Strath, thought of Nikolaus and the crypts beneath his gardens, feels like I’ve been all over the world.

Did you… always live in the Strath? He knew mom must’ve had a life before he’d been born, but as a kid, he’d never really realized and never really thought to ask.

It felt good to hear that her son had traveled and met other wolves. It was nice to hear that she raised such a social boy. That is what she hoped for him, to become a nice young man. The female kept looking with pride at him. "I'm glad that you got to travel and see the world." She really meant that, even though the circumstances of him traveling alone were less favorited.

She was surprised by his question. "No, actually," she spoke. "I came to the saints because of your father. We started in the canyon, but you and your siblings were born in the strath," she started to explain. She paused then. "I was born in Easthollow. My mother Valette was the leader. I always thought I would stay there, but... then I met your father," she spoke, and quirked up her lips. That wasn't a lie, but there was a big gap in the reasoning why she left as she had clashed with her mother over her accidental pregnancy. She was not sure how she still felt about that. "Life there was pretty peaceful. I was a shy child. It took me two years to leave the territory," she admitted with a chuckle. She figured there would be more questions. She wouldn't mind taking about her past.