Wheeling Gull Isle Oh my friends, my friends forgive me….

Title is from the lyrics of Empty Chairs at empty tables, Les Miserables.

When he finally stopped, he found himself surround by lavender, a vast field of it. He sat down among the flowers, his legs quivered from the fear that was lingering inside him. His neck hurt, but the blood had begun to dry up.

He wrapped his mind around one thing, prayer. Now was the time to pray.
So he bent his head down, letting it hang loosely, and closed his eyes: “Dear lord, I pray you forgive me for my action. I also ask that you forgive the young one I struck with my hand, who for unknown reasons acted as she did.” He ended his prayer with an amen, as tears began to roll down his face. The smell of the lavender, which he breathed in, had started to calm him. He was alone, with only the faint call of seagulls, and the sounds of nature.

Before long, once he was brought back to himself, he would go speak with @Heda and @Caracal , back to the den site. He just hoped that this could be sorted out in all fairness.

But it was Everett who found the man.

On another day, he would have let him be; he knew many used this place to pray, including himself. And he would have left, if he'd happened upon him from behind. But Everett came upon him face on --

John, he said, and he pulled back, a little surprised. The crest in the hill had hidden the other man from sight. Sorry, I -- but he frowned when he saw the look on his packmate's face. He couldn't quite place it, but something wasn't right. What's wrong?

Perhaps he was intruding, but how could the Sacerdos just pass him by?

When he saw the man wrapped in sand and sea walk up to him, he brought his paw up to wipe his eyes. Everett had a surprised look on his face, perhaps it was the bite mark on his neck, or his upset appearance. Despite these reasons, John brought his eyes up to meet Everett’s. 
He spoke in a soft and apologetic voice: “Everett, I fear I have made a mistake.” He then went on to explain the situation, how he had been looking for children to mingle with, and how the young Anathema had without reason lunged for him. “My throat.” He revealed the wound by lifting his head. “I tried hard to keep my composure, but in self defense, I struck her with my paw. I wished I could have stayed to reconcile, but her sister, Ava, had then decided to act.” — “And that is when I decided to flee.”

“I hate to harm God’s children, and I hate that it came to striking her.”

If there was one other thing he wished for, it was that he did not sound like a young child complaining.

It was the look on the man's face that had stopped him first, and concern that made him stay. But then, he smelled the blood, and his gaze fell on the rusted strands of fur peeking out from around John's lowered head. Hidden, as though he did not wish for Everett to see.

Thankfully, he did not need to pry the story from the man. At the admittance of a mistake, Everett sat down and nodded with a quiet assurance that he could speak, and Everett would listen.

But by the end, he wished he hadn't heard it at all.

John revealled his neck and the full extent of the damage the pups had done. Ana? Ava? Both? That much got lost in passing, but regardless -- they had struck, and Everett closed his eyes.

Praying for help.

Picturing the scene.

Oh, give me wisdom.

The children did that? he finally asked, opening silvered eyes to direct a long glance to the blood on his throat. They were hardly three moons. Barely the age to follow on hunts. Still bearing milk teeth. How hard had the girls struck him to draw blood? And how hard had John struck Ana to the ground to decide that?

He shivered -- felt the memory of a strike against his cheek --

Fire and rain.

Warranted.

Fire and rain.

Deserving.

Fire and rain; with raw throat, and song unending.

The sting of a flinging paw.

Mistakes can be mended, he said softly, closed his eyes, squeezed the vision away. And sometimes, they could not. But here, he would hope. Where are they now? and were either of them hurt? He had only known John to be a gentle man -- but that did not change the fact he was still much bigger and stronger than both girls combined.

Poor John. But I enjoy the hurt and comfort elements. :)

John appreciated Everett’s listening ear, but despite his admittance, he still felt heavy guilt washing over him like waves on the sand. He turned his head away from Everett’s gaze, and squeezed his eyes shut, another tear slipping down his face. “Mistakes can be mended” he thought about these words, tasted them, the bitterness of guilt over powering it, “I don’t know if this one can.” He whispered. 

But Everett also asked a question, about the girls, and where they were. ”I had found Ana sitting by the shore, past the Densite. She had this aimless look, staring at the sea, and all of a sudden turned.” “Everett, if any harm came to her by my hand.… I-I don’t know what I would do.” He imagined Heda would be heart broken, as she loved her children with her life. They trusted him, welcomed him into their home, and he hoped, no, prayed that this accident wouldn’t harm the Island family.

<33!! I am enjoying it too, it's interesting to write through things like this!

John was right.

God would forgive him if he sought His forgiveness -- Everett knew this, by how he had been forgiven of things far worse. But Heda, and Caracal, and the girls? Even if they offered forgiveness, Everett wondered if they would trust John again. Even if they did, he had a feeling it would be a long road ahead for the disciplus, and his heart ached. Self defense, against children so small? It made such little sense to Everett. Ana's attack all tge same. Was it something John had done? Was it the blood of the druid running through her? He shivered again. No. Why couldn't he have been there to stop it?

God has forgiven you, Everett first assured the man of the truth they found in Him, and He will be your help through what seasons come next, please -- please! Keep the children safe! Let them be safe. I will go to the girls. You must find @Heda and @Caracal and tell them what happened. Tell them I have gone to find Ana and Ava. If you hear no call from me telling you I've found them by the time you reach them, tell them to come and help me look. But you must not come. Listen to whatever they tell you to do.

With that, Everett sent his own voice up for Heda and Caracal and would turn to seek out and find first @Anathema, then @Ava Amara, and finally @Dinah, who John mentioned as a witness to these things. He needed to know that each one was safe, starting with the one who might be bleeding just the same as John. But as he went, he gave John a final glance, swirling and sorrowful, and desiring this disciplus to know, God is with you. And He will be your strength, even in this.

tension, on the winds of an autumnal sea which slowly turned from summertime warmth. heda had been musing a specific anxiety about, and it was that wintertime upon their island might not be so safe, if she recalled the storms from other years.
she had not yet brought it to her lord in prayer, and it was this fact for which heda would come to fiercely blame herself later: a wavering in her faith.
everett's voice was instructional but worrisome; the mother put away meat which she had been portioning for her brood and swept down the waving greenhills to find the caller turning away, and, "john?" heda said wonderingly, a tailwave assuring him of peace. "oh! you're hurt, what —" voice stilling as she saw his expression, and dread thrummed in her.

At Everett’s beckoning, Heda came. His howl raised high into the air.

As soon as Heda swiftly strode over the hill, and came upon the two men, she had waved her tail at John. This gesture made him smile briefly, but his sense of wrongness still hung around. He thought where he should began, and perhaps keeping it honest was the best idea: “I was looking this morning for the children, to hang out with them, as I quiet enjoy their youthful energy. I found Ana, sitting by the shore, she was starting aimlessly out at sea. As I approached, in the blink of an eye she lunged for my front, grabbing onto me.” He explained in full honesty, “I kept my composure, as long as I could, I took my paw to her, removing me from her grasp.”

He thought some more, what to tell next: “I would have stayed, to apologize, make sure she was okay, but then Ava jumped into the fray. I suppose in defense of her sister, that’s when I ran off.” — “I’m so sorry Heda. If I caused her harm, I don’t know how I could reconcile that.”

It seemed Heda was closer than he had known.

She came through the lavender just as Everett turned away and began his own path down the hillside.

John's voice faded. Everett would not stick around for the retelling. He took the man to be an honest one, and from him, Heda would learn, and come to know. Everett expected she would come after him to help him in his search -- yet he hoped to find the girls first, that she might simply swoop in and take over with the comfort and wisdom only a mother could give a daughter.

They were by the coast, past the densite, is all he called over his shoulder. Heda would surely know the words unspoken: I'm going to find them.

He didn't know how much John had hurt Ana, if he had hurt her at all. He hadn't divulged this, but Everett read between the lines --

And John believed he had hurt her, and that was enough to make Everett hurry all the harder to find her, before it was too late.

Throwing Kai in here so he is more aware. Feel free to skip around him.

Malakai was not far from his mother. He tread upon the green hills, sniffing and scratching at the earth for anything of interest to dig up and/or eat. John and Everett came along and with them, the scent of blood. Malakai perked up his head, the young boy trotting into the direction of the other two, following his mother's heels. He was on alert and it was only as John finished did his lip twitch and eyes narrow. 

She attacked you for no apparent reason? A brow rose, his head tilting with a wonder, his gaze critical as it shifted then to his mother to see and hear what she made of all this. 

Whilst Ava having attacked seemed obvious, with an intent to protect her sister, what had it been then to set Ana off? John said that she had been just staring out into the water and then lunged at his throat the moment he got too near. Would his mother believe him? His father? 

Whether they did or did not, Malakai already felt as though he did believe John- the evidence was stained all over him and probably would be so on Ana too. Malakai always felt the children were doomed to follow their birth mother's steps into darkness. Obviously, he was right. 

"ana?"
her voice was muddled, strangled; heda listened but did not believe. how could children bloody a grown man like this? "ava?" oh, she could not help herself! saying their names in soft, shocked tone; eyes gone wide with a growing
anger.
a breath, touching the roof of her mouth. she stared at john, wondering what caracal would do — "i need you to stay near the lion's den for a while," she said, feeling somewhat defeated. "we need to figure all this out."
and if a child was hurt, then —
"come on, malakai," and she turned, trotting in the direction everett had gone.

This situation was beginning to crumble more, John’s ears were as flat as any wolf’s ears could be. His heart felt heavy. 

However, in this growing darkness, There was a slight look of perhaps belief, or even trust, in the young Malakai’s eyes. And when Heda spoke, she did so calmly, but in disbelief. She instructed him to stay near the lions den, so as soon as Heda beckoned for her son to follow her, away from John , he strode off toward the Lion’s den on a brisk trot.

“God above, help me. Help guide me through these rough waters.” He prayed silently.