Luneshale Pass mercy street redux

for @Qiao!

Phox had been down this way before, but it had been awhile. It seemed more... lively now. He had never much cared for the heat of the desert, but since it was one of the only ways to get around the bigger mountain ranges, it seemed like a good enough gamble. He slept during the day, keeping the night for his slow traveling in the general direction Towhee had pointed him. He stopped now by a small trickling river. The water was shallow and muddy, but it would have to do. Phox bent down to take a long, slow drink.

a chorus of nightdwellers threw their voices to a cooling autumn sky. qiao listened to the sounds of a fading summer, ears pricked as a bat’s sonorous voice spilled over luneshale.

pathways of scents made their homes here; some familiar and some foreign. qiao set upon one as it tread down a thinning river.

a figure supped from the trickling waters. qiao set her olive eye upon him with dry remark. still not dead.

It appeared Phox was destined to run into plenty of old faces. The next one being the rather peculiar coyote he had encountered while sheltering from a snowstorm. He couldn't remember all that much from their brief meeting except that a) she had offered to kill him and b) he had asked her to pass a hello along to Ruenna. Phox wondered if she'd ever done the latter, but he wasn't going to lead with that. Her opening remark was about what he expected, and he gave her a wry grin. How do you know I'm not undead? he jested, his tail thumping waving gently behind him.

phox’s quip met the hardened measure of her stare. qiao was no jester, and humor had no place in her court. 

the smell. she replied in turn, leaving it vague on which end of life’s scent she meant. 

given the man’s condition , qiao was surprised he had not perished in the snowdrifts. perhaps phox had some cosmic favor with the overworld. perhaps an unknown taotaomona guarded his spirit. who feeds you?

He had forgotten (on purpose or not was still up in the air) how humorless she was. Maybe that was part of what was mildly intriguing about her. There was some kind of challenge there that Phox found he couldn't give up on. It was part of the fun, just like heckling Towhee was part of the fun with her. Her next question was pointed, and he felt a little bit of his ego go ahead and shrivel into nothingness at the sentiment. He had once been a rather good hunter, though those days were long behind him.

Family, mostly, he replied. And wasn't that the truth? It was the nice thing about having connections. Even with his condition~ he could be useful in other ways and earn his keep.

her needling question found its mark. the hale bloom of his face withdrew, darkening his black countenance. 

family sustained him. qiao’s apprising eyes lifted to study the pale wisps of clouds in the sky above. where he saw a puzzle to unlock, she saw a soul that could be given to the overworld — if he would just stop that persistent clinging to life. 

having family meant his absence would surely be noted.  where? i have only ever seen you alone.

Kinda all over, actually. Got a daughter in Moonspear, a son in the place I'm headed, and another on the coast. A sister I can't seem to shake. A few other children scattered to the wind. He still thought of Vesper, Peregrine, and Prevost on occasion, even though he had barely known them. Did they resent him for trying to pry himself back into their lives? He supposed he would never know unless they showed up again someday.

Something tells me you're not the 'family' type, eh? he gently prodded. He was pretty sure she'd try to murder anybody she thought she had an advantage over. Apparently he wasn't quite in that category (yet).

while she knew little of the region past akashingo, phox’s account of his family was complete enough to paint a picture; his absence would be noted immediately, and his connective network large enough that her life may be forfeit if any misdeed came back to her.  

she sighed. her last haka had supped from her own life-stores. if she was to cast something stronger, she needed a bloodprice besides her own soul’s ka. 

my devotion is to the overworld. qiao answered, indulging his prying to a point. perhaps his daughter was somewhere lonesome — and if she was not of use, perhaps he’d lead qiao to someone who was. there is no time for family in such vocations. she pulled from her deerskin the first few pieces of her sigil-stones. do you just wander aimlessly, then?

That seemed a bit sad that she wouldn't have time for family. It was one of the greatest things Phox loved about being alive. Probably why he persevered even though he could have given up long ago. Between Towhee and the kids scattered all around the region, he couldn't imagine ever giving up on them. He loved catching up with them and generally being in their company. He still longed to be a father again before he kicked the bucket, though with the way things were going, that seemed less and less a possibility. Maybe if Lele had stuck around, but it seemed she was the wandering type, and he hadn't a clue where she'd gone, so it wasn't as if he could follow her. There was always the chance he'd run into her again someday, but would the spark still be there? He couldn't know.

I'm headed to visit my eldest son and new grandkids, actually, he replied. Then I'll probably head to the coast to visit the other set of grandkids. After that, Phox didn't have any solid plans. Maybe he'd swing by Moonspear and say hello to Meerkat, or maybe he'd just wander aimlessly as Qiao had suggested. It didn't seem all that bad.

What's the overworld thing? Is that like the stars? he asked. The latter was something he had a pretty good understanding of, at least when it came to plucking out the constellations or using them for navigation.

phox felt sorry for the woman for missing out on the joys of family; it was a good thing he did not know just what she would do to place her claws upon a child — it might have changed his perspective. 

long ago, qiao had another name and another life — and in that life, family had been very dear to her. 

she moved one of the sigil stones between her paws, thinking. new grandchildren are always a blessing. her smile seemed harmless as she cast the first of her stones. the overworld is the thread that weaves all lives together. there are things there that pull these strings; i have dedicated my life’s work to studying them. here she glanced upon the orientation of stones, scrying their meaning. 

phox had divulged too much, mentioning children on the coast. qiao thought of her haka and how the last spell had cost too much of her ka. but a child — a child had enough ka to spellbind something powerful. would you like your grandchildren to receive a blessing?

The Redhawk watched as she fondled something beneath her paws. He couldn't quite make out what it was from here, but he supposed it could have been like Sialuk's strange bones. That was the only time he could remember a wolf carrying around small items. Either that or she just liked to fiddle with small objects, which also seemed entirely plausible.

Qiao explained the overworld, and it sounded a lot like many of the religions he had heard of over the years. As for himself, he'd never been particularly religious. The closest thing he had to that was the stars, which on some level he wanted to believe were what Raven had said they were all those years ago: ancestors looking down over them, watching them, and keeping them safe. She asked if his grandchildren might wish for a blessing, and Phox could only shrug. Not sure I'd want to do that without checking in with them first, he admitted. It seemed like the kind of thing one had to decide for themselves.