Redtail Rise where'er i walk ten thousand serpents follow at my feet

for @Augur & @Lilia, tagging myself so i dont forget to reply lollll <3

the warmth of the days continued to drop. redtail shimmered in sienna and crimson, green leaves shot through with gold. and such changes continued into their hunting grounds, berries clustered with rich elegance and herds tasting the air for snow.
ancelin, perhaps arrogantly, did not fear winter. he had come into himself and moved with a confidence that was at last his own. ironically it stemmed not from his status in redtail, but the plans he and lilia had made to seek their own empire.
teeth clacked playfully on the air; he stowed his triple catch of fieldmice in the cache nearest their den and paced out on restless legs before summoning augur and his mate. she was right; they should tell the silent man now. 
and then he would tell masque.

The cooler temperatures did nothing to temper the warmth that had begun to grow within her soul, as it instead spread, stoked by the kindling ideas of the life she and Ancelin would have together. She yearned for snow to fall, for winter to come so that it could pass and then they could be on their way, though she tried to convince herself not to rush time. Not when there were still the Toweards to train and encourage, and she loved them dearly enough to enjoy her time in the Rise simply because she loved the pack. 

She heard Ancelin's voice, and left the borders where she'd been marking so she could stride to his side, rumbling a note as she teased the fur at his withers where one hue bled into the next. Now when she looked at him, she fantasized about what their children might look like. 

She waited for Augur by her mate's side, hoping he would receive the news well.

children came home.

children hunted.

children guarded.

and children prepared to disperse.

augur knew their old ways would turn young ones out into the world. it remained only to be seen what might happen. the new man was suited in age to red woman, but she had not reassumed wealda. wolverine and thorn caller would come of age. 

it was wolverine and skin tooth toward whom he veered now. exchanging snuffled chuffs with each, augur tilted his head and gave them both an inquiring look.

redtail was home. it was where he had been born, where his home had become complete. aventus. arielle. atreus. ancelin. avicus. 
bearclaw-melonii.
but with no connection to either, the gods of blackfeather had not come to ancelin, nor had the shade of merrick made himself known to the boy. he had never known ursus nor the daedra.
and so the only impulse in him which wished to leave was purely wolf, the answer of man to mate and the promise of their own lineage confirmed in a territory they chose for themselves.
when the huntleader approached, ancelin submitted with easy affability. augur had never tried to dominate anyone unnecessarily, but he kept his peace all the same.
"uh, we — in winter, augur, we — i mean, after," wow, way to go; he cleared his throat and tried again. "in the springtime, lilia and i are going to leave, i think. the kids will be older and ready to help hunt, so we figured that's the best time," he ended, stiffly and awkwardly.

Lilia's fidelity stemmed from having been fostered well by the wolves of the Rise- fed, educated, comforted and encouraged, she owed more than just her survival to wolves like Augur. For some time, it had been enough to convince her that she was one of them, and that her efforts and talents would be acknowledged just as they were for anyone else. 

When the importance of blood had been weighed against her, she'd been deftly dismissed. Augur, however, had stood by her, and had judged her mettle in front of the crowd. She was aware of the rift she may have created; a disturbance in the natural progression of things- but it was part of who she was. She was a weed. Summoned to sunlight alongside the sown, allowed to root, grow, and reap the benefits of clinging tightly to one who would endure her. Soon, they would flower together and create a harvest of their own. 

Augur came, and she shared breaths with him, tail waving. It made her heart pound to hear Ancelin speak for the both of them and she realized that with his slight stutter, she too was a bit nervous. She hoped Augur would approve, and that he would understand why it was that they were choosing to disperse. Her life would have inevitably been very different without him- and in a heartbeat, she would have happily shared the rest of her life in a pack with him.

But it would never be her pack; not until she made it so, and it felt impossible to do in the Rise without ruffling a few petals. 

"We'll be allieth." It was all she had to add- a promise of their continued friendship and kinship. She had little idea what might come to pass with their departure- who might step up to become Berserkr, or if any of Avicus' brood would become Wealda, but so long as Augur lived, Lilia would consider his affiliations to be worthy of her consideration as well. 

They would winter with the Rise- and then they would depart, to ascend.

leaving.

children left.

augur soothed the bite of this new revelation with a low lap of his tongue over his pale jaws.

but wolverine was not a child. she was a woman with a rank. would she surrender it? 

and yet he did understand. it was their way. if blood star returned, both she and thorn caller might claim a litter. that would be three to four if wealda retook her position, and with the blood of redtails so dominant here, the man understood why this was unappealing to wolverine.

and yet; a little croon sounded in his throat, half-saddened and half-blessing as he reached for them both in a moment of acceptance.

ancelin was ready, hardly wanting to wait for winter to be over before he and lilia struck out on their own. he watched augur carefully, ears and tail low, but aside from a tiny bit of dismay, the powerful man seemed to embrace the concept of their future departing.
"thanks, augur," the young wolf breathed out, bumping muzzles with the hunt-leader. lilia assured him that the rise and their own creation would be allies.
ancelin was pleased by this but for one thing: he wanted to be so far from the rise he wouldn't meet another redtail cousin unless he sought them out.
perhaps it was a vestige of rebellion, a rejection of atreus for having left in the same way. ancelin's home was in lilia now; wherever they went they could make it happen, and he was bound to her pawsteps, not a bloodline which he had never been able to wield.

She hadn't expected Augur to be excited about the news, but his blessing was welcome, and she moved forward to butt her head affectionately against his shoulder with a deep, rumbling growl. She squeezed her eyes tightly together, feeling moisture prick at her eyelashes. There would be many wolves that she would miss, though none quite so much as Augur, she thought. 

Like Ancelin, part of her wanted to dash away like a sprite- spend the winter wandering and searching, so that they might find a territory to claim by the time the Spring thaw came....But their chances would be better if they weather the winter in a pack. There would be no returning to the Rise if they failed, she thought; she doubted that her return would be as welcomed as Avicus', and had come to terms with the fact that the pack would likely evolve back into its blood-based hierarchy soon after they left. 

She drew back to her mate's side, burying her nose in his fur for a moment to breathe warm breath through the fur of his shoulder. She tilted her chin up and smiled at him with a doelike gaze. They would lead together- and finally shed the burden of genetics.

augur saw the way that wolverine looked toward skin tooth and understood, adding his own tongue-lolling grin.

winter would test them, prepare them for spring. and if they remained mated without the incentive of pups, then augur felt they would band together even more tightly when that time arrived.

a woof, a nudge for each; augur set off, intending to celebrate with a romp around the edges of the rise.

feel free to fade w ur next post! <3

guess that was that, then. ancelin gazed with utter adoration into lilia's face, forgetting for a moment that they were not alone.
their own empire. their own land. their own children.
he shivered in anticipation, chuckling as they pulled away from one another. offering augur a wave of his tail and lilia a smirk, ancelin leapt aside, following the long stride of the great pale man as he led them in joy.
it was good, he felt, to be accepted. more than that, to have his plans accepted. theirs. their future.

For a moment, it was just the two of them, as it would be when they struck out to forge their own territory, and their own life together. She was so happy, she could have simply sprinted away with him at that moment, had Augur not enticed them both into a run. She bowled after them, tail high and waving as she wound her way along the borders between her fellow leader and her mate, heart bursting with joy.