Phoenix Maplewood LII

red woman did not follow him. augur moved into a brilliant forest sparkled with sunmotes and scarlet.

he chuffed to @New Snow and rumbled for @Saturdays Sunrise.

part of the man wished to remain here until moon runner returned, a sort of rendezvous for his small family while the redtails handled things among themselves.

she follows.

that's what a good daughter does, doesn't she?

surely, there is a spread of hurt through her as walks past the borders and into the lands of the unknown for the first time. sunrise was a homebody, no denying that. she hadn't ventured off like her sister had done, for no voice called to her heart into the great open.

no, there was a sense of duty here. a sense of purpose, a sense of place. she belonged here. but what was here, anyways? tension, and unrest, perhaps. things that could not flourish.

tender kisses are placed upon the shoulder and chin of her parents, not a sense of resentment or hurt in her eyes. no, she'd remain guarded if she had to, to protect her mother and father from the weight of her heart as it sinks below the blood that redtail rise could have very well spilt today.

and longing, her heart calls out to her sister.

precious moon runner, her very own half. where could she have gone?

come back to me, to us. let me be whole again. please.

moon runner will come back.

it was what he had told himself each day.

augur swung his broad head toward the rise, finding his daughter with his gentled yellow gaze.

there was peace within him to be here.

what do you want, flame stalker?

what did she desire?

she stood upon the edge of adulthood. moon runner had dispersed for a time. augur did not know where he stood with the rise.

but he would defend each footstep of his girls to the right of their birthplace. for them, for new snow, he would die on the rise as red woman had envisioned.

what did she want?

when their pale eyes meet, sunrise brushes her cheek to his, an affectionate rumbling. "to be with you and mother." there was a dormant feeling of dominance to keep claim over her home, the very place she was born in. but she was young, and her parents grow older. the rise had been claimed by the bear, and soon the war cry of a red storm would be heard as loudly as a lone elk bugle in the night - a bullet to pierce the ears and shatter one's mind. "the rise was never ours." the way that shadow and bloodspot walked, even red eye and vulture -- they held the insanity in their blood, perhaps by birthright.

she'd not bury herself, nor her parents. no one was going to die through her vanity. she looks to her father once more, an anxious tongue runs against her teeth, shaking her coat to release tension."i want to be safe."

her father has fought the long fight, it was his duty as the hunt lead and perhaps one of the few weathered, adult voices of wisdom the rise had. she'd not let him die in vain for her selfishness. and perhaps through this clear minded-thinking, sunrise begins her true path of becoming an adult. stoic, like her parents, and calculating where teeth never clash before thought.

she wondered how her sister grew during this time.

i will keep you safe.

a promise.

your mother will keep you safe.

an assurance.

safety was not attached to land.

red woman will call for us.

his nose twitched. the yellow eyes considered many things.

he was steady, as steady as a father should be. a father that many daughters would wish for alone this day, or in the silence of night. sunrise has been blessed, spoiled in the eyes of the jealous.

she leans into her father's shoulder. one day, she may come to reach his majesty in height. but for now, she is content for being his little girl, even if for just one more day.

the mention of the red banshee brings about a curious tilt of the head from young flame stalker as she looks to augur. what would be their business? what would they do? sunrise did not know of the intricate ties in leadership, of the history and bloodshed meant to occur. all she knew was that wolverine was good, and the scents of her shadow and mask were growing weak in her nose.

"will we answer?" her whine is soft upon his hears. perhaps it is too much to constantly ask her father such hard questions. but he has yet to struggle to come up with answers.

New Snow comes to them with a rabbit between her teeth. The run had invigorated her, and released much of the tension she had felt with pack tensions on the rise. That in of itself was not unfamiliar, though the season of it all was strange. Spring was not yet upon them. 

But this all made her wonder about that time of year all the same. Wolverine, gone. The daughters of Red Woman might come to find their own men and seek to breed, too. Oddly enough, New Snow did not doubt her own place, nor that of Mountain Boulder. Not when Red Woman set her teeth upon none when that was her own natural way. She had no doubt gone against instinct to reestablish her place.

It was Red Woman’s love and respect for Mountain Boulder that had tempered her that day. She only hoped that Red Woman could understand the why of it all, but then even she herself could not in its entirety. Parts of it went even against her own nature. She had seen sister, cousin, nephew run off in her lifetime. 

Pack was family; Mountain Boulder perhaps only had sought to remind Red Woman of this, albeit at the wrong time. A challenge was a challenge, and it must be answered one way or the other. But the scents of Wolverine had dwindled—she had caught wind of that when hunting. 

So, the Rise was Red Woman’s again. 

Her paws did not leave imprints in the earth as her light steps took her to her man and her daughter. She shook out her ruff as she settled alongside her own man, dropping the meat before their daughter with bright eyes. The question asked is one that cause her golden eyes to shift upon Mountain Boulder, licking her bloodied lips.

They had at length contemplated this. It was the wayward daughter she considered now.

if we want to keep our place, we answer.

his own nose twitched. he brushed his lips against flame stalker's forehead and welcomed new snow with a loving butt of his broad head.

their eyes were upon him.

we wait for moon runner before we decide, said his posture, as he turned in the direction he had last seen her go.

we answer. we wait. then we will decide.

this must be a decision made by four, in augur's mind.