Iktome Plains saltmouth

grief was a stage in which teya had stalled for years. 
reyes had broken her heart.
she had failed sorana.
reyes had died before they could speak again.
sorana had never recovered.
bronco had loved her with a healing light, and just when she was beginning to breathe again, that glow had been taken from him. 
her tears were silent. teya had navigated between the three sister packs to come alone onto the plains, for she had no words for a soul. she was so tired of being locked into this eternal battle of sorrow, with no respite and no reprieve and for what felt like the fourth year.
teya did not even beg for happiness, not any longer, just a break. just peace. just a lull in this constant anguish.

hope this is ok<3

The trip to the hinterlands summited in the crossing of the plains where he and Iseul had first laid eyes on the ocean. Where a chapter had ended on a cliff-hanger had now come to a close and he had felt free to move on; a final goodbye.

The boy let himself embrace the surreal closure it had brough, relishing the peace it brought to his mind. Somehow, somewhere along the way, he had begun to enjoy the feeling of being alone. 

It is as he rounds the cliffs to Moontide that he spots the crying woman; her grief invisible until honeyed eyes catch the tear tracks that wet her cheeks.

Softly, quietly, he does not speak as he settles on the rocks nearby. What did she cry for?

totally! <3

teya was alone forever and then not at all; she hastily smeared her tears away, turning her face so the boy with the curious eyes would not see any more fall. "hello," the raven greeted softly, returning to her role as diplomat and mother. 
the stranger appeared to be the same age as her children, and with a jolt did teya realize how close to a year they were now. "you lost?" she asked, her gaze soft upon him.

Her greeting came as a surprise. 

The silence had stretched on as paws reached to wipe her tears away, yet he had already seen more than she could undo. What troubled this woman so? For a long while the boy did not reply for fear of interrupting her.

"No I... live in Moontide. Just over that way." Muzzle nosed in it's general direction. Calling the ocean pack his home would take some getting used to.

"I'm sorry, I can leave if you want." When he had last felt like crying, he had wanted nothing more than to be alone. Well, until Iseul had changed that view. Matteo wondered silently if she had any family close by.

"you okay," teya assured, willing her cheeks to stop sparkling with her grief. "i not know moontide. i from brecheliant, inland." she doubted he had heard of it if he lived along the coastline, and her eyes moved in that direction.
"want me to walk you back?" teya invited, wanting to be of service in some way but also knowing it was best she moved from the plains and her melancholy.

With speech reminiscent of the lilting tones of Iseul, the boy found himself softening more as she began to share more about herself. He had never heard of Brecheliant, though he had not heard of a lot of things having grown up in the bubble that was the isle.

"That would be nice," he replied quietly, mind whirring. He didn't particularly need an escort, but he knew the feeling of wanting company. "I've got some fish back at my den if that would... make you feel better?" For how was one to comfort a woman he did not know? For Matteo, food seemed like the best place to start.

The question of how she had wound up so far from home lingered on the back of his tongue, but he did not pry. Not yet.

a forlorn smile tugged itself onto teya's mouth. he was a kind boy; perhaps her tears unsettled him, or perhaps he was simply sympathetic in the way only children can be.
teya suddenly did not want to advance into moontide for she could hardly fathom talking to anyone else at this time. yet she knew it was only her grief speaking, and took a few steps forward. "i teya."

For the first time in their brief meeting, the crying woman smiled.

Relief tugged at the corners of Matteo's lip, though he couldn't help but notice the emptiness of her expression. Briefly, he considered rejecting her offer to watch the waves and linger on should-forgotten memories instead - how nice it would be to pause the world for just a moment. 

In the end, it was her tentative steps that drew the boy to the conclusion that the best way to heal this woman's scars was to move ever-forward in body and in mind, as he once had done.

As she gave a name to a face, he led the way with slow steps. But he would not take her straight to Moontide. "Matteo. Have you ever been to the beach before, Teya?" Probing, softly.

"i not leave home often." her voice was hushed as she fell into step alongside matteo. "this the closest i been to sea." and it was so, and she did not know why she had never made the time to come here, or even moonglow.
teya glanced curiously at the boy. he was very young and yet he treated her with an old sort of respect; his eyes were soft but he had seen other things. she would reserve her questions.

"I came here for the first time not long ago too," matching Teya's calmness as they rounded on the tip of gilded bay, inky paws soon sinking into the cold sand. "With my family - we moved from inland." She was a homebody, something the boy had once been too until the trip to the plateau had sparked some sense of adventure in him. 

Meeting her gaze, he invited her onto the beach with a plume of his tail. Behind him, waterways ribboned across golden sand, feeding into rockpools that foamed white with ocean spray. The weak autumn sun did little to warm the bay at this time of year, the air remaining frigid yet sheltered from the windy plains.

"I'd like to show you something. Once we find one," he added quickly, "Sorry, I'm still getting used to the prey here." It was a slight change of plan, for he too perhaps waned to delay his return for a while longer.

the sea did a good deal to lift her spirits, though it was not outwardly seen. her eyes explored the wet stone and the surf. she did not ask after his family, sensing it was something matteo would have expanded upon had he seen fit.
and she did not need to ask if he enjoyed his new home; that much was clear. "show me," teya answered with a lighter expression, eager to follow matteo where he led.
she too did not find excitement in return to her own home and the new graves there.

He led Teya to a tidepool where he fished out a crab the way Iseul had shown him, cracking the shell so the two could taste the meat inside. Greedily, he ate his fill before pushing the rest towards her.

There was more spring in her step now, something he was happy to see. 

He would tell her all about life by the sea and all the strange and wonderful creatures that came with it. And as the two lulled into quiet, he would ask her what had been on his mind the whole time. "Why were you crying earlier?" 

the crab proved to be accompanied by a bit of a learning curve, something teya slowly figured out. finally successful, she heaved a breathy laugh and tasted the saltsweet flesh.
"my mate died." she held his eyes, feeling strong for the first time in what felt like years. the surf echoed at her back.
"he's the second of my husbands to die." another bite, and at last teya's gaze fell away.

He watched fondly not hiding his grin as Teya worked the crab shell, giving her pointers here and there but ultimately letting her take the reigns. It was like watching a young pup figure out how to eat meat for the first time, wondering if he was ever like this as a child. 

In between mouthfuls did she finally reveal her troubles. A mate and a husband - the boy did not think he had ever been in love nor experienced true death but he could only imagine how haunting it must have been.

"I don't think I've ever been in love," he speaks finally, as more of an afterthought, unsure of how to comfort Teya other than with apologies she had probably heard a thousand times. "But I know what it's like to lose someone close to you." Ines, especially, was a wound barely healed. "What were they like, your husbands?"

"one fiery but mean. one less fire but so much kinder." retelling it this way did not hurt so much. it also wasn't much of a question for a boy to ask, not one so young as matteo. "i have four children."
she wondered at his own story, why he appeared to have come by an old man's wisdom at a tender age.
but maybe it was that they had lived similar lives. why should she pry?
"love worth it. not care how much i hurt. i rather hurt than not love."

Her words glossed over him, finding little to relate to and wondering, too late, if he had bitten off more than he could chew. The closest Matteo had come to love was the bond he shared with Iseul. It was a different kind; one shared between family not husbands.

"Sometimes, to love someone is to let them go." His sisters, his brother, even the isle itself he had loved and chosen to let be. Teya, poor Teya. "Your children must be worried about you, shouldn't you return to them?" They deserved a mother's love far more than a dead husband did.

fade at your next post?

sure <3

oh, he was young! but his hope was not to be scoffed at, nor his pain. teya hoped deeply that life would spare its barbs for this earnest boy. 
"i go home. you go too, matteo."
a breath, a smile; off she went, glancing once over her shoulder to wave with tail against the sky.