Ouroboros Spine wolf-mother, where you been?

hi hellooo! long time :)) been doing the whole army basic training and AIT things but i'm back ahhhh @aiolos, @kukutux, @kassuq, @massaraq, @arrluk, @kivaluk maybe?? :>> no obligation!

the view from where she sat had seemed grey. galana had remembered that much as she paced through the shadows, or rather he tombstones of her old connections. she wasn't sure who she was seeking, but they had to be in ouroboros spine. she couldn't decipher why exactly she had returned but here she stood. her mind drifted back to what had taken her from this lovely place; words of strangers, perhaps teachers had her tiny paws straying from moonglow far too early. the pretty shine of these individuals had only grown dull and scary as she matured. those who live by teeth will die by teeth, that much was made clear to her as thin lines of terror were engraved on her skin. 

youth and naivety made the unknown so bewitching. it was enough for her to leave home with these wolves; truly wild wolves, emotional and cruel beings. the cardinal was taught their ways and taken care of, but now it only made her feel foreign here. while galana had been ignorant to leave with them, she was not ignorant enough to stay with them.

how would her return be received? the thought riddled her with anxiety. her memory of family was a blurry thing, but it was remembered warmly. what else could she do but wander the wilds with a sickly body? when things became intense a longing had made its place in her chest, go home, just go home. home, i want to go home. please let me come home. it had spurred her back here with haste. galana did not know if she wished for the place, or those who inhabited it. something odd had lodged itself in her senses, a feeling she couldn't navigate.

Massaraq padded on the edges of the territory, and the scent caught his nose he thought he might be dreaming. A memory, barely that, a hope a wish perhaps more than what he could solidly place. And yet, playing outside with Kivaluk, snuggled warm in the den. Things lost to him now but he could remember them, perhaps better in memory and he followed recklessly the scent and then the sound and then the sight of fire and autumn and a cardinal's wings. And a cry rose up in his chest. Returned it said. Joy it promised. Hope it sang. Disbelief echoed.

He rushed up, and yet his senses did not deceive him -stranger things had been known to happen. "Sistraa!" He stopped short of her from a dead spring, partially wishing to embrace and yet not assuming he would be well received. A shadow settled evenly by his side as his silhouette stood still, a smile. "You've come back?" A question.

everything became unbearable when she looked massaraq in the eyes. she choked on her words at his question. her brother’s question served as a reminder that she was returning, that she had left. galana looked at him blankly, frozen, her senses jamming. here was a piece of home, looking right at her. 

❝oh,❞ It was only a breath, hardly a word. 

massaraq was not as small as he once was. her stomach twisted. just how much had she missed? his markings matured with him, his eyes, his voice.

❝massaraq, i-❞ she paused, trying to recall the question he’d only just asked. ❝yes, i have.❞

her voice was shaky, the tells of her anxiety and despair were crystal. 

❝i don’t know- i don’t…❞ her brows furrowed and her lips curled with distress, teeth flashing for a moment.

❝i don’t know how i could just-❞ galana paused, sighing. 

it was a pitiful attempt to rest the shaking bones within her.

❝i don’t know anything massaraq, no more than when i left. i just needed to come home.❞ her voice cracked at the last word. ❝i just needed to be here.❞

the world had been so cruel to her thus far. it had clicked while she’d been away that youth and reality were kept separate for a reason, even if only for a small time. moonglow had loved the young enough to protect them from reality, to guide them through it even. galana had left that and faced her own consequences. now all the girl wanted was that love, whether she had seen what it could have shielded her from or not.

Her uncertainty pierced through the darkness in him, he felt it as if it might shatter. So much he did not know, if she would stay, where she had been, what had stolen her away or whys he had gone, what had happened to her. But he could not address any of that. "All you need to do is be here." And he said it with a conviction he may not have felt, smooth solid words.

She wanted to be home, there would be time for questions for worries for promises later but all that he wanted to tell her now was the truth. "We missed you. Arrluk and I and everyone...we searched for you." You were not forgotten. He tenatively shuffled forward, leaning back on his two back legs to open his front two open for a hug, almost as if he were afraid she would flee or disappear into mist if he reached for her. But his eyes were bright, taking in how she too had grown into a new frame. A tremulous breath.

kassuq had not yet come back.

moonglow returned to ouroboros and her eyes often looked unseeingly in the direction of moonsong. her heart had torn for ariadne, but she knew the glacier would not welcome the mother who had shunned kigipigak.

her life resumed in small tasks but with renewed preparation for the camp of her own she meant to keep; this was something to which she looked forward, for it had been long years since the duck had been alone.

and this time it would be her choice, not one made for her by the force of falling rocks.

following massaraq's trail, kukutux only meant to visit the lake for water;

and then red. her mind filled with sakhmet and the pain of that disappearance.

but this was not her fire-starter woman; this was galana, the child born to them the same day as three brothers.

"sedna hold your heart," came her cry; she was being massaraq and her arms open to galana; "you have come home!"

the concept massaraq explained wrapped itself around her throat, a rock in her chest. she could just be. her ears flattened to her skull and her lip continued to tremble. the words he followed with pulled a strangled noise from her throat. a cry? it was a dejected, pathetic sound nonetheless. she moved to embrace him, hot tears slipping in suit of the whispered sobs. nuutuittuq had not failed her, her little piece of rest in the sky had brought her home.

as if her heart could be wrenched further more, it surely was. anaa? galana sniffled and pulled her head away to look at the moonwoman. her pinned ears rose in the slightest motion, staring at kukutux with glassy eyes. the pause in her cries was rendered insignificant once she moved to embrace her as well.

❝i'm sorry,❞ she whispered first, but continued to ramble it with abandon. ❝i'm sorry, i'm so sorry. so, so, so sorry, anaa.❞

Massaraq felt her embrace and his anaa's and for a moment the warmth was overwhelming, simply there and present. Another heartbeat and he thought it might be overwhelming almost stifling even though relief and joy burgeoned in hsi chest. But he remained there in the hug as long as he could beofre pulling away simply staring as if in disbelief.

sorry my semester started and things are a bit wild - skippable for the rest of the thread!

the girl cried; wept; kukutux was soft beside her son, wiping tears from the face she had loved since the first breath.

"you are home, you are home, you are home," she sang out. "there is no need to be sorry. sedna led you away. she has led you back."

rich food, deep furs, the sound of mother's-voice singing; she knew the girl would mend in the days to come, but for now only held galana close, singing many praises in her mind as she led them both up to her ulaq and its warm comfort.

last from me, unless you guys had anything else :)

the tears slowed to quiet hiccups and harsh breaths as she tried to calm herself. kukutux assured her that she did not need to be apologetic and the pressure in her chest eased. galana followed the moonwoman to her ulaq, shoulder to shoulder beside her brother. the touch serving a reminder that they were here, that she was here; she was home.