Dragoncrest Cliffs dlo cho

nausea was an early sign, but mireille knew she must wait some weeks to know. sapphique was terribly silent; it would be a long while before children filled the forests and cliffside once more. she herself took to toning her body in the frigid water, breaking ice where she wished to swim and surfacing elsewhere.
today she drifted softly toward sea, bobbing in the surf as if she were a spot of blood.

@Pepper whenever <3

Cold. His paws protested every step. His pads often bled after stepping on shards of shells, though he never felt it. He found himself stumbling, too. Forgetting how to walk. Forgetting how walking should feel. 

If he lasted through winter, he hoped the feeling would return. Hunting was out of the question, and he was tired of fish. 

He was careful navigating the rocky hillside down to the sea, and careful there too of the knife-like ocean debris. One might argue that not feeling pain was a superpower. But infection didn’t ask to be felt. 

He’d not spoken to Mireille much lately. Not since he’d choked out condolences for her fallen mate. nothing more than the occasional passing greeting, or an unenthusiastic “mornin’.” 

Maybe he should’ve been more available, but his reservoir of emotional support had long been spent on himself. 

He was pleased to see her, though. Even if it raised the question of what the fuck she was doing in the water. 

”Ain’t you cold?” he asked, voice raised enough to pierce the droning ocean’s surface.

"pepper." sirensbody shifted in the ice-gray lapping, and she pushed aside shards of frozen white to better see his face. "i be very cold. but each time i go out like dis, i bear it better."
a twirl in the waves. she went beneath and bobbed up closer to the sandstone. "you should have seen my maman. i do not believe she ever went a day wit'out being in de water. rain, storm, ice, lightnin'. whole, injured, pregnant." her face was streaming, the emerald eyes earnest. "i cannot do less den she."
oh, val. he would not be father to these she carried. he would not even be there to see them grow. a great horrible ache crawled inside her marrow and waited.

He raised a brow, then stood. He stepped toward her, paws placed just at the lapping water’s edge. He lowered his face, letting his nose touch the water. He withdrew quickly. The internal debate on whether he’d join her ended there. Maybe learning to endure it would benefit Mireille, but Pepper couldn’t see the point for now. 

But her words worried him. Not that it was his place to be worried. 

He knew in the wake of his own loss, doing more than the bare minimum was a lot to ask. He couldn’t imagine pushing himself at a time like this. He couldn’t see why she wanted to. 

”Tell me about her,” he asked. He knew little of the pack’s history, embarrassingly. Not enough for the length of his residency. 

He’d ask about this instead. Something surface level, because he worried what he might find if he poked deeper. And it wasn’t his place to do so.

"erzulie was a warrior. she fought for dis place. she fell in love wid a pirate woman, my maman rosalyn. de coas' belonged to dem and they built sapphique over generations."
her voice grew misted. pensive. "she died fighting a bear who came after us. poisoned herself to sicken it. it be why she wasnae buried beside de others."
a great breath. mireille did not allow herself to weep.
"i stand in her shade, not her shadow."
a small wan look crossed her face. "an' you, pepper? what was your mot'er like?" she wanted to hear tales of women stronger than her, for so small she felt in this moment.

He’d seen the gravesite. More than he wanted to, recently. And he had wondered about that grave, but he hadn’t asked. He figured there had been enough conversation of death. 

But it made sense, now. He’d wish death by bear only on his father. For someone to willingly undertake such a horrible death for the good of others was commendable, putting it lightly. 

But his thought was broken when she asked of his own mother. He didn’t remember. She was pretty. Small. She never spoke. And then he grew up. He saw her less and less, then never again. His father never spoke of her. 

”She was..um..” he trailed off. His vision had become clouded. He blinked. ”I..don’t remember much about her.” 

He should remember his own mother.

"a pity," mireille said, and meant it. "mo'ters be de foundation of sapphique. eternal. long-standin'. forever." but she did not judge him; her dripping paw raised to brush his shoulder and the obsidian at last pulled from the waves and trembled momentarily on the shoreline.
fatigue; a great rush of it pulled and tugged at mireille.
"but if you donnae remember her, maybe t'ere be a reason for it. sometimes de ocean — hides t'ings. perhaps those we shouldnae know or couldnae understand."
her breath colored mist in the saltwrapped air. "learn to sit beside her, even if you cannae yet abide her arms," she encouraged, a joke and an affection held there.

He wanted to feel remorse for not knowing her. And he had, in the past. But it wasn't anything he did--or could have done. 

Her paw was cold. Even through his thick coat, he could feel the icy water permeate. But the gesture was warm. He offered a flicking tail, but his expression remained unsure. 

He'd spent plenty of time searching for a reason, or creating one for peace of mind, and every time landing on the reasoning that his father was an ass. Nothing else seemed to make sense. 

But he could sit. He could do that well enough without subjecting his body to the crude pain of ice beneath his fur. Maybe in the spring. 

"When it's warmer," he assured her. He truly did want to resume lessons. 

But he was cold now--the parts of him that could still feel cold, and he could only imagine the Obsidian was damn-near frozen, too. 

"I caught some fish earlier. If yer hungry. An' you should get out of the wind until ya dry off.. so ya don't get sick."

mireille arched a brow, but it was pleasant to be thought of, especially under the circumstances. it would have been val there, nurturing; but it was pepper now, and mireille found herself touched with a low gratitude for this continuation of care.
"i will eat," she murmured, and shook more water from her fur. "i could not afford to be sick now."
he was a man of years; surely he knew why she and chacal had gone off, and perhaps even sobeille and chani besides.
sobeille; her heart hurt. "we must continue to look for my daughter," she instructed, falling into step beside pepper. "i still donnae think she would have traveled without a word." but had they not all done so?

No one could afford to be sick now. Without Phobos, they were at a huge disadvantage with any injury. 

As they walked, he flicked a greyed ear in her direction. With all of the death surrounding Sapphique, Pepper had come to his own conclusion about the whereabouts of the girl, though he'd never share that with Mireille. And he'd continue to search. If anything, it gave him something to do to feel useful. 

He had a feeling her disappearance was related to the death of his mate, but nothing to base it on other than a feeling. 

"Ain't stopped," he assured her. "An' I don't think she woulda, either."

Of course, he didn't know her as well as Mireille did. But he knew the wolf to be headstrong. Not stupid. She would've told someone. 

"You don't think she ran off with some male, do ya?"

the idea was so laughable that mireille had to keep from scoffing. "not sobeille. coming home pregnant, quite possible. wid a man? it would not be at all likely." the daughters of their saltwater world were not taught to seek husbands. they were not needed for child-rearing.
had pepper not lost his own?
her heart went to him now, angered by her own uncharitability. "will you have lunch wid me, pepper? i donnae think i want to be alone again, not now." their companionship; she took comfort in it.

He figured as much. But he very clearly recalled being rebellious in his youth. Granted, the bag of dicks he called his father warranted rebelling. Mireille and Val? No, not really. 

Still, he figured all options should be considered, and that happened to be one of the options, even if unlikely. 

He'd grown hungry himself and was pleased with her invitation. He'd rather not be alone, either. 

"'Course," he replied. He wanted to add more, to let her know that she should feel free to request his companionship whenever she needed. But it felt redundant. And he believed she would not enjoy him taking pity on her, even given the circumstance. 

"I haven't sat down with anyone for a meal in a long time."

that surprised mireille, but she supposed their pack had been rather small for some time. "wait some mont's. den you will never be alone for a meal," she joked, thinking of how this lull was only momentary.
once more would the grandchildren of erzulie and rosalyn  fill the seacliffs with their laughter, anoint the blackpine and the bay with new generational joy.
it was a good thought. pepper had spoken of warmth to be had and fish to eat; mireille moved lightly down the path into the heart of sapphique, but glanced to the man, wondering where he had placed his cache.

He hoped she was right. He always thought himself to enjoy solidarity, but it just wasn’t true. Not like he originally thought. Not when the options for companionship were worth having as companions. 

He had just been walking alongside her, maybe deep in thought..maybe focused on staying upright. Certainly not thinking about their reason for coming here until her glance reminded him. 

Right, food. He’d stashed it out near his den, under a thin layer of dirt to mask the smell. It was too overbearing otherwise. 

”Ill go grab ‘em,” he stated, offering her a moment to get comfortable..whatever that looked like in the stone-walled common area. 

He returned with two adult bass, decently fresh thanks to the ice that had rendered them mostly solid. 

He set them both down, then picked up the larger of the two and set it in front of her. 

“Caught ‘em this mornin’,” he said, offering a swish of his tail. It felt nice to be proud of something again.

can fade or keep going! <3

two fish, ice-cold down to their glittering scales. "well done, pepper," mireille purled, letting her eyes fill with a smile as well.
the sandstone had the attention of sapphique's dominant women. with such aplomb came favors, and mireille considered that he could have been a choice.
then again, would he have wished to be?
"tell me about your fishin' technique," the obsidian invited instead when her palate surged with the flavor of fresh-caught seafood. "maybe we can compare."
a companion, then, and she aimed to be one in turn.

The wolf, though proud, was sheepish at her compliment, choosing to quickly bury his head in his own meal to give his mouth Something to do other than grin like an idiot. 

But his tail’s wagging picked up when she asked about his technique. It brought pleasant memories of when he’d shown Val. Even though their efforts hadn’t been successful, and even if the black wolf’s nose ended up worse for wear, Pepper held that memory fondly. 

”I use bugs, if I can find ‘em. Sometimes they fall in the water and fish come up to get ‘em..so I just kinda speed that process along. Crickets are easy enough to snag, and won’t go anywhere if ya take the big legs off.” 

Centipedes, he’d learned, were not as effective. Or maybe simply too aggressive with a penchant for wolf snoots. Pepper and the hundred-legged creatures were similar in that respect. 

good to fade :D