Qeya River to die for

hurr hurr hurr hurr... only @Star Eater for now, pls.. tho dont take thread title too seriously ive just been watching a lot of TLK

he brought towards the river of their home, led by the sounds of splashing water. ghelan peered over the edge, watching the rushing waters distort his reflection. little droplets danced and reached for him. they could only touch his nose, but a rush of cold as rapid as the river ran through the young boy. like hell did it deter him though.

but a slap to the face does. eep! a yelp erupts from him, sending him galloping in a circle away from the waters edge. a fish flees the scene, mocking ghelan with hops above the water's surface. come get me! 

blocks of ice float by and interrupt his play. giggling, the boy leaped between ice block and ground, chasing after the trout that slapped him. the cold stung like needles, pricking him from head to toe, but the galloping boy didn't dwell on it. he would just run the cold off.

the boy's carefree laughter reached her ears, but it did little to ease the tight coil of worry that had already taken root in her stomach. her legs carried her faster than her thoughts, pregnancy’s weight pressing her paws into the frost as she hurried toward the edge.
ghelan! her voice rang out, sharp and edged with fear. the boy’s head whipped around at her call, his bounding pace faltering for just a moment. anxiety churned in her throat, nausea rising alongside it, though she forced herself to keep steady.
she began to pace along the edge, her sharp gaze tracking his movements as if to will him to safety. be careful! she urged, her tone dipping into something softer, pleading. the rush of the river’s current seemed louder now, the chunks of ice appearing sharper, more perilous than before.
star eater stopped abruptly, her legs bracing as if to leap forward should he slip. you’ll catch cold—! or worse, she called, her voice firm but warm, laced with the maternal concern she couldn’t suppress. the sight of his small frame against the mighty river’s backdrop sent a shiver through her that had nothing to do with the winter air.

running, prancing, jumping. he continued to do all of it, joining pace with the river while legs weave between ice and ground. the fish had long since outrun him, and ghelan couldn't care! the wind against his face, nimble only in this race against himself.

and yet he halts, frozen. for a moment, he could've sworn he heard her in the flurry when someone calls for him.
eyes find only keda — star eater now. she stands at the edge, anxious and worried, her round figure becoming smaller as he floats along a block of ice. his head dips, momentarily, but he continues his play at a slower pace. he was being careful, and he wouldn't catch a cold — it's cold all around them! he already had the sniffles.

i'll be fiiine. through a pout he grumbles. he can't ever get far enough on his own without her on his trail.

ghelan’s carefree leaps, the way he toyed with the rushing current, brought a sharp whine to her throat.
ghelan! she called, her voice strained, cracking at the edges. her distress echoed in the icy air as her steps carried her closer to the water’s edge, her eyes never leaving his small, daring form.
please, come back! the words spilled out in a desperate plea, her tone laden with worry. her tail lashed behind her, a helpless gesture as her heart thundered against her ribs. every leap he made sent a jolt of fear coursing through her, her instincts screaming louder than reason.
she whined again, her voice softer this time, imploring. it’s not safe! the edges of her paws brushed the snow-dusted ice, her stance taut as she fought the urge to plunge in after him.
the ice would continue to crack.

the boy only considered stopping when she whined, striking to any wolf. he nearly stumbled over himself to meet her eyes, and that was his mistake. red eyes that locked with hers, widen with horror as in the split second, the ice beneath his feet cracked. ghelan went plummeting in the frigid waters.

his head wasn't below for too long, he jumped from the waters, every muscle in his body tensed, and his hindleg aching. too shocked and to pained to even yelp, his jaw hung agape as the current swept the boy away.

but in those eyes, still wide, searched for star eater. he didn't need to scream to say what he wanted to her. instead, his lips just barely mouthed those words, trembling in the cold. help me.

his head fell below the waters again, after colliding with the first rock. the scarlet of blood didn't linger too long, in the rushing of the river.

panic crashes into her like a wave, sharp and merciless. no, no, no! her pacing halts only for a moment before she is flying toward the river’s edge, her breath coming in ragged bursts as she watches him struggle—watching as the cruel waters pull him further and further from her grasp.
her heart seizes. her body screams at her to dive in, to drag him from the current, to pull him to shore—but she knows the weight she carries, the life swelling beneath her ribs. she cannot throw herself into the river. but she cannot just stand there.
ghelan! her voice is raw as she tilts her head back, summoning every name that might answer her desperate call. @Ice Diver, @Ridgeback, @Sun Eater, @Blackfell, the words ring through the river, a command, a plea.
she cannot lose him!
her paws knead the frozen bank, pacing, searching for a way—any way—to reach him before it’s too late. she sees the blood, brief and fleeting, washed away by the torrent of the river.
hold on. she doesn’t know if he hears her, doesn’t know if her words reach him before the water swallows him again. but she will not leave him. she will not stop screaming for help.

open to all saatsine! Some tags just to get it rolling

Ridgeback- exhausted, but happy exhausted- spared Ice Diver a moment of solitude while he went to relieve himself and quench his thirst. His heart sung, even though heavy tiredness threatened to flatten him to the ground the moment he returned to his wife’s side. 

A sharp, shrill call made him jerk up his head. It came from upriver, Star Eater’s voice listed names so desperately that the Blood Hunter immediately forgot his thirst and tiredness and raced along the shore.

He saw Star Eater, followed her gaze- and sweeping toward him, bobbing in the water- pelt and limbs tossing end over end, a creature whose fight was against consciousness, not the current. The bank was slippery with ice, but it did not slow the wolfdog. 

His last bound from snowy ground to ice landed him square on the thin shelf, skidding several feet before he heard a crack- and pushed off, launching himself into the air just as the ice gave away. He plunged below the surface and the current toppled him end over end before he breached and gasped. 

Spluttering, jaw shaking, he fought against the swell to look for the wolf not swimming, but drowning. Dark, churning waters offered plenty of camouflage. To Star Eater, he shouted. Where? What way? Hoping for direction until he could spot the boy himself.

all is silent until there is a shrill shout. followed by more. screaming, frantic, for help. star eater's cries reach even him, who is closer to the outer skirts of the river, moving quietly amongst the herd as they grazed. the sudden squealing unnerved them, flanks twitching, eyes darting. some began a flee in the opposite direction. blackfell's head rises from where it'd been carried amongst his shoulders, and it is not long before he is bounding through the snowfall.

his paws muted thuds against the ice and snow. in the distance, he can see the commotion. star eater's frantic form pacing down the length after ridgeback, who has willingly or not willingly jumped into the vicious current—it doesn't matter to him which. the woman is shouting about the chieftain's son, and he can only assume the boy is somewhere beneath the frigid black waters. blackfell reaches her side first, shoving his head against her shoulder. get back!

her terror would see her falling through the thin sheet of ice next, and the chieftain's wife would get swept up next. and not even the gods could protect them from what slaughter sun eater might unleash if his eldest son and wife were consumed by the river.

he is turning around, powerful legs carrying him after ridgeback, his heart thumping wildly in the cage of his chest. he does not wait for any order the man might bark at him. he is faster above ground than ridgeback is fighting against the icy currents, and propels himself over the ice, careful to not slip and be consumed by the waters next. his head low, searching voraciously for any visible sight of the boy. then, there: ahead of him by several feet, he sees the momentary bob of a brown body upwards. truthfully, blackfell has zero fucking clue what to do. but it is with his desire to not see a boy die today that he acts and not his rational mind, sinking himself into the waters next when he reaches the drowning ghelan.

if he can manage to catch ghelan with his own body, surely he and ridgeback can haul the boy out of the waters. but that proposed the question: would they be able to get out?

"no!" 

his shout became a man's scream, a sound which he had never allowed to escape his lips before the saatsine, a sound he had only brought into existence once before.

spasming landscape; red leaf crouched crying for ghaden; gheli's dancing laughter, the tired radiance of her eyes as she showed that newborn son to his awestruck father; red leaf screaming for mercy in sharadoii while the lanzadoii band ignored her; ghaden, ghaden, ghaden, ghaden.

"ghelan! no!" woe betide anyone who might be caught in his way as sun eater lunged into the dark ice of that frozen water.

one of the hunters was within the waves as well, and ridgeback besides; all the chieftain could do was plunge himself beneath the surface again and again, until his eye burned shut with cold and a horrible cry of rage cracked against the grey light.

a pain struck his brow, sharpened by the cold bite of the river he was submerged in. even from just beneath the thin, thread-like surface, he couldn't hear but feel the commotion. star eater's cry for help was answered by three plunges into the river, their voices unrecognizable in the rushing current. ghelan tried to do his part too, but struggled to paddle back up. it was only when his side scraped skin against another of the jagged rocks that pain propelled ghelan further.

eyes heavy, swollen, they peak through small red crescents. gulping down the air, ghelan floated helplessly — forced to watch as ridgeback, a dark stranger, and father chased after him. in the short time spent submerged underneath the river, star eater had become a speck in the distance. to give the others a chance, drenched and tired arms of the boy would reach for whatever he could. an ice block that would've threatened to smack him in the head — it was too high up, and his arms slipped from it. a rock, too slippery. instead, it just cut ghelan along the wrist, another hissing pain aside the current wasn't enough of a toll.

panic had already ensnared him, it was frenzy now that drove ghelan to search for anything — anything — to be rescued. teeth snapped at any root hanging but they'd dried up of all their strength and ripped from the ground when he tried to, he'd begun to position himself against any rock to give himself a barrier, but he was too slow and the waters too fast. front legs tried to reach for the river banks, but despite all of the strength he'd built up nothing could ever compare to the sheer might of the river that even his father lay helpless to it.
ghelan could only watch as qeya river remained firm to keep him with her.

replied just to keep the ball rolling; the rest of saatsine is still welcome to join!

star eater did not move from the bank.
the cold of the river licked at her paws, seeping in, chilling her to the bone, but she stayed. she watched. the dark, roiling water swallowed them whole—ridgeback first, then blackfell, then her husband.
her heart thundered in her chest. she had seen death before. too much of it. but this—this was something else. this was the blood of her husband, her son. her stomach twisted.
that way, she told ridgeback, voice steadier than she felt, her muzzle pointing downriver, where the current hungrily pulled ghelan further from reach. she could see him, barely—a fleeting glimpse of brown against the black of the river.
and then sun eater’s scream split the air.
her breath hitched. she had never heard that sound from him, never imagined she would. there was a desperation there, raw and untamed, a father raging against the river that dared take his son.
her claws pressed into the frozen ground. she did not call after him. she knew it would be useless. instead, she prayed—not to gods, not to spirits, but to the river itself.
do not take him. do not take them.

His skin stung from the cold, and the cold air sucked in with each gasping breath felt as if it might freeze his windpipe. Cold plunges were Ice Diver’s sort of thing- not his. But thanks to his wife, he knew that the shock would pass so long as he kept calm. 

He let out a light yelp of surprise when Blackfell arrived and shouldered Star Eater back. He revealed his teeth with a silent grimace, though there was no time for him to correct the man for man-handling a pregnant woman, and the wife of the Chieftan no less. 

Blackfell ran downriver, but Ridgeback looked to Star Eater. Her shout directed him- and while it meant he would not have to fight against the current and wait for the soaked wolf to come to him, it did mean that he would have to race to catch them, before they slid beneath another shelf of ice. 

Wherever his feet could touch, he used the slippery rocks to pounce forward, and where the water was deep he paddled with strong kicks of his legs. Streams of powerful waters carried him downriver, lifting him and carrying him around unseen, underwater obstacles. 

He caught a glimpse of wet fur in the water, not far from where Blackfell jumped in. He did little more than flick an ear when he heard Sum Eater’s bellowing wail of anguish, or the sound of another body hitting the water. He focused only on shortening the distance between himself and the bobbing body, hoping that Blackfell might be able to stop it before it went too far.

blackfell moves through the water like a battering ram. freezing cold seizes his lungs, but he grits his teeth and fights the shock. his paws churn against the current as he surges forward. ghelan’s form bobs ahead—closer now.

too close to losing him. a quick prayer is said to his god not to take the boy.

he growls against the black currents, frustration bubbling in his chest as he pushes harder. the river is a beast in itself, dragging, pulling—

reach for me, boy! his voice is half drowned by the waters of the river.

he sees a foreleg rise from the waters, nails reaching for whatever they might; be it ice, water, rock, root, bank. but it is blackfell he finds, who reaches for the arm with his bared teeth, rescuing him in a crushing grip. it is the only way to extinguish the distance that pulls between them—a wound can be tended, but the water shows no mercy for any of them yet. his grip is tight but not crushing. the both of them heavy with water, and once blackfell pulls him in, he swaps teeth from leg to scruff, hauling him upwards so that blackfell might instead be the one drowning beneath the currents.

just enough to keep his head above the rushing current.

let him breath.

he twists himself and ghelan toward ridgeback, and sun eater who claws through the water behind, crimson eyes flashing with hindered emotion. before his head is taken by the turbulent currents.

i think it goes ghelan > star eater > ridgeback > blackfell > sun eater

ghelan was ripped from every grasp he tried to make.

ridgeback and blackfell lunged ahead; he heard the shout of the latter and it galvanized him from his freezing shout.

not until he had glanced to star eater there on the bank; she was red leaf; morwenna; star eater;

he blinked and heaved and leapt back into the water, swimming powerfully to join the two hunters, just as ghelan was lifted and blackfell was swallowed by the current.

he wrenched his arm to one stone; he plunged the other toward ghelan first.

yesss that seems right. last one from me, feel free to vague PP, presume hes passed out from shock.. also whenever anyone can i would like him added back to the ranks plzzzz sorry my gf took priority over wolf replies and he dropped.

the frigid waters had become to take its toll on the boy. his eyes yearned to close, body wearied by the river's rage. darkness fogged his sight and mind, only persevering by the roaring tides and the shouts of blackfell. he reached for whomever that called him, and let himself be taken. when he was finally toppled over the river's brink, the boy gasped for air, shivering helplessly, clumps of snow clinging to drenched and cold fur. ghelan's body shook, and his breathing slowed.

i think i'll sleep for a little while.

no amulet clung to his neck anymore.

bring him to me!
star eater's voice cut through the howling wind, sharp and unyielding. she paced at the river’s edge, her breath thick in the freezing air, silver eyes locked onto the figures fighting against the current.
blackfell, ridgeback, sun eater—her husband. they were in the water, battling against the river’s grip, dragging ghelan from the abyss that sought to swallow him whole.
when he finally tumbled onto the ice, his small body shivering, his fur clumped with snow and frozen water, she did not hesitate. her muscles coiled, her body taut with restraint, but she did not step forward—not yet.
hurry! urgency laced her voice, but not panic. she would not let herself panic. not when he still needed her.