Dragoncrest Cliffs ti frè

referencing Jess's ooc note here

bastean! lafayette called out, pacing quickly, anxiously through the forest trails. 

the boy had disappeared shortly after mireille's death. the remaining members of sapphique had done their best to look after their younger kin, but there were enough gaps in their coverage that one had slipped away.

kote ou ye, frè mwen? he hollered. his voice was hoarse with overuse, and his throat burned as if he'd swallowed mouthfuls of saltwater. still, he persisted. bastean!

lafayette had picked up traces of the boy's scent outside the den, meandering a little ways before it abruptly. . .vanished. just as sobeille's scent had. was this another kidnapping? had the pirates somehow returned and stolen away at least part of their spoils?

bas—

something crunched strangely underpaw, and he stopped, picking up his forelimb and examining whatever lay beneath. a dark, oblong shape, like excrement, but without the smell. a tangled ball of fur, perhaps, but from what? 

he stooped lower to better examine the object, pulling it gently apart with his teeth. bits of bone—that was what had made the sound, perhaps—and further down, the top half of a tiny skull, half-cracked socket dark and empty. a squirrel's, maybe, or. . .

no, lafayette said aloud, horror clutching his throat, as something awful began to dawn on him. the tiny skull, and that fur—such a familiar color—

he tried and failed to call for his older sister, and instead turned aside and vomited, eyes streaming, chest heaving. bile on his tongue, the yearling began to slowly circle the object like one gone mad;

maybe he had.

It was Lafayette's calls which had drawn Lucette to him; she understood quickly that one of the children was missing, though she lacked her twin's urgency. It hardly mattered. Lucette wondered sometimes whether any of them would survive at all without their elders to guide them.

She found her brother circling something she didn't recognize. Panic was written all over him. Lucette brushed past him wordlessly, bending to inspect the torn pellet with her nose hovering over it. Deep beneath the scents of owl and feces, she recognized a note far too familiar.

He had found Bastean after all.

Venom-green eyes flicked from her brother to the soiled remains. After a moment she began to move, feeling as if she were underwater again; surreal, almost. Lucette pulled a broad leaf from a bush and wrapped the pellet in its soft green folds. She picked up the little bundle and started toward the sea. Only a single glance over her shoulder beckoned Lafayette to follow.

Bastean belonged to the sea. They all did. It was time to see him home.

once upon a time, they had been inseparable. the sea had nearly torn lafayette away, but she had rescued him.

to his utmost chagrin, he had not returned the favor.

and now, she was back, and he felt a chasm between them—but here lucette was, anyway, as if by instinct, in his time of grief. more practical than he had ever been, she began to bundle up what remained of bastean, preparing him for burial.

then, with the makeshift coffin gently clutched in her jaws, she began to walk away.

luce— lafayette started; it took a moment for him to shake away the numbness to follow. he caught up with stumbling steps, nose at her flank like a diligent servant. where you takin' 'im, lucette? i t'ink he could be buried by our manman—

she was headed for the graves, right?

Stilled by his words, Lucette turned with a quizzical look in her green eyes. She set the bundle down between her forepaws and set a paw atop it. You buried 'er? Lucette's voice was soft but razor-edged. Her eyes glinted in warning of the fire to come.

Maybe she didn't want to hear the answer.

Not Bastean, she snapped without waiting for Lafayette to speak at all. Not 'im. We belong to de sea.

Lucette snatched up the bundle again and turned, ears flat against her ruddy crown.

her question took him aback—did she not know? of course she didn't. she had been gone for val's death, for their manman. . . each laid to rest beside soto and so many other beloveds. 

in the ground. not in the sea. because sapphique had buried their loved ones, and how could she not know?

stop, lafayette told his sister firmly, planting himself in front of her, blocking her forward path. he needs to be wit' manman. i can show you de way.

there was a glint in his eyes much the same as hers.