Larksong Grotto the bazaar of bad dreams

@Hiram maybe? also open to @Indra & @Laurel

reek had returned, and what was more, jhala had come into her season. vuk was not so stupid as to believe that the cult-follower would resist the siren call of a willing female, and she berated him inwardly for his hypocrisy. and beneath her anger, there was the raw, open wound of rejection, of his betrayal, of all that he had said to her before he had departed.

but come back he had, and with children in tow -- so she assumed. the woman, who had not slept for days since seff had gone missing, made her bedraggled way toward the grotto, outside which he paused before singing a single note. her pelt was unkempt and her ribs visible; she needed desperately the distraction of reek's children, but hoped she would not see jhala.

not now.

not when the woman knew she herself had loved hiram.

I may have too many threads, but I need me a up to date Vuk thread! :p

Having finally returned to the grotto, Hiram found his life full of distraction. His daughters had been a handful, and Jhala -- Jhala had been another story entirely. He had not strayed far from his cavern, but it was mostly out of caution. His watchful eye remained constant on his daughters in the hopes that his adult supervision would keep them out of trouble. Nevertheless, no matter how hard he tried, he was sure his daughters (especially Laurel) would find some way to stir up trouble.

For a moment, he took his eyes off his children as hunger called. He departed the grotto and set off toward the cache, but as he walked his eyes fell on Vuk. He quickly averted his gaze, looking down. From what he had seen, she looked thin and stricken with some unknown ailment. Without looking her in the eye, Hiram neared.

"What's wrong?" He asked with concern evident in the tone of his voice.

Laurel was settling in at Larksong Grotto, having oogled her eyes out throughout the entire journey here and her first days in the new territory. She was pretty bored, though — it wasn't easy to keep Laurel entertained, and she was quickly finding herself demanding every moment of Reek's attention. And so when she awoke from one of her naps, Laurel snapped awake and looked about her to find her father gone — how dare he!

And so she set off after him, finding him with a raggedy-looking strange female. Her markings were funny and she looked both ragged in fur and underfed. Not sure what to even rip on first, Laurel approached Reek and bumped her head against his leg in a demand of attention before loudly addressing the female with: "Why are you ugly?"

same! :D

indra was exhausted, having depleted most of her strength in the journey and later, in tailing laurel. her sister was so energetic, so motivated -- and all indra wanted to do was sleep.

wearily she rose from the cold den as she heard laurel depart, and with a yawn she rose and trotted sleepily after her sister. not quite awake yet, and not quite asleep, it was all indra could do to prevent herself tripping when the terrain dipped out from under her. as she saw laurel headed towards reek and a stranger her heart sank, though she timidly continued her course. she averted her gaze from the woman who was unfortunate enough to receive the brunt of laurel's scrunity, though inwardly she thought the woman a pale and uniquely marked beauty.

hiram.

vuk was not prepared for the way her heart was sliced in two pieces by the appearance of his face, nor how it tormented her to watch the man refuse to look her in the eye. she imagined she could catch the scent of jhala on his coat, and her gorge rose with a grief-stricked nausea. "s-seff is g-gone," came her hoarse voice, clipped with her desire to say no more on the subject.

he was gone, lost while hiram chased phantoms and came home to betray her.

vuk did not lift her eyes to hiram, but turned them upon first one girl, and then the other that emerged behind their father. the piping words were hurtful; vuk bit the inside of her jaw but smiled all the same. "it's b-been a l-long w-week," the woman murmured. "m-my n-name is vuk."

what are yours? her gaze silently inquired.

The children followed. Hiram had no problem with them accompanying him wherever he went. In fact, he enjoyed all the time he spent with them. And gosh, they were just so adorable when they kept their tiny mouths shut. But, kids tended to say the darnedest things -- so, when Laurel opened her mouth to speak, Hiram was completely mortified. His eyes shot wide and his mouth hung agape.

He shook off the shock and bent down to Laurel's level. Calmly, he set out to remedy this behavior with a quick aside. "Laurel," he whispered. "A princess should speak to her subjects with respect and dignity." He smiled. "I promise that respect will be returned. This woman is both beautiful and kind, and I'd like you to apologize to her."  

It was clear that Vuk had been through some trauma, even if he couldn't look her in the eye. Hiram turned his eyes back to the woman as she spoke. Her words gave him yet another shock. Seff was gone. He felt absolutely gutted that the child had disappeared while he had been gone. As the cardinal, it was his job to protect his flock... and in that, he had failed.

And so, he blamed himself.

"When did you see him last? Where?" He asked. The boy was one he cared deeply for, so of course, Hiram would organize a search for him -- but he needed whatever information Vuk had before he could begin.

Laurel looked at the instable-looking female, who said she had had a tough week. Meanwhile, Indra had arrived and earned a bump of the nose to her cheek from her sister before attention was turned back to Reek and the female once more. Reek said that she should treat her subjects with dignity and respect, and Laurel let out a 'tch' gasp of indignance at the request. "I was just being honest!" she retorted in response to the request, clearly not intending to apologise to anyone anytime soon. She'd totally forgotten to introduce herself and Indra in the meantime, lost in Reek's request for apologies.

As they talked about someone named Seff, Laurel squinted her eyes and asked, "Who's Seff?" The woman had mentioned the name before, saying they were gone, but who were they anyway, and where'd they gone? And why was anyone caring more about this than her?

this will be my last post with indra; feel free to PP her for a conclusion. she'd just be holding up the show!

indra was glad laurel possessed the tenacity she lacked; and in many ways, glad the tawny child never missed a moment to let the world know of her concerns. she swept her gaze to vuk, and then to reek and back to laurel -- she was not sure how he or the woman would take laurel's cheekiness. her eyes widened as laurel did not apologize; and as if possessed by laurel's lack of recticence or remose, refused to meet the eyes of either adults for fear the potential backlash would come down on her head as well.

she sat behind laurel, no more disruptive than an idly placed plant. she wanted to know who 'seff' was too!

ignoring her tone, hiram began to pepper vuk with questions, and irritation prickled at her nape. she did not want to speak to him, least of all regarding seff, who should have been beneath his protection. vuk blamed only herself for seff's disappearance, but how dare hiram address her as if he had not returned to break her heart, calling her beautiful even when ...

"h-hiram," she murmured in a firmer tone, meeting his eyes with an expression that said plainly she did not wish to discuss her son. he could force her into it, she supposed, dominate her before his daughters, but vuk did not think he would. pulling her eyes away from the dark man, she smiled again. 

"l-laurel. t-that is p-pretty." the other little girl seemed to hide behind her sister and vuk gave a low sound of invitation toward them both. "y-your s-sister is s-shy," vuk murmured to laurel, hoping to glean another name.

I am so SO SO sorry for the hold up on this.

Hiram truly thought all those things of Vuk. He loved her, dearly so. Yet her heart was something he could never have. Nor was it some thing he believed he could win. She belonged to Terich through and through, Hiram knew this and had cast his selfish desires aside in taking Jhala as his mate. Yet still, it pained him to be so harshly reprimanded by Vuk. All it took was a word. His name.

Hiram's ears fell flat against his skull and he turned 20 shades of silent.

As per usual, nobody was answering any of Laurel's questions. Lame! The weird quiet lady called her name pretty though, distracting her from the big question -- 'who is Seff' -- and she looked over her shoulder at Indra at the question. "Indra's not shy," she said, "She just doesn't always have to talk." Reek seemed to be doing the same as Indra, and suddenly a weird silence fell across them all.

"Come on Reek, let's go do something fun," she half-suggested, half-demanded of her father, and she nosed Reek and Indra both. She looked at Vuk conspirationally and said, "I'll find out who Seff is," as if it was a giant secret that she would pull out of her father sooner or later, some way or the other. Then she bounded off, taking Indra with her and hoping that Reek would follow soon.

my last post!

last for me also!

hiram's ears fell back but vuk fought the urge not to look at him, focusing instead on the girls. indra. laurel. lovely names. vuk would have said more, but an odd hush fell over the quartet of wolves and she lost her nerve, quailing beneath the pressure of their eyes. yet in the next moment, the girls bounded away, intending to discover who seff was, and vuk was left alone with hiram.

a lull passed before her turquoise eyes met his own, and she straightened. "it is g-good that y-you are h-home," the patchwork wolfess said quietly. she turned then to slip away before hiram could address her, small paws carrying her in the direction of the den she shared with terich.