Boartusk Heights Some might say "euphoric", no, there's really no words for it

He had made it through the mountains, by some stroke of luck, and had cross the sweeping flatlands only to be met with...
... more mountains.

Like a guy couldn't get a break around here. Oh well. At least these ones proved less out to kill him than those other ones had. That had been a mistake - and every time he neared a rise, his breath hitched as he prepared for the angst of finding some obscure and inconvenient pack snuggled up quaint in some valley or vale - politely in the way of his travel. But the worry began to ease, and turn entirely, the more times he was met with only a continual sea of stone.

He really found nothing much here other than the occasional trail of boars. He didn't have the manpower to hunt, so he ignored them (despite his watering mouth) and soldiered on with a growing edge to see what lay in the unseeable beyond. It was a feeling he didn't feel very often anymore - a jittering in his step and the crooked turn of mouth. The sun shone bright above him, but the air blew cool against his warming back. Yeah. The day was good, and he felt it.

I'm absolutely stealing this???
Dated before this thread in personal timeline.

Coming home from seeing Siarut was a mess she was ill prepared for — she had to cross a never-ending assload of mountains, and as the sun began to rise it was becoming kind of a chore.  The breeze was nice, at least — something to look forward to in this godforsaken place.

At least soon she would be home, and then she could get back to doing less physically taxing work, like border marking or, well, hmm.  Anything was less taxing than climbing a fucking mountain range — twice!

She carried on, the thought of some clandestine pack was very far from her mind, but subconsciously she found herself following something familiar and it wasn't the Redhawks.  Once she realized what it was her pace quickened until the silhouette of none other than Tuathal came into view.  Hey! 

<333 I was hoping you would be the one to join! Sorry for sir grumpface lol

 

Aaaand pop - out fizzled that euphoria.

Tuathal didn't need to turn around; he'd spent a near two years with that voice, and could picture her wildfire fur well enough without turning to look. The Blackthorn considered not stopping at all, and for a hot second he did just that - seizing up his shoulders and powering on. She was the last thing he wanted to see right now - well, wasn't she?

Well, yeah, he hadn't left his family to have them follow him - he'd left to get away. But her voice seemed to rattle something in the cavity of his chest that simply didn't let him walk away. Because that voice - it made his blood run with longing that he didn't need right now, and damn, he missed her. And didn't all the same, but the missing was stronger and a few paces through his attempt at ignoring, he sighed and skid his lanky legs to a stop.

"Ceara," his voice ran void of any particular emotion (perhaps a little gruff), but he figured he'd at least found someone who knew him well enough to understand he wasn't out to grab their face and kill it just because he didn't sound like the pinnacle of a rainbow. He passed a sidelong glance over his shoulder to better catch her approach.

(rubs my little hands together) i love it

She liked to think of herself as a powerful, emotionless void — she would have liked to pretend that watching him recognize her voice and keep walking didn't cut her.

But it hurt, it hurt, it hurt.  Her legs rattled underneath her small frame and her jaw tightened as she gritted her teeth.  She would not cry.  She didn't realize she was holding her breath until he turned his head over his shoulder and that sunflash gaze raked over the variegated wildfire hues of her pelt.

Tuathal, she returned.  She tried to keep her voice stiff but it quivered.  She forced her breath through her teeth and straightened her posture and made no attempt to move closer or apprehend him.

Turn around.  Turn around, please.

He turned around.

Much like his sister, Tuathal liked to pretend he felt very little, but the quiver in her voice - it caught him. When he had been young he'd worn a tender heart on his sleeve, but things were different now. They had to be. If he could feel nothing, then maybe he could prove that he was strong. That he wasn't some sensitive scrap the world would eat the moment he stepped out from beneath his family's arching wings.

He'd long torn his heart from the fabric of his sleeve - only to find it still beating in his chest.

"Ceara," he repeated, and this time, a sliver of uncertainty tested through his breath. For as much as he wished his heart would turn cold, it really did hurt him to think he'd hurt her. "Did mom and dad send you?" To find me? his guarded words implied. He could remember the gist of the fiery argument he'd had with his parents the night he'd disappeared. He reckoned the entire Clan knew of their disapproval, but could really only guess. He had stormed out of there with a temper raging, and had run - something they hadn't expected him to do - until the scent of Blackthorn faded with his parent's distant calls.

He hadn't even been able to say goodbye - not even to Ceara - and he didn't realize how much he regretted that until now.

No.  She had left after him, but for similar reasons — to prove herself, to find her own.  After he had left she'd had no reason to stay with the Blackthorn clan anyway.  I went out on my own.  Stayed somewhere else for a while.  I just got here.  I didn't —  intend on finding you so soon.  —know.  I didn't know you were here.

She hated to her core how weak she sounded in this moment, but this was her Tuathal, and surely he would understand.  Where are you headed?

He wondered why. Why she had left - was it because of him? But she didn't give a reason. Only that she had, and on her own volition, and that was it. But he wanted more - he wanted to be the reason someone did something for once - the reason Ceara had. But the thought was so distant, and anyway, who was he kidding? This was Ceara. She had always been determined, and he would've been more surprised if his leave was why she'd left, than if her reasons were the same as everyone else's, and had nothing to do with him.

But the suspicion was there, along with a hitch in her voice that made him curious, and Tuathal covered a step toward her with ears piqued, to close some of their distance. But his sister's question caught him off guard, and he blinked, paused in his advance, and coughed. "A-ah, well - you know. Here, there, everywhere." What was he even looking for? "Thought there might be something interesting over these mountains. A pack, I guess. Somewhere to, I dunno. Start over." He gave a shrug, like the meaning to those words weren't really there, but he felt their weight regardless. "You could always - well - I mean, you going somewhere?"

He stepped towards her and her breath hitched again.  She wasn't ready to face him, to feel this — whatever she was feeling.  She resented him for not saying goodbye, but she understood him, too.  Most of all, she had missed him.  There is a pack over the mountains.  It's where I'm staying for now.  Her whiskers twitched, and she pulled herself to his side.  It's full of Blackthorns, but none of the ones we knew.  Do you want to come with me?  Walk me home?  Stay?

More Blackthorns?

His jaw tightened, and the only thing that honestly kept him from just nope-ing out and heading back the way he came was, well - her. There was something different about her - just, really in her voice. Her words. A fragility. Frankly, it was weird, and he shifted with the discomfort of the position he found himself in. If she was vulnerable, and she was showing that - surely that meant something. He knew how that felt - and he knew well as ever he didn't want to be the one to break her. She meant too much.

Tuathal's ears fell askew and he found his eyes narrowed. Okay. Fine. He'd come. Of course he wanted to, for her - but - "You're sure no one there knows us?" He had to ask, double check, make sure his sister wasn't just making a hasty remark just to get him to say yes. Not all Blackthorns were bad, after all. Just some. "I can't be Tadpole again."

She nodded.  Even though Ceara could be a liar (and probably would have made a hasty remark had the situation required), she was telling the genuine truth.  They're all like, way older.  I've met um, a Finley, a Colt, and a Lynx.  She went over them in her head, making sure she had their names right.  Lynx won't go by her given name, and the place is mostly Redhawks anyway.  

Wanting him to stay was probably wishful thinking, but she began to head down the mountain anyway.  So, what trouble have you been getting into?

He snorted. There couldn't be just three. This part of the world seemed jacked with some whacked-out Blackthorn magnetic pull, and who's to say there weren't more just lurking in the shadows, rubbing their spontaneous little paws together for the best moment to pop up and make some grandiose reveal? That seemed a Blackthorny thing to do. They simply didn't come in small, quiet numbers.

But at least the ones Ceara listed only formed a blank canvas in his mind. They all sounded familiar enough, probably from stories their parents had told, but he couldn't put a face to any. He must've been too young when they'd left. Lynx, Colt - those were nicknames for sure, and he felt a glow of jealousy. Why couldn't his parents have taken a second longer to think of something like that for him?

At the end of things, he would just have to trust Ceara on this.

Tuathal followed his sister as he recalled the collective misadventures of the North. Trouble put it lightly. "Everyone I meet thinks I'm out to bite their heads off, so that's something. I mean, I know I'm not that smooth around the edges, but c'mon. If you slink up on someone without saying anything, or poke someone when they clearly can't see who's poking them, what do think they're gonna do? Blow you rainbow kisses and frolick through the woods?" He snorted a laugh, but his brow furrowed. He remembered too clearly the fear written on Adeline and Larkspur's faces when he'd snapped at their approach. The thought still left his tongue tasting bitter. He wanted respect, but he didn't want that.

Given her brother's sharp demeanor, she wasn't really surprised that everyone thought he was out for blood... but really, once you got to know him, he wasn't too bad.  Or at least she thought so, anyway.  But what he told her was surprising and at least a little bit concerning.  Dude.  So they just came up behind you and... she gave a vague, open gesture that signified she knew what he meant but she was so utterly bewildered by it she couldn't quite place any words.  

That's lame.  She snorted, rolled her eyes.  But is that all?  She kind of hoped it was the only trouble he'd run into.  I haven't really had much trouble, but I have met a lot of interesting folks.  Glad I left home.

Tuathal would not approve of a single one of those interesting folks, so she left that as it was.... even if she really did kind of want to share it with him.

"Well, not exactly - " but he found himself laughing, and didn't think it was all that important to correct his words. "But I know, right?" Lame was what it was. Ceara got what he was saying, and her validation was all he needed right now.  At least she was on his side, with an opinion that really mattered.

He scoffed at her remark. "Got a bounty on my head, and a pack after my tail, but yeah, that's all." Of course he'd been staying out of trouble - intentional, at least, and Tuathal aimed to flick his tail against his sister's hip to accentuate his jest. "I don't go looking for trouble, you know. It just... sort of likes to find me."

He was glad to hear she'd been keeping safe, but at her mention of *cough* interesting people he felt his brow raise and his gaze slip curiously towards her. "Oh?" The way she paired her denial of trouble with them didn't sit comfortably in his head, and after a pause he asked, "What made these folk so interesting?"

W A I T

Waitno, back up.  You've got an entire pack coming after you?  So did they like, need to move faster??? Were they going to get like, jumped and killed?  Details, man!  Soo like, did you catch any important details?  Like, a pack name, or whatever?

Oh yeah, and she was taking him home with her.  Cue eye roll — he couldn't have told her this before?  Now she had to try to convince the Redhawks to house a fugitive... not that they had to know.

Unless he was joking with her and she was mistaken for just taking him at face value.

Mhmm, I know how it is.  The look she gave him was something between incredibly unamused and playful.  She couldn't really be mad at him for it.  Nothing.  They're just.  Cool.  Time to do a looot of backtracking.  Like, the alpha.  She doesn't like.. rule with an iron fist or anything?  She's really nice.  She rolled her shoulders.  Colt reminds me of us.

Definitely not boys.  Nope.

Wait, Ceara actually believed him? "I'm kidding, you dingus." He aimed to bump his shoulder against her's, but her misunderstanding made him realize - again - that he still had a long way to go in learning how to properly toe the line between serious and sarcasm. The closest he'd gotten to aggravating any pack was probably Tindome, but even then he hadn't been trespassing, and they hadn't been much of a pack. A man and his pregnant wife? Surely they had more pressing business to attend to, rather than trailing a harmless loiterer all the way across the wilds.

He stuck out his tongue in a playful quirk. Trouble would always find him, but he hoped it'd stay well away from her. Ceara's answers made sense, and Tuathal took them at face value. If Colt was anything like them, surely trouble would be stirring right behind him, too - hopefully only of the benign kind. "Bacana," he offered her one of her silly slang (assuming he knows her slang??), and flicked his ear, the word still tasting funny on his tongue, "Well, at least one of us is having luck with the folk down here. You'll introduce me, right?" He played it cool, but his nerves wrung with his final syllable. Provided they'd even let him in. Provided his sister even wanted him to stay. She'd only really asked him to walk her home - and that usually entailed leaving once his duty was done.

H a h a.  Now she felt like an idiot.  Her bottom lip swelled to a pout, ears turned back as they heated.  Maybe don't fuck with her like that?  I mean, she hadn't seen him in... however long, was it really out of the realm of possibility for an entire pack to be on his ass?  

She couldn't stay mad for long.  Stray doesn't think Tua would know much if any of her slang if they hadn't met up since he had left, but you know what?  Whatever.  She hip-checked him, lip raised in a smirk.  Duh.

Ceara desperately wanted Tuathal to stay, but she didn't want to push him, or have an argument with him about it.  She didn't want to do anything that could possibly ruin this.  Raven seems nice, I think she might let you meet some of the family, even.. if you don't... stay?

Subtle.

A smile tugged at his lips, quirking them ever so slightly up when she checked against him, and he returned the favour with a jostle of his own, in the expected brother-like fashion. How he'd gone from riding solo to potentially meeting his sister's new entire family flew well over his head, but he didn't complain. Ceara found them worthy of sticking around and working for, and that meant something.

But was he actually ready to do that himself? Of course he was; he'd always been ready - but didn't he leave the Clan to get away from the Blackthorns? Of course he did - but Ceara. Did she want him to stay? He thought so - but her words still left him with a taste of doubt. "I'd dig that." His lips still quirked in a smile, even as he sought to make his next words as gentle as a kid like him knew how, "Don't know if I'll stay or not. Or if your pack'll even want a rangy thing like me. I think I just need to think a few things through before I decide anything like that. But I'll be around." And he watched her from the corner of his eye, gauging her reaction. How she responded would sway his decision perhaps even more than Ceara knew.

She was toeing a fine line between desperation and relief.  At least he would stay close, even if he didn't stay right with her, and that was... enough.  Even if she wanted him to stay with her, it was enough.  She breathed out, caught herself.  Would you really?  She knew he had left to get away from the family, and he seemed perfectly fine at the prospect of meeting them.  Maybe because these guys wouldn't call him Tadpole.

Yeah.  That would be nice.  I mean.. I didn't want you to leave.  I understood it... but I didn't want you to go.  And she followed soon after, but had stayed with a band of misfits instead because the all-boy pack had intrigued her.  She still didn't know why they'd let her in.

But that was a thought for another time.  So you don't have to stay with me, you don't have to be glued to my hip.  But.. yeah.  I missed you.   Whatever resentment she'd felt for him not saying goodbye was gone.