Seaside Moors who this time am I to persuade

set after valravn's disappearance but before her trip to the cliffs. maybe @Kaertok or @Miranda or both? :D

what time was not spent upon the hunt and the patrol of the moors, erzulie gave to searching for her adopted boy. high and near she flickered, an ever-present smear of gold upon the never-ending horizon of the moors.
it had come to her mind that she might return to niamh, to the firebirds, ask a boon. but this hurt erzulie's affected pride; heart hardened, she inwardly refused to even the score between she and the golden woman. peace at last; peace by rusalka's having the upper hand, only.
and so on she went, preparing to leave the territory and scour down along the seawater once more, helpless with the thought that his small drowned body had been swept out, quite forgetting he did not like the ocean or the look of it.

In Erzulie's wake there was the indelible scent of anxiety, sour and prickling at his nose. He walks through the moors which are steel gray and just as non-Euclidian as they had been when he first came here. They roll like waves through slow, incredibly viscous fluid. 

The wind brings with it the smell of distant rainclouds, a dampness in the air he had grown accustomed to. Like hospital gauze, the fog settles over him. Erzulie comes into view. A slim and golden Amazon in Rusalka's watery embrace.

Looking for something? He supplies in hushed tones. It was as though he were walking through a church during a service, something sacred and careful in these vaulted halls, the pulpit looking always at the sea. The altar fathoms apart from the shore.

The boy was missing, and Kaertok had taken it upon himself to find him. If he did not show up soon, he planned to begin scouting the nearest territories at the very least, checking for any signs of him. Perhaps he would journey to the nearest packs as well and see if they could offer him any information on the missing boy. Briefly, he was reminded of his run-in with Towhee about a year prior now, when she had been looking for a child as well. She had found them, he recalled, although she had not been able to give him any information on Raleska at the time.

The Tartok approached Erzulie and the other wolf just as he softly spoke his question, and Kaertok shot him an incredulous look. A child is missing, he replied curtly, baffled that one of Rusalka's own members did not know about the disappearance. What else would she be looking for but her child?

miranda first, his tones quieted, the cry of a seabird overhead punctuating his appearance. she made as if to speak, but the pale newcomer was next, tones crisp with what she took to be disapproval. erzulie herself felt little way about it; rusalka was comprised of the core family and those who came to go again. and kaertok knew raleska personally.
it had been the younger she-wolf who was looking after the little ones when this had occurred, and the thought that might have darkened became guilt. she should not have left raleska alone, and she tried not to think of how the girl might have been affected in the presence of the children born to her own body.
"valravn," she said to miranda first. "not quite six mont's. green eyes an' jet fur." she sniffed the air, swallowing. "he would not have gotten far. a bear came t'rough an' —" slim jaw tensed; she glanced to kaertok, then to miranda again, and began to set off across the moorplain.

Someone else joins them on the dreary shore, someone pale and vaguely familiar. 

Sorry. I hadn't known-- then Erzulie comes in, elaborates. Her words make his stomach clench and his brows push together in concern. Bears, those lumbering and cruel beasts that only knew violence. A grizzly's fist swinging through the air in all its dreadful inertia and momentum. 

Now, possessed by urgency, nosing toward the wolfdog leader. He follows close behind in her footsteps. Thin nose swinging slow back and forth like a divining rod though he worried that the frequent rains would have washed the boy's smell away.

He starts, shakes his head. No need for such damning thoughts.

Erzulie described the boy, and the other wolf at least held his tongue on asking further questions. Kaertok knew this information from his conversation with Raleska, and he did not ask anything further. He did find it peculiar that this other wolf did not request more information. When Kaertok had heard the news, he had immediately asked the basics: was there anywhere else Valravn might have known was safe? Did he have any other family nearby? How long was he capable of surviving on his own?

Those were the questions he would want asked if his own ch—no, he mustn't think of them. Not now. His life was here with Rusalka. If they found their way here, then he could think of them, but that would be some time from now. I will look for him further inland, Kaertok said, thinking it would be better if they weren't all looking in the same place. What good would that do? Unless you think it is better for me to look outside Rusalka's claim. He left that decision up to Erzulie.

"dat would be fine, kaertok. t'ank you." and she truly meant it; chest swelling with a breath, she turned back to miranda. "dat way," motioning, the line of her muzzle pointed toward the sea, "dere be a shoreline wid white sand and coconut trees. go dere, look, an' den come back, please."
shoulders squaring. "i am going to de river," she declared, again gesturing in the vaguest direction of the firebirds. "we meet here in anot'er hour."
tasks relayed, the courtesan swept them both with an inscrutable glance and then moved off at a direct clip, inland but not so far as to overlap kaertok's trajectory.

Feel free to slip in one more post if you'd like, or just archive here. <3

At Erzulie's word, Kaertok headed off away from the crashing waves and toward drier land. It was odd that he should come to live on sand, considering his origin in the mountain. This place was so unlike the ranges where he had grown up and lived much of his life. Legion had fit him well in that regard, but this was where his heart had pulled him back. Back to the ocean, back to Raleska, back to searching for wolves who would likely never be found.

Why this cycle kept repeating, Kaertok did not know. He only knew that this time, he would not leave Raleska's side, no matter where it took him.