Dragoncrest Cliffs sweetheart, i don't do shorts
the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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#1
Joining 
the morning is still cool yet, the full force of the sun having yet to warm up the still half-sleeping world around him as vex trudges his way back towards the familiar neutral territories — at least he still hoped they were neutral — neighboring dragoncrest cliffs. it hadn't been too terribly long since he'd last been in the wilds ...but it might've been long enough. the fall of legion was tell-tale enough that nothing was as concrete as he'd once believed and things had a tendency of changing in quite literally, the blink of an eye.

he pushes down the guilt he feels at knowing he played something of a part in legion's ultimate downfall and keeps moving forward, towards the familiar scent of sapphique's borders

— hoping that they'd be willing to take him back.

vex slows as he draws nearer, tips his head back and lets out a howl for @Erzulie or @Rosalyn.
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Ooc — ebony
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#2
rain swelled the sea, and so did sapphique burgeon.
many of them, so young to be injured in the way that they were.
erzulie came to see him with a croon, tucking her brood under the capable care of their elder sisters. they were growing all which-way as of late, and while they were still small, they would not remain so forever.
"did you find what you sought?" she asked of the boy who had grown up while he was away. he was what she knew of kaertok, in bearing if not in pelt. 
the woman searched him quietly.
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the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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#3
it didn't take long for erzulie to greet him at the borders with a croon, that draws forth a soft wag of his tail, ears tucking against his skull in cognizance to her rank. yeah, i did. vex responds, the words feeling weighty as they pass through his lips.

while running with tartok — or some branch off, in his mind they were all the same in that way — he learned much about himself ...even if he was still left with more questions then answers when it came to kaertok.

but — he stumbles on his words, breath catching in his throat when it came to admitting his feelings. uh, it wasn't home. and somewhere during his short stay here, vex had come to think of sapphique as home. and then there was the whole missing the hell outta haunt thing, but that was another matter entirely.

the trip wasn't total crap but ... he gives a slumping shrug of his shoulders as if to finish what he'd been trying to say: that he was homesick.
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#4
it wasn't home.
erzulie looked at the boy before her with a new affection, a new realizing cascading through her. she and rosalyn had made such a place for him that he wished to return. "haunt has arrived back very recently."
the dance of pleasantry upon her features. "but if you believe that you will go out again to seek you own way, tell it to me now. sapphique grows. you must grow w'it us, vex."
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the wayward son
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Ooc — delaney
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#5
the knowledge that haunt, too, had left grabbed vex's attention in the worst way; and instantly his mind begins to kick into over drive, suddenly eager to reunite with his sister and gleam all he can from her. why did she leave? what did she find out? had she missed him as he'd missed her?

if vex was trying to keep that fact that erzulie's words interested him off his face: he failed.

i didn't know she'd left. he admits quietly ...which made sense because he'd been tartok — or some branch off — bound probably before she'd departed to leave. it eases some of his regret leaving to find out what he could about the mysterious tartok clan.

but still, it lingers all the same.

the pirate queen's next words sit heavy on vex's shoulders as they process. it is fair of her to say and it causes vex's ears to flutter back against his skull. he might be recognized as tartok now but what he'd told her was true: it wasn't home and those wolves might be related by blood in some form or another but they weren't his found family.

i found what i left to find, vex says. it wasn't what i expected but ...— a shrug follows. i'll grow with sapphique ...if you'll take me.
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#6
so sorry for how long this joining thread has taken <3

it was what she wished to hear. the harlot could not fault the boy for his tendency toward the loyalism of mother. and nor did she feel the same for haunt. "you bot' went to find your mot'er."
the girl had returned injured, the son whole —
they must now cleave to sapphique.
she stepped aside motioning vex back into the seaside homeland. "what did you learn new on your journey?" she inquired, falling into step alongside the boy as if he had not long been parted from them.
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the wayward son
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ah. vex says, though he doesn't mention that it wasn't arbiter he'd been in pursuit of. kaertok's death had left many questions in his wake, questions that vex hadn't been entirely able to answer even with finding the tartok branch off he'd spent some time in.

many things, vex answers a bit vaguely. i've earned a new name. better than the one kaertok had first gifted him even if the original had fit him. kaskae, it sounds strange on his tongue, feels stranger to be saying here where he is known as 'vex' — which also suits him. you can call me what you'd like, though. i'm not fussy. their family tendency to have many names was something he assumes is limited to them.

how have things been since my departure? he asks then, shifting the conversation to what he's missed.
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#8
kaskae.
erzulie liked the sound of it, rounded and complete in a way that 'vex' was not. for the boy in front of her was not a vexatious sort of child; he had grown, he had come back, and he seemed ready to begin as a man. "kaskae, de one who returns to de water."
she grinned. "dere be four little ones here," she said softly, "born to rosalyn an' i. dey almost old enough to run t'rough sapphique. you will see dem soon."
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the wayward son
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#9
kaskae, he thinks, sounds better when she says it. perhaps it was time he shed 'vex' and leave the boy in the past where he belonged and discover the man that bore the name in full. he was tartok now; and even if there was a slight twist in his chest as the thought that it was the last thing tying him to arbiter ...they had made their choices — all of them. for better or worse.

he is drawn from his thoughts as she mentions four little ones, born of her and rosalyn. babes meant that the pack was prospering ...and vex kaskae hoped that they were better behaved than he was. i look forward to seeing them, vex says with a small grin and then adds quickly, i promise not to be too bad of an influence. in a soft tease.

though, part of him genuinely means it: he'd been an awfully behaved child, after all.
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Ooc — ebony
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#10
in spite of herself, she laughed. "dey will enjoy knowing anot'er hunter," she declared, quickening into a trot as she led vex — kaskae — along the edge of the high cliffs.
below them, water smote the side of the stone.
she thought of chacal, how she had finally made her way from them, and eadwulf, the starwatcher who had also left.
in their stead, however, haunt and kaskae, returned.
"i should get back to dem," the obsidian murmured with an apologetic flag of her tail. "hunt. see your sister. an' welcome home." a press of nose to his cheek, a pause to hear his words, and then erzulie was turning.
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the wayward son
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#11
understood, kaskae speaks when the sandkissed queen announced that she should be returning to her young children. as far as children goes, kaskae only has his own experience to go off of, but he silently agrees that they should not be left to their own devices — though it was ultimately the control arbiter felt the need to exert over him tightening like a noose 'round his neck was what drove him away.

thanks. kaskae offers gruffly; a bit sheepish as he parts ways with her, hoping to reacquaint himself with the cliffs before he hunted or attempted to track down haunt. soon, exhaustion would dictate his next move, but for now he meanders along; recalling what is familiar and glad to find that not much has changed.