Dragoncrest Cliffs than the war-chariots of the lydians or
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Ooc — ebony
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#1
All Welcome 
pack introduction! optional <3

with all the goings of those who had once been in sapphique, with solaire and chacal and regin in her mind, and the names of everyone lined inside, erzulie knew she must draw their pack together.
she ushered @Sobo and mireille from the den one morning, before the sun had bitten through the early mists. "come wid me, @Loko, @Coraline."
accompanied by @Rosalyn, surely, the obsidian led their brood through the pinewoods at the edge of glintwater lake, and soon bluepeace meadow spread in front of them. she took the children to the lone scarlet tree, sat at its trunk, and called for @Avicus and for @Haunt
and she saw how, with the attendance upon the edge of the field by their two oldest left, that sapphique had honed itself, and still thrived.
absent, @Zephyr and his children; she crooned a low note of assurance that this time would come again.
[Image: F0ZZHqZ.png]
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Ooc — Kat
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#2
She hadn't yet figured out a way to utilize the sealskin effectively, aside from simply draping it over her head. It felt comfortably heavy when she managed to place it there, though it was difficult (especially singlehandedly) and it never wanted to stay put. Haunt really wanted to figure out some way of fixing it securely to her skull, preferably ahead of winter.

It didn't help that her brother's recent departure distracted her or left her feeling more easily frustrated than usual. They'd only just reunited! And already he was gone again. It made Haunt ache, though she was forced to admit she'd adapted to life without her brother during their months apart. It was almost the lost potential that hurt more than the reality of his absence.

Today, she grew exasperated and left the sealskin discarded in anger on the cave floor as she set out to hunt instead. If she kept herself busy with her favorite preoccupation, maybe this mood would pass. Haunt grunted as she began to climb the cliffs, pausing when she heard Erzulie's summons.

Rather than go directly to the Obsidian, Haunt took a detour to fetch a rabbit she'd killed yesterday evening. She dug up its cold, stiff carcass and grabbed it by the head, carrying it toward the source of the leader's call: the meadow.

She's still en route; she'll arrive in my next post. :)
Sapphique
Obsidian*
"mireille?? more like misandreille *cackles*"
thank u val, very cool!
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Ooc — ebony
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#3
she had never been so far from the roja den as she was now. mireille was wide-eyed and silent during the trek she took with siblings and mothers. 
the sea was not so loud here, though still existed in the air. she sniffed tentatively, flooded with a dozen new scents. overhead, a flock of seagulls cawed loudly, returning to the beachfront.
she hid behind erzulie's hock, saucer-pupil evincing her fright beneath the overwhelming new visions.
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#4
nose lifts, hearing Erzulie's call. she rises from whatever activity she's engrossed herself in; hunting, patrolling, sparring, it doesn't matter. whatever takes her mind off what she's left behind. she trots toward the summons, chin lifted in inquiry.

but if she thinks this will further separate her from the past, she's wrong. she sees the pups and falters, falling back. 

she has nothing to offer. nothing to say.

Avicus stares at the newcomers, then turns away, abashed. she doesn't leave, but she stays at the periphery, not wanting to disturb the scene—

of a mother, and her young.

it should be herself alongside Astara.

she stares down at the ground, at her paws, feeling inadequate.
but see, amid the mimic rout,
a crawling shape intrude —
a blood-red thing that writhes from out
the scenic solitude
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Ooc — Chelsie
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#5
All Sobo wanted to do was sleep, but napping wasn't on the agenda for today. Instead, a rather grumpy Sobo was drawn from the den and made to march alongside his siblings and mothers. He did so with feet that dragged and jaws that creaked open every minute or so in a wide yawn.

He hardly noticed the scenery as they journeyed through the pines — this was all very familiar to Sobo by now — but the sprawling meadow, marked with a lone crimson tree, was all new to him. Much as he wanted to continue playing moody until he was put down for a nap, the boy couldn't hide the wonder that crept into his gaze as he cast it all around the meadow. Even his tread seemed to grow buoyant the further they went, until they were directly below the red canopy of that lone tree, and Sobo's sour mood was behind him.

He was less reticent than his sister when in familiar company. Mireille hid, but Sobo ventured forth to sniff at a cluster of yellow flowers. But when he abruptly took notice of the crimson wolf as red as the leaves overhead, Sobo shrank into the grass and slicked his ears shyly back with an apprehensive wiggle of his tail. It didn't matter that Avicus seemed completely disinterested; she was a stranger, and strangers made his belly fill with nervous bubbles.

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Ooc — ebony
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#6
gosh my b also no posting orderrrr <3

avicus was nearby.
erzulie smiled, relieved to see the wordless girl investing herself inside sapphique. "go an' say hello," she said, nudging her brood along toward the crimson huntress.
[inden]erzulie followed smoothly behind her brood, signalling a welcome to those who might join them.
[Image: F0ZZHqZ.png]
Sapphique
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"mireille?? more like misandreille *cackles*"
thank u val, very cool!
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Ooc — ebony
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#7
mireille was not happy to be hastened along. she plodded before her maman with a thunderous expression contorting her fine-boned features, stomping over the texture of the grass with thin tail quivering and withering behind her.
mireille tucked herself behind the crowd of pups, pressing against sobo.
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Ooc — Kat
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#8
She arrived to see Erzulie, Rosalyn and their brood of pups. Haunt froze at the edge of the the meadow, eyes bouncing from one puppy to the next. They lingered longest on the familiar Sobo, then flicked over to the red she-wolf similarly loitering at the fringes, before scanning the general area with interest.

Haunt tried to deduce what was going on here. Was this a summons for a pack meeting? Or were the leaders hoping to introduce their pups to the pack formally? Perhaps this was to be their rendezvous site. Haunt decided it must be that, especially when neither the Obsidian nor the Tanzanite appeared to be prepared for a formal address.

Moving forward with her trademark hop-step, Haunt paused again a little ways away from the group and bent down to deposit the rabbit on the ground. When she lifted her head again, she woofed in greeting, her tail swaying.

"This is for you guys," she said to the family, backing a few paces away and hesitating momentarily before taking a seat.
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#9
Despite Erzulie's nudging, Sobo stayed put, eyes locked upon Avicus. Avicus was more like Erzulie and Njord than any grown wolf Sobo had seen. The colour of her pelt matched the colour of his and Loko’s tails, the same russet of their father’s, and she bore no markings upon her figure, unlike torn Rosalyn and that white she-wolf he once saw. It did not put him at ease, for she was stranger, and he was shy.

Mireille coming to huddle next to him pulled his attention from Avicus to his sister. He sat up to press his snout against the side of her face before licking the inside of her ear. That was when he spotted that same unusual she-wolf from before, with that same odd locomotion. This time, he took more notice of Haunt’s abnormalities. Still, it was curiosity rather than horror that bubbled to the front of his mind.

She was stranger, too, but Sobo had seen her once before. It was not so shocking this time. In Haunt’s favour was the rabbits she brought every time he saw her, so with less hesitance than he showed toward Avicus, Sobo began to creep forward in the grass, wide-eyed with belly brushing the floor, toward the rabbit and Haunt.

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Ooc — mercury
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#10
her nostrils flare wide at Haunt's gift, and she looks away for a moment, then turns to face the small crowd full-on. she still lingers back, watching the pups.

four of them—twice as many as her and Aventus.

she wonders—would Astara whelp this year? replace the two of them?

or. . .not Aventus. he, apparently, is irreplaceable, for they'd chosen him over her. but whatever new children would join him, and form the core of Ursus—where she belonged—

ears pinned back, the whites of her eyes showing, she reels back and turns on her heel, moving away at a steady trot.

she's not ready. not yet.

she needs to be alone.
but see, amid the mimic rout,
a crawling shape intrude —
a blood-red thing that writhes from out
the scenic solitude
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Ooc — ebony
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#11
the red girl's abrupt departure put to death any hopes that erzulie had of her meeting sapphique's pebbles. but she chose not to find upset.
i miss my mom, avicus had said.
erzulie turned back to her watchful children and smiled at haunt's offer. "de little ones will learn a lot from you, i hope," she said softly, then lifted a paw to indicate each in turn. "sobo. loko. coraline. an' mireille."
"dis be haunt," she told her brood. "look what she has brought."
she welcomed the pale yearling closer with a smile.
[Image: F0ZZHqZ.png]
Sapphique
Obsidian*
"mireille?? more like misandreille *cackles*"
thank u val, very cool!
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#12
like sobo, mireille's interest was captured by the rabbits. while he crept closer, she followed directly behind him, perhaps stepping on the backs of his heels in her ardor.
the girl sniffed delicately at the dead face of the rabbit.
"why do it look like dat?" she inquired, tilting her head up to fix haunt with the bright summergreen of her youthful look. it was expectant, for her mothers always had an answer for all of the child's question. she anticipated that the foam-hued stranger would do the same.
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Ooc — Kat
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#13
Her back stiffened slightly when the other she-wolf disappeared, a blur of red flashing in her peripheral vision. Haunt glanced at the mothers, wondering what they made of the abrupt departure, but soon the pups recaptured the whole of her attention.

She didn't really know what to make of them. They were just miniature wolves, she knew. They were so small and innocent. Others might've found them endearing and Haunt did too, a little bit. Mostly she found herself feeling unsure how to behave. The added pressure of Erzulie's remark further unnerved her.

Two of them came a little closer, one of them the little boy she'd met in passing. Haunt flashed them a nervous smile, which fell at the little girl's question. The yearling looked at the rabbit, then back to the pup, not entirely sure what she meant. She wanted to answer her, to live up to the Obsidian's expectations, but...

Not really sure what else to say, she met the question with her own. "What do you mean? What does it look like?"
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Sobo's nose wriggled. Where he might have turned and nipped at his sister for crowding his rear on an ordinary day, he took comfort in her nearness now. Sobo didn't want to be frightened of Haunt. He was almost old enough to feel a little bad about it, too. There was no logical reason to be shy, and she seemed nice, but no amount of rationalizing it to himself would actually untie his tongue.

It was Mireille who did that. Grosye, muttered Sobo, who thought his sister was talking about Haunt's leg. That was certainly a point of interest, but Erzulie and Rosalyn had raised him too well to ask about it. Instead, he crept forward on his belly, past the rabbit, and lifted his nose inquisitively toward Haunt's stump He was tense and wary as he did so, always on the verge of flinching away if she reacted poorly.

As if that was any more polite.

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Ooc — ebony
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something was off with haunt.
erzulie did not profess to know the girl well, but it was well enough. as obsidian she was apprised of the yearling's skills, but as a mother —
"dwa!" she exclaimed, raising a paw to tug sobo back from his own rude venture. she would not punish him for it, however; he was young and she would leave it to haunt to inform the boy with her further reaction. a goodly part of sapphique was nuance.
with that handled, she too glanced at mireille, shaking her head a bit at them both but still bemused by their wayward curiosity.
[Image: F0ZZHqZ.png]
Sapphique
Obsidian*
"mireille?? more like misandreille *cackles*"
thank u val, very cool!
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Ooc — ebony
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sobo was rude! she made sure to turn as maman got after him, smirking openly into his face. but then her attention was back on haunt, and the rabbit. "it be still. an' its eyes be open." she peered at its underbelly, searching for the rhythmic rise and fall, but nothing happened.
conceptually she knew meat and killing, but somehow this particular deceased animal had unlocked a bevy of investigation.
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Ooc — Kat
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Sobo muttered something in reply to his sister, though Haunt didn't catch it. She watched as he wriggled closer, his attention seemingly trained upon her stump. She held it out to him to sniff, only for Erzulie to snatch him away. Haunt blinked, smiled a little and shook her head to show she didn't really mind the children's curiosity.

Yellow eyes returned to Mireille as she pointed out the rabbit's current condition. "It's dead," she replied straightforwardly, "but fresh. It's for you to eat," she added slowly, in case that wasn't obvious. She looked to Erzulie, wondering: were the pups even weaned yet? She didn't know how any of this worked.
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Wow, everyone was against him! Haunt was kind enough to offer the stump for Sobo to sniff, but he barely even caught a whiff before Erzulie pulled him back, and then his face was full of Mireille's smirking face. As if she hadn't been super rude herself! Forgetting all about his bashfulness, Sobo clicked his jaws and growled back at his sister.

Turns out they were all talking about the rabbit and not Haunt's missing leg. Mireille clarified what she meant and Haunt responded. Now it was Sobo's turn to grin tauntingly. He didn't have any more concept of death than his sister did and hadn't known any better, either, but he felt an intense need to save face. Which, for Sobo, obviously meant rubbing hers in something. Yeah, moun sòt, everyone be knowin' dat!

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Ooc — ebony
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erzulie meant to teach them manners, but haunt seemed open enough to their exploration. "now, now," the obsidian clucked before mireille, explosive and fierce, was roused to anger against her brothe.r "none o' dat."
"dey have been on meat for a while now, but dis one," indicating her daughter, "not be carin' for how we must catch our prey." mireille was haughty and swift to temper, but easily disgusted by natural processes.
"sobo, what can you tell us about de rabbit?" she urged, motioning her boy closer while the other two children hung back.
[Image: F0ZZHqZ.png]
Sapphique
Obsidian*
"mireille?? more like misandreille *cackles*"
thank u val, very cool!
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mireille bristled, small white teeth visible below her lip. yet she heeded maman, glancing at haunt and then back toward the dead furry body. she was beginning to feel a bit sick the longer its eye did not blink or move, but refused to let sobo hold the rest of their meeting's interest.
mireille gathered her gusto and began to nose along the velveteen underbelly. instinct told her of the blood that used to tick beneath; she could smell it, and started to chew idly along the rabbit's flank, cutting slowly toward the meat.
"all sobo be killin' is me wid his fartin'!" mireille said pleasantly, hoping to barb her brother and get him into trouble. baiting him was far too much fun.
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Ooc — Kat
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Erzulie explained and Haunt could only nod, her attention returning to the pups as they squabbled. Her lips twitched, amused by their banter. She glanced at the others, lurking in the background, and suddenly thought of Vex, Royal too. They had bickered some as puppies, though what Haunt wouldn't do do have them both in her life today...

"I apologize in advance if the rabbit gives your brother gas," Haunt quipped dryly to Mireille before looking to the Obsidian and saying, "Please excuse me." She bowed her head as she prepared to retreat. Even as she made to leave, she wondered about the red she-wolf again, then about the rest of the pack. Why had no one else come to the leaders' summons?

She should've returned to fetch her sealskin, though Haunt had forgotten all about it. Instead, she moved away in the direction of Mossbloom, her brother's and sister's faces still dancing in her mind's eye.
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#22
Sobo sniffed in his sister's direction, but felt quite mature when he refused to rise to her bait a second time. Erzulie had asked a question of him, and Sobo took to inspecting the rabbit with such intensity that Haunt's departure went unmarked.

Se yon fi, he said, which perhaps was not something his mother would want to know about the rabbit. He didn't know entirely how he knew, either. He merely recognized the scent as similar to the women of his family, beneath the heady prey-scent and blood of it.

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#23
last for me, PPing mireille <3

in this time of knowing haunt, erzulie would watch her walk away three times.
and not once did she seek correction or knowing in the matter. the yearling carried some pain inside her, and one that would not be cured by seaside air.
"dis be true, sobo," erzulie murmured; she caught the rabbit up in her jaws and tossed it some feet before them, hoping to encourage them to play.
mireille darted forward first, though she did not bite the thing. "it is ugly," the girl declared, fired by hunger all the same.
out to sea, a long fin rose from the water and traveled steadily westward.
[Image: F0ZZHqZ.png]
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#24
Li kostim ou, said Sobo with a clever smirk, pleased at the unwitting opening his sister gave him. But it was an affable jostle he gave when he streaked by her and collided with the rabbit, wrapping his jaws around its slender neck and hoisting it up into Mireille's face to entice a game of tug-o-war before they would finally dig into it.

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