The Tangle the sacred smoke of juniper, and mugwort purifies the air

There would be no moon visible in the sky tonight. Many hours still spanned between now and nightfall, yet Druid gathered up Heda and @Witch in the frosty morning air and set out to the north after singing goodbye to Mahler and @Sequoia, promising to return by day’s end.

Nipping fondly at their heels, the gray she-wolf coaxed her sisters into a gallop, the triad arrowing through the neighboring wood full of early November colors before slowing to a trot to broach the moraine yonder. Mists lingered in the plains, set aswirl by the girls’ momentum as they loped to the foot of the rise.

Conserving energy, Druid led her sisters west around the mountain, their shadows guiding the way as they were greeted by a stretch of trees on its other side. This was their agreed upon rendezvous point, Druid recognized with a skip in her racing heartbeat. She slowed to a halt, flanks heaving as she caught her breath.

We’ll meet @Mireille here and she’ll take us to the sea, she said as soon as she found the breath to speak, her tail whipping upward in a delighted wave.

heda grew less and less sure as rivenwood disappeared behind her.
holding tight to how paisley had told her to track back home, the girl attempted to lose herself in druid's clear excitement. the landscape changed several times, and each of those were a moment in which heda took a deep breath and pressed on.
the way the air tasted like salt here intrigued her. 
the forest was twisted and spooky-looking. heda stared up at the tangled branches and gave a firm nod toward druid. "i wonder if she's here now," the girl mumbled, craning her next to peer between the limbs.

dey be expectin' a sister, but, mireille had told @Sobo. but i be wantin' you to come instead.
she had told him this after returning from her first excursion with druid. she thought of the rivenwood girl and her face warmed. 
the tangle crested before them mireille skirted it, pushing through the amazonian shadows. light filtering, and then she caught sight of three figures.
one was druid. the other was pale with a bright blazing stripe of red. and the third was all shadow and paleness, with two bright green eyes looking toward her.
mireille swallowed her trepidation and began to approach, hoping that sobo would come with her and not remain quiet in the tangles.

witch followed her sister happily, trailing her right flank with heda at the other side. the pale witchling had left rivenwood a handful of times before, and felt only joy and excitement to be blessed with a day away from home. just the three densisters. she was oblivious to heda's discomfort, who seemed to her to be a warrior unshakeable. druid was their queen, evolving from a shy thing into a bold leader as she grew. and witch— she flitted about them both like a butterfly, never settling into anything, but never seeming unsettled by that.

life was good. blissful.

the sea, the sea! she cried at her sister's words, then fell into her cackle-giggle. witch had heard tales of the ocean by mahler and sequoia, but she had yet to see it with her own eyes. in her mind it was like the sky above, except filled to the brim with mythical creatures— merwolves, monsters, and flora that she couldn't even begin to imagine, try as she might.

witch pranced happily about her densisters, unable to corral her excitement, and unaware that their chaperone-to-be had already arrived.

Three young she-wolves arrived on the edge of the Tangle. Mireille moved toward them, but all Sobo wanted to do was sink into the gnarled trees and disappear. Why was it so damnably difficult to meet new faces? Dey are but prattlin' girls, he berated himself, you be not afraid of dem.

In his teeth were three strips of dried kelp, salt-encrusted and clumsily marked with streaks of charcoal. Each had a tiny shell affixed roughly in the center with sap from bleeding trees. He left them out on the rocks for three nights, allowing the cold ocean air to harden the sap so the shells no longer moved. One shell was a spiral cone, the other two flat fanned things. He didn't know what creatures they came from, exactly.

His heartbeat drummed in his ears as he stepped forward to follow his sister, sticking almost exactly to her shadow. Between the two of them, there was fierce competition at times for recognition and acknowledgement, but in the public eye, there was no question who was the leader between them. Sobo lacked confidence around those he did not know. It was something he desperately wished to overcome, but it was hard.

He came to stand at his sister's side, just behind her shoulder, and peered nervously at the three girls from Rivenwood. He held up the amulets for their inspection with a hesitant wave of his tail. He hoped these gifts might help to convey a sense of friendship where his withdrawn mood failed.

When her eyes sought and found Mireille in the distance, Druid’s heart fluttered in her chest. She smiled at her friend from across the way, glancing sideways at her sisters to coax them forward—gaze lingering a little longer on Heda, silently encouraging—as she jogged to meet the seafarer in the middle. She didn’t even notice Mireille’s shadow until they all came to a standstill, the two youths from Sapphique facing the three sisters from Rivenwood.

She favored the redhead with the fondest of grins, which faded when her eyes slid sideways to regard the young male beside her. Druid’s face turned to stone as he held up something for their collective imprimatur. Her head tilted as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing, noting the tentative twitch of his tail. He had come bearing gifts. Besides, he must be Mireille’s brother.

Swallowing the sigh in her throat, Druid’s mismatched eyes flicked between the siblings as she stepped forward. It’s so good to see you again, Mireille, she said, craning forward to bump her nose against the girl’s cheek. She acknowledged the boy with a glance before turning to motion to her sisters. This is Heda and Witch, she introduced with utmost warmth, eyes sparkling.

Although she was so glad for the four of them to meet, Druid knew she should acknowledge Mireille’s brother and his gift. What’s this? she queried, attention landing on the items in his mouth again. She was rather more interested in the what than the who.

who was this indeed.
his eyes were like nothing she had seen before. he was a trickle of moonsilver against the haunting red of his pelt; so like mireille in many ways! he was strong and solidly built, and he held things that heda could not parse.
she heated from the bridge of her nose across her shoulderblades and shyly turned her nose right into witch.
in the next she'd looked back, making herself approach the boy.
brain went to manual. druid made the question while heda hung near her, quiet but friendly, looking at the details of the hanging objects and trying, hard, not to look at the one holding them.
she felt like magma.
"i'm heda," she said. damn. her sister had already said that. unhelpful once more.

druid.
but she watched the face she had longed to see close, and when she flicked her eyes over to sobo, she searched his too.
"dis be my brot'er sobo. he spent time making dese t'ings."
she wondered if druid was offended that she had brought a brother when it was sisters all around. 
her companion went on to introduce the other sisters. witch was the green-eyed girl, while heda turned out to be the one with the ribbon of red. and her voice was warm, which provoked mireille's tail into a relieved wave.
"it be so good to see all of you," the sea-girl said, though it was for druid she meant it most of all. "are you ready to see de ocean?"

she ceased her prancing as the others approached, sitting abruptly to watch them with bright eyes. sea wolves! the girl, a fiery red with a stripe down her spine that mirrored witch's own— and the boy similar in tone, though subdued. and from his mouth dangled some sort of plant matter and a shiny... rock? that caught witch's attention in particular.

she remained uncharacteristically silent as her sister introduced them all, before bursting forth with, it is absolutely delightful to meet you both. mirelle and sobo, she practiced their names with a grin. she was personally dying to see the ocean, but remained quiet in deference to druid, clearly the leader of the densisters.

He hadn’t expected too much from Mireille’s friends, given how haughty she could be at times, but nothing could prepare him for the chilly reception he received from two of the three.

He found himself peering with interest at Druid, specifically. Both her companions were largely white, and Heda's red stripe reminded him of his family, but Druid was mostly dark-furred. It made him think of his dad, which disarmed him and made him want to talk to her. That is, until the smile slid right off her face when she looked at him. The boy’s stomach cinched. He could read a room and knew when someone wasn't pleased to see him, but what had he ever done to her?

Witch seemed lovely, but the red-streaked girl seemed just as disinterested. She turned to her sister as though in fear of him and then proceeded to not even look at him. Mireille introduced him. He dropped the trinkets carelessly, stung by their obvious lack of interest in him, before sharing, dey be amulets made from de sea for protection and renewal, ta welcome ya ta Sapphique. This reminded him of the day on the borders when his older brother and his kids had visited, and no one had said a word to him when he asked what they wanted. It was a terrible feeling that licked up his throat, demanding that he call out this unfair treatment.

He kept silent. He was too shy to make a scene, and the way his sister's friends barely looked at him made him feel like he was an inconvenient pile of dirty laundry. Witch's warmer reception did not make up for it. Speaking up was not likely to change any of that, anyway. Instead, he turned disbelieving eyes to his sister. She had warned him they were expecting sisters to accompany her, but she had conveniently left out the part where they would not welcome a brother. Sa yo se moun ou rele zanmi? Sobo asked.

When he spoke in the same pleasing elocution as his sister, it thawed some of the coolness in Druid’s demeanor. She had never heard the word “amulet,” though she continued peering raptly at the gifts. What did they protect and renew? How did they protect and renew?

Finally, she looked to Sobo’s face, lips parting to inquire. But Mireille asked if they were ready to see the sea and her brother responded with words she didn’t understand. Druid’s brow furrowed at this, feeling an inexplicable twinge of offense at this abstruse exchange and the lack of forthcoming translation.

Taking a breath and smoothing her proverbial petticoats, Druid echoed Witch’s more enthusiastic response with a slightly more tempered, Yes, we can’t wait, and sidled alongside Mireille. She glanced at her sisters, beckoning them with a grin and twitch of her head.

Her mismatched eyes then flicked to Sobo and Druid found herself saying, Thank you for the gifts, Sobo. Would I be able to wrap one around my ankle…? She wasn’t entirely sure how they were meant to be worn, if at all, but she thought she could wind one in the place where Bracelet usually rested. The thought put a small lump in her throat.

gifts? for them? heda swallowed and finally looked at sobo, buoyed by witch's response. druid was asking about how to wear them, but all she could look at was mireille's tall and striking brother. maybe if she'd known he was coming along, she would have been better prepared.
"thank you, sobo," she murmured, flitting her eyes up toward the way his green eyes seemed filled with yellow stars. and his red tail! 
she did not feel so out of place with her stripe, not here with he and mireille.
her tail waved as she stepped forward to claim her own amulet, sitting down so she could admire it against the flat of her pawpad. "this is really nice."

everything fell apart so quickly.
she could tell sobo was upset; it was in the way he threw down his hard work and the bite of his eyes, some moments before he turned the words only they shared on her. "yo pa t konnen," she pleaded in a swift, nonsensical whisper.
druid was speaking. mireille turned helplessly toward her and tried to recapture the feeling of excitement. she grinned at heda. "sobo is very skilled wid t'ings like dis."
inside, she hoped things would quell, if even for a moment, and sought her brother's eye in an understanding hurt.

oh, she expressed, disheartened as the boy tossed his gifts aside— rushing towards them, him, as if to rescue them. then, buoyed by her sisters' questions, she loosed several of her own, her apple-green eyes shifting between the treasures and the wolf that made them with equal interest and curiosity.

yes, how do we wear them? witch asked, echoing druid. they are so lovely! i've never owned an amulet before. protection and renewal... how do they work? she believed they did, wholeheartedly, but had never experienced real magick before; only knew of it from stories. would you show me how you made them someday, sobo?

she paid no mind to the siblings' shared language— well, not no mind, for the she-wolf was endlessly curious... but she felt no offense, only wonder at the exotic words. and if she had picked up on sobo's upset, witch made no indication of it, only bolstered her efforts to make him feel seen and appreciated in her enthusiasm for his gifts.

my den in rivenwood is filled with treasure. i will be honored to add this gift. she told him, meeting his gaze and offering a friendly sweep of her gray tail.

In the days to come, when the hurt was still fresh in his mind, Sobo would unfairly conflate all three girls with Druid, even though Heda and Witch at least seemed enthusiastic about the amulets. It was ironic that Sobo, who was sometimes crippled by his shyness, failed to recognize it in Heda. He saw only disinterest. If he was more observant, he would see firsthand what it was that made him appear unfriendly to others.

Mireille's explanation hardly soothed his hurts, but Sobo was surprised when Druid asked if she could wear it. That hadn't been a consideration of his when he made them. He thought of them as den adornments, so perhaps chose the word amulet carelessly. It would be rude to turn down what interest he was shown, however, so he imagined that he was Rosalyn. She always seemed cool and collected, not shy in the least, but channeling a sort of neutrality that made her seem far away from everything. Her emotions, impossible to detect.

I guess ya can use sap from de trees ta secure it ta itself. Ya need be still den so it can dry. Witch posed some additional questions. He turned his eyes to her. She seemed kind and warm. Why could Mireille have not befriended this one and brought her alone? Sobo thought they could be good friends if not for the others. Salt from de sea for healing of de spirit. Coal from old fire in de plains for life anew. De shell confers protection on de possessor, de way it protects de little creatures dat live in dem. He didn't expect them to understand in the least, but hoped they might keep them even just because they looked nice.

He thought he might excuse himself now and spare himself any ridicule that came in the wake of his explanation. Druid definitely didn't want him here, and Heda seemed like she didn't either. But this was all for Mireille, and for her happiness, Sobo would do almost anything. So he would remain, bear whatever they might throw at him, and make himself as distant as his mamá to endure the rest of this get together.

He advised using sap to make it stick after letting it set, a suggestion which made Druid cant her head thoughtfully. As Sobo went on to explain the magics bestowed to them via the amulets, she listened in silence that starkly contrasted Witch’s enthusiasm.

What should we do with them, while we visit the seaside? Druid wondered, trying to hide the impatience beginning to rear its ugly head. They had come here to go to the seashore, not attend Sobo’s presentation. Even she could recognize that thought as uncharitable, so she tried to be mindful not to let her irritations show as she tacked on, I don’t want to damage them, or lose them.

a child's intuition could tell that something had shifted in the air. she saw her sister's impatience. she heard her other sister form soft words. she saw mireille's stricken face. she saw sobo explaining, though she felt that there was a tightness about his neck and shoulders that had not been there at first.
she tried to show him she was listening and attentive, though her eyes darted between the other two girls. she was not sure how to deal with the emotions that rolled from sobo.
"why don't i hold them all," she suggested, sitting and gesturing toward witch and druid. "we can carry them to the beach. um, maybe mireille or sobo know a safe place we can put them?" she said hopefully, her voice wavering with something unknown as she looked at each of them.

witch was perfectly pleasant. druid was rightly the same. heda said her brother's name. she knew the damage was already done; she had watched him explain and known that he was simmering beneath the sea-calm surface. it had been in her voice, in the syllables of their mother's language.
"dat be a good idea. i know a place or two," she smiled toward the rivenwood girls. "you will experience de sea an' return home wid your amulets." 
she would take point here, slide the focus from sobo. she suspected he would not want to linger more. her gaze found him gratefully in the manner of a soft friendly squeeze to another's hand. she wanted him to stay. she wanted him to see that all this was nothing more than a misunderstanding. but she would not and could not demand it from sobo.

Pulling Sobo out here!

When he had said his piece and the Rivenwood wolves' attention turned to the sea, Sobo then let his teeth lock together in a tight grit. From that point onward, he would not utter another word. Should anyone address him, he would simply turn his head to his sister. That was who they wanted to be with, anyway, so she could speak on his behalf as well, having brought him here only to let his confidence be shattered. It wasn't very mature of him, but her friends started it, after all.

He did not notice any impatience, to their credit, but he didn't need to; he was already upset enough just from how he was received. He followed the girls to the seaside and seated himself nearby to watch for a time, for Mireille's sake. Any effort to engage him was futile. As soon as the attention of all four was turned elsewhere, Sobo slipped away into the trees and left them there to seek out Loko or Coraline instead.

Heda offered to hold them all until they reached their destination, at which time Mireille and her brother could stash them on the beach. Druid nodded, handing over her own amulet, her impatience giving over to excitement as they finally made their way to the seaside.

She forgot all about the amulets and, indeed, Sobo, as she frolicked toward the surf alongside her sisters and Mireille. Druid didn’t even spare him a glance as he retreated into the background, nor did she notice it when he vanished into the trees. The beach and her company captured all of her attention, enchanted her with its delights.

Look at this, she said to Heda, approaching a rather large tangle of driftwood. They spent many minutes thrusting their snouts among the snarled branches, studying the pale wood bleached by sea salt and sunlight. There were pores in some of it, as well as signs of the gribbles and shipworms which had plied the blanched timber.

Witch came to them with a shard of sea glass in her teeth. Only then did Druid suddenly remember Sobo and his amulets. She saw Mireille nearby, yet no sign of the boy. Druid smiled at her friend, sidling closer to the gingered girl, acknowledging her brother’s absence with an internal shrug.

Thank you so much for bringing us here, the smoky youth said merrily to Mireille, pressing their cheeks together for a beat before Druid’s eyes brightened with a thought and she gasped playfully, Race you to the water?

heda noticed, and watched ruefully as the boy stalked away. she would have liked to speak with him longer, but her own shyness and the weird way everything had gone down rooted her where she was. 
instead she fell gratefully to exploring the beach with druid, poring over all she could. the girl even found laughter inside her.
witch joined them. heda smiled lovingly at both her sisters, hanging back with the former as druid moved toward mireille.
her laughter would follow them down the beach.

sobo left. part of her went with him. she had never seen him this way before, and she was not sure it could be mended. heda was gracious to offer. mireille led the sisters to the beach but retired to watch them, switching her attention often to the waves. her thoughts returned to her brother, again and again, and perhaps it showed upon her face.
she watched the sisters. she missed coraline.
when druid came closer it was a relief, and when she invited mireille into the water, the red girl ran beside the other as if she had never run before, each drum of her paws driving out the thoughts she did not want to think.