Dragoncrest Cliffs see me coming to town with my soul,

loko trotted now along the ridge of the cliffs which faced the sound. a dusting of snow kept his pace careful, and his eyes along the edge.

a thrill thrummed his heart to flirt with danger so; it was only a shame he did not have an audience.

eventually he tired of this game and sat by a jutting lip of stone which frowned over a stormy and unwelcoming sea. waves lapped the distant shore while a storm of gulls and their calls sawed his ears. maybe something down there was worth checking out.

With Mireille still missing, Chacal spent much of her time roving along the beach and picking through the things that had washed up. She'd finally found a full half of a shell, abalone, with its colours bright and beautiful. Most of the time, she only found bits and pieces, but this prize she intended to stow away, either as a gift or as a decoration. 

She'd meandered along the path up to the top of the cliffs and was treading along with the intention of checking up on how the sea lavender shrubs had weathered the storm when she caught sight of her brother's tan fur, and the red of his tail. Teetering close to the edge of cliffs before he finally settled down. Those cliffs had claimed lives before; she frowned, and the shell loosened in her grip slightly. For some reason, she recalled the image of a bear...And a dark wolf who for some reason, seemed like an aunt to her. She, like Chacal, had had flecks of gold in her hackles. 

She memory sobered her expression, until she realized that she probably appeared a bit downtrodden. She shook it off, and padded toward where her brother gazed down over the cliff's edge. 

"Rrrnyt-" She was trying to speak with her mouth full of the clam shell. She set it down carefully- its lustrous side up, but not close to the cliff's edge for good measure. "Anything to see, Loko?" She chimed as she approached.

Gonna be vague on what the rest of the pack knows, for the moment <3

Adjusted to include Chacal!

The decision had been made. She knew that she did not have long before her duty to her family, and what still remained to Sapphique, pulled her from her self-pity. But she was despondent in the time that followed.

She'd done what was right, but she'd also lost an anchor. With few of those left, she felt more unmoored than ever. The cold claws of failure riddled her, tearing at her pride. This was about so much more than just losing a title.

She lay at the top of the cliffs, staring unseeing out at the ocean horizon. Someone coming up from the side, abruptly, broke her from this. She turned enough to catch Loko in her good eye, sitting on a jutting rock a distance away. Chacal was next to him. She had to crane her neck a bit to spot them, and it seemed she'd gone unseen.

She couldn't sink to this.

She got to her feet and closed the distance between them, looking down to see what they were both staring at. If you plan on swimming, I'd suggest the tunnel. She knew him well enough by now. Despite the teasing in her tone, she wasn't about to let him climb this in front of her.

along came chacal, clamshell in tow. loko eyed the prize with interest. would it be too douchey to kick it off the cliff?

he abstained, to his great displeasure. the crackle-clink of clamshell shattering would have been music to his ears, but something about chacal's expression stilled him.

his reply was cut short by rosalyn's arrival, which surprised him. all ideas of clamshell shattering dissipated as she spoke of a potential tunnel. he was completely unaware of the sorrow lingering behind rosalyn's eye. "a tunnel? where it be?"

He eyed the shell with a look that Chacal misinterpreted as honest curiosity. She would have pushed it toward him good-naturedly, so he could have a closer look- had they not been interrupted by Rosalyn. So, the shell remained safe, by her foot, and their topic strayed to the tunnel which existed as a safe passage from the cliff's edge down through the earth to the beach. She nodded, and flicked her tail. Of course, there was the long way down to the beach, which meant wandering along the cliffs until they shrank down to nothing more than sand dunes, but the tunnel provided them with a secret passageway that was much safer than the perilous climb.

Near where the lake meets the rivers. She glanced away from the edge and back down the slope. It'll take you straight out into the bay. She wasn't exactly surprised that he had to ask - either he was joking or he'd never quite made the family trips to the beach.

She'd had the thought, coming up, that she might be interrupting something. Neither of them seemed to mind her showing up, but they did have the look of a conversation cut short. She decided against offering to show him, figuring her main job (ensuring he did not get himself killed) was done for the moment.

oh ship if i broke any continuity lmk, i can edit <3

loko's eyes brightened, his ears perked. a tunnel at the end of the lake, with two new adventurers on board? he squinted a moment, trying to remember if he knew about this before. if he had, it was certainly forgotten by the excitement of fleeting puppihood.

"c'mon! last one's a rotten seagull foot!" loko roared, aiming a swipe at chacal's clam. she was certainly older, and certainly bigger -- so if he got it at all between his teeth he'd be easily overtaken by either rosalyn or chacal.

no matter. loko was already flying.

Chacal dipped into a play bow when the invitation to run came up- but in doing so, she yielded her posture over the clamshell. Her criminal of a brother snatched it and took off with it. It never crossed her mind that he'd intentionally do anything to hurt it, so she bounded after him, yipping in fake indignity so she could chase him down and spur him on.

Just like that, she was invited along. Rosalyn smiled as he took off with his prize and incited his sister to chase him; she followed, picking up speed into a run that would match but not overtake them. It wasn't too far to the entrance but she didn't want to wear herself out getting there.

She'd arrive behind and watch carefully for an opening while the two wrestled over their prize. If one presented itself? Well, then. Maybe they'd learn that experience and patience could be just as useful as speed.

off he went, two shadows following. bringing up the rear came rosalyn, watchful. loko missed the tracking of her gaze, otherwise he might have recognized rosalyn's studying for what it was -- seeking an opening.

chacal was close in pursuit. loko could hear her yaps bounce down the tunnel, which opened its mouth to them in a dark and shadowy hum. he thrust into fifth gear, ears back as he heard pebbles and feet echo down the corridor.

then came daylight - they were in the open again. he spun around towards his pursuers, head low and teeth holding tight to the clamshell prize.

She flew after her brother, harrying him with her voice into the darkness where the scrabbling and scuttling of their paws echoed off the walls. Dark, cool, wet stone watched them until one by one they shot into a wall of light, and out onto the beach. 

Whirling, Loko turned to face his oncoming sister who changed her gait. Rather than shooting straight toward him, she bounded with great, high, playful leaps that slowed her momentum and hopefully served to build up a bit of anticipation. Chacal was normally a very collected, graceful wolf- but she too enjoyed shrugging the weight of etiquette from her shoulders and taking the opportunity to be playful. 

When she landed from one of her foxlike bounds, she dipped into a playbow and bared her teeth, which chattered together excitedly. Slowly, she began to stalk forward- wanting to see just how close he'd let her get.

Oh lord. Feel free to skip me going forward <3

Rosalyn had intended to take the first opportunity she could to jump in and snag the prize, just for shits and giggles, but as she watched them play she changed her mind. Instead she chose to watch, affectionately, as the two of them wrestled for it and playfully engaged. She was okay to not interrupt and, suddenly, did not feel like participating.

Instead she found a patch of nearby earth, outside of the tunnel and warmed by the sun, and allowed the warmth of it to seep through her as she watched. Her gaze glowed with pride, seeing the older generation engage so freely with the younger, and she waited to see who would triumph in the end.

<3

nearby, rosalyn sought a patch of sunlight and watched her children. to loko, the pride on her face was stronger than any beam of sunlight -- and carried with it tremendous feeling and importance.

chacal pressed close, each bound more powerful than the next until it seemed she might have gathered so much momentum that she would be propelled into the stratosphere. loko had learned once already that standing still to watch the engagement of your opponent was a mistake: he kept moving, bidding the distance between them to grow each time chacal advanced.

eventually, she would catch him easily enough -- he was still but a boy untrained with sparring, and chacal had a year's worth of education ahead of him.

Chacal was merciful when it was necessary to extend such a thing, but she also had a competitive spirit- and felt that Loki did not need to be coddled. He was of Sapphique, after all- strength would flow through him the way hills floated on the briny air above them. 

She’d party and dodge, lunge and leap away, tempting her brother into something almost dance-like if he would follow the pattern and as soon as he did, she would change her approach so that she might fool him into stepping in when he ought to have moved away. Under the amused eye of their mother, they’d leave the shoreline patterned by the prints of their prancing paws.