Dragoncrest Cliffs follow the moskva down to gorky park

Njord’s kids—Sobo, particularly—hadn’t quite managed to pop her happy bubble, though there was definitely a small hole in it now and it was beginning to sag. Meerkat felt a little sulky about it today as she walked along the beach, kicking at small pebbles. She would’ve invited her lover to join her, yet she didn’t want him to see her struggling with this. She knew she could tell him anything and they could tackle the problem together. That was the entire point of an intimate relationship, wasn’t it? But it felt too early to burden him with this.

Anyway, she suspected she was letting it get under her skin a bit too much right now. It wasn’t really like her to feel as hopeless as she did this morning, the ugly skies matching her mood. It made her think of Sialuk’s words, “There has been a shadow on my spirit.” Meerkat hoped the feeling would run its course and pass in a day or two.

Something glittered on the wet sand, distracting her from her thoughts. It was just a rock, by the look of it, albeit a particularly shiny one. Although the talk of finding a gift for Njord had been more of a ploy than anything, she suddenly wondered if her lover might like a small present. Meerkat bent and picked it up in her teeth, carrying it toward the stone archway at the mouth of the bay and taking a seat in its shadow.

When she set down the stone again, it looked duller than before. Meerkat sighed. Njord deserved something better than some random refuse she’d found on the beach. Who wanted a dumb rock? She kicked it away and then sank down onto her belly, legs outstretched. She let her head drop to rest on them, a single tear welling and catching in the corner of her eye before sliding down her cheek.

druid had gone home and mireille missed her. she hoped that the rivenwood girl would find better news when she returned home.
there was the subject of meerkat now. sobo was displeased. loko was standoffish. coraline might have yet met with her. finding herself quite a bit more timid since returning from the islands, the red girl nevertheless squared her shoulders and went off in search of njord's new ... wife?
she found the impulse to run as she went. the wind lashed her face and mireille closed her eyes for a moment as feet pounded over unfamiliar terrain. she leapt from the grass down into the sand, bounding and gasping and nearly stumbling over meerkat; mireille managed to avoid the collision only by throwing herself sideways into a dune.
she rolled upright and sputtered sand from her mouth, whirling with comically huge eyes. "oh! sorry!"

Gravity drew the tear down to meld with the fur of her foreleg. Meerkat couldn’t be bothered to wipe it away or move. She recognized it as silly—there were many more reasons to be happy, lately—yet she just let herself focus on the negative and wallow for a moment. Nobody needed to know, so she could get this stuff out of her system and get on with her life.

She heard what sounded like pounding footfalls behind her and stiffened, her head raising and turning to glance over her shoulder. Meerkat saw a figure running toward her and braced herself for impact, crouching in the sand and unwittingly making herself even harder to see. Fortunately for both of them, the young girl—oh, this must be Mireille—managed to toss herself sideways at the last moment and a collision was avoided.

Mireille exclaimed in apology, though Meerkat wondered if she would take it back once she realized who she’d nearly tripped over. It was not a particularly charitable thought, though at least she could recognize that. She began so sit up, then stand, aware that she needed to get out of this situation quickly, lest her sour mood make matters even worse.

But then she abruptly remembered the girl’s recent absence and how it had affected Njord. Meerkat grew still, looking pensively at Mireille, even chewing at her lip. Surely she could control her emotions, even though she felt like an overexposed nerve. She could do that—she could tolerate more of this “guilty until proven innocent” treatment—for Njord.

It’s okay, Mireille… you are Mireille, right? she said quietly.

meerkat had been crying. the red girl's brow furrowed as she noticed the way the older wolf's eyes glimmered without happiness. "oui, i be mireille." she turned in a tight circle, gnawing more runnels of sand from the fur along her flanks.
"an' you be meerkat. ah, you are wit da njord now." she put her head to one side and blinked. "why you be here an' cryin'?"
aside from her trip away from sapphique and the desperation she had felt upon the islands, the lingering effects she kept carefully closeted, mireille saw few reasons to cry. but first she had seen druid weep and now meerkat. she wanted to know why.
one ear tuned toward the other, the pup flicked sand from between her toes, gazing off toward the sea.

I’m glad you made it home, Meerkat said, voice still pitched low. Your da was worried, along with everyone else.

She turned her face away, cheeks burning, when Mireille asked why she was crying. The girl didn’t sound particularly disdainful but Meerkat was still apprehensive. She didn’t want anyone to witness her strange mood, least of all one of Njord’s kids.

It’s just the sea air, I think. I’m not used to it just yet, which surely scored points against her but hopefully fewer than admitting how weepy she felt or why, and it made my eyes water. I’m okay though. Ah, how are you? That was quite the tumble you took…

that felt like a lie. it felt like a lie because mireille could find no real reason to argue with it. a perfectly presented problem. this annoyed her; she immediately wanted to rattle the answer around until she found a weakness.
but how would that go over with her da?
"i really missed all of dem, too. i do not t'ink i ever want to leave again."
mireille glanced over a ruddy shoulder at the pile of sand. "dat was not'ing. you should have seen de time when i fell down a little cliff." the girl snorted at the memory of herself. "i was lucky de sea was t'ere to catch me."

She had said something similar to Erzulie, not so long ago. She’d meant it at the time. Now, she was beginning to wonder if she would ever truly belong here, with these wolves. Meerkat didn’t want to ask Njord to leave his family, though the thought of leaving without him made her insides shrivel. Oh, she hated this.

This too shall pass, she coached herself. Maybe she wouldn’t change the yearlings’ minds anytime soon, but surely this bleak mindset would lift in a day or two…

Mireille’s words captured her attention, dragging her up from her darkening thoughts. You fell off a cliff? Into the sea? Meerkat let out a breath. Despite herself, she added, I need to hear this story… But would Mireille want to share it with her?

"well." her ears cupped forward in a conspiratorial tone. "don't tell my mot'ers. dis was a long while ago an' i wasnae hurt," she insisted, taking up her da's way of speaking for a moment. "it was up t'ere," she pointed, beyond the beachfront to where the coast took a curve. "on de black stones. t'ere be dese ridges. i was climbing dem because i wanted to see where de birds were nesting."
"i knew i should not have been t'ere, but — it was exciting." her eyes grew misted with the memory. "but den i missed a step an' i fell pretty far into de water."
she cleared her throat. she rambled. "good t'ing de sea was t'ere to catch me."

Mireille exhibited no reluctance in telling the tale and even whispered conspiratorially to her. Meerkat shook her head in response—I won’t tell anyone—but also in disbelief as the story unfolded.

I’m very glad you weren’t hurt, Meerkat murmured, aware that it probably came across as a platitude. Mostly, she could not imagine how horrible it would’ve been for Njord and the girl’s mothers to lose her permanently. Her temporary absence had been difficult enough.

Heartened by Mireille’s willingness to engage with her, Meerkat mused, You seem like quite the adventurous and worldly type, Mireille. I was kind of the same way, when I was your age. But she said no more on that, self-conscious that the pup wouldn’t be interested in the comparison.

Instead, she took a couple breaths and wondered, Where were you headed, before I tripped you up?

<3 lets not fade this one after all lol (unless u want!) 

"well." mireille's ears tipped backward. "i was comin' to look for you, actually." there was a pause as she searched the woman's face.
adventurous. worldly. did she feel that way here too, in sapphique? or had it only been when she was a girl?
mireille, who had been reared by and around elder sisters, did not think meerkat so much older than herself. call it vanity. "i know my brot'ers ahh. dey do not welcome new ones. none of us like change." her ears splayed. she did not want to offend. "sapphique seems so far from everyt'ing. maybe dat is part of why." she scuffed at the sand, looking to meerkat once more. "dey have to know you are not here to shift t'ings around."

Happy to continue!

Meerkat didn’t know what to make of that answer, so she said nothing. She tried to ignore her misgivings, even as she hung on Mireille’s every word. When the girl finished, she remained silent, not entirely sure what to say. She sensed that Mireille was extending an olive branch of sorts on her siblings’ behalves and, any other day, she probably would’ve graciously accepted it. But today, she wasn’t in the right mindset.

She really ought to bow out of this conversation, she knew. But apparently Meerkat couldn’t resist her morbid curiosity, as she quietly wondered, What do you mean when you say ‘shift things around’?

She wasn’t out to get anyone, though she couldn’t say nothing would change. Of course things would change, hopefully for the better. She and Njord were writing a new chapter for themselves here in Sapphique. There was room for everyone, in her book. She understood that change could be difficult and Meerkat wanted to accommodate for that, though there was a point where Njord’s kids really ought to grow up.

"take our da." she studied meerkat. "none of my older brot'ers stayed here. my mot'ers made chacal leader." she took a breath, swallowing harshly.
whatever she said next might be a betrayal. her mind told her it was disloyal. but she could not bear to see her brothers so distant, so miserable.
and if they continued to be cold toward both njord and his bride, then neither would be able to coexist. either sobo and loko would leave, or njord would. 
she saw with a shocking moment of women's revelation that her growing brothers' refusal to accept this as their mothers had was a direct threat to the structure of sapphique.
but mireille was not old enough to understand how best to articulate this. and so her frustration showed for a moment before she took a breath. "i do not understand it myself. but i believe dat dey need our da in a different way. dis be a place of women. coraline an' i are part of de women. an' if da njord ... changes more. if he leaves, den dey will never forgive."
she squared her shoulders. "it feels like all of dis happened while i was gone. i came home an' it was all different. but i do not t'ink it is your fault."
i think it is mine.

The answer didn’t surprise her. Meerkat even understood the fear, though wasn’t her presence in Sapphique proof enough that they intended to build their future right here? That’s what they both wanted, though she waspishly thought to herself that perhaps she would give the boys their wish and abscond with their da, let them live with the consequences of their self-fulfilling prophecy.

She set that petty thought aside and drew in a breath, ears tipped gently toward Mireille as she tried to explain a perspective which clearly wasn’t her own. Meerkat could appreciate that, even if she didn’t wholly trust it. She even felt a little sympathy when the Topaz mentioned coming home to a changed Sapphique.

We have no plans to leave, Meerkat said, now feeling a little bit like she was preaching to the choir. She smoothed out the stiffness she could hear in her voice when she continued, My only plan is to build a life with your da here in Sapphique. The only things I’m taking from anyone are his attention and time. Granted, I get that it can be hard to share that, especially with a stranger, but I deserve a chance.

She hadn’t really meant to say that last bit. She sucked in a loud breath, trapping it in her chest a moment before veritably exhaling the words, But I appreciate you taking the time to give your—your brother’s, rather—perspective, Mireille. Really. You can tell him what I said. Maybe he’ll hear it, if it comes from you. Sobo, I mean. I haven’t even met Loko. I assume he’s avoiding me, which was probably unfair, but even Coraline had been chilly toward her, so it wasn’t without grounds.

i deserve a chance.
perhaps it was here that mireille in her youth realized that meerkat was maybe hurting. maybe it was her young age, but empathy was not so forthcoming. "dey hurt your feelin's." she set her mouth. there was nothing more to be said, maybe, but the look she gave meerkat was encouraging. acceptant. 
the daughters of sapphique had a place promised.
abruptly she straightened and shook sand from her red fur. "if you be meanin' to stay here, den you should learn how to hunt on de beach." the girl waved her tail. "maman — bot' of dem — say dat de sea can always feed you, no matter how hard de winter is."

Meerkat sighed slightly in response, neither confirming nor denying the observation. She didn’t look at Mireille for a moment, though when she did, she was somehow reassured by the weight of the young girl’s gaze.

Yes, both your mothers have shown me, she assured Mireille, but I still have much to learn, if you’re offering to teach. Meerkat offered a tentative smile, wondering if maybe some honest work and a solid meal might help dispel the little black cloud following her around today.

<3

pleased that meerkat seemed amenable, mireille led her da's new companion along the strand. as the girl had done with bridget, she taught the older wolf about clams and how to find their location. she showed meerkat a frozen tidepool with small fish caught underneath the ice. and though today she would not brave the thorns of the sea urchins, she led meerkat to them as well, explaining that their eggs were a rich treat.
maybe she would lift that look from meerkat.