Dragoncrest Cliffs wilder

no rush, can even be a read only type if you wish and can wait until after our other thread too. entirely flexible, just wanted it up <3
set the morning after this

she would go to @Erzulie before she departed. not wishing to leave the obsidian without a word of departure. it would be best to leave soon, to come back no longer than a moon perhaps. there was too much awaiting her in sapphique that she could not risk being away forever.

perhaps it would be of no surprise that she came with a gift between her jaws. a piece of fresh meat from her hunt with the traveler, she did not know how well the expecting mother could handle food but...surely it would be seen as a gesture of good will all the same.

it is best if travel now, i think, uncertain of herself now. wavering in her sudden decision to brave into a conflict not of her own. if it is too much or too long, i will come back. i do not want to be gone more than one moon any way.

she would await any thoughts or input. toes flexing as grains of sands embedded into her paw pads.

erzulie stood over the cliffs. she breathed slowly: in through the nostrils and out through the mouth. her pains were beginning but the experienced mother knew it would be some days yet.
jorunn now. the smell of meat turned her stomach. one moon. "i will not be so fat when you return," erzulie jested, at last turning her mintglow eyes upon the other. "you will be safe?"

fat, she scoffed in humor at the seamother's words. it was not a fatness that clung to her. it was life, blooming and blossoming.

jorunn envied it.

of course, she breathed softly in response. chest heaved with emotion. i look to help, but i will not hurt for it. a slight shake of her head. that was not her wish at all.

will you?

"i will worry."
it was as much an admission as erzulie would make. the seawife ached for the cold water. 
a bristle of pain rode low and dull along her spine. the woman's jaw tightened and her eyes closed for a moment.

perhaps it was not hers to know, but the ache in her chest died to know. to press further into the mind of erzulie.

what of?

of her? of herself? the babes within?

jorunn could fill the blank with many things, but guessing had done nothing but hurt her in the past.

"you."
she thought of rosalyn. her eyes opened once more. "come wid me to de water. please."
walking would stave off the pain — or start her again.
erzulie turned and sought a path that would wend from the high rocks down to their beach. for once she was grateful for the focus — the attentiveness she must have that kept her eyes off jorunn.

her chest only ached further. perhaps it was the answer she wanted to hear, but it did not soothe to hear it.

jorunn would be silent in her acceptance, the shadow of erzulie in the way she had been times before. in walks to the water. in hunts. in patrols and guarding from visitors.

the pearl too kept her gaze on the oceans, the swallowing of waves. thought of all she had been taught on these shores.

the water, lapping at her ankles. she felt jorunn's presence and took solace in it before guilt swept to eat at her marrow. the obsidian moved deeper into the waves, but she would no longer dare to go under. pregnancy changed one's weight and shifted the delicate balance of water versus flesh.
she did not know how yet to feel about the lives she carried.
and yet she would not risk them.
"what sort of people would take children?" she mused aloud, reaching for the pearl's voice.

selfishly, she did not wish to discuss the trip — or perhaps whatever awful thing awaited her in the south. but there certainly were things to discuss about it. like how it would be her first time truly away since being here and the type of wolves that would greet her when she offered aid in rescue.

maybe jorunn had oversold herself in show of good faith.

but it was too late to beg to stay home now instead.

bad, terrible kind. she answered. a bleak truth. but it is why i need go, no?

as if she needed to build a suit of armor around herself from her nobility.

erzulie smiled but it was a lukewarm gesture.
"sapphique has never fought battles for ot'ers. it was only last year dat we became more aware of de happenin's in ot'er places. if i did not know her daughter, i would not have agreed to send you."
she turned more fully toward jorunn now. "have you fought before?"

jorunn thought of asmodeus at the question.

that had not been a fight, had it? he had bent to her teeth and she had tasted his blood.

he had fled and never returned.

not like this, the truth. she had not muddied herself with the dangerous affairs of other. i tell you the truth. that i will not hurt for this cause, though. the sea still needs me.

jorunn knew she could not promise no harm, but she knew she would not die there. not if she could help it.

"the sea still needs you."
the words were repeated aloud. her voice filled with a brief pain as cramps rippled along her flanks.
"ask for what you need. if you be goin' to help, they should give you herbs. huntin'. whatever it is you need."
the two-toned eyes were warm upon jorunn.

jorunn features cracked only with the barest of smiles. tentative, fragile. emotionally aware enough to know this was a tender moment.

possibly death by overly noble war was not something to smile for.

give and take, she offered sincerely. an understanding of what erzulie asked.

it will be over before we know, she sought to assure. voice as hushed as it could be to still be heard over the waves. promise you will not worry too much?

her eyes were back upon jorunn.
she did not want the woman to go.
there came a wry grin. "i will try." for you.
the preparative pains came again and she winced, tilting crown skyward.
"i must rest now, jorunn." 
"i will await your return."
erzulie could no longer linger despite what she wished.