Dragoncrest Cliffs has a share in brilliance and beauty

afternoon at the roja den.
their son and daughter were quite active in the springtime sunglow. she turned a fond look toward @Rosalyn.
"i am glad i chose dis." it was important despite the way the year had gone. she leaned toward her wife, unspooling a salted tangle from her shoulder.
"an' in de summer, you an' i will be takin' dat trip."

That trip.

She remembered vaguely a conversation, but not where they had spoken of going. Yet she was learning to allow these details to go past unsaid, knowing they would be revealed in time and were not important now. She did not care where they went, only that the thought of it warmed her.

Her eye tracked the children as they played. There was a time when she'd made an effort to keep her scars diminished in view, but that time was long past. It was that side that faced Erzulie, though she turned briefly to answer with a smile. Meerkat and Njord can watch them. Or Chacal. We've been lucky this year. Their pack had grown in size, strength, and closeness. Tensions existed, of course, but they were mere ebbs in the tide that formed the backbone of Sapphique. All pushed forward.

I think that choosing outside of the pack was right. It feels different. She turned her gaze back to them as they played.

"yes. it was better dat way." she would not regale rosalyn with the tale; he did not want to remember it and she did not believe her wife wanted to hear any details. their coupling with men was out of necessity, though erzulie felt she had enjoyed it more in the past than her mate.
she pushed on with her mind.
"de pack be so large. an' larger to come still." she looked pointedly at rosalyn, wondering if finally her wife might speak on the silent subject of njord and meerkat.

Rosalyn could easily read the additional weight behind the words, the implication buried within. It took her a moment to identify who exactly was meant, but the deduction wasn't hard. There was only one other tied in a way that would grow the pack.

Rosalyn had little opinion of it. She trusted Njord as much as she ever would and had enjoyed Meerkat's presence on a few occasions. She did wonder if they would last, and had viewed the wedding with amused bafflement, but other than that their business was their own.

If they and the children stay, it may be nice. You have thoughts? Her wife seemed to wish to speak about it, though Rosalyn's only doubt was that they would remain at length. So far their history in keeping such couples was abysmal. As much as she welcomed their presence, and appreciated their contributions, she had little desire to displace her own children in favor of another's. Erzulie, she assumed, felt similarly.

"i know dat i cannot force sobo an' loko an' coraline to see dat he be happy. i t'ink if dey continue, dey may run njord an' meerkat out." these words were spoken observationally. they were assumptions for now. there was time still to see what might happen. 
she nosed into the fur of her wife's nape and sighed a long sigh there, closing her eyes for a gentle moment.
"i not be worried about de children to come. only how ours might feel."
they would be half-siblings to her own. she could not see a way how sobo for instance might embrace them as anything else. "an' part of me is worried dat dey will not be de ones to leave, dat it will be de boys."
how good to speak with such directness to her beloved rosalyn.

She did not realize it was more than just Sobo. Coraline and Loko were less pronounced to her in their differences, and she'd attributed them to other things. Coraline had been attacked, Loko punished for his trips to the Sound. The fact that this cursed place drew his interest set her hackles on edge, for reasons she couldn't entirely voice, but at least the pack eyeing the claim had moved on. Smart of them.

I don't know why it is so hard to stay, but maybe that comes with years of wisdom. She answered, somewhat teasingly. It wasn't exactly a light matter but after so many heartaches, so many departures, she felt Erzulie would understand. They were content here, but the children came and went like the tide.

Chacal has purpose here now. Maybe that is what they need too. They'd never had defined roles within before, based on the informal nature of the pirates she'd lived alongside so long, but Sapphique had changed. The wolves that lived here now weren't pirates, nor were the children they raised. They sought meaning.

Maybe they see nowhere to go, here. It wasn't actually something she'd considered openly before this moment, though it had lurked for a while.

rosalyn echoed her own fears. erzulie chose to face into the teeth of them. "dere not be a way for a man to lead here. we made sure of dat years ago." who could have known that the price of their end to masculine fighting would affect their sons to come?
maybe they both had known and maybe both of them had accepted it as an inherent truth. 
chacal's name smoothed her features. "she be representin' a new future for sapphique. an' she be fond of de boys."
perhaps she might bind male and female where rosalyn and erzulie had seen fit to break. it was not something that would be mended in their lifetimes, she felt.
"maybe instead of de caldera-pups finding a way here, ours will find a way t'ere for t'ose experiences."

Rosalyn smiled at her wife's words, though it was a mixed expression for her as well. Despite how it might affect their sons, she was proud of what they had built here. And ever since they'd made this decision, the pack had remained theirs and united. No men had come to fracture them.

Leading isn't the only purpose we could give them. She replied, though she didn't offer any specific alternatives. She knew there were other ranks and futures they could look towards, but she'd never explored them herself.

Her smile faded in part when Erzulie brought up the Caldera. At first she was confused... and then she remembered. Reyes. She did not like the idea of losing any more children to the inland draw. Their place was on the shore.

I hope not. If so, they owe us a return on all we've given them. Rosalyn replied. What sense she had of the place was unpleasant, and it hadn't been helped by Reyes' news about the mother of his children. If she ever met her face to face, the pirate would have words for the woman.

rosalyn was moved more differently than erzulie would have liked. but she understood the sentiments held by her wife. she herself had not forgotten, it only felt as though her own had lessened toward the caldera. and the ones who had once so warred were gone now.
she covered her beloved's paw with a brush of her own. "no more of dat." her eyes glinted. "do you want to hear old stories about de bayou?"
in whatever way, she would while the time with rosalyn always.

we can fade this if you like <3!

Aye. She smiled, letting the thoughts that she carried fall away at the promise of a tale of her wife's past. She did not ask for them often but they were always gifts that she would treasure.

Her own biases had been sharpened under the weight of years and repeated confirmation. Some grudges had been lost, others honed to points that would likely never dull. At this point she would look down at any who drew inland regardless. And no matter how she loved them, a part of her would never approve of her children's turning from the sea.