Redtail Rise drive over the arrows and get a boost in speed
6 / 2 THREADS
506 Posts
Ooc — Chelsie
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#1
Paging @Avicus and/or @Prophet! @Augur also welcome but Aventus specifically needs a leader who speaks!

Arielle had been gone far too long.

Aventus felt it not only in direct ways — the loneliness and isolation he suffered, the lack of warmth and comfort — but in the ways it affected his sons, too. Would Atreus have grown to be less reticent and spiteful if Arielle was here to provide the comfort he couldn't? The boy spent long hours away from the pack. Aventus feared he would one day fail to return. Would Ancelin be learning herblore from her now and making a name for himself as an apprentice instead of being let down by his lackluster father?

Aventus was not one to worry. He knew how capable his wild wife was. Which was precisely why he was concerned about her prolonged absence; she would never have stayed away this long if things had gone according to her plan. Fear that she might have left him and their sons as a result of his neglect during her pregnancy crossed his mind once or twice, but Arielle was not the type to hide behind a false promise to return.

If she intended that, Aventus believed she would be direct. He didn't think that was what kept her away.

Climbing to a point midway up the rise and trying to ignore the brisk bite of the wind that plucked at his ears and nose, Aventus put out a low call for the leaders, intent on discussing the situation with them.
899 Posts
Ooc — mercury
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#2
Avicus is disturbed by Arielle's absence, too, and it weighs on her mind as she goes to speak to her brother. the two had come together, Arielle heavily pregnant. she'd stayed, birthed her sons, and left not long after.

had the Rise not been to her liking?

not that Avicus could do much about it, she notes as she spots Aventus's dark form up ahead. she gives him a chuff, slowly slackening her pace as she nears. she'd done all she could to make the woman comfortable. they all had, she thought.

now, Atreus seemed a living embodiment of their mad sire, and Ancelin withdrawn.

mm? she asks quietly, lifting her chin to examine her brother, while one ear swiveled against the wind to catch any sound of Prophet arriving.
but see, amid the mimic rout,
a crawling shape intrude —
a blood-red thing that writhes from out
the scenic solitude
298 Posts
Ooc — siv
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#3
A call.

He pressed a quick touch to Lilia's head and departed, a promise to bring something back with him. Perhaps he could send Relic her way for entertainment. Enrichment.

When she was stable, he could lead her in better things. Hunts and patrols. Send her off with the other children proper.

But his thoughts cut short as he came upon the sibling pair. Warm towards Avi before they drifted towards Aventus with curiosity and concern.
6 / 2 THREADS
506 Posts
Ooc — Chelsie
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#4
Two arrived. Aventus had expected Avicus, given what an attentive and present leader she was, but he wouldn't have begrudged Prophet for not bothering to make the trip. They weren't properly acquainted, even though Prophet was the leader of the warriors, and Aventus counted himself among those ranks. His own fault; he had been wrapped up in his sons and their myriad issues, and stood rather apart from the rest of the pack as a result.

Something for him to remedy. Someday.

Thank you for coming, he began, dipping his head lower in the presence of authority. This has become natural after nearly five months of living among Avicus and her wolves. I wanted to talk about Arielle.

She was not well after giving birth. Despondent, distant. His lips pulled down at the corners. He had only realized that when she said she wanted to go. She went to find her sister for a visit and was supposed to come back. Her sister was last seen in the vicinity of Akashingo, he tilted his head toward Avicus. She would remember the redsand pack, he thought. Arielle and her sister had met up there before the combined forces of Akashingo and Ursus had marched on the Saints. It was far from the Rise, but not so far as to account for this long an absence.

She should have been back by now. Perhaps from this alone, they could piece together what he had called them for, but Aventus paused now to give them time to respond, if they wished to. It was very possible Arielle's abrupt departure had burned a bridge.
899 Posts
Ooc — mercury
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#5
I'm sorry for the delay!

she meets Prophet's eyes with a fleeting warmth in return, then looks back at Aventus as he speaks. of course, it's about Arielle. how could it not be?

she reads between the lines. you wanna look for her, Avicus replies, and it's not really a question.

Avicus had done the same, a few times. to find Nyra, to find Karst. . . all that had been fruitless. nevertheless, she'd done it, and this woman to Aventus was far more important than any of her previous quests.

but the cold is coming, and they need hunters. her brow furrows in concern.

how 'hhlong? how far? she asks. she doesn't know; she'd departed the battle-that-wasn't and had gone north, and she hadn't been to Akashingo's mesa since before.
but see, amid the mimic rout,
a crawling shape intrude —
a blood-red thing that writhes from out
the scenic solitude
298 Posts
Ooc — siv
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#6
He understood deeply, in one way or another. Of course there was ever right to be considered about the wayward mother and he growing absence.

He felt he need not speak on this.

Avicus understood and that was what was important.

His gaze remained soft but attentive. Prepared to hear the answers of the Bitan.
6 / 2 THREADS
506 Posts
Ooc — Chelsie
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#7
As expected, Avicus picked up right where Aventus left off. Not for the first time, he ached for the relationship they once had, where they were two parts of a savage whole, sharing a brainwave, picking on the little kids of Ursus who never had a real place there.

But there was a little tension, he thought, in the way she said it. There was a little tension, he imagined, in Prophet's silence. He understood. Winter would soon rear its head and they needed all the teeth they could muster to feed the pups.

A week there, a few days to ask and look around, and a week back. It was a long time, he knew. After a long beat, he added, Ancelin and Atreus need more than I can give them. His shoulders sagged with the weight of admitting his quiet failure in hopes they would understand. He remembered his first look at his sons, the unexpected emotion that he had felt, but he did not know how to raise them with the love and care they needed. Atreus had shown him that he was both unfit and unwelcome.

They deserved better than the son of a madman who did not understand love.

They need their mother, and I cannot believe she would leave them on purpose. Perhaps she would leave him. Aventus knew he deserved it. But even if she did not want them, even if they were a mistake, even if the pregnancy had made her miserable, he could not believe she would abandon her sons.
899 Posts
Ooc — mercury
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#8
she nods, silent. she's not going to change his mind, or command him to stay. she can't, and doesn't want to. she can see the stress deep in the pools of his pale eyes, and if this could alleviate it somewhat, she'd be glad for it.

she needs him here. she needs him whole.

go, Avicus replies, with a brief, sidelong glance at Prophet. i hope you findh her.

half a moon or so would be okay, right?
but see, amid the mimic rout,
a crawling shape intrude —
a blood-red thing that writhes from out
the scenic solitude
298 Posts
Ooc — siv
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#9
Yes,

He exhaled in steady agreement. What a horrible situation to be placed in and Prophet would not hold the man back from finding what he needed. Who he needed.

Travel safe.

A dip of his head.

If that was all that was needed of him here, he saw no more reason to hold the man back from leaving. After all, their patrols would need to double in his absence.
6 / 2 THREADS
506 Posts
Ooc — Chelsie
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#10
With the blessing of both verbal leaders, Aventus dipped his head and left to make preparations. He spent some time hunting and caching small carcasses for his sons, then told both of them he was going to search for their mother and would be back in a little over a fortnight. There was no affection in the telling, and when he was satisfied and believed they would be safe and well until he returned, Aventus stole away into the wilds to search.