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Autumn had come to the Teekon Wilds. The forests had ignited with golds and patchy reds, the ground was covered in a thin layer of fallen leaves, and the biting wind of winter held fast to it's heels. Somehow the summer of plenty had become a great disaster for the Sveijarn family - none more affected than little Larus. The blitz attack by the lynx had been too quick to counter. That had been days ago though, and the hours were bleeding together for the boy.
He was lucky, in a way. Lucky to have escaped the angry mother before any true harm came to him. But this luck was balanced by the sharp pain of each step, for the cat had cut deep grooves in to his legs in her great reaching attempt to take him. A patch of fur between his shoulders was missing, with the skin puckered and red from her teeth. Larus didn't know how he escaped - he barely understood how he was taken to begin with - and thus it was with bewilderment that he now stumbled through the white-barked trees around him.
In the first day with the cat, he learned not to make a sound. The lynx was more irritable when he whined or cried for help, and would hold fast to the boy's scruff while carrying him. To avoid unnecessary discomfort the boy adjusted quickly. He remained stoic in the face of danger. Daddy will find me. He thought, in those first frantic hours when the action died down. Or mommy. Mommy won't let anything happen.
But nobody came. It didn't help that the lynx was so adamant about moving; she would either pull little Larus along by her teeth, carry him as he naturally tucked beneath her, or hiss and yowl and threaten until he moved on his own. It was a lot like the adventure to the glacier - except with a few fleeting glances, Larus had watched his new home dwindle behind him, until it was only a streak of white against the horizon.
And he was here now. Somehow. Stumbling through the trees on his way west, although he had no idea what direction was. Larus was aware of some very basic things: the hunger in his tummy, the migraine that pounded in his head, and the sensation of the rain as the sky began to sprinkle. The awe caused by the sudden rainfall was soon replaced by a new kind of unhappiness - he was soon too damp to feel any kind of glee when witnessing the rain. The drops touched upon the leaves within the great boughs above, lending a pale applause to the boy.
Almost like the trees were pleased by the company.
She froze then when she thought she scented lynx on the air -- the rain made the scent vague and she whirled around in the small clearing, mud splattering up her underside in the flourish. Sharply she stiffened and struck toward the scent consumed with aggression -- she was much too small to handle a lynx on her own, but if there was one thing cats didn't like, it was instability.
And Caiaphas happened to be very unstable.
She was disappointed when she spotted not a cat but a pup -- who laboriously churned through the downpour in the most dejected manner. She approached him then with her muzzle low and her fierce yellow eyes level with his own -- her voice barely a threaded whisper over the deplorable drizzle. "Poor thing -- poor thing." She cooed, pulling closer as if to wrap an arm around him. "This little one is lost."
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The week spent with the lynx wasn't that bad. She fed and watered him sparingly, but it was enough to keep him moving. It was entirely possible - and actually quite likely - that Larus would've perished if the lynx had abandoned him at any point. She was a volatile beast, but her hatred had kept her attentive to his care; Larus had come to appreciate the roughness of her tongue when she tried to clean his wounds. But he was alone now. Very painfully alone. As the boy paced across the wet forest floor, he couldn't help but think, 'How did I get here?'. If he had stuck with that cat, however erratic she was, maybe his parents would've found him.
Larus sniffed sharply, drawing his emotions inside along with some rain which dribbled down his snout. He sniffled and tried to keep himself composed despite the lack of company he held. Back at home he had been a crybaby - a weak little cherub who relied heavily upon his siblings and his parents. Something steeled within him now, catalyzed by the crisis that the boy now faced, so he held in his desire to sob and wail. 'I can't be loud, the scary cat might come back.'. He knew this. He trusted his gut as the thought presented itself within his mind: stay quiet, stay safe.
But he wasn't quiet enough.
As the child sought a path over a cluster of slick exposed roots, as he scrambled to gain purchase against the wet and mossy bark and lift his sagging belly over the obstacle, there came a sound. It was dull at first - and somehow familiar, as the intensity grew. Thinking suddenly that the feline had found him after all, Larus ducked and stumbled, falling backwards in to a pile of leaves which barely cushioned his body. The sound was a growl, but it wasn't the lynx that had found him.
Poor thing -- poor thing.
The stranger murmured, and Larus swiftly picked up on the voice. Leaves and dirt clung to his sodden pelt, and a greater layer of detritus attached itself when he was suddenly pulled close to the stranger. He was stupefied - fearful of course, as it was his natural state, but also excited. It was childish to believe that this was a member of his parent's new family, but he entertained the thought. This little one is lost.
He was close enough to the stranger to bury his face within her fur, which Larus did without much hesitation. While dominated by a wave of various emotions it was impossible for the child to ignore his need for comfort, for physical contact. Her fur was damp like his own, but there was a familiar scent to it - like the river which ran alongside the old den. Larus was ignorant of the existence of the ocean at this point, else he may have recognized the saline quality of the scent. His hopes were raised tremendously at this discovery.
With his face and body still buried as close to Caiaphas as possible, Larus' voice was muffled as he tried to ask the most important question: Ah yr hrr tuh tah me hmm?
This of course caused him to gather the stranger's fur in his mouth and fail at expressing what needed to be expressed. So he pulled back, peeking over a mound of the woman's fur with his golden eyes shining with gleeful tears. Are you here to take me home?
She was not expecting him to so fully embrace her -- she hissed and immediately recoiled, her eyes white-rimmed with some savage agitation. But he was still there, as if clenched to her chest -- and for a moment she thought she could feel his heartbeat between her spindly sternum. His question was ludicrous -- yet no bemusement was exposed to her countenance. She peered at him then, noting the soft flush of gold that painted gently his juvenile features. "To a cat? I don't think so." She trilled, a snort issued in rebuke. She had no intention of extending any sort of kindness to him nor his family -- in fact, she had nearly entertained the idea of eating him.
She rose then to leave him, uncaring of his fate in the downpour. But as she turned she recalled that the Sound was woefully short of willing men -- and slyly she turned back with a new purpose in mind. She lowered her head once more, her jaws parted as a wicked smile unfurled across her ugly visage. "Sure kid, I'll take you home." With a cackle she did not wait for a response -- and instead positioned herself behind him in the hopes to clutch his tender and raw scruff in her mouth and carry him.
Edit: Oh nooo emotionsss.
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Children were woefully ignorant, and in many cases woefully trusting. Larus was not usually so quick to accept the circumstances - he fought with all the hardiness of his being to avoid the move to the glacier, to avoid the attention of his sisters, to get eaten by the big scary lady - but he was desperate. And the witch named Caiaphas would be the first to take advantage of this fact. She was suddenly standing over him, looming, and filled with gleeful intent; her abrupt removal from Larus' proximity made him squawk at first, to crane his neck and watch her move about. And then she was making a promise - or what he percieved was a promise - and scooped him up, just as eager as the lynx.
And the boy did not protest. He felt the pinch of her teeth as she grabbed at the raw parts of his neck, and folded in to a lump that hung from her black jaws. The boy relaxed within her company - accepting that he was going home and allowing his exhaustion to overtake his system. Before Caiaphas even took her first step, the pendulum-boy was breathing easy... And began to drowse. His mind proffering up images of his siblings and parents, who he fully intended to visit when his rescuer returned him to their side. Oh, how he missed them - but it wouldn't be long now.
'I'm coming, mama.'
She rolled her shoulders in a shrug and struck off, her head bowed against the elements and her tail flat behind her. Her trot was lofty, almost jarring -- and she picked and pieced her way over large gnarled roots and fallen boughs until she saw the shore-line between the trees.
It was then she stopped, noticing how silent the youth had been. "Hey... you are not asleep, are you?" She tried to mutter, but her voice was suppressed by flesh and fur and all that came out was a series of disconnected and undecipherable mumbles. Her ears laced back in annoyance and she shook her head rather abruptly to wrench him from his comforting sleep.
Without explanation she dropped him rather unceremoniously, whether or not he had awoken yet, she did not care. She strode past him assuredly, walking smoothly on the sand towards the mouth of her ugly grotto. It sat half-sunk by the tide and looked most dark and formidable -- and Caiaphas disappeared into the mouth of it as if swallowed by shadow.
There was no way to recognize if they were heading in the correct direction. This was something Larus did not think about at all. While he hung from the woman's grip, his mind drifted. The littlest Sveijarn thought of Valtyr and how glad he'd be to see his brother again; he pictured Maera and Jokull, pining after the abrasive manner with which they played with him - the sensation of Maera laying her head on top of his pudgy sides as they drifted to sleep. Above all, Larus wanted his mother. And as the pair moved through the trees and towards the rocky terrain of the coast, the child began to slumber in earnest. He didn't hear the sound of Caiaphas' voice, nor feel the tremble of it through his skin.
But he was aware of the fall. When her jaws parted and his body was cast upon the ground he was jarred awake. The first thing he saw was the dark cave - the next, the subtle silhouette of the woman as she slipped inside. Larus sat for a moment and blinked away his confusion. For the briefest of moments the boy thought he was home. The Sveijarn family hadn't been too settled in to the glacier lands and Larus was cursed with a poor memory, thus in witnessing the cave he thought, 'I did it!'
Roused by the potential of seeing his family again, he was up on his feet and bounding in to the dark without a second thought. Valtyr?
He called in to the chasm, Mae? Jo? Mama?
With each utterance his pitch increased. Despite the pervasive darkness - and a very basic sense of alienation which crept up his spine - Larus was intent. And then his face slammed against his rescuer's legs, and he was brought right down to earth, literally and figuratively. His hopes, therefore, were completely dashed.
But he stirred and fumbled forwards, in the comic manner pups were apt to do. She flinched as he shouted into the cavern -- and petulantly she brought herself to the floor and covered her ears most irritably until he was done squawking into the gloom. "Done?" She hissed sourly as he collided with a hind leg -- she instantly hiked it upward as if to kick him. As he fell to the earth she rose fluidly upward, whirling upon him with an impish stare. "Home, right? You like it?"
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The boy sat in the dark and stared, at first not seeing Caiaphas or coltish figure, limb raised and all. She was as amorphous as his dreams, until pivoting and dropping her gaze upon him. Larus saw those eyes as disembodied glints of gold, filled with the same mischief as the lynx. What if this lady was actually a lynx in disguise?!
Home, right? You like it?
queried Caiaphas, in tandem with Larus' abrupt recoiling. He pulled away from her with as much enthusiasm as he had thrown himself towards her before.
With his timidity returning, Larus managed to answer but the sound was scattered, low and grim. N-no.
He chirped, No, no this isn't mine.
Where was Mama? Where were his siblings? It was dark in this big cave and - now that he was mindful enough to notice - it didn't smell at all like the home he was used to. Whether that was Swiftcurrent or Duskfire, he didn't take that in to account.
But what could he do? If his family wasn't here then... Then he was still lost. They were still looking for him. This lady had tricked him. Larus lost all of his enthusiasm at that point - he slouched, sank, and slumped against the ground like a limp fish. Moments later he was mewling softly to himself. I want mama, I want daddy, I want... I want..
Thus, the dam broke. Big tears welled up in the corners of his eyes and began to drip down his yellow face, pooling against the cave floor, where they were silently absorbed.
Caiaphas was many things, but a mother she was not -- and as he started to sniffle and cry she grew uncomfortable. Stiffly she scuttled back like a crustacean chastised, a low hiss escaping her lips as his sniffles evolved into a steady stream of tears -- tears of which Caiaphas was not interested and incapable of quelling.
"Shhh!" She jolted forward, the hiss harsh as it rebounded off the dark cave. "They'll hear us." Her eyes widened and she looked at the pudgy, runty creature squarely. For a moment, she remained still. Her posture stiff and fauxly worried. But without explanation she dove deeper into the den and darkness as if departing his miserable company.
There was no way to stem the flow of his sorrows, at least not initially. Larus was so taken by his emotions that he was near to bursting - his tears rivaling the rain that fell outside of the cave. He sniffled periodically, but these sounds were drowned out by his wailing first and foremost - and then Caiaphas' voice, as she attempted to shush him. The sound of her hissing was what roused further dismay from Larus; he was not accustomed to being chastised, especially from adults. So far in his life his parents had little need to discipline him. The frantic manner of his sobbing escalated, echoing off of the walls so that it took on a far more dramatic tone.
They'll hear us,
spoke the vile woman, swallowed up by Larus' wracking sobs. But he heard her, and with a few blinks to clear his vision he witnessed her departure. As she fled deeper in to the cave, Larus was faced with the uncertainty of absence. His sobbing eased somewhat when he realized how alone he was again. How dark it was, how cold it was, and the apparent threat of another. The boy didn't know what Caiaphas had been referring to when she left him... Only concerned with the fact that she was suddenly gone.
The boy sucked in a shaking breath, and then another, and another. Each brought him more control of his senses. A filigree of courage. As he rose to his paws, the boy looked to the cave's opening and the pale light outside - but did not entertain the thought of running away. The awful solitude was enough punishment. So he turned towards the darkness and began a careful exploration - wading deeper and deeper, until the flickering light was no more.
As she placed distance between them her pace slackened -- though in the darkness she was certain she heard a second set of footfalls, as if supplicating her own. She did not stop then -- not even as she heard Larus' snuffling behind her. It was not until they neared a giant precipice where the sun only barely pierced through the cave ceiling did she stop. She turned back to the small figure with a wave of her tail -- as if exposing the entire cave to his attention. Overhead blackened stalactites poured down in grim columns -- and flowstone sat beside them warped and sunken. The cave possessed the most eerie of lights in the appearance of small glowworms -- and in a circular pool in the middle of the cave the water lapped gently and hushed around the edges, black as unremitting darkness could be.
It was, in truth, a most gruesome and strange hole to hide in. The cave tunnel was long enough that one could surmise they were well underwater -- and in the silence one could hear the steady heartbeat of the ocean. "This is home, isn't it?" Caiaphas piped up suddenly, her voice loud and shrill as it bounced off the cavern's walls.
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He didn't know where he was going. It was dark and it was cold, darker and colder than anything he had experienced so far. Worse than the light rain (which, thankfully, had begun to dry from his pelt). The deeper he went, the more he needed to find Caiaphas - because he was alone again. His steps were punctuated by sniffles, and the occasional stumble due to not being able to see the stony ground. But he didn't stop, or turn around. Larus didn't know what lay out there in the dark and that made him very nervous; however, he was reminded of the lynx that lay in wait outside in the light, or at least the memory of it, and so he could not turn around.
Before long he was able to spot some more light. Was he back at the start again? Had he gotten turned around? Where was the lynx? With a leap and another stumble (a louder one), Larus hoped to find some kind of shelter from the dull glow emanating from the ceiling. He lurked out of view for a few moments, flattening himself against the cold sand and burrowing against a chunk of stone. When he felt assured of his safety he lifted his head, pointing his nose over a few low laying stones along one wall, and spotted Caiaphas. Her ragged silhouette was hard cut against the light, which was glowing around the fringe of her pale body like some kind of aura.
This is home, isn't it?
She called out, but the boy didn't answer at first. He listened to the echo with a curious tilt of his head - turning as if to watch her living voice repeat, repeat, repeat, until it was a distorted whisper. When Larus turned again he was braver. He made himself stand up properly and step out from the shadows, in to the light; although he was diminutive still, naturally inclined to keep himself small. Maybe he had said something wrong, and that was why she left. Maybe he was being mean and... And now he had to be nice. She had found him, and she had saved him from the lynx.
Yes.. This is home.
Larus squeaked back, finally. He hoped this acceptance would make her stay. He wouldn't be able to handle sitting in the dark by himself again. The boy couldn't avoid the feeling of betrayal he felt brewing in his chest, though. Without understanding what it was, of course. He only felt wrong for saying such a thing. Home was wherever his family was - meaning, not here - but for the time being he could only try and please his new friend.
In truth, Caiaphas was possibly not very well equipped to deal with a puppy.
But this realization was far from her mind -- she was most intrigued by his sudden switch of gears. She looked about her, noting how the walls were slick with grime and rife with all manner of monstrous constructs of moss and lichen. Even the glowworms had their own ominous pulse -- nothing about the cave was welcoming nor homely.
If she were more maternal she would have likely afforded some sort of care for the infant -- instead she brushed by him, stalking towards a small carving in the flat stone bed where she had made her own bed assorted by furs, sticks and all manner of marooned and shattered whelks. She curled swiftly into a ball and watched the pup from one half-lidded eye. It did not occur to her to ask him if he wished for food or water -- assuming all his needs were met, Caiaphas settled in her bed to sleep.
She moved through the dark without fear of it. If Larus was more of an imaginative sort of child, he may have said she was the dark; a black capped head and pale body, made more eerie by the pale body attached. Her eyes were floating specks of gold that sneered down at him in passing, so he shrank back - but moments later, Larus was following after her. Eager to have company, even if she was his only choice. When she positioned herself upon the floor, he only stared.
It occurred to him, kind of, that he needed sleep. That he was very tired after all the wandering and attention from the lynx. But this brought a new worry to his mind - Maera. How could Maera sleep without her pillow? Were his sisters finding comfort among one another, having forgotten him? Larus tread closer to the woman on the floor, slow and careful, avoiding pointed stones. He slouched and slumped with his rear planting itself against the cold cave floor, and then proceeded to mimic Caiaphas' own shape. He didn't sleep though. Without the warmth and comfort provided by his family Larus found the sensation of sleep to be alien. Invasive and disconcerting.
He would gradually drift off, of course. There was no iron will within him, and Larus could hardly protest the need to rest. Gradually his own eyes began to close - a tiny yawn wracked his body - and eventually he was drowsing. Occasionally, the boy would shiver or twitch in his sleep.
Instead, she was only aware that he was eventually nodding off. She smiled wickedly to herself, pleased with the day's work -- and like a lamplight extinguished her eyes closed and she too drifted into sleep.