Dragoncrest Cliffs i’m hoping that after this fever i’ll survive

Finally, her spring fever cooled. Although reluctant to stray too far from the roja den, Meerkat needed some time to herself. She wanted to take a long, refreshing bath in the sea, then rest on the beach. She would return to her son’s side a restored woman, looking stoically to a brighter future for her family.

A brief spate of rainfall gave way to a watercolor sunset. Meerkat waded in the surf until she adjusted to the cold, then dove into the rolling whitecaps. She swam until the moon rose, then finally padded out of the dark sea to recline on the sand.

Glowing light bathed the cliffs, embellished by a winter shower, when the sun sank low towards the horizon. Even the dark bramble of the Tangle was not spared from dusk’s brightness. It cast long shadows across the ground like prison bars, through which Njord ran with urgency.

He squinted as the light flickered – changed. The pounding of his pawsteps drummed rhythmically with his heart. First, he careened by the Roja den… but there was no Meerkat. Then, their old place in the Greatpine… but still no sign of his wife.

Finally, he caught the seamother’s scent and hurried down towards the beach. By now, the moon had pushed the sun down into the sea, no different than two drowning animals fighting for air.

She was reposed on the sand, her fur still wet from swimming. Beautiful in the moonlight.

But her partner arrived in a state. Njord’s raw emotions pulled at his face. Deep brows were knit so tight that they overshadowed his eyes like a jagged cliff edge. The ire he felt was like fire in his veins… but great fear petrified his heart.

“Meerkat,” he stoped to take a gulp of air. “Tha bear is back. A woman crawled across our borders. Barely alive.”

She closed her eyes and breathed in the smells of winter’s night by the seaside. Her lungs burned with the cold, salty air. She shivered, opening her eyes to set about licking the moisture from her pelt so that she wouldn’t freeze here on the exposed dunes.

The soft thunder of footfalls caused her head to jerk upward, brow knitting when she saw her husband running toward her. She felt a flicker of annoyance. It was nothing personal, she was just exasperated and needed a few hours to herself. Was that so much to ask?

His harried words registered and Meerkat’s blood turned to ice in her veins. Her head snapped toward the distant den where her son and Quennell slept. She was on her feet and ready to hasten there to protect them from this threat. To hell with her “me time.” To hell with her life.

But she paused to parse Njord’s words and ask, Is it here? In Sapphique?

Meerkat was on her feet and Njord was right at her side, ready to run together despite his fatigue. They shared the same instinct: Swordfish and Quennell would be easy targets should Sapphique’s borders be breached. The father’s heart breaks at the thought of trying to stop an indomitable force from reclaiming his son.

Then, Njord’s mind spun as he tried to remember where he had has seen their other child, Stingray.

“Nay,” he growls in a low voice, “I went out a ways and didnae see it.” And he would have gone farther! “But I fear it cannae be far.” He suddenly loses his composure. “How could it not? The trail goes right to us!” His frustration from the conflict with Chacal spills out like a tipped-over beer.

She felt a flicker of dismay and fear when he mentioned going out and trying to locate the bear. Meerkat quickly bit back the impulse to berate him for this rash decision, just glad he hadn’t come into harm on this foolish pursuit. Besides, what did that detail matter with such a horrifying threat looming over them?

She couldn’t think but she could hustle. Together they entered the tunnel that would carry them to the far side of the lake. Meerkat bustled through it, uncertain what any of them could even do but sure of one thing: that bear would touch her son again over her dead body.

They emerged on the lake shore and Meerkat realized she was shaking. She was still soaking wet, not to mention scared. But she didn’t slow down, curving around the water’s edge toward the roja den. She could see its rocky silhouette ahead.

Only after she settled on the edge of the surrounding meadow to keep watch did Meerkat finally turn to her husband again to ask, Do the others know?

She realized she hadn’t asked about the poor woman at the borders. But surely someone had rendered aid. Her eyes bored holes in Njord’s face, awaiting further details.

Quick as the wind, Njord ran with Meerkat from one landmark to the next. Her intensity and focus rivaled her husband’s, who had eyes only for the dugout in the distance.

He looked around the snow-covered meadow. Quiet, except for the sound of their fast breaths.

“Aye, a few at least,” who had been stooped over the stranger? The memory was blurry, at best. “Erzulie, Etienne… Chacal…” his nose wrinkled, the tip of his fangs poked out from under raised lips.

“We argued,” he states pointedly without elaboration. “She invites danger onto us by permittin’ that woman onto our land,” his austere tone is licked with snarls. It was Njord’s belief that they were in imminent danger. He felt death on his skin. In his bones.

Abruptly, he turned to Meerkat.

“Mo chride,” he would squeeze her wrists tightly if she had them. “Ye must make me a promise. If any danger comes ye must take tha boys an’ go.” Only then does he feel her shiver.

Many of the pack’s most important members knew about the threat. Meerkat let out a long breath, then shivered again. She kept one ear cocked toward her husband, though she scanned their dark surroundings. Everything was quiet. It was difficult to comprehend the danger that lurked, unseen and unpredictable.

Her eyes cut sharply to his face when Njord mentioned an argument. Only now did Meerkat really take a moment to notice her mate’s agitated state. It starkly reminded her of a week past, when he’d growled at her. The way he rumbled about—she couldn’t be sure which leader he meant—made her stomach roll.

You argued? With who? she asked at the same moment he clasped her by the wrists and demanded a promise out of her.

But they can’t be moved, Meerkat blurted the first thought that occurred to her. Her face scrunched. How many times do I have to tell you, I won’t be parted from you? You and I—and the rest of the pack—will protect the boys.

This time, there was no anger behind the words, only determination and the love of a mother, a wife. She gently shook him off and then raised her forepaws to cup his face, commandeering his eye line. Meerkat didn’t say anything further, just stared into his soul for a moment.

Then she gently released him and looked around, saying, Maybe it won’t come here. Maybe it’ll smell us and leave…

With the night so calm around them, it was once again difficult to conceptualize the threat or what exactly they ought to be doing at the moment. Meerkat supposed they were already doing it: standing guard over their most vulnerable.

What did you argue about, exactly? she asked, trying to distract herself.

God bless Meerkat’s heart

Like Houdini, she artfully slipped from her husband’s vice – the color drained from his knuckles. She protested. Njord barely gets in a soundbite.

“Ye will find a way–” he objects under his breath.

Her touch brings some relief. The seafather’s cheek leans into the palm of her paw. Her gaze finds him. Some peace arrives.

Yet words fought to come out screaming. Njord finds the strength to release them quietly. After all, he promised himself never to raise his voice at Meerkat again.

“No,” the sound was more a moan than a statement. Njord woefully shook his head. Fight together? Protect he boys? He was alarmed to see she still entertained that fantasy. “If tha bear comes ye ken what’ll happen, Meerkat. How that ends.”

Would he be left clasping her hand, like she had Toad’s? He prayed that it would leave them be, as Meerkat hoped… but Njord felt violent things often found their end.

After a long pause, he continued. “With Chacal.” Njord’s expression was strained, impudent.

“The wolf was practically a carcass... reeking of sickness, blood, and bearscent. Tha others tended to her. I ran out tae find tha bear's trail but she wouldna let me go,” And maybe that part was reasonable.

“Yet she let the vagrant stay!”

His voice rolled into a growl. “I would never pick an outsider over my clan’s safety,” Njord reflected aloud. "If Etienne and Suzu 'ad been maimed... would she be so willing tae draw tha evil in?"

The more he spoke the more agitated he became.“She didnae fight Shardik. She doesnae know. Not really. Yer da, Kaertok, was one of the strongest we've ever had, an' he was cleft in two...”

Njord felt like the grizzled veteran and saw Chacal as a young man who had never seen war.

"She means tae let the bear follow the bloodscent just as that man followed her back to Sapphique." The more he spoke the more agitated he became. "Our son willnae be able to escape." And that was an honest fear in his heart.

If he had hands, they would have been balled in tight fists.

"Chacal said she doesnae trust in me anymore," A violent silence passed over him.

"An' I dinnae trust her either."

This time, she knew better than to take his refusal personally. Besides, it came out on a groan, tugging at her heartstrings. Meerkat understood why he protested. She also knew that Njord was right: there was no way the wolves would get away unscathed in a standoff with a bear.

But they didn’t have a choice. Swordfish and Quennell could neither fight nor flee. Evacuating them would not be easy. Meerkat didn’t even have to think about whether she would give her life to protect her son’s. She knew his da felt the same. The whole of Sapphique would stand with them.

Forgetting for a moment she’d just asked a question, Meerkat opened her mouth to say, We should call R— only for her husband’s cold, “With Chacal,” to strike her dumb.

Njord ranted, his anger flaring again. Meerkat listened, her heart sinking into her stomach at some of the things he said. The svelte Laramite couldn’t bring herself to blame Chacal for wanting to help the stranger, though she saw her husband’s point too. But this woman had already rung the bell simply by coming to their borders…

If it was anybody else, Meerkat wouldn’t have put much stock in to his concluding condemnations. She would’ve insisted they were only words said in the heat of the moment, nothing that could not be resolved after they dealt with the immediate threat. But with Njord’s history here…

Meerkat shivered. Her teeth chattered. She could feel the winter night stripping the heat from her damp body. Her insides had gone cold. She pressed in closer to Njord, though even his heat could not suppress the shaking. For a long time, she didn’t say anything. She couldn’t.

We need to protect the boys right now, she eventually whispered, her cheek tucked against his shoulder. After that…

Meerkat fell silent for a long time, then asked Njord, Do you trust me, mo chride?

Njord’s cage was still rattled by the hurtful things Chacal had said to him in the heat of their argument. He shivered with Meerkat as they pressed together, but the seaman’s trembling derived from duplicity he felt deep in his passionate heart. Day in and out he had worked to mend the wrongs he had inadvertently committed. By now, he had been back in Sapphique longer than he ever had been away – and still, she so easily severed any thread of trust left between them! All because she shouldn’t handle any criticism for her actions.

He felt unheard. Unprotected. Vulnerable. What was a father to do when a leader did not believe in the people that they shepherded? Njord’s lips curled with ire. He had given so much of his life to Sapphique…and now, their young Roja stood on the shoulders of the giants who rested in their graves, enjoying the silver spoon put into their mouths.

Meerkat’s words grounded her man.

Frosty clouds snaked from Njord’s mouth, body hot with emotion. If he had hands he would have clutched her shoulders and then rubbed them to help warm her. “Aye,” he agreed as his mind’s eye focused on the young men in the infirmary. From the complexity of his expression, it was clear there was more going on behind his oceanic gaze.

Silence passed between them, the vibration of their energy in quiet conversation. Then, she asked and Njord answered.

“Forever.”