Dragoncrest Cliffs freaking booties speaking to the cuties so belligerent

is it ok to backdate to a few days after roz comes home? <3

val sought @Chacal.

shortly after bringing rosalyn home, val had come down with fever. his fault; he'd not rested sufficiently since the sundering of sapphique.

it took two days for the fever to abate. thirsty beyond reckoning, val headed for the pond hoping somewhere along the way he'd catch sight of chacal.

absolutely <3

In her spare time, she made her den ready for the next batch of pups, though there was little spare time to find. Rosalyn needed to be tended to, and Chacal awoke every morning with the fear that she might go to the Roja den and find that Rosalyn was no longer there. Sometimes, she dreamed still that her mother was missing; sometimes, she dreamed that her Maman was still alive. Caught between the two, her sleep was full of tragedy. 

She went to the pond in search of fresh water after having cleared old pelts and chewed-up treasures that belonged to her current brood. They could take them as they pleased- but her nesting instinct demanded that she fill the den with soft, fresh fur, feathers, and pelt that would soften the floor for squirming pups. 

Looking a tad worse for wear, she spotted Valravn ahead at the pond. Her tail swayed as she approached, her belly hanging low. They had yet to speak about the stranger, Svalinn- but he had returned to them, exhausted, after having gone to fetch not only Mireille from the island, but Rosalyn as well. 

She saw him still as her brother, and with every bit of fondness that she could summon from her heart. To him, she crooned an affectionate tone, as she moved to his side. While she led the pack now, she still felt most comfortable when she could simply go back to being her brother's little shadow.

so sorry for the wait <3

val drank from the water. a long pause stilled him as he looked at his reflection.

tired. older.

the croon of his sister woke him from his reverie. he turned upon her with a small smile and a low wag of his tail. she too looked tired; her belly grew each day -- something that gave val a feeling he could not put into words.

he closed his eyes and pressed his head to hers. sapphique had many wounds, and they all healed so slowly.

ouffff samesies <3 sorry for the wait on my end as well!

Chacal leaned against Valravn for a moment, smiling faintly despite the heartache they shared. She felt grateful he had returned to Sapphique, and hopeful he would stick around. She wanted him to feel integral, important. She felt she needed him to know just how much he meant to her.

”My Valravn,” she chimes in a low, affectionate tone. She pulled back slightly, just so she could see his expression, watching with caring eyes. 
”’Ow you be feelin…Knowin’ what you know, from de man Svalinn?”

their embrace lasted a moment longer. it was genuine and true. he felt his muscles soften like meltwater.

sapphique had always been there for him. chacal too — in more ways than he felt he deserved. when she pulled away he studied the seriousness of her expression. the topic, along with the progenitor of such knowledge, surprised valravn.

you know? wearied conflict settled about his shoulders. his whole identity had been uprooted that day. i be thinking it explains a lot. what do you think of it all?

”Explains a lot?” She intoned, curiously. She felt, if anything, it had not made sense. Valravn had felt so much like a part of her family- so much like someone she had loved for her whole life, and who had always come back from his travels to be greeted with feverish happiness. 

”I t’ink you be my Val, 
An’ dat I will be always your Chacal.
You be family, an’ you be Sapphique so true,
Though I remember de time of Rusalka, an’ Raleska, too.”

She paused. 

”De one t’ing that seem a bit odd,
Is trying to tell myself we do not share blood.” 

Her cheeks flushed. Perhaps all this time, part of her had known- but had rushed to his side to be his shadow, his sister, nonetheless.

suppose val was chacal for a moment -- and could see the world from her amber-hued eyes. would it look the same? would it be tinged with shadows the way his world was, or did she see it in shades of transcending gold?

he looked to the ground with his brow furrowed. what she spoke was her truth, and a glimpse into her world -- but in truth, val had always felt the failure.

you fit into sapphique perfectly; it was made for you. he inhaled the briny air. chacal had so poetically sung her truth and here he was, tripping over his words as if they were ugly stones. i think of how strong maman was -- that is not me. his lips turned in a sorrowed smile. maybe choosing our family is better than being born into it. he thought of erzulie and how she had chosen to take him as her own while his own blood had forfeit him. what was there to say for that? we do not need to share blood to be family.

Though she listened to him speak, quiet and attentive, never once could she remember a time where she had considered him less a member of their pack for the way his heart drove him to wander. She wondered if finding out his true biological ties made him feel as though some of his feelings made sense. She hoped it might- and that he might forgive himself for not fitting the ideal that he'd seemingly created, and that he felt he didn't fit. Chacal, on the other hand, had never seen his absence as something that acted as a demerit. 

"You leave, sometimes, but so does de tide.
An' when you return, you come back to my side.
You fight wid Sapphique, an' bleed for 'er too-
de blood of Sapphique comes also from you.
As for a choice- it never needed to be made.
You are my brot'er always, dat will never change."

bemused to be compared to something so impossibly powerful as the sea, val smiled. but he liked what chacal said, and in a way it fit perfectly against his own measurement of himself.

de blood of sapphique comes also from you.

that is the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me. val boxed chacal gently, feeling his nagging troubles from moments before begin to ebb away. i'll try to remember you said that the next time you eat all my breakfast.

"I will eat your breakfast any day,
dat you need a reminder dat I feel dis way.
Is a win-win, no?" 

She chuckled, and elbowed him gently. She considered, then, that perhaps he might need a reminder every now and again, which she was more than willing to give. His fever had obviously weakened him a bit, but it seemed that there might be something deeper that needed attention, and she would do everything she could within her power to make sure that she was the best sister she could be.

she is so good to him <3

could val expect any less from chacal? her cheeky rejoinder left him grinning -- as if she needed more reason to eat his breakfast!

in truth, the boy did not mind it. whatever was his was sapphique's, and that extended on some unflinching level to chacal, his sister, always -- regardless of what truths they may learn about each other along the way.

he splashed gently at the water then, bounding back from her playful shove. in that case, i will have to eat breakfast more often. val surmised, rising to wag his tail. i could eat -- fancy visiting the cache with me? last one there has fishbreath. he did not wait for an answer before he was gallivanting off; while the fever had weakened him and she would make easy work of his slow pace, he felt a surge of playfulness that had not visited him in some time. was that what it meant to grow old, then? did one lose their sense of child-self along the way?

She squinted when he splashed water in her direction, but otherwise did not shy away. The spray of oceanmist had become something she was accustomed to, and this was fresh water. Regardless, she took his comment as an indication that perhaps he might need to hear more often just how much he meant to Chacal, and to the pack. She wanted him to feel the same sense of belonging she believed he should have. He was just as much a part of their world as she was, and she wouldn't let him forget that. 

Nor would she let him get away with insinuating that she had fishbreath by taking a head start. She definitely did have fishbreath, and she was going to breathe it all over him once she caught up with him, and raced him to the cache, taking care not to bolt ahead and steal the glory for herself. As competitive as she was, she'd learned the value in having someone to run with, rather than to run ahead of.

AAWWW SHES SO SWEET

the two of them surged down the dirtpack path. for a moment val was transported back in time -- he almost fancied he heard the laughter of maman as they sprinted, two darkling cubs again off on some hectic errand. back when the world was still some immense adventure to be explored, and before val had supped his first taste of all the bitterness life had to offer.

he noticed chacal was steadily keeping pace with him. he canted an ear back, unaware of her thought-process but fully cognizant that she was in many ways much faster than him. he slowed just enough that her shoulder might pass his, and then he aimed a little nip at one of her legs before he bounded away.

In spite of becoming Tanzanite, it was simply natural for her to feel most like herself, and her inner child, when she was Valravn's shadow. Here, she was with family- and recent truths brought to light had no effect on those memories. Those truths faded away, as if failing to be recognized at all by the reality that in all the important ways, Val was her brother. He was one of very few still present who had been a childhood friend to her. Her earliest, happiest memories emerged whenever she tailed by his flank, content to hand over their direction in life and follow him on their next adventure. 

Until he egged her on, of course. 

Because in light of all that lovey-dovey sibling connection stuff, he was still her brother and as such, could be an absolute pain in the ass right when things were meant to be comfy or sweet. No other would ever take Valravn's place as the lead aggravator in her life because she would never tolerate such belligerence from another without taking it too seriously and threatening to boot them from the cliffs. It didn't matter that he'd been feeling unwell earlier, anymore- he knew the risks of pushing her buttons and clearly had thought it worth the chance.

Yowling, she dove forward, intending to shepherd him so tightly at his hip that they both might go toppling over if their legs should cross.

*cackles*

the moment of reverie came to a close; val was pulled from his nostalgic musings and the world, sharp and heavy as ever, rose acutely to the forefront. his mother - all mothers - dead. his status in sapphique. the bear. every bad memory resurging to the forefront, but then shortly after, every good memory too.

he was clubbed in the hip, brought immediately from any fancy introspection. chacal, ever his sister, was also ever his leader and superior in many ways. he grunted, knowing better to respond in equal measure. all the same a cheekiness came to his features as he bowed down, aiming a feint nip at chacal's front limbs before his loss of balance took over.

I love their sibling dynamic. <3

She yowled, turning up the dramatics in much the same way a house cat will when begging for food. At heart, she enjoyed the teasing- but she was absolutely going to milk the situation for all it was worth as was her duty as Val's sister. He would get away with absolutely nothing and she would scream at him like an adolescent girl. Any casual bystander might've looked on and worried for Val's wellbeing- until they found out that this was just the typical, comedic bickering of littermates. She thrived on it. 

Of course, going all in on the chasing and screaming had its downsides and when he went tumbling his spinning legs caught her and sent her to the ground as well, though she knew to tuck her chin in and allow herself to roll with the momentum. She flipped over a couple times in the sand, until she felt herself slow enough to reach out, and try to grab Val so she could blow a wet raspberry against his cheek.

me also <3

tumbling earthward val tucked his chin in the manner of chacal. the ground came fast; a flurry of dust rose around them.

they slammed to a halt in unison, the warm breath and spittle of chacal’s raspberry ringing in his ear. oi! fishbreath! val slung a paw towards his ear in progress, wiping chacal’s drool down any part of her he could reach.

then he was off again, the cache just within eyesight and many more appetizing aromas hung in the air than that of his sister’s breath.

”Oysterbrain!” She hollered back as though deeply offended by his insult. She flopped over onto her feet and paused for a moment to shake the dust from her pelt, the rising cloud hovered about her as Val bolted off. She sneezed and staggered sideways from the force of her sudden expulsion of breath before she trotted after him. 

Sapphique was a haven for snackers- with the shoreline prime for scavenging, finding a small meal rarely took much time at all, though it could be particularly pungent if seafood ended up stashed inland. 

She inhaled, interested to see if she could guess by scent what might’ve been stored nearby.

val cackled, for oysterbrain was a far more devastating insult, and he vowed to utilize its heavyhanded bravados some point in his future.

behind him chacal sneezed and trotted off with a stumble. by now val was nosing vigorously along the soft earth, occasionally scratching a score of claw marks in the damp dirt.

somewhere in the cache was the inviting musk of deer— val began to dig. a spate of dirt was flung behind him just as he heard chacal approach; pausing, he turned around with a feinted ooops. as if he had not just deliberately aimed at chacal’s person.

She circled and zig-zagged, hoping she might scout out the cache before her brother did- but she looked up just in time to see him begin to dig, catch the mischief in his side-eye, and then catch a face full of dirt. She shook her head and snorted, squinting at the sting of dirt and debris in her eyes, issuing an indignant mare-squeal. She sank to the ground to rub hastily at her eyes with her forelimbs, uttering quiet curses to herself before she stood and staggered toward him, blundering into his flank as her still sore eyes watered. 

She dropped to the ground in a huff, turning her shoulder to him and flicking her ears back. Because of what he'd done, she expected him then to dig up the cache all by himself, and share it with her as an apology.

the marish squeal behind him announced his prank was well aimed — but any joy he felt was thieved as he realized his aim had been a little too sure. the welt of dirt across chacal’s face and the well of  water in her insulted eyes told him he’d caught her full bore.

for de highness. val declared in his best erzulie imitation, placing the thick bough of a deer haunch he’d found at chacal’s feet with a grand flourish and an almost apologetic look.

forgive him?? y/y

their rough play rounded out to a patrol of the borders. val would relive this moment for a long time -- few wolves understood him the way chacal did, and there was a comfort in her presence he treasured forever.

fading here <3 hope that is ok! would love an updated one soon :D