Wheeling Gull Isle blue flower

For the first time in his life, Everett was alone. For the second time, the ocean stretched on and on before him. For the third time, the lion had spoken.

The firebird who had led him here had long disappeared, concealed within the gray above the overcast sea. Strange, how such a bright creature could vanish so quickly! Strange, how such a small creature could stir such a yearning in his chest. An overwhelming need to cling to that feeling the sight of its beauty sparked. How desperate, how empty he felt when that beauty blinked out and away.

He needed to find it. The bird? The beauty? Something greater than both?

Only the dull gulls circled overhead — but Everett had seen where the firebird had flown. A rough stretch of land scoring the horizon.

He had not found a way across the night before, and had settled into a dreamless sleep, until something had jolted him early in the morning before the sun fully awoke, as dawn light began to filter across the sky. Everett looked this way and that, but he was alone, achingly so, despite the feeling that someone had shaken him awake.

It was then he saw the parting of the sea.

A delicate strip of sand within the low tide, stretching onward and out towards the isle.

And he remembered, then, that voice that had spoken. The bird who had led him. And am understanding clicked.

Go.

And Everett arose and bounded through that shallow tide, across the sea soaked sand, and would not stop until he reached the other side.

hope you don't mind me crashing

Finally, Manea made it to the sandbar. She'd been held up by interactions here and there, but she was here, now. She spotted it from a short distance, a break in the waves, a strip leading to the place that ruled her heart.

Heda. And perhaps. . .

No. She didn't allow herself to hope too much. It might be empty. She might be alone, there.

Well, or not.

A multi-colored blur sailed across the sandbar, running to the island. Her ears pricked, eyes narrowed, and then she followed, splashing through the shallows, stretching out to her full length.

By the time the man reached the shore of the island, Manea was hot on his heels, without even a call to warn him she was right behind.

Not at all, thanks so much for joining!! <3 though, sorry it's taken so long for me to reply, Easter is always quite a busy time <3

His heart pounded. His breaths came quick. The sandbar seemingly stretched into the sea.

Go.

Go. Go. Go.

Trees rose up before him. A hillside, dotted with lavender fields. Rocks gave way to sand. Softened, beaten, by the many waves that struck the shore.

Water splashed underpaw. The tide sought to cover the sandbar, to seal the island off from the mainland, but Everett had already reached the other side.

Yet when he stopped, the ocean did not cease its splashing. The ocean - and the splash of quickened paws.

Everett spun, and wide eyes locked on a wolf as white as the winter frost, with narrowed eyes and a look about her which made his muscles quiver.

Stop! Stop, his hoarse voice broke - and rather than run, he hit the ground in quaking submission.

Stop! Stop.

The man suddenly halted at the other side, and in her confusion, Manea slid to a stop as well, sending water churning in her wake. She walked toward him slowly, brows drawn together, confusion written plainly over her pale face.

Did he think she was going to attack him?

She opened her mouth to speak, and then a scent hit her, the odor overlaying the edges of the island. @Heda. Her heartbeat came faster, and the other wolf became meaningless to her.

She howled for the woman, moving past the stranger to look into the heart of the isle. Looking for her. Waiting.

It felt like ages since they'd been apart. . .

she woke from a pleasant dream and came alive to the sound of a voice she had thought returned to god.
her stomach lurched, but heda was on her feet and flying with her nimbleness down the cliffs. two figures! one she did not know, and on —
"blueberry!"
her voice was a cry of joy against the azurite heavens.

He expected impact, a show of teeth. He expected her to strike him. But the determination of her run didn't seem aimed at him at all. Perhaps at first, for she seemed wanting to speak to him, her mouth opening, as if to address him, as if to voice the thoughts that tightened the lines on her face.

Thoughts he never heard. She drifted beyond him, as the island filled with her echo of the call for another, and Everett felt as though he had somehow become the spectator of some intimate thing. Otherwordly, even, in the way she waited under the wind and the cry of the gulls.

Everett shivered and turned, rising. Watching, as waiting broke and two became three. He did not draw into their inner circle but lingered behind, still in the sea water and still sensing, all the more, that he had invaded something sacred here. Should he go? His dreams had led him here, and the air was filled with everything but the command to leave.

The woman who approached had a voice which danced with jubilee, and in watching them, his thoughts could only turn to @Reverie.

She felt bad, at least somewhat, for the golden-hued man that she left behind. She galloped toward Heda and buried her muzzle in that pale ruff, if the woman would allow. Taking in her scent, the salt of it, the—

Something different.

She backed away, taking steps back, looking at her friend.

And then back, to the stranger. Feeling awkward and out of place. I—we're not together, she remarked. I was just looking for you. And he. . .I don't know.

She stepped back, allowing @Everett to come closer.

Someting was off.

What?!

she closed her eyes and held blueberry close, offering the man a friendly look as he came closer. 
the tension filtered into her own nerves, but she tried not to let it show. "hello, i'm heda. this is sweetharbor."
her attention refocused upon blueberry. "everyone left, slowly. it was just caracal and i for a time, my husband." a shy light lit her face. "are you both here to stay for a little while?"

He would have been content to slip away unnoticed. To leave these sisters to their reunion, to return to the mainland and journey across the land bridge another day. But when he turned, the bridge had been swept away and replaced with high tide.

Stay. He must stay.

Nerves shivered through him as sharp as the bitter sting of the sea. He swung his head back around, only to find friendliness in the pale woman’s eyes. A welcome, and a name.

Sweetharbour.

Hello. I-I’m Everett, he said, devoid of the formalities of lineage or blood. Just Everett. It was all he needed to be here. He offered her a customary bow. These little things, he couldn’t shake.

Heda addressed the other woman again, but directed herself to both of them. His tongue flashed over his lips and he glanced at the other woman, before saying, ah, well, if you and your husband would have me… was this right? What was he doing? I will, ah, would be honoured. To stay.

The lion had led him here, he reminded himself, and until the lion led him on, this was where he was to be.

And maybe soon, he would find out why.

we can wrap this up & start a new thread since Mercury is taking a break, or we can continue with Manea as NPC, let me know which you’d prefer! I’m good with either ^^

do you want to have a new one set for when hedacal get back to the island? <3

"hello, everett," heda said quietly, wondering if the spirit of the island too moved in his heart as it had done for her. smiling eyes invited blueberry to her side, feeling a tension between them but not yet understanding. "we would be happy to welcome you, truly," she said with great earnestness. 
"all are invited to hear the word of god in sweetharbor," heda added, eyes shining with the valiant light into which bartholomew had first inducted her.

I would love that! <3 if there’s time to set one up before the pups are born I don’t mind backdating — but otherwise, I’m happy to wait a little bit for one too, whatever makes sense to you!

Happy. To welcome him.

They didn’t even know him. Is this how all pack wolves lived? So trusting in strangers who came splashing through their door. No trial nor test. Simply…

Welcome.

The word crashed over him like the many waves against the shore, and as sweet as the little island’s name.

But what words came next sent another shiver through his spine. Deep. Stirring. Light spilled through.

God, he repeated. Hushed and near breathless. The lion and the lamb did not appear before him, but he heard the lion in the mighty sea, and the saw lamb in the light reflected in Heda’s eyes. Fire danced in the sky above. Fleeting, as the golden bird circled around the gulls before disappearing between them.

I … I think your God … may be the one who led me here.

i think i would like to wait a bit, just to keep things current! but if its good ill play like he's been around, just not to the den yet <3

her eyes beheld. her heart understood. the pulse of blood in throat and wrist, for a moment, reminded her of daniil, how briefly he had stayed here and how impactful he had been to her. "god led me here, too," heda told everett in a wondering tone, loving in its golden warmth.
"walk with me." her eyes were fixed to his own. "tell me what god told you when he led you here."
emotion, leaping; reverence, for her lord.