Moonspear i'm just a normal boy

Stingray paused atop a nondescript cliff overlooking the Teekon Wilds, or what he knew as the Teekon Wilds, and let his chest swell with a deep breath. His gaze was drawn toward the sea, toward Moontide, where he thought he ought to go and make amends for his departure. He took a single step in that direction, felt his heart cinch tight with nerves, and shook his head. No, he did not want to face those he had abandoned.

He turned his head the other way, to the mountain where his parents, grandmother, and younger siblings made their home. To Moonspear, then.

Travel had hardened the young man's muscles, but his paunch still swayed gently with every step he took across ridges and foothills to reach his destination. This was helped little by the amount of food he had been eating lately. There was nothing like a good meal or five to drown out one's sorrows. Five meals a day might be a few too many, though, and that wasn't counting the snacks in between. Even now, the boy's stomach felt empty — the hollow sensation having been transferred from chest to belly where he could better cope with it.

There was no time to stop for an early lunch, though. For once, Stingray ignored the demands of his stomach and trekked on toward Moonspear, arriving in the evening when the wind grew cold and scattered flakes began to fall, blanketing his red-gold back with white speckles. He was glad to find the strong pack presence unchanged as he approached the outskirts, though there was a conspicuous absence of his family's scents. Not just Meerkat and Njord, but Seal and Orca as well.

He had intended to find some sort of gift for @Sialuk in exchange for being allowed to visit with his parents and sisters for a time, but the total absence of his kin's markings had him fretting so bad, he couldn't bear to waste any time on it. He sent up a call for Moonspear's leader that was chased with urgency: where is everyone?!

Sialuk stood still as she listened to the desperate voice call for her, an urgent question on the air. Snow fell from the sky, and the sun slipped beneath the horizon, leaving the world dark. The voice belonged to the son of Meerkat and Njord, a boy she had not seen in since early summer. She had sent him with a mission to Moontide with his father, and he had not come back. He had departed from Moontide's borders some time after that. Ah, but he was a man grown now, free to do as he wished.

She was not far from where he called, and so she made her way to him, a lightness in her step as she arrived with a welcoming and calm smile. Stingray, she greeted with a brief bow of her head. Njord and Meerkat have gone to begin a village of their own; they are not far. Seal spends time in Brecheliant. Orca... I do not know. There had still been no sign of Swordfish, and Sialuk did not know if he lived or lay dead.

Stingray appeared in good health, from what she could gather. He had filled out nicely, and Sialuk found herself seeing not the boy she remembered, but a man she would invite to her ulaq to warm her bed.

Oh god sorry for this rambling

The ways of the Moonspear pack, and the sunshine wolves as a whole, had always felt alien to Stingray, even when he lived among them. It felt unnatural for the pack leader to approach him and lower her head to him. In turn, Stingray dropped his down with a hunch of his upper spine. He was no giant among wolves, average sized at best for a male, but he carried his father's bulky shoulders and strong back and it always made him feel bigger than he really was.

Greetings, Sialuk, he politely replied. A young man his age would be inclined to take in the sight of a woman with an appraising gaze, and perhaps there was something a little wondering after all in the light of his eyes as he quickly looked her over, but it was mostly health he saw in the softer curves motherhood had lent to her slight figure and not something to covet. He felt a hint of that, perhaps, but there was something holding him back from gawping like many young wolves on the cusp of real manhood would at a pretty woman, and it wasn't only that this was his mother's friend.

He thought of Ilaya then, unbidden, unwanted, and felt a slight pang in his chest that touched his lips with a grimace. Sialuk might take note and might mistake it for his feelings on his family being scattered, for the expression quickly became a wistful smile. They're all grown up, huh? he said. They were still just wee things when I saw them last. It didn't feel like so long...

Ah, but she had not come to listen to him wax poetic about his baby sisters or how much time he had missed while trying to find himself. Thank you for telling me where to find them. I'm glad Moonspear still stands strong as well. Am I right to think you are a mother now? He wanted to go to Meerkat and Njord right away, but propriety kept him in place and engaging in this small talk. Besides, he had always liked Sialuk and was happy to catch up. I would be pleased to catch something for your caches before I go, he added, a trade for the information she had provided.

short because my brain decided to?

Sialuk laughed lightly at his statement about his younger sisters. They do grow quickly from babes, to children, to young men and women. You have grown also, she observed with a sparkle in her eye.

Maggak—a girl—was born from me, and Acrux—a boy—from Elentari. Argent has been father to them, and Alaric has been mentor to them as well.

He offered to hunt, and Sialuk nodded. Let us hunt together, she suggested, the bounty will be greater. Sialuk began to lead him toward one of her frequented rabbit warrens—a personal favorite.

Sialuk was right: Stingray, too, had grown. It was not in the sense of stretching limbs and maturing features like his little sisters, but he had put on weight in the form of muscle, filled out the spaces in his body that were awkward and gangling before. There was still some fat to him that he would never successfully shake off, but below that was the physique of his father in a smaller package. He was an amalgamation of his parents that way.

Having met Kukutux, he knew Sialuk to favor her mother. What of her children? He would have liked to meet them, but wasn't sure he would be sticking around long enough to do so this time. Perhaps once he located his parents and settled in, he would pay another visit to meet the children of Sialuk and Elentari, whom he remembered with fondness. During his first pack hunt, she had been encouraging.

Everyone's still here, then, he surmised with a warm smile. I'm happy to hear they have so many role models. For all the bad that had transpired in Sapphique, he had grown up with many role models as well, and hoped if there ever came a day where he had children of his own, the same could be said for them.

He fell in step behind the leader, taking a moment in silence while they walked to drink deep of the crisp mountain air. Sometimes he missed the salt-laden breeze of the seaside, but there was something so clean and refreshing about Moonspear, he couldn't help but miss it while he was away. He had missed everywhere he had ever been, which was perhaps the reason he returned. That, and Ilaya, and Salinger.

It's nice to be back here, was his idle comment.

thank you for being patient! trying real hard to get back into the groove.

Not everyone remained, but those most important to Sialuk were still here. Tullik had gone, as had Chakliux. But they were not far, and Sialuk knew they could be reached when needed. She was glad to have those who had stayed, and gladder still that Ray had come back to find his family.

The winding paths of Moonspear led them slowly but steadily toward the destination, and Sialuk filled the time with more words. Where did your journey away take you? she asked, curious to know what adventures the young man had found along the way. Sialuk had seen many things in her own journey; perhaps he had come across some of the same villages she had visited.

This question was inevitable. Stingray knew it would come from others as well. It was only natural to wonder what a young man or woman had encountered in their time away from home. Nevertheless, he was unprepared for it and hesitated on how to respond.

He was unwilling to share everything. Sialuk might understand better than anyone what had precipitated his return to the Teekon Wilds and he considered, for a moment, that it might be nice for someone to understand, but he was quick to discard it. He did not want this thing to be well known, and he worried it would get back to his family. He was not ready to confront that possibility.

So Stingray told Sialuk of the pirate pack he had met along the southern coast, of their hoards of bones and flittering rocks and their fermented fruits. He told Sialuk of the horse-loving pack with the strange bent ears and the closed in pen they stayed within. He told her of the stargazers and how they tried to teach him their craft and the names of the constellations, but how he found it hard to remember everything.

Of the two wolves from that pack with whom he had become friends, he said not a single word.

There are so many cultures, he concluded, and it's cool to learn about them and meet new folks, but it's nice to be back home, too. The most important lesson he had learned was that he was a wolf who valued familiarity and found comfort in routine. Oh, are we here? he asked, spotting two telltale divots and clusters of rabbit prints in the snow ahead.

There was hesitation in his reply, and Sialuk wondered on this. Had something happened to him along the way? Something that had caused him to return? Or perhaps something that had made him wish he had stayed there, rather than come home. She did not know, and it was not her nature to push. Instead, she listened as he described various cultures. One of pirates, one that loved horses, another who reminded her fondly of Phox Redhawk and his stargazing ways.

The time passed quickly, and soon he noted they had arrived at her destination. The smell of rabbit dung was strong, and the many entrances to the warren were obvious even covered in snow in the late winter months. She smiled, motioning for the young Corten to watch one of them while she began to dig at another. Not long after, a rabbit bolted from the entrance where Ray stood watch.