Dragoncrest Cliffs with a crew that’s bound to pack them in

This is going to be an experimental journal of sorts - singular replies welcome - I am just trying to find a way to tack so many life changes in Val’s threadlog.

day one of the girls being gone. val learned from both chacal and mireille that they’d departed for the rise — the first leg of a youthful adventure.

he remembered being so young— at the time he’d considered himself quite old enough to travel, thank you — but watching the girl’s backs as they slid into the tangle, he saw how they were still a long way from grown.

he trawled along the western fringes of sapphique, catching and eating a small hare. mireille’s newest litter was hale; their eyes all opened and personalities becoming more apparent by the day.

soon chacal’s litter would follow. val looked forward to the arranged playdates between the cousins, only feeling a slight tinge of melancholy to think that someday they might disperse as the many others had done.

sapphique would see them thrive.

day two.

val did one last sweep of the borders, shoring up some markings that had lapsed with mireille’s indisposition and chacal’s inevitable birth. he did not like the idea of leaving them — but suzu relayed troubling news, and sapphique must answer the call.

it’d been a long time since he went to the mainland. he kissed each of the soft heads of mireille’s babes, gave the seasoned mother a gentle nuzzle, and then he set for bluepeace where he’d meet those that agreed to several days of hard travel.

with the yearlings on their own adventure, the cliffs were unusually quiet. val set his sight on the days ahead, a vague sense of trepidation in his breast.

dated 4.13.2024

day three.

they left with full bellies, sent off by the proud faces of sapphique. he knew that those remaining on the cliffs were perfectly suited to defend themselves. nothing -- and no one -- had threatened these halls since drageda, now a distant memory in the halls of the dead, and ancient history among the living.

still, he fretted.

keeping a game face on, val turned to his crew with a merry wink. he realized with a start it had been so long since he saw etil; not since the boy was all floppy ears and burdensome angles. would he be a man, now? would his face have grown, would he carry the gaze of his proud maman peering out of that darkened mask?

the crew made for rivenwood, @Suzu in the lead.

it could be said for certainty that val hated very few things in this world -- but leaving @Suzu behind was one of them. she was an adult, capable of her own choices, but it didn't make parting any easier.

he was largely silent as he and @Thibault returned home. they'd stayed long enough to get their energy restored, and then they were on the road. this time, val took the time to explain to thibault the dangers of the mainland. he entertained any and all questions the boy had, disposed by a strange sense of melancholy he had not experienced in some time.

the road stretched out before them. that night, he dreamed of an old spectre and held the boy close.

set after this: click

the joyful screams from the race and subsequent feast had long faded from the bright shores, as had the sunlight that arced playfully between every grinning face.

val did not dare go near the water, but for a long time after he stared at the thoughstone, and wondered.

eresta. a part of him -- the part of him that had spent nearly his first two years on the road -- missed the sense of adventure that traveling gave him.

but his place was here, he knew it. at times he might feel unmoored, but sapphique was his standing ground.

still, a quiet pain settled in his heart. thibault, tousaint, and chantale had been his children to him; while they were distinctly mireille's, as was her supreme right as matriarch -- they had also been loved by val.

a growing loneliness was setting its roots in val. he looked out to the stormy shoreline, and wondered how many more of sapphique's children would be born and carried away by the road.

dated 6/5/24 tags for reference but of course single replies welcome <3

something nagged at val’s mind as he escorted the twins away. he could not pin down the slippery thought long enough to examine it — it was silvery and elusive, like the flashing scales of a fish out of reach.

he made note to find @Kheviel - fearing finding her in a similar predicament. she was, thankfully, alive and well — though understandably taken aback by the news he shared.

he returned later to find @Etienne - the pair buried their packmate by the cliffs. for a long, solemn moment val counted the bodies here.

erzulie. rosalyn. raleska. kaertok. sobo. and now, cayetano.

he visited the graves of his mamans first. the pearl he’d placed gingerly atop their stone was gone — he wondered if it caught the attention of a bird in passing. put out by this, val turned back to cayetano’s grave. other than the seashells and flowers gathered by the kids, he had nothing to give to decorate the fresh grave.

val felt his stomach knife. he hoped cayetano liked the view.

tags are just for reference <3

something had been bothering val of late, or several things, really.

firstly, he mourned the loss of chacal’s voice. it used to be that he would weave through the mosswood and the lilt of her song would reach him, suspended softly on the breeze like the mesmerizing scent of cinnamon on a warm summer day. now the woods seemed cold, eerily unwelcome in their silence.

he worried. his stomach knotted to think of what this loss might entail.

he worried too, for the others. he’d noted the absence of two of sapphique’s more stalwart troublemakers. @Svalinn assured his fretting nephew he’d keep an eye out for them, and val felt measurably better knowing eyes outside of sapphique watched their flock. pepper settled into a good routine, the two of them often sharing an early breakfast by roja den’s feet. astera stayed close to home, ranging out at times to do errands on his and mireille’s behest — but sobeille had ranged far, bringing chani with her. he fretted from the moment they left up until they returned, roadtired but no worse for wear.

now sobeille was sick. he thought of asking @Phobos to tend her, but was not sure how she’d receive such a gesture. truthfully, their relationship had been fraught ever since their last interaction, and ashamed of himself, val knew he’d taken pains to avoid her. it was not that he was upset or angry - his heart burgeoned with love for every one of sapphique’s daughters — it was that sobeille’s contempt, so ophidian in its glittering malice, had burned itself into his brain. he’d seen something that he’d wished he hadn’t — and this sight had worried his chest to frayed ribbons.

so he thought of other things instead; chani was becoming more and more like her maman every day. lucette had woken and mercifully was recovering. tousaint had made a miraculous reappearance — the sight of him twisting val’s face in a joy he’d not experienced in some time. he had not known how many shadows had infiltrated his heart until that moment — and for a time, the reappearance of tousaint, the steady improvement of lucette, the ironclad adoration lafayette tenderly administered his sister, and the cheeky games played by shadess chased the dragons away.

he knew he would need to talk to mireille and chacal soon.

can we touch that? their indefatiguable voices chimed. can we eat dat? they piped up. papa val, what is dat? and the more common one: but WHYYYYYY, papa val?? belabored in a chorus any time val steered the twins away from something potentially dangerous.

the trip home had been otherwise pleasant. val had been anxious to return to the cliffs. while he held no love for the ocean that was his neighbor, he did not like the noise of inland either. too many packs, too many moving bodies, too claustrophobic.

it seemed the camp was not without its chaos. word of sobeille's perplexing behavior troubled val, but as he learned of her early excusal, he only shared a silent look with her chaperones.

there were many things val worried about as of late -- and this only added to his troubles.