The Heartwood oxbalm

backdated to like oct 14, maybe quick tracking thread? <3

to keep from staring at @Ghelan, to keep himself from trying to separate what features belonged to red leaf and which to him, sun eater had turned to the game trails of the thick forest.

tapping the edge of a hard cloven track, the caribou man stooped over it. "come here." in lanzadoii. before ghelan's crimson eyes, sun eater sniffed the mark and tasted the earth.

moving forward in stealthy grace, the saatsine wolf halted, raised a sinewy forearm, and moved aside a juniper bough. there in the scattered autumn leaves was a pile of dung, cool but not cold. sun eater said nothing, only glanced at his son and moved on. it was beyond time that ghelan learned to track, learned all the ways of the people that apparently his mother had forsaken.

the distance between his father and himself was half a year's worth. never had he gotten to see his father, only the looming aura that remained even in his absence.

the boy hung his head low as he followed his father. his legs ached, how ghelan missed the comfort of his nest. but he chose to go with father, to become what he was meant to be. he will return a stronger man, someone for mother to be proud of. this struggle just means he is weak.

weaving through the foliage with not even half of his father's grace and confidence, ghelan grimaces at the sight. he knocked aside some leaves to cover it before skulking back to his father.
what are we doing? he asks in sharadoii.

ghelan was loud and ungainly, irritating sun eater in a sharp way that no one else managed. his final patience evaporated at the sound of sharadoii in his son's mouth, sharadoii when he had taken such pains to only speak in the words of the cousin river clans.

"we are finding where the caribou here form their herds," he grunted, but his stride had come to a halt. those stone-blue eyes pierced. "you are lanzadoii, ghelan. do not speak in your mother's words. not any longer. at home you have relatives of blood. sulukinak, who you may call cousin. and meleys, who is my sister."

his stare was heavy. "neither of them speak sharadoii." watching ghelan a moment longer, sun eater turned and moved along the thin trail, noting where antlertine had torn bark and hungry jaws had stripped it.

ghelan stops whenever sun eater stops, and his ears flatten when he realize it was to lecture him.
father's eyes pierced right through him, and his words shook ghelan down to his core — he spoke with power, and with such ease. though it did not give ghelan a sense of pride; but a sense of fear.

..i don't know lanzadoii. ghelan straightens, though still in the shadows of the mountain that is sun eater. only vaguely did he remember the few teachings his mother had given him, how sometimes she would use it. but eventually, as time progressed, lanzadoii became fewer and far between.

the mention of family, however, strikes a chord to his chest. and it sends a small flick to his tail.

"i will teach you, as i taught sulukinak. and meleys will teach you. listen to her." for the boy's benefit he grudgingly used sharadoii. of course she had not taught ghelan the tongue of the clan into which she had married! when had she ever been of use to sun eater since he had come to this place?

as if ghelan was quite young, the caribou hunter began to gesture toward various things. a tree standing limned in autumn's red, the pile of dung behind them. herons winging up from an unseen river. he said their names in sharadoii, and then lanzadoii. it was not so different from the valley words. practice would make ghelan keen in no time. and sun eater's refusal to speak sharadoii would do much for his aim.

a stamped foot echoed on the cold breeze. pausing, the dark man scented the air unhurriedly, then motioned for them both to continue along the game-trail.