Dragoncrest Cliffs i sense a need in her grammar

today val brought @Roux, @Jadou, and cheri down to glintwater for some fishing lessons. it would be a grander adventure to trawl the tidepools, but val knew his limits and refused to touch the sea.

@Astera gave each of them a head start before falling back to walk alongside val. for a time he laughed and marveled at how sapphique’s next generation grew - each new batch stronger and in his estimation, far happier than the last.

they had come such a long way since rusalka. he set each kid to the task of standing still at the banks, or luring the fish close with a grub as @Pepper had shown him. as expected, children made for terrible fishers. but they were laughing, and safe as they splashed one another and crowed over who saw the biggest fish.

a strange wave of sadness took over val as he stepped back and watched the group, feeling strangely removed as if he were standing on the outside peering in.

the sound of splashing and laughter drew him, naturally, to glintwater, where val stood observing a group of youngsters doing their best at fishing. trying not to roll his eyes—he would have caught something already, surely!—he instead settled himself by the dark man's side.

the two of them were nearly the same size at this point, and it was only a short distance his eyes needed to travel upward to meet val's. and when they did so, they found. . .something troubling in those green depths. something distant.

papa val, lafayette asked, cocking his head, what's wrong?

the aventurine was usually in good spirits, light-hearted, but this day was different.

his sweet, intuitive lafayette. val reached out to brush at the velvet fur behind his son’s ears, a smile fading from his dark face.

nothing is wrong, lafayette. val encouraged, ignoring the stab of guilt to be dishonest. i was just revisiting a memory and thinking how much has changed. how many faces have changed. was it wrong to be nostalgic to a child? what measure of depth would they have when their perception of time was as thin as a shell’s edge?

a flutter of laughter rose from the banks. cheri and astera lead a marauding charge of splashes against their siblings. your grandmaman liked this spot. val turned to look at the coruscating lake, where small ripples made their play in the shadows. i think she would have liked you and lucette very much.

things had changed. faces had changed. lafayette stared at val, understanding the concept—but unable to grasp the reality of it. he was too young for that.

you t'ink? he asked, grinning. from all he had known of his grandmother, he tried to picture her upon this lakeshore. what was she like, papa val?

lafayette sat down upon his haunches and set his head against val's shoulder with a soft thunk, a gentle smile lingering upon his muzzle.

well, you had three of them. val grinned as Lafayette’s body leaned against his own. but the one i was thinking about was my biological mother.

across the lake a heron stalked the shallows. val watched its head bob, its body still as if it were flora itself and not an organism that had clawed its way out of passive living to consume the flesh of others. she looked a little like me, but very severe. he grasped for any equivalent that lafayette would know. a good fighter. and very serious about her commitment to this family. for a while he studied the heron; grey slouched menace waiting for its moment to strike. and you and i are more alike than us and her; but i think she would have wanted that for us. what was left unsaid was how unspeakably sad her life had been. we are lucky to come from such good women.

reminds me of my sisters, he remarked between val's words, grinning. the women of sapphique were undoubtedly of the same stock. he wished he had their courage—but it was lucette, after all, who had convinced him to explore the tunnel.

"you be de keeper of de peach pearl. dis size means your mind be good an' strong. you be bringin' allies to us wid your brightness an' joyful heart. de sun be in your smile, an' your energy will be everlasting. no one be standin' against such beautiful light."

any time he doubted himself, he tried to think of manman's words—a boon to his spirits. but there was one thing val mentioned that had caught his attention.

your. . . lafayette swallowed, looking confused. bio-logical mother. what does dat mean?

yes, val encouraged with a gentle scruff of lafayette’s forehead. your sisters — and you — come from strong stock.

drawing his gaze across the lake, val did a brief headcount. all were in order, giving him a moment to consider lafayette’s words. the mother that birthed me. he expanded, trying his best to navigate this topic in a way that was neither traumatic nor worrisome to lafayette. my maman was adopted — in a sense — by your grandmothers erzulie and rosalyn. they raised her, and then they raised me.

and they would have raised the next generation too, val thought sadly, were it not for the bear.

the definition was clear, but not the reason. lafayette continued to look confused as val spoke, and when the man fell silent, he chimed in again.

why did your first manman no' raise you? he asked. or did she. . .alongside my ot'er grandmothers?

sapphique's family web was tangled, but each facet ran through the women that had built this place. lafayette would never cease to be intrigued by the feminine legacy—

even as he now was beginning to realize his own masculinity seemingly ran counter to it all.

children, val had come to learn, were complicated affairs.

he gave a reassuring smile. she was too young, and maybe ashamed. it was very different then. how much had changed in a matter of two generations! his back chilled to remember rusalka and the bright eyed predators lingering on the cliffs above them. your grandmamans built this place from nothing. what we have now did not exist when even i was a puppy. and now you, and your children, will forever have a safe place here to raise your own kids and see your legacy continue. our legacy.

his awed face was trained on val as the man recounted the history, and the legacy their forebears had left for them. as a kid himself, he felt a bit overwhelmed thinking about his own future offspring—but he supposed there was plenty of time to think about all of that, anyway.

maybe your manman will visit me in my dreams, sometime, lafayette mused on a sigh, and placed his head against the dark shoulder at his side.

contented, the two watched the wolves at play for a while, and then the ruddy boy joined them, with one final smile back toward his papa val. 

after all, he could never resist a good fishing session.