Kildeer Rest ten jaws

moving thread for saatsine! killdeer rest will be their new base. members are free to range fully through the taiga, including a preemptive return to the qeya river <3 no posting order!

@Ice Diver @Ridgeback @Kekoa @Sulukinak @Meleeys @Gjalla @Suliya @Ezra @Ghelan (@Kenai for ref in case u want him to follow!) <3

after showing the captive @Shadowpaw into @Morwenna's presence, sun eater performed a final patrol of shadowynn and then called together the saatsine. "we leave," he uttered aloud. "bring hides. we walk into storms." today itself was poured with steady snow which already blanketed the trails of many caribou. at last the herds had left behind the sunspire and now trekked resolutely for the far bracken woods.

with little attachment to the river, the lanzadoii man would follow the herds into the knife-edged leaves, and camp there with his wife as he had once with another.

by the time they had come to the rest, it was mounded with snow and keening in several wind voices. ice threatened to gather upon one's mouth and eyes. for this purpose had he urged them to bring caribou skins, showing how a depression might be dug in the snow or found against the side of jutting rocks, and that the pelts overtop would form an immediate shelter filled quickly with heat.

only when little skin huts dotted the rest did he duck beneath his own caribou robes, annoyed for the lack of morwenna's pleasant figure beside his own for this first night. he had sent the girl into his wife's hides, keeping her protected as he had told river walker he would, though if the holy man wanted her close, sun eater would not protest.

the land remained scoured for hours by these storms, snow falling in heavy blankets until even the saatsine were blotted for a time from the face of the world.

The rivergirl was offered no moment to grieve, no moment to lament the knowledge that her mother had been killed by the one-eyed caribou shepherd, territory ruthlessly claimed by Saatsine. The tribe was to pickup and move, Shadowpaw now among their numbers as their captive – as Ghost Walker’s.

She was juggled from one wolf to the next. Not a word was spoken to any of them. An expression of pure contempt was the only thing she freely shared...

As the wolves fell into formation, Shadowpaw desperately searched for a sliver of opportunity to escape – but there was none to be found. The pale eye of the chief was ever watchful…

Eventually, she was handed off to the true Morwenna – and Shadowpaw was stricken by the look of her. As if this is what Crowfeather and Silvertongue’s daughter should have grown up to be like. Besides the grand huntress, the rivergirl appeared as if she was the bargain bin version…. oily, gaunt, but with the same star upon her forehead…

~

A caribou pelt was shoved into her possession. They trekked. Exhausted, Shadowpaw fell to the back. The wind bit at her skin, straight through her thin fur, and she limped… tired… weak… not fit for this type of traversal. Ice clung painfully to her face as the snow lashed like a whip. Somebody… Shadowpaw didn’t know who… constructed a shelter. The girl promptly fell in and blacked out.

Behind the trail of caribou and Saatsine wolves followed the pale explorer, not quite a friend but not a stranger either. Atop his shoulder a caribou skin lay bunched, frosted white from snowflakes and dripping with tiny icicles that jingled quietly with ever step.

The ways of Sun Eater's clan were hard but not cruel. Kenai had come to an understanding that when the herds moved, they moved too. He watched as a spidery girl fell behind, her staggering step worrying his pace into a quick lope until he fell into step besides her. 

Quiet words of encouragement were offered until she was whisked away and Kenai soon lost sight of her amidst the hastily constructed shelters. There was little guard from the wind here, and the pale-furred man could only clumsily assemble half of his own caribou hide before the chill numbed his paws and he crawled beneath the soon snow-covered pelt to wait out the storms.

The past crept back into his life- in the form of Shadowpaw. 

He had to wonder if she even remembered him. If she did, she said nothing- and perhaps her silence was more than what he deserved. He gave her space, and made no suggestion that the two had known each other once before, for fear it might bring harm upon her. Until he knew why it was she had been brought among them and placed with Morwenna, he would ask no questions.

He carried what needed to be carried and moved with Ice Diver, telling himself that it was the future he had to focus on. They drew closer to their former home, a place filled with memories. 

He would have to discover and reclaim himself, so that Ridgeback could continue to thrive.

The others mingled in hushed tones or quiet gestures, but Sulukinak did not join them. She trailed at the edges, a shadow slipping between shadows, her ears attuned to the rhythm of the pack but her heart beating a separate tempo. She was reluctant to speak, to share, to press herself into the fold. The wilderness of her mind felt safer than the warmth of others.

It was during one such moment, her gaze wandering idly over the group, that she noticed Shadowpaw for the first time. The wolf moved with a peculiar grace, their dark coat blending almost perfectly with the dappled light of the forest floor. Sulukinak studied them quietly, intrigued by the quiet intensity in their movements. There was a sharpness to their focus, an edge she recognized from her own hunts. Perhaps it was nothing, or perhaps it was something worth watching.

Her ears twitched as she caught a scent, and then she eyed a figure following. The delicate grays of his coat had caught the winter sun; Saatsine were not kind to outsiders, and her uncle, Sun Eater, would brook no patience for those who overstepped their bounds.

As the Saatsine moved deeper into the forest, Sulukinak let her thoughts swirl and churn, her expression unreadable as the dark canopy enveloped them. She kept her steps light, her presence quiet, watching, listening, wondering. Whatever came next, she would face it as she always had: alone, even in the company of others.

She did find herself looking for another - the man Wake - the memory of his words lingered like a shadow over her thoughts, a thorn she couldn’t dislodge. But there was work to be done in settling the camp, and swiftly enough Sulukinak was drawn to it.

more strangers heed his father’s words. ghelan only followed, only to look over his shoulder and find new faces in the herd of wolves. a girl, placed next to the dark woman, and a straggler. perhaps one looking for sanctuary from the frost that’s taken the land.

ghelan didn’t linger. as soon as it seemed saatsine had settled, he trots off into the white plains of killdeer.