Herbalists' Cache to tell of joys in storms

A message to @Sun Eater about his and @Star Eater’s puppies! As requested, Other Shore will be delivering it <3

She took a step back outside the den and felt the world breathing again. It had stood still for what seemed to be eternity held in a moment.

Four babes. Four precious little ones. Star Eater, safe. Children, safe.

The caribou spirits had blessed them, after all. Relief numbed what fear she had for the newborns, and with it came gratitude, thanking the spirits for letting no harm come to them. 

She turned to Sun Eater, still lingering outside. Tall frame unperturbed by ugly winds, his single eye seeing what she could not see. His midnight figure kept his dignity amidst the storm that tried to claim it. There was nothing she could make of his expression; she could not find grip on the slivers of emotion.

She lowered her head, slowed her footsteps as she approached him. Chieftain.

A pause. There could not be hesitance now.

Star Eater has delivered four healthy puppies. She and the babes are safe. 

Other Shore hoped he felt the same reassurance she did, that the news brought some amount of ease to his tension, even if she could not see it on his face. He maintained his stony, rigid authority, but surely there was some warmth, tucked away somewhere.

And then the hesitation came. Should she tell him? Or did he, too, know what was unspoken? But the words came anyway; she did not know how much he did not know. Star Eater will inform you when you are permitted to see them. Polite and respectful enough, she hoped. But she needed to make it clear who was now the utmost priority and the only one with the right to her children. And until Star Eater gave the order, no man, chieftain or not, was to enter that sacred den.

at the trudge of other shore's step, sun eater turned to watch her impassively. in truth, he was frightened for both star eater and their children. stillborns were a sad fact of life, and the death of mothers in childbirth was something that happened enough for lanzadoii healers to institute several taboos around the treatment of pregnant wolves.

at his feet was an amulet, a small charm of caribou underhair and three dewclaws. it was for protection, and sun eater had begun to make it as soon as tiny cries carried to his ears upon the wind.

he was fearful, and so he appeared even more frostwound than before, rigid, straight-legged. he had not heard his wife crying in the snow shelter, and tried to read in other shore if she meant to bring him news of a tragedy.

four. four!

the draconic nostrils flared with surprise. "star eater is well?" the chieftain asked gruffly when he had found his voice, a note of pleasure and deep worry sliding into his tone. "sons? daughters?"

he watched other shore again, this obedient girl who star eater had taken beneath her wing. no. she would not be so calm if something had befallen his mate, and so the lanzadoii hunter was free to let out his breath in a shuddering exhale.

his nose stung. his throat was constricted. the man who cried never felt it in his eye, the overwhelming terror and joy coalesced into one undeniable emotion.

four! four! he wanted to go to her, to embrace her; he wanted to kiss her temples and whisper that she was more to him than any other.

other shore spoke again, barring him on wife's word from the den. "it is her right," he said simply, though he understood that gjalla and black hawk were with her and might have influenced such a decision. still. the choice remained to her. he would wait, single eye lifting fiercely to the snow shelter.

It took her a long minute to notice what appeared to be a little amulet. A tuft of hair, and three dewclaws. For protection, she assumed. Sun Eater had made it? Again, it seemed that there was far more to him than she could see.

Two sons, two daughters, she replied, head dipped. Then she reassured once more - Star Eater is well.

For a few everlasting moments, the world turned still again. She could not read much of what came across his face; it seemed to be something torn between two emotions, rising and taking over him. But here his stone dignity was no longer cold and honed for killing, hunting, leading - it had become the nature of a father. 

Was that excitement on his face? Elation? She could not guess, and she dared not assume outright. But she was relieved that he found no trouble in respecting the space Star Eater needed, and, if it truly was a father's happiness that he was showing, then she felt his joy with him.

star eater was well. other shore had said it twice, but he had not heard it until the second time. a breath was let out again. he had seen her eyes upon the amulet; now sun eater took it up and lay it gently before other saatsine hunter.

"is for protect. one for ice raven. one for white raven. one for lanzadoii spirit." god. moiety. powers. "so. you know me. you know sivaak is muradoii. there is three caribou hunter."

he gazed at the amulet, that small but strong thing there against the alabaster cold. "sharadoii. hunt caribou only in valley. not travel. make pelts. make these. it where i learn."

why did he talk so much? the chieftain did not know how to say it, but other shore's unobtrusive presence relaxed him, allowed him to speak without weight as he readied himself to wait for his wife's word.

Protection. Stored within those dewclaws and tufts of caribou fur.

Had she believed it when she first saw those Saatsine dewclaws? Perhaps she had, perhaps she had not. But the safe delivery of Star Eater's pups had made her grateful to those unseen spirits that shielded the little ones from harm. She did not know how much she could trust the caribou man, but she could trust his faith.

Ice raven, white raven. Words she understood, but some things she understood not. Saatsine customs were both foreign and familiar, deriving from the nomadic way of Lanzadoii, following their neverending chase of the caribou and blessings they brought upon them. Muradoii - she had heard of the Muradoii, through nervous whispers and occasional tales drifting from here to there. Brutal slavers, she had heard, seal hunters with hearts honed for combat and bloodlust. But this was the first she had heard of the Sharadoii. Valley hunters... familiar, but also a little out of reach of her mind.

Sivaak, the Muradoii woman. Sun Eater, the Lanzadoii man. No Sharadoii... yet.

Breath curled into wisps, words settled into silence. Muradoii and Sharadoii were unfamiliar to her, and so it was now that the chieftain introduced her to their ways, quite alike yet very different from the Lanzadoii. Perhaps the talking was to pass time, perhaps to ground the mind in reality. But the knowledge that Sun Eater gave now was precious as much as it was intriguing to her.

We did not have such groups back home, she remarked. We youths left our families to find survival elsewhere. Only names, no bloodlines. A pause. Sharadoii, Muradoii, Lanzadoii. How interesting.

"sharadoii and lanzadoii make — marrying — together. muradoii," he shook his head. "muradoii for muradoii." there was far more to say of their factions, but he did not think her ears wished to be so full.

unsure at the ease he felt beside other shore, sun eater explored it for himself. there was no pretense to her, no practice. he sensed there too were no lurking thrones nor murderous brothers. she knew nothing of the lanzadoii save what she had yet experienced, and listened with rapt attention to what he spoke.

he thought of the months to come, and turned the single eye back to the shelter of snow.

"you go away from family?" sun eater asked, somewhat confused. "where home?" it was not the practice of the caribou hunters to chase away their young or even encourage it. some would form their own bands, others would inherit, but this was done through the council of several lanzadoii bands in one area.

again, however, he would not belabor other shore with talk of distant politics. the pulse of the charm filled the air, and he inhaled the cold wind as if he felt the spirits near.

Here, everything that had history had complexity. I did not know there were such rules for marriage here, she muttered. Back home, marriage... was simpler. If there was love and strength, then two wolves found themselves together.

Strange, it was, that the chieftain, a man of steel brutality and high dignity, was now giving her food for thought. She only now realized that, without consistent and reliable prey like the caribou, the loose groups back home never developed these traditions. Too much focus was put on survival and the immediate coming generation, and not a bloodline running countless seasons into the future. But still they valued their young, because their dwindling hopes for  better lives lay with the ones with the most time to spare. 

Home. A place far away. She tried to find words to describe it, and found none that would make it remarkable. Rolling hills, sweeping winds. Little prey, small grasses. Not much else. What else was there? The Saatsine land had far more to offer in details than her barren home. Distant enough to believe the ocean to be a myth. Tales of endless waters came from travelers. Then, innocently - Are oceans real? Are they really? 

A little silence. She tasted it and tried to imagine such a thing. She had seen lakes, but a lake with no end was foreign to her. Then again, Sun Eater had said that the Muradoii shed blood by the sea. It must be real, then, surely.

"many rules for marriage," sun eater chuckled, though he had broken many of them in his bonding with star eater. a second matrimony created out from oversight of elders, his uncles would have hissed.

and yet in this, in her, and in this night, the lanzadoii hunter found a deep and abiding contentment, at last able to put words upon its name.

her question, innocuous, was posed with such curiosity that he smiled. "yes. is real. look," and the gesture was to the end of the taiga, where mountains and jagged trees bit into the corner of night. "ocean go farther away. ah — more big, than — all."

larger than what they saw of the taiga, a deeper color than the pinnacle of night. "very — low down." deep. "much monster. big teeth." a place to be awed and a liminality in which one might find themselves caught.

She tried to picture the sea. A vast place, imbued with the essence of blue, hiding monsters somewhere in its depths. No image came to her mind. Was it like the sky, incomprehensible endlessness encompassing its being? Was it more like the earth, with every speck and detail visible? How far could you see into it? Will we go there eventually? she asked. I heard something about the next march being towards the ocean. 

She did not understand Sun Eater’s smile at her words. It had been a mere question, and a simple one at that. Or was he smiling at the simplicity of it? Was the sea not a place that many wolves much like her wondered about? Or did they know far more than her?

Questions, too many of them. She merely filtered them out into one. Did you… enjoy the sea? As she put the remaining questions to rest, she wondered what there was to enjoy about the endless waters, but then again found no reason why a person would not.

"yes. i enjoy sea." not for long, and not in the way that the sea had deserved to be loved by the lanzadoii. that lot, it seemed, had fallen to the sharadoii second and the muradoii first.

he peered at her, wondering who had spoken of the salt, and gave a decisive shake of his maimed head. "not yet. but. stay with saatsine. more happen for you, other shore."

it seemed a misplaced song placed into the reaches of tones who could not carry it. or would not. or should not. "i like how — it does not have end. sea is forever. like caribou."

eternal. more than him; more than all the bones of lanzadoii fallen and lanzadoii to come.

Sea is… a cycle? Like caribou? A pause. Or does the sea not have an end? No wall nor land to surround and restrict it?

But again - she decided not to let her mind wander too far in the direction of the sea. Stay with Saatsine, she decided - remain where warmth lay, then journey when she was strong enough. When she no longer had anything to hold on, here in the cache.

Instead she turned to the sky, to the snow, to the things that looked eternal, until a mere blink, a split second, would render them changed by time.

What makes something endless? she asked. What limits infinity?

"sea has no end. forever. you see, ah. dark. long dark. away and away."

"caribou is — life for saatsine. but also death for some hunter. saatsine death to caribou, but give life when hunt sick and hurt."

other shore's next questions were not beyond sun eater's reach, only far out from the touch of where language might take them. he regarded her for a long and serious moment. "for this, you will need to learn lanzadoii."

not quite serious. not quite teasing.

so sorry for the delay!!!

Other Shore thought back to her earlier idea, then expanded its corners a little - was the sea like caribou? A cycle upon itself, a massive twisting and endless continuation of fate, death and life and death again engaged in courting? Was that what gave the sea its infinity? Surely that must be the only way such a thing could exist. There was no way a boundless place could be confined to this world without relying on some obscure force keeping it in motion…

But again, her words and her mind could not understand it yet. She needed to see it.

Then - ah. Lanzadoii, again. You speak of Lanzadoii as if it holds all the answers in the world, she asked. Then, she added with a quiet excitement, Does it? If it does, then… I would love to learn it.

Lanzadoii, then, was the answer to infinity in her mind. But perhaps, when she did learn it, she would find only more questions to ask.

no worries! ur posts are worth waiting for :D please feel free to fade this as u will <3

"is — words of heart. words of thinking. i teach." for a moment of silence he only stood companionably, thinking of the beauty now inherent within his life. "ask." there were many things he might say first, but other shore's curiosity must find itself unbound in order to learn lanzadoii.

wind, moving overhead.

for him, for sun eater; yes. all things had their answer in the language of his birth. its directness was not able to be less, and his lack of struggle with lanzadoii reminded him always that he had eloquence in one tongue.