Secret Caverns the pages cease in mid-sentence

"It's okay, my family is gone too."

She had heard similar words from Maksim once upon a time, his message intended to wick away the pain she'd once and always felt about her loss. But coming from Rook, a friend and someone her own age, who for now she felt like was a little piece of all she had in the world, it was like a tiny revelation all her own. Maybe it was true. Maybe it was okay to be alone or apart from what she'd known, and, maybe, just because things weren't the way they once were, it didn't have to mean that there would or should always be some kind of void in her life. The response had planted a seed in her mind, and in time perhaps it would grow into a stitch she knew she needed very much to sew herself back together, the right way.

Rook went on to divulge his own story, making mention of where he'd come from somewhere up north. But, two words that came out of his mouth shocked her to the core. No sooner than her mouth would gape open, her eyes widening as they filled with silent exasperation, something fluttered straight past them quickly enough to nearly collide with his face. Where he ducked out of the way and avoided it, if it had flown at her she would have been clocked on the side of her head, because at the moment she was frozen in place. He moved onward, and she moved with him though it wasn't of her own volition ─ it was like her body was on auto-pilot. Grizzly Hollow.

Quil knew all about it. In fact, Kade had told her story after story about his days there. About Jaysyek, who had been his dearest friend; about the frame of time when he and Elettra served the white queen, side by side as her seconds in command; about Borden, for whom her father had the utmost respect; about Taima, the troubleseeker, and her brothers and sisters whose adventures were used as examples by Kade when she herself and her siblings got into trouble; about the way he'd always missed the way the cedar smell had clung to his fur, even if he'd loved the mossy scent that replaced it after Darkwater Rapids had been established. He'd told her of the war. He'd told her of his final rise to leadership just before the sickness had ravaged everything he'd ever loved about the place...Kade had told his eldest daughter about the pack that had made him the man that he was ─ bold and strong and respectable ─ but, at the time, those were all just that ─ stories, intended to give her some perspective of history and the world when she'd been but a pup. They had only existed in some faraway place in her mind that she could only imagine. And she never thought that, after losing her father, she would ever hear anything else about it. But she had been wrong. If Grizzly Hollow had belonged to Rook's parents, then that meant he was...

As the sun shone down upon the two of them temporarily, a pair of yearlings with wanderlust who had no clue just exactly who they actually were in relation to one another, she held her composure. She wanted to blurt out about the fact that she knew. She wanted to tell him all about it, to tell him of the tie she had to him in that way. But she couldn't. She wouldn't. Could she? As Rook inclined his head to look at a bird as it fluttered strangely through the stalactites, her gaze traced the angles of his face. Her agouti-furred partner continued on, oblivious to the fact that he'd struck such a chord, and the Attaya girl focused her attention on his words, still a bit dumbfounded but able to return to reality nonetheless. For now.So Elettra was his aunt, then. Knowing nothing about Angier, despite her knowledge of Borden Lyall, Quil still couldn't connect the dots, and she wondered how exactly he was the monarch's nephew. That was, until, he'd made the comment that he and Skoll were their fathers' sons. Was her brain going to explode, and what exactly did that imply, then? What did all this mean, and could it have been that fate had crossed their paths? Intrigued and confused, she tried to take it all in stride as he finally changed the subject to her possible knowledge of any wolf with a knack for herbs.

She fumbled for the words in her mind. "Elettra is actually a practiced healer, and I've heard she's the best?" Heard it from my father.. "I haven't gotten to know the others, but...I could find out for you, if you need to know." Quil began to backtrack from the dead end, moving along through the darkness that she now found a bit comforting in light of all that was reeling in her mind. "I find it hard to believe that you two are cousins ─ you and Skoll ─ but in that regard you've definitely gotten the longer end of the stick..." An allusion to her comment about the short end he'd possibly gotten in relation to his siblings. She dipped past a depression in the ceiling, looking over at him and struggling to find in which direction she should aim the conversation now. "Rook─" her voice was steady and cautiously curious, "I..." Was she really at a loss for words, or just unable to find the right ones? "...I actually know about Grizzly Hollow. I mean, it's...Well, it's where my father came from."

(This post was last modified: Oct 21, 2014, 05:37 AM by Quil.)

/internally screaming. the insight and everything from the thread... just. *whoa* and *wow* all at once. I will go down with this ship.

Rook Lyall

If Rook had not been so eager for her answer - all his hope offered to her on a single, dangling thread that could so easily snap under strain - he might have taken full notice of how she was taking in all of his jumbled statements. It had begun with the utterance of his parents' old lands and the Lyall had been too wrapped up in hoping that she would say 'yes.' To his relief, she actually provided him with an answer, and a surprising one at that... @Elettra, his Aunt Elettra... Quil even went as far as to let him know that she was willing to find out for him (and, in that sense, ultimately sparing him the drama and trouble of coming face to face with Skoll again). "Thank you," he smiled, his ears and nostrils burning as he came to realize that he would really need to make it up to her somehow down the road. These days, if he wasn't trying to seek out the answers himself, he was out beyond the Whisper Cavern borders fumbling around in the dark without a clue as to where he could find an answer; and, then there was Quil, who had arrived in due time to offer him the help he had prayed for several nights and counting.

As they began to slowly amble back towards the fork in the tunnel and towards the entrance of the cavern, he, too, ducked when she had. He must not have been walking along with his head up high when they had first come this way. Still keeping his head low, he let out an airy note of a chuckle, the recovered smile on his face inching up to reach his eyes as the result of him being genuinely taken by her charm.

"Rook-" her voice made his ears come up as though she had strings attached to the tips of them. He hummed a note to let her know that she had his whole attention. What she said next made him slowly stop in his tracks, take a step back and stare at her as though she had said something rather incredulous. In all actuality though, to hear her say such a thing had pulled all his heartstrings and made his jaw drop.

Maybe, just maybe, this was her... Kade's daughter. Follko, whatever he had learned of the old man from his father's stories, was much too old to be her sire; Kiche had initially abandoned them, only to come somewhat crawling back so many years later; and, Raigo had only proven himself to be his adopted sister's loyal brother (leaving the Hollow when Borden had claimed his rightful place beside Jaysyek). Their departures left Kade as the last man standing. To Rook, it only made sense. And, for her father to come from Grizzly Hollow meant that she had the answers that he had initially tried to pull from Taima's mouth in one very unsuccessful attempt. But the questions he had first posed to his sister would not, could not, come. He had interrogated her and, as a result, had made her push him away when the exact opposite should have happened.

After a few seconds it had occurred to him that he was staring, gaping at her with his mouth wide open in a very unflattering manner. His muzzle clicked shut and he inhaled slowly as if to calm himself after receiving such ground-breaking news (and, honestly, it was earth-shattering to him). His lips parted just slightly to release the air he had taken in. When he spoke again, his words were soft and the last rays of the evening that still dimly shone through the tunnel gave away the needful look in his dual-colored eyes, "Then, I need you. You-ou... You might be the only one who can actually help me."

a half-finished book is, after all, a half-finished love affair.

Like magic <3

His reaction to her words nearly affirmed the thoughts reeling in her head, and as he seemed to freeze, she did too. Like a mirror image of one another, the pair gaped at each other, both equally stunned by the revelation that was unfolding. The moments of silence between her assertion and his soft-spoken reply hung in the air, and in her chest her heart began to race.

"Then, I I need you."

Rook could have needed Quil for a hundred different reasons, but the words alone in a way made her want him to. And, if he was who she began to believe he was, she needed him just as much. Though Grizzly Hollow was long gone, abandoned by both the Lyalls and the Attayas, the ghost of it still held a promise that, just maybe, she might be able to find a link to her family. After all, if her father and the Lyalls were thick as thieves as she had been raised to believe, and Rook's parents were alive, then could they know Kade's whereabouts? And if not...she had still found the Lyalls ─ the ones who were an integral part of her life even if she'd never met a one of them. Really, they were the closest thing to home. What was more was the fact that Rook had been a rare find to begin with, his now-presence in her life made even more special by the simple fact that the blood that ran through his veins was the same that ran through those her father cherished.

It was all overwhelming, and in the darkness she inclined her head as her eyes searched Rook's mismatched ones in the dying light that cast a dim glow in the earthen tunnel. Her help was his, of course ─ she would have given it to him, Lyall or not. But, if this was really happening, she would move the earth to make sure his wishes were carried out. For some reason, she felt that it went without saying that he would probably do the same. If he was Borden's son, then she knew that he must know all the things she did, and maybe she was now as valuable to him as he'd quickly become to her. Before she could do or say anything else, the words had to be spoken, and in a moment of truth they slipped through her lips in a whisper of hope. "I'm Quil Attaya, and...I think I need you, too."

Her chest rose and fell in a quiet breath despite her anticipation of all that could come next.

<33333

The fact and confirmation that slipped through her lips made him internally tremble. Quil... Quil Attaya. So there was a God; and, merciful and forgiving and generous, He was. The yearling blinked slowly, each syllable comprehended as though they were something delicate to process through the gears of his mind. There was only one thing he could say in return though, and perhaps it would have the same effect on her, just as she had on him. It came from the innermost part of him like how leaves would have come from a tree, perfectly befitting and without even a note of uncertainty in his tone.

"Rook Lyall," he whispered, the last syllable borne on his tongue as it curled to the roof of his mouth before he sealed his lips once more. "I thought I'd never have the chance to meet you. My father, Borden, trusted Kade beyond all measure; and, to finally know that you're here means so much." Twice his jaws parted but there was no specific point he could choose, then and there, to start now that that particular boundary had been crossed. The world was growing dark as evening began to rush in and all Rook could think of was wanting to steal Quil away... to keep her for himself, no matter how selfish it might have seemed. At least his reasons to "keep hold of her" were more justified than Skoll's possibly were. Even if there was a possibility that she might not have had the exact answers he sought, just being there with her and having her help in figuring some things out was more than he could have asked for.

His brows came together and a trace of pain flickered across his masked features. "Can you stay?" he questioned, his tongue momentarily darting between his teeth to grace the left side of his lips in both nervousness and fear that he might not ever see her again. "There's just... There's just so many things I want to know, need to know..." And I cannot even bear to think that you'll be near him again... nor do I want to leave you, to go back and tell Bishop and Namid anything about us meeting.

"I don't know where to begin..."

<3

Rook Lyall.

And so it was true, and so she now stood just inches away from the one who could be her bridge to all she had been searching and longing for and so much more. Her brows pulled together with sentiment at the mention of her father'd name and the trust that had been forged between their bloodlines long ago. What was more, she meant something to Rook, something nameless and mysterious and more beautiful than just that. And he meant something to her too, the depth of that meaning yet to be fully uncovered but she had absolutely no doubt that, in time, this would grow to be so very precious.

Can you stay?

She wanted to. There was nothing in the world that she wanted more, and for only a second did she silently weigh the possibility that it made a difference whether she did or not. Quil didn't know if what he meant by his inquiry implied a short or long term situation; she could stay, see him through the night and no doubt the two of them could get to the bottom of many of the things that surely were afflicting each of them. But in her minds eye, the bright-eyed girl envisioned something more than just a night beneath the stars, out in the open with the sound of their beating hearts together a novel lullaby that would lull her into her dreams. She imagined that it would be the first of many nights to come, that she would spend curled up beside him, the warmth of his form soaking into the curve of her back; that the mornings would begin with the sight of him near her, that she would feel the heat of his breath on her face and know that there was more to this life than just making the best of what she'd been dealt. The possibility that it would be Rook himself ─ not answers ─ that would stitch her back together. She had learned long ago not to hope for things that might not come to pass, but she had also learned that hope was the instrument by which change could be made. It was hope that had brought her back here in the first place.

"I...I don't know where to begin, either, but...Of course I'll stay, Rook." A faint, fleeting smile tugged at a corner of her dark lips and she leaned slightly closer to his silhouetted form, the language of her body telling of her desire to be any and everything he could need. "There's no place else I'd rather be tonight than with you."

The night was young, and beneath the weight of what they had discovered, tucked away in a hole in the ground that led to nowhere but to each other, she suddenly yearned for a breath of fresh air. She had no intention of leaving him now, not permanently, and eventually she would return to Willow Ridge, either to say her goodbyes or to continue on as he had been without him in her daily life. But part of Quil Attaya belonged only to Rook Lyall now, and everything had changed. They'd found each other in the dark of their lives, but, together, the Attaya and the Lyall would draw in the light.

(This post was last modified: Oct 21, 2014, 08:32 PM by Quil.)

All of the questions began to form into what seemed like an endless mental list in his head. What he had been told as a cub, the facts and whimsical ideas that had become the tales of his bedtime stories, everything that he longed to learn about her and about her past... it was all there. He tilted his muzzle down for a moment as though he had been shy, then once it seemed he had collected himself, he righted his skull and began to walk again towards the eye-shaped opening of the newly discovered cave of the Secret Caverns. He kept quiet as he went; allowing her to clamber up the rocky opening first before emerging into the cool evening.

The chilled air rushed into his lungs and prompted a shiver to rush over him as he heaved a soft sigh. Again, he made to speak, but looking at her through the dark had him dropping his statement. For now, it could wait. Now that they had found one another, surely, they would do whatever it took to not lose each other. At least, not when so much was at stake - all the answers to a unclear past, recollections of childhood and all the days that were better than those of their yearling months, the chances to find those moments in which to slow down and breathe, and every undiscovered reason to continue forward... to live and be the reason for the other's happiness and sense of well-being...

He slowly sat down, not quite ready to leave unless she was willing to continue. After several moments he finally stood up and though his stocky limbs felt stiff and hinted at his sudden timidity of being with Quil, he began to lead her back towards the willows, welcoming the night to bestow upon them the courage and curiosity to get to know each another.

(Fade.)