Whitestone Monadnock searching where the leaves don't grow

I lost my first post so this might not be as great :') || For @Craw || Set right after hail rain or sunshine

The poet and the spider had split off from the other two wolves. They could use some private time together anyway. Mittani couldn't keep a smirk off of his face. The pleasure of being in the presence of Craw was the only thing that could make the ruthless man seem happy.

"Craw," His smooth voice spoke the raspy man's name. Mittani bumped his shoulder into the side of Craw. Their size difference was beyond obvious. "I imagine your need to know is unimaginable. But first, let me ask you something." His pale golden eyes glanced at the scarred face of the man. Mittani's gaze was rather steely but not judgemental, yet. "Have you lost your damn mind staying on or even near a monadnock?" The man's voice shifted from smooth and cool to the hiss of a snake. He couldn't help but wonder what in the world had possessed the man to live on top of something so elevated.

With a deep breath he focused on the cold land before them. "Now that that issue is out of the way. Is there anything you are dying to know first?" The poet's smooth tones were back. He was ready to give Craw what he wanted.

(This post was last modified: Jan 04, 2017, 10:44 PM by Mittani.)

It had become readily apparent that @Wraith wanted nothing more than to crash, so after allowing himself another brief moment to revel in his friend's return, the two pairs had split off. It was similarly clear that @Morganna had missed the third part of their sleeping arrangement, and so Craw knew that the both of them would be content; besides, he not only had a new member to show around, but a very old friend to catch up with.

While Mittani Morelli was often a verbose wolf of many outlandish stories, when it mattered, he had always been so to-the-point, and so it still was; the arctic wolf knew exactly what Craw wanted, acknowledged it, and the spider knew that answers were in hand. So close. He had not been so close in almost two years, and he was practically salivating at the opportunity. There was so much he needed to know, needed to ask, though he feared some of the answers. Two whole years. How had he let so much time pass?

Ears twitching towards the smaller man as he prepared to ask something, the question itself received a rough bark of laughter; so they all knew what had happened, then, or at least that part of it. He wondered how long it had taken for them to find Roake's sodden body. Good thing that bastard had always eaten too much... he had helped to cushion the terrible fall marvellously.

"That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger," he smirked, and looked out over the horizon, ever in love of the view from this high up. "I thought of anyone, you'd appreciate the poetry." It would have been a lie to say that he hadn't occasionally looked down at the sheer fall and felt his heart speed up, but somehow the memory of that day, that betrayal, had not rendered him permanently afraid of heights. And even if it had, he was the sort of wolf to fix such illness of the mind by tackling them head-on, and would have exposed himself to the fear until he no longer felt it.

As it was, living in this high place, surrounded by cliffs, seemed like an elegant fuck you to the wolves who had once tried to kill him over one, like a taunt to come try it again, bitches.

But Mittani knew what he really wanted to talk about.

"Is it true?" he said, voice growing quieter through urgency. "My daughter - is she alive?"

let me know if anything should be changed :x @Craw

Mittani, while mostly understanding Craw, would never fully understand him. While the poetic side of situations was something the arctic wolf was fully capable of seeing this just seemed like pure madness. Perhaps that was the poeticness to it, though. "I've seen you fighting a beautiful fight on the inside of yourself since that day I met you. It seems you still are." He cooed out to the man. "There's your poetry for the day." A soft fit of laughter bubbled up from the pale man.

The real issue (well, one of many) was presented in the form of a soft whisper. The Morelli stretched his neck out to position his muzzle closer to Craw's ear. "Beautiful and healthy." For once in a long time the pale gold eyes of Mittani Morelli held pure kindness. He found it hard to remember the last time he had been so filled with a certain pride. Pride for what? He couldn't exactly pinpoint it. Maybe for being the first to see Craw, being the first to talk to him, being the first to deliver good news.

"You know, she looks practically exactly like you. Even has her moments where I could swear she was you." His smooth voice delivered the news of his daughter with ease. "I don't interact with her as often as perhaps I should, though. She's well taken care of and I just keep a watchful eye from a distance." He didn't get too close to Craw's daughter for a few reasons. Mostly the fact that he feared what would come of him having a relationship with someone he might consider his own. How long had it been since his own two daughters were slain? The pale man was not ready to rip open such wounds.

is all perf <3

As if stood under a great bell while it was rung, Craw was struck by the deep, heavy way that word resonated through his body. Healthy. Not only alive, which was a blessing, but healthy. It would have been easy to lose count of the number of puppies who had died that year, either from illness or weakness or before they were even born. Even Mortus had not been the most vivacious of children, his grip on life more tenuous than any ordinary puppy, but Craw would have never known whether the child would have lived beyond the vital first few months of his life. It had been cut short from violence, no sickness of the boy himself. Craw had thought Odysseia had shared the same evil fate, so he had no way to know whether his own offspring could be viable, but she was healthy. She would be almost two years old by now, and Mittani would not have lied. The girl could have been hideous and the spider would not have cared, beauty did not exactly run in his family, he saw little value in it beyond the superficial, but healthy was a whole other ball game.

No - it completely changed the game.

He listened to the poet's description with rapt attention, hungry for each detail that Mittani might feed him, major or minor. She's well taken care of, he said, and made it clear that he didn't have too close a hand in her raising - the particular reason for which was something which Craw couldn't yet recall, but he didn't question it. Mittani had never been that involved in the life of the Khais, more of a peripheral friendship, for the man had always maintained his own existence separate from the tumultuous pack in the fields. It did not surprise Craw that he was the same even now. How much had he lost, though? To still associate with them at all, and not his family... what had happened to the Morelli man that Craw didn't know?

But the matter of 'what Craw didn't know' was so vast in this instance that it was hardly a surprise. Thus, latching onto the next logical matter, he asked: "Who is looking after her? Roose?" It had to be @Roosemooth, it just had to be, but the ageing man had never seemed inclined to parenting, and Craw found it difficult to believe that he and Mittani had been raising Craw's baby girl out in the north alone. "Who is left?"

Mittani didn't mind the silence that had come with his answer. It was welcomed and expected. The silence provided a sign that @Craw's brain was at work. The poet was just the messenger.

He waited for something to be said. Perhaps more about the daughter but it was revealed they had partially moved on from the daughter. "Roose?" He paused and raised an eyebrow giving away the appearance of confusion when he knew that name like any other. "I imagine he does what he can. More hands on than me most likely." There was a question he had been waiting for. Who was left? A smile twisted his features into something wicked.

"Myself, your daughter and Roose obviously." He paused as his pale gold eyes flicked up to look at Craw's face. "Angharad and Moriarty as well." Mittani had no problem with being blunt but he didn't know just how much his spidered friend wanted to hear. "They've more or less taken up the parent roles together for your girl." The Morelli's tone was rather neutral. Not showing pleasure or displeasure at his own news. But how Craw was going to react was something he wanted to see. It would give him more insight into the spider's head.

Just five.

The emotional rollercoaster wasn't letting him off yet. While hearing their names again was like sweetwater, hearing so few was the bitter aftertaste. "My Splendid," he muttered, her beautiful face flashing in front of him unbidden, remembering her with Mortus, and picturing her now raising the child she hadn't birthed. And with Moriarty, of all wolves. At least Odysseia had had some semblance of a normal upbringing, though he could not imagine what that might have been with those two wolves as stand-in parents. But Roose wouldn't have let them spoil her. I could swear she was you, Mittani had laughed, and Craw had to take comfort in that.

But no Oreka, no Cheedo, no Temper, no Arrison... only five. And Mittani was one of them, something that Craw had never expected. Just what had happened after his fall, what had resulted in so few remaining? And that's when it hit him.

"How are you safe there?" he said sharply, attention snapping back to Mittani's face after having drifted away into the far distance. "I had recent intelligence which said that you were still living in the fields - does he leave you alone? Did he leave!?"

Murdoc would have never left Ritter, not for anything, but nor would he have just let a little band of Craw's family live in peace, and there were only five of htem, hardly enough to protect themselves against the kinds of aggression that the Khai was capable of. Unless an agreement had been reached? But his father had never exactly been the diplomatic sort, either. Or maybe there had been more, and it had been whittled down to five over the last two years? But why would they stay under that kind of consistent loss, it would have made more sense to retreat and take shelter somewhere else, somewhere nearby, somewhere they would know if Craw ever came looking - but without needing to live on the perilous fields themselves. It made no sense, Roose would not have been so careless with the wellbeing of their allies.

The only obvious remaining answer hadn't yet clicked into place, because he couldn't bring himself to even consider it.

Mittani smiled softly at @Craw's words of endearment. "She's earned such a name." The woman was a nice, almost gentle one and for that, the Morelli was unsure if he understood how she had ended up in Craw's care. But his spidery friend had obviously taken care of her well. Selfish thoughts ran through his mind but he had to push those away. He couldn't bring himself to be greedy with a woman who was once his dear friend's lover.

There was harshness, though. The poet understood it but that didn't mean he was going to take it. Mittani bared his teeth for a moment, his hackles prickled in an aggressive way. "Do you think if it wasn't safe that I of all wolves would let us live there?" His words were a dangerous hiss. Pale eyes narrowed in on Craw's face. "Have you forgotten what a name like mine can do to a single man, Craw? They're beyond safe there under my protection and care. I made sure they were still going to remain safe once I set out to come see you." His voice had grown dangerously low and not once had he moved his eyes off of Craw.

The pale man took in a deep breath. He had to cool down, now was not the time for The Mittani to do something he would regret later. "Craw, my friend, you should know I wouldn't allow danger around those who matter to both you and myself. I've always made sure he wouldn't even look with his eyes at them without losing one." A bitter smile twisted onto his face. Where had Craw's faith gone? Had his friend wiped his memories of who Mittani Morelli was? He felt truly hurt. It had been some time but he knew when the feeling of internal pain was there.