Pookastone Scowle Winter

For @Clouse, whenever you have time.

Twisting and turning, Ra found shelter within the moss covered rocks that made Pookastone Scowle. The trails within the labyrinth kept the cold winds of still clinging winter upon them. Her snowy coat quivered. The was cold and tired already, but pushed forward none the less.

Eve was not far. At least, not anymore then a howl away. After learning of her brother's adventures beyond the Drooping Willows, Eve decided they were not going to be the only ones to have any fun. She had guided Ra here, who traveled to the west with a yearning in her heart and wonder in her mind.

Ra was fading. Her travels to Relic Lore had not been easy on her and there shortly after, the drought happened, they lost members, winter came... No more then a thin-boned shell of her former self, she tries to understand the God's plans for her.

(This post was last modified: Feb 19, 2023, 04:12 PM by Rashina.)

Clouse had set out on his daily jog and ended up not turning back around. The further he got, the more his heart hammered, and the exercise had nothing to do with it. Perhaps it was in spite of this phenomena that he kept pushing on, fighting against the innate need to turn around and find his way back to @Loach's side. Whatever it was, it carried him a day away and further, all the way to the lagoon's shore. He didn't even recognize it from the stories, his mind was so far elsewhere.

But he did recognize his sister's scent. His ears jumped and his thoughts scattered as he inhaled and as though suddenly, she was there. His gray eyes scanned and his dark paws took him searching, pace hurried. What on Earth was she doing here?

When he found her, he didn't hesitate to settle around her, doing his best to shield and warm her larger frame.

"Sis."

She felt like a whisper of herself.

(This post was last modified: Feb 19, 2023, 09:02 AM by Clouse.)

A scent, it came with the quick footfalls which rushed into her direction. At first, her body shrank, falling low and her tail tucking under her defensively. But his scent came and she knew it well. Her ears perked upright.

"Oh, Mother Moon is that...!?" She loud whispers, a gasp, as shock takes to her. The Gods, they had been listening to her pleas after all! It was him! She had finally found him! And then, in a wisp, her thoughts led to Vash and Gaia, wondering if those two siblings were together as they were now.

He slid to her side with warmth and comfort and she almost purrs to it, if she could. Instead, the noise coming out as a half rumble, half whine. "The Gods, they finally led me to you!" Though he was far shorter then her, he was heavier, heavier even now that she was so thinned and frail, skin clinging to bone. He did his best to shield her from Winter's wrath.

"I have missed you, brother."

(This post was last modified: Feb 19, 2023, 04:33 PM by Rashina.)

                                                                                                   ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆                                                              
"Moon Mother,
bring us your light, for the night is dark and full of terrors." 

Those phrases were so familiar to his ears and yet utterly foreign out here away from the coven. It jarred him out of that unbridled freedom and roused that bone-deep conditioning. In a wash his fiery-eyed lover was completely out his mind and Clouse was nothing more than a doting sibling. He checked his sister over as she spoke, leathery nose snuffling about for injury, illness or other signs of harm. She smelled of others, faintly of family even, but no one he was able to recognize by scent alone. This place hadn't smelled of anyone, though. Shocked, confused and even alarmed, he pulled back to begin with his questions.

"What are you doing here Ra?"

She'd practically told him already, and still he needed clarification. Perhaps he refused to believe it at first, that his favored sister was here, frail and freezing just because of Clouse.

He sniffed her over- searching, digging, and would find nothing other then the physical weakness she had gained from her lack of sight and due to the winter. Harder to sniff out fruits, fungus, bugs and scavenged meat in the winter. Harder still to find anything without a proper pack left to give.

But it was not her brother's silent fussing about her which had her confused. It was his question. Her ears perked high, brows knitting together. "My sight might be gone, but I'm fairly certain my ears work just fine. That wasn't a 'I miss you too, sister', I did hear." They had been close- once... perhaps not any longer? She huffs, then. "To find you, of course."

(This post was last modified: Mar 03, 2023, 02:09 AM by Rashina.)

                                                                                                   ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆                                                              
"Moon Mother,
bring us your light, for the night is dark and full of terrors." 

Another pulse of guilt. She was right; Rashina typically was. That he hadn't first said it didn't mean it wasn't true, though. Of course he missed his family. Yet... he'd also known what he was losing by leaving that final time. It was unfortunate the price had been so high, but it had been worth paying in the end.

Clouse didn't want to ever admit any of that to her.

"I'm sorry," he spoke earnestly, touching his nose to Ra's pale crown in gesture.

"I have missed you. I just, this is dangerous. We need to get into shelter."

Nevermind how hungry she looked.

"Who are you with, why aren't they here?"

Rashina knew the cost of having something great all too well. She wouldn't have been angry with Clouse for sacrificing his connection to family for freedom. To see the wonder and beauty of the world. A luxury Ra would never have. She would have been sad, but not angry.

Her own sacrifice had been her eyesight and the lack of it now meant her new vision- viewing through the eyes of the gods. Seeing what they meant to show her. She would not trade it back any day. Not even now, as she were a grimly sight.

She smiles then, happy with her brother's words once more. Better then his last sentences. "It was. The journey was very hard." She admitted when he spoke of the dangers looking for him had intell. "I rest in Willow Ridge." There is a lightness there, a happiness, but it fades quickly... "It is not as it once were. Avella reigns, with her three pups, myself and their father. That is all." Three children, their parents and a blind priestess.

(This post was last modified: Mar 06, 2023, 10:50 PM by Rashina.)

                                                                                                   ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆                                                              
"Moon Mother,
bring us your light, for the night is dark and full of terrors." 

Rashina confirmed it and Clouse felt that guilt grow denser, heavier. He could be distracted by it briefly with puzzlement as she mentioned familiar names in odd context. His brows knit further, and he settled his head atop her shoulders while his tongue caught up to his racing questions.

"I thought the Ridge had been abandoned. Why are they there alone?"

None of it made sense to him, but of course that wasn't exactly the nearest branch of the family. Clouse certainly hadn't been close with any of their cousins and knew little beyond his own experiences with them. Was the Ridge being revived, had it never disbanded to begin with and now about to dissipate for real?

The weight of his head rested on her shoulders was heavy in her state, but she bared it.

"There were a few more, Avella's brother Scully as one but, with the drought, then winter... This is what is left of us." They had never been grand to begin with. Not as Willow Ridge once were under the rule of Elettra, possibly even Ravenna too. Avella had tried, but what was lost was lost. What was gone was gone.

"I don't know how long they had even settled. She said when her and Scully first arrived it was quite overgrown but they were getting it back together. I think the Archers find future in other lands. The past is just this."

Wherever all those who were there were gone now. Avella wanted to revive what once was. Ra did not think they had that strength to do so. Not now.

(This post was last modified: Mar 08, 2023, 10:21 PM by Rashina.)

                                                                                                   ⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆                                                              
"Moon Mother,
bring us your light, for the night is dark and full of terrors." 

Another familiar name, one Clouse didn't expect to next be described as absent. Had he tried to lead? Scully had never been reliable, even at his best. Apparently that had not changed. Then a drought? He sighed into his sister's pale fur. What a mess.

"What do you want to do, then?"

If she'd come all the way here for him, he hoped it wasn't to try and convince him to return. It wouldn't happen, not even for her. He hoped instead she'd say she had just been worried, that now she could return to either the Dell or Torbine, either of which would see her protected and cherished as Rashina should be.

It would be a lengthy trip, walking her back, but he supposed that was a fitting punishment for not giving her a proper goodbye.