Willow Ridge fate has a funny sense of humor

Izzy and @Asmund arrive to the ridge!
set just after this thread in the evening hours of 2/14/23
for @Hagar @Daegal @Avella @Nineve @Rashina any of the family that's around, please let cade post first c:

His sides were burning and his legs numb, the sky in the light fading to a bruised blush by the time they reached the familiar, draping boughs of the willows. Even bare in the winter cold, they were a welcome sight to the Archer lad.

Home.

They had made it home safe, and intact, it seemed.

He still wasn't sure what they were running from.

Glancing toward the other boy, Iseldir nodded his head and slowed his pace, slinking toward one of the large trees with its protectively hollowed twisting roots. Here on his home turf Izzy knew all the good hiding spots.

It took a second to catch his breath, and let out a bark for one or both of his parents, hoping for both but at least for the reassuring form of Hagar, who had protected Daegal from a bear and who, he was certain, would know what to do in a situation like this.

It was much further than he had expected it to be, and certainly farther than he'd wanted. Still, he did his best to keep the pace and the constant fear helped just as much to this end as it did to tear apart his ability to think clearly.

Asmund began to smell others, and then Iseldir was ducking into cover. He followed without hesitation, squirming into the web-like cover and attempting to hide between the other boy and the frozen earth. Whatever response would come from the other's family was not immediate, and while that should have been expected every second still pained Az greatly.

His mother had made it this far, and Viorel had not been able to get to her in time still.

Izzy had gone out without him and if Daegal didn't do the same on occasion he would be far more offended. Still, when he noticed his brother was gone he'd been annoyed but not overly worried. Sometimes they spent the night out but always came home the next day. Izzy was fine.

The short yips from one of their better hide-and-seek places caught Daegal's interest. Had they been playing a game all along and he hadn't noticed? Mouth hung wide in a grin Daegal trotted to the twisted tree. "Izzeeeee," he called, stopping only when the scent of another hit his nose. A pale head cocked in curiosity. "Who's that?" he asked, still relaxed and friendly. "Why're you guys hiding?"

She would follow the barking calls of her brother. She always would. This time she expected he might have found another of the many treasures he always seemed to find. Eve was upset he had been gone for days, but Eve had otherwise been occupied with Ra, wondering what would become of the venture they had taken to the large lake in the west.

When the chocolate girl came, she slid to the side of her silvered brother, peering into the hollow of trunk and tangled root. Iseldir was there, but he was not alone. "So you've found something else?" She teased, "or, someone, it seems." And there the earthen girl settled next to her brother, waiting for them to reveal themselves.

Izzy's breath and heart rate gradually slowed, comforted somewhat by familiar sights and smells as the moments ticked by. When he heard two sets of approaching paw steps his ears perked up, though it was not his parents that arrived first, but the curious and questioning faces of his brother and sister that greeted him and his companion.

Squirming back out from under the tree, Iseldir greeted them with happy whines and sniffs from head to tail, circling and checking them both over despite the fact that it was him who had been missing overnight. His head was bumped into Nineve's shoulder affectionately, and a front leg thrown over Daeg's shoulders in a hug. Then his attention was turned back to Asmund, as he peered back to the other boy and gave him an encouraging nod.

" 's'okay", he reassured once more. Surely whatever it was the boy was afraid of, would not dare follow them here. Even as he thought about it, he second guessed his sense of security in the Archer home. His gaze swept over the edges of their surroundings, and he hoped his parents would hurry up and find them too.

When others did arrive, he couldn't help but cower away, practically trying to bury himself in the frozen earth behind his still-nameless companion. Voices trickled into his ears, and he realized by their timber that these were agemates. This wasn't necessarily safe either, given his history with the other Backwater children, but his almost-doppelganger seemed more than happy to forsake safety to greet them. Asmund watched from the shadows, confused by how warm and at ease the trio appeared to be with each other.

Izzy, one had called him. The boy turned back to Az and tried to encourage him, but he couldn't move. He remained huddled against the cradle of dirt and shaking like an autumn leaf in the wind. All he could do was anticipate someone or something suddenly, violently snatching one of the other children away.

Hagar had heard the faintest of sounds, one that could have been anything. That included Avella, Ra or the children and so he dutifully tracked after it as though it had been clear as a bell. In time he found his sons and daughter gathered at the base of a large, old tree with something strange intermixing amongst their familiar scents. He approached calmly, seeing primarily curiosity upon Daegal and Nineve's faces while Iseldir's back was to him.

"Did one of you call?" he asked, before he realized that smell was a fourth child. He blinked, tilted his head, and simply waited for an explanation. Had they found a friend?