Drooping Willows as permanent as the will you helped draw up

backdated to july 15th, like 3 am, @Daegal and @Nineve are bringing a clearly-unwell Hagar back home. this is intended to facilitate the WR group choosing a new leader to meet with Loach and discuss the merger. @Niamh Rashina Clouse @Mouseling @Kaeruka are needed, otherwise you might miss your chance to vote. c: @Deirdre is also welcome!

The heat had brought on a storm front, and its gales had temporarily chased away the worst of the fires' smoke from their forests. Was it luck, or divine intervention? Hagar wondered as he walked, slow and unsteady, quaking subtly. His body was weak, exhausted and even though his breathing had improved, it had only done so marginally. The wolf still was not getting enough oxygen, and so was barely functioning. He could not search like this, much less lead.

His children got him home safely nonetheless. The sky above was deeply dark and thunder crackled and gurgled as the wind picked up. Given the coming weather he did not allow himself to stop until they were beneath that familiar ridge, at the opening of the pack's den. Hagar's hefty hindquarters dropped to the ground, and he panted to catch his breath as best as he could manage before being able to speak.

"Call the others."

They needed another wolf to step up, and with no clear hierarchy established outside of his and Avella's leadership, Hagar could only ask the others what they wanted. After all, they would need to be able to respect their new alpha.

Things only seemed to get worse around here. Now, dad was sick. She didn't know what was wrong with him other then chalking it up to exhaustion and the smoke-filled air. Sure, to her, he was an old guy but surely not that old!

The yearling siblings were able to guide their father home, at each of his sides any moment he stumbled or leaned as though he might fall over. Daegal, bigger then she, helped alot. Hagar got water from the lagoon and the wind picking up due to a coming storm helped to clear the air. Eve hoped this would pass soon, but it was not to be so.

Finally, they were home and the chocolate coated yearling settled at her father's side under the rocky opening of the pack's communal den. "Okay..." She murmured only and then howled out loudly and urgently over the rolling thunder for their pack.

some light PP, please lmk if not okay <3

Hagar was gone.

Yet so were the yearlings it seemed and Ra had returned. The willows seemed to become a revolving door. So she did her best to silently assure herself he was just off being a father to his other children. Perhaps they had gone as a group to search for the other still missing faces.

How her heart ached for a break.

How her spirit whispered for relief.

Yet there was a summons late into the night. As she sagged with a restlessness that sleep could not touch. Her first priority was to gather Ra and Deirdre both, figuring that neither would wish to be left behind from the call. For it hardly bid well to be called upon elsewhere instead of her husband to come to their place. She would rally those that she could to go to him.

Frenzied, wild and feral perhaps in how she was prepared to come onto the scene with worry painted openly across her face.

adopt my brother!

note: mentions of fortune telling and magic are purely a belief system.

The heaviness in Niamh was absolute. Hagar was not well and only seemed to grow worse each passing day. The new arrival of smokey skies had not helped... It was a silent knowing. A dark cloud in the skies, but one not spoken allowed.

Niamh kept these thoughts to herself. Ra did not speak her own. Niamh did not ask Ra what the visions showed, perhaps fearing of the certainty of it. Ra did not tell. She did not wish to have to lie to her friend in order to protect her heart.

When the call of arms came, it was not by the voice of Hagar. It was his eldest daughter, Nineve. Ra's gut felt tight. She followed Niamh along, keeping closely so to the side of Deirdre as they came with a quietness. The dark cloud here was heavier.

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

Things had seemed uncertain at best amongst the willows as of late. Regulatory responsibilities were still fulfilled between shifts beyond their abode, still in search of the remaining members that had not been returned to them. Be it by some answered prayer or miracle beyond them Ra had managed to make a return, alas no Avella or Izzy had accompanied her back from beyond the willows. Now, Hagar had began to grow weaker by the day and the tawny woman had no doubt the stresses of their current situation paired with the onset of smoke that filled the air played a part. Worry plagued the others and herself, yet Ruka did her best to ease what she could in such troubling times.

Thunder roared and cracked throughout the night as the woman found herself resting closer to the edges of their acclaimed territory lately, perhaps in hopes of being the first to signal the others should some miracle happen and those missing manifest at their doorstep or just the exhaustion that filled her limbs from trying to keep herself busy. It was during a lull between thunderous cracks and the wails of whipping wind that Eve's call managed to rouse the tawny woman from her slumber. Confusion mixed with sleepiness furrowed brows together but nonetheless the young Archer's call was heeded with as much urgency as tired limbs could afford, appearing out of the shadows with worry clearly etched onto her facial features at the sight she was beholding.

This didn't seem to bode well, but she silently took a seat where she stood to await what was to come next.

It seemed as though the gods Clouse refused to believe in were conspiring to thwart all hope of keeping the two groups separate. Fires now burned in forests that were far too close for comfort, a dim orange glow hovering along the horizon no matter the hour. The accompanying smoke had impacted them all, and their water was turning brackish. He needed to know that Loach was okay, had to make sure he and Ra were in the best position possible to survive whatever more was coming.

He'd rather that meant fleeing these lands altogether and finding somewhere untouched by the purge, but it seemed his sister was finding her own ties here beyond their Archer name. Clouse followed after her, the little chain they created a particularly poignant visual of where they all lie emotionally as well. He loathed being at the end.

When they reached the meeting place, Clouse hung back, quietly observant.

His wife was the first to answer them, their daughter and Ra hot on her wolfish heels. Normally, Hagar would rise to meet her, but this time he could not spare the energy. His ears tipped downward, green eyes looking upon her worried face with guilt. His body was failing him, causing him to in turn fail those he loved. If she came close enough, he would nuzzle into the fur at her neck, seeking strength through her support.

Deirdre too would be offered a kiss to her crown if she could be reached, and then he would shift his posture again, sitting tall to look upon those assembled. @Mouseling had not yet made it, but given how new he was to the group and Hagar's own fading condition, he chose to begin now while he still was able.

"I cannot lead," he cut directly to the point, as was his way, "and we must have an alpha."

There was a time he would have thought that unnecessary to say aloud. Now that this moment was unexpectedly, abruptly here however, the wolf realized just how scared he was that this family he had cobbled together might decide parting ways was the better choice. That they might follow the unintentional example of their true alpha, Avella, instead.

"With no beta, it's up to you all to decide. Now."

Speaking was clearly taking its toll, Hagar's breathing growing more ragged as the words came and needing to take longer pauses. His jaws parted, but his tongue dared not loll into the ashy air.

"Who?"

no posting order <3

(This post was last modified: Aug 04, 2023, 10:19 PM by Hagar.)

The hazy sky and electric air made Mouseling uneasy, a feeling he was well sick of by now. He turned his head to Nineve's call and listened. It sounded urgent, pointed with a crack of thunder overhead. Quickly he made his way toward the howl, though he was a good distance away, wandering through the trees.

Minutes later, Mouseling crept into the meeting, ears flattened in shame at his own tardiness. He sat behind everyone else and perked his head up to listen. He noted how ill Hagar looked. The older wolf looked deathly now, his voice turning raspy. He glanced around at the other wolves. He had no clue who could take over, having known the others for such a short time.

His eyes flicked to Clouse, who also sat back from the crowd. The black wolf knew better than he about these lands, and he thought of following his lead on the matter. Mouseling shook his head, and steadied to form his own opinion for once. He would see the options presented, though didn't consider himself one of them.

She meant to surround him in love and strength now. To tuck herself close alongside him and groom away the dirt and smog from his fur.

Even with the grave energy and news. That he no longer saw himself fit for leadership. Silently she wondered if this was a needed change, if he might heal better when he did not have to run about and fuss over every thing.

Someone else must take that place though.

No leaders, no betas.

A vote was to be made and at once, Niamh did not think she could be casted into it. For she had both a husband and a daughter to fret over. Yet she hardly knew many of the other faces here. Kaeruka and Clouse mildly known at best. Mouseling both new and unknown to her deeply. The yearlings too...young, to carry the burdens left behind by those older than them.

She knew only one other face to rely upon fully here.

"Ra."

The woman was blind, but her mind was without flaws and she was a trusted face to many of them. Surely she'd have support from others as well, in voting for the pale priestess.

Who else could it be?

adopt my brother!

note: mentions of fortune telling and magic are purely a belief system.

Niamh came, followed by half-sister Deirdre and cousin Ra. Clouse was not far behind. Kaeruka then, one of the two non-family wolves within the ranks. Mouseling had not yet arrived. Eve observed them all silently as they came and giving either a look and some a little dip on her head. Once the great (or lack there of) majority had arrived, her father spoke.

What came, she had not entirely been expecting. Yes, he was sick but surely someone else could help him out until he got back on his feet again, right? Or at least until their mother returned? Of course, the ways of politics were lost upon Eve completely and she thought she would never bother to learn it, either, with all the trouble that seemed to come with it.

Eve's ears fell back against her head and her sky eyes shifted briefly to her brother. What did he think of all this? Who would he pick?

Mouseling broke the silence with his arrival. Though he said no words, not yet. He only briefly glanced into the direction first. It was Niamh who spoke of first with one single, certain word: Ra. Honestly, Eve would have expected her to petition herself, given the fact that she was now Hagar's mate and mother of his pups, as Avella had been. But no... That was, most unexpected though Eve did her best to hide the surprise. She probably did poorly, too.

Eve began scanning the little group in thought. It wasn't too hard of a choice, really, if her mother and father were no longer on the table and she and her brother were yet far too young. "I choose Ra or Clouse." Her eyes pass between both. After all, both of them were Archers, her blood, so it seemed right in her eyes that these two would be of the best pick.

(This post was last modified: Aug 08, 2023, 06:43 PM by Nineve.)