Sanguine Cove No goodbyes, no return

This is it, the death of Sanguine Cove, the end of a legacy. Off they go into the unknown! Set 6/27 early morning.
@Aquene @Magg @Galen @Matos @Leo @Neva @Aven @Jessamy @Nori

Nash stood on the lakeshore, looking out over the familiar waters. If he squinted he could make out the shore where he'd been born in the gray morning light. He could almost feel it tugging in his chest, like a call to his heart. He'd spent years away from  here and kept coming back, and then the lake had held him. He'd made his home here, started and raised his family, played and laughed and cried and fought in these peaks, on these shores. He'd learned to fish in the chill mountain water and taught his own children the same skill. He remembered watching his mother teach other pups.

The long walk with her to her grave, where he and Matos stood and watched her fade away, where they'd buried her next to her husband.

Nash always thought he would be buried beside them, or perhaps with Aleister in the place they'd founded. Now he was about to walk away. He didn't know if he'd be back, even to visit the graves.

It felt like that's all the mountain was anymore.

Nash tilted his head back and called for the pack. It was time.

(This post was last modified: Jun 28, 2024, 01:36 AM by Nash.)

SHE MAY CONTAIN THE URGE TO RUNAWAY, BUT

Magg's children had been just over two weeks old when the pack as a whole made its decision. It wasn't until they started developing language that she started to talk of the great big trip they all would be taking in the near future. She figured it would make it all the more easy, if it was something they at least knew was coming, even if there was no way to prepare them for the physical reality of it. Any questions they might have come up with she answered if she could, and if she couldn't, she tried to make the mystery seem fun. She was really, really scared that this was going to go wrong. That something awful would happen, while she was left to live with the guilt of not having spoken against the move. Yet if she had, and they stayed, and the same patterns just continued? It was what was best, she just... wished it could have happened before her twins had been born. Her father's voice rang through the air, and she sighed before hoisting herself up onto her paws. She had been watching over the girls as they played and ventured, but now she would need to corral them and direct them out past the bounds of all they'd ever known. Magg put on her best smile, so expertly crafted that even her parents could have been fooled. "Its time for that trip, hun. Are we ready?" Please be ready. Please don't let this be hell right off the bat.

HOLD HER DOWN WITH SOGGY CLOTHES & BREEZEBLOCKS

(This post was last modified: Jul 06, 2024, 02:06 PM by Eros.)

The first rays of daylight had crept their way through the needle-ridden canopy of the pines by time Galen had bothered to open his eyes to the world, roused from his slumber by the baritone notes of Nash's howl echoing somewhere along the lake's pebbly shoreline. Outstretched paws attempted to stretch themselves further as a salmon tongue rolled out between parted jaws, yawning and ridding the last moments of sleep before daring to move and shift onto all fours. After the pack's recent discussion about uprooting their lives from this cursed mountain, now was most likely the time words were put to action.

A swift shake of his pelt to rid it of any loose debris collected during his sleep and he was off at a decent trot toward the call while emotions aplenty took turns ravaging the cavity of his chest. Guilt. Apprehension. Sadness. Each one rotated like clockwork with every stride. This mountain had been where he had been born. This mountain had been where too many of those he had loved dearly came to an end. Molten gold eyes momentarily cast their gaze toward the general direction of where his father had been laid to rest, a heavy sigh escaping flared nostrils. Would he ever return to visit his old man's grave? Was he proud of the man (or lack there of) he had become?

Such thoughts would be dealt with another time. Change was on the horizon and it was long overdue his family had a taste of the good life.

Blood Runs Thicker Than Water

Their mother had been talking about the great big trip they were going to take for as long as Neva could remember. Which, admittedly, was not a very long time, but it felt like forever to her. So, it seemed very normal that soon they would be going on a very long walk. They had gone on lots of walks before, with Mother, with Grandmother or Grandfather, so this was just going to be like that but longer.

Neva was fine with that, because she liked going on all the walks that she had been on before. Plus, Aven would be there with her, and that meant that it would be a good walk. All of that was just to say, when Magg announced that it was time for their big trip, Neva was quick to get to her paws from where she had been laying in the sun. Mirroring her mother’s smile (because she had quickly learned the copycat game and loved it.) She yipped excitedly.

If only she were to know that soon her paws and legs would be sore, she would feel hot and tired, and it was going to not be any fun like any walk she had ever been on.

But Both Feel The Same When Your Eyes Are Closed

Please note: Aven may appear in any of Neva's threads without prior warning - even if the thread is marked private.

Jessamy knew the trip was coming; she'd been there when they'd decided to go. She knew they wouldn't be coming back, but that didn't bother her as much as it might have bothered her older siblings. She was getting to go on an adventure! With how protective her mother was, with how stuck she'd felt as of late, Sam was thrilled to get to go explore the world, and the rest of her family was coming with! She couldn't think of anything better.

When her dad called she'd already been up, patiently waiting for her mother to awaken. When she heard Dad's voice, however, she squeaked and excitedly ran off, only pausing long enough to yip impatiently at her mom, and then bounded to the source of the summons. Her uncle, aunt, and niece were present. Sam liked her nieces. She didn't really understand the relationship beyond they were family and they were little like her and she wanted to play.

Too excited to contain it, Sam barked at Neva and bounced into her side, giving the girl a play bow.

Nori had been dozing in and out of an uneasy sleep when she heard the call. They were moving - that was right. In the midst of everything else, she had nearly forgotten.

Getting to her feet with a soft sigh, Nori shook out her fur and stretched, her limbs still aching from too much travel over a short period of time. They ached a little more at the thought of how much more travel was ahead of them, when she wasn't even sure exactly where they were going.

It wasn't that she wasn't excited to go. Or, perhaps excited was the wrong word. Relieved would be better, she thought. Relieved to no longer have to constantly have to deal with towering heights. Relieved to put some distance between herself and where she had met Jet. Where she'd buried Archer. Where she'd fallen down, down, down with no memory of hitting the ground.

Silently, she padded toward the call, ready to be uprooted again. Maybe - hopefully this would be the last time.

Aquene remained silent as she arrived, lingering near Sam to keep a close eye on the girl, offering a brief and gentle (and not entirely genuine) smile towards her husband as he had called them. Though she was eager to get away from the mountain and the bad fortune it had brought them time and time again, she was not looking forward to the journey, or the rebuilding of her stores… or anything of the matter. Perhaps it would even be time to pass the healing to another… she was not certain that there was a correct answer.

All she knew was that she couldn’t stay on the mountain. She couldn’t do it.

It had taken so much from all of them. She wasn’t certain how they had remained that long. She would stand, waiting for a movement forward so they might start their journey, her eyes consistently looking to the sky, on the watch for hawks with her daughter and grandchildren out in the open. She would not lose anyone else to the mountain… not this time.

Aquene Slayer

In the few weeks since their return from the Falls and the meeting deciding to move the eldest Eastfall-Slayer spent as much of his time as he could visiting all his favorite places. Savoring and committing them to memory. He doubted that he would be returning anytime soon if at all. The mountain was all he had every known. The two trips to the Falls hardly counted and made him 'travelled'.

His large ebony frame rested atop his grandmother's favorite outcrop looking over the lake as a whole. He missed her so much despite understanding that everything and everyone eventually met their end. He wondered what she would have said about the move, leaving where they had started their family. Wondered if she believed the mountain was cursed. His train of thought was interrupted by his father's call.

It was time.

The young man didnt move immediately though. Unlike so many calls where he desperately didn't want to arrive last this time he didnt care. He wanted just a few more moments. Begrudgingly Maty rose and shook out his pelt releasing a small bundle of nervousness and anxiousness. His dual gaze of amber and emerald took one last look at the sparkling lake before turning to head towards his family.

He arrived and took in the sight of his family. His heart sank a bit that Eclypse was still missing but at least they knew where Leo was and would be going to get him. A small smile pulled at his maw at the sight of his youngest sister and niece playing and looked around for @Aven knowing she wasn't too far away. They all had been under close watch since Sari, none of them willing to let them out of their sights.

Aven had no real way of understanding what this trip would actually mean. She couldn't possibly understand the thought process behind it, nor everything that had led to it. She didn't have the capabilities yet to know that a chapter was closing and another was opening.

Thus, when Mother called for them, Aven did not whine or balk. Instead, she matched her sister's excitement, matched her mother's smile, and toddled on toward their awaiting future.

Sorry for the delay, missed the tag. This is the end of SC as we knew it... on to the future!

He called and they gathered, and Nash looked over his dwindled family. Eclypse's missing face haunted him... where had she gone? Would she be returning? His gut churned; he had come home to find it unexpectedly empty, once, and now he was leaving his middle daughter to do the same. It felt wrong - it was wrong - but he needed to keep the rest of them safe and he was done sacrificing the entire pack. They'd agreed, and it was time to move on. Leo needed them, and the children needed a safe place to grow up.

"We are to stay together. If you range out, make sure we are all in the same place for the night. The pups are never to be left unattended. We will go northwest, away from the other packs. We will find somewhere safe." So he hoped, but he needed to show confidence that they could find somewhere. "The pups and Leo will set the pace; nobody gets left behind." The implied else hung heavy on his tongue.

He turned and let the way out, pausing momentarily at the borders to look back. He breathed deep, that familiar scent he had so loved washing over him. It felt wrong, against his nature, to leave his home unguarded, nobody hear to keep their legacy safe. Soon the scented borders would fade and this would be just another place. Empty. Lifeless. Nash exhaled and turned away, moving down the mountain toward the future he was leading his pack toward. Toward a new home. Each step ached like a sore muscle, necessary but still painful. The mountain sang to him, drawing him back, but he kept his face resolutely forward. The siren call would take no more from him.