[[ Smalltalk and her kids are here but anyone interested in joining is is welcome to pop in! ]]

Today was going to be the day, she just didn't know it yet.

The little family had trekked from the mountains to the canyons to the desert, stopping often along the way as the mother and the young children took their time not too push themselves too far. Smalltalk with her tripping steps and the kids with their tiny legs could only cover so much ground before someone needed to be carried or needed a nap, and the kids were adamant about it not being fair if she were the one that wanted to be carried because Mom!! You are too big for us!!! And no napping you snore SO loudly!!!

So now as they came upon an elephant graveyard that Chickadee had screamed in terror at as her mother Oo-ed and Aw-ed over how freaking cool it was, they took another chance to rest. Smalltalk planted her ass up on top an old tusk and the rest of her followed with a flop like she was made of spaghetti, her groans and moans loud as she kicked out her aching feet to hang off the ledge. "I'm SO TIRED I feel like I've been in labor but for YEARS," she complained to her kids that were clearly born, though she wouldn't be surprised if they didn't pay her any mind. Her obnoxiousness was probably like water off of a duck's back so used to their mother's antics they were by now, and she had just been their only companion for a while now. "Who's hungry? I'm freakin' starving. I feel like we've been walkin' FOREVER!!"

Flexing her toes and listening to the bones crack, Smalltalk shifted on her tummy and twisted to pop a kink out of her spine. She was too fucking old for all of this... probably. Wolves much like their writers don't keep track of how old characters are because that's madness, so she was going to guess that being middle-aged like she probably was not was entirely too fucking old. She cracked her neck with another noise that made at least one of the boys wince.

Normally the squabbling among the puppies was enough to keep the thoughts of a lost family unit and a missing husband at bay, but perhaps it was her exhaustion that loosened the fastenings on the musings to let them slip free. It had been too long since she had had any communication with Northwind, separated as they were by a terrible sandstorm that raged for days and changed the landscape of the Red Mountains. He had been out hunting as she hunkered down with the little ones, and she had dug them all out when the air was all clear to find hardly any trace of him. For too long she waited with the babies as they squirmed and chirped, calling for him or Warborne or Enamor with no luck, but the time came when she had to put on a brave face and move on for her kids' sakes. Her throat flexed with a swallow as she watched her children trip and sniff after lizards, a tightness to the corners of her lips as she stood to shake the dust from her fur.

She hoped it would be a while before any of them asked. She had yet to come up with something to tell them and, as talkative as she was, that was a conversation she was not quite ready for.

Scruffy head turned to consider a familiar star on the horizon, the same one she had had them following for weeks. She had never been so lost in her life, and had sought its amused winking as an anchor to that vagabond soul of hers. She needed to get them to the Outlands to give them a family and not totally fail them out of the gate, and they had been traveling in search of the Oasis in her memories.

"What do you think my Boobie? Time for us to settle down like a bunch of LOSERS?" she cackled like the wild thing she was as she leapt from the tusk and danced out of reach in hopes that they would chase her. Get them moving, get them moving! She seemed half of her age of infinity as she darted through the arching rib cage of once-great elephant and weaved through to snatch little squealing Chickadee who was having trouble keeping up into her jaws. Weathered paws beat the earth as she ran, and she set down her youngest to call back at them with thunder beating madness into her veins and a new terrifying life threatening to nip at her heels. "CATCH ME IF YA CAN!"

She had yet to recognize as it all, echoing with an emptiness it never had before, but her body knew the land for what it was.

Home.

(PRP Merc)