(Florence and the Machine lyric!  So, this takes place after the "Death and all of His Friends" thread.  Not the best post.)


After the earthquake, the falling underground, meeting Aylie and escaping with a fungus that healed him, Adolph couldn't sleep.  His mind was full of the past everything.  He expected his final resting place a day ago in the patch of fungi--he was given back life in the form of a girl who didn't give up on him.  The reunion tugged at his heart and there was no way he wanted her to see him so fragile and scared at the end of his life.

Then again, Aylie didn't give him a choice to die.

Young wolves.

Instead of staying with the safety of Byakko and the other wolves, the relic moved to the far side of the group in an open stump warmed by dead grass.  It was comfortable and roomy.  Best of all, it faced where he could see the wolves and the wolves could see him.

Just in case.

The tree stump must have belonged to a mighty tree, Adolph thought.  One that covered so much sky, seen so many things.  It must have had an amazing life.  Did Adolph have an amazing life?  Did the regrets outweigh the successes?  He shook that line of thinking away.  He and his son Buckshot became strong again.  He saw Buckshot find love (with Byakko's daughter no less!) and become a father.  Adolph became a grandpa!  Hakan returned.  Aylie came home.  He heard word Mercury came home too.  

Perhaps this homecoming was for a reason.  It was comforting, very comforting.  The relic stretched his paws and stuck his injured leg out.  The fungi had healed most of it, though it still hurt and he needed to rest between walks. That was okay.  That was fine.

He was alive to accept it.

<a href="http://north.victus-rpg.com/"><img src="http://north.victus-rpg.com/images/nonaff.png" title="North of Nowhere"></a>

It was dark and warm. A beam of sunlight fell across her face from the opening of the den, her expression one of sleepless exhaustion. Her body was tired but her mind would not rest, and she stared listlessly into the middle distance, head across her forelimbs. The pain in her hip that had ached for weeks was drowned out by the rest of her body joining in the protest. She was very tired, but there was a great sense of relief in her, too, that everything seemed to have turned out alright.

Haven had not been certain of what to expect. There had been congratulations and well wishes for her, the autumn air light with happy voices praising both royal families. Everyone will be happy, the storybooks at always promised, after the heroes found their ending. Heroes and leaders fought evil, fell in love, and started a family as the people cheered and petals fluttered all around them.

Everyone will be happy. Haven looked down at the children by her side. Everyone will be happy. They’d be happy. She’d be happy. That’s how these things were supposed to work. The queen stared at her children. She was thinking about Dragon.

Trice had been by her side during all of this, when he was not hunting or patrolling. Haven had insisted he keep patrolling. He had stayed by her side for the first full day, refusing to leave, but she kept asking - who’s guarding the borders? When do the shifts change? List all the sentries for me, again. She knew it wasn’t reasonable. But she kept asking him if he could check. Asking him to make sure everything was running smoothly. That everything was safe. It was important that everything was safe.

Stakes had always been high. Every small sweet peaceful thing made them higher. Haven looked at her children and sighed. They didn’t know anything. They were innocent and did not know about monsters. Did not know about Eschaton or Saboro, about Renegades or the Fury. War and pain and loss and duty. These small, helpless things that looked like her and like Trice, that looked like Jacob and Tanith, these new, small people were Inarian at their core in every way. They were good and innocent. Haven knew she loved them. Cue finale music. We earned our good ending. Earned our victories, our crowns, our sweet children murmuring in their sleep, clean and warm.

Haven looked away and laid her head back on her forepaws. She knew she loved them. But she didn’t know if she was happy.

Some time had passed. How much? Immaterial. She had a daunting amount of it to spare.

Whatever had long ago created the monster must have drawn from something horrible inside of itself that day. She was hideous beyond all redemption, disheveled and brutal, the long hairs at her belly and jaw discolored with some brownish-red sludge. Half of her face was stripped of skin and sensation; an opaque green eye peered into the world from the other side, like some nasty insect from beneath a rock. Dragon crossed paths with the land beyond Alteron to end up somewhere between here and there. She'd decided at some point that the smell was as distinct to it as it was unpleasant. That is to say, significantly so.

The renegade had already called to him, long before she arrived, and came in view expecting to see him there. There were better ways to spend her time than waiting for hours under some tree. A howl to rattle Isaiah's attentions. The boy hadn't changed a bit. Like a machine built by a drunken fool, he was cobbled together, shaped all wrong, but functioned... well enough. Cue some wise guy in the audience: not so different, huh guys?

Dragon said nothing. Even had her mouth not been full with what was blatantly Talon's head, she'd still have let Isaiah speak first.

Hello all!

Nardir has had a long and very fun journey on the forum, but after some discussion Uri, Puffin, and I have come to the decision to disband the pack. We feel as though this is for the best. The IC explanation for the pack disbanding is that the Tendrils, while beautiful, turned out to be quite deadly; poisonous gas vapors began to seep up into the territory from the depths, rendering it uninhabitable. The prey fled and the Nardiri followed, fleeing the deadly invisible threat. Alana & Julek are going to be traveling to Inaria to seek shelter for their family and any who wish to follow them there. Puffin will likely be staying in the neutrals searching for any lost Nardiri (for a time).

I haven't decided what will happen from there in regards to Alana or Sansa personally, but I'm excited to see what the next chapter holds.

All roleplay threads (including those in our archive) will be moved to the general RP archives board for storage after a week. If you'd like to continue a thread you're currently involved in, just link it here and we'll get them moved to the neutrals where they can be finished.

Thank you all for the memories, it's been a great run! <3