[Sleepwalk]

#e04a00

It had been a long time since he'd been to where red, rocky crags met sprawling sand as far as the eye could see. The sun blaring down with it's blistering heat, which his body seemed not accustomed to anymore, despite being born for these very conditions. The rain forest had gotten him too used to humid heat, damp and constant rain. Coming back to the desert, was a fool's gamble.

He should have waited till it was night, when the sun set beyond the red dunes of the horizon and the cool air wafted in, but the wind was whispering things. Pulling on his fur ever so slightly whenever it swept up. It's there, can't you see it? Don't you smell it? Remember, you have to remember. Like an old friend gone away for a while, the memory was fuzzy, the feelings weren't the same, but he knew. In dreams his heart raced back to this place, and always it remained the same.

The familiarity hit him in waves of nostalgia, how long had it been? He was just a little kid when he decided that he could face the world alone and life had been anything, but kind. But still this desert remained and it smelled like home. Tongue lolling from his mouth as he scanned the badlands, the dunes, and the shaky heat mirages far ahead of him, he'd sit. Head tipping back to howl out his greeting, that would echo over this desolate place.

I'm home.

[Smalltalk]

Her ear flickered in the direction of the call as it rolled over the desert and to her, and, after a beat, her head followed to answer it with one of her own, higher and more boisterous. The echoes sing as they bounce off of the concave walls of the rocky pit she had come across, and she takes a moment to feel the sound ringing with the bottom of her feet before she begins to move. The howl did not belong to Akaika or Dahlia, of that she was certain. It was a stranger- or, as the solemn note in the howl suggested, it was someone returning home.  

As luck would have it, there was not much land to cross to reach this newcomer who had entered through the edge of the badlands. He sat within borders that had yet to be defined (a task surely easier when she was still pregnant she was sure), and she trotted towards him with that tripping step of hers. There were so many faces she had come across in her years that his did not ring a bell, but it was the headband that gave her pause. Who she was looking at was someone that the itch in the back of her mind was desperate for her to remember. Her steps slow as her eyes widen, the wind blowing sand across toes coming to a rest on that sun-baked earth.

Memories faded in and out like a mirage swimming on the horizon. An older stranger clad in khaki-green blinking emerald eyes at her before shifting to leap after a silhouette she knew to be her sister's bounding over the dunes. Glimmering stardust and time itself swells- Her arms, shiny and mottled with angry licks of burns, crossed in front of her as she dozes off to the sound of the step-father (handsome tattooed son-of-a-gun that he was) entertaining who were also her nieces and nephews. A child tripping over himself and desperate to tell a story about nothing at all- that same khaki-green glittering in the morning sun as he smiles even brighter. Her sister's own rare smile as she tosses that mane of hers held back by her headband.

Her own heart beating fiercely like calloused palms over goat skin with the love she carries for the nine of them.

The corner of her lips tug to split the bottom down the middle- a smile uncaring of the arid air pulling the blood to bead lazily against her bottom teeth. Her eyelids flutter to beat at and subdue the prickle at their corners, her shoulders flex to control herself from gathering the boy up in a fierce hug.

Do you remember me?

"Taa."

It's all right if you don't.

"You've grown so much!"

It's been so long after all.

[Sleepwalk]

#e04a00

He wasn't sure who to expect, who would greet him, it had been a long time. Things are bound to change, right? It was dumb to think things hadn't. The last familiar face he'd seen was it his aunt? His mother? Gosh, it all seemed to blend together now that he wasn't quite so sure.

He caught something in the not so far off distance, a shifting blob that hesitated in the heat wave that rolled from off the blistering sands. Dark ears perked for a moment and suddenly he felt his throat go dry, drier than it had been since arriving to the badlands. They were too far off for him to really be able to tell who it was, their colors shifting this way and that, but they seemed dark? Light?

But it bolted forward, whoever they were, and as they closed in, pale blue eyes (her eyes) widened at familiar dark maroons and light creams. In that moment he was frozen, stood eclipsed by memories flashing behind his eyes and the sudden cool feeling that crept up his spine. He was a child again chasing after legs that had a much bigger stride, nestling against the fur of family, but not the fur of his own mother.

They stared at each other, the sea foam green of her eyes meeting the pale blue of his own, and she spoke first. The feeling of their hearts nearly leaping out of their chests, overcome with emotion at this reunion and it could have been a dream, a fever dream. You are called Sleepwalk. "Mmuhh-" Mom. He almost said the completely wrong thing, he knew very well who this was. "Auntie, Auntie Small..." I know your face, I know you. A quiet whisper, just audible over the swirling winds.

Taa, it's been a long time since he heard family call him by his real name. He'd nearly forgotten how it felt. Ears pulled back and Sleep felt his chest seize, lips pulling upward to form a bright smile. A sob that mingled with laughter escaped him in great heaves that left him nearly breathless as the young male pulled himself to his feet and pushed his head against his aunt's chest, holding himself there. "I missed you, I missed EVERYONE. I've... I was such a fool for just leaving, and and, I don't know what I was thinking, but I'm h-here now. I'm home, auntie." His mother had always said that sometimes there were those that needed to figure things out for themselves. "I-I was figuring some stuff out."

[Smalltalk]

"Auntie, Auntie Small..."

Those bright eyes of hers watered as she ugly sniffed what was probably a booger back into her nose. It had been so long since she had last seen him, a rambunctious boy growing into his long legs and chasing after those brothers of his. A brilliant smile bloomed to match his as she held out her arms to catch the boy.

"I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!!!" she sobbed as she squeezed him tight. There was the Smalltalk we all know and love. She continued to blubber over him oh so gracefully and beautifully with wet cheeks and a hug that was probably crushing the air out of him, but then his next words hit her. Holding him out at arm's length, she put herself together to take a good look at him.

"No nephew of mine talks about himself that way!! Calling himself a fool!!! NOT IN MY HOUSE." Allie huffed loudly and (lovingly) shook him a bit. "Not when he has his tattoos and probably his Name and his beautiful face and majestic hair." Again she pulled him close to squeeze him tight. "I think you are awesome and I'm not biased at all actually SO."

She really was just giddy to know he was all right and home again.

"But a lot of us left after the challenge with Mom." How strange those days were when her and Northwind were trying to figure out what to do. She had seen her own mother with a new litter of pups and in the same day saw her sister and father for the last time. She smushed her face against his hair and probably shifted that headband askew over an eye as her heart felt fit to burst. "A group of us only came back a few days ago. It looks like whoever stayed behind might have moved on and found somewhere where it actually rains!" A soft chuckle, a vibration in the chest he leaned against. "Sometimes it's important to see things you wouldn't have seen if you stayed home. Gotta take every chance you have to learn from what's out there."

"But now you're home!"

---

[ YA BOI SLEEPTALK HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE RANKS! He's a full-fledged member now so BE FREE we can continue the rp but he's good to do whatever outside of this too! ]