Please let @András post first

The trek from the Swamp to the Bluffs shouldn't have taken as long as it did, but the way of the land seemed to be nothing short of chaos and insanity and somehow more time had passed since they'd decided to come until they were able to get away. Wars, challenges, fights- she had traveled all over and hadn't found their boy yet... and finally they were able to come. Her belief that if Sage was here... he'd be well taken care of, was the only thing that let her sleep at night. The only thing... perhaps he'd wanted to try a different pride out? Maybe. Yeah.

She arrives at the Bluffs ahead of András, and comes to a halt. She'd taken care to make sure she smelled solely of the Plains, and of travel perhaps- but hadn't tried to brush too closely to her lover, so that what was between them wouldn't potentially be used against them. Well, she thought that way- but when she said our son... wouldn't that be...

She sent out a polite and calm chuff, cutting her thoughts off, as she called for @Amara, unaware of the changes that had happened here- unaware that the Queen she knew wasn't the Queen solely in charge any longer. Ghyslaine takes a breath, and sits back on her haunches and awaits, a few feet from the border- polite as always.

@Louve ♔ @Sage (Doesn't have to post yet, but want Ely to find/ is welcome) @Faustine (Since she's Sage's buddy keeper lmao) -- anyone in WB who wants to come is welcome! <3 Sorry this took so long, but Ama moves fast and timelines man

ART BY NAME KIM, CODE BY LARS

He could feel his chest burning, the weight of regret and guilt clinging to him like a weighty ghost. Where once he would have delighted in traveling beside her, he now felt nothing but dread, the aching silence between them hung in anticipatory suspension. By the time they crawled across the peninsula and found themselves upon the borders of the Bluffs, András struggled to hide behind his indifferent, steeled façade. Inside, he was blighted, turmoil lived freely among his anxieties and his regrets. He is thankful perhaps that @Ghyslaine beats him, and is already calling for the leaders by the time he arrived.

While he smelled of the Plains, he took careful guidance to disguise his appearance. Though he doubted any loyalists of the Greyfloods lived among the Bluffs, he long knew better than to let complacency be his swift end. His pale white fur was stained dusky brown with mud and dark-colored berries. His mane was freshly-cut once more, far from the long, near-elven length he'd achieved before. Straight tendrils no longer framed his face, the taut, near-militant look a far cry from the wild unkempt rogue he often appeared before.

He settled beside his lover, the only slip of his crumbling walls expressed in the nervous glint of his gaze as he looked upon her. But as his fiery stare turned back into the territory of Wolfbron, they hardened once more. He is silent, observant, watchful—a brawny guard just as eager to protect her as he was to find their missing son.

---

@Louve ♔ @Amara @Sage @Faustine

Art by Raph, table by cala

already, he were on the cusp of adolescence: the evidence, wrought in pallid wisps of mane and angled, weathering facial features. age were a brutal reminder as to the youth he’d wasted, donning the chains of his militant, rancid captor — and far from the loving embrace of a family, ripped asunder at the fault of his own idiocy. but @Faustine were not always cruel; and in the throes of his imprisonment, had he forged loose ties on the basis of an odd respect for the morbid parisian.

— even so, he were not entirely enthralled by her company quite enough to ignore that familiar soprano.

from the depths of wolfbron, he perks: wholly intrigued by the summons and its purpose. palpitations quicken beneath his heaving chest as gangling limbs pump in frantic pursuit of the unseen caller, fearing delusion amongst the prospect of reprimand. but the potential reward were too great for the tyke to ignore, and as their scent mingles with an overarching stench of rot and ruin, so does his pace hasten across ruddy, rugged terrain.

mercurial gaze fogs (but never with tears, for he were a man through and through) as the pale forms of @Ghyslaine and @András manifest upon the distant threshold. despite the will to unite, the forgotten rike-olympe stalls tens of meters away – unwilling to believe that which his eyes were wont to reveal.

“d-dad? mom?”

art / code / bg

the calls for her mother still happened, as she would expect. news did not travel so quickly these days, and louve's rise to power was fresh. her wounds had only just healed, after all. while knowing that the summons may be personal, that this might be a friend of amara's come knocking, she turns towards the borders with a stride that speaks of her position.

the woman, there, is familiar in a vague way. @Ghyslaine was not one she had spoken directly to before, and nor is the man that stands beside her. she moved forward to greet them but before she can another appears, a boy she had only seen in passing a few times. a friend of faustine's she thinks, and his familiar greeting to the pair sends a flash of uncertainty through the leader.

donning a more neutral expression she closes the space between them and stands just inside the borders. "may i 'elp you?" it seems strange to ask even to her, she is fairly certain she knows why they are here, but she does not fully grasp the fact that their son is a prisoner and not a welcomed member.

@András @Sage

Ghyslaine & András

i desire you to never swim home—the sea glass fascinates you to a high stupor, you forget the world for my sake

When @András joins her, she wonders if he also feels strange to don the mask of Folke- as she had of Meira that day- a mask she wore until she made it to the border, and decided that Ghyslaine may be more effective. Ghyslaine the former Queen, Ghyslaine the Noble of the Plains, under Violarum and Olive's rule. Ghyslaine, would be potentially be the best catalyst for the results they wanted- their son.

Their son.

As if her thoughts beckon him, and create him out of air- he is there, and her eyes devour him quickly- ensuring that he is well, that he is okay. The maternal desire that makes her want to cross the border and embrace him, is tampered only by the goal that they have here- that goal to bring him home. Her claws knead into the earth, as she whispers his name- as if it were a plea. "Sage."

The ache in her chest is nearly lethal, as the muscles of her heart contracts- as if someone grabs the organ in their paw and squeezes. She stares at her son, the longing in her gaze- so evident to any who would look at her- almost lost in the moment so entirely that when another speaks, her attention is jerked to them. She clears her throat, and nods respectfully- pulling the mask- the identity of Ghyslaine back to her as if it truly was not who she was.

Who is she anymore, anyways?

"Hello." She greets the female with a respectful nod of her head, vaguely recalling seeing her, but lacking the memory of her name or quite obviously her rank. "I am Ghyslaine, Noble of Lorien Plains." She offers, letting her son hear of her new rank and their home too- and letting András introduce himself, as he chose too. "Sage-" She gestures with a paw. "Is our son, and he has been missing. There was a stray scent of Wolfbron near where we'd last found his scent in the Swamp, so I had come to ask if Amara had perhaps gained a wayward cub- or if she had been told by a scout that they'd encountered one." It doesn't occur to her that he may be a prisoner, and she was so careful not to accuse them of anything. As far as she knows, a scout offered to help him and he'd been brought here for safety.

"I don't know the circumstances of his arrival here, but we would like to take him home." She finishes, with a long look to her son, before her eyes shift to meet the Queen's if she is able. She doesn't even let herself think on... if Sage wants to leave. He needs to be at home, where he belonged- didn't he? With his family.

@Sage @Louve ♔

code by cala, art by bessona

Of all the parents with wayward sons, they were one of the luckiest ones.

@Sage is the first to arrive, and his head jerks with wretched instinct to face their son as he stands those many feet away, as it stunned into believing them no more than ghosts. András could hardly blame him—his own jaw was near to the floor, fiery eyes drawn wide and disbelieving. How had they gotten so lucky to run headfirst into the correct pride; and how long had it been since they'd been able to search again? The boy's mane was growing in, what cublike innocence he once held quashed by his cannibal conservator. Sage— he breathes, thanking whatever Gods he'd never believed in before. He cannot continue, however, before the lumbering Queenly form of @Louve ♔ appears from betwixt the red rocks of the Bluffs.

He remains quiet, stalwart. However well his disguises worked before, András were no master of trickery. He had never known the Bluffs to be an ally of the Summit, and knew even less of their once-alliance with those of his ilk; he would take no chances, for not taking chances is what had kept him alive this far. His eyes fall upon @Ghyslaine, who'd long shed her disguise in favor of being her again, a mercy that he himself couldn't afford. But the protection of the Plains had welled justified the switch, and he held close the ease of no longer being on the run. With their own children protected within the hallowed halls of their pride, they could finally seek their missing child—who seemed now just out of reach.

Instead, he remains poised in silence, gaze eager and expectant between his lover and the cannibal Queen, before finally resting upon Sage, gauging his son's reactions. Was he here against his will, or had he come willingly? Was Wolfbron meant to be his home? He felt his claws clench against the ground, a nervousness running through him, one unwilling and unready to let go of the children he was so desperate to finally raise.

Art by Raph, table by cala

the crackling tenor of his own voice were a foreign sound; the desperation laced within its bewildered tone, damnable to he who revered strength above all else. but to shun emotion in the throes of a harrowing reunion between parent and child were a feat he’d fail to attain. and as he drinks in their image upon the threshold – as their own pleas and prayers flood the yawning distance between lost, kindred spirits – so does the guise of a young man lift to unveil the frightened boy, left suffocating underneath.

the prompt arrival of @Louve ♔, however, quickly stills the quavering of his bottom lip. she were not the oppressor, and yet, her poised regality earns the veneration of an averted stare (for @Faustine had engrained snippets of her philosophy into that of his own, however weakening they were). but her accented query serves brutal reminders of circumstance, and pensive silence befalls him as he reflects upon that fateful day with a thousand-yard stare. and though @Ghyslaine offers an explanation in his stead, her words become garbled amongst vivid reveries — drowned out by fading, french reverberations and guttural snarls.

“it’s stupid,” the forgotten rike-olympe blurts out at last, gaze tentatively tracing a line between the gathered few. palpitations quicken beneath tensed flesh as his hardened stare lands upon @András with a half-hearted, boyish grin. “we were just kids, faustine and i,” he begins, forcing strained chuckles as he downplays what trauma he’d endured. “long story short: she brought me here. i’ve been here. but i can live without her, if…” a glance to louve vies for permission, but the lump in his throat persists long after his speech tapers off into a thoughtful quiet. wherever home was now, he’d yearn for it for far too long.

art / code / bg

her gaze travels from one to the other, from the trembling mother to her more stoic husband, and finally to the half-grown boy. in him she sees a child trying so very hard to be a man and she wonders intensely of the 'long story' he refers to. he does not seem to be marked but she watches him closely for a moment, trying to see beyond the surface mask he presents.

"'e came 'ome with my daughter, i assumed 'im an orphan." she begins speaking while still looking at @Sage, but swings her head back to @Ghyslaine before she is finished. "of course i 'ave no issues with you taking 'im 'ome." release is easy enough to grant, louve had little desire to keep members that did not wish to be here.

perhaps she should have asked the boy or her daughter directly, but she had imagined if he had parents they would have come quickly -- it had been months since he had come, had it not? louve put these thoughts aside, waiting to see what more the family had to say.

@András

art

Ghyslaine

She wants him home, and the desire is so strong that she wants to damn the border between them and embrace her son. Ghyslaine's claws sink into the hard earth, because she is trying to restrain herself from doing such a thing. She hears @András soft speech of Sage's name and her heart swells in her chest- and she wonders if it does so in such a large way that the world can see it. Sage speaks, and explains- well sort of. Ghyslaine's eyes narrow as she tries to read into it, tries to read between the lines to figure out what her son is saying. His words, his stating he can live without her... if Louve will allow it- makes her gaze shift to the Queen.

She wonders if Louve remembers her, they'd only met one time- a very long time ago, and she only remembered her as the daughter of Amara - remembering meeting her briefly before (at least Roamer's 95% sure that happened at some point). But it appeared to Ghyslaine at least, that she was Queen in her own right since Amara had not appeared.

She took in a breath, and looked to András - Folke, and then to Sage- before looking to @Louve ♔. "I thank you for taking care of him, regardless of how he came to be here." She breathes out. "It seems I owe you a debt." She says simply, before she looks at @Sage . "I want you to come home. Of course I do, but... Is this where you want to be?" She asks her son- glancing to András, and hoping he wouldn't want to claw her fur out. "I just want you to be happy and safe, wherever that is." She breathes out, and even though she is terrified that he will say that he wants to stay... she knows she has to give him the chance.

_{art by yumpy}