[Location for Home Turf: Mile High-Woods]

Crux tilted his head from side to side, wincing both from pain and discomfort. His throat was much less raw than it had been a few days ago when it had all gone down... But the ointments that had to be applied, with help since he couldn't really see the scar all that well, well it sucked. His neck felt stiff, like he was covered in layers and layers of goop rather than a medicinal ointment. It was to help with the blisters which were cooling down and for fighting infection, it helped with the pain only a minimal amount. Enough for him to manage. He was finally letting himself relax some, no longer taking every thing that needed to be done onto himself and he looked a little better, throat notwithstanding. That said he was technically working right now, he was just checking the state of the ground, winter was slowly releasing it's grip to let spring in but it wasn't that much warmer yet and he was keeping an eye on how quickly the frost was melting, the ground becoming soft enough for growth, or planting his own garden maybe. He wasn't sure. The dirt was still quite stiff, he was probably not gonna have any luck for a few weeks. Crux sighed and settled himself on his haunches. It felt like somehow everything he did only made everything more confusing, more complicated. It had been the second time Triss had come to his rescue, and the second time his father had found her with him in a scenario where she'd run to his aid. Then of course there was his own feelings for her... which were just so tangled. Crux knew he did like her, but he also had feelings for Ajax... Or at least the idea of Ajax? It was hard to tell how much of that was based in reality and how much was based in fantasy, which only made trying to work out what exactly he was feeling for Triss were. Not helping matters was that they were both from packs that were not on good terms... Not that that was any different from his first crush, he didn't know the reason behind either... He did think the feud with the pirates or raiders or whatever everyone called them was overblown. Clearly it was closely held by his father, and some of the other older wolves but he'd never had anything but perfectly pleasant run ins with the younger pirates. He wasn't invested, couldn't be, not when he felt for Ajax... But he couldn't deny it made everything much more complicated. And then... There was his first kiss... Didn't he owe her feelings too? Maybe... But he mostly only felt guilt, like he had cheated on Triss and Ajax. He wasn't officially dating anyone so he could have possibly cheated but that didn't stop the guilt. Crux growled softly, frustrated he couldn't seem to detangle the web of teenage drama he'd gotten himself into somehow, at least not by himself. "Speech" "Riya"

Art by Cloudy!

It was late for most wolves - which was Kite’s favourite time to move around the pack. This was the time when she had her freedom, where she could see where she was going, and who she ran into. She did find she relied rather heavily on scents, even with her mask off. Perhaps it was a habit engrained from a lifetime of relying on it.

So when she caught Crux’s scent, she could get just a tinge of his worry murking the trail of it. Curious what her brother was doing out here so late, she decided to follow the trail further into the woods. She found him on his hunches, looking into nothing. But what really caught her attention was his throat. She stomped up to him, shoving some of the salve aside with a paw to get a better look, her heart hammering in her throat. “Crux, what happened?” She demanded in surprise.

"Speech"

Okay so maybe he wasn't resting as much as he was telling himself he was. He had decided to go poke at the ground at night. But in his defence he had tried sleeping. His mind was just a little too busy for that right now it seemed. Crux saw his sister coming, even gave her a little smile and his tail brushed the ground, what he didn't see coming was the way she barrelled down on him and for a split second Crux felt how much smaller than her he was. Then he was grimacing as her paw brushed still quite sensitive flesh. "Ow-uh!" Crux said, gently pushing Kite's paw off of his throat. "I decided to take a lava bath." He said it sarcastically, it wasn't like he'd meant to not make the jump. "Remember when we were kids, the statues and familiars and stuff?" Y'know when mom died. He knew he didn't need to add that. "It was something kinda like that, I honestly don't have a better answer for you. One moment I was in the forest and the next I was trying to get across a river of Lava." It was a more condensed version of the story as he'd explained it to Triss and his father but he honestly didn't want to have to keep repeating the whole thing. "I'm fine, there's been no sign of infection yet and I can handle a little pain." Crux understood she was just worried for him, but he still felt the need to push back a little, maybe it was just the feeling of not wanting to be babied just for his leg but superimposed over his newest problem. "Besides I heard girls like a man with scars." Honestly a joke he could only make around his siblings, he'd barely managed to tentatively flirt with Triss after he'd had a near death experience there was no way he could ever make a joke so bold with anyone else yet. He was also admittedly trying to brush past the topic. "Speech" "Riya"

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The statues, and familiars. The vision she’d been sent, the scar. Now Crux? Why them? What was the connection? She raised a paw to her own throat, though her fur hid most of it these days. “Did you… see mum and dad, too? Did he…” She trailed off, running a paw across her throat. “What does this mean, Crux? Why us?” Her eyes trailed down to his leg, before looking back up at him with her crystal-infused eyes. They were freaks, weren’t they?

Her lip trembled, and she bit it, hard. She didn’t like weakness. She hated it, actually. She didn’t want to tell Crux that she was scared, that she was worried for him, for herself. She hated this weakness that had grown on them from the day they were born. “What girls looking at your scars anyway” She said, trying to sound teasing, trying to change the topic, if just a little.


"Speech"

As Kite started to ask him if he'd had visions... Crux could only shake his head slowly. He hadn't seen any of his family, he had seen some fireflies in the moments before he'd woken back up but that had been the only thing even remotely related to the festival of their youth.  He followed his sister's gaze to his own leg, feeling a knot form in his stomach. So he wasn't the only one to think they were somehow connected to all this weirdness. Some part of him wanted to press the issue, to dig into what exactly the two of them had been through but another part of him was scared of doing so, of finding something he wouldn't want to learn... What if it was true, what if he really was the reason their mother got sick... Died. Not that the change in subject was much better. His sister asked which girls were looking at his scar and Crux was pretty damn sure every single blood cell in his body had rushed to his face. He was pretty sure even in the dark and with a dark pelt to help mask it there would be no missing the sudden change in his demeanour. "Well uh...." Where did he even start? Obviously he thought of Triss but technically he'd already had his first kiss with another girl entirely and... "That is..." He was doing a great job, definitely not making it very obvious that he did in fact have a girl or two, and maybe even a boy, to look at his scar. Mind only one of them had seen it but still... "Speech" "Riya"

Art by Cloudy!

Well, that was unexpected. Greatly so. She actually let herself get dragged out of her worry and wild theories about crystals and visions. She didn’t really know what to believe there, so this was easier anyway. Teasing Crux was so much more simple than agonising over things that had happened to them.

“Okay, now you have to spill Crux. if you tell me, I’ll tell you.” She offered him. Not that hers was all that interesting. Not any more at least, with Beru gone to the wind. Even his own family didn’t know where he had gone! He’d been there one day, and vanished the next. Taking all of Kite’s happiness with him.


"Speech"

Well Crux had dug his grave hadn't he? Might as well lie in it. Especially if there was in fact something for Kite to share. "Deal." He wanted to give her a grin, but he was still pretty damn embarrassed. "Um, so I don't remember if you remember when they uh, had to send someone to get me during the flood because I was stranded?" He and Triss had had just had to wait for aid once they'd been pulled from the water and made sure they were both safe. Safe, not well. "There was a girl with me... Uh her name is Cryptis, she's from Insomnia..." What did he even say? That they kept running into each other when one of them was having some kind of crisis? That they had first bonded with each other by commiserating about their disabilities? That her paw on his felt so warm and comforting? That he'd told her he thought she was beautiful? Crux cast his gaze downwards for a moment, overwhelmed. "She's the one who, found me " He lifted a forepaw to just barely touch the exposed skin of his scar. "So I guess she's the first one to get to-" Crux cut himself off suddenly very aware of the words he'd said, and praying his sister hadn't caught their meaning. That there were more than one wolf he'd had some kind of entanglement with. "Speech" "Riya"

Art by Cloudy!

Crux agreed to the deal, and went on to explain about a girl that had helped him in the flood. Kite had been too busy pulling puppies out of the water, and then realising that Lioness was still stuck in their den and drowning. So she hadn’t really been paying attention to her siblings. “She trespassed for you?” Kite asked, a little flabbergasted. Kite didn’t know anything about Insomnia, so she had no idea if or what the ramifications would be. She wished… she wished Beru had been there for her.

“The first one to get what?” She asked, desperate not to think about how mad and upset she was at Beru


"Speech"

Crux winced slightly as his sister asked about Triss being there at all. "Yeah uh... Can't say dad was too happy about that one." Not that he could be too upset, he hadn't been the only one to have someone trespass to save their life but he didn't think that was his story to tell, Andy could do that all on her own. And... Busted. Crux tried to hide his own bashfulness, unsurprisingly it was all too easy for young wolves to be too wrapped up in their own internal drama to notice someone else's and Crux was certainly dealing with internal drama. The last thing he wanted to do was sound like he was bragging. He certainly didn't feel like he was all that lucky, mostly just lost and confused. "Look at the scar." He sounded almost ashamed. "Sheeee may not be the only one..." The reluctance was obvious as he drew out the first word and trailed off. Of course that wasn't entirely true, Cryptis was still the one he thought off the most but like- He was young and being bad at explaining things this loaded was part of the package. "Speech" "Riya"

Art by Cloudy!