[Navigation note: Sunset Falls]

It had taken Crux a few days of travel to finally get here. He'd expected it would especially because he hadn't exactly been pushing himself. He'd told his father to expect he'd be gone for a short bit. Used going to finally visit his older brothers and sister, as well as seeing about what useful herbs he could find on the way, as his story. Which to be fair was like 95% of the truth. He also admittedly was hoping to run into Triss at some point during his journey. So far no such luck. But that was fine. He hadn't set a solid timeline for his return, he didn't want to risk wrenching his leg when he knew the journey would be taxing on him already. Better to rest than to end up needing help getting back home. Riya had come with, partially to help but also he assumed to help reassure his father.

So it was that Crux made his way to the edge of his older brother's territory. Would any of his family even care to see him? He knew, vaugely, he had nieces and a nephew here as well as two of his eldest siblings. He had vauge memories of his older sister from the few times she'd been around the Armada and Kotori from that ill fated visit to The Hallows. The rest of them, including his eldest brother? Not a clue, and that didn't exactly put him at ease... The track record of eldest brothers wasn't exactly great... He'd never had any beef with Mortis, but neither did he really know him, just that his kids were pretty dang sweet. But Azure? Azure had made it very clear their shared parentage meant nothing when it came to how much he hated them, but him and his sisters especially. So yeah maybe the worry was warranted. Taking a deep breath, catching an encouraging smile from Riya, and pushing his nerves down for just a second Crux let loose a call, for his family. Just coming for a visit.

"Speech"

Art by MarkLix

Kotori had just finished turning the latest bear skin into a new pelt.  The horned wolf was thinking it would be time to get a bigger den in a new location soon.  More pelts would be useful for whenever Ochi and he grew out their family after all.  He heard Crux howl and nodded in acknowledgment of the call.  Kotori took the pelt, passing by his den and setting it inside.  That done he made his way to where he found Crux waiting.

There was no disguising the family line, it was written clearly in the scar-like lines about the eyes.  Kotori hadn’t got that one particular feature but at least he had his pride and some Fatalis had missed out on that from what he’d seen.  Uh, it had been a long time since he’d seen the guy and he’d been a lot smaller then.  He really didn’t know anything about how he’d turn out.

Kotori offered a small nod to his younger brother, wondering how he had turned out. “Welcome brother, what brings you to Valta?” The tone was relaxed, sibling to sibling instead of the alpha to a wolf requesting his attention.

"Kotori Fatalis"