It had been a few weeks since they’d arrived and, other than her brief encounter with Scully, she and her band had seen neither head nor tail of the runaway Hervok-Archer child. She was feeling a bit disgruntled, to say the very least, and so she decided to look at yet another new area. Past the delta where she’d encountered the dark Archer was a quiet bay, the ground much sturdier and clean that the muddy delta that threatened to swallow her legs whole. She disliked it as much as she did the first time, but it was a necessary evil to pass through to get to the bay.

Once she’d arrived she paused to look around, sandy mud dripping from her underbelly and making her skin itch. The water, lapping softly at the shore, called to her and she obliged, stepping into the cooling waters and creating small white peaks as the waves curled around her venturing body. Once she was in deep enough that her back was almost covered, she paused and allowed the current to pull at her fur, carrying away the dirt and muck that clung to her. It felt good, the water was chillier now that the temperature was starting to decent with the coming winter. A hum escaped her throat and her persian blue gaze closed as she chose to relax for a moment.

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r Scully had said to steer clear from places they'd denned in, but Clouse had found himself missing the bay. Given that he hadn't been snatched up and whisked back off to the Dell by this point, the youth was gaining confidence that they were staying hidden enough and that one single excursion backwards couldn't be all that risky. He was about to learn otherwise. Silver eyes weren't watching the water but rather tracking his own paws as they passed through the sand. What he'd missed were the sounds of the waves and the migrating birds. They echoed in his ears and helped him block out everything else, brooding thoughts and the guilt over what his dad had said about his mom being 'worried to death.' His intentions hadn't been to hurt anyone, Clouse had genuinely thought he wouldn't be missed much. He was not at all aware that every zoned-out moment was bringing him closer and closer to his water-logged big sister. Word Count: 162

Everything was silent and serene, nature wrapping her in a cocoon with its gentle sounds. She could have sat there all day, but she was startled by the sound of splashing nearby. Her auds swiveled in the direction, her eyes snapping to attention and she was instantly starting to move toward the shore. Her instincts made her wary of things such as sharks in water as deep as this, but as her gaze swept the surface of the water and could see a dark, wolfish head bobbing above the waves.

The woman paused, now sure that it wasn’t a shark but, instead, another wolf. She squinted, trying to judge their age. From the size of their head they seemed to be young...wait, young? A young, dark wolf out on his own...it couldn’t be. Wordlessly, she started heading in the direction of the wolf. The closer and closer she got, the surer she became. It was the younger brother that she’d been looking for. “Clouse!” she called out, a rare smile slipping onto her lips. Finally!

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r Clouse's paws hit the cold, frothy water and at last he was pulled from his reverie and back into the now. His muzzle wrinkled with distaste as the sand slowly filled the spaces between his digits and he backed away from the ebbing edge. This was only moments before the sea's soundtrack was disrupted by the sound of his own name. The voice was as immediately recognizable as his father's had been, but this time the six month old didn't have to wonder if he was hearing things or not. His big sister was right in front of him, paddling enthusiastically toward him. His ears flew backward and his jaw dropped, gaping for a moment as though he were going to speak back. Then, and instantaneously feeling guilty for it, Clouse whipped clear around and set off at a dead run for the forest. Word Count: 144

The large woman’s brows drew together in confusion when her younger sibling promptly turned tail and started sprinting towards the forest. Why was he running? Was Scully nearby watching him, intimidating him into tomfoolery? It was a possibility that she couldn’t ignore. She took more powerful steps, all but launching herself out of the water and onto dry land. Her long legs took her across the shore, quick to catch up to her much smaller sibling until she right in front of him. He looked so startled, but he didn’t need to be startled anymore. Sister was here and she’d always protect him. “Wait, you don’t need to run anymore. I’m here to help,” she said, trying her best to be reassuring.

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r Clouse tried to fly over the beach's sands but they grabbed at his paws and slowed him down instead. He could hear Ellery behind him and steadily growing closer, and the young wolf knew he wasn't going to make it but didn't give up. Even as she passed him and cut off his path, he danced back and forth a few times, attempting to out-maneuver the far more experienced Hervok. It was her claims that finally made Clouse pause, gray eyes shifting toward quizzical and black brows drawing together. "Help? ... wh-what do I need helped with?" He pedalled back a few steps, trying maintain at least enough distance that she couldn't outright grab him. If Ellery really wanted to, she could quite literally drag her little brother all the way back home. Word Count: 132

He seemed completely confused by her question and she paused, her mind flashing back to Scully’s comment, the one about how Clouse was running from them rather than being dragged around. But...it couldn’t be true, right? Her persian gaze searched his face as he paced like a caged animal and she felt herself swallow. “Save you from Scully. He’s dragging you around and shoving you into all kinds of chaos...isn’t he?” Ellery was righteous, she was lawful and just. This whole thing wasn’t a wild goose chase. She knew her brother. She’d been there when all of her siblings had been born, she’d known them literally since birth. She knew them...didn’t she?

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r Confusion and conflict were so rarely seen upon her dial that Clouse could not keep looking at her for much longer. Ellery elaborated, and shame overtook his posture, tailing curling against his stomach. This was worse than seeing his dad sad. The kid felt so badly, but still not bad enough as to take any of it back. He certainly wasn't ready to go home, which he still anticipated the older sibling to want. "I-I a-asked Scully if I c-could co-come," Clouse admitted, voice thin as he forced the words out. Part of him wanted to lie and blame his cousin, just to save Ellery any heartbreak but that wasn't fair. Besides, he'd seen Scully get whomped by his sister before; she could break him this time. "I wuh... I... I wa-, wa-,wanted..." what the hell did he want? Clouse sighed, attempting to vent some frustration over his own inability to articulate. He came from so many sure speakers, and he had his moments, but when he felt strongly the youth fell apart and right now Clouse was immensely sorry that his sister had spent so many months thinking he was some kind of kidnapping victim all because he hadn't had the guts to say goodbye. Word Count: 207

Clouse was stumbling all over himself, his words tying in knots without any grace. This was something she knew he did when he was upset. The young Hervok-Archer felt so much, more than she ever did. Sure, Ellery made jokes and she was obviously passionate about many things, but there were also a lot of ways in which she was closed off emotionally. She was not and had never been a touchy-feely kind of girl and her words weren’t always the warmest, she knew this about herself and rarely apologized for it. After all, pretty much everyone who knew her already knew of her disposition. But sometimes, in times like this, she wished she had a little more...empathy.

Her sibling said that he had wanted to come along and she could almost feel Scully’s triumphant ‘I told you so’ grin on the back of her neck from wherever he was. She nearly sighed, but held it in lest her brother think she was sighing at him. “Take a deep breath, Clouse. You’re fine,” she said, giving him a moment to regain his composure to the best of his ability. He was so young, she wasn’t here to fight him and, as much as she sometimes acted like it, she wasn’t his mother. Nineva was enough mom for all of them.

”Why did you leave without saying anything? Your father and lots of other Archers sneak off all the time, it’s not new. Hell, its probably even some right of passage that I don’t know about,” she said, choosing this time to sit down with the hopes that her brother would see she wasn’t planning on just taking him by the scruff and making a break for it...even if a small part of her wanted to.

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r It wasn't the first time Ellery had told him to breathe when his anxiety got the best of him, but it didn't help much in this moment because this feeling, this level of guilt rather than simple embarrassment or nerves, was not easily cowed. Clouse knew he'd done wrong, and he knew he had literally no valid reason for doing it. Moving on to his difference in lineage did not help either, and his body sagged further at all points until he was practically laying down, muzzle atop his paws and large, watery gray eyes blinking down at his own nose. Clouse was a bad kid. "I... I didn't want you guys to say no," he whispered, hating that the truth was so dumb and selfish. Word Count: 126

Clouse just seemed to cower further into the ground, as if he was waiting for it to swallow him up. A frown curled the edges of her lips downward and she wished more than ever that her mother was there to straighten things out. Nin was good with words, ever the diplomat. It was why they were such a good mother-daughter duo. There was no doubt her mother knew how to throw her weight around, but she trusted Ellery enough to let her do that for her on many occasions. A knight was never more loyal to anyone than their own kin.

”Hey, bud, we all make mistakes. Making mistakes is a good thing, its when you make the same mistake twice that it becomes a problem. No one is mad, no one is blaming you. We were just worried is all,” she said, giving her ear an awkward flick as she searched for what would hopefully be the right words. Ugh, too much gushy feely stuff. “Wanna tell me why you wanted to leave?” she asked, trying to gently broach the subject without setting the younger one off into a fit of anxiety and reduced self-worth.

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r Ellery shifted tactics, and Clouse knew this to mean that he'd reached a certain threshold of pitiful. It helped though, her reassurances that it was okay he'd messed up. It wasn't so easy to assuage his guilt, but at least she wasn't rubbing salt into his own self-inflicted wound. His gray eyes flickered upward, better able to catch her gaze as he felt a little more confident that the damage done wasn't as vicious and lasting as his fears would lead him to anticipate. She then asked him why, and he shuffled his paws together, searching for the right words. Words that weren't too honest because Clouse really didn't want to hurt Ellery's feelings anymore than he already might have. "I just... it was just so... suffocating there and... and grandma Vesna's scary!" he hated to say it, but it was true. Clouse's posture began to relax as he began slowly to slip into the familiarity and comfort of talking things out with his big sister, but he remained clearly unhappy in appearance. It wasn't a rare look for the gloomy child, however. "I knew Scully and Av were leaving and I... I didn't want to wait any more." Word Count: 199

Ellery could see her sibling’s body relaxing and felt herself relax as well, glad she’d managed to defuse the anxious mess that was Clouse Hervok-Archer. His teary grey gaze finally met hers and she did her best to soften her expression, though it may have come out a little awkward. No doubt Clouse would understand this, though. Her auds strained forward as he spoke, providing him her undivided attention. The things he mentioned she’d felt as well. The Dell wasn’t her home, it felt like nothing could tear part of her soul away from Vigil’s Keep where she’d been born. She still dreamed of the towering stone passageways and the warm, packed caves filled to the brim with the wolves she loved. But, it didn’t mean she’d long ago accepted their return to reclaim what was theirs was a fading pipe dream.

”Yeah, the Dell honestly isn’t my favorite place either. Those three old bats--ah, I mean your grandmother and her sisters, run it a bit...odd for my taste.” Ellery had been raised on the notion of Ancestors, the souls of the one’s departed family, and their influence over one’s life. Her mother had taught it to her, having learned it from her teacher Veho, and being as family centered as she was, the Hervok woman had stuck to it like glue. It felt solid and real, not like the teachings about a so-called ‘Moon Mother’.

”I’ve tried convincing Mother to let us find somewhere else, somewhere to call our own, but she wanted to let you guys get a little older first and at least experience your first winter before we packed up and jumped ship. So, I can’t say I blame you for wanting to leave,” she added, her tail swishing behind her voluptuous frame. But, that was probably where their similarities ended. Ellery had essentially had to be shoved away by Nineva to get her to strike out, not that she didn’t want to find her brother, but because her sense of duty to her mother and the rest of their family had outweighed her sense of adventure. The Hervok matriarch had told Elle that she needed time away from them, to see the world without them around, and while she didn’t agree, she wouldn’t say no to the silver woman.

”Have they been treating you okay? Well, Scully at least. Not so worried about Avella, but Scull tends to attract trouble like bees to honey,” she asked, finally taking the time to rake her persian gaze over her sibling’s body for signs of injury.

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r Clouse's ears ticked just smidgen higher as Ellery began to talk a bit more freely about her own thoughts. Did she find it spooky too? Or did she just not believe in their claims? He'd never been sure, but the conversation moved on without him asking the question aloud. His mom and sister's wishes to form their own home somewhere were familiar to Clouse, but the truth was he hadn't been sure that whatever place they made would feel any better to him. He loved all of the women in his family, his mother and Ellery especially, but he'd never fully felt like he belonged in any of their worlds. Surely now was not the time unload all of that on her, though, and thankfully she offered a segue. Clouse chuckled at Elle's simile, knowing exactly what she meant. She'd be pissed if she knew all the details of what Scully had put Clouse through, especially the time he'd used him as bait to steal from a pack... His longest teeth poked out just a bit as he smiled indulgently, grey eyes bouncing left to right just to be sure they were definitely alone before he whispered, "Scully's a dick," and then giggled. Word Count: 199

A smile of amusement perched itself onto her sibling’s lips and her spirits lifted further. Ah, there was the brother she liked to see. Truly, all she wanted for him was for him to be happy and healthy. It was what she wanted for all of her family, really, and if she had anything to say about it they’d have that.

Suddenly, the dark Hervok-Archer was leaning toward her, his grey gaze looking around them and for a moment she looked around to see if there was someone around that she needed to be wary of and somehow had missed. But instead, he whispered words that she didn’t think would ever come out of her brother’s mouth. Her head whipped around and stared at him for a moment, her gaze wide like he’d grown two heads, then her lips pressed firmly together. They quivered at the ends, her body trembling before she couldn’t keep it in anymore. She burst out laughing, her chest heaving with the force of the amusement she felt. Tears actually came to her eyes and it took her several moments to collect herself, but the amused look never left her face. “You’re right, Scully is a dick.”

She looked at her brother for a moment, really looking at him. He was small by their family’s standards, that much was clear, and he was too inexperienced for her liking. She’d tried to shield her siblings from the bad, hurtful things in the world, but maybe she’d done them more harm than good. Nineva had wanted her to explore more of the world away from her while she looked for Clouse but she hadn’t let herself. Maybe she needed to let go a little for the both of them. “Okay, I’ll propose you a deal. Option A. you come hang out with me, your father and your Uncle Ramiel and we’ll teach you all about fighting, hunting and anything else you want. Option B. you can stay with Scully and Avella and...do whatever you’ve been doing, but you have to check in with me at least once a week so I can make sure your cousin hasn’t had you tossed off a cliff. Either way, we don’t go back to the Dell unless you want to.”

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r It was a gamble, and he was very glad it paid off. When Ellery let go with a bout of laughter, the younger wolf did too, tail thwapping against the ground gleefully in addition. He felt much better after that, and it seemed she did too; the Hervok paladin was ready to compromise, something Clouse knew was rare. His ears picked up at the word 'teach,' but then he couldn't help but wonder if his horrid learning streak would just carry over and make the rest of his family hate him too. Or... or he could have his way, just keep Ellery in the loop. Clouse blinked back at her, amazed she'd give him such a long leash. "Well, what if... I never want to go back?" he asked tentatively, nervous that they still might not be fully on the same page. Word Count: 142

Indeed, Clouse’s thoughts on the rarity of her compromises was the truth. Ellery was rigid in her beliefs and had a very hard and fast set of morals. She was an unwavering compass, a fur-clad knight, and while she didn’t believe her word to be law, she believed her actions upheld the greater good on most occasions. She’d always been this way, even in her youth. Most pups would venture beyond the borders and test the boundaries of their parents’ rules, but Elle never had. In her opinion, that had actually given her a longer leash than most other kids got. That much was shown in the way her roudier siblings were handled. But, with her brother looking up at her with those bright, happy eyes, she felt her iron heart melting a little. Maybe it way okay to slip a little.

However, she did falter a bit when he mentioned never going back. She wasn’t sure what he meant by that, exactly, and she was suddenly feeling a little more nervous. “Well, like I said, Mother really just wants to wait until you, Vash, Rashina, Gaia and Torrin are a bit older and through winter before we start looking for somewhere else. You don’t ever have to go back to the Dell if you don’t want to, though I will have to go retrieve them at some point,” she explained with a shrug. Then, she paused, pursing her lips, “Unless...you meant you don’t want to go back to being with the rest of the family.” Ancestors, she hoped that wasn’t it.

"Speech"

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r It wasn't just the Dell, and Clouse ducked his head when Ellery rounded off the point. Oh man, how was he gonna explain it? Clouse barely understood his emotions about it all. He loved them all dearly, and it did begin to dawn, happily, upon him that maybe his mom, papa and siblings could all come here and they could adventure into the unknown together. Well... together to Clouse, which he feared was different than what the word meant to his big sister or even scarier yet, his mother. Because he knew their dream, and it made the boy queasy to think that he'd be stuck in whatever they created. Not because he disagreed with any of it, but simply because the thought of any kind of forever haunted the boy like a boogeyman. Couldn't he have both family and freedom? "It's... it's not that I don't want you guys around I just... what if, I wanna be more like... Uncle Ram? What if... I don't want to stay... right next to everyone... my whole life..." Word Count: 176

Clouse immediately ducking told her that she’d hit the nail on the head and her heart sunk. It was that damn Archer blood, she knew it! The chaos it coerced from its bearer was too much for the lawful Hervok traits to over come. She was suddenly convinced it was the destiny of every Archer to just up and leave. The woman tried to keep herself from feeling bitter or from detaching herself emotionally, both being a tendency she had when she felt betrayed. Unlike others, this was her brother, her own flesh and blood and she couldn’t let herself turn away from him. If she did, she worried he might really be lost to them forever.

The blonde knight took a moment, swallowing down the lump in her throat. ”Well, that’s a conversation you’ll need to have with Mother...but I don’t see why you would have to be with us all the time. I mean, there are scouts for a reason. You could go out and explore then bring us back the information and stories you gathered,” she replied with a small smile, though she could feel her back teeth grinding. “We’d all miss you terribly, even though we...especially me...suck at showing it, but at the end of the day it’s your life to live and you should have the chance to live it happily. I’ve always wanted to protect you from the moment you were born, but I know I can’t hover over you your entire time. I don’t want you to hate me or anyone else in the family.” it was incredibly hard for her to say these things, to be open with her feelings (well, to an extent anyways), but she felt the youngster needed to hear it.

C l o u s e ➶ A r c h e r While he couldn't tell exactly what Ellery was thinking, Clouse was able to see that what he'd said had been difficult for his sister to hear. That hurt, and his sadness returned even more strongly than before. His ears collapsed against his skull and his eyes started to sting as he listened to her talk. This was why it was better to keep one's mouth shut. Why he had just up and left, rather than facing the damage his black sheep tendencies caused. Of course, there was the option of being the Clouse he knew they wanted him to be, but the child did not have the strength to bury himself so wholly. "I'd wanna bring you guys back stuff," he assured her with eager earnesty, before his voice thickened with the threat of tears and he whined; "I don't hate you." Word Count: 139