“Why are we going here?” Sacre moaned at the tails of two determined foxes, who bounced ahead, resolved to ignore the grumbling behind them that was stemming from Sacre’s growing reluctance to do anything at all these days. He knew, as part of the Worlds Edge, he had duties to perform, loyalty to show and general hard work to do. Yet, he couldn’t help but think back to his first greeting with his new herd mates and every time he cringed, ashamed that he could, and had caused such a mess. That he had been so thoughtless, created a rift, incited anger and—hurt Mauja. No matter how he tried to look at it, how many ways he tried to view his life, he couldn’t help but feel disappointment in himself. What had he been thinking? That just by asking someone to forget that they would happily agree, that it was okay for him to tell somebody else what they should and shouldn’t remember. He had wanted Mauja to live with content, peacefully, without feeling burdened by anything his family had caused or created. To live happily. How arrogant was he to think that he could give happiness to another just by telling them to forget everything that might cause them pain or sadness—like it was that easy. A frustrated sigh ripped from his mouth and he kicked a stone in his annoyance, causing two sets of beady eyes to turn around. For a moment, Sacre stared at his two friends, their gentle companionable gazes were filled with worry as the fox boy’s lip trembled and he grimaced to hold back the tears.

Everything that was pain; from his own stupidity, to Aviya, to mother, to father… To Roux—where are you?

“Everything hurts” his voice trembled. It was as close as he could get to explaining the unexplainable inside his heart.

They stood there a while, an unusual trio of horse and fox, soothing what they could of their sorrow until finally they could continue, a little wearier from when they had set off.

Wandering through the woodland, they set themselves two tasks; one was looking for newcomers, and two was looking for herbs. The latter Sacre had very little idea about, d’Artagnan had only ever paid attention to the poisons, and whilst some of them were useful, the fox boy knew next to nothing about any other herbs. The ones that helped sickness or burns, eased pain or gave energy. Perhaps he should go find Lyanna, the girl who had been promoted at the meeting, and ask her if she knew anything about such things. He committed himself to his purpose like a man on a mission, using it to push away his thoughts of dread and channelling his frustration into something that might actually be useful. Sacre had always thought, so far in his young life, he had performed pathetically when it came to doing things that were of benefit to greater causes. Good things. Things to be remembered by. Instead, his past was filled with almosts and maybes as he always got so close only to fall so far.

His, once again downward turning, thoughts were interrupted this time by a set of new voices and one that Sacre joyfully recognised. The fox boy’s ears flickered as Inari and Ríona made tracks eagerly towards the owner of the voice who was surely a hybrid dipped in gold. A wide and bright grin was already plastered on his face when he came bounding around another corner and found the girl whose voice had caught in his tufty ears. They then went to stop in front of the pair, the other was smaller and stockier, palomino and was joined by a tiger.

A tiger.

“It’s a ti… ti” one red fox stuttered into Sacre’s mind before the other, a dusty coloured six tailed vixen, finished "grrrr" with a growl. One fox had always been wiser than the other.


Yet, the newly appointed Nurse was oblivious, or chose to ignore, the chattering inside his head as he instead twisted his mouth into a fond grin whilst his head flopped to one side, as if he was viewing Ranjiri from a different angle. “RANJIRI!” he shouted then laughed, his life might be a lot more complicated than it used to be, but the fox boy had still not found an off button for his ridiculous enthusiasm when it came to greeting pretty much anybody and everybody.

Sacre's head then pitched the other way, this time his vibrant blue eyes were curiously looking at the hybrid’s companion, the palomino who looked shorter in stature compared to himself and Jiji.

“Who is your friend?” he smiled his brilliant wide smile at the older mare, hoping it would defuse any tension or discomfort if he had caused any. It was one of Sacre’s common traits, meeting everyone he came across with the same level of enthusiasm each time—at least he was consistent.

Remembering the part of the conversation he had overheard, his face dropped to the floor for a moment and contorted into a thoughtful frown… Mason? So… Ranjiri was also not of the Dragons Throat anymore? Curious, he shifted his gaze back to gold touched girl with a question on his lips “you work with stone now, huh?” he asked, his voice still young and light.

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he's a turnip. @Ranjiri @Romani

Admittedly, Sacre didn’t know Ranjiri very well, and their meetings had always been far too brief. Even so, the fox boy still met her like an old friend, the loudness of his heart, so full of passion, was evident all over his young face that beamed with his silly smile, lighting up two, kind blue eyes. He was, perhaps, overly exuberant in his goodwill, but it helped him forget that his life, so far, was a tragic tale of loss and heartbreak. Sacre rejected the misery fate (or damning coincidence) had handed him by clinging to his admirable cheerful nature—refusing the devil of resentment. It was hard though and, if he was left alone too long, the pain of everything that had happened got to him, so he was thankful when he found Ranjiri and her friend, who she introduced as Romani. They might not know it, but by just being there they had helped the fox boy, stopping him from thinking too much when he was alone.

“Nice to meet you Romani, Kasai” he nodded to both whilst, behind his two forelegs, sat one nervous red fox and one extremely curious kitsune, ”she’s beautiful” the six-tailed vulpine jealously commented to Sacre, who wordlessly agreed. “These two are Inari and Ríona… I hope I haven’t interrupted anything” his face contorted into an apologetic smile, he didn’t think that perhaps he might have intruded on a private conversation, a vice that often got him in trouble.

”How’ve you been?”

“Good, and you?” Sacre answered Ranjiri’s earlier question simply, not thinking too much about it, if he did, then the poor gold touched girl may have been given a much more complicated answer. Luckily, he wasn’t given time to dwell on it as Jiji enlightened Sacre to the origin of her title and his gaze shifted into surprise. So she too had left the Dragons Throat! To go to the Hidden Falls? He found himself thinking of the red-eyed Nymeria he had met the last time he’d been in the Threshold, she had offered him a home whilst he got lost in the swaying of her body, he felt a little embarrassed thinking about it in the company of others. Even so, if he had followed her instead of Mauja, then he may have found Ranjiri much sooner than now—they’d have been herd mates again. “What’s it like, living in the Hidden Falls?” he asked, it was one place Sacre had never seen and a place he too had almost decided to live in.

The focus moved to him after and Sacre felt a little guilty that his answer to her question wasn’t yes, instead it was no, he had abandoned the Throat. “I left Helovia after one of the Rift battles…” his voice trailed off, it was hard to put what happened into words “then lived with my father for a little while before returning” it was a vague explanation as he swerved around talking about his sister out loud. “I almost decided to go live in the Falls, one of your members Nymeria offered to take me there, but I ended up following Mauja to the Worlds Edge instead. I now serve as one their Nurses” he wasn’t even a crafter anymore, his life had taken a complete u-turn.

Thinking of one of the reasons why he returned, he suddenly regarded Ranjiri and Romani with hope, maybe, just maybe, they had seen his brother. “Have you seen Roux?” he asked desperately, turning to Romani to describe him “my twin brother, he’s slightly taller than me and bright red in colour. He can’t see during the day… I haven’t seen him for a long time” his voice dropped at the end.

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@Romani hope it's okay I jumped over you sprow <3