this is right after this thread. pls read for context :3
hoping for Kusaxasaa! rest of saatsine may cameo.

---

each step he takes closer, his heart races faster. the fear of prey strikes it, anxiety twitches through his veins. the throbbing pain in his scars doesn't let up if it didn't worsen. but nothing stops ghelan as he tears through the new territory, never sparing a passing glance to any onlookers.

they didn't know that this was a long time coming.

father. he's clear and pointed. his eyes burn a brilliant red again after so long. i need to speak with you.

---

cameo!

Yakone might’ve been intimidated by the mountain that is Ghelan if he weren’t such a sob. Even when he aimed for aloof she could tell he was practically on the verge of tears. He’d been run out by ‘the chosen one’, and even the girl wasn’t convinced he could trounce his much smaller brother.

She watches the prodigal son approach chief Black Scar and uses this opportunity of distraction to take the newly opened place beside her mother. Grouped then they were; muradoiis and lazadoiis. Yakone didn’t like it.

also cameo heh

---

ts’okhun was never quiet, and never wanted to be.
he shouldered in beside yakone with the grace of a bull, narrow eyes squinting hard at the approach of the so-called heir. the tension in the air only emboldened him; he liked to chew on it, tongue resting sharp against the ridges of his teeth as ghelan’s voice rang out.
finally grew a pair, huh? ts’okhun muttered under his breath to his sister, loud enough for her to hear. his tail flicked behind him like a whip.
his attention didn't waver from ghelan though, red eyes and all. ts’okhun watched him like a hawk, unimpressed, unreadable. the boy might’ve come calling with his chest puffed, but to him, ghelan still looked like a ghost that'd run too long and come home too late.
this oughta be good, he said, settling in with the glint of a grin that didn’t reach his eyes.

---

the muradoii queen had been scraping away at a stretched hide when the disturbance took the attention of her calves. there is an annoyed grumble that she makes, but her own crimson glittering moves to watch.

seeing the crippled, large-bodied son of her mate approach him with a hazardous confidence in his wobbling step. something that draws amusement from both present children and sivaak herself, who cannot help but to obnoxiously chortle as response.

but immediately turning back to her work, though keeping a lingering attention within her peripheral. she would pretend to not be interested, but if things turned violent, sivaak would rally quickly behind the chieftain.

and selfishly hopes for the muradoii spawn to see their first glimpse of true blood shed in battle between two hunters.

---

[he was becoming restless amid the sprawl of forests; the hunter longed for flat plains where he might pinpoint the location of those new caribou herds which the lanzadoii were bound to follow. he kept himself upon patrol and had returned to the hunt. a fawn struggled pointlessly in his jaws, which tightened just as ghelan's voice sounded. the single slate eye roved toward the boy who wore his mother's eyes. the fawn dropped weak between muradoii children of muradoii mate. their laughter did not register to him; he stood watching ghelan with a mingled approval and wariness. speak, my son.]

he was becoming restless amid the sprawl of forests; the hunter longed for flat plains where he might pinpoint the location of those new caribou herds which the lanzadoii were bound to follow. he kept himself upon patrol and had returned to the hunt.

a fawn struggled pointlessly in his jaws, which tightened just as ghelan's voice sounded.

the single slate eye roved toward the boy who wore his mother's eyes.

the fawn dropped weak between muradoii children of muradoii mate.

their laughter did not register to him; he stood watching ghelan with a mingled approval and wariness. speak, my son.

he played tough, but he could hear of the snickering between the new woman and her offspring. he did not need to hear their whispers to know they were making a fool out of him — and maybe he was. her spawn were mere children, but ghelan hadn't dealt with muradoii cruelty before. and he was never a strong boy either. never a smart boy, forever afflicted with the weak heart of sharadoii. his father loathed it, but ghelan couldn't change the rhythm of his heart. he'd tried already, but even pretending was impossible.

to their snittering, to the many eyes of saatsine that struck and clung to his back like arrows, his eyes swell just a little. but it steels his resolve — this place was not home. it never was. their laughter served only as a reminder that it was time for him to leave. cherry red eyes were kept only on father, no one else mattered for now.
my son. the words are mixed with joy and a bitter, old anger towards him. all he'd ever wanted was to be his son, but how can he when the man that stood before him was a monster. the young boy shrivels just a little.
ghelan stared at the struggling fawn, pitying it. -you couldn't have killed it when you caught it?- he mutters in sharadoii, before hardening again. a girl came to me, the one with the scar across her back. ghelan takes in a deep breath, but he spoke clearly and sternly. she says you harmed her. he studies kusaxasaa's missing eye, and the scar left in its place. i thought you've changed.

["they must learn." the way ghelan had learned. the way he had begun to teach c'ede'. the way that he would have shown caan, fa'liya, and ghe'naya. the way in which ghaden would have been taught. to hear sharadoii now opened the old rejection between father and son. the ugly, pitiful words beneath the accusing eyes worn by red leaf. "if it is ishmira, you would not know the truth." he teased fangtip with his tongue. "my weakness was morwenna. she gathered against me and i do not know what she told the glacier ones. only that they meant to come. she would not allow me to touch my children, only those loyal to her. yes, my son, i gave that girl the scar. she did not give me caan. instead she dropped him, ghelan." kusaxasaa stared at his son with flint-gaze. over and again ghelan had questioned, refusing to fit himself among the lanzadoii. "do you ask me not to defend our blood?" his own challenge, etched inky crimson at the end.]

"they must learn."

the way ghelan had learned. the way he had begun to teach c'ede'. the way that he would have shown caan, fa'liya, and ghe'naya. the way in which ghaden would have been taught.

to hear sharadoii now opened the old rejection between father and son. the ugly, pitiful words beneath the accusing eyes worn by red leaf. "if it is ishmira, you would not know the truth."

he teased fangtip with his tongue. "my weakness was morwenna. she gathered against me and i do not know what she told the glacier ones. only that they meant to come. she would not allow me to touch my children, only those loyal to her. yes, my son, i gave that girl the scar. she did not give me caan. instead she dropped him, ghelan."

kusaxasaa stared at his son with flint-gaze. over and again ghelan had questioned, refusing to fit himself among the lanzadoii. "do you ask me not to defend our blood?"

his own challenge, etched inky crimson at the end.

SKILL warrior 1/5

---

-they'd learn just fine without the fawn.- if they haven't shredded a vole apart already when the adults weren't looking.

morwenna — star eater as ghelan knew her — was not a stupid woman. she was smarter than the pale brute who accompanies father now, she didn't do anything without reason. and the man that helped save him from qeya river — blackfell, he vaguely recalled — must've had his reasons for leaving too. and why did she organize against you? he interrogates, further steeling himself.

defend our blood from what? she was just a girl. you didn't need to scar her. he grumbled, sinking breath through his teeth. what was the point anyways, caan isn't here. he scanned the last stragglers of saatsine, seeing only the muradoii children and c'ede'. -and he's better for it.- they're morwenna's blood as much as ours.

lanzadoii son stared down the sharp fangs of his lanzadoii father. and he flashes his own, slipping his tongue over them as if they'd make them any sharper for the inevitable. perhaps for once, he was closer to meeting the expectations of his father than ever before.

[by the time ghelan had finished his second argument, the mind of his father was made. his step is true; one, two. kusaxasaa reared with an adder's strike to bludgeon the boy, to lay him low. his jaws follow thereafter, to pierce and to pin; ghelan would bear the natal sin of the sharadoii against cen, and the chieftain of the sun clan would make it true. questioning him was disloyal. commanding him before others intolerable. but what ghelan had said was worse than those things: he had given morwenna power in a place where kusaxasaa had sought to excise it. "they are mine. they belong to me. and that girl is a traitor to all of saatsine." voice close, muzzle crowding; would ghelan lunge to fight, or would he run? it was a mercy that the lanzadoii man would give, for this too was his blood, and moreso than he had ever belonged to his mother. but kusaxasaa refused to grieve this now. if his son gave challenge, sun eater accepted, for it was time to banish this weakness in ghelan also.]

by the time ghelan had finished his second argument, the mind of his father was made.

his step is true; one, two. kusaxasaa reared with an adder's strike to bludgeon the boy, to lay him low. his jaws follow thereafter, to pierce and to pin; ghelan would bear the natal sin of the sharadoii against cen, and the chieftain of the sun clan would make it true. questioning him was disloyal. commanding him before others intolerable.

but what ghelan had said was worse than those things: he had given morwenna power in a place where kusaxasaa had sought to excise it. "they are mine. they belong to me. and that girl is a traitor to all of saatsine."

voice close, muzzle crowding; would ghelan lunge to fight, or would he run? it was a mercy that the lanzadoii man would give, for this too was his blood, and moreso than he had ever belonged to his mother.

but kusaxasaa refused to grieve this now.

if his son gave challenge, sun eater accepted, for it was time to banish this weakness in ghelan also.

Challenge your father then, if you think you can lead us a better way. The words of Lanzadoii snapped to her nephew as she stepped to the sidelines among those scattered along the camp.

The crippled boy who spoke his mother's tongue more then their own. There boy who ran every time a fight needed won. She did not think Ghelan capable, yet the challenge was there in her words. A test. One which she was certain he would fail.