Reunion

[Rhonya]

Stranglethorn Vale. It hadn’t changed one bit, and yet so much was different. Early morning, the wildlife was much active already, a light but hot breeze rustling through the never sleeping jungle, bringing with it the sounds and scents I’d grown up to know and love. Though, with so much time in between of my visits now, the details were different. Things died, things were born, the circle ever went on, changing, but also staying the same. As my eyes adjusted to the light of the dawn, the shadows underneath the trees, the sky hardly visible due to the thick canopy above, I smiled.

I was home.

Home, it was a fickle concept these days, I knew. I was born here, raised here, but my family was across the sea, awaiting my return. I hadn’t wanted to leave so soon from them, but there was something I had to do. Someone I had to visit, to make the family complete again. Someone I should never have left in the first place, fear for his safety overruling anything else.
And who knew, perhaps it was good for me to be away from Sadok for just a little while. He would see I was perfectly fine on my own still, didn’t need someone to dog my steps and watch over me with every turn I made, pregnant or not. I shook my head a little with a soft grunt, my messy red hair moving with the motion to hang in front of my light brown eyes. I kept scanning the jungle, slowly stepping further into it. So familiar, but yet so strange. It had been so long…
I couldn’t get lazy now, I had to pay attention. Every move could be a wrong one here. A predator on the lure, a Troll thinking you their next shrunken head, a snake lashing out for stepping into his territory.  I was happy to discover my agility was still there, silent as a shadow I moved through the undergrowth, slipping through the leaves as though I was a part of them, unseen and unnoticed, so far. I knew where he was. I had always felt him, in a way I’d never managed with other beasts.

He knew I was coming, too. I reached the place I knew he kept as territory. A small place of ruins, high trees, near to the water on a little hill. There I waited, my back resting against the smooth, cold touch of one of the rocks. The smile on my face grew when he got into sight, bounding up the hill as if he was still the young tiger from many a year ago. I was just in time to let out a soft laugh before the huge tiger simply launched himself towards me, the heavy but familiar weight pressing on my chest. I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t care.

“Lian! Dere ya be… coul’… please move off..” I gasped, my hands moving to bury themselves in the scruff his neck, with a playful growl trying to tug him off me. He didn’t budge, leaning down to let his raspy tongue move over my cheek before he finally allowed me to sit up. I didn’t speak, it wasn’t needed. We both felt the joy, the happiness of the reunion as silent tears ran over my cheeks. I looked him over. He’d gotten a little more white hairs here and there, but he still looked very healthy, very strong, even for a tiger just past the prime of his life. He didn’t look his age.
With a soft grunt and a tilt of his massive head, he raised a paw, putting it on my shoulder, almost as if in embrace as he put his forehead against mine, closing his eyes. He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t mad, that I had left him behind. He was only glad that I had remembered, that I had returned for him. I wouldn’t let him go again, that much was certain. I didn’t know how many years he still had, but I made a silent promise to him while I closed my own eyes. I’d be there for him those last years, until the end. I owed him that much.

We sat there for a long time in the same position, simply enjoying the touch and presence of one another, the touch of mind, the touch of body, my hands moving gently through the striped fur as he purred, the deep sound resonating through his chest. It was good, like this. Slowly his head moved down from my forehead, to nudge his nose against my stomach. The barest of bulges was visible now, the only outward sign of my early pregnancy, apart from the nausea I still suffered from so often.

“I be crazy, Lian… I know. I ‘ated it, bu’ it be wort’ it. Ya didn’t see ‘is face, wen dem put ‘is sons in ‘is arms…” I spoke softly, barely a whisper, but I knew he would understand me. He always had.
The enormous head moved to rest on my lap, against my stomach as he lay down comfortably, his eyes still closed. My hand toyed with one of his ragged ears, the short hairs so very soft.
“I’ll return soon, Lian. Will ya come wit’ me? Will ya follow? Ya ‘ave ta meet me sons.”
The head didn’t move, he merely let out a deep sigh, as if he thought I’d never ask. Lazily, he turned on his back, gently slapping one of his huge paws into my face. You fool, he seemed to say. Of course he’d come. I snickered softly, leaning down to bury my face into his thick fur.

“Den we’ll go to’et’er. Like before.”

[Srelok]

...Damn you woman. You made me soft. I cried over this...

[Sinami]

Aww... so sweet Nadine. Now I miss Frostfang.