Private for Miriette, Heath, and Jefferson. Postdated to the 7th (their first birthday). Yes, I will post twice... Once with Gaël, once with Jefferson, after both of you have posted. Going to assume Heath came with Gaël and they met up with Miriette. Luperci forms.
They'd found him. How many months had it been since they'd left Aube de Musique behind, left everything they knew and loved behind to search for a lost cause they couldn't even believe in? The decision hadn't been a sudden one; the three had been pondering it for a while, each of them smart enough to know that they were likely to find nothing and return home empty-handed and without answers. In the least, they'd all wished to hear of their father's likely and deserved death, which would have been enough reason to turn back and live out the rest of their days without the anxiety and constant worry that the one-eyed tyrant would somehow return. The thought terrified Gaël; he might have been the eldest sibling, arguably the most mature, but the image of the terrifying cyclops ripping their mother to shreds haunted him still, invading his dreams and tremoring his body at night as if he was hairless in the frigid cold.
Miriette had finally found them just a few days before after weeks of separation--long enough for Gaël to be actually worried for her--and had reported the news then. Not only had she "accidentally" joined a pack (the girl was a liar, of course; surely she inherited that from their monster of a father), but the pack's leader was the monster they'd searched for all along. Gaël had never expected to actually find him; in fact, as eager as he had been for revenge or whatnot, the yearling had sustained a feeling of hopelessness throughout their search. He'd had no faith, unlike his siblings, but had maintained the attitude as the opposite. He questioned around when he could, but spent many days and nights alone on his quest, staring into the scenery and lost in his own thoughts. No, he'd never expected to find the Maluki that his mother had spoken of. That had been the name he'd screamed... she'd never forgotten it. Though his mother had mentioned that this Maluki must have been completely mad, Miriette had remarked that despite some despicable streak of shameless brashness, the "Jefferson" that led their pack seemed wholly sane. Though renamed and in a different mind, she'd said, it had to be him: the scars and the face that identically matched the memories engraved in her mind made no mistake.
Gaël had been primarily silent on their small trip towards what were the Phoenix Valley packlands, according to the directions their sister had gave before returning. She'd requested they'd wait a few days before catching up with her, in that she had "matters to attend to", though the dark-furred girl had little to say on what such matters were. Heath babbled on and off along the way, mentioning himself how surprised but eager he was to meet their father--a bit more earnestly than Gaël, or so it seemed. His younger brother was brash, reckless; perhaps he'd inherited it from Maluki as well... after all, their mother had been nothing less than an angel. Gaël, on the other hand, was resisting all urges to stop and talk himself out of the confrontation he'd been dreading since its confirmation, while at the same time seething beneath the surface in a silent, deadly passion for revenge.
They stood on the land's borders. The yearling's nose lifted to the wind, immediately picking up a scent that he could vaguely recognize as something he could have been related to and swallowed a lump in his throat. "She said she'd meet us here," he said quietly, turquoise eyes blinking as they overlooked the territory from afar. It was... beautiful. Funny, how such seemingly peaceful lands could have been under the control of something so ugly. "She'd better get here before someone else does."