Whitestone Monadnock the immortan

@Morganna @Isuni @Saradathia @Piety @Zahira @Anaia @Kara @Lorcan @Greer
Set shortly after this thread, after he's staggered home. Can be treated like a pack howl, so feel free to post 'from afar' or to have them come to the common area too. Welcome to all WM wolves. This thread is mostly for Craw's own development but I wanted to be able to share it with you all <3

The idea that Odysseia was alive, after all this time, after everything he had believed, was yet to truly sink in. The idea was like a dense mud sat upon the sieve of his mind, too thick to penetrate, yet a little of it was trickling through the mesh. He felt weighed down by it, unable to shove it off and walk away because he craved the truth it contained. He couldn't just dump it because it was hard to digest, because he needed its sustenance and had been starving from its absence for so long. Yet now he had it and he didn't know what to do with it, like words he had once been able to understand but now sounded alien.

His daughter was alive. How much rage had he harboured for the murder of his children, for the atrocities of his father, for the betrayals which had tipped the war against him? How much poison had he held onto, had drawn strength from, had used to fuel his rebuilt self? How many falsehoods had he known as fact?

Somewhere out there in the high plains of Ritter there could be a group of wolves waiting for him to come back and find them, all once his closest friends, his dearest allies, his reason for fighting, and he had just sat here on Whitestone and pretended he could just be reborn again without them. More importantly, somewhere out there was a man who needed teeth in his throat, who needed to pay for all his crimes, whose influence and oppression he needed to free them from. More importantly, he had a child who still believed he was coming.

Craw did not stop walking until the dens were in sight, until the great white boulders which glittered in the dying sunlight rose before him, and he leapt onto his favourite, the one he often laid upon while working on his gnarled stick, feeling light as snow and heavy as rock, head far away and yet right here, in this stronghold he had built because he had always refused to roll over and accept defeat.

And he lifted his head and sang, the melody coarse and rough but elated, victorious, containing no message but that of pure strength and unity.

His daughter was alive. Whitestone was thriving. The name of Khai would be erased from history and replaced with Immorta.

There were no better reasons to celebrate.

She had been watching @Craw from a distance, so absorbed in his own thoughts he hadn't even realized she had stolen his stick from the rock where he usually left it safely unguarded. Jaws worked on a knot while she waited and watched, wondering just what had come to pass that would have him so far away while standing just a few feet away from her. When he turned she rolled the stick to the side, concealing it by the boulder she was laying next to, a smirk on her face as he approached his usual perch... but he hadn't yet noticed his missing treasure.

When he howled, she tipped her own head back to join him, ears turning to take in the joining voices of her packmates. Surely the wolves to the south would be able to hear them loud and clear, and she had no doubt their numbers would continue to swell. Once the final alto notes of her own howl had faded she turned to Craw, finally rising from her resting place in the snow. She came closer, innocently pushing her nose under his chin in silent greeting, feeling no need to question just what was on his mind. If he wished to enlighten her, he would, and if he suddenly noticed his favourite toy was missing, well she didn't have a clue where it could be...

Feel free to pp catching her trying to steal the stick

Kára had been wandering the territory in search of a new hangout for her and Odin, ever since the den they used to use had gotten taken for medicine and healing. If she couldn't find one soon they would have to dig one out themselves and the pup wasn't that keen on digging in frozen earth. Of course she could probably convince her brother to do most of the heavy lifting for her... but she would rather find something regardless. The girl had it in her mind that maybe she could find a snow pocket like the one she had fallen into but that opened from the side.

Nosing around near the borders she looked for the perfect spot lazily, it was an ongoing search that didn't need an answer right away. Ever since real winter had set in Kára did most things lazily, prepping for winter was a lot of work but now that it was here it was mostly just sleeping. They slept and they hunted and they hunted and they slept. Lifting her head at the sound of Cer's called she joined into the victory chorus with her own high, immature voice. As soon as she quieted down she began to make her way to the trail, more often than not a victory song meant food.

Reaching the top easily, having grown up on the monadnock had built her body for stamina when climbing rocking terrain she was disappointed to see no meal. However from where she had approached from behind the boulders her parents sat on she spied a much better prize; Cer's favourite stick. Sneaking as quietly as possible the grey eyes remained focused on the pair, ready to act innocent should they turn around.