Underground Sea i am half a soul divided

He had given up the name of his birth pack rather easily but then he had never liked it there and hated what he'd had to do. Every day he lived with the consequences of those actions from the nightmares to the pain in his shoulder from the missing chunk of flesh there. He was sure Tinley knew he was glad for the chance to get away from it all. Though he'd been a good soldier during his time there he couldn't help but like that he didn't have to do it anymore. He hoped that both he and Tinley could be happy serving the wolves of the heights.

The question caused the pale man to turn his head to look at the dark man. He'd asked about the friend that had come to the heights with him. “Yes she is from there too,” he answered. Tinley had always been there as far as Pyriel knew and then they'd become partners. Their friendship was a special one that he couldn't imagine not having in his life. He was glad that he'd found her and that she had joined the heights with him.

Then the question he should have been expecting came up after he'd mentioned his birth pack. “My friend left and I followed,” he said unsure of what more he could say. It was not his business to share that she was looking for her father. That she'd been gone too long and instead of waiting for her to return he had gone out looking for her. If Tinley wanted to share that with the man he'd met in the cavern Pyre wouldn't stop her.

He was curious about this Bloodbreakers pack but he did not question further—not until he got to know the dark-eyed male further. Asking the tawny newcomer why the pack had such an odd name was not high on conversation topics, especially when he was trying to make a good impression. Making friends, or even acquaintances, was nothing something the shadow was good at. He preferred to shy away from others, keeping to the shadows that birthed him, and observing. The friendship that had blossomed between him and Kyna had come as a surprise to the Archer, and although his mind had attempted to fight against it, his heart eventually won. Now he could not imagine his life without her in it.

So he had followed the obsidian girl away from their former home. Was the duo merely friends or was there something more? He blinked, his mercury gaze falling to the still water once more, unsure of what to say. So he nodded, embracing the silence for a moment, his ears pinned forward. “Want leave?” He asked after a pregnant pause and glanced over at the pale wolf out of the corner of his eye, a single brow raised. Although he was more of the silent type Greer was also incredible nosey, for he liked acquiring information to see if it was useful to him.

Having only been in the heights a few hours he could already tell that it was very different from home, or what used to be his home. This pleased Pyre, he did not want to settle into another pack that was just like the Bloodbreakers. He had tired of that life and having never liked it wasn't hard to do. He worried though for Tinley, she was a soldier, a warrior and that life like him was all she knew. It wasn't normal for the pale agouti to stand and just have a conversation that wasn't about battle tactics or how to better himself as a warrior. This was different and he couldn't say he was displeased with it but he knew a lot of what could happen depended on Mace and how long it took to find him. The question that he always held in the back of his mind was would they return home once they had found him or would they stay and make a life in this place.

The question the dark man posed was one that Pyre had to think about. Sure he didn't like the things he did in his birth pack but at the same time it was all he had known in his life. “I think I did,” he said, “But it wasn't until I had left that I realized it might have been home but it wasn't the life I wanted anymore.” He'd been in his own a few months looking for Tinley when he'd realized it. He remembered the moment, laying under a tree looking up at the stars, they'd become a companion in the days he'd been alone. His shoulder hurt badly from the walking he'd done that day and as he looked upon the stars he knew that he didn't want to go back. He hoped that she wouldn't either when he finally found her.

The shadow nodded slowly to show he understood the dark-eyed male’s words. He, too, had been uncertain about leaving the Ridge in the beginning. It had taken months for him to finally make the decision, and it was only because Morganna and Craw were leaving to start their own pack elsewhere. Before that he had toyed with the idea of leaving the willows behind, unsure of whether it was the right move for him. He knew that he had to leave eventually, for the slender trees no longer provided comfort to the dark Archer. Instead they suffocated him and felt more like a prison than a home.

Greer had always been meant to travel. His paws never ceased to wander, even now as the leader of a pack. Staying in one place for too long made him antsy, which was why prior to Morganna’s suggestion to chase his mountain girlfriend, Greer had begun to wonder if the monadnock had been the right place for him. Now that he was here, in the Heights, his paws had become less itchy. He still wanted to wander and explore, re-learning the lay of the land he had become familiar with in his youth, but this was a home. This was where he was meant to be, at Kyna’s side.

“Greer know feeling,” he responded in a warm voice, his silver gaze settling on the younger agouti. He often wondered how long it would have taken him to leave the Ridge if his sister and the silver spider had not been leaving.

The pale man had always hated what he'd had to do for the bloodbreakers whether it was to make sure that good prevailed or not. He'd never enjoyed killing others but he had become very good at it through his training. He was a warrior and would always be as such for it was the only thing he knew how to be. When Tinley had left he had carried on with his training, the life but without her there it wasn't the same. It started to weigh on him more and more to where he started to wonder if it was the right thing to be doing at all.

Making the choice to follow her had not been an easy one having to choose between his duties to her and the one to his pack. In the end he had decided that his duty to her, his partner was more important. She was the one that had always been there in battle and outside of it. She was the one that he talked to about the things that he saw and did, and she understood him like no one else did. She also kept him in line and he had missed that whether or not he liked it he couldn't deny that once it was gone it felt like something was missing.

The green eyed man looked to his packmate, “The heights seems much different than there so I am hoping it is the place for us but we have only known one way to live so have to learn to live another way.” Once he had said it he wasn't sure that it would make any sense to the dark furred man. At least not like it had in his own head.

Making friends, or acquaintances for that matter, was not something Greer excelled in. Aside from Iyes, maybe, his scarlet mate was the only friend he had ever known. The alabaster floozy that had gone panting after his elder brother had been a sort of friend for a short period of his life. Someone who, like Kyna, he could turn to when his thoughts overwhelmed him. She had abandoned him, however, once someone better came along—someone who possessed the drive that Greer lacked. Seeking power had never been something that interested him and, if it had not been for his scarlet wife, he would have continued to avoid it. Life as a loner had intrigued him, but it was a life without Kyna and it pained him to think what would have become of her if he had not joined her.

His lips twitched into a frown, silver gaze fixated on the still water before them.

He nodded softly at Pyriel’s response. Before moving to the north the skeletal willows were all the shadow had known and the thought of leaving, although liberating, was also terrifying. It had taken some time but he had made a home out of Whitestone during his brief stay in the lowlands. Now he had moved for a third time and the adjustment was coming quicker this time, for Greer knew that this was where he was supposed to be. Not in the willows and not atop the monadnock but here, in the mountains.

He hoped the dark-eyed male would come to feel the same.

“Take time,” he offered in response as a small, crooked grin managed to roll onto his dark lips. He turned to the male once more, his brows pinching together as he posed a question, his nose tipping to the entrance of the hidden sea: “Patrol?”

It would take some time for him and Tinley to adjust to life in the heights just as it had to life on his own. He wanted it to work because he didn't want to go back to what his life had been like. He'd never liked the killing and the fighting though he would do it when necessary if he could avoid he would much rather do that. There were enough faces that haunted his dreams that he didn't want to add anymore. Now he had the chance to live a life he didn't have to do that. Even though he'd only been in his new pack for a very short time the atmosphere was so different from the bloodbreakers. He just hoped Tinley would be able to come to like living there too.

If she didn't he knew he would follow her to where she did want to but Pyriel also feared she would want to go back after finding Mace. He knew it would make sense for them to but also they'd been away so long already. Why not make a new life somewhere else.

It had only been a few hours that he'd been in the heights so it was all still so soon to tell if this was really a good place for them. That didn't matter though. After meeting Greer and seeing how friendly he was he hoped the rest of his new packmates were just as friendly. A smile was given to the dark man when he told Pyriel to take his time. He would be sure to do that so he could he sure. Then an offer was given for a patrol, “Yes, I would like that.” It would give him a perfect opportunity to learn the borders of his new home and become better acquainted with the man.

His legs unfolded from the cool stone, stiff and numb from lack of use. It took him a moment to regain his balance, his toes flexing in order to resume blood flow in his limbs. He turned to the dark-eyed male, his tail curved slightly upward as he nodded once more to the entrance, inviting his new subordinate to follow him back to the rocky landscape above them. The underground sea was a nice (temporary) escape but it did not compare to the expanse of mountain that cut through the middle of the Lore, acting as a border between east and west. As a young Archer growing up in the Ridge he had always been intimidated by the mountains, only venturing up them to visit his scarlet friend or to seek a good vantage point. Never had he imagined he would be living atop the mountains he had been wary of as a child.

The shadow swept past the pale agouti and started up the steps back to the heights, his silver gaze fixated on the dim light ahead of them. His least favourite part of visiting the underground was having to readjust his eyes to the shift in light, which was why he usually liked to visit closer to the end of the day, so he was greeted by darkness when he resurfaced.

A patrol was just what the warrior needed in his new home and with a packmate who knew the territory, well that was better. He'd quickly agreed to the suggestion especially when it would give him.a chance to get get to know the dark man a little better. Pyriel hadn’t met anyone like the man but he felt he could really like him. Straight and to the point which the pale agouti liked, he wasn't much one for small talk unless it served a purpose.

So when Greer was up and headed out of the cavern Pyre was right behind him. There was so much he had to learn to live in the heights and he planned to learn it all quickly. It was the best way he knew how to protect the pack as he had promised upon his acceptance. Maybe he and Tinley could get together later and exchange notes or at the very least tell each other about their days as they had done in the past.