Kyna continued to thunder about in distress, unaware that her shrieks of dismay might attract others. The grass crunched under her paws as she scrambled about, trying desperately to scrape the slimy, sticky, disgusting sludge off her paws. Her heart began to thunder in her chest, drowning out her thoughts with a roar – if she’d ever been near the ocean, the girl could have identified the sound as something similar to waves. Tears began to well up in her eyes as the cub continued to struggle, overwhelmed by the fall, the disorientation, and now, the putrid rot clinging to her otherwise pristine fur. The girl choked on a sob, a muffled ‘whyyyyy’, and she was about to have a proper meltdown when a voice startled her out of her misery.

Crown jerking upwards, tears jumped from her cheeks as she whirled, sunny orange eyes ringed by white. Ears rolled backwards against her head, joints beginning to tremble as the girl sunk to half her height, in no manner to be even the smallest inkling of dominant. Kyna had to swallow her nerves down once, twice, three times before she finally found any words, and even then, they were shaky and uncertain. “N-n-no,” the princess stuttered, shaking her head as her mind raced to catch up with what was unfolding. “I-- I’m--”

But the young child was never able to finish her thoughts, for it seemed the adult was equally as repulsed by the horrid goo still sticking to one of her feet. The stranger made a gruff suggestion (using words much cruder than Kyna had ever encountered before) and turned, presumably heading off in the direction of the water source she’d mentioned. For a moment, the little girl could only stare after the she-wolf owlishly, blinking her sunset gaze several times as she tried to process. Had it even been an offer? It seemed the adult wasn’t going to wait around, forcing Kyna to pivot on her hindquarters. Springing forward, she raced after the older wolf, only falling into a trot once a few lengths behind the older wolf.

“Where are we going?” she whispered, voice barely audible over the sound of grass crunching beneath their feet. A spring, the stranger had said, but that meant little to the child so far from home. For all she knew, this wolf was leading her even further from Silent Moon Plateau, and that very thought sent a frigid bolt down her spine. But if she stopped, would that help? She certainly wouldn’t find Aponi that way.

The thought of her mother had her head jerking up, and Kyna cleared her throat. With the candles of grief she would kindle her flame, and once certain that the older wolf was at least listening, she posed a query. “Have you seen…a silver lady? Aponi. She’s missing,” the princess explained, praying to anyone and anything that listened that perhaps, finally, she would get a clue to her mother’s whereabouts. “I was looking. For her.”

They stopped at a stream (much to Kyna’s relief), but for a moment, the child could not concentrate on the running water and disgusting gunk clinging to one of her feet. The adult actually knew her mother, and this was the closest thing the child had to a lead since she’d started trying to uncover where the former alpha had actually gone. Her tail gave a hopeful wiggle as she lifted her head, blinking fire bright eyes once as she bobbed her head. “She left,” the princess explained quietly, glancing around as if the quicksilver female might appear from thin air. “Looking for someone. Or something? She said she’d be back. Sometime,” the honeyspun girl tacked on reluctantly, face twisting with a wry expression.

Aponi hadn’t been terribly specific about what might happen, or when she actually planned on returning, but her daughter held out hope the woman would appear at Silent Moon Plateau sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, it did not seem that her wishes would be granted, no matter how hard she looked, and the stranger was given a brief shake of her head. “No. Just me. They don’t know.”

She hadn’t exactly explained to her father that her daily excursions were spent looking for the mate he didn’t take, and the obstreperous co-leader he barely had time to rule beside. One ear flicked out to the side, and Kyna gave an awkward half shrug as she considered it again. “I look for Ace, too. For Wren. When I can. Haven’t seen him, either.” And while she didn’t much understand the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the former beta, she knew that he had left alive, soon after Aesire had perished. From what she gathered, he hadn’t said so much as goodbye to his children – something that made no sense to the small girl, and allowed her to appreciate @Phineas more than she had when she was but a babe. The white wraith now seemed much tamer, more noble, more interesting than he had when she cowered inside her mother’s den.

It was amazing what abandonment could do to expedite the maturity of a child.

Huffing softly, the blond realized the stink still clung to her and wrinkled her muzzle with a soft whine. The stranger had led her to the stream, after all, and it would behoove her to take advantage of the generosity and clean the putrid, green gunk from between her toes and paw pads. Dipping into the water silently, the girl began to wriggle her foot, removing it from the water to wipe on dead grass before applying it to the spring once more. Very methodical in hw she worked, the princess lapsed into silence for several minutes until the last bits of goo had finally released their death hold, leaving the child clean as she’d been when she’d tumbled down the embankment and across the nest’s barrier into the long abandoned eggs.

Idly, the wallflower wondered if that was a bit of a reflection on her own state.

Shaking the thought from her mind, she tipped her eyes back up to the stranger. “How-- How do you know? Aponi?”

“I….guess,” Kyna replied thoughtfully, ears swiveling on her head as she hummed.  It was a lot of work, and she could only assume that responsibility meant something like hard work or focus.  That was not a word her mother had taught her, nor one her father had applied to her life yet, either.  She was just a child still, after all, and the duties of a princess hadn’t fallen upon her.  All the same, she shouldered this project on her own – she’d agreed to help Wren find his father, but hadn’t asked her friend to return the favor.  (After all, he showed a grave dislike for her, especially after Aesire’s untimely demise.)  She might have asked Phineas, but her dam had made it quite apparent she wanted little to do with the man, and if she actually did manage to find Aponi, she was fairly certain she wouldn’t want to deal with the silver witch’s wrath for including unwanted guests.

After a moment, she glanced back up at the stranger and offered a shrug, not knowing what else to say about it.  Thankfully, the agouti woman wasn’t set on the topic, and did not require any further prying about Aponi.  No matter how badly she wanted to see her mother again, the youngest Argyris wasn’t certain she was capable of actually dragging the answer out of another wolf, especially one she’d never met before.  

Offering the adult a small smile, the princess brightened visibly when she realized this wolf used to belong to her familial pack.  It didn’t occur to her that someone could have been kicked out – this woman must be like her mother, she thought, having gone to look for something, and now returning.  Her advice seemed all the more plausible like that, Kyna decided, her tail waving in slow arcs.  “I hope she does.  No one knows, though.  That I’m here,” she clarified, glancing over her shoulder back in the general direction of her home.  Her father was busy, trying to manage the pack on his own (at least, in her opinion, as no one would ever replace Aponi) – that was the only family she had, really.  “Are you coming back?  Do you remember the way?” the blond child asked, willing to show the stranger the path if she did not know.

“Yes. Yes, of course!” the princess chirped happily, clearly pleased to be of some use. That she was able to repay the favor the older wolf had offered her so quickly as equally as appealing, but that she got to bring someone home to her father was a true delight. Her tail began to wag slowly behind her as she oriented herself back towards the mountain – it would be a bit of a struggle, given that she had fallen the last of the way down before she ended up in that horrible bird’s nest, but she was relatively certain she would be able to escort this woman back to Silent Moon Plateau.

Something like longing blossomed inside her ribcage – if one wolf could leave and find her way back to the pack, perhaps not all hope was lost in Aponi’s case, either.

When @Hypatia introduced herself, the blond child finally realized she’d completely forgotten her manners with the incident of smelly bird eggs. Ears flopped backwards as she bobbed her head several times, a soft whine slipping from her mouth. Her mother would have been so disappointed in her!

“My name is Kyna,” she replied softly. “I’m sorry. I forgot to say.” Phineas, too, would probably not be pleased that his youngest had failed in basic greetings. The girl began to move in the direction of the slope, glancing over her shoulder to make sure her new traveling companion was going to follow. “But, come this way. I’ll show you. I’ll ask. They’ll let you stay.”