In typical Serach fashion, the youth had done his best to stay away from his pack mates since the latest pack meeting. Spieden and Drestig had announced that Triell had left, off to look for Nayeli and hopefully bring her back. Settled down by the small river that ran along the territory's eastern border, the boy couldn't help but reflect on the meeting with a sour taste in his mouth. One could say that the Donata boy had alexithmyia; it was so rare that he spoke up and put himself in a potentially vulnerable position. He had done so at the meeting, not once but twice and had been shot down both times, his attempts at showing his pack loyalty barely acknowledged. It had hurt him more than he wanted to admit, and he had left the pack meeting with his head low and his tail tucked between his legs.

In the few days since, the subordinate had found himself reflecting more and more on @Kisla's offer that Serach could come live with her and her family in Hearthwood River. It was an exciting possibility, and given recent events, was beginning to appeal to him more and more. Staring intently into the water that pooled and shifted around his paws, the wolf shrugged his pale shoulders. He had promised to himself and Kisla that he would not leave without telling Triell, and so long as his uncle remained away, Serach was stuck. "You have the worst luck, you know," he said quietly to his reflection. He had come to the river to potentially fish, but even they were avoided him now, leaving only the tiniest of minnows for him to wearily watch.

Truth be told, Serach wasn't entirely sure how long he had been sitting on the edges of the water. He had been to caught up in his own thoughts to notice much of what was going on around him. The boy certainly did not notice the familiar scent of Jessie on the wind or hear the sounds of her paws on the ground as she approached. The chuff sound of her clearing her throat startled him, sending him to his feet as he half-turned to face her. Staring at her, it took a moment for Serach to register who it was. Jessie, he realized, his heart rate settling as the adrenaline rush brought on by her surprise appearance faded. Wonder what she wants. He couldn't recall the last time she had sought him out, if she ever had. "'Lo", he returned, dipping his muzzle in greeting.

Stepping out of the water, the boy returned all four paws to dry land, pondering how exactly he was going to answer her question. The honest truth was that ever since the pack meeting, the youth had been preoccupied with the thoughts of possibly leaving the Bend for good. He wouldn't tell her that though; he liked Jessie, but they were not close enough for him to consider her a close confident, especially not with thoughts that some could very well consider treasonous. "I'm alright, I suppose. Thought maybe I'd do some fishing, but haven't had much luck," he told her. It was accurate enough, even if it was not the full truth. "How're you? Any signs that Triell is on his way back?" She was a scout after all, and the meeting had not really made clear just how long the pack's leader was going to be gone for. The longer his uncle was gone, the longer Serach had to muse over his decision, which was not necessarily something that he wanted to dwell on any longer than he had to.

Jessie answered his question in the negative, and the boy found himself nodding silently in response. He hadn't had much hope that she would know where Triell and Naira were at that point - if they were truly looking for Nayeli, they would have to venture far beyond the pack's borders to track her down this time. No doubt they would be gone for more than a little while, depending on how thorough of a search Triell was conducting. But the boy knew from his own experience of spending months and months looking for traces of Sceral, Ice, or Fenru, that if Nayeli was truly gone, they would not find her no matter how hard they looked.

Jessie was quick to move on from the topic of Triell, though, and Serach looked up to meet her eyes as she asked her next question. His face twisted into a grimace and his shoulders slumped at her assumption that his interest in leaving for Hearthwood River had actually been addressed. "No," he spat, his tone more sad than angry. "After Sahalie left, everybody else did too. I take it to mean that Spieden and Drestig aren't interested in talking with Kisla." He wasn't entirely convinced of that, but based on their behavior at the meeting and the clear dismissal of Serach's proposal to go on the pack's behalf, they might as well have said they weren't interested.

Agitated, the youth began to pace, his head turned to face Jessie. It wasn't her fault, he thought, but she hadn't helped - she had disappeared too and as the pack's scout, her approval had mattered too. "I was thinking I would just go anyway," he told her, his voice matter of fact. His mind made up, he decided to tell Jessie the truth of what he had been considering before her arrival. "It's not like anybody would notice, and Kisla offered me a place in her pack." He paused in his pacing, staring intently at the pack's second, wanting to gauge her reaction to the news. He had said it with confidence, but there were still doubts lingering in his heart and mind.

She seemed surprised, but he was so used to seeing the unsatisfied expression on Jessie's face that Serach could not be sure. To his surprise, though, she did not immediately attempt to talk him out of his idea to leave. If anything, she was almost encouraging. His ears flattened against his skull, and his eyes narrowed as he peered at her, trying to understand what she was thinking. When she finally spoke, he felt a temporary wave of a relief wash over him. As much as he felt otherwise, it was nice to know that at least somebody would notice his absence and miss him. He quietly nodded as she mentioned that Drestig might give him permission to leave, but internally, he was not so sure. If anything, Drestig would be much more likely to try and talk Serach out of his decision. "I haven't decided yet," he told her, shuffling his paws on the damp ground. "I wanted to talk to @Triell, whenever he gets back." It was the very least he could do. No need to for his uncle to wonder where yet another one of his nephews had disappeared to.

At her request to walk, the youth nodded his head quietly, following her into the woods along the creek where he had unsuccessfully been trying to fish. He walked at her shoulder as the terrain allowed, close enough to be comradely, but not close enough to crowd her. Jessie had been in the Bend for as long as Serach could remember, and he knew that she was one of the wolves who had come with his mother from Swift River to start this new pack. So while he felt comfortable with his pack mate, this was one of the first times they had ever been on their own together, and it did fill him with a little bit of unease. But after a few minutes of silence, he cleared his throat and asked her the question that she had first asked him, "How have you been?"

The mismatched pair wandered along the trail in silence, broken only when Serach asked Jessie how she had been. He hadn't really had an ulterior motive in asking her - he certainly wasn't trying to dredge up any painful feelings or memories. They kept walking, but she glanced over at him as they did so, the hint of a smile reflective of the tone of her words. He had known that Jessie had lost Hotei - that the Bend had lost Hotei - but Serach and the older Tainn had never been close. Still, having lost many and more of his own family, Serach could only dip his head in a moment of respect for the late Tainn and the love he had left behind. "I know how difficult it must be," he said, lifting his head to look at Jessie. "But I think he would have wanted you to get better." The truth was Serach could not have really known that, having not been a confident of Hotei, but it was a thought that he had found comfort it whenever the loss of a loved one became too overwhelming.

As for Triell and Hotei's relationship, Serach could not comment, although as Jessie turned to look ahead of her again, the boy couldn't help but question her statement. Triell and Hotei had not seemed particularly close, at least not from Serach's outside perspective, but Jessie would know better than him. "They grew up together, didn't they?" Serach's face scrunched up as he tried to remember when he had first met the late Tainn. "But Hotei was older, right? So they weren't littermates." He knew that Triell had been one of several Tainn siblings, Indru, Ruiko, and Hotei among them, but he had never delved too deep into a family history that was not exactly his own.