She had been spending less and less time at home as the days grew shorter. @Sven was too old to smother with her constant company, and she had to help gather whatever was left for her mothers medicinal stores before the snows buried it all. She was returning from yet another trip to the north, a length of ginger root gripped carefully in her mouth as she approached the medicine den. If she bit down too hard she would be stuck with the bitter taste in her mouth for days. It would permeate everything she ate and drank, and she had no desire of reliving that experience again.

She looked about before entering the confined space, not seeing anything out of place, the scent of drying herbs tickling her nose. She placed the root lower down, tucked away almost out of sight. With any luck nobody would be needing it until spring (and if she had her way it would be reserved for her explicit usage). Feeling more confident now she had taken stock of what they had on hand she thought it was about time she did the rounds to catch up with her pack-mates.

As luck would have it a fresh scent wafted to her on the breeze and she smiled, being only acquainted with this one in passing. She plastered her most welcoming smile on her face as she set out on the trail, tentatively calling out as she walked “@Hecate?” She could have sworn that was her name…

When the answer came from ahead she smiled, eyes easily spotting out the pale wolf now she had moved into the open. Her smile was an easy one, her tail waving casually level with her spine. “There yer are.” she responded with a smile, the similarity in her own actions and phrases to @Angier completely lost on the young woman. She nodded her head to invite the woman on a walk. Sitting still with anyone other than Skoll these days made her paws itch. “I- been meanin’ ter track yer down and introduce m’self properly before now but I’ve been a bit… busy.”

Truthfully between @Sven and @Skoll and scouting and gathering what herbs remained before winter, it was a surprise she managed to get to the other woman before the snows fell. Happy to stick to small talk for now (Craw had advised subtlety after all) she let a comfortable silence stretch on before she asked her next question. “How do yer find it here?” She was genuinely interested in the answer. If everything went the way she planned, she would need to be keep herself in the loop on areas of improvement. She was treating this encounter as a test run.

A brow arched casually, a small smile on her face as she wondered over what sort of others the pale woman could mean? Adversaries? Love interests? (Which could prove more problematic down the track if she wanted to maintain her position as her mothers successor), she could dig deeper in time but Morganna wasn’t the type to suddenly get chummy without some sort of shared history. “There’s been an influx, it’s nice ter have some around that aren’t related ter me by blood.” she commented casually, cordial smile still plastered to her face as peach eyes surveyed the surrounding territory, looking for anything out of place. A pause here, a sniff there. Everything seemed to be in place for now. @Skoll’s familiar scent, overlaid with Angier’s and interspaced with @Craw’s… but still she couldn’t help but feel that something was out of place.

Perhaps it was the absence of her mothers trail about the borders, but she could only assume she had busied herself in the same way Morganna had and was out collecting some distantly placed herb. She pressed her paws against a tree trunk, blunt claws dragging across the bark, her pads leaving her own signature scent on the tree. She decided again to let the silence stretch on. Perhaps her companion would give more than she intended away with her next words.

To the question about things getting old, Morganna had to smile. "I used ter spend almost as much time away scoutin' an' gatherin' as I spent here." of course that had all changed with @Piety's abandonment of @Sven. When things started to get back to normal she had taken the opportunity to stretch her legs again, and it was a good thing too. Now the was shackled to the barricade of scents that defined their home. Doomed, it would seem, to no longer travel any farther than she could manage to return within the day. She had taken up some semblance of this mantle when her mother was den-bound with her younger siblings but all other experiences paled in comparison to the weight on her shoulders now. To say she had big shoes to fill was an understatement.

There was no malice perceived in @Hecate's question regarding @Elettra's condition. "I think 'er prides hurt more than anythin'." she finally conceded. She was almost convinced her mother would be back to claim her title sooner rather than later and despite the immense pressure she was under she wasn't entirely sure it would be given back freely. To have children of her own - lawfully, she would need to maintain her rank. Of course these lands belonged to her mother, she would always be the Queen, and if Morganna never rose higher than the rank of Prime Minister she would still be content in knowing she had achieved her position the right and lawful way.

As she dragged her blunt nails down the stringy bark of a well marked willow she paused, ears turning this way and that. Had it been closer to dark she might have suspected @Skoll was spying on them. As it was, a strange wolfs scent passed dangerously close to their borders, tickling familiarity pulling at the back of her mind. Brows drew down in a serious way as she took note Craw's trail seemed to spear off after it and she continued the way they had been travelling, steps only slowing for a few moments before deciding whatever had occurred had happened hours prior, and with no alarm raised she could only assume it had been dealt with.