While Serach had not been particularly close to either Mako, Marina, Reiko, or Treyah, he had mourned for their absence almost as much as he had their parents'. He had been there for each of their births and stood guard outside of their dens in their most vulnerable moments of life, and it had been hard to know they had lost the only home they had ever known. So there was a truly selfish part of him that was grateful that Lila had been Aponi's daughter and had not followed in her sister's path and left too. After all, without a younger generation to teach, what was the point of staying at all? Relationship with her mother aside, Serach had wanted to make a point of trying to normalize things as quickly as possible for Lila's sake, as well as his own, so he was grateful when she agreed to accompany him on a small hunt that day.

He hadn't had anything in particular in mind, but was content to see what they could track down. It was unfortunate though, that no matter where they seemed to stick their noses, they were coming up empty handed. Each time he had merely shrugged his shoulders and smiled at her with a, "No problem. We'll just keep looking." They were wolves after all, and finding food was not as effortless as it was for other species.

Pale ears perking, he turned to look at her as she suggested heading to the creek to look there. "Good idea," he told her with a smile and wag of his tail. Abandoning the empty brush, he struck out in a new path, towards the creek. "Parts of it will still be frozen, so we'll just need to be careful if we try and cross on the ice," he added as a warning as they made their way. Aponi would kill him if he let her daughter drown or freeze, so he would have to be extra watchful. With the water beginning to the thaw, the ice could be deceiving, but that could potentially play to their advantage if the got lucky enough.

"Did you enjoy your trip to the mountains with Lena?" He asked as they made their way towards the creek, his voice quiet just in case there was something lurking along the water's edge. As far as he could tell, the trip had been successful, but he hadn't had a chance to ask Lila directly yet.

For all of his effort of putting on a brave face, Serach's senses were coming up empty. Even as they diverted their trail and moved towards the creek, there wasn't much grabbing his attention. A part of him was tempted to take @Lila to the beaver dam and see if they could flush one of the large rodents out, but a much larger, and louder, part of him remembered the fight the beavers had put up when he had tried to attempt such a thing with Sahalie. It had not gone well then and there was much more risk now, so instead he simply smiled at Lila and headed towards the creek with more confidence in his posture and on his face than he was feeling inside.

His concern was ebbed though when the girl answered his question, confirming that the blossoming relationship between the Bend's youngest members was in fact blossoming. "I'm really glad to hear that. I think once the weather gets a bit better and spring is here, we'll likely ask you to keep visiting other packs for us. Maintaining good relationships with our neighbors is very important," he told her, his mind drifting once more to the fairly barren woods around them. Others in the Bend had always felt itchy paws because Spectral Woods was so isolated, but the way Serach saw it was it was beneficial because there was less competition for the limited sources of prey. "Definitely ask Lena more questions. She traveled all the way here from where she was born - my brother's pack, so she has a lot of experience for someone her age." She'd already traveled over longer distances than Serach himself had, embarrassingly enough.

During the spring and summer, it was easy to find the creek by listening to the sound of the water. But in the winter, it was silent. Largely buried under snow, Serach instead relied on instinct and familiarity with the pack territory to know where the edge was. Coming to a stop, he lifted a forepaw and pointed at the tips of reeds sticking out a few inches above the snow directly in front of them. "See the reeds there? And how there's nothing beyond them for several lengths, but they reappear over there? Look up and down, see how there's patches on both sides? That's a sign that the creek is underneath. No reeds because of the water, but it helps you see where the ice is before you start walking on it." It was tough knowing what thickness the ice was without testing it somehow, but at least there was some indicator of where the thing even was.

"As for sparring, I'd be happy to teach you - although if you want to do that now, we need to get away from the ice. Your mother might kill me if you slipped in," he told her, turning his head to look at her and wag his tail above his back. Leaving the choice up to her, he was happy to do either - keep looking for food or test their skills in a friendly spar.

Had fate not intervened, Serach would have expected to remain a bachelor throughout his life, focused on helping his uncle raise his litters to adulthood. He had always loved teaching the younger members of the pack, and fancied himself a relatively apt teacher despite his own limited life experience. There were few wolves who knew the Bend's history better than he did, and he believed he was adequate enough at sparring and hunting to be able to explain the basics to pups and yearlings. Grinning to himself, he reflected fondly on the time he had taught Drift that taking a bath wasn't the worst thing in the world. So even though their trip was apparently turning into a failure on the hunting front, Serach was enjoying himself regardless. It was nice to settle back into a role he was more familiar with, and one that didn't put as much weight on his shoulders.

Pausing in his steps, he turned his head to look at her when she asked him quizzically about their being more packs. Nodding his head, his face scrunched up in concentration while he tried to think about it. The truth was, he could only know what others had told him because he hadn't left to see for himself just exactly how many packs were out there in the Lore now. "Yeah, there's several, although some of them come and go so quickly it's hard to keep track of them all. There's Fallen Tree Cove, which you know, but also in our part of Relic Lore is Hearthwood River. That's north in a place called 'Kingsfall' - my sister Kisla is the leader there. Also in the north is a pack called Wild Rye Fields, they were founded by wolves who used to be a part of the Bend, but they left last spring before you would have been born. On the east side of the mountains there's several packs too, although I'm less familiar with them directly. Grizzly Hollow, Willow Ridge, and Secret Woodlands are three that I know, but it's been a while since we've communicated with them," he explained, trying to at least hit on the packs he considered to be the most relevant, blissfully unaware of the several others that had come to be since the last time the Bend had sent a scout out to envoy with them.

Her next question was more personal in nature, but Serach didn't mind. He was happy to answer questions about his family, even if some of the memories they brought up weren't always the happiest. "His name is Sceral. He's my agemate, but the younger of the two of us. We were the only two that year, but I have several older siblings. Kisla, who I mentioned earlier, but also an older brother Fenru. Others too, but I never met them. Sceral left the Bend as a yearling, although I still haven't found out exactly why he left. He didn't say goodbye...and that hurt. But he's my brother and I still love him fiercely. So you can imagine my surprise when I met Lena and found out who she was and learned about the life my obnoxious little brother had made for himself," he grinned at her and wagged his tail at his own joke. He knew Lila had been an only child, with Kyna as an older sister, but she had been close enough with the other Bend litters to hopefully appreciate that having siblings was not all fun and games.

Her focus was not limited, though, and she was not done with her questions. Which was fine by him. It was the least he could do after all, since it seemed they would be returning to the den with empty stomaches. "Just listen to your gut. If it's telling you that some place isn't safe, it probably isn't. It's not worth saving the travel time if you're not sure you can get across safely, so trust your instinct and listen to what your senses are telling you. Earth feels different from ice, even through the snow."

But it was time to move on to the next lesson, and Serach was eager to do so. A little sparring would help warm them, and their spirits, up. He chuckled at her joke, twisting his head to place a brief kiss at the base of her ear as she nuzzled his shoulder. But then his kiss turned into a playful bite, and he tugged briefly at the soft fur before letting her go. Taking a few steps back, he settled into a wide stance to brace himself. "Let's see what you got!" He taunted, his wagging tail an invitation for her to begin.