She had left the meeting on a mission and could only hope Rhysis was following her train of thought after the earthquake that had just rocked their Pass. After her initial nudge, she didn’t look to see if he followed but hoped to any gods that were listening that she wouldn’t be taking this journey back to the other side alone. Long strides ate the earth beneath her as she travelled to the far end of their territory and the sight and scents that met her there caused her heart to sink a little. Heavy head dropped low to examine them closer. Romanis, and Valiant... under a scattered trail of rocks and rubble that had once been a small wall blocking their access to over there now lay in a rocky trail and into the unknown.

Hair prickled to stand up on the back of her neck and a wild look was painted to her face. Was she ready for this? Did she have a choice? A deep breath was drawn and a howl thrown into the wilderness beyond. A plea, a cry. If her pack mates were down there, she would go... but what would she find? Silent moments passed before a familiar answer came, from a wolf she never thought she would be happy to hear from. Her own short, almost frantic call was given in response. We are coming. Stay put. We are coming.

Her heart beat erratically as she took the first steps forward and the hazy forest came into sight to the south. It sent a chill down her spine to think of what lurked amongst those trees (whether real of imagined in her own maddened state), but the call had come from the north, and with a steadying breath she began to pick her way carefully down the unstable path, relieved to hear the tell-tale rattle of another following in her wake.

The path was narrow, lined with loose pebbles and long drops into nothingness, the failing light only adding to the darkness of the chasms that opened up below. She contented herself by focusing on the parts of the path that remained and not for the first time cursed the eastern side of the mountain. More than once the edges of the path crumbled beneath her paws and she had to wonder what on earth had possessed the two wolves to travel so far? She muttered under her breath as she travelled, turning once or twice to throw a brave smile over her shoulder at the dark wolf that followed in an attempt to break up any of the remaining awkwardness between them.

She sagged in relief as the path widened before them unaware of just how much tension she had been carrying. The chasm was eaten up by the narrow canyon that opened up between two cliffs. It would allow them to walk side by side, but it was awfully dark in there... Once she was on solid ground again, she slowed her steps so that she might walk by Rhysis’s side if he would allow it. She was still adjusting to this new life and while she reveled in some of the challenges, there were others that would take her longer to get used to... like being in a partnership again.

There was a feral look in her eye, somewhere caught between fear and paranoia. The silence was deafening and she couldn’t help but muse aloud... "We never came this far north..." The shakiness in her voice betrayed just how conflicted she truly felt being back outside of the safety of her home. What if the path fell away behind them? What if she had to go through all of it again? Her nose was working overtime, it was a perfect place to hold an ambush and who knew what wild things made their homes this side of the mountain?

Her memories of her time on the ‘other side’ were vague at best, half real, half imagined, she wasn’t exactly in a stable state of mind when she had been here, but she had seen things she wouldn’t wish on anyone but Athena. As hard as her time on the outside had been, it was coming back to her former kingdom that had taken the heaviest toll on her. She hadn’t spoken to Rhysis of all that had befallen her, and although she had mentioned it to Triell, and in a moment of weakness to Valiant, she was yet to open up to the one wolf that it really mattered had any sort of understanding of exactly what she had been through to make her so cold.

She thought he would find the story of her challenge most amusing of all her tales, although it would mean admitting her true standing within their former pack to retell it. For now the path was unchanging, steady and secure, there was no need to focus as closely as they had needed to with a chasm at their flank. Casually she brushed against him, like they used to. She would try to make this work. Really she would.

"She stuck me as the lowest when we got back, refused to tell the kids who I was to them..." There was no bitterness in her retelling, she was simply relaying facts for now. "I challenged Chantille." she recalled with a somewhat savage smile. "Apparently mauling her shoulder was excessive... despite the fact she had me by the head." Her tale trailed off with a small laugh, it sounded so foreign in the closed in space in which they wandered. "We should do something once we all get back."

She didn’t even allow herself to think for a moment that they may not make it back with all their members in tow. "The caches are still exactly where we left them. Maybe we should do a raid?" there was a mischievous glint to her eye and a tease in her tone. After the non-event of reclaiming her children she was intent to make their very existence upon the mountain little more than a living hell.

She could not help but wonder if his quip about healers for stubbed toes was some sort of jab at her knowledge, although she had never been one to brandish the skill unless needed (with the exception of her almost obsessive hoarding of various leaves and flowers, which had all but evaporated with her return). Beyond a confused hint of a grin, she shrugged the comment off. He didn’t seem to be in the mood for talking anyway.

Her smile broadened at his acceptance of her casual suggestion. She could not know he had far more violent thoughts on his mind (although similar had crossed her own on more than one occasion), for he had never really allowed his darker side to show in her presence. A master of control he had always been, with the exception of their one encounter near the Heartleaf Creek, and even then he had been ill. She could not hold that against him, nor allow a single encounter to tarnish her perception of all the time they had been together. Even now, she had herself convinced that she knew him, and that they - despite all their differences would work things out, because they were meant to be together, like the stories her mother had told her as a child. They just needed time.

Up ahead, despite the failing light, brightness loomed. The split in the mountain through which they walked began to open up as the ground leveled beneath their paws. Treacherous the path may have been to this point, but she took a moment to pause and consider, just how much worse it could be once they were free.