She sat upon the highest branch, her curved, polished talons hooked into the shadowed crevices of the moss-brindled bark. The angles of her wings were fluid with the sharp lines of what seemed like a perfectly shaped, uniformly colored beak, which came to a point like the tip of a leaf. Hardly the queen of these parts, he wondered where it was that she reigned, and who exactly her sycophants were. So magnificent she was that her presence sucked the regal wind right from his lungs. Sleek, dark, and with intelligent, bottomless eyes that held the secrets of the land, if only to be locked away in a series of bird's-eye-view memories. The Goddess of the skies she was, and he couldn't tear his eyes from her, but he wouldn't have to. A sharp sound sounded in the distance, echoing around the two of them like the ripples of a puddle bombarded by rain drops, and something out there caught the great raptor's attention. With a grace he immediately wished to possess, the sienna-feathered creature jumped from her perch and disappeared into the shadowed forest or from it.


For a moment Kade remained as if he were locked in place by her spell as it faded. The sight of her or any of her kind, for that matter, was rare, and he'd certainly never seen one of them so close before. At some level he was honored, a glint of wonder shining from his eyes, and he hoped they'd meet again.



Blinking away the occasion and the memory it left in his mind's eye, the silver-dusted man moved to continue his exploration of the land. The borders of Darkwater Rapids were well-marked, the northern-most margin existing several miles away; this afternoon he found himself deep within the labyrinthine wood, where the sunlight only managed to filter through to reach the earth here and there. It hadn't so much as drizzled in weeks, and the forest was strangely drier than it usually was. With summer in full effect, the territory had been transformed into something more lively than he'd imagined it would be, however. Life dwelled near and far in every direction; butterflies floating through the shadows, squirrels scurrying up the tree trunks, blackbirds, redbirds, and raptorbirds perching in the canopies. Deer to the south. Fish in the rivers and creeks. It was a breathtaking notion to think the ghosts of a fallen kingdom had come to inherit such a magical place.



Surpassing a fallen, mushroom-crusted log, the king continued his reconnaissance, disappearing past a patch of green-striped ferns in search of the unknown.

Oftentimes Sibyl lingered near the den, keeping an eye on Kade and Ava's litter or catching any small creatures that were clueless enough to venture near the heart of the territory. With her poor sense of direction, she was easily lost and was worried that if she wandered too far she might never find her way back in this strange land. But sometimes the what if was tempting. What if if she got lost, and never did find her way back? Uprooted not once, but twice, would a third time be so bad?

Not with determination, but apathy, she set out, ambling through the forest and trying not to hear the voices that had once been familiar in the cedars whisper in her ears. Somewhere overhead a soft whoosh made her flinch, body hunching downward while eyes turned upward. She half expected a cougar to emerge from the canopy, and her stomach took a nauseating turn before she realized the sound was only the flapping of a bird that soared up and away ahead of her. For a moment she imagined that if only she had a pair of wings from her back, things would be better. How quickly she could be up and out of harm's way if only she could fly. But then she regretfully remembered the many small birds she'd caught herself, a little speed and stealth rendered the swift escape their wings afforded useless.

If she did leave, would it be safe to be alone? Her strength was indeed in the pack, and she was stupid to think she'd make it alone for long. Quieter than before, but her paws still crunched over the dried forest floor as she turned around, heading back towards the rapids. Even without rain the place still held its verdancy, and life echoed in all forms through the misty reaches of forest. There was nothing wrong with this place, but why did it still feel so wrong?

Stepping over a small creek that diverged off from the rapids, she caught wind of Kade. Guilt flashed through her as she wondered if maybe he'd sensed that she had even humored the idea of abandoning them, even for a moment. Perhaps he'd come to catch her? She ducked her head low, and after briefly considering detouring around him she decided that would look even more suspicious. As soon as she saw the black and silver tone of his fur through the trees she made a plaintive, apologetic whine, unaware that he would have had no idea of what she had almost done.

What he regarded to be tiny footsteps crunched nearby and stole his attention (or lack of) from the mindless wandering he'd taken to. Lifting his snout, he sniffed in a few quick breaths, the moist black of his nose wriggling as Sibyl's scent passed him by. The forest was rolling and dense, and it had been easy for him to forget that he wasn't actually lost in some vast paradise where he was all alone. He stretched his neck and looked around for her tawny form, unable to make her out at first among the woody trunks and tall ferns. With a patient flick of his tail, he turned to look behind him. Here, there, anywhere.



It was Sibyl's soft whine that eventually revealed her form, and his silvered eyes fell upon her softly. It had dawned on him in the past that she and he had never spent much time together. Sure, he'd run into her on the borders of Cedarwood Forest sometimes, and they'd exchanged some small talk every now and again; she'd been there when those mindless three had inadvertently trespassed on Grizzly Hollow turf, and the shewolf never missed a hunt. As integral of a part that she played in the old pack and in this one, too, he didn't know much of her and easily noted that she possibly felt the same of him. Now that was no way to be, was it? Maybe now would be a good time to make a change.



"I was just observing the most magnificent thing I've seen this side of the range─" he called to her, in a tone one friend would take when speaking casually with another when they'd known each other forever. "─a hawk, actually; her wings must have spanned wider than all the children, nose to tail. Can't say I've ever seen anything like it. Amazing, she was..." his voice trailed off as though he'd reverted to some state of dumbfounded awe. Drawing nearer to the quiet woman, his eyes scanned the tree tops as if the winged wonder's ghost lingered there somewhere.

Sibyl held her breath, preparing for the worst, and was somewhat disoriented when she didn't receive the reprimand she had expected. Sibyl blinked, folded ears rising slightly as she stepped closer to Kade as he moved towards her. If he brought it up, she'd answer truthfully, but it seemed her near desertion hadn't been detected and was nowhere on his mind. At the moment he seemed to be preoccupied by a hawk, and she wondered if perhaps it was the same bird that had scared her earlier. It had startled her enough that she hadn't really got a good look at it, plus she had been distracted by her own thoughts. Seems like she missed out this time.

Sibyl didn't like the thought of some taloned creature being larger than all the cubs put together, after all, maybe it could fit two in each foot and carry the whole lot of pups away all at once. However, Kade didn't seem to harbor any apprehensions towards the hawk. She glanced back towards the way she had previously been wandering towards, thinking about how she may or may not have seen the same bird only moments earlier. "I think, maybe I might have seen her go that way, sir. But I imagine she could be anywhere by now." Sibyl noticed how he seemed to still be looking out for the winged wonder, though she didn't quite understand his interest in it. To her it seemed to be just a bird, but perhaps it was supposed to be something more. "Do you think she's a good omen then? For this place, I mean." Sibyl looked hopeful, her thin tail swaying a couple times. Perhaps an auspicious bird wouldn't carry all the pups away.

At Sibyl's mention of the direction she thought the bird may have gone, Kade looked over his shoulder to the path he'd yet to forge, his eyes lingering on the way the forest's shades of green grew brighter further in the distance. Perhaps there was a reason she'd gone that way, and a reason he had been drawn in that direction, too. For all intensive purposes, Darkwater Rapids was an intricate place─a tangled wood strewn with shadow and mystery, and even on patrol he'd yet to uncover an area as open as the ravine itself. Perhaps the hawk-queen knew something the wolf-king did not. Thoughtfully, he considered Sibyl's remark about her being anywhere by now and knew it to be true. The tree tops of the verdant grove were no place for the ruler of the sky, and he imagined the sunlight gleaming of the ebony feathers of her long wings before shuffling his thoughts of the bird to the back of his mind.



A soft smile flickered across his features as he noticed the wag in Sibyl's tail. "I believe it is," he looked around for a moment as if to take in the woods that were blessed if it really was true. If anything, the look of hope in Sibyl's eyes was evidence of a good omen, and in that way he really did believe. "This forest has bestowed us all with a number of blessings─perhaps the dark bird scours the sky keeping watch over us, fending off the dark of the world to keep us safe." It sounded superstitious, but who was to say it wasn't true, too. Hopefully he wasn't scaring Sibyl with his talk of safety and evil. For a time he grew quiet, listening intently to the sounds of the leaves rustling, the buzzing of winged insects as they darted past. The sound of peace. "Do you like it here?" he asked softly. He was happy and knew Ava to be, and found comfort in knowing the children would grow up somewhere beautiful and safe. Still, there were many nights he'd lay awake thinking of the cedar trees and the beaten paths that time had woven into the dirt. A part of him had been left behind there. Looking to Sibyl, he wondered if as big a part of her was there, too, with him on the bank of Heartleaf Creek.