The sun that had greeted her this morning was still bright and intense. The pale tawny and gray wolf lifted her head, eyes lidded, to the rays to feel the warmth on her face. She was laying on a blown-over mat of dry grass. Such warmth this late into fall was rare and Iopah soaked in it like a sun-bathing turtle. The only thing better would have been a wide granite stone set on a mountain peak. But those days were in her past. The Black Hills were a thing of memory. She'd never see or feel the southern sun again.

There were a great many wolves here. Some she felt a common spark with, their thought-process so similar as to be unnerving. Others she had just puzzled over. She shifted, kicking her legs out from under her with a contented grumble and felt the heat against her side. Hours ago she'd eaten her fill and come here to laze and digest. The multitude of new faces had gotten to be overwhelming. She was used to the few trusted faces from home and had seized upon the excuse to step away. The bison meat had long since been broken down.

Yet she remained. She was mildly anti-social. Loyal, yet reserved around most. Able to accept new faces and situations in her laconic way, but unsure how to initiation a converse with a stranger. Just walk right up and say her name? What if she didn't care about what they wanted to talk about? Nah, it was much better to just stay here and appreciate the sun.

She was nearly dozing now, lulled into a sense of tranquility despite the distance from home. The fellow Woodlands wolves that had made the journey with her were safe. No harm would come to any of them here. With a full belly and no need to be on her guard it was no wonder she'd relaxed so easily. There was no way to know what was happening at home. As a rule, she didn't like theoretical questions. What if it was exactly as she left it, down to the half-shredded rabbit Silentium had left at her den? Or, what if the Black Thorn wolves had stormed the borders and taken up residence? With her past, such questions would drive her to insanity. They would deal with anything when they got back.

She was so close to sleep that the gentle crunch of dry grass elicited only a single ear flick. Someone was coming. Her body stretched slightly and opened her eyes to the sight of a dark wolf approaching. She blinked up sleepily, lids fluttering over clear gold, and listened to him speak. She did remember him, and as he came up with her name she knew from where. Oh yes, from that bison carcass weeks ago. He was related to Enoki and as a result was related to Kele. That realization was enough to rouse her fully and she pushed herself up into a sphinx pose. Of course, she nodded to his question. Now, that she was awake she remembered how their last conversation had ended. This was the continuation that had waited for a more discreet setting. "You and your sister both have Kele's eyes", she commented quietly, looking away from his gaze.

She was not expecting him to be upset. Clearly he held nothing against her, otherwise he wouldn't have waited till now. Probably Enoki had told him of how she was a mess when the piebald woman had finally caught up to the Woodland huntress. But she still blinked at the softness of his reply. She felt bad for how Kele had ended up and likely always would. He'd saved her and she'd let him die. She was immensely glad that she was getting along with his kin. The whole point of Kele's displacement was to make the two pack allies. Iopah would make sure they stayed, at least, allies.

Her ears flicked at his statement, genuinely surprised that he had yet more family still around. Iopah was the only Barberi left and she was happy to hear the Ashrelle family had fared better. It was an ironic twist of fate that Iopah could only wonder at. Like his sister, Mordacai was curious and Iopah let her gaze wander in the direction of a distant laugh.

What was he like? Iopah took a second to collect her memories, carefully discarding the sad ones and peering in close to the rest. "He tried very hard to fit in, I remember him asking me over and over everyone's names." She closed her eyes to bask in the sun and her memory of the boy that she'd cared for. On the Black Hills there had been no to time to speak of love and the future for them, and their last days together had been stuck in the strange time between child and adult. "He was fascinated with our stories, even if I wasn't overly impressed with them."

She nodded emphatically at his comment. The Barberi pack had been very proud of their longevity on the Black Hills. The stories were just as tedious now as they were then, and now with the knowledge that they were gone, the tales were intensely depressing. What they had held so dear was nothing, the sole survivor of a proud line was nothing more than a pale, nondescript subordinate wolf in the wilds of Canada.

Her eyes rolled at his question. "The story goes that the Barberi wolves lived on the same stretch of land for decades." Personally that had always seemed far-fetched to her. Once she had asked her father, who replied that it must be true considering his father (and Iopah's grandfather) would never lie. "Many of the tales recounted times that we kept that land despite amazing odds." She snorted and flicked her eyes away away in long-borne defiance for her family. If they had moved away from their precious land Kele would have lived and they would have more to their name than a daughter who grudgingly accepted the relation.

And yet, there was one among them she remembered. The moral of the story was one she thought of often, even if she couldn't remember the words to it. "My mother told a story of a scout once," She started, trying to recall how she had sat and the inflections in her voice. It was a story her mother had been fond of also, ironically the fondness had been passed to her daughter. "He lived years before her birth, and was a loyal member, having been taken in a starving yearling. There was a fight one day, an enemy had attacked a child on a cliff over a river. The scout fought bravely and saved the child but was thrown from the cliff in the process. The whole pack rushed into the waters to pull him out. He was still and breathless and they feared it was too late. They sang the death-song, at it's end he coughed and took a breath."

Memory caught up with her and she remembered loudly voicing her opinion that it was impossible. Kele had rapidly shushed her, his amber eyes fixed on Iopah's mother. "The scout told everyone that while he lay there he'd seen a pack. A ghost pack, made up of every deceased Barberi wolf, was waiting for him. They said they always watched and waited, but it was not his time yet. A pup that had eaten a toxic mushroom only weeks ago touched his chest and he coughed all the river water out."

Despite her distant mannerisms, Iopah was a tactile wolf at heart. It was an intrinsic part of wolf behavior, so. touch and non-verbal communication was natural to her. She trusted Mordacai, and so when he brushed against her shoulder she thought nothing deeper of the gesture. He believed her and her stance shifted towards him. She'd been expecting him to ask for some kind of supporting proof, but he was just like his older brother.

He said he believed it and she cocked her head, wondering as she had for years if the group of wolves that waited for you had to be blood-relatives. Who would Kele be waiting for, her or his biological family? She'd seen him in those dreams, but they might simply be that: dreams. She sighed wistfully and turned her attention back to the stream idly. It reminded her of the little cold-water spring back home and the soft noise of churning water was comforting. Iopah was not expecting him to ask about the song and when he did she turned to him in amusement. The grays over her shoulders shivered as she laughed heartily. "I'm afraid I don't remember how the song goes."

"So what about the rest of Kele's family." She prompted, glancing over at him carefully with her eyes turned down in respect. "I could never get him to talk about his family." Not that the pale woman could blame him, but these past few weeks had made her realize that his family had never stopped caring for him.