Red Fern Forest Never been to hell and back

The words of the trees whispered in their ears, they had been tracking the faint scent for days and had gone over the mountain. What would river wolves be doing over the mountains when their home was so far from here? Had something happened that they did not know about, because it was rather off with the evidence they had. Perhaps they should report this to Elettra? No, it did not involve the Ridge wolves, not yet a least and it should stay that way. His eyes rested upon the traveling party. Rosealia and he traveled over the mountains, training her on the way. He smiled at her, she was training hard for that challenge, and yet only mutiny crossed his mind.

No thoughts other than that crossed him; he wanted her and her alone. That was all he could take and he was determined not to let Elettra soil on his parade. Elettra would not rule over him with the fear he once had for her, he was better than that. He was just wondering, what would he do after the fact, after all they would have nowhere left to go and he did not want to give potential children a life like he had, he would not make them face that. It had been hard enough for him and his Sister, but he would never put them through that. “This is where it ends, they must have turned back, a while ago, and the scent is extremely old.” He said to her, they had traveled away from home for about a week now. They had gone to Bramble Falls, and then ventured down to the Red Fern Forest in which they stood. The burnt orange ferns were all they could see.

“This place is odd; I’ve surely never been here before.” He told her, a whisper to his voice when he spoke. All these new scents and smells made him weary. What if there was more than meet the eye. “Perhaps before we train, we’ve gone a while before we ate real prey, let’s hunt. There has to be something here.” He told her, this snow crunched at his feet as they walked forward. He scented around, looking for maybe a deer they could hunt.

Slightly crouched, she moved forward with a careful silence about her. It was going to take a little bit of effort to bounce back from the setback on the mountain. That dark figure she met simply hit too close to home and now her mind was on the past. Hopefully some fresh air in a new environment would help pull her back forward into the present.

The fae tried to connect herself to her surroundings by focusing on the scents and the feeling of the breeze and the crunching snow beneath her. It sort of worked, but for now she was still distracted. In fact the first thing to start to really grab her attention was the grumbling hunger pang in her stomach.

…hungry…again…why do I always have to be hungry? Im so tired of dealing with this.. I guess now I have to find a way to push through this and bring down some animal. On my own. Again. Of course…

Annoyed, she lifted her head slightly to start looking around for something she might be able to eat.

Rose had been following him for days-no, weeks, now. She wasn't the best tracker, so she left Shade to that. Her nose was freezing cold and wet, numbed by the icy temperatures. It hadn't been the best week for her. The temperatures weren't in their favors, but it gave her a reason to snuggle up to her mate as they slept. She was carrying a little, scrawny rabbit in her jaws. Apparently, it hadn't been doing very well with the weather either. It was only now that she looked up and noticed that they were somewhere new. Red and orange scattered the snow and trees, giving the area a fall-like feeling. Her heart raced as he told her that the scents ended here. Now what? Would they stay here?

She definitely didn't want to run back to the Ridge. Elettra was surely suspicious of them now. Her ears fell to her head with the similar hauntings of Elettra looming over her with blood-stained teeth, of which the blood could possibly be Shade's. Truthfully, the young girl still wasn't sure what exactly caused her fear of the woman. The fact that her mate and protector had never been here before sort of worried her. They were in a new place now; not even her well-experienced companion and lover knew of this area. It didn't seem like many wolves had been here yet, but it could be an illusion of Rose's inexperience and oblivious ways. Glancing at Shade, she snuggling up against him and dropped the rabbit to speak.

"What now?" She murmured into his fur, tilting her head as a little robin fluttered through the trees. "I got us covered." She promised, knowing that they could find something better than a little scrawny rabbit this time. Honestly, she and Shade made a perfect travelling couple. She took care of food arrangements, and he navigated and protected.

WILLOW RIDGE FOREVAH!

Shade smiled as his mate asked him a question. He picked up the loner scent and hid his on-end reactions. “We’ll start with talking to that loner over there.” He told Rosealia, a smiled on his face still, his tail drooped, no reason for dominance here right? His eyes had only a friendly reaction in them, there was no time to get in fights, not with breeding season being so close to them. He would have to make sure to get all the support he could in this, he needed a pack that he and Rose could lead. They needed members for that. So they would try and recruit those loners who looked for a home to be loyal to or were in need of some food. A trade then could be made. He preferred not to resort to trades though.

The sun was about to set upon the orange colored ferns that looked like they were on fire. Hopefully animals could be found here to hunt. Even if this loner wanted nothing to do with them, Rose and him were both hungry. If they didn’t eat soon, bad things would happen to them no doubt. They had been more focused on the train; the scrawny rabbit in Rose’s jaws would not cut it. Perhaps if they gave the loner the rabbit, then the loner would hunt with them? Perhaps that was enough to get the loner talking to them. He saw the brown and black east timber wolf. “Greetings there, I’m Shade and this is my mate Rosealia.” He told her.

She perked up upon hearing the sound of an unfamiliar voice (and really, when was the last time something was familiar?) speaking to her:

Greetings there, I’m Shade and this is my mate Rosealia

This was…direct. Usually she stumbled upon other wolves, or had some awkward set up or lead in to communicating with someone else. The experience on the mountain had her standing on edge more than usual. Even though this wolf approaching her didn’t look aggressive, he almost didn’t need to. It wasn’t uncommon for her to be suspicious of other wolves, but right not her mind was fresh with ways that things could get dangerous for her. As such, her reactions were somehow more calculated now than they would have been before.

Outnumbered. What do they want with me? I have no food. Oh no. Is this their territory? Again? How am I supposed to know all of these borders? I have no idea where I even am! Great…

Her muscles stiffened, a common reaction for her. Slowly she took a step back, never taking her eye off of these two in front of her. After initially hearing them, she lowered her head down. She hated…hated looking submissive but she couldn’t go through what she just went through again. It simply wasn’t worth it.

"I’m Aeyla…”