Cedarwood Forest On the Tail of a Grim

Coming from the northern edge near the Thicket of Secrets - at the same time as M’appari - after Naira has met Destin & Phin and Taima has been napped. I believe the plan is for Ice/Corinna to jump in here somewhere?



Borden/Jaysex first please - Only Ice/Corinna invited to jump in after.

Her steps did not falter as she began to pick up on the traces of a scent that once laced Valiant’s pelt. They were so close now. It would be so nice to simply rest. Some of their paths had been deeper than others and even her well travelled muscles ached. It probably would have been easier to wait until the spring, but she was a stubborn creature and refused to leave the females of her pack unattended during such a time... especially with news dire enough to warrant a rallying of the packs. She was still unsure whether the Nomad’s would make an appearance.

She had left Adonis when the young pale boy had come into sight, further north than she would have felt comfortable leaving him in months past, but he was almost fully grown now and she saw no harm in letting boys be boys. Another familiar scent crossed paths here and there, and her tail waved about enthusiastically. Aniu. Her sister had made it here too. Suddenly her paws did not feel so exhausted as a spring found it’s way into her step. This journey may have just become even more worthwhile than she had initially thought.

Oblivious to the frantic search that was most likely taking part beyond the invisible line that was the pack border, she tipped her head back to call for the leaders of the Hollow. There was no rush or demand to her tone, she more than content to take a moment to sit, and simply listen to the forest sounds around her - so different to the noises of her mountain home.

Wanted to wait for Switch, but Borden's muse finally came out of hiding and is showing some initiative finally.

give up the trick

borden lyall

this is not a show

He could not stop pacing; every minute, every hour of every single day that his daughter was absent from his lands had finally broken through to his already crumbling state of mind. Compared to what he had suffered in the wake of Prosper's disappearance, Taima's assumed plans with running away was handled much, much worse. Borden Lyall's paws bled, his coat (despite Jaysyek's insistent pleas to take care of him) had fallen into disarray, and it was apparent with the shedding of his winter coat that he had lost a considerate amount of weight. He was making his second round around the northern edge of his territory when a call came. His thoughts - vicious circles of worrying and fretting - were immediately disrupted and his mind went to the conclusion that this particular someone who demanded his presence bore the news that his rebel offspring had been found. He shakily looked over his shoulder, his neck twitching twice as a result from developing a series of nervous tics.

His ragged tail jerked to one side as he turned around, eyes wide as he fought to wrest himself from the path he routinely took, day in and day out. Like a rickety clockwork toy, he moved towards the source of the summoning, his stiff frame staggering past thickets, cedars, and frost-crowned stones. The pale-eyed Lyall anticipated a gathering wolves, his beloved daughter within the circle they made, but the scene he stumbled upon was very much the opposite of his expectations. A lump formed in his throat. There, before him, casually poised among the dense hedges outside his markers, was a woman...

He trembled and shook, the stress and downfall of his high-soaring hopes. If his health and vitality had allowed, he would have addressed her the way a Leader should have - the way he would have in his prime and at the height of his reign. Instead, he shuddered, the words coming from him as though he had merely breathed them, "What... What do you want?" He blinked, slightly swaying to one side until he moved a forelimb to steady himself again. A whiff of the scents carried on her pelt told him that she had traveled far to get here. His brows rose, "What news do you bear from the east?"

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(This post was last modified: Mar 27, 2013, 10:29 AM by Borden.)

Well, what do you want from me?

That’s what ruling is.Lying on a bed of weeds,

• NAIRA AQUILA •

ripping them out before they strangle you in your sleep.

The greeting she received was hardly the one she expected and a cold chill raced down her spine. The urge to find her son and run, run all the way back to the pass was strong. The scent of the male was the strongest about the borders, but his ragged appearance was enough to set her on edge. “My son wished to visit Ryvet, it seems they had an encounter at the marsh, and later he met the boy’s mother... He led me to believe we had been invited to visit.”

Her voice was soft, her eyes lit with concern as she watched the ragged male move, unsteady on his feet, no doubt from a combination of exhaustion and lack of food. “The east is as it is here, sickness spreading, strangers sighted but clearly not wishing to be seen...” again a shiver ran down her spine, as if some stranger had just walked over her grave. She gave herself a shake to try and release some of the nerves that now raced through her blood.

Finally she gathered the courage to simply ask. “What is wrong? What has happened here?”

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give up the trick

borden lyall

this is not a show

“My son wished to visit Ryvet," the woman told him. "It seems they had an encounter at the marsh, and later he met the boy’s mother..." Borden's mind immediately went to Jaysyek for a split second. "He led me to believe we had been invited to visit.” Okay, so that wasn't too out of place, and the Lyall gave her a quiet nod.

He noticed when she trembled, but said nothing as she shook her pelt out in attempt to recover herself. Then, she asked him what was wrong and what had happened. "We've only just realized how dire things have become... Here, there... everywhere it seems. My daughter has also gone missing on top of it all. Th-there's just no escaping it here."

A troubled frown became apparent on his face as he submerged beneath the mass of unanswered, anxiety-based questions that he had clung to in his mind. As if he had just remember where he was and what he was doing, his eyes focused on her for a time before panning somewhere to the left and over her shoulder, "Why have you come? I have no answers aside from the fact that Ryvet is still well, but I will not allow him to leave the confines of the den."

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(This post was last modified: Apr 07, 2013, 09:10 AM by Borden.)

Well, what do you want from me?

The Gods have no mercy.

• NAIRA AQUILA •

That's why they're gods.

Her ears pinned back to her skull at the mention of a missing daughter. A flash of the fear she had felt the night her own son had been taken from her clearly painted on her face for just a moment. If it was children they were after, then she would need to return home, and soon. Fear was quickly replaced with confusion however, when the wolf before her mentioned that Ryvet was confined to the den, the hair along her nape tickling with discomfort. “Not to question the... capabilities of your pup-sitter, but are you certain?” She questioned with clear worry in her eyes. “I only ask because my son tore off into the trees after a young pale coated male just north of here... Convinced that it was the boy he had come to visit.”

Something akin to panic then was rolling off her pelt. She had already lost her son once, she couldn’t bare to do so again. All thoughts of the meeting to come fled her mind as she was torn between hoping for a reassuring response from the man before her and tearing off into the thickets to look for the two young boys. Her feet shifted nervously beneath her, even though the boy she had sighted was about the same age as her son. “He seemed to be of a similar age, I didn’t think to stop and check, they are almost grown...” She was trying to justify her own complacency, not even daring to hope that maybe, just maybe it was simply a case of adolescent boys being boys.

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give up the trick

borden lyall

this is not a show

She questioned him further. Was he certain that Ryvet was well taken care of back at the den? Of course... With Kade and Sibyl about he was sure that his son was being looked after. Then again... Taima had slipped through his grasp, time and time again, and now she was gone... just as her older siblings had before her. Prosper. Trisden. Hocus. Theo. Arlette. Even Raigo had left once or twice, but even then Borden had noticed his absence. The aging patriarch tried hard to consider that his youngest children were old enough to manage, but he still could not shake the feeling that he had to have them all in once place. Safe and sound.

Borden shook his head, "I-I'm sure they're okay then. I mean, as long as you're, we're here... and they don't st-stray too far. I'll send my Guards after them otherwise. My brothers and I were no different. I-I'm just... Jaysyek and I have put down more rigorous den rules here in light of all that's happened." He looked briefly towards the heart of his territory, gesturing with his nose. Though her initial query had set him on pins and needles, he granted her his welcome nevertheless, "You and your son are welcome to stay with us if you'd like, for as long as you need. We, and I'm sure Ryvet will also, would enjoy your company."

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Well, what do you want from me?

Dunno if @Corinna or @Ice still wanted to jump in briefly before we wrap it up?

That’s what ruling is.Lying on a bed of weeds,

• NAIRA AQUILA •

ripping them out before they strangle you in your sleep.

His words helped to put her at ease some, but his invitation, though welcome, was not so easily accepted. Hesitance was clear on her face as she looked first to the direction the boys would be, and back to her mountain home, just a hill on the horizon at this distance where it could be seen through the towering cedars at all. Her ears flicked back to her skull in worry as she considered all that she had learned on this journey, her promise to deliver a message finally coming back to her now that she was not quite so fearful for the life of her young son.

“There is to be a meeting of packs, apparently...” she added, unsure if her own pack would bother to make an appearance. Their first priority was to their own, and there was no love lost between Naira, Rhysis and at least two of the packs that may be in attendance. “To discuss the illness, and the strangers... one of the packs has lost one of their own to it.” She could have no knowledge it was her brother who had been lost, nor would she be able to feel any relief on her return home to where his scent would lay across the mountain mingled with that of her oldest son. It had taken her a day to travel here from the Thicket... “I encountered the messenger at the borders of the Thicket pack and offered to deliver the message here. The meeting will be held in the Wildwood in six days time. Your offer is very gracious, but I must return home. I have another son, and a pack to see to, and while I had planned to linger a while, in light of recent events...” She attempted to offer the man a smile, but the worry of a missing child was not strange to her after Adonis’s abduction and she knew it would do no good.

“Do you have any idea what direction your daughter may have gone? Perhaps I can assist while I am in the area?” After all, she couldn’t just leave a child lost, and if there was any way she could help, she would offer her assistance while she was at hand.

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give up the trick

borden lyall

this is not a show

"I don't know," he admitted in reply to her question after he acknowledged the idea that a meeting between all of Relic Lore's packs was to be had soon in light of recent events. "Someone from Swift River claimed he had seen her near the Thickets," his brows rose worriedly. "I've searched but her trail has long since dwindled away. She was out on her own and we were not quick enough to find and recover her."

His nose twitched and his muzzle scrunched up briefly as he sniffled, willing himself to keep his head together. "I thank you for alerting me about the meeting," he tendered with the faintest of smiles. "My mate and I will see to it that Grizzly Hollow is not left out or left behind." It took him a moment but when his suddenly mind went back to Ryvet and his playmate, he blinked and stared through the trees. "I'm afraid you might not be able to help us," he admitted. "Not when the situation has gone this long without news. All I can really ask is that when you return to your pack, please be on alert for the misplaced scent of cedar trees. Any kind of lead would be more than enough."

A forepaw lifted as though he was about to take a step but he placed it back down and his ears slicked back inquisitively, "I must apologize for m-my rudeness, but who is it that I have the honor of a-addressing? I'm sure Jayse might have told me about y-your son at one point or another but m-my memory is not what it used to be I'm afraid."

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Well, what do you want from me?

ONE MORE!!! <3

That’s what ruling is.Lying on a bed of weeds,

• NAIRA AQUILA •

ripping them out before they strangle you in your sleep.

Brows remained drawn together in concern as she listened intently to the man before her. When he acknowledged that his pack would have a presence at the meeting, she dipped her head in recognition, although still unsure if her own would have a presence. “Unfortunately I cannot make the same assurances, we have... upset some of the others over time,” she admitted with an almost melancholy grin. Given the chance she would do it all again, and more. Although perhaps she would have been more courteous and taken her leave of Swift River under less fugitive means.

“I am Naira, one of the leaders of Nomad’s Pass, north of the Mountain of Dire... Although we tend to leave that last bit out of our introductions.” she admitted quietly. She felt no fear of the man before her, and doubted he would go blurting their secret to any wolf he crossed. “If it isn’t too much trouble, I would rest a while and then be on my way. I left my other son at home. There is a lot of ground to cover to return, but I will keep my nose to the ground, and send word should anything of consequence cross my path. I will also tell our scout keeps it in her mind on her travels. She covers a lot of ground.” Truth be told, if anyone was likely to cross the missing girls tracks it would be @Sagacity. She would have to remember to pass on the description as soon as they next crossed paths.

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(This post was last modified: May 15, 2013, 07:05 AM by Naira.)

give up the trick

borden lyall

this is not a show

With a nod, the patriarch of Grizzly Hollow acknowledged that she was not going to the meeting. After things had taken such a turn, he was certain he wasn't going to go either, opting to send Kade or Sibyl or both instead. Someone had to look after Trisden and the three remaining upcoming yearlings, and he would not and could not even dare to imagine what would happen if Jaysyek chose to go. He would not dare to separate himself from her... not after what had happened in the few occasions in which he had accidentally left or purposefully avoided her. He could not leave the Hollow and he needed her. That was that.

She courteously obliged, introducing herself as Naira, a Leader of Nomad's Pass, a pack that had probably without a doubt found Midnight Plateau and its surrounding areas of rock faces and slippery gravel a suitable place to settle down. "Though present circumstances don't allow much for pleasant occasions such as this one, I'm certainly glad to meet you, Naira," he extended before realizing that, in his distress, he had forgotten his own manners. "I'm Borden. Borden Lyall." Another dip of his muzzle and he was accepting her plans. "Of course; please do... I'll go ahead and round up the boys and meet you back here." Still standing, he slowly limped away, glancing over his shoulder once to glance at her one last time before he started heading back towards the den to trace Ryvet's trail. "Oh... before I forget, if I forget... thank you. Your generosity and kindness will not be forgotten."

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Well, what do you want from me?