Cold Water Creek shadowland

All welcome! Noon; Light snow — 13° F/-11° C; On the old border of Magnolia Glen

Spieden's thick limbs moved at a rolling gait, her heavy paws eating up the ground as she traveled through the snow dusted forest. Everything had been fine within the pack, quiet almost. Perhaps even too quiet. No leads had been found on Nayeli and Ruiko's disappearance, and with it the diminishing hope that the two members would return. The sorrow of it did not hit Spieden fully, as she had hardly known them, but she was sympathetic to the dampened spirits. What firmly shook Spieden though was that it was so uncanny, so odd that once loyal members could just disappear like that. Spieden was convinced that they were dead, and she still couldn't quite shake the thoughts of a conspiracy that gnawed at her mind. What if someone had killed them? It was a dreadful thought, one that made the Coho woman fear for her own life. They had both been high ranking, and perhaps Spieden would be next.

Itching with paranoia and growing irritable as she scrutinized everyone around her, she desperatly needed some space, which was what had brought her out of the territory today. With each step she felt the tension in her shoulders melt away, and each crisp breath of air that filled her lungs also cleared her mind. Her worries soon became a distant buzz in the back of her mind, allowing her to focus on the path ahead.

She was aware she was nearing the bounds of the nearest pack, but something seemed different. As she investigated, she found that the snow was undisturbed here, and the scent that had once warned away intruders had all but vanished. There most certainly had been a pack here, she remembered it, but where had they gone? Spieden still didn't dare cross the threshold, but her fiery amber eyes peered searchingly through the leafless trees as she tried to puzzle together what had happened. Could it be another chapter in the conspiracy?

Answers. She needed answers. That was the one and only reason which drove Zia away from her new home in the woods. If she could get out and think, and possibly even search, maybe she would find what she was looking for. Life in the Bend had been eerily quiet ever since the pack meeting. Everyone seemed to be keeping to themselves, caught up with their own personal business. Triell, she noticed, had been particularly distant as of late. And who could blame him, after the loss of his mate? Wisely, she gave her dark coated friend plenty of space. There was no telling if time would ever heal him, but she was ready to be patient. It was slow going with everyone else there too. So far, Zia was hardly even acquainted with any of her new pack mates, but given the circumstances, she was in no hurry to force any new relationships. Satisfied that all of her responsibilities had been taken care of for the day, the silver female set off alone, to think. Her sapphire eyes narrowed in thoughtful concentration. First Borlla, and now Nayeli had gone missing. The troubling part about it was their relationships. Borlla being a Tainn, Triell's sister. And Nayeli, Triell's chosen mate. Was being a Tainn by blood or name really that bad of an omen? Another thing she had noticed, was the timing of their disappearances, neither of which were very far apart at all. As much as she would have liked to chalk it up to coincidence, a tug of dread at her heart told her that something was amiss. While lost in her own thoughts, Zia had not been paying much mind to where her paws were taking her. But when the stale, faded scent of old pack borders tickled her nose, she snapped out of her daze instantly. Silver tipped hackles bristled stiffly at the smell, an instinctual reaction. What had once been Magnolia Glen held nothing but painful memories for her, the most recent of which left her feeling quite bitter when she thought of her old pack. But as she surveyed the area with sharp eyes and a quivering dark nose, she realized that the lingering scent of wolves only meant one thing. Phineas and what remained of his followers, had moved on. With a snort, she ambled onwards with renewed confidence again. She could care less where he up and moved to now. This place had long since lost it's meaning to her before she left. Just when she was about to turn away and leave, did she pause. She was not alone here...someone else had been drawn to the old pack lands. And one of the wolves that had attended the meeting, at that. Slipping through the thin network of leafless tress, Zia's eyes landed upon the larger, darker frame of Spieden, who seemed to be quietly staring out towards the heart of the Glen. Without a word, the smaller, more slender female came to stand shoulder to shoulder by her side, taking a moment to look over what had once been her home. After a moment of silence, she opened her jaws to speak. "You feel it too, don't you? Something isn't right." It was more of a statement than an actual question, spoken with neutrality and just an edge of grim worry. There was no need for the silvery female to further emphasize the already crippling absence of Nayeli. She knew Spieden would know what she was talking about.

Table by Pann, Image by Jolee

A noise at her back suddenly pulled Spieden from her thoughts, her grey tipped muzzle pointing back over her shoulder to see someone approaching. At first she was on guard, but the familiarity of their silvered face and cerulean eyes eased her enough to calm the bristling of her hackles. She didn't know Zia particularly well, but she seemed to keep to herself, and more importantly, out of Spieden's hair, so Spieden indifferently accepted her presence as the grey woman stopped at her side.

At Zia's nearly rhetorical question, Spieden simply grunted in confirmation. The wheels of her mind were still spinning, trying to gain traction on some sort of theory that could explain the disappearances of two wolves, plus an entire pack. Perhaps the woman's question was even a test of how much Spieden did know, and she was wary of revealing how much she suspected, in case Spieden already knew too much. Zia had given her no reason to doubt her trustworthiness, but it was impossible for Spieden to be sure she was not also part of the scheme...

Spieden allowed a few more moments of silence to stretch between them, before pointing a question of her own on her packmate, "Do you know what happened to them? This pack, I mean." She asked, almost conversational in tone, but if one listened close enough there was an undercurrent of desperation to it. She wasn't too keen on revealing her ignorance in any facet, but you had to give a little to gain a little. The smoldering spark of her theory needed a little more of the air of knowledge before it could ignite into something more illuminating.