Larkcall Lowlands feel what we're made of

For @Craw

It was biting cold as she set out, and the only way to tell the sun had risen was the slight lightening of the overcast sky. Spieden's ears and nose tingled, but with her thick coat and heavy build it didn't bother her much. It seemed to her as good a day as any to get the lay of the land, and if she was lucky perhaps she would find something edible. Action was the best distraction, and rather than grapple with the devastating turn of events that had landed her here, and the even stranger circumstances that had lubricated the gears that got her into this pack. She wasn't even sure how she felt about it... Almost like her mother had a second life that she'd never known about. Spieden didn't believe in ghosts per se, but it was hard to not feel that her mother was still looking out for her. 

Spieden planned on earning her keep, but the pressure was on even more now that it wasn't her own merits, but her mother's reputation that helped her into the Monadnock. Hunting was the most practical way she knew to do this. She was still figuring out the dynamics of the pack, but wolves always needed food.

She wasn't even sure what else lived all the way up here, whether deer and rabbits were as plentiful as they were in the forest, or if the northern wolves fed on other beasts. Rather than the close, intimate forests in the Vale, the land here was open and rolling. She felt exposed in a way, it wouldn't be so simple to skirt behind the trees or through a ravine to hide from predator or prey. 

Spieden came across some interesting things as she explored. She found a pair of strange, long antlers on the ground beside a huge boulder. She'd never seen anything like them before, were they from some sort of deer? She continued on, finding in the divot between two hills a warren some little rodents dug in the snow, the openings much too small to be that of a rabbit. She waited a bit, and though she could hear scratching and scurrying under a crust of hoarfrost, nothing dared exit while she watched. As she poked about she found a set of fox prints leading to and away from the tiny burrows. She set her nose to the ground, snuffing the edges of the pawprints.  Still soft and powdery, they had been left recently. She licked her lips, rodents were barely a snack, but a fox on the other hand. 

Am gonna assume this is after Hal and Kino have met him but before their four days are up. Also before Wraith comes back, if that's okay?

He hadn't come out into the lowlands to follow her, but on crossing a fresh trail out in the tundra had made the deliberate choice to turn his paws onto it. With the pack the size it was, and the cache a little less full than it normally was, his duties were even more full-time than they had been before. Keeping tabs on everyone, learning the routines of their newest members, studying their habits and proficiencies so that he might better get to know them and their usefulness - not to mention trying to get to know them as people - while also ensuring that their borders were sufficiently patrolled and marked because he didn't trust their southern neighbours and also trying to convince @Morganna that patience would serve them better than rushing into combat and also making sure that Odin and @Kara's development continued on schedule and also keeping an eye out for @Wraith and also keeping tabs on @Anaias progress and also still processing what he had learned about his past... fitting in time to truly mull over what @Sahalie had shared with him was harder than he would have liked to admit.

But he always made sure to find time, and what better opportunity to kill several of those birds with one snap than right now?

Her route was meandering, taking her between points of interest, classic signs of aimless exploration. He nosed at the antlers, seeing from the tracks in the snow that she likely had done the same, but however long she had investigated, Craw himself did not linger long. Trotting easily through the snow, following her visible tracks as much as her scent, the wide open plains of the lowlands meant that he spotted (what had to be) Spieden long before he would have if they had lived in the forest. He did not announce himself immediately, choosing instead to continue moving towards her, able to see the way her head was lowered to the ground as if tracking something, her attention clearly captured.

With no inclination to sneak up on her, he made no effort to soften the crunching of snow under his paws or the ever-present rattle in his breathing, tail making slow, sweeping movements in amiable greeting for when she would notice him.

As wrapped up as Spieden was in following the route the fox had taken, a distant crunching sound from behind her caught her attention. She quickly looked up, glancing around and turning before she caught sight of the the huge smoke colored leader making his approach. As he came closer she could hear his breath, a loud rasping sound that had alarmed her at first. But as far as she could tell he seemed otherwise in good health, and wasn't ill with distemper or anything else. She still couldn't help but wonder if he had to hold his breath if he ever wanted to sneak up on something. Not that it was anything she would ever ask the man out loud, she would just have to live with the mystery. 

Realizing she had been staring at his scarred, wheezy mug for a few moments too long, she swiftly dropped her head down. Her gaze skimmed off to the side into the distant tundra. Though Craw's tail swayed in some sign of pleasure, hers hugged against her ankle. She had the goal of keeping herself low, quiet, and nondescript here. Make it clear that she knew her place and had no intentions of rocking any boats.

"G'morning," She said hesitantly. Had he come out here looking for her, or had they simply crossed paths? "Can... Can I help you?" She asked, glancing at him with her silver brows raised. 

Her subdued stance upon spotting him reminded Craw of himself. Not the himself of today, but the version which had lived in Willow Ridge, at least in the early days before his life had grown so irrevocably intertwined with @Morganna's. The Craw which had bowed his head and hung his tail at strangers because that was his place in life now, the Craw which had, only earlier that same year, been tall and proud and leader of his own loyal band of wolves. The Craw which had endured mutiny and paid the near-ultimate price for his careless haste, and subsequently lost everything. The Craw which had been forced to flee, diminished, and take shelter in a pack for his own wellbeing, so that he might again rebuild himself.

Sahalie's account of what had happened in Oak Tree Bend ran through his mind, and he recognised the story beats, saw the parallels. While he would not have waived their normal joining procedure for the woman and her children entirely, he may have lightened it, and yet in the face of what little he knew about her, Craw harboured no resentment for her special treatment. It made Morganna happy to have Spieden nearby, and, though for entirely different reasons, Craw empathised with the woman's situation.

If Whitestone was to be to Spieden Coho what the Ridge had been for him, Craw would make sure that he did not make the same mistakes as his Archer counterparts.

"I wanted to apologise for not finding the time yet to properly talk since you joined us," he replied, watching her, strangely fascinated. He'd seen her around in the last few days, certainly, and every glimpse had reminded him that he needed to set aside time for this, yet only now had been afforded the opportunity. While not truly willing to simply turn around and let her be, because he did not want to taste this chance, he decided to stay firmly on the side of politeness, because while they may have shared many things, it did not mean he knew her - and she was important to Morganna besides. With plenty of tension between himself and the Rye wolves, it would not do to encourage tension within the pack itself. "If this is a bad time...?"

Spieden shrugged, "No problem, I know how it is sometimes." It wasn't like she expected a personal welcome wagon anyways. He had a pack to run, after all. She was surprised it was something he felt worth the gesture of apologizing for, and hoped that he hadn't taken a chunk out of his day to come all the way out to find her, just for that. 

She knew what it was like to run around like a grouse with its head bitten off, and still not have enough time for everything in a day. As she thought about it, she never even got around to talking to Dread, the newest member she'd accepted into the Bend before things turned ugly. And now it seemed she never would. Still, whether or not she got to shoot the shit with Dread wasn't something that kept her up at night. And she somehow doubted the Whitestone patriarch went out of his way to chat about the weather with her.

Still, she couldn't fault the man for being polite about whatever it was he wanted from her. He even gave her an out, as if her little jaunt could possibly be more important than speaking to the man who ran the place. She quickly shook her head. "No, now's fine," She shrugged, twisting with slight discomfort as he watched her. Just what did he want to talk about? Had she done something wrong already? "I was just tracking down this lil' fucker," She said, jerking her head towards the tiny zigzagging paw prints. "It can wait though."

Her initial response was casual enough, of interest only because he was aware of her recent loss of leadership. From everything he had noticed in Sahalie, Craw could not help but wonder what kind of ruler Spieden had been, whether or not she had changed much since fleeing the pack or this slightly defensive, nonchalant demeanour was really who she was. He didn't yet know whether or not Morganna had gotten much out of the woman, but he half-expected that all their talk was still consumed by the Coho's mother, which had turned out to be their unlikely connection. If it was a coincidence, it was an innocent one, a happy one for his mate. It had seemed to give her something fresh and fond to remember of the Ridge, which, while it had been (and still was not) of great value to Craw, remained important to the Archer who had been born there. And he did not begrudge her that.

Spieden accepted his company with gruff grace, her crude explanation for her current diversion earning a slightly widened smile. Fox, he thought, following her gesture to spot the pawprints - almost as worthy prey as a coyote. But as she had said, it could wait.

"Sahalie and Alastor are in the process of joining," he said, taking a few more steps towards her so that they were at a more conversational distance, now that they had established his presence was not unwelcome. "They said that they were also from the Bend. They'll be out here in the lowlands for a few more days, and I said that I'd let you know they were out here." He watched her, and huffed quietly to himself at a thought. "It turns out Morganna knows her too. Sahalie. I didn't realise just how small a world it is south of the mountain."

@Craw Let me know if you need more to go off of, didn't want to make you wait any longer!

"Oh?" Spieden's eyes lit up, her tail betraying the slightest wiggle upon hearing that Sahalie and Alastor had decided to come after all. She'd missed Sahalie, and it was an unpleasant feeling not knowing if, or when, they would see each other again. She nodded slightly, "Thank you, for letting me know." Spieden said, "She's like a daughter to me."

It still made her wonder what had made them change their mind on coming after all. She hoped that things hadn't been too difficult for them. She had as much hesitation as they had in settling somewhere after committing her heart to the Bend for such a large portion of her life, but with two cubs she had less of the privilege of time that the two yearlings had to make a decision. But she tried not to set her hopes too high. Craw had said would be a few more days. Contrary to the Bend's very, very low bar, Whitestone apparently had more of a 'process', whatever that entailed. Spieden was at least aware enough to tell her mother's connection to Morganna had greased the gears, so to speak. Small world, indeed.

"Between Sahalie and Morganna, I'd be surprised if there was anyone they didn't know." Spieden said with an amused snuff.