Mountain of Dire these are your good years

For @Kyna only. Dated for 1/2, unless you need it to be backdated?
Random Event: The stars are unusually bright tonight. Maybe because it's also unusually cold.. brr.

Halfway through her second month in solitude, Ember had accomplished much of what she wanted. Soon, it would be time to travel South and rejoin @Arion and @Nalda who had undoubtedly joined the Bend by now. Did they wonder where she'd gone? Were they worried it was taking her so long? She did not wish to be a source of strife for any wolf, but gone were the days that Ember would dwell on draining emotions such as guilt and regret. This was necessary, all of this time with herself, if she was to ever be whole again.

She had grown, maturing greatly in the time that had passed. Initially, it hadn't been so easy as that internal declaration. There had been plenty of days that she spent buried away from the snows, consumed by emotions and unable to lift her head. Yet her resolve never disappeared completely, and with every day that dawned and waned, the tangled threads within her heart worked themselves loose and it became steadily easier to live with herself and all that had happened. To let go.

Now she stood upon the heights of the mountain, frigid temperatures filling her lungs and thin air passing through her fur. Everything was crisp and clear, unpolluted by noise both of the world and within her own heart. It was beautifully serene, and she had never felt more at peace. Her pale gaze regarded the stars above, their numbers indiscernible. Up here, the sky was so vast that it was comforting in how endless it all seemed.

She almost regretted that she would ever have to come back down.

She couldn’t stay in the Lowlands.  She should have.  Sahalie and the rest of Hal’s family was up there, including Alastor, whatever the silvery male was to her soul sister.  Greer was up there, in the same pack, no less, but the redhead had dawdled too long, and the pack was practically bursting at the seams.  It was not as if there was no room, but that it was the dead of winter, and prey was scarce, even (especially?) for a large group of wolves.
 
Truth be told, she could not be that upset.  After the way everything fell apart at Oak Tree Bend in such short time, Kyna was not eager to throw her lot in anywhere just yet.  Instead, she found herself wishing to visit her father – or rather, the place where he died.  The ring of antlers she’d found with Nalda sprang to mind, and even if she couldn’t bury the man, perhaps she could find something nice and place it there for him, to remember him by. 
 
To her great surprise, there was another wolf in the bitter cold atop Dire, and Kyna let out a short chuff, calling to the other female.  “Hey – you know, no one usually comes up here.  Not anymore.” 

A wild dissertation appears!

The snow did not betray the other woman's approach. Instead, it was her voice cutting through the thin air, crisp yet soft, which broke Ember from the spell of her stargazing. Turning her head to look over her shoulder, muted yellow eyes fell upon a vision of spun gold fur and breathtaking tangerine sights.

"Kyna," she breathed with a grin, moving to the face the girl step by step. The fellow yearling might not remember her, but Ember would never forget her beauty and kindness. She was meant to be living in the Bend, however. What was she doing all the way up here, smelling of no one but herself?

Ember picked her way through the snow to draw closer to the young Argyris.

"Don'tcha remember me?" she teased playfully, tail wriggling enthusiastically at her thighs behind her. She had wanted to see her again so much sooner, to truly be friends with the girl and have more than that single encounter. So much had happened, however; so much had gone wrong, keeping her from any relationships she'd wanted to strengthen outside of the Pines. Truly, Ember had barely been able to hold onto the one within.

Kyna did not move, allowing the other yearling to pick across the snow without distraction.  In such bitter cold, it could become crunchy, or icy, and she did not want to be the cause of a fall, especially to the female.  “Of course I do!  You gave me a flower when I couldn’t reach them on my own.”  How could she forget?  It was one of the simplest, but one of the kindest gifts she’d ever received.  Even Greer hadn’t given her a flower.  Those were better times.
 
Once Ember was close enough, she reached out to greet the other wolf properly.  Ears cupped forwards, she pressed muzzle to muzzle, her pink tongue flashing out briefly for a friendly lick.  Oh, but it was so cold!  No more of that, Kyna thought with a small chuckle, content instead to stand close to the other wolf.  The last they’d met, those were warmer times, too.
 
“What are you doing up here, Ember?  It’s – a bit of a hassle.  And it’s cold.”  It was so cold.  Even Kyna who’d grown here could not recall such a bitter, biting chill.  Perhaps the less pleasant memories faded away.  “I could never get anyone to visit with me, before.”

A wild dissertation appears!

There is a rabbit's nest nearby. +1 Health

The affirmation just made her all the more happy, tail now whipping from side to side. Her eyes pinched shut and her grin widened toothily as Kyna gave her muzzle a kiss. The girl was still just as sweet as Ember remembered her being. She felt reassured that the choice to seek her and their mutual friend Sahalie out had been the right one. How could she not move on with such friendly faces at her side? Well, she would likely soon find out that that plan had already fallen apart for reasons beyond her control and awareness.

Ember moved to bump the length of her side up against Kyna's, pressing right up against her to share her warmth as she commented on the biting chill around them. Cold was right, but it was perhaps the only drawback. The good certainly outweighed the bad, regardless.

"It is, but, its just so gorgeous," she answered, gaze separating from the beauty beside her to gaze up at that of the night sky's. But then Kyna had also said something rather curious, and her ears twisted as her eyes dropped back down to her estranged friend's features.

"What do you mean? It's breathtaking up here. I've never felt so... at peace."

Not since those earliest of days, when her family was whole, curled up together in the sleepy warmth of a summer heated den. Who wouldn't want to hike the heights to witness all of this?

 “I agree.  It’s my favorite place in the whole wide world.”
 
Kyna sighed happily, allowing herself a moment to search the sky and watch the twinkling stars overhead.  Her ears quivered, and after a moment, the girl seated herself, tail wrapped around her haunches tightly.  It was cold enough to even a make a wolf shiver!  Without much conscious thought, she found herself leaning into the pale wolf, seeking to share warmth on the frigid night.  She might have been content to simply sit under the stars for a time until finding a den to rest in, but Ember spoke back up, and the youth tipped her head.
 
“I’m not sure, really.  I suppose it is a bit of a hike from the forest.  Maybe forest wolves don’t really like the open sky.”  The young woman rolled her shoulders in a shrug.  She’d never know the answer.  As nice as the Bend had been, it simply couldn’t compare to the thin air and the clear horizon.  “I grew up here, when I was small.  The pack disbanded, eventually, and that’s when we moved, but…  I don’t know.  I keep thinking maybe I want to live here again.  Things were good here.”

A wild dissertation appears!

Her favorite place. Ember thought it might end up being her's, too. She'd been so proud of her home once, but the ghosts were too many. Her mind's eye no longer saw the redwoods still standing tall, focusing instead on the ones that were fallen, with torn roots and rotting trunks as she conjured memories of the place. By now, she'd given up hoping that this would ever be remedied. Moving on did not involve correcting the failures of the past for Ember.

As her company reclined, so too did the Reinier girl. It felt good to have the other wolf lean against her, the touch solid and warm. Solitude had been what she needed, but she couldn't deny how much she missed the reassurance of such proximity. Ember couldn't recall the last time she had felt comfortable being so close to someone else, her depression having kept her from curling up with @Arion as they had while children. Ember's head tilted, resting comfortably against Kyna's temple as she listened to the girl talk.

Maybe forest wolves don't like the open sky, she had mused, and Ember had to wonder if her friend was simply mistaken or if she herself was just that odd of a wolf. Looking back, the woman realized she had always had an affinity for heights, her favorite place within the Pines being the stack of toppled red woods that could lift a wolf so precariously high if they were graceful enough to scale them.

It didn't occur to her that Kyna was setting herself apart with that statement, until she said it plainly; she had been born on the mountain, and like Ember, her home had fallen apart. Ember lifted her skull, pale eyes peering at the other girl's honeyed features again. Of course she could empathize, but not entirely. Kyna's desire to come back, her fond memories, the last remaining Reinier couldn't say she felt the same at all. Her good times at the Pines were too far gone, too deeply buried. If this was what Kyna wanted, however...

"You think, maybe you might leave the Bend to start a pack here?"

She tried to envision Kyna as an alpha, and it came surprisingly easy to the front of her mind. She felt confident that the woman would lead with abundant grace and heart.

"I think you'd make a wonderful leader."

“I think about starting a pack, sometimes.  I’m not sure about it, though.  My father, Phineas, he led Silent Moon Plateau up here…  But I wasn’t more than half a year when he died.”  She was too young to really understand any of those things, how to function as an adult wolf, how to lead a group.  Her father taught her how to hunt, and it was a memory she would treasure for the rest of her life.  It was hard to remember the other things, how he handled the pack.  How Aponi made a shit show of things before disappearing into the wilderness.  Neither of these struck her as good examples, but then, she hadn’t been paying close attention to Speiden or Serach or Drestig either, assuming (foolishly) things had finally settled down.
 
It did dawn on her then, however, that Ember assumed she was still living down in the forest.  The girl cleared her throat, shaking her head.  “I’m on my own, now.  My mother…  My mother decided she wanted to be alpha.  I don’t know what happened, but Hal’s mother looked so…messed up.  I--  It’s a long story.  But she’d told me once before she never did that kind of thing.  And she lied to me.  I just couldn’t stay.”

A wild dissertation appears!

Ah, so she had been an alpha's daughter as well. Ember drank up every detail Kyna extended to her, fitting the pieces all together to make a more and more detailed picture of her favorite gold-spun wolf. She had to wonder if the young woman had idolized her father as much as Ember had her mother. Speaking of his death only reminded her of Iopah's own demise, and she tried not to hold onto those thoughts at all.

Her ears had laid down under the weight of it all, but they lifted again as she went on to speak vaguely of something done by her mother to Sahalie's. Messed up? Her heart rate picked up, the stench of Eek and her own mother's blood flooding her nostrils as though it was all right in front of her again. Had Kyna's mom mauled Sahalie's? Where was Sahalie? Was she alright?

Ember was torn. She wanted to ask questions, to figure it all out, but wasn't sure if it was appropriate for her to dig. This was clearly a sore subject. It was disheartening too to discover that both her friends were likely no longer a part of the Bend. Her sole reason for wanting to join the pack, and they were already gone.

"I... I'm so sorry. About all of that. Wh-... where is Sahalie? Is she alright?"

She at least needed to ask that, even if Kyna didn't want to give any more details beyond a yes or no. Ember began to wish that she hadn't already spoken with Arion and Nalda, and agreed to join the Bend with them. What if she was needed out here, with her friends? What if it wasn't just Kyna, but Sahalie alone out in the world now? She didn't want to just slink back to some pack she knew nothing about when she could actually be useful to those she was fond of. Yet she knew, she wouldn't be able to convince @Nalda to change her mind, and she couldn't bring herself to force @Arion to choose between them both. Ember was stuck.