Hollowheart Keep hello my old heart

@Marianna
Random Event: There is an active change in the Northern Lights! The sky lights up in greens, blues, and even shades of purple.

Her paws ached, as did the muscles throughout her legs, but Ember didn't want to slow down. @Serach and @Aponi had placed a lot of trust in her, as far as she was concerned, to allow her to venture off in search of a pack that may or may not even still exist so far away. She didn't want to dally, wanted to prove that trust was validly placed, and so she had gorged herself before leaving to minimize the need to hunt during and took time to rest only when she absolutely needed to as she ventured north. Ember hadn't even been able to fully enjoy the beauty that still was Dire's peak as she crested the mountain, descending as swiftly as was safe down its side.

They'd been around here somewhere, hadn't they? She'd gotten a whiff of pack during those months she had sought solitude, and had avoided them for that very reason. There was nothing to draw her to the strangers before, so the details were vague within her mind. Now that she was a part of the Bend, however, knowing more of this foreign pack could be useful, might be important. If only she had a better memory...

She traversed the forest quickly, doggedly searching for clues. Thus, many less crucial details were lost to her. She didn't care for the fog that overwhelmed the forest even in this cold, hovering above the snow and swirling about her legs. The aurora above was a breathtaking sight as well, persisting past the dead and coniferous canopy to dance through the mist and over her coat, but the phenomenon was lost on Ember.

She had to find this pack.

So far, so good! She’d spent a few weeks with the pack now, and nothing had gone drastically wrong. And it wasn’t that Ari particularly worried that she might be a harbinger of ill fortune, it just simply seemed to follow her around. Or maybe she followed bad luck. It could go either way. But even more importantly (in the yearling’s mind, at least), she hadn’t gotten lost, no matter what the winter weather had to throw at her. Whenever she left the safety of the secluded springs, she still found her way home by the end of the day, and wasn’t that quite the victory!

So maybe it was still pushing her luck a bit to the pack territory at night, but the northern lights were so active they were practically singing to her, and honestly, the young Leigh just wanted a quick little venture, just to see if she could see it better. Unfortunately, her chosen direction seemed to only lead Ari further into the dense canopy, now shrouded with not just branches, but mist too, and the girl gave an unhappy huff. “What a bust,” she muttered to herself, just about to turn tail when she noticed an foreign scent on the wind.

“Hello?” she yelled, her voice calliopean in the otherwise silent forest. “Anyone out there?”

 

A wild dissertation appears!

Or maybe it would find her.

A voice cut through the mist and gloom, and while Ember had been the opposite of oscitant, she startled. Her nose wriggled furiously to try and pick out the scent, but the night breeze was working against her. The words had been relatively chipper, the tone lacking in reasons to give Ember the impression that this fellow traveler would be unfriendly. So she was not guarded but merely curious as she moved forward, across the disco floor that was the forest.

"Yo!" she called back as she searched, all senses tuned finely ahead in search of her company. Hopefully they were from the area, and even if they were just passing through, perhaps they had passed by the pack she was searching for. Maybe they could point her in the right direction, at the least. It was definitely worth a short. Even if they knew nothing, maybe she'd still make a new friend. Ember did love to socialize.

"Over here!"

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

Marianna gave another fierce snuffle into the wind, though the cold air did little reveal the identity of the strange smell. It was canine, she could identify that at least, but anything else? It was lost to her frozen nose. Thankfully, the other wolf chose to answer her decided to answer her (rather poor) call into the frozen abyss of wintertime. Ears flipped forward and she chuffed, picking through the dense forest towards the sound of the other wolf. The smell grew stronger (though it told her little), and eventually, the pale female came into view.

Ears pricked forward as the Fir female picked up her gate, tail wagging easily behind her even as she stopped a length or two away. “Hello!” she greeted the stranger, the relaxed smile meeting her steely eyes. “Not from around here, huh?”

It was only an assumption on Ari’s part – frankly, she hardly knew all the Fir wolves, much less the packs that had come and gone while she’d been away from the forests of Relic Lore when she’d found another place to overwinter. That she didn’t know the woman was all she had to go on. “I’m Ari Leigh,” she finally introduced herself, remembering a scarce few of her manners.

Ace casually gets tricked by the SoW no big deal...

 

A wild dissertation appears!

She thought she caught a response, but couldn't be certain. Cautiously, she picked her way toward it at a guess, paws crunching through the disco-colored snow. Then she saw her, and her pace increased. Ember knew by now to be wary of strangers, but despite this woman's mammoth size, everything about her was welcoming. The smile on her face, the easy sway of her tail, the light in her eyes. Certainly, there was no need to have her guard up during this interaction, right?

"Oh my gosh, no," she answered with a great sigh, "I've never even been on this side of the mountain before."

Ari Leigh, it was a simple and musical name. Like a bright tune. Ember decided she liked it.

"I'm Ember Reinier. I'm on a mission. Trying to find a pack that I could've sworn was around here somewhere, by this huge body of water..."

Now that she was closer, she could tell that this girl was from a pack. She couldn't help but hope that maybe, just maybe, she was of the one she'd been looking for. How lucky would that be?

This side of the mountain…

Absently, it dawned on Ari that there was another side of the mountain. Of course there was, she scolded herself – just because she’d never been across the range didn’t mean it dropped off into a never ending abyss. When she’d gotten lost, she’d gone south instead of east; perhaps sometime in the future, Gent would allow her out on a trip, and she could see what was over there.

But for now, she was going to keep being a good Fir wolf, and do her duty. (Not that she was particularly sure what that was, outside of entertaining Gent’s children, and bringing back food for the caches when she could, but it was the thought that counted.) Ember was met with a pleased hum, the larger wolf bobbing her head. “Yeah, there’s a pack over here. Well, sorta. By the springs though, yeah.” Something like that.

Directions were not, and never would be, Ari Leigh’s expertise.

“White Fir Notch is up further that way. My da’s in charge,” she informed Ember proudly, her tail waving lazily around her hocks. “Were you lookin’ to join, or somethin’? I can bring ya back up and stuff. Introduce you.”

 

A wild dissertation appears!