Cedarwood Forest damage done

Oula knew of all places, Grizzly Hollow was likely the last place Roland would return to. But she had quickly run out of ideas and nowhere else to turn in the search for her son. At least someone might have seen him, know something. He'd vanished without a trace in the night, and if she didn't know any better she would say her son had purposefully hid his own tracks... It would be just what she deserved, but it wasn't a thought she could bear for long. Everyone else had slipped away from her, Joan, Felix, Ophelia. She couldn't let Roland get away from her too. He didn't know what evils lurked out there like she did, she needed to be there to protect him. 

Every few miles she stopped, lifting her head to the sky and loosing a mournful song, waiting for a response that never came. Her myopic focus on finding her boy had blinded her to the current state of the cedarwood forest. It wasn't until she passed a familiar stump well inside the Hollow's borders that she realized belatedly that there weren't any borders at all. The air was cold and crisp, perfumed by cedar and fallen leaves, but noticeably absent was the scent of life, of a pack. There was no Grizzly Hollow here. 

Was it not enough to have every single one of her children taken from her? Was finding her family massacred at the Canyon not enough? Did everything that had ever mattered to her only exist to be taken away? Sage eyes blurred with unshed tears, the topline of her muzzle wrinkling as she unleashed an enraged, guttural shriek. She flung herself forwards on stout limbs, racing for where the pack's den had once been, needing to confirm with her own eyes that they were all well and truly gone.

(This post was last modified: Nov 08, 2017, 12:18 AM by Oula.)

There's not enough rope to tie me down

Morganna Archer

It was little more than curiousity that had driven the Archer towards the Willows, expecting to still scent familiar wolves on the air even through the burn of cedar in her nose. The soft needles underfoot felt just as foreign as the first time she had ventured this way, but she tried not to dwell on the sensation too much, pushing on, and on, and... Wait... Brows were drawn down in confusion, this wasn't... No. This section of the wood was foreign to her. Had she been turned about among the towering trees?

It was as she was considering the possibility that a bereft shriek rung through the trees startling the Archer from her own pondering. Being a loner had made her more cautious about sticking her nose in other people's problems but... Well she picked up her paws and headed in the direction of the noise anyway, peach hued eyes taking in the well worn paths, signs of life only amplified in the silence that dwelled here now, silent except for that scream, and the heavy breathing of a solid silver shape ahead. She looked just as confused as Morganna herself had been but this was far more personal than the dark Archer could relate to. "So I'm not th' only one confused then?" She didn't expect a response and her stance was weary, bordering on defensive if she was being truthful with herself. Grief was a terrible thing after all and it seemed this woman had it in spades.

@Morganna

Oula's thundering pace slowed as she made it to the pack's old den, a heavy feeling settling over her heart as her eyes swept over the place Ophelia had breathed her last breaths. Her throat tightened as she held back a sob. Though the ground was bare, she could vividly recall the red that had stained the earth just months before. Oula pushed herself forward, her steps slower as her nose ghosted over the ground. Each inhalation brought only the scent of an abandoned forest, pine and soil and other lesser creatures that had encroached in on the wolves absense. 

Oula peered into the den, though she wasn't sure why she even bothered. She knew it would be empty, only scraps of things left behind sitting upon the dusty earthen floor. It still ached, yet another thing she had taken for granted torn from her grasp. It shouldn't have surprised her, if she hadn't bothered to stay after Ophelia... why should she have expected anyone else to?

Oula was surprised to hear a voice behind her, not realizing the forest wasn't quite as empty as she'd first thought. She flinched, quickly whirling and hackles instinctively raised at the sudden appearance of the stranger. The unusually lilted voice was entirely unfamiliar to her, and the sight of the dark coated stranger even more so. But she didn't make a move towards her, so Oula lowered her guard, only slightly, mirroring her defensive posture.

"Excuse me, but-" She began, her brows lowered and whiskers tilted forward tentatively. Just what could this stranger be confused about? Did she have some connection to the Hollow, or was Oula's memory simply failing her? "Do I know you?" She asked, sounding a bit ruder than she'd intended but not entirely caring at this point.

There's not enough rope to tie me down

Morganna Archer

A lip twitched in what might have been a smile when the other woman spoke, she liked this one already, pleasantries were overrated. Morganna's eyes narrowed as she considered, eventually answering with a miniscule shake of her head, barely a twitch. She didn't recognise the wolf before her, but that didn't mean that they hadn't crossed paths, just that if they had then the silver woman hadn't gotten on her bad side she supposed. "I don' think so. I'm Rook's, cousin, sorta?" obviously it was complicated.

 

But that wasn't really reason enough to be here now, "I'm good frien's wi' 'is brother," Maybe that was easier than explaining the mess that was the Archer-Lyall connection, "an' my mother lived 'ere in the first Grizzly Hollow." She looked away from the grieving woman and through the trees beyond her shoulder, she could see why her mother had left. While the patchy sunshine was nice enough the needly trees didn't quite dance like the willows did. "I'm Morganna Archer, I was born in Willow Ridge an' led a pack out on th' tundra for a while but I've been away." Her guard was starting to relax now that she was talking but she didn't move to close the distance between them at all. She had never really planned on sticking around longer than it took to take a sniff of the borders anyway.

(This post was last modified: Nov 08, 2017, 11:00 PM by Morganna.)

Typed this out  on my tablet with no spellcheck rip

Oula emmitted  a barely audible "Hmmph" at hearing this wolf was somehow related to Rook Lyall. The wolf who had the entirely undeserved destinction of having once been Veho's mate still left a sour taste on her tongue. She had no clue about his brother, whether he was cut from the same cloth, and further still Oula knew no one from the first Grizzly Hollow... The history had never particularly concerned her. Piece by piece she was given a picture of the sable and ginger wolf before her, capped by her name and the pack of Willow Ridge. Oula's head bobbed slightly, a motion that could be taken that she was familiar with the other pack. They had been neighbors after all, even if she couldn't nessicarily point out any of its members by name or appearance.


Perhaps if Oula cared for such things any more, she might have introduced herself in return. But that was the furthest thing from her mind. Morganna had said she'd been away... But maybe she still knew something? An intensity settled in her sage green gaze as she looked at Morganna. "You don't know what happened to them, do you? To the wolves of Grizzly Hollow?" She asked, trying to keep the desperation from creeping into her voice. Had some calamity taken them, or was the wake of everything simply too much for them all to bear. She wasn't even sure what difference it made now. It wasn't like finding any of them would make any of this better. 

wait for me to come home

Morganna Archer

Morganna could only offer a small shake of her head in response to the silver woman's question. "Only been back a few days m'self." Though it did leave her wondering how Renier might take the news. As much as she didn't want to be rubbing salt in fresh wounds she had to wonder how long ago they had departed. "D'yer have an idea when they were last around? I left back in th' spring an' hadn' heard anythin' back then..." Not that she had been listening particularly hard, her own house on fire around her ears and all that. Maybe Ravenna or the Woodlands wolves would know more?