Grizzly Hollow a dark thing brought me here.

Open for one or two.  Felix will be present in this thread.  It's midday, -13F with a light breeze, partly cloudy.

He himself had disbanded the pack.  Veho knew, somewhere in his mind, it would be empty.  Devoid of the wolves, who’d either left Relic Lore with him, or likely went to find other packs elsewhere in the woods.  Did Oula and her other child return?  What about Pip and her family?

And what of the ghosts?

The grey wolf sat, chewing the side of his cheek idly as he stared at the empty den and listened to the empty whispers of a wintertime forest.  It was cold.  Quite cold.  The sun was playing hide and seek behind some clouds.  His son was practically an adult now – for it was spring, despite the weather, and despite the grounds, devoid of life.  Were his old caches still here?

He shifted suddenly, and began to move.

His bones ached. Felix wasn't sure if it was the sudden cold snap, or how restless his father had been these days of late. It certainly wasn't his age. He was an adult, if only just, and no more. They shouldn't groan and creak - and he shouldn't groan, either, but there he was, sighing softly through his nose as something in pale, dreamy eyes caught the light, driving Veho further into Grizzly Hollow's territory.

Patience.

The youth inhaled softly, and trotted after his father. Truly, he hoped it wasn't Ophelia's cairn he was looking for. His moods were mercurial, enigmatic. Impossible to read.

"Dad, please. Slow down. You're going to hurt yourself."

The mushrooms did more than let him see the Ancestors - his senses were dulled. His reflexes. "I promised Papa I'd keep you in one piece."

He wasn't sure if Rook and Mouse would opt to follow. But this sudden wanderlust had bitten Veho and he went. So Felix followed, ever the dutiful son.

And now this is definitely open!  

(This post was last modified: Mar 07, 2018, 05:30 PM by Felix.)

screaming

That scent should have sent her running, should have made her stomach turn violently and her head hurt. He'd been the best of them, but he'd still failed, hadn't he? His efforts had been too little too late. So why was she racing toward him?

She found him at the den that held so many memories, could have pinpointed where Prudence's old burrow lay under the snow with exact precision. Nineva and Tomen had played with the children so many times over there, she'd romped and cuddled with @Pip in that corner, and Veho--well he happen to be removing himself from a place where she remembered having many a conversation with the older male. He'd always been there, and even when nothing else remained, seeing him there now felt so natural.

But it wasn't. There was just as little left here for him as there was her. Only memories and ghosts.

Nineva pressed forward, finding his side quickly and siddling against it, an uncharacteristic whine slipping from her jaws, communicating that she had missed him. In all her rush to greet him, she only just now noticed Felix, after them through the trees. He'd been saying something, hadn't he? She wasn't sure what. Nineva woofed to say hello to him too.

(This post was last modified: Mar 07, 2018, 05:25 PM by Nineva.)

"Yes, yes."

He heard Felix, but he wasn't listening. His feet knew this place, even if his eyes were misty. He knew where his caches were, just as he knew where the dens were. Where Rook hid when he was feeling poorly, where Pip and her family opted to stay - where his trio played with Nineva and Tomen before everything went…wrong. But that was the truth of life, he'd since come to know. Ophelia's death was not a punishment from the Ancestors. To see it so was to value her far too cheaply - she was more than an object to be given or taken. Her life was a short one, like Neha's.

Life was transient.

Perhaps that was why he didn't notice Nineva. His ears twitched at the whine, a familiar old ghost. He smiled, but didn't turn, not right away. He had gotten used to the ghosts calling for him.

Why was his father going faster?

Felix fought the urge to groan louder, ears falling against his head as he picked up into a steady pace. His stride lengthened as he dogged through the trees - but he did not know it like his own paw. He had to be careful, dodging pines and ducking under boughs. But he was aware, also, not lost in a world of ghosts, so when Nineva whined and barked, he knew it for a wolf here. Now.

He stopped, mismatched eyes wide as they fell on the other silver wolf.

His heart stopped - and then thundered up into his throat as he returned her greeting, loping over to her, pressing kisses to the underside of her chin. She'd never been a sister (he'd had plenty of those, thank you), but the older wolf was someone he'd looked up to. Admired. She was brave where Felix wasn't. She spoke when he held his tongue.

"I can't believe you're here," he said, a bit mystified. And then snapped out of it, realizing Veho had disappeared from view. "Ah! Can't lose sight of him. He's - looking for something, I think." Cast Nineva a sideways glance. How much of his father's habit did she know? Did it hurt, to share now? "Hasn't got all his faculties just now. Please don't take offense, it's not you."

They should really follow.

Felix's presence was only a minor distraction. The next moment, she noticed just how wrong Veho's presence truly was. He did not react to her touch, did not even feel warm and solid against her fur. The man was there, alright, but to the woman he had helped raised he seemed just as ephemeral as his pursuits. Nineva looked up to try and catch his eyes, and she realized he didn't even know she was there.

Sudden and cold, and her guts turned to stones. She stepped away from his husk as horror shaped her features.

Felix's voice was a faint buzzing at first, indiscernible amongst the rush of thoughts and blood within her ears. Then her mind gripped onto it, slowly coming back into focus and attuning as though the words were a lifeline. He was saying that Veho had gone, and she looked to see that the youth was right; where the man had been just moments before stood nothing, as though he'd never actually existed at all.

Her silver eye turned back to Felix, limbs locked and unmoving as she could only make the muscles that controlled her jaws work.

"What is wrong with him?"

Her voice was thick with dread. Nineva knew a summary of his practices, but had never seen Veho so far gone and was unable to connect the dots that he was under the influence, just more so than he'd ever been in her presence. She thought him ill; dying. He had to be. He hadn't even known she was there.

Oh, goodness. He'd gone and scared her.

Nudging Nineva to come along with him, Felix picked up a slow trot again, navigating after his father's scent. In the distance, the man still seemed to be tracking along just fine. They could linger. "It's not what you're thinking." The dread on her face lead him to only one conclusion. Still, the young man wouldn't exactly look her in the eye. "Ophelia's death… Was the final straw, I suppose. Wolves always coming and going, promises broken. The pack's betrayal. But there's no coming back after death."

Rook could make amends - seemed to be, even. Felix couldn't really judge, but Veho had been more pleasant with the other man before departure. Friendships could be mended. But his sister was dead and buried, and nothing could bring her back to life.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "What I mean to say is, I am not sure he wants to have all his faculties about him. He holds what happened to Ophelia and Grizzly Hollow personally. But this is… Better, believe it or not. He used to get so high he couldn't see."

Couldn't walk. Didn't eat. He'd at least lessened his intake to the point that he moved, that he hunted, that he held conversations some wolves could follow. "Also, he missed you, so…" Trailed off with a shrug. Couldn't say for sure why she'd gotten that reaction, except for perhaps Veho did not wish for something pleasant to turn into a nightmare upon waking his eyes. "I missed you, too."

And noticed, maybe for the first time, just how pretty his old friend was. It struck him like a stone, temporarily taken aback. But she'd always been this pretty. He'd just been too naïve to notice before tragedy struck. Cleared his throat again, heat rising under his silvery coat. "Do you want to try again? He listens, if I'm persistent."

@Nineva -- Skipping Veho this round, since he's...digging up his old caches lol.

Felix was quick to assure her, attempted to get her moving, but until he gave her details she was unable to stop her heart from stuttering. It was odd, in a way; she thought she'd washed her paws of them all when she had come back to the Hollow and found the pack no longer existed. Nineva had been resolved to living the rest of her life with never seeing any of their faces again. Now that he was here again, however, even just for a moment, she was hit with a tremendous sense of loss all over again.

Then another bomb was dropped, one that stole her breath away and rendered her unable to express her shock immediately. That Felix wouldn't quite meet her eyes didn't help; the boy continued on as though his sister's death was known to his once-sitter.

'The packs betrayal' didn't sit well either; what exactly had they done to him? Had he been ousted by Rook as she imagined Tomen's mother had been? Replaced by Amaryllis and anyone else that had batted eyes his way? It started to make sense though, the more Felix talked. Nineva's ears fell back and she slunk after them both. They both missed her, he said, and somehow that hurt as much as it swelled her heart. She had missed them too.

She wanted to ask what had happened to Ophelia, how such a lively, young girl could die but Nineva knew that she would likely be unable to handle knowing. That she should have been home to save her instead of running after fucking Tomen.

Felix suggested she try again, and Nineva hesitated only long enough to press her crown against the boy's temple and then plant a kiss on his cheek before she trotted forth. Had anyone ever told Veho that none of it had been his responsibility, and certainly his fault? Or had they only ever asked him to take on more and more? She was a part of that, her and Kenelm crashing onto their doorstep and asking that they be taken in, under false pretenses no less.

Abruptly she stepped in front of Veho, the moment she'd caught up to him. Her grief and shock had been joined by that oh so familiar flame.

"Veho, talk to me. I'm here, and I have to-" her eyes began to burn, tongue thickening with the urge to sob. She fought back, but there was so much to hold in. Felix said it wasn't as dire as she'd thought, and yet she felt like she was losing him; like this might be her only chance to tell him the things she'd never taken the time to before.

Nineva took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself and succeeding minutely.

"Please look at me. Tell me you know I'm here."

While the younger wolves chatted, Veho remained blissfully unaware, navigating his old home as if he'd never left. The cold did not bother him, nor did hushed voices. It only took him a few minutes to find one of the old medical caches, and he began to dig, unearthing both snow and scratching at frozen mud. Inside were several dried plants. Some were still useful like this, some weren't. At the call, he wiggled his way out, old sweetgrass hanging from his mouth.

"Nenev!" he mumbled through his mouthful. The wolf set it down, pale eyes shimmering with more recognition than earlier. He saw a wolf this time, not a ghost. His tail wagged, and he pushed the grass forward with one paw. "Nineva," he said again, clearly not quite catching on to her urgency (and clearly not the reason behind it). "Look what I found. Sweetgrass. Good for childbirth." He hummed, planting his haunches down. "What is it you have to do?"

He did not look alarmed. The Ancestors came like this sometimes, all hurried and frenzied, simply dying to spit out whatever they wanted to say.

"Wha--?"

Nineva's hurry startled Felix, leaving the young man to gawk for a moment as she hurried off. Was it something he said? He'd been trying to be reassuring! Oh, heck, the youth sighed to himself, picking up his feet to trundle after the other silvery wolves. She looked like she might burst into tears, or maybe flame - he'd never seen the solid woman so unstable before. Felix swallowed hard; thankfully, something in Veho sensed the importance of this. He was answering. Maybe the mushrooms were wearing off? Whatever small miracle this was, he would take it.

The childbirth thing was kind of weird to say, though.

He frowned. "Dad, please. No one is having pups here. There's no pack." Not himself. Felix was just… Felix. Unlucky, in every aspect. Nineva, he realized for the first time, was an adult woman - she could do what she wanted. She smelled really nice (had it always been that way? He'd never noticed.) and she was always really pretty - but she was always with Tomen, and that was that, more or less.

And even if she did want puppies, it was hardly Veho's business unless she volunteered such a thing.

As if sensing his thoughts, his father cast him a crooked grin.

"Since when had pack laws stopped anyone? You could, too, Felix," he was saying, and Felix fought the urge to wilt, mortified.

"Dad. Please."

PPs Veho mildly bc I can.