Ghastly Woods just another one

@Veho || Late Afternoon, Clear Sky, 21.2 ° F, -6 ° C

She had taken the day to herself, heading down the mountain at her own pace. It was not a rough trip but she didn't have just herself to account for. Such was her life now (as it had been almost every season before...).

The Santoro intended to head back by tomorrow morning at the latest. Wasn't like she could leave everyone to their own devices up there. While she trusted Lorcan, she knew that he was obviously was not on the most friendly terms with everyone in the Tarn. Something she still though on and mulled over. She hoped they would be adults and sort out their own issues but well, she was preparing herself to have to step in.

A sigh slipped past her lips as she settled into a sitting position, leaning against a tall tree. We'll get through this. I promise. She spoke in gentle soft tones to no one but herself and the life inside her.

# C W T

To be quite frank, Veho hadn’t the slightest idea where he was headed – or why. He knew (roughly) how to get back down to the cedar forest, and he would go that way soon. Felix was waiting for him down there, doubtlessly, and even if his paws itched to wander in ways they hadn’t wandered before, he wasn’t a cruel man. He wouldn’t make Felix wonder, not for long, anyways.

It was late afternoon with the silver wolf came to a slow halt, debating whether or not it was time to turn back when he heard a soft, feminine voice. It was familiar, and not in the way the spirits spoke to him. Veho lifted his head, ears pivoting. He lifted his nose, trying to scent the air – but the forest was thick and stagnant, suppressing the more ethereal smells.

“Hello?” he called, picking a walk back up. “What are we getting through?”

There was a voice out there that called back to her. It almost seemed familiar, a ghost of the past. But it wasn't @Skoll and it most certainly wasn't @Sven. She chewed on her lip momentarily to consider her options. The Santoro could only hope it was a good ghost. She was not in the condition to be mingling with unfriendly forces.

We're...getting through a rough patch. Piety called back in hopes that she could convince the other to talk again and jog her memory. Perhaps if the forest wasn't so damp and already thickly scented she would have had an easier time remembering who it was.

She hadn't stopped to consider that maybe she was making it up. Perhaps a mixture of lost hope and baby brain had her thinking it was someone she knew when it very well could have been a stranger.

# C W T

A ghost! Hah!

Veho would have had a good chuckle if he’d known his own friend had thought him a ghost – no, not yet. Not for some time now, if he’d read the stars correctly…but then, he hadn’t the slightest of Ophelia’s untimely demise. Who knew. The world was a mysterious place.

Egged on by the voice, Veho trotted closer, humming a soft tune to himself as he went. A rough patch? That sounded like the thing he could fix – the things he was good at fixing. The things he liked fixing before the floor went out from under him at Grizzly Hollow. “It’s always darkest just before dawn,” he hummed merrily, round a tree – and spying a very familiar form. “Dove?”

Her good ear leaned forward at the name. Oh. It had been some time since she had heard that name. It was when the familiar form rounded the tree that she found herself shuffling to stand.

Mer- No, he had carried a different name too hadn't he? One she had been given upon learning they had been apart of the same pack. Veho? She called back softly. A faint smile tugged on her scarred features. The silver-eyed male was a bit far from home, wasn't he? If she remembered correctly the cedarwoods were rather west from here, a bit south too.

It's so good to see you. There was a fondness for the caring male in her heart still even if it had been a long while since she last saw him. But...please, call me Piety. Because she wasn't hiding from anything anymore and needed no aliases here.

# C W T

“Oh, of course. Piety it is.”

Did he know that? He couldn’t remember if he’d already know that. Time was a strange concept, anyways. A social norm, of sorts – likely for those who didn’t converse with old ancestors and seek out the spirit of their dead daughter.

The absurdity of it made him smile for a moment. In that moment, he had closed the gap between them, and greeted Piety like an old friend – for that is exactly how he saw her. Saw her also as someone he wished he could have helped more, but… She seemed well enough. Did not smell sick or starving. Sounded a bit troubled, perhaps, but weren’t they all?

“I am very pleased to see you, however unexpected this is. May I aide you in this rough patch? I am, after all, at your service, my dear friend.”

I am SO SORRY this took so long.

In the distance there is a large pack of coyotes howling.