Emberwood i never knew there was a love like this before

the distance between territories was small. it would have taken bhediya significantly longer had she been on her own, but the excitement of finding @Easy gave some added energy.

upon reaching the border, she couldn't help but feel a slight embarassment. perhaps it was too small, or too new; would her friend be impressed? bhe looked expectantly at her mottled companion and waited to hear her thoughts. we've just settled in, so... it's kinda fresh. 

yikes. the scout swung her head back and made a call for @Ibis, tagging @Awol on secondarily. if his goal was to be a master scout before anyone else, well, the least that she could do was give him a fighting chance. i'm really happy that we met again. it was a whisper, meant only for easy to hear.

The area was familiar to Easy, but she was still distracted by the scenery as she followed along beside Akuti. It was different seeing it in the wintertime, much of it covered in snow. Especially the Emberwood, which Easy fondly remembered from the first scouting trip she'd taken with her father (and Engel, and Dauntless). She and her brother had gone off on their own for a while, and at their destination of Easthollow, she'd met Steph and Clary.

"I wondered," she admitted when Akuti commented on the newness of the pack; there'd only been Elysium's waning claim when she'd last passed through this area, and a pack higher in the mountains whose scents were absent from her dam's pelt. "I was here a few months ago with Sunny and his children. But we were separated — I took his son to stay with Lav and Sunspot until I could find him, but there's no sign of him, yet."

She wondered how Valiant was getting on and took a moment to admit to herself that she did not want to return to Round Valley without news of his father. It was terrible, she thought, for the boy to have lost a mother and a father so close together — but she could rest easy in the knowledge that he was being fed and nurtured by his aunts.

Akuti drew her out of her thoughts once more, and she offered the other woman a kind smile. "I've always hoped I we would," she agreed, although it was not long ago that it'd been so that she could rage and scream at the woman.

The scarred male was becoming familiar with the pale white expanse of flurried cold. He wasn't compliant with it of course; but there was no banishing the frosty grasp of the father of winter.

The spires of aspen's were faulty in the sense of saving the forest groundlevel from the snow, s he had to improvise and clear out his own sleeping quarters. Awol was still asses the epicenter of his makeshift tunneled dome when Bhediya's voice called him,
he prayed it was something exciting.

It had traveled through the trees from the border, and he was determined to find where the location appeared to be from her sound. He arrived a few minutes after, to see Bhediya and a rough fossil and charcoal marked wolf conversing with her. 

"Bhediya," he greeted respectfully with a dip of his head. "Who might you be?" As a leader, he assumed best that his tone was neutral and flat, not to ward off newcomers but also let them know he wasn't soft.

Another call for her — and this time when Ibis went to meet it she wasn't the first to arrive. She saw Awol, then Bhediya, having followed the sound of the woman's voice as soon as it hit her ears; and then there was another person there too which drew Ibis' attention immediately. Her coat was a myriad of shapes—puffs of grey intermingled with deep shadow, composed artfully.

A thin puff of air exited the young woman as she stopped, spiralling out of her and dissipating. As Ibis smiles to them all she cannot take her eyes off of the stranger among them; not at first, anyway, and then she glances to Bhe, noticing a resemblance between the mottled girl, at least when it came to the thin wispy coat that the two shared.

Hello, Ibis murmurs to the newcomer with a little smile.

sunny had kids? it was to be expected, given the age gap between grayday's first and second litters. maybe it was because bhediya had gone so long without thinking about the pair, sunny and dawn, that the thought of their maturity just never crossed her mind. she shrugged it off. 

awol appeared first and immediately reminded her of two things they hadn't yet discussed: (1) her most recent name change, and (2) how they would refer to one another. awol, she began. as bhediya prepared to continue, ibis made her appearance.

ibi, the scout grinned, then turned back to easy. this is easy. she's... she's what? bhediya waited for easy to make that choice, whether or not to have their true relationship acknowledged.

Easy was unintimidated by the arrival of strange wolves; she trusted Akuti at least enough not to lead her into a trap, and besides that, was assured in her own strength. Still, she adopted a more humble stance as the first stranger came into view, and eyed him with interest that waned only slightly when he was greeted as Awol instead of Pygmalion.

"My name is Easy," she replied, but held off on any other pleasantries for the moment, as she saw another wolf approaching. This one greeted her with an undemanding hello, and Easy felt a certain affection for her right off the bat. "Hi," she replied, returning the woman's smile with one of her own, as though she and the other had just shared some amusing secret with one another.

She looked back to Bhediya in the next moment, as the woman began to introduce her.

". . . I'm her daughter," Easy explained, slanting a wry smile in the woman's direction. "We were separated when I was very young. But I'm hoping to get to know her, and that I might be able to stay here for a while." She looked expectantly at the two of them, waiting for their own introductions.

Was given permission to skip Awol.

There was a brief flicker of something on the girl's face - doubt, maybe, or something similar - as the mottled wolf looked to Bhediya; already Ibis could see some similarities between the two of them, their short and slightly-curled coats giving away some kind of affiliation, but the Archdruid did not want to make assumptions. Evidently she did not need to ask, as Awol must have had the same sentiment. The girl introduced herself as Easy and then — simplifying matters entirely — explained that she was, indeed, a relation to the older woman.

This was a joyous occasion, then! Ibis couldn't help the grin that spread across her face as she came to understand everything, her eyes alighting upon Bhediya and glimmering with happiness, but then redirecting swiftly to Easy; she waved her tail as a happy little pendulum, the tempo of which grew as soon as Easy mentioned she wanted to stay.

Of course you can stay! Oh, this is such good news— For all the doubts the young woman held about the forest and her role as the leader of these wolves, she couldn't help but feel somewhat vindicated upon seeing a family slowly reuniting again. First it had been Kavik and his daughter finding peace; now it seemed to be Bhediya and Easy's turn. I'm sure Bhediya can show you around to the caches, get you something to eat. But if you need me for anything, feel free to call on me anytime. Stay as long as you want.

bhediya wondered if easy was turned off by ibis's offer of food. it was the nice thing to do, right? offering someone food during a famine? maybe it'd only been when she'd done it for reasons not stated. that was fine, she decided. thank you, ibi. 

behind her, bhediya's tail followed a steady rhythm. she turned to easy and said, i'll give you a minute to settle in. then, quieter, find me when you're ready, okay? normally, she might have offered a nudge to the shoulder, but bhe was afraid to push the boundaries. instead, she gave another warm smile and started off into the territory.

"Thank you," the woman said to Ibi, wondering if it would be rude to ask after their names after having already passed the preliminary stages of conversation. It was something Sunspot wouldn't stand for, and she decided that she'd missed her chance. She would just have to learn their names as she had her own mother's — by stroke of luck. "You're very kind," she added when food was offered, looking a bit flustered but grateful all the same.

Easy was bemused by the concept of settle in, and wondered what the older woman could possibly think the woods had to offer her — aside from Bhediya herself. But that was the wrong way to go about thinking of things; she responded with a smile and a wag of her tail, and a soft promise of, "I will."

She began to think that Bhediya might need a moment instead, and that the offer had been more of a plea for space than anything else. But that was fine with her. She had waited this long, and she knew only that she had been preparing for this day, this chance meeting — 

The woman could not blame Bhediya for losing hope, or for living only in the moment. It was only natural to want to retreat and regroup.