Redhawk Caldera coming out of my cage

end of recluse days

For a long while, Clover had kept to herself. Her sleepless nights caused her to be irritable at best and delusional at worst. For her own part, she had tried to articulate the events... but to talk about it made it real again, and she was not prepared for that. Her mind could scarcely take it, up until the point that it built for itself a great big wall that could not be torn down. Once that wall was built, Clover could not even remember that she had been upset at all; the events that had led to her near mental breakdown had been seemingly forgotten.

Her rambunctious pep in her step had returned as she moved through the territory. The weather was warm and as she meandered through the territory, she caught scent of the herd she and her family had once hunted. She wondered if she could give chase to that deer Fiadh had selected... maybe even hunt him down. Clover supposed the first step would be to find the dude. Then, a hunt.

*recycles* :)

To say that Towhee was on edge would have been the understatement of the year. Upon reaching the shore of the caldera, she plunged into the shallows without ceremony, welcoming the distracting chill of the water as it sloshed against her legs. As the water deepened, she buckled her limbs and started to paddle, teeth immediately beginning to chatter as she swam toward the middle of the caldera. Ignoring the numbness creeping through her body, Towhee plunged beneath the water and disappeared.

Her head broke the surface a moment later, a great breath gusting from between trembling lips. Treading water, her orange eyes rolled skyward and she spotted X circling overhead. She barked at the hawk, then made for the opposite bank. She could barely feel her legs as she trundled onto dry land, shook out her coat and then peered back over the water. Within seconds, it settled, the surface becoming placid as if she'd never been there at all.

Trying not to think of that fitting symbolism, Towhee motioned for X to join her. She plopped down on the gravelly shoreline and began licking the moisture from her coat even as the hawk descended. The icy water had helped distract if not calm her. She was still beside herself, her anger and frustration at Tegan a volatile mix with her apprehension and fear over the upcoming undertaking. But despite everything, the Alpha refused to consider leaving her brother behind. They would not disembark for the promised land until Tegan returned and Towhee gave him the chewing-out of a lifetime.

She felt something nudge her elbow and she glanced down at X. She couldn't quite get her facial muscles to cooperate enough to smile, though she made a rumbling noise at the bird before saying, "Tell me more about this place you foun—" Towhee's voice cut off abruptly when the bird's head whipped to the side, her own head rapidly following.

"Hey, Clo!"

The familiar voice of Towhee sounded and Clover's own head lifted to peer in the direction she had called from. Had her sisters arrival been anything but loud she might have been startled, but the others arrival was typically always just that. Her tail waved and for the first time in a while Clover's reaction was not to quit the scene then and there. Instead, she loped toward the inky alpha female. Though Clover loved the Caldera, she loved her family more. And if she had not built the mental blockade against the monster, she would have rationalized further that it was around here he had hunted her.

Heya, Clover greeted in turn, moving to plant some messy kisses on her sisters chin. She greeted X with a wan smile, Sup, X? She hadn't communicated much with her sisters critter, though she never thought to disinclude him. He was part of the family, too.

Although she was furious with Tegan, not to mention quietly freaking out about the upcoming move, Towhee leaned readily into Clover's greetings. She pressed her snout into the girl's cheek, then withdrew and glanced at X. The bird acknowledged the new arrival with a bob of his head before his shrewd eyes returned questioningly to the Alpha's face.

"X was just about to tell me more details about where we're headed," Towhee told her younger sister. Just in case Clover was curious about how exactly that worked, given the raptor's inability to speak, she explained, "It's easiest if I start with some leading questions. It's northwest of here, isn't that right, X?" He nodded and Towhee looked at Clover as she added, "He flew over the mountains directly but we'll have to travel north, then west, to go around them, as it's way too dangerous to try to climb up and over."

She let out a breath. "But," she said, "X tells me it'll be well worth the trip. He said he found paradise."

The distraction was a good one for Clover, who peered at X as Towhee verbally regarded him. She found it cool they could talk, and wondered if she could communicate with him, too. As Towhee explained the game plan, Clover nodded. She did not know much about mountains other than the Caldera they resided upon, but took her sisters word for it. Clover had no reason at all not to trust her. Towhee had yet to misguide the Blackthorn girl.

Clover's tail wagged at Towhee's descriptor, vague though it was. What's your paradise? She asked with a tilt of her head, curious. Clover had never thought paradise to be a place. Her paradise was exactly this. Not the Caldera, but the wolves within it. It was cool, though, to think that it might be a place, too. She gamely gave herself to this distraction, her mind liking the idea of it.

Now that Clover was here, Towhee decided she wouldn't force X to repeat himself in their roundabout way. Instead, she smiled at the raptor and then fully faced her sister to relay to her what she'd learned from him so far. On second thought, she motioned for the young Mu to follow her as she walked away from the gravelly shoreline and toward a softer patch of grass. She sat, motioning for Clover to do the same, then gave X some sort of signal that prompted him to leap skyward and wing away.

"He described a landmark similar to the caldera: a big, flat mountain with a lake on top. Only he said it's all on a much, much larger scale. That'll make it harder to guard and patrol, though I think it'll be nice to have a large place to spread out and roam. What do you think?"

Clover listened to her sister speak and describe the place. The size did not matter much to Clover, who felt she had plenty room to roam here, but there was nothing wrong with more. Towhee raised a good point, one her inexperience would not have allowed her to even guess at. It sounds cool, she replied agreeably, her tail waving, so... if it's bigger... it's harder to guard... how do we go about doing that? Clover wondered aloud, squinting first at her paws before she looked back to Towhee, tilting her head.

Clover posed an important question, one that Towhee had already taken under thorough consideration. "It'll be challenging," she concurred, "and we'll need everyone in the pack to pitch in, especially at first. Once we mark the borders, though, it should be a little easier to defend. Whether a territory's big or small, it's impossible to be everywhere at once, but that's why we scent mark: not only to stake the claim but as a warning. Then we patrol to reinforce."

But only time would tell how it would all play out. Towhee was a young and largely inexperienced Alpha. Though she had the support of her godparents and the rest of the pack, none of them had ever done something like this before. It would be an incredible undertaking. It intimidated her more than she would ever admit, a feeling which was distilled by her anger over the circumstances. But there was also part of Towhee that saw the adventure of it all. There was something to be said for a change of scenery.

"Once we get where we're going, I think it'll be straightforward enough. We already know how to claim and protect our domain." She gestured loosely at their surroundings, orange eyes skimming over the nearby caldera. "It's the journey there that I'm least looking forward to. But I've never been one for traveling. I bet you and your brothers and sister are excited for the trip though." She tried not to inwardly curse Tegan too hard as she peered inquisitively at Clover's face.