Blacktail Deer Plateau Hide Away

@Nanook <3

Desna had found the time to get on a 'scouting' mission. Her actual excuse was to get the the silver tipped mountain Mason lived. She needed to talk to him and maybe tell him about her changing her name. For others she would stay Desna, who knew her as Desna. Yet she was planning on slowly leaving that life behind her and starting a new one. Only the wolves who she wanted in her new future would know the name of Valette. She wanted to let Mason know because, yeah, she wanted him in her future. Maybe she would only tell him if she was 100% sure he was not going to leave her like all the others did.

She was a bit nervous to talk to him but... he would probably understand, he was very understanding right? And well, maybe if they took it really slow? Desna had a lot of questions on her mind as she trotted through a former pack area. Their scents had faded, but there were some indications that there had been a wolf pack here before. Desna just kept her hazel eyes on the mountain because there would Mason be.

:D

Nanook had chosen the Plateau as her temporary home. The stale scent of pack life still ghosted the land and busied her mind with stories and theories of the life once lived here. She liked to imagine there were pups, and a mother and father who stuck together instead of tearing away to two different worlds. The thoughts made her wonder if maybe another had come across Bearclaw Valley and made-believe the same things about her broken family. Yet Nanook found that the surreality of this only soured her fantasy here. After all, nothing good could have taken place if it led to a land to being so thoroughly abandoned.

She'd stolen out of the refuge of the woods that day to attempt another hunt, with what little skill she had managed to accumulate from sheer desperation to survive. There were times Nanook wished her drive to learn had risen with Desna's, but her hunt had only been for her father and Xan back then, and not for anything that would prove to quell the rumble in her stomach now.

For a while, Nanook trotted in undisturbed solitude, her only company the birdsong and her thoughts, until the movement of something dark blurred through the Plateau's spring grass. The sight made her pause, and she wondered if the dark man had returned here. Brief consideration pushed Nanook to continue in a wide girth around the other until she could find herself downwind and able to assess this wolf further before choosing her method of avoidance.

Sorry for the bit of delay!

Valette continued to trot at a quick pace as she noticed that there were more and more bugs. It was probably because it was such nice weather recently and all the bugs had come out to play. That had to be it. The dark female kept her pace, oblivious that she was being watched.

She had to think what she was going to say to Mason. Maybe the truth would be the best. The young girl had been rather hurt by all the males in her life, maybe that was not the case with Mason, but seeing that most males had hurt her why should she trust him? Maybe he was the same, and now he was charming her.

The girl snapped her head from her thoughts when she thought she heard something. She froze into place and listened, unsure if someone was there.

My apologies as well!

She couldn't seem to find a vantage with the wind, slight as the breeze proved to be, so Nanook took up a quick pace and arched around the other wolf with the plan to avoid them altogether. There remained a part of her that wanted to know if this was the dark man she had seen before, but caution erred her away and she dared not approach to find out.

The youth kept watch between her projected path and the dark wolf, and she made good progress until one of the late spring bugs, of a count higher than usual, tickled past her nose. Nanook felt a tingle along the bridge of her snout, and her eyes watered. A flush of panic rushed through her chest, and she drew in a sharp and ragged breath to stop the tingle from progressing. To her relief, the tingle faded, and she darted a look toward the stranger, who seemed to have stopped. But no sooner did she turn her eyes toward the bright horizon than her nose zinged again and the stalled sneeze ripped from her chest and broke the silence of the Plateau, and whatever hope she'd wished to steal away in ghosted silence.

Valette had looked up at the sound of a sneeze. The girl frowned and then stepped towards the sound. Her frown turned into a bit of a scowl. She did not like to be stalked or watched while she didn't realize it. The girl still had a bit of a bold nature she had as a pup, though most of it had vanished slightly. "Show yourself!!," she instantly called out on a demanding tone.

The girl stepped closer, her tail a bit up to show that she was not afraid. Her visit to STM would have to wait for now. There was a curious amount of bugs too, which normally wouldn't bother her, but as a hunter she wondered if there were too many bugs that there might be a bit of an unbalance.

Nanook would have cursed, if she knew any vile words, but she had drifted through adolescent without an ear for such things and only knew what her parents and siblings had taught her, which was nothing short of propriety and the conversation of hardship. So she hissed from her mouth a sharp breath of air void of any tangible speech, but filled with frustration. She held herself from snapping at the air when another insect buzzed by, angry at it for breaking her cover and angry at herself for letting it. While her feral life had chipped at what little social prowess she had boasted while with a pack, she had the wits to know making any violent move, even against the air, would not bode well in trying to get by a threatened stranger with her life.

Yet it took every effort for the girl to push her ire down, and she surveyed the dark wolf, whose voice identified her as a true stranger and not as the curious man she had passed earlier, with cautious calculation. There was a strange familiarity in the sound of the other girl - almost like her sister - but the idea wrought a shiver through her body, and she refused to chase the recognition further. Though she stood a fair ways off, the polar child caught the lift of the dark one's tail, and as Nanook drew herself from the ground, her own tail stiffened at her hocks. "I just want to get by." Her voice came out soft and hoarse, strained from lack of use. She wanted no trouble, and she hoped the girl would let her by without it.

Valette was in quite the shock when the wolf that revealed herself looked like her sister. She might be mistaken but it could be. She had the grey coat with the orange eyes. Desna lifted her head a bit and squinted her eyes at the other. She was convinced that her sisters had left these lands, not wanted to be reminded of their broken family. The loss of so many wolves that were close to her had broken Desna too, so much that she had changed her name.

"And you do that by sneaking up on others?," she questioned and then shot a light glare at the other. She quickly softened, trying to sniff her out. She was certain that this female was alone. The girl's hazel eyes roamed over her grey coat. "You look like my sister," she stated, not thinking she would get anything out from it. She was not even sure how she could deal with the fact that her sister would have returned. She had left them at the moment she needed them most.

Desna.

The longer she watched the dark one, the louder the name rattled through Nanook, and as the other girl spoke, the quip and glare sealed the recognition. Nanook could give nothing but silence in return. This was Desna, and under her sister's stare Nanook let her gaze instinctively drop and fix on the gentle ripple of the grass, a sickening sensation tempting her to run from her as she was all too familiar with doing.

But as she turned away, a shock of fear prompted Nanook to fix her attention back on her sister - a fear that Desna would recognize her if she turned away. For she knew Desna knew too - she had said it herself. You look like my sister.

This was Desna, and Nanook clenched her jaw against the panic that threatened to spill across her face, if it hadn't already. The polar girl tried to act casual, but the roll of her shrug came stiff and forced. "I'm grey. I look like a lot of wolves." Could Desna hear the tightness in her voice? Nanook's spine tingled, and she felt a familiar ice crawl up to paralyze her legs. Her heart quickened, and Nanook struggled to fight against saying nothing at all. "And I wasn't sneaking up on you. I was going around." 

Her voice fell to the buzz of her heart, the longing she felt to be with her sister clouded by the conviction Desna fared better without her. Nanook only had to look to know - from what her eyes could see, her sister was healthy, well-fed and fit. Nanook couldn't boast the same, and for the first time felt a self-conscious awareness of her tussled fur and haggard frame. She scuffed the ground and averted her eyes, unable to say more, but unable to move. Desna's presence filled her with a pain and confusion that tore at her, and made her want run and stay all the same.

Valette looked at the grey female before her. There was some recognition, but she hadn't seen her sister in so long. Who knows what she looked like now. Their parents were both white, and they had a whole array of monotone colors in their pups. This female looked pretty ragged and like she was on the run for awhile. Valette thought it was too good to be true. In her eyes her sister was dead anyways.

The dark girl listened to the other's tense voice. Her hazel eyes looked not too unfriendly at the other, she was on guard like the other. She knew loners could be dangerous. "Well I guess you are not here then," she spoke, after all this female did not recognize her, and Valette was sure that Nanook would have recognized her. Besides, she was Valette now, and Valette did not have sisters, or any close family. Her face hardened a bit. "Well alright, but others could attack you for that," she stated a bit stubbornly. Her tail was getting up, showing a bit more confidence, mostly faked confidence. "Why are you alone then?"

Desna continued to appraise her, and for a moment, Nanook wondered in a cloud of fear and hope if her sister would recognize her, if she would plead with her again to stop shutting her out and start letting her in, to be a family again. But reality proved bittersweet. Desna gave her what she needed, but not what she wanted, and the youth felt her mouth shake into a quivered frown when her sister simply agreed with her deflection.

She found she couldn't mirror her sister's confidence any more. Not even the edge to Desna's voice stirred ire in Nanook. Instead, her sister's hardness conjured a storm of emotion Nanook couldn't process, and her tail hung limp at her hocks. When the grey girl finally spoke, her tone fell flat, unable to settle on anything but rigid formality, controlled and forced and the only way she could get by without breaking down.

"I know that," was her only retort, and she shifted her gaze when Desna pressed further. Her eyes stung, but the rest of her face stood as stone. Could she deceive in this as well? She glanced at her sister, and her heart thrummed with the fear of entrusting her with why she had left - why they had all left. "I..." And her voice caught, words squeezed to silence. How could she tell her, even in secret, that she was the reason for their family's suffering, that because of her, their family had shattered? Nanook diverted her gaze to the ground as the burn in her eyes grew wet. "It's better if I'm alone. No one can get hurt that way." Not Desna, not mama, not papa or Sesi or Xan. And not her.

Desna's ears fell when she kind of made the other cry. She did not intend that. But she saw the tears well up in the other's eyes. She stepped closer, looking kind of guilty now. "Hey now. I didn't mean to make you cry," she spoke and then sat down to look less intimidating. It was surprising how much of the same mindset she had as the other.

"I can only agree with you though. Everyone left me too," she spoke to the stranger who wouldn't know about her life. "But clearly you don't want to be alone, so why don't so look for someone to stay with?," she spoke, now Desna had taken it in her mind that this was not her sister she started to see someone else as weird as that may sound. But she had not seen her sister since her mother's death, and this wolf might look like her this was clearly not her. She did not know how to recognize her sister anymore. They had spend little time together in Desna's eyes.

Nanook kept her eyes trained steadily on the ground and drew in a ragged breath to keep herself from sniffling. Her sister had seen her tears, and a strange feeling overwhelmed her irritation and fear, something she hadn't felt since she'd tucked against their mother when she was still a child, innocent to the world. The stir came to rest in her chest and slowed her pounding heart and heaving lungs. Nanook lifted a paw to her face and drew it over the bridge of her muzzle as she glanced up again and tried to blink away the blur that masked Desna from clarity of sight. She had drawn closer, and for once Nanook felt no urge to shrink away.

A frown came over Nanook's face when Desna agreed with her, when she spoke of her own abandonment. No - that wasn't what was supposed to happen. Between the two of them, Desna deserved to be with others. So when she spoke of looking for someone to stay with, Nanook shook her head. "I can't." And the fear swelled again, biting away the small peace that had tried to fill her icy chest. "I'll hurt them. I always do." Her voice weakened, but her gaze remained on Desna, for her thoughts fixed only on her as she spoke. "I always do."

Valette looked at the other that seemed so sad. The girl has seen her sister mostly stoic and distanced. So now, not realizing that this was her sister, who was speaking the truth Valette did not want to believe that this girl would hurt others so badly. The dark colored girl tipped her head. "I'm pretty sure that is not true," she spoke trying to make her feel better, though if only if Valette knew who this truly was she might have thought differently.

"Maybe you could join a pack and gain some more social skills. Maybe that would help?," Valette gave as a suggestion, which could work if the girl was motivated to change herself. The girl kept her hazel colored eyes on the other and studied her. Her from was somehow a bit familiar to her, still. But then again there were so many grey wolves.

Happy 1-year birthday, sister <3

Nanook was pretty sure it was true, and Desna was part of the proof. But the polar girl said no more on the matter, too drained to argue now. If only she had the guts to tell her sister who she was... but there was something in this secrecy that made it easy to talk with Desna, easier than things had been when they'd both been aware that they were sisters to each other. Nanook knew she played a risky game in this, but she couldn't turn away.

"D'you really think a pack would want me?" she asked bluntly, daring herself to keep her gaze trained on Desna. The act stirred a deep pain in her chest - her sister had become so strong, so confident, so beautiful. Of course a pack would want her sister, but Nanook wondered, with her weathered face and icy words, if the same could ever be said of her.

Happy Birthday back <3

Desna nodded slowly to confirm that she believed that the other would be accepted in a pack. She herself was going to visit Silvertip this moment which was also a nice pack. One that was accepting of members. "Of course they would accept you!," she spoke to the girl she didn't realize was her sister. Maybe it was better this way, if Desna would find out it might be more hurtful.

"You just have to go to their borders and ask to join. I know Silvertip Mountain is a nice pack. It is that mountain over there. A friend of mine lives there, two actually. Mason and Steady. They are very supportive," she returned as a suggestion. Maybe the silvertip pack was something for this more timid female to join.

Desna sounded so sure there was a pack out there that would want her, and Nanook found that, despite the anxiety that turned her belly to knots, she wanted to believe it true. She squinted beyond the plateau and the rolling plain to the distant crags of Silvertip. Could a new life really await her there? Nanook furrowed her brows, her thoughts unable to go any further. At least for now.

Still, she would remember the names Desna mentioned. Silvertip, Mason, and Steady. Desna called them friends, and a funny feeling stirred in Nanook that made her shift on her paws, a dull ache of what she thought might be happiness for the life her sister seemed to have found. She stayed silent in thought, staring at the mountain. "Okay," was the awkward thanks she gave as she pried her attention to Desna again, her brows furrowed at the question that next formed on her tongue. "But where's your pack?"

Densa hoped that the female might have something with her words. The girl herself was not tempted to join yet, even though there was Mason in that pack, and she fancied him kind of. The other asked were her pack was. "They are a few miles from here. We are on the move actually. A war happened and our alpha female told us to leave," she explained, being quite open about it, though not about her own feelings.

The girl was quite sad about it, yet on the other hand it gave more freedom. Yet, her mother's body was still buried there. The young female let out a soft sigh. "I was actually on my way to see my friends at Silvertip before I go back to my pack and see where the alpha female leads us."

Nanook's face did not shift at Desna's mention of war, but she felt the fur along her nape bristle. She did not think to pry into the state of Maplewood, for her connection to the pack rested only in the sister who stood before her now and in the buried bones of their mother. She'd had no other loyalties there, nor had she sought to forge them. All that mattered was Desna now, and she stared at her sister with greater intensity and half-stepped forward in an initial attempt to see if she bore any wounds from the fight. But Nanook froze when she realized her subconscious encroachment, and she hovered her paw before she placed it on the ground to draw her forelegs stiffly together. "Oh. I see." What she couldn't see was whether or not Desna had been hurt, and though frustration boiled in her chest, she dared not ask further. Surely her concern would only draw suspicion.

She sensed a sorrow in her sister, perhaps wrought by the memory of her hardships. Her words, though, conveyed little sadness, but confirmed where Nanook would let her paws lead her next - namely, away from Silvertip, at least until she was certain her sister had finished her visitation there. Their visit here had been enough - yet Nanook knew the lie in those words, and believing them came with greater effort than before. "May your travels be safe, then." The blessing came with characteristic stiffness, but the words remained ones she genuinely meant. She paused, before adding in a softer note. "Maybe we'll see each other again someday."

Valette did not intend for her words to make their conversation to end. But the other young female, which looked her age, seemed to interpret it that way. Valette had peace with it, after all this was a stranger, but it turned out to be an okay stranger. "You too. Wherever you are traveling to," she wished in return.

Valette had missed the fact that the female had stepped forward, her thoughts had been with Mason and his pack. She was curious to see him. Though she did notice that there were more and more bugs, so that was curious. Maybe it was linked to summer, though she could not remember bugs at Bearclaw Valley.

The young female dipped her head. "Maybe our paths will cross once more," she wished and then turned into the direction of Silvertip and trotted away from her own sister without even realizing she did.

Such a nice thread <3 :O