Neverwinter Forest after dark vapors have oppressed our plains

West has kept to herself the last few days, easily falling into a routine that suits the three of them and she doesn’t have to converse with them at length. When she is needed by neither Kitsch nor her brother, she’s either lazing around in the sun or wandering the territory—both equally lost in thought. She’s given an Ondine the chance she and Libeccio could recruit but she never mentioned it to her brother and her time out of the forest has been minimal at best. Ondine’s weakness, waiting for one more straw to break her back, becomes a ticking time bomb and she can either be engulfed in it or extinguish it the only way she knows now.

The woman picks herself up late in the morning, stepping around the sleeping Kitsch to find @Libeccio. When she realizes he isn’t in the immediate area, she picks out the freshest scent of him she can find and begins to follow it until she locates him.

Libeccio was an early riser and, as such, had spent the grand majority of the early and mid-morning roaming the intermediate area near their den site. He'd found nothing of any interest, save for a few stale scents and the occasional deer track. The pack was oddly disconnected—a fact that did not go unnoticed by the shrewd copperhead. He wasn't certain the implications of the intrusive thoughts he had on the matter would be well-recieved, so he kept them to himself. 

But as he stooped to lap at a stream, he could not help but wonder... what if? And, as if on cue, the sound of footfall caught his attention. He swiveled an ear around to fixate on the approaching wolf, but the scent that infiltrated his nostrils told him it was only West. He lifted his head, and shot her a glance as he lashed his tongue over his damp jowls.

When West finds a break in the ground, she finds the outline of a wolf down for a drink. She doesn’t speak at first as she closes the distance, her footfalls softer, but the wind and Libeccio’s sensitive nose gives her away easily. The twitch of his ears and casual pull of his head keeps him calm and without alarm, but he’s paying to her a beat later and she gives him a telltale smirk across her features. She and Lafayette always had a connection and she wonders if she shouldn’t have brushed Libeccio off as much as she did in Windsong.
 
“I need you to do something for me,” she asks with one brow lifted playfully.

Of course she needs something. He isn't ignorant of the duties she assigned her underlings back in Windsong, but he has a distinct feeling this might be far more important. She hasn't swept him under the rug so far, so he has little reason to assume she's ready to do so now. He wonders if this might be about Kitsch? 

He sniffs and raises both brows in a look of bemusement. "Really now." he replies flatly, unable to hide his coy smile. "What's that?"

West is pleased to hear he hasn’t completely brushed her off. He’s stuck around this long and he’s given her the chance to do the things she’s needed since he’d found her in the glen some time ago now. She lets a smile appear on her own muzzle and she takes a step closer with one glance around them. They are not as guarded as she’d prefer but it is not often someone not the three of them come to their little spot in the forest.

“I need you to become Alpha,” she says matter-of-factly, as if there isn’t anything to be questioned. “Befriend Ondine, become her mate…” she adds on with a knowing look and raise of her brows. Whatever he needed to do, West wanted it done. She clears her throat, a second glance is given, and then she zeros in on her brother. “She does not have a hold here. There’s hardly anyone following her anyway and if we wait, we’ll be searching for the same thing all over again.”

His expectations were so far from reality, that it took him an additional second to process exactly what West had asked of him. He blinked and sucked in a whistling breath between his clenched teeth—become some strange woman's mate just so West could claim the timbers for her own? It was ludicrous. They could simply start their own following rather than circumvent the process by putting a puppet leader into the works. But there was a thread of logic to it that he couldn't quite ignore. Neverwinter was established and, as far as he knew, had a rather neutral reputation. They wouldn't be disrupting the status quo. 

Libeccio frowned and looked away to collect his thoughts. He stooped to lap at a bit more water to wet his throat before addressing his sibling, "What's your role in this?" he asked. "There has to be a reason you want me up there."

Silence isn’t an outright no. Silence is consideration and a breath lodges in her throat as she searches his face. There isn’t anything to indicate one way or the other but still, it causes a slight knot in her stomach. He drops his head a moment later and then cleaned his muzzle, only to present her with questions and not an answer. Lafayette would not have hesitated and her eyes narrowed, hoping to pull more out of him but it is not their other brother he’d compete against. She has her work cut out for her as Libeccio proves to be too big for her paw to hold down.

“I want to make sure we have somewhere safe,” she tells him. The pull of her voice lacks conviction. “This place has been here for a while and by the looks of it, no one will notice if Ondine isn’t running it anymore.” If the woman doesn’t want to share the hold on the forest, she has no doubt either of them can’t do something to have their way. West stiffens a little and takes a step closer. They could have the forest. Officially separated from the heights and running on their own time with no agenda but the ones they make together.