Moonspear Dreamcatcher

Image for reference!

I feel like Wildfire could use some female company, so maybe @Amekaze, @Thistle Cloud, @Alaska Blu or @Ness? :)

Wildfire didn't make a habit of climbing too far up the mountain, mostly because she feared falling to her death trying to come back down. But with Goober's attack and the horrible aftermath rubbing raw on her nerves, she sought solitude via altitude. She ran, at first, but quickly lost her breath and began to wind slowly and carefully up the steep slope. She eventually found herself climbing a rough, natural staircase toward the peak's western face. From here, she could see the sprawl of the hinterlands spanning as far as the eye could see. She turned from the view, however, and kept marching ever upward.

Night was falling by the time she found herself close to the pinnacle. There were actually several crests up here at the summit, all of them together forming Moonspear's crown. The particular one on which she stood was no more than a stone column with steep drop-offs on most sides. Wildfire padded around the roughly circular area, peeking over the sides into the seemingly bottomless abyss, before settling with a sigh at the base of the single, crooked tree near the far edge. It was a peach tree, its bare limbs twitching slightly in the wind.

After a time, Wildfire slumped, ignorant to the quiet, radiant moon and winking stars that hovered what seemed like only feet away. She didn't stir until the following morning, when bright sunlight warmed her back, shoulders and eyelids, causing them to flutter open.

Since her interest in patrolling the borders was a bored lukewarm at best, she'd left them to be handled by the guys today instead and aimed herself upward. Now that spring's hints were more and more clear, she couldn't deny herself learning the uppermost elevations even better. Even she, someone who did like the pinnacles and the dizzying heights, had somewhat stayed away considering the wintertime; she'd go up, but not that far up very often.

Elevation thinned the air more as she hiked steadily up and up towards the highest peaks she did know the paths of. Eventually, she planned to deviate and just see where else the mountain would even let her go without much resistance. As the landscape dictated, she was ever-mindful of just where her paws may find purchase and the more she traveled, the more she reveled in the distinct burn in her muscles from navigating the terrains here beneath the rising sun. That made the trip worthwhile in one way already.

So for a while, she picked along until Wildfire's scent lingering on the stone pathways caught her off guard. She opted to casually track it, just feeling nosy enough to see where the yearling had been up here. It eventually lends her a strengthening lead onto a curious little piece of the mountain, with Wildfire included.

Ame chuffs a quiet greeting to the red hunter and considers briefly if she may be intruding on something more than just rest (what that could be, she couldn't say), but her focus is drawn to the tree as her paws pull her closer.

She slowly sat up, groaning under her breath as pain wracked her body. She closed her eyes, breathing through it, letting her spine come to rest against the tree. After a time, Wildfire opened her eyes, her head tipped back to stare at the naked branches overhead. Not long from now, the tree would bloom with lustrous green leaves, pleasantly pink blossoms and, of course, tender rosy fruit. She wondered how it could survive up here, what with the wind and the rocky terrain, but as her gaze fell to its roots, she saw they dug deep, likely tapping into a wellspring of freshest spring water buried beneath the ground and giving the tree itself a solid anchor.

A quiet chuff caused Wildfire to start, her back going rigid. There weren't many places to look, so her eyes quickly found the slender, dark figure of her Alpha female. She really would have preferred to be left alone—she hadn't come all the way up here looking for company—yet the sight of a familiar, feminine face offered Wildfire the tiniest measure of relief. She could tolerate the presence of another female right now, even if she didn't outright welcome it.

"Hey, Ame." Wildfire peered at her speculatively, wondering if she had seen Floki. Maybe she was even here looking for her, to find out what the hell was the matter with her. But there was nothing telling about Ame's expression, so Wildfire would act as if nothing was amiss. She was grateful for the night's rest; it would give her the energy to pretend. She noticed the other she-wolf peering at the tree and she glanced upward again and murmured, "It's a peach tree. It will be beautiful in the spring."

Wildfire's greeting was simple, and she peered back at her now instead of at the tree once she'd seen enough of it for introductions. Its placement was what she admired most of all, but spring would improve the scene tenfold. "Definitely," she agreed with a small nod. "I am ready to see spring on the mountain," she added on and her reasons were vast. It would be Moonspear's very first spring as a pack, for one.

While her words may have felt almost wistful, she watched Wildfire curiously. She's not perfectly keyed into all of the happenings lately -- only vaguely aware because she's distracted and busy being her own brand of reclusive while simultaneously worrying about her comrades and how they all fared with everything happening at once. With the bear, then Nishu's injuries and consequential death, vibes have not been good to her personally and it's a lot to keep track of when others are all spinning their own tales too. She's frustrated and realizes it is a little shitty, but she doesn't know quite how to reach out to them yet. "Do you spend much time here?" she asked in an attempt to feel this out some by keeping it neutral, and hopefully easy.

"Me too," Wildfire echoed the sentiment, even though she really wasn't thinking about spring much at all. It was hard to project into the future when she was concentrating so hard on the present moment, simultaneously trying to act nonchalant while forcibly shutting down thoughts of the past few days. It would exhaust her quickly, she knew. "Me too..."

Then Ame asked a direct question and Wildfire shook her head. "This is actually the first time I've ever been up this high. I'm really clumsy," she said in way of explanation, "but I'm glad I decided to make the climb after all. It's like the higher I went, the more peaceful it felt. Or maybe it's just the thinning air," she attempted to joke, although she couldn't bring herself to smile at it.

Wildfire agreed, and explanations followed soon after. While everything she said seemed oh-so-normal, she thought maybe she seemed a touch more chilled than usual. Wildfire was a presence marked by an intelligent exuberance, something Amekaze admired in the yearling, and today it seemed dulled. Of course, the dark alpha was not exceptionally close to her, had only just come upon her (possibly interrupting, which was a decent reason to be a little sour), and even a bad day could put a wolf off. She'd been there in her own way. But.. she wondered.

"Ah, probably so. I always thought the thin air was why my honored mother swore by her mountaintop meditations," she smirked, momentarily reflecting on it. Something about depriving the body of air, or really making it work for what it could have, seemed to have that effect. Amekaze couldn't explain it necessarily, but she had grown up to enjoy the sensations too. "I ask because while I do not know.. this spot in particular before now, I notice so few coming up very high yet." That and there was a lot of delicate ground to cover up here. She was still working on it herself. Of course, winter was a good enough reason for them not to really pay the peaks much mind if they had a lesser interest in it than her. She knew several of them were not born mountaineers and even Wildfire cited clumsiness, so maybe that was why.

The yearling canted her head, pondering Ame's remark about meditation. Thinner air meant less oxygen, which made it not only more difficult to breathe but also to focus. It would seem to her that these factors were counter-intuitive to something like meditation. But maybe the sweeping vistas and silent solitude made up for it. At the thought, her amber gaze slid sideways, peering at the nearby crags before scanning further outward. She could imagine coming up here to think and obtain inner peace and equilibrium. In a way, that's exactly what she'd done without even realizing it.

"Yeah, that's why I came up here: to get some privacy," the Gamma agreed, then quickly realized how that sounded. "Not that I mind your company. I just needed a little bit of alone time last night. I actually slept here," she revealed, a little note of wonder in her voice that she had been able to sleep at all. But she couldn't remember having nightmares or even being restless. "It was very restful."

Wildfire paused for a moment, then looked in the Alpha female's direction again. "How do you meditate, exactly?" she found herself wondering out loud.

She'd not appreciated the mountaintop meditations to the lengths her mother did, and presumably, she just wasn't as good at it as her. Amekaze had moved quite a ways away from it these days, from the traditions to the language she'd taken from her dam, and wondered if she may circle back one day when her interests weren't pulling her other directions.

Wildfire did go on to express her want of privacy, which canted her head subtly. While she disarmed the notion in almost the next breath, Ame wanted her to know she could shoo her aside if she wanted; she'd find no offense because if anyone understood the need for privacy, it was her: a professional, lifelong introvert. "Understandable. I did worry I interrupted something of that sort.." Because it had been a logical thing to suspect, after all. "You know I would find no offense if you wanted your privacy back," she added lightly, although meant it honestly.

"Ah, well. It is.. something that can be done many ways, and differs by individuals who all find their clarity and focus different ways. Sometimes it  needs a certain place or a particular pose, sometimes just counting breaths and silence is enough to find the vibe meditation seeks, others something else entirely.." she fanned back her ears as the explanation could have even continued on when even that seemed like so much, and so vague that it probably did not answer anything. She was never that good at it, let alone trying to relay the tactics of it she recalled from days long behind her.

Wildfire simply and silently shook her head when Ame offered to make herself scarce. Besides, she was interested in the answer to her question. She listened, drawing in quiet breaths, as the Alpha female explained various methods of meditation. It all sort of matched up with her preconceived notions about it. She decided she would give it a real whirl at some point when she was by herself again. It couldn't hurt, anyway.

"We should give this place a name," she thought aloud a little inanely in the next moment, amber gaze lifting slowly to the tree's beautifully gnarled branches again. "Like Peach Tree Point or something... although it's not very pointy up here," Wildfire mused, glancing around at the flat-topped spire. "Maybe... Peach Tree Landing instead?" she suggested, brows lifting ever so slightly as she glanced at Ame to see what she thought of the name.

Focus rounded back to the peach tree. She squinted thoughtfully now that she considered names for it at Wildfire's suggestion. Not knowing it well, aside from these prior few moments, she wasn't overly abundant in the suggestions. But, she did admire the flow of Peach Tree Point -- actual points withstanding or not. She found her ideas heading down a similar path. "Hmm.. Peach Tree Pinnacle?" She was not sure she liked the sound of that so much out-loud, now that she'd heard it. Her ears splayed thoughtfully. The few other words that came to mind (peak? pike? protrusion? prominence?) didn't seem to quite fit either.. so she pressed onward. "Peach Tree Perch?" she offered halfheartedly and found it really only inspired her to glance around for birds, knowing of a few sorts who might like elevations like these. She pondered on, but certainly didn't feel one hundred percent sold on any names just yet.

"I like that one," Wildfire said in response to Ame's latter suggestion. It was a perch, more or less, from which one could sit and view the whole world below. That's what it felt like anyway. "Let's go with that." In the coming days, she would unconsciously revert to thinking of it as Peach Tree Landing, although in the end it wouldn't even matter. She didn't know it yet but this was the first and last time she would ever come here.

"I think I'm going to climb down a bit," Wildfire announced in the next breath. She had no intentions of going down the mountain very far. She felt safer at these heights. But she couldn't very well stay here forever. She wasn't the type to stay in one place, even under duress. "You're welcome to come with me," Wildfire added, though truthfully she hoped to be left to her own devices. "If not, I'll see you later, Ame," the she-wolf finished with a smile before turning to go.

Mind concluding this? :)

It would take time for the name to sink in and now with it freshly in mind, she surveyed the area once again and tried to recall the path here in more plain detail. Likely, passing the name along to Charon (because if it came up to anyone else, it would probably be him) would help cement it in her mind. For now, it felt very fresh, especially with being so newly acquainted with the spot as a whole when it already had a name to call its own.

Wildfire began to prepare her leave, and the dark alpha considered the offer for a beat, but eventually declined with a soft shake of her head. She wanted to stay a while longer to get to know the place and remembering the yearling's mention of wanting to be alone was something else to consider. "I will pass," she said simply, and wished her safe travels down the pathways. "See you," she chuffed and watched her go.