Dragoncrest Cliffs little wonders

Even with the responsibility of family each morning, Thuringwethil still wakes and stretches and leaves the den (not before a kiss from her mate and their three children. They react little at first and Thuringwethil is content to see them alive and happy and growing. Their personalities have begun to take shape and develop something new each day. Days come and days go and she learns more through various successes and failures and they simply bumble along. Wildfire seems to have perked up a little bit but their time together is often tense and uncertain but she doesn’t quite know what to do in the meantime.

Thought of Asherah and her little family leaves her curious to see how they are doing and if they’d acclimated well. She’s seen little in passing, wrapped up in her own affairs instead of Drageda, but there have been little disruption that she needs to worry about. They are secure and safe and well fed but if the Teekon has taught her anything, it is not for long they can keep this up, but while they have if, Thuringwethil is welcome to embrace it while it’s around.

The dark woman makes her way through the redwood forest, to the north where she’d last known the woman to settle with her children, in hopes to extend an invitation to their main sleeping grounds, where the rest of Drageda (or at least, the most of them) take refuge as well as enjoy the only beach they have access to from the cliffs. Thuringwethil lifts her nose then for a short call to the trio: @Asherah, @Anatha, @Elohim.

perhaps it isn't healthy, the girl spending so much time alone. perhaps she should be with her packmates, instead of in her thoughts. but it is simply her nature, to desire solitude over company, and today is no exception as she wanders along the cliffs, peering into the waters below and at the multitude of rocks beneath her paws, and the subtle differences between them all. 

the call has her ears perk atop her skull, and she glances uncertainly in the direction of the call. no one had summoned her save for her immediately family, for a while, but soon she places the song as belonging to the Commander. her steps are light upon the crisp earth, let yet warmed completely by the day's sun. she moves toward the call at a light lope, and arrives before her family does. shifting in the slightest, not completely comfortable with being the only one here, she drops onto her rear and watches the Commander is silence. aftera pause she remembers that she has forgotten a greeting, and dipping her head, she calls out a wavering "hello" 

Her summoning brought slight anxiety to her chest. She wasn't sure why, exactly, because Thurinwethil had never given her reason to be fearful of mistreatment. Nor had she violated any rules laid before her. She had taken care to refill the caches they ate from while the three of them regained their body mass. She had minded the limits of their exploration. She knew all this, and knew that the woman who had accepted them had been nothing but kind, but her mind still doubted. Her heart still hardened in fear. 

She moved quickly to where the call had come from and saw that her daughter had beaten her there. She moved to stand beside the girl, offering her a nuzzle if she would have it. Anatha had been striking out more and more, and while Asherah might have thought this would upset her, she found it a relief. She had worried that her children would not be able to find their independence but they seemed to be more than capable.

She cast her eyes towards Thuringwethil and dipped her head, tail waving. "Is everything alright?" She betrayed her own attempts to keep her face neutral by asking, but she could not contain herself. The Heda, as she had learned, did not seem angry or in any distress. She did notice the scent of milk on the woman, but clearly Thuringwethil was not nursing. She wondered if perhaps she shared a communal den among the other pack members, for she still was not yet aware of Wildfire and Thuringwethil's relationship.

Contrary to both of the females in his family, Elohim felt no uncertainty or anxiety at the sound of the Heda's call. In fact, he was rather excited to be called for. He charged from what he had been doing, interrupting his lackadaisical attempt at a rabbit hunt without any further thought to what he left behind. Though he had yet to make a best friend here, he enjoyed his time in Drageda. There was much to explore, and many people to listen to if he could find them. 

But Heda, she had been his friend from the start. She would still be his friend now. He had been good to keep away from where mother told him not to go. Despite the fact that much of the pack could clearly be scented heading that way, he listened. He stayed. He didn't want to, but he did. Now, finally, some of the pack had come back his way and he was not about to miss it.

He burst from the undergrowth with his tongue lolling and his eyes bright. He loped over to the gathering, tail waving. He glanced towards Anatha and his mother and wondered at the worried tension of his mother's body. Anatha didn't seem particularly anything, but that wasn't really abnormal either, not with people she didn't know. "Thur'n!" He called, but managed to mind his manners enough to move beside his mother and not charge to the leader. Something was happening here, and it was important, but he didn't know what it was yet.

It is Anatha that comes to her first. She has grown since she first met her on the coast months ago and even since being in Drageda. Her nose dips downward once in acknowledgement as they wait for the rest of them. It isn’t much longer before Asherah appears, followed along by Elohim. She smiles as he bounces into view but her focuses quickly returns to the matriarch of the family. Her arch tail wags a few times over her spine and she nods to the question.

“I wanted to take you to our Hougeda, if you wanted to stay near the rest of Drageda,” she explains. “It accesses a secluded beach.” Thuringwethil smiles again. Some wolves don’t necessarily sleep there every night but the heart of their territory is widely cherished among them. She flickers her gaze to the children for a moment before returning for an answer.

her mother appeared next, and she accepted the muzzle, offering a poke of the woman's shoulder with her nose in return. her brother bound in a short time after, and leaning forth to offer him a glinting glance, her gaze shifted next to Heda, and what she might have called them for. an invitation, it seemed, one to occupy a thing called Hougeda. immediately, she posed a question, asking, "What does it mean?"  words were soft and careful, as they were with any that were not her family. 

beach sounded good; she'd always wanted to explore the beach in their territory. but staying near the rest of Drageda meant others,  and that was not as great as a beach. still, she would follow her family wherever they chose to move within the territory.

The woman's body language is relaxed, happy. Asherah allows herself to do the same. The tension slowly eases from her muscles. She was foolish to fear in the first place, but her first instinct was to worry that they were being asked to leave. There wasn't any reason to suspect this, but still. Drageda had seemed a balm for her wounds, and the idea of losing it and taking her children back into the wilds made her want to shiver. She wasn't sure she could do it again, honestly she didn't know how she had managed before. She would, if she had to, but she desparately wanted to stay out of that situation.

"The Hougeda," She repeated, her own tail waving. "Where the rest of the pack sleeps?" Her eyes were bright and excited. To be allowed in, fully, was exactly the opposite of her fears. She'd been so excited with the prospect of merely being here she had forgotten there was more, more pack and more lands. Full access. She looked to Anatha approvingly, and waited for the Heda to answer.

He caught his sister's glance and threw his nose to the air, a haughty teasing gesture, but a smile teased his lips. Hearing what Thur'n came to tell them, his mouth dropped open in awe. "A beach! For swimming?!" He nearly missed the questions from his mother and sister, but had he heard he might have marveled at the differences in their questions. Asherah, focusing on the pack, he on the potential adventure and Anatha on learning things she did not yet know. How different they all were, and yet how very similiar.

"We can go anywhere now? We don't have to stay here?" His mother had explained why they were limited to this place, that they wanted to know the new wolves a little more before allowing them to walk everywhere. "Are there many wolves there, all the time?!" Still, he desparately wanted friends above all else.

Thuringwethil had not noticed the tension in the mother when she approaches but she does notice the visible shift into relaxation. Now with the intention in the air between them, questions from all around, she tries to smile a little bigger this time.

“Hougeda,” she repeats as she begins to address the family. “It means our home. Here, it is the cavern in the center of the cliffs, behind the lake.” They’ve had access up until that point, though the entrance (if close enough) is obvious from those used to it. “It is where several of us usually sleep, yes. The puppies will be moved there, soon,” she adds. They are still much smaller than the two before her but they are similar in youth. She smiles, waving her tail above her spine. “And yes, there’s a place to swim. Arlo is our best swimmer; you should ask him for lessons.”

Hopeful to satisfy their curiosity temporarily, Thuringwethil leads them to the center of the pack, hoping they'll integrate just as easily as the others.