Dragoncrest Cliffs be your own 3 am

@Furi :3 short short quick quick

she is restless today. the scouting party came back and her mother did not - a bitter pill to swallow. her legs itch. blix wants to - do something, spar or train or hunt, but nomi is busy and she can't find another willing participant. but she has to do something, so she decides today will be a patrol day, as most of her days are when she's not training. it is maybe getting a little obsessive, her constant patrolling, but, well, she's a teenager. at least it's something productive - much better than sitting around and thinking about the ever-realer possibility that her mother has either died or left them intentionally and ah - ah, nope, not that, just patrolling.

Coming to Drageda, however short her current stay is is easily overwhelming. She is limited to where she can but she doesn’t have to stay far from Eske. The cavern is off limits, for the time being, but her guardian doesn’t often sleep there anyway and Étoille told her he was always available, if she needed him. It helps that he isn’t allowed in the same places that she is and makes her feel a little better about the situation.

Still, Furi is uncertain where to go or what she should be doing. The tension in the air here proves thicker than with the scouting group. An entire pack is now mourning and scrambling together and she can only stay in the background, watching as everything fast forwards through and she’s left hanging. She sighs and resigns to aimlessly walking around until she hits the border, strong in scent by the wolves that live here, as well as another that is fresh enough to be present.

She knows little about the others in the pack still, though she may have been briefed by one of her two companions, but when she sees the other girl—a child like her—she feels some of the tension mix between relief and strengthening. She is not the only one close to her age here, she vaguely remembers, but she can feel the anxiety radiating from the petite, fiery form. Furi opens her mouth to say something but nothing comes out, leaving her blank as the other comes into focus with each advancing step.

when she found out that her mother had not returned with eske's group, blix hadn't bothered to learn much else, and so while she knows vaguely of the other child, she's still a little surprised by her approach. though the ginger has grown surrounded by other children her age, they're all her siblings in one way or another - and she loves them dearly, but the dark figure approaching her is novel.

"hei," she calls, intrigued but wary, because novel means something new, a potential threat to drageda. unlike atajar and her companions, this girl is completely outside of drageda's way of life, and that gives her pause. but she trusts eske's sensibilities and her nomi's decisions enough to stamp down that lingering doubt for now and offer a small smile. "you came back with eske, yeah?"

The other girl calls out to her and she shifts her weight, letting her ears fall back against her head. She feels even more out of place than before as she is scrutinized. She briefly thinks about Seri and Tapat and how she much have made them feel—puppies that were not born where she had—and she isn’t sure she likes it very much. Furi looks away for a moment, feeling something inside her chest that she doesn’t like either; something rooting inside herself she doesn’t know how to put words to.
 
When asked about her origin, she carefully nods her head thought she isn’t sure what she’s supposed to say. Introduce yourself, she thinks and her mouth opens to speak but she snaps it back shut rather quickly as if reconsidering. Awkwardly, the girl shuffles her feet and finally she spits it out: “I’m Furi.”

 it doesn't occur to blix that the girl as an outsider might feel awkward. she cannot conceive of a home outside of drageda - she knows there is a wider world and perhaps one day she'll be motivated to explore it but in truth the ginger girl is a homebody. she's not sure what to make of the girl's anxiety but she doesn't think too hard about it. "cool. i'm blix," she says, oblivious, "welcome to drageda. where are you from?" unlike with atajar, she poses the question with a hint of suspicion, but clearly lacking malice. it is a little weird - wanlida goes to find her mother and instead comes back with a complete stranger, and then the stranger is allowed to stay. maybe she's a little more doubtful than she'd admitted to herself. well, no need to tell the girl that, so long as she proves herself reliable.

The girl is… kind of polite. She wonders if it’s because she has to be. She knows she’s an outsider among these wolves but she doesn’t realize just how much of one she is to them. When she asks about where she’s from, it sounds innocent enough but she her heartbeat quickens and she can feel it in the tips of her ears. “Um,” she pauses, trying to buy a little time. She remembers her home, remembers her parents and her siblings and she loves them but how can she tell them that? Would they cast her out when her loyalty here is not strong? Maybe they would try to take her home. Does she even want to go home? “I don’t really remember,” she manages to say. “I got lost when I was really young,” she adds.

 the girl's answer makes sense at least. if she's been lost without help or home, then she needs someone to look out for her. "i can't imagine that," blix says, thinking of how important drageda is to her. would she be able to find her way back home if the unthinkable happened? (yes, she thinks determinedly, absolutely. just like mother should be able to). "do you.. want to remember?" she asks hesitantly. the question is more urgent than it seems: furi is new and lost but blix demands loyalty to drageda if she is going to occupy their home, and it is hard for her to recall softness when more important members of their rank are gone off somewhere. to that affect her darkened amber eyes are oddly fierce, at-odds with the fairly gentle questioning. sorry, furi, you caught her at a weird adolescence.

There had been a time when Furi couldn’t imagine it. She never wanted to leave her family. She may admit she doesn’t remember where she’s from but she can at least say she doesn’t remember a lot from her travel before Eske. Most of it had been a blur of loneliness and hunger and the first time she’s offered a meal and companionship, she’s clung to it. Wanlida and the other brute had cared easily for her, feeing her and keeping her safe when she needed it. How can she not stay, if only to repay them? And perhaps it won’t be so bad. Maybe it will be home.
 
“I don’t know. If I do, I’d have to leave, right?” she asks with a twitch of her ears. She has questions for someone—not Blix—but perhaps she’ll be able to shed some light on the situation.

 she squints slightly, unsure of what to make of furi's answer. it's not a yes or a no and it offers no insight into the girl's loyalty, except the word 'leave' makes her dubious. "i dunno," blix says eventually, looking toward the ocean. "if you chose drageda you don't have to." she doesn't know anything about furi's family life, but the girl doesn't seem to be chomping at the bit to get back to them - still, it is a choice, and she stresses that in her words. of course it is easy for blix to feel this way, being drageda's flesh and blood. she'd never be asked to choose between family and drageda, because drageda is family. but, well, the girl doesn't have the luxury of that much self awareness. after a moment, she at least has the grace to feel a little bad for pressuring the new girl so hard, and adds awkwardly, "my mother's the one eske was looking for. she disappeared a little while ago."

She has the option to chose Drageda but it doesn’t make any of this any easier. She thinks fondly of her two friends despite the pressure the other child is putting on her. By choosing not to remember—or not admitting she does—doesn’t that mean she picks Drageda? She picks Eske and Étoille. At least for now. Perhaps she won’t like it or maybe they won’t like her but she can’t do anything about it now. Once upon a time, she remembers she was so self-assured and confident. She got others to do things she wanted them to do and now, outside of her family, she has no power. She has pity and the way others look at her. Furi quietly clears her throat.
 
When Blixen explains it is her mother that is missing, her ears fall back against her head again and she offers her a quiet “oh” in response. She does resemble to description Eske had given Étoille a few days ago but she hadn’t put two and two together. Not having all the information or connections leaves her piecing together the rest as much as she can. “I’m sorry.”

blix softens a little bit when furi apologises. not because she likes "i'm sorry" - what can she do with it? - but because it feels.. better to explain than to take it out on her. it's not really her fault, after all. she sighs and sits down. "it's hard," the ginger child admits. "i don't know why she'd just leave - no, she wouldn't leave, so it has to be foul play." or she did leave, something ugly in her whispers. she ignores it. "so it's just a little.. they were supposed to come back with her, you know?"

the girl sighs again, shrugging miserably at the dark-furred outsider. "sorry, it's not - you're welcome to stay as long as you want." furi probably doesn't need blix to tell her that, but: blix doesn't think about that. her approval matters dangit. and for now, furi can have it. for now.

The more Blix talks about her missing mother, a hard lump forms in the back of her throat. A pinprick of pain settles behind her eyes and she blinks a few times to try and bat it away though she isn’t sure she’s very good at it. The pack is working so hard to find the girl’s missing mother and she thinks heavily of Lotte and what she would do if she was missing. It seems wholly irrelevant now since she is the one missing. Like Roarke. Furi tries to swallow the lump blocking her airway with a slight sniffle of her nose she does her best to brush off.
 
“Thanks,” she says, quietly. I guess. “I, uh.. I’m sorry I came here instead of your mom,” she offers. One sorry didn’t quite feel enough, especially since Blix starts showing her emotions on her sleeve and Furi feels lost, swimming in emotions she can’t talk about.

"no, en's ku," she says, slipping back into her people's tongue absently. blix feels maybe a little guilty. it's not really her intention to make furi feel bad for being here, she just - someone has to understand, right? awkwardly she tries to smile at the girl. "i mean, it's not something you gotta be sorry about. it's good you're here now," blix says, and means it this time. "sorry for unloading all of that on you." she doesn't say because it's irrelevant to you because in her mind it isn't so long as furi is here in drageda, but nonetheless. "um. you can ... unload on me if you want? fair's fair."

Blix says something that sounds like it’s cool but it’s different and her ears twitch, uncertain of what she really heard. Her jaw tightens and she nods, brushing it off in the same way the other girl does. It doesn’t occur to her there’s an entire language she doesn’t even know.
 
When the stage is given to her to unload, Furi’s ears fall back again and twitch forward in consideration. She looks away, uncertain of what she is to say. She wants to talk about her mom and her dad and Roarke and everyone in Teaghlaigh but she can’t. The other doesn’t have a clue about where she came from and she isn’t supposed to remember. If she doesn’t remember, she doesn’t have to be sad but she is and she doesn’t know how to turn it around. “I um… I saw…” she pauses, unsure of herself. Perhaps it is better to let it go instead of making up something that may or may not be bothering her but when she thinks longer on it, how twisted and broken the body looked, she supposes she’s just as upset about that as she is about missing home. Furi swallows a hard lump in her throat. “I saw a dead body,” she finally spits out as if she’s not sure of the name but she thinks she is, having heard it enough times.

 the silence stretches on a moment uncomfortably, and the ginger resists the urge to squirm. it's a bed of her own making - she wouldn't really blame furi for not wanting to talk to her anymore, but then furi talks and -

"a dead body..?" she repeats, eyes going wide. for a moment she panicks, thinking it must have been her mother. but she knows they didn't find her and even if by some weird circumstance furi had seen her mother's dead body and lied about it to the adults she probably would've mentioned it by now. probably? still. she doesn't know about arlo's death, having tuned out pretty much everything after 'mother is still gone.' a sinking feeling takes over her now. "was it someone you knew?" blix asks instead, selfishly hoping the answer is yes, that her people are okay.

Furi notes the tension in Blix all of a sudden and she glances away, not making the connection from her mother to the dead body in conversation. She hadn’t considered Blixen mi ght not know about the full extent of the travels Eske and her companions made and she can’t help but feel like it isn’t her place to tell her. She’s always dove in, leaving her floundering for a solution but she isn’t able to come up with one. For a few more moments, she stalls, shifting uncomfortably beneath her questioning stare.
 
“It was the other wolf they were looking for,” she says. Perhaps she should have said his name for clarification but she doesn’t want to get it wrong. It isn’t the girl’s mother that they’d found at the bottom of a ledge, unreachable to those that may want to bury him. His family must be sad.

 "oh,", blix says, and then, "oh, arlo," an exhalation of mourning. she'd not known arlo well - unlike her brothers, she'd not spent time with him really, but - he had always been there in her life, a solid presence. and now he was gone. and now she could never get to know him. 

she steels her shoulders. arlo's death puts her mother's disappearance in a new light - her other deepest fear. but she can't bring herself to think about it now, so instead she refocuses on furi, eyes suddenly intense. "hey, do you wanna play a game or something?" the girl asks -- an abrupt change of pace and a fairly obvious attempt to distract herself from something - but, maybe furi needs a distraction too, she hopes.

Furi keeps her eyes low as Blix sorts the emotions. She had no emotional connection to the wolf but seeing his body had been surreal. If she’d known him, or cared for him, what would that do then? She tightens her jaws and licks her lips anxiously. She doesn’t expect the shift so suddenly but she flinches and refocuses her attention upon the fiery girl. Once she’d been asked to play by Seri, where she quickly abandoned the game because she didn’t want to play. Furi doesn’t want to play a game anymore than she did that day but the thought of turning away now doesn’t seem right. “Um, okay. What game?” she hesitantly asks after a moment.

furi agrees hesitantly, which is better than a no at least, but blix realises she hasn't thought this far ahead. "good question," she says sheepishly. but this is a chance to get past her initial awkwardness, so she takes a minute to collect herself and then darts forward, gently tapping the dark-furred girl with one bright red paw. "tag!" the ginger chirps, then darts away, hopeful furi will follow suit.

Blix seems like she needs to think about the plan and Furi watches her carefully. It has been so long since she played a game, before she’d left Teaghlaigh... before she’d been attacked on the outskirts of her home. She’d never told her parents and maybe things would have been different if she had. Things would have been different if she’d never left the borders in the first place but the ache in her heart from her brother had taken her away. 

Her throat closes up when Blix jerks forward and Furi flinches, uncertain what the girl is going to do. When she bursts away in the opposite direction, she eases up to realize what they were playing. It takes a few seconds to get the gears into motion, giving the girl a significant head start but Furi puts all the energy she can muster into chasing after her new pack mate.

 blix has stopped considering herself a child since her mother's disappearance - since entering kru - but the slap of her paws and the somewhat anxious-helpless giggling that escapes her as she flees furi's chasing form make her feel like she's playing at youth instead of being the age she really is. it takes a few moments for that to fade completely - for her to come back to herself and remember the simple joy in playing a game with another, and eventually her nervous laughter turns into something more genuine. she can't quite let go of everything but for the moment, things will be okay - just her, furi, and a nice game of tag.