The Tangle bird watching goes both ways
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#1
All Welcome 
When Furi reaches the borders of Drageda, she hears Blixen’s voice in the back of her head. You’re always out. She teeters on the edge, weaving in and out every so often, until eventually she moves away without going back. She can do what she wants, as long as she does her part. She doesn’t have to stay in Drageda anymore than she wants to or be near Blixen all the time, or Rose—though she wouldn’t complain if Rose wanted to hang out more—but she is a scout and this is what scouts do.

She finds herself beginnings of thick brush. It’s a good attempt at clearing her mind, having to focus on where she steps so she doesn’t get caught. A red flag hangs out in front of her, warning her not to keep going, but she pushes through anyway despite the growing anxiety. Something hooks around the back of her leg and she tugs, unable to shake away whatever it is. She turns back to see her paw caught between vine and a thick growth of roots. Ugh. She hobbles back for better balance and braces herself, using all her strength to try and tear away but the more she pulls, the tighter it becomes, and a few more tugs later, she realizes she has to try something else.

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#2
She's running herself ragged, she knows, but her anxious heart can't help but force her into motion each and every day; sometimes back to Wardruna, and sometimes further from him. She's noticed something, and although she has not asked in order to confirm her suspicions, it gives her new fuel for her wanderings.

Wardruna is looking for something. Sif will look for it, too.

And while the Tangle doesn't seem like the best place to look for the sort of thing Wardruna wants, Sif has found more unique items in less likely places. Besides, she likes the way the thorns drag through her fur - almost like being groomed by another wolf, except with more blood and less warmth. That's okay; Sif doesn't really know the difference. She rubs against the vines as though they are the softest of tongues, leaving tufts of fur and droplets of blood in her wake. (These are superficial wounds. She can survive it. She will.)

And then, just as she'd suspected would happen, a girl soon materializes out of the gloom, young and ripe for the picking.

"Hallo," says Sif, squeezing through a tangle of vines to stand a few feet from the patterned youth. "Are you nem?" No, that wasn't quite right... "Naame?"
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Awkwardly, Furi stands there. She lets a few seconds pass in order to come to the best conclusion but any movement tightens the vines around her ankles. She could try to chew her way out but she’s afraid of twisting something—the vines or her ankle—and so it is not her first go to. A few more tugs. Nope. Still stick. She sighs. She turns and bends her knees so she can lower to the ground to try and turn her lanky form to get at the vines but she hears the footsteps of another. Her eyes widen and she freezes, slowly unfolding and standing still on all four legs. If she doesn’t move, it’s not apparent she’s stuck.

Hallo, the strangely marked wolf greets when she is close enough. She doesn’t come any closer and Furi stares at her as she says something again, this time confusing her, but correcting a beat later. It doesn’t sound like Blixen’s language, despite the accent, and she licks her lips nervously. “My name?” she questions, almost speaking again in Trigedasleng. “My name is Furi,” she introduces a beat later. “Who are you?”

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Success! Sif wags her tail, glad to had been understood once more. She is learning, slowly, to communicate without rehearsing beforehand - to break free of the automated responses that Fen had worked so hard to program her with. "I am Sif," she replies, easily recognizing Furi's question. That, at least, is something she is familiar with.

Furi is trapped. Sif deduces that quite quickly, and it doesn't take long before she sees what ought to be done. She takes a tiny step closer before hesitating once more. "I help? Bite bite?" she suggests, nodding toward the vines that trapped the young shewolf. Being trapped was such an awful feeling - Sif wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy. Not that she'd had many enemies over the course of her young life.
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The other wolf’s tail wags back and forth and she watches it swing a few times. Eventually, her own falls into place and her face relaxes, looking up just as Sif introduces herself. “Sif. Okay.” Weird name. Sif. Her brows knit briefly together, thinking about it a few more seconds before the other catches on to what shenanigan she’s gotten herself into. The way the wolf offers her help is a little strange and there’s a tight feeling in her spine that normal twisting and squirming can’t shake.

“Okay, yes. Yes, please, but,” she pauses, turning a little to expose which ankle is stuck. She lifts her right rear leg up a little, making it obvious which vines are connected to her. “But just the weeds and stuff, okay? Not my foot,” she explains, licking her lips nervously, watching each movement the other makes. Maybe if she puts enough force, she can pull up the foliage but she hesitates, waiting to see what the strange wolf plans to do.

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Sif wagged her tail at Furi's acceptance. And, only because she was prepared to be asked such a thing, Sif knew at once what Furi was getting at. "No feet," she chirped back with another cheerful lash of her tail.

And then, slinking low to show that she was not that big! Don't worry! - Sif moved closer to the young shewolf and found a place far enough from Furi's paw to begin chewing through the vine. It tasted awful, but Sif was sure it felt much worse wrapped for Furi than it tasted for her. Still! Eurfhgh. She spent as little time as possible on the gnarled vine, chewing furiously and making her gums bleed again in the process. She really ought to give them a couple days rest before she abused them again...

"Yes!" said Sif, careful to use and exclaimation that Furi could understand, too. "I get it! Try!" She backed away, nodding eagerly to the girl.
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#7
No feet.

Brows knit together as the other confirms her understanding of what she needs to do. Something is a little off about the situation but Furi doesn’t know what to do about it. She’s trapped, first of all, and maybe enough force will pull her free, but she can’t count on that yet. Sif lowers to the ground and inches closer, her head turning to watch as she finds the vines holding her and chews at them with a large distance from her ankle. It’s enough to give her release, but she notes the scent of blood on the air and she opens her mouth to say something but Sif releases her hold and tells her to try. 

She cheers herself on and Furi can’t help the smile on her expression, lifting her ankle up and forward. The vines tear away from the ground and her ankle, but there’s one that’s still tight, preventing her from being completely free. She tries to shake the rest loose to find the one still holding on to her. It’s tightened around her ankle that’s made it uncomfortable, tearing at the skin beneath it’s grip. “Can you do one more?” she asks and wiggles her paw, hopefully showing off which one needs to be released to prevent anymore damage. 

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There's a short, shared celebration. Sif is enthralled by the feeling of teamwork, even as shallow as this encounter has been, thus far. Furi has been kind enough, and the girl absorbs this like a bone-dry sponge. Even though their victory is short-lived, Sif's desperation for praise and companionship is fueled by a request for more help. Of course! she thinks, her heart giving a tiny skip.

"Yes!" she says again, lowering herself with a tiny wiggle of pleasure. She sets to work on the next vine with a partially numb mouth; the taste doesn't bother her as much anymore, and her teeth are a little less sore then they had been. Maybe it was a good plant? More likely, Sif was mildly allergic. Either way, this vine was gone as well, soon enough, and Sif hops back to do a little dance. Helping people is so much fun!

"Free?" she asks, almost hoping that Furi will require more of her.
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It doesn’t make much to get the girl to still help her. Her tail wags a few times as she’s on the ground again, biting at the last vine, and as soon as she’s worked her way through, there’s immediate relief. It burns on both side of her ankle from cutting through skin but there’s not too much blood.

Furi shakes her foot free and hops on three legs forward, trying to get out of the mess of brush she’d gotten caught up into. There will definitely not be a repeat visit.

Once she’s in a relatively empty spot, she lowers her rump to the ground to inspect her ankle. It doesn’t look terrible, a little superficial. Portia—Rose?—can look at it when she gets back. Furi lowers her head and licks at one side, cleaning the blood off, and then another, before she remembers she had company. She glances up at the strange patterned wolf and thumps her tail, straightening her form back out and standing up once more.

”Thank you for the help,” she says with a smile though she doesn’t know how to repay her.

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"Thank you," Sif parrots back, because it's hard to remember that there's a separate response to some of these exchanges, unlike the simple 'hello', 'hello to you too'. Either way, she is thankful to have been able to help, and thankful that Furi has been so nice, and thankful that they are still standing there, awkward as Sif might feel.

And all she can do is stand there, waiting and wondering and being at a total loss when it came to what should happen next. Did they say goodbye? Sif didn't want that, but at the same time, she felt quite unable to draw close to Furi as she had with Hella. This was different, somehow, though she couldn't quite say why.

"You have home," says Sif, able to smell this on the other girl's pelt. Something in her chest tightens at the realization, and then begins to sink down to the pit of her stomach - a heavy and unpleasant weight. She shifts from foot to foot, feeling foolish and vulnerable and competely enamored with this kind, patterned girl.
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Sif says thank you, another weird quirk, and Furi offers a smile anyway. She helped get her free and while she doesn’t necessarily thing she’d have been stuck here forever—certainly she could have done something similar—it is nice to have the help and ability to get away sooner with company. Mostly she’s thankful the stranger had not ill-intent and super glad she didn’t bite her foot or ankle.
 
The other makes an observation and Furi stares a few seconds for answering. “Yes. Drageda,” she says and turns her nose to point in the direction it should be but there’s too much brush in the way. “It’s next to the ocean,” she comments and she feels the urge to invite the other back to try and join them but after the escapade with Rose, she doesn’t want to go through that again. Plus, she isn’t even sure they would see past the weirdness. Sif is helpful, at least, but maybe she isn’t in their eyes. Furi drops her at ease expression and frowns, wrinkling her nose a little. “Do you?”

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"Ocean," Sif chirps, regaining a bit of her former good mood. "I - from ocean. But live far."

She tipped her nose, as Furi had done, toward her own home-base. In the middle of the tangle, it was difficult to tell exactly which direction Wardruna would be in, but she didn't think these details were too important either way. Furi would not be coming back to live with Sif, and the dark girl doubted they'd see each other again any time soon. The thought was a sad one, but Sif knew she had to be realistic. She shuffled her paws, wishing she knew what to do next.

"I lif wit girlfriends," she chattered, groping inanely for more things to say. "No family."
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It’s not terrible difficult to follow along but she easily finds herself distracted as she tries to fill in more details than she has been given. The girl’s expression changes and she frowns, dipping her head a little. Maybe she belongs to one of the packs further south of Drageda. They are pretty far away and she begins to wonder if she’s gotten too far from home. Her ears alert forward when she mentions she lives with girlfriends and she first things of Witchbaby. It makes perfectly logical sense that she’s from the pack her friend is in and her Furi is, ready to help! She doesn’t have to feel bad about not offering to take her to someplace she can call home anymore and she smiles, hoping to see a change from sadness. Which must look a little awkward with the following, “are you lost?”

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Are you lost?

Sif pauses, ears swivelling back. She knew those words, of course - they were simple enough. What she didn't know was the answer. Is she lost? Has all this just been too good to be true? She'd not seen Wardruna since the meeting with Poet... he was always with Noma, hidden away behind the borders of his pack.

Maybe they would never be together. Maybe she and her girlfriends will always be scattered to the four winds.

But she knows what Furi means. She knows that unpacking her lack-of-a-family drama is not what the other girl wants. So Sif swallows her uncertainties and gives Furi a polite smile and a wag of her tail. "No - not lost," she assures the other, and as the words leave her mouth, she feels buoyed - centered. "I haff to get back," she says importantly, tail wagging once more. She'll just go out and find Wardruna, and hang out with her girlfriends, and look for a home for them - and everything will be okay.

"Goodbye, Furi!" she chirps, booping noses with the younger girl before - all at once - wheeling away.
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Sif admits that she’s not lost and Furi smiles, opening her mouth to speak—do you know Witchbaby?—but before the words get to her tongue, she’s admitting she has to go. She tries to rush out a wait! to her to stop but Sif reaches forward and touches her nose with her own. Her face feels flush with heat and her pale green eyes widen while the rest of her stock still in surprise. She barely registers the goodbye and she finally gets a strangled sound out of her throat but the girl is out of sight in the thick tangle and she frowns, wondering if she’ll see her again.

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