Moonspear ring the bell
starboy
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Plans were beginning to form but not all of the information was clear yet. Charon wanted to speak with @Hydra and @Amekaze to hear her thoughts after hearing those of @Alya. They needed a plan, and he realised after speaking with his daughter that it'd be better to speak with his fellow leaders before going off and doing things himself. He was beginning to realise they had a few very important pawns in their paws and he wasn't just ready yet to let @Gannet go home when he wanted to. He was too important a piece to give up just yet, and if they would decide the path of war then Charon would need leverage of some sort — and perhaps something to set an example, make a threat. Or give Gannet a message to go home with, a clear message.

Charon called urgently for his mate and daughter; from his tone of voice it was clear that he was not looking for anyone else. He needed to keep his remaining daughter safe and his future children. If they wanted to act they should make a plan now, and wait their time until Drageda had gone home and left Redhawk Caldera, when they were back to being just them and weak again. He knew that Liffey and by proxy, Rannoch would not like it, but they should realise that Liffey's old pack had done a terrible thing. Should they not find themselves loyal to their current pack, the one that'd saved Rannoch and housed them through his healing period even when they were unable to yet contribute, the one of Rannoch's mother's friend, well... He liked them, thought they were good kids, but although his patience had stretched through time he found he still had none for disloyal wolves.
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Her roving stopped when he'd called and his tone warranted enough of her attention to go find out more. Since it was him, of course, and since it was among the climate they were.. plus it never hurt to see her mate, she wasted no time adjusting course of her canter. For all she knew, he had interesting news--maybe even favorable news. A lot could always change in an instant with everything going on, so Ame knew to expect all manner of things, good and bad, to come.

When she could pick Charon out of the landscape, she zeroed in wordlessly until she could reach his side. No matter the context of the meeting to ensue, she greeted him with a rough nudge and shoved her muzzle through the thick fur around his neck. She nipped at him, but much of it was mostly catching fluff; she was sometimes feeling energized when the long nights weren't too bitter, but those cold snaps always did drive her closer to him far more than normal. Instinctively, and in a casual way, she let him be her windbreak even now as she settled to find out more. Either way, and no matter the weather or the foul situation on the mind, she was always comfiest next to him.
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the bonecracker
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Her fathers summons would never be missed by Hydra, who was diligently marking the borders and patrolling. Since Galaxy's death, one could never be too careful. But the howl pulled her from her ritual, and she looked to @Alya, her present partner. Her look prompted Alya to continue onward as Hydra changed her course toward Moonspear's patriarch. 

She was an expert of this mountain; born to it, and a diligent explorer of the territories every inch, Hydra navigated the terrain to find the quickest course to them. In the chilly weather it was a challenge, but in time Hydra made it. When she arrived her ears flattened against her crown in greeting, not meek but certainly respectful of their place. It was a brief gesture that enabled them to know she knew her own before she approached them, content to nip at her father's chin in a submissive greeting and, as she wheeled past him, nip at her mothers hock hellishly. Her ears flattened against her crown good-naturedly thereafter, her entire being speaking of her lack of ill-intent. She grinned as she settled before them both, tail waving. Time spent with them was always good, even with the grim atmosphere and circumstances. 

In knowing that her father had called, she remained mute and looked to him.
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Soon Amekaze joined him. There was a short moment of intimacy as she settled down beside him and he nuzzled her face. Hydra showed up not long after and he nosed her face affectionately too, smiling as she approached — once more it made him realise how proud he was of her, of all three daughters. They were growing up so well. It felt like too long since they'd had a heart-to-heart, but it also felt like every time they saw each other these days it was all business and shit that was going on in their pack or others. Charon mentally noted that they should do nothing some day; simply spend some time together and relax. It'd be lovely. But at present there were other matters to attend, and so he turned his attention to his daughter and mate.

"Alya thinks that Rannoch and Liffey cannot be trusted, because Liffey was born in Redhawk. And then there's the matter of Julia's disappearance. Who knows they might've done that, too, after what they did to Galaxy." It was clear who he spoke of. Redhawk Caldera. Even though Galaxy's murderer had been punished, Charon didn't feel Redhawk had been punished enough. "We should probably wait with any attack until the Drageda wolves've returned home. Does Redhawk Caldera yet know we have Gannet?" He didn't remember if they'd sent anyone, had been consumed by grief and had not put much attention to these matters lately, so he didn't know if Ame or Hydra'd sorted it. However, if they had harmed the one who had killed Galaxy, then maybe they had him relay that message.

"I was thinking we could put Rannoch and Liffey to the test. Tell them a fake plan about Redhawk Caldera and see if they will cooperate. A test of loyalty. It should likely still be harmful for the fucking Caldera wolves, but it doesn't have to be anything we'll do if they turn out to be traitors. They owe us one, anyway, for taking in Rannoch when he was wounded and there hasn't really been any way to repay it so far from them. And if they refuse to cooperate, go against the plan, choose Redhawk's side... We will kill them." He spoke coldly, though truthfully he had contemplated a thousand times what he'd say — harm them, chase them out, punish them... But letting traitors go seemed like a dangerous plan that'd come to bite him back in the ass. He added: "I hope that it will not be necessary." Perhaps time had softened him up. He'd killed Nishu with no problems whatsoever when he had been a traitor. But these were wolves he liked, wolves that he knew respected him, too. It was different. It was Eshe's child, and Liffey, well, she didn't seem to have a bad bone in her. But if those things were all true, then this plan left him with nothing to fear, as it'd mean they would pass with flying colours. He looked at Ame and Hydra, curious what their thoughts were, vivid on his face that he did not prefer murdering otherwisely loyal pack mates, but that enough was enough. Traitors would only drag their pack down.
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For a heartbeat, everything fell so neatly into place. The other issues, the losses, were just fleetingly out of view. She savored his closeness, and when Hydra arrived among them, she was welcomed with a fond growl and click of her teeth back at her in response. She knew it was going to be short-lived, but still appreciated it until Charon's details hardened her expression, and mood, to a different sort of edge as Redhawk seeped into it, Korei's absence, and how Rannoch and Liffey were to play into this.

Ame hadn't thought all too deeply about it, or them. Perhaps Alya knew something she did not. The alpha admitted she was not overly close to either of them and appreciated them best in passing these days, like so many others when she wasn't feeling very patient, or personable. She'd always liked them well enough, for what it was worth. Her lips drew to a new frown.

Although her ears had fanned back as he went on, she swung them up at Drageda's mention. "Waiting would definitely be best," she mentioned. "Let Blackfeather wear them out, too. And I believe they do," although she left room for her daughter's confirmation. They all knew Amekaze had nothing direct to do with keeping Redhawks informed, although it did bother her freshly that Korei could have wandered right into their waiting chaos. The notion sent up a prickle.

"I agree, though. I could appreciate seeing them prove it," she replied as for Liffey and Rannoch, feeling a little behind on considering their loyalty to Redhawk over Moonspear from on their mountain. It was fresh, and she was processing it to know how to approach.. if it was a justifiable as her daughter suggested. "As for Korei, she already did well to make it clear she put the safety of others before her family as well, so.. it is hard to say what else she has done now," Ame barred her teeth, still sour at her for that debacle several days back that Hydra could attest to, even in her absence. Maybe her leaving had just been to weed out their weakest links, and Charon's plan could be the next--although as he said, she sorely hoped not. She didn't want it to come to that. Neither did she like thinking of her pale firstborn in such an ugly, foul way--practically alongside Redhawk sympathizers, no less.
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the bonecracker
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Hydra listened to her father, mulling over the words. Her own opinion on the matters were that they were as good as settled—Titmouse was without an eye and had grounds to die if he came too close to their territory. But her father had not met out his own justice, and so he certainly was still upset. Hydra truly did not like Liffey, and was eager to hear of her fathers own doubts... but as far as they went, the duo could swing their own sword. 

I can agree with that. Liffey's loyalty will never be to us, Moonspear. Rannoch's loyalty will always be more for his wife than it will be to his pack. Put Liffey in a situation to choose between one or the other, it will be Redhawk over Moonspear. Make Liffey come that position, you'll lose golden-boy Rannoch, Hydra mused. It was a reality she was all too aware of. She liked Rannoch, but he was far too soft for her. For Moonspear. 

Oh, right, Korei. She looked at her father. Korei Julia left of her own volition. Wraen told me she was asking her all about leaving her own birth pack. Wraen never expected her to act on it now, but Korei Julia totally would after our rendezvous with mom. She was an imbecile. Even her father knew that.
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Charon listened to Ame speak first; agreeing to the plan, and mentioning that Julia had been out of control of late. She used to just be whiny and weak, but lately, from what he had heard, she had added an attitude to that. Charon himself hadn't experienced this, for he had only seen Julia last one on one when, actually, she had been rather chipper and had promised never to leave. He couldn't imagine she would've actually left, even despite what he had heard from Hydra and Amekaze about her outburst.

Yet Hydra confirmed that she'd told Wraen some things or others. Charon felt angry and betrayed that Wraen hadn't told him or any of his family this the moment Julia'd gone. Now he felt the fool, even in the comfortable company of his relatives, for suggesting Redhawk had anything to do with her disappearance, though he still wouldn't be surprised if they would've been the ones to draw her out and get her to leave. "You think she... left?" he asked incredulously. "But she's worthless on her own. And she promised — last time we saw each other, she promised she'd never leave." Charon didn't necessarily love Julia as much as his other daughters — it was plain to see for everyone — but she was still his daughter and he hadn't wanted her to leave. What made it so that she would just leave without even so much as informing her relatives? Especially at a time like this, while they were all hurting from the loss of one of their daughters..

"Do you have any ideas what we can do to test them?" Charon asked, wiping the anger and sadness off his face and replacing it with cold calculation in the face of the task at hand. He didn't really have a clue yet, truthfully. "Could be to find out some kind of information of Redhawk, or... Tell her to harm Gannet in some way, maybe." He looked thoughtful, as though he hadn't found the idea just yet. He wasn't sure if asking her to harm another wolf would really be the best idea because he wasn't too sure Liffey was the kind of wolf to do that sort of stuff to start with. But it would be a good test, especially if it were something small such as taking an ear or roughing him up a little.
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Amekaze didn't doubt that Korei had left. After that, and if she had developed the thought well enough to ask Wraen about the topic, then so be it. They didn't have time for carrying disloyal baggage these days. Charon seemed surprised by it, citing a past meeting of his. She knew if he had seen her as she and the triplets had that he would understand. The dark mother wasn't going to argue with her over it if she would chose the dead of winter over her family who all lived with her survival and safety in mind, so had nothing to say except a slow shake of her head and angry frown.
 
Anyway, as for the pair.. Ame was still working through this, having never considered Liffey's loyalty to Redhawk this much at all, and doing so this suddenly was uneasy enough. "Hm, maybe. Information would be good.. potentially useful to us, if there was anything we needed to know." Was there? She was most curious about how they would do against Blackfeather.. but they also had Hydra's Redhawk friend, which Amekaze didn't know the recent status of--if she would attack Moonspear on sight over their very vague hostage situation. If they needed to know things, they might still have that route to rely on. "It would be easiest--but I doubt she would be able to do anything to Gannet, regardless," she scoffed. He was practically helpless and she didn't seem to have that trigger on her. That would be the end of that, simply so. "He might be useful if kept relatively whole anyway, although it is hard to say with him... They sure have not seemed too bothered by us keeping him here with a broken leg," she said. Granted, Blackfeather was probably a very good distraction if all the commotion raised over this war for weeks was a good indication. Maybe they were okay with Moonspear keeping him for whatever reason.

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the bonecracker
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I do, she expressed. In this, she trusted Wraen. What did she have to gain by lying about that? Nothing at all. It's pretty selfish, how she went about it, timing and all. But honestly, it doesn't surprise me. She can't seem to look outside herself or her own ideals. Vaati informed me that she was whining about thinking we were lying to her about something. He is a total stranger to her. I thought she was being irrational with Galaxy's death, but clearly she's just irrational. Her loyalty is not to us, and it seemed she was the liar. Hydra had thought Vaati's information that day on this subject to be something to not even dwell on... but evidently not. She might be out there bad-mouthing us to anyone with an ear. Loud mouth that she was. 

It occurred to her that she might have even done so with the present members of Moonspear. She could think of at least three bleeding hearts in their midst, two of which were the focus of their attention. 

As far as Redhawk went? One of my close friends lives there, she said. It was not as though she kept her friendship to Towhee a secret. She hung out with her as a kid often enough that their scents had surely mingled. The rest of them she did not give the same credit. Phox was a runaway turncoat, Titmouse was a little bitch... and she trusted the historian, her father, as far as their predecessors went. Anyhow, We don't need to do any spy work there. What does she have to hide? What do we? She would tell me if that murderer was there. Hell, she would hand him over, I bet. I trust her, and that trust would only be broken if she caught Towhee in a lie. Thus far, the duo had been nothing but honest with one another. 

But Liffey? Liffey she didn't trust, not with Moonspear and their wellbeing. Gannet is messed up enough. I've got an idea, she said, as she spoke, dwelling on it. Maybe, tell them you killed Titmouse. Her tail twitched idly behind her as the idea occurred to her. Then see if their loyalty is more with a dead man than it is to you, their leader. A couple of problems with that is if Titmouse, idiot that he is, comes close to Moonspear and they find out you lied, then they find out that you're testing them... No one liked to not be trusted, after all. Or, at the end of you telling them all that however that meeting goes, you can tell them he's not dead yet. But he will be. Because let's face it, the guys family is over here. He's a total moron. I don't doubt he's going to start coming around here when he thinks everything has died over to spew his own lies, she rolled her eyes. At the end of the day, they're going to believe what they want. We can observe all of it, she offered, or we can jump the gun. I think maybe, in this, patience might be best, it was rare, to be sure. But given the fact that she did like and value Rannoch, she wanted to believe in him, to wait and see. 

But she also wanted Liffey far the hell away from Moonspear. That rotten apple was poisonous. How could Rannoch not be effected? Poor Snow White—the witch would win her battle, this time, and they'd see Snow White snuffed out before she, The Huntsman, could save him.
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It was hurtful to think of his own daughter scorning him in front of random strangers on the street. Charon's blood boiled with anger at the thought. They had always been good to her; where had it gone wrong? "Ungrateful brat," he said coldly, a seeming difference of 180 degrees from how heartbroken he had seemed a moment ago. The easiest way was to cut her from his heart, now that he knew what he knew. How could she? After all they had done for her.

Hydra said that one of her closest friends was from Redhawk, though she didn't elaborate on a name right away. "Who?" he asked, wanting to know their name, even though he knew very little names of wolves who lived in Redhawk Caldera these days. "You should bring her over sometime so we can meet her, too." If they were to have inside contacts in Redhawk Caldera, then Charon wanted to make sure that they were contacts they could trust. He trusted Hydra, but he didn't trust any outsiders to keep his daughter's best interests at heart and therefore he didn't trust Redhawk wolves to stay neutral in these kind of cases. However much he wanted to believe such things for Hydra's sake, Charon was wary of ulterior motives and he'd feel more at ease were they to meet this wolf and know more about her.

Hydra then brought up another new, a new idea, wiping his ideas off the table. Charon felt weary thinking about all of these ideas and wished that it were just over. For now, it seemed this was the best idea. "What if they say it's fine but continue to squabble about this behind our backs?" Charon asked his mate and daughter. He should hope that wolves like Wraen and Terance or Dirge would inform him of such things, but one never knew for sure... what if they made them to look like the bad guys? "Well, I suppose it's better than no plan... Though I would've enjoyed seeing Gannet suffer a bit more. He is an arrogant fool." He didn't know that Hydra'd gotten along with Gannet before all of this — he just knew Gannet had stopped him from killing his daughter's murderer and that he'd been nothing but haughty in answering his questions.
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The situation on Korei's behalf got uglier as Hydra provided fresh details that the dark mother had not even begun to think about. Her hackles stayed stiff as she ruminated on the wayward daughter running off her mouth to strangers, especially when she looked at it all from a very obscured point of view. None of it set well with her and the frustration towards Korei's leave was only getting worse by the second. Charon came to echo her bitter sentiments, ungrateful brat, and Amekaze glared in silence. Her loyalty is not to us, although very true, left a distinct sting she had never known. Wolves left for weak, pitiful reasons all the time, not her daughters..

She was a little iffy on meeting Hydra's Redhawk herself.. just because of her expectations of them and a family as a whole did not leave her much to desire. Amekaze knew she was predisposed to dislike them. Still, she understood the worth in knowing them better, so nodded to encourage the thought. She was already caught up in what to do about this loyalty issue anyway.

Plans volleyed back, and possibilities took shape. She listened with a frown and did not feel a major pull towards any outcome. Observing was a strong-suit, so she liked that chance if they were patient about it. However, that brought no guarantees and she did not like the odds already that they may want to side with this Titmouse, dead or not, over their own. That put an uncomfortable edge on her already-thinning patience before her considerations on how to scheme this were even fully-formed. "Being patient and watching for anything more definitive to prove the point—besides just this misplaced fondness for Titmouse, should that discussion work out or not.. that would be best, and most satisfying, to catch them in the act of fraternizing with the enemy. But we may not even want to waste our time on it at this point," she said, growing wearier about trust more and more—how bad had it become already? Plus, Charon had a point. "That is exactly what I want none of.. nothing is stopping them from squabbling over it for good unless they are gone," she spoke lowly, and glanced to her daughter. "Since as you said, they will believe what they want to, and I want nothing to do with it if it just keeps inviting bullshit like this," just as she would always believe in what she felt in hear heart, they were no different truthfully, but it was there that if they were going to clash, she was not going to be bothered by it on her home turf. She didn't like the thought of chasing them off but liked the finality of it if issue was only going to spring forth. She could be done with it if so, and they could be free to go back to their Redhawks or wherever else.
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the bonecracker
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Sure. I'm sure she'd want to check on Gannet, she looked thoughtful. Towhee had understandably been busy, as had the rest of Redhawk, to not have the time to visit. She could imagine how bad Gannet might feel about that, and she knew he would be psyched to see a familiar face. Though she didn't know how well he and Towhee got along... she would ask, she decided.

Hydra flicked her ears, digesting both what her mother and father were saying. Ultimately, she agreed with her mother, and her father seemed to agree as well. Waiting it out, watching and seeing, was best. Who knew if they were squabbling behind their backs anyhow? It was not a guarantee. Maybe Liffey, and by proxy, Rannoch... if he had a soft-spine. That much hadn't really been confirmed... but time would tell. Hydra wanted to trust him, and so would provide each of them with the benefit of the doubt. Her friends had taught her this graceful side.

She sighed. So we wait and see. Hydra's voice was dark. Perhaps more than her mother and father, she felt the impending blow more than anyone. Hydra believed Rannoch to be her friend. That he understood her. Even if she had been avoiding him, he had his own wife to blame for that. Her discomfort reeked, and if Hydra could make her feel any better about being here for her friends sake she would—even if that meant staying away for a while, until Liffey assimilated at least. Hydra was no big fan of Liffey's either; as soon as she had come, she had all but taken Rannoch. He was a good man, she thought, but his wife... she could not say the same.
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'Patient' wasn't exactly Charon's game, and het let out a frustrated growl to emphasise this as they decided they would just be patient and wait. "Fine," he agreed more than half-heartedly. "I'm going for a patrol." With those words Charon turned 'round and left the mother and daughter alone, allowing them to choose whether they'd take the patrol with grumpy Charon or go do something else.

short! figured since this is outdated by now we can finish!
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She nodded somberly. They were in reluctant agreement to wait, but while it went unspoken between them, she knew the pressure would be on. Now they knew and what they knew mattered most of all. Scrutiny would be tenfold and the weak would take care of themselves if they were lucky. While it lacked the thrill of bloodshed, it was not something to ignore in the meantime.

Charon took the opportunity to conclude and she was fine with this as well. The dark mother swept closer to Hydra to nudge against her fondly in farewell before she went after her departing mate to scour the boundaries with him. With that, they parted ways.
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