Dragoncrest Cliffs Like this body of conflict

Nearly a week had passed since the miscarriage and Wildfire hadn't left the tree much. The heartbreak was made even worse by the knowledge that she shouldn't try again should the opportunity arise. Twice now she had produced defective offspring. And though she had brought about four perfectly healthy pups too, Wildfire couldn't stop thinking of Antler, Falcon and Hawk, and how there must be something wrong with her genes—not Dio's, not Étoille's—hers.

She felt stiff and, well, a little crusty after staying in her proverbial bed for the better part of a week, so Wildfire forced herself outside today. Although the air was cold, it was mostly sunny and the Feisripa enjoyed the warmth on her back as she sought out a nearby patch of open ground and plopped down to begin grooming herself. Toward the end of her tongue bath, she hiked her leg in the air and smoothed out the paler fur along her belly. The small swell of it gave her pause but Wildfire quickly put her leg back down and sat up straight. She had only just lost the pups, so it was probably normal to still show some signs of pregnancy until the hormones settled.

Feeling suddenly restless, the damp huntress flicked to her feet and began roaming the woods, trying to get her mind off things by rustling up some grub.

It’s easy to seclude, when she needs it, if she’s able to busy herself enough with morning patrols with @Blixen and spending time with @Rose, acclimating her back to a normal life, but she’s been able to do less of each and sneak away, hiding from the rest of the world. She sleeps when she can, finding it difficult to cure the tiredness settling in her bones. Furi is young, not even near her prime, and she struggles to make it sun up to sun down before she feels like she’s dragging herself to sleep.
 
Footsteps in the distance cause her ears to twitch and slowly she opens her eyes, rolling over on the ground and quickly standing. Her heart begins to beat faster and she shakes out her fur, hoping to be settled by the time the other shows up.
 
Furi swings her head around as the fiery woman crosses her vision, at first as Blixen but a beat later as the older version in her mother. She shifts her weight and remains silent but doesn’t move to hide away from the woman.

Instead, she rustled up... her potential daughter-in-law? Wildfire froze in her tracks when Furi materialized, momentarily unsure of how to behave toward the black yearling. Should she welcome the wolf who had become so important to her daughter? Should she wring Furi's neck and warn her not to break Blixen's heart? She stood there like a deer in headlights, then decided she didn't really have the energy to do any of the above, not so soon after losing her litter.

"Hello, Furi. How're you?" she said in a quiet but conversational voice, remaining entirely neutral for the moment.

Wildfire freezes when she’s spotting and Furi flinches, as if she’s startled. She’d seen her coming, why’d she jump? What is wrong with you? Ears slick back against her head and she looks on either side of her, inspecting whether or not someone else is nearby before she proceeds. As if she couldn’t make it awkward enough. “Hey,” she says and offers a small, nervous smile. She thinks of the their last interaction and her heartbeat increases a second time—this time with little chance of calming down—and clears her throat. “I’m okay,” she decides, despite it being furthest from the truth. She opens her mouth to say something, quickly closes it, and then shuffles a bit to force it out anyway: “h-how are you?”

"I've had better days," she replied a little blandly, trying not to squint at Furi's obvious discomfiture. Why was she so nervous around Wildfire? Was that just her personality? Or did it have something to do with Blixen? She hated that she was suddenly so suspicious of the poor Gona, though she couldn't really help it.

"Blix tells me you two are a thing," she said a beat later. Despite some of the coldness in her heart and mind, she managed a smile as she thought of the young redhead. "I'm happy she's found someone. I do wish I knew a bit more about you though. Would you like to join me on a hunt, Furi?"

Furi frowns at the answer, almost compelled to ask why, but manages to keep her mouth shut. Scrutiny passes across Wildfire’s face and her ears fall back, glancing away, hoping she’ll just pass on by after the awkward encounter. She hadn’t been doing anything out of the ordinary and certainly not relying off the cache of someone else’s hard work.

But, of course, doing nothing tends to get her in trouble just as much.

“Uh, sure, okay,” she says, though no! shouts in her mind. It would look too weird to decline, right? I mean, what did she think she’d be getting into with Blixen? After a prolonged moment, she shifts forward and swings around a tree between them. “Um,” she begins, clearing her throat again, “what’s 'a thing'?”

Wildfire shot Furi a glance, not entirely sure she was serious. Was she thick? Probably just nerves, the kinder side of her whispered in her head. She cleared her throat and clarified, "She said you two are a couple, like romantically involved."

She'd meant to set off on their hunt, though she stopped short and blinked as something occurred to her. Was Blixen somehow mistaken about the nature of her relationship with Furi? Or was this girl possibly misleading her daughter somehow? "Is that... not the case?" she asked slowly, chestnut gaze now boring into the Gona's face.

Oh no. Wildfire’s glance causes her face to tighten and she looks in the opposite direction, trying to avoid her stares. Of course it was a stupid question, she realizes, scrunching up her face in frustration. Her cheeks burn with embarrassment and it takes all the effort in the world to listen when she’s given an answer, trying to hide away the turmoil she’s going through.
 
Her jaw tightens and she tries to breathe in and out through her nose, taking long a long draw and shaking her head. “Y-yeah, sorry,” she manages. The last two times she’d felt like this didn’t end very pretty and she can’t let the commander’s mate see her like this despite the anxiety growing. It’s just fun to casually feel like you’re dying. “No, I mean… it is. The case, I mean,” she tries again while fumbling over her words. Furi tries to smile something sincere but it’s far more strained than she manages to show. “I didn’t know… you knew,” she says slowly. If she knows, then Heda knows, and why does she feel like she’s in life-threatening danger?

Fortunately for Furi, she quickly (if haltingly) cleared up the matter. Wildfire's features softened ever so slightly. Maybe the Gona was sincerely just as socially awkward as they came. Perhaps Wildfire made her nervous by no other merit than because she was the commander's mate, as well as Blixen's mother.

"Furi?" she said softly but pointedly. "Please, relax." She paused a beat, then said, "Blixen told me the other day. Like I said, I'm happy for her—for both of you. I just wish I knew you better. And that's not your fault. But now we can remedy it, it any case. So," she concluded, turning, "let's get to this hunt, shall we?"

She doesn’t like the way her name is spoken, beckoning for attention and she hesitates to give it. It doesn’t last long and she sweeps her gaze as she’s told to relax, feeling tension sit in the back of her head. Is relaxing something she can even do anymore? Staying within the claim is more suffocating than anything these days but she can’t really figure out why. Something heavy weighs on the horizon, ready to explode as soon as she turns the next corner. Interacting with her girlfriend’s mother isn’t exactly the most stress-free thing she can think of.
 
Still, Wildfire wants to get to know her and go on with the hunt but Furi hesitates following a few seconds before her legs finally kick into gear and she follows silently along with the feisripa.

Whether or not the girl took her advice and relaxed—most likely not—they proceeded to the task at hand. Wildfire took point, leading the way through the towering trees even as she lowered her nose to skim for scents on the forest floor. There were many, of course, though few were of any interest and even fewer were fresh enough to pursue. But then a rather musky odor assaulted her nostrils and the Feisripa stilled suddenly, motioning for Furi to follow suit.

She took a moment to inspect the scent trail, then scan the area with her eyes. The marten wasn't in sight, though it could be just around the corner. It would be quick and agile prey, so they needed to be careful in their approach. Wildfire licked her chops as she considered various strategies, all while peering at Furi introspectively ever few seconds, as if gauging how she would best fit into certain game plans.

"I think a simple ambush is our best bet. We'll follow the scent—you right behind me—and then attack on sight." She paused, black tail giving a ponderous twitch. "Unless you have any ideas you'd like to throw on the table?"

Thankful she doesn’t seem to want to ask questions right away, Furi has sometime to try and figure out what to do or say or… whatever when the time does come. Will she have a hundred questions? Will she threaten her? Why was she so scary? She’s almost twice her size and a gone, which is important here, right?
 
Furi licks her lips and keeps her nose to the ground, trying to keep the stressful thoughts at bay, but she quickly becomes oblivious to the task at hand. Normally, she’s a great hunter, but all of a sudden she can’t remember how to do anything. Biting her lips, she turns and lifts her head when Wildfire speaks up, twisting her nose a bit to try and find the source she’s talking about. A rodent, maybe? She sniffs again but this time shakes her head to the question.
 
“That sounds good,” she says, and moves a little closer so she’s ready for when they begin.

Furi didn't, so Wildfire simply acknowledged this with a nod and then continued pursuing the trail. As the scent grew stronger in her nose, her movements slowed considerably. She reached a point where she was essentially creeping along in slow motion, trying to make no noise to give the two of them the best chance to surprise their prey.

And suddenly, it came into view. In the very same instant, it spotted the wolves and made a dash to the side. With a mastery under her belt, the Feisripa was used to this sort of hunt and rather skilled at quick decisions and even quicker reactions. She sprang toward the marten, trying to cut it off, and it quickly zoomed in another direction. Wildfire dug her heels in and gave chase, zig to the marten's zag, and managed once to clip it by the tail.

But it outmaneuvered her and, despite a perfunctory effort on Wildfire's part, it would not be shepherded toward Furi. It disappeared down some hole or another and the huntress could only drew up and pant, glancing over at her cohort with an apologetic shrug.

She follows along dutifully after the smaller canine though off to the side so she can see what’s happening. Most of her focus falls on Wildfire that the sudden appearance of prey takes her by surprise and she stalls a few steps when the feisripa takes off after the sprightly thing. Furi kicks herself into gear and follows after, trying to catch up, but both marten and matron prove faster than she can compete with.
 
Her sides heave when she finally watches the rodent disappear from view. Wildfire turns back and shrugs and Furi awkwardly smiles that it’s all right. As she attempts to catch her breath, she trots a few feet forward to close the distance. “You’re really fast,” she states the obvious, nervously licking her lips that she’s said something too stupidly obvious.

She managed a quick flash of a smile at Furi's comment, though it didn't reach her eyes. Although she was still hungry—and although Wildfire truly did want to better acquaint with her daughter's romantic interest—she suddenly felt deeply weary. It was good to get outside and work her muscles a bit, though she was abruptly ready to slither back to the redwood and curl into a ball again.

"Not fast enough, I guess. Oh well." Wildfire shrugged again, then regarded Furi in silence for a beat before saying, "I'd invite you to another round but I think I'm just going to find some leftovers and head back to my den. Thanks for tagging along, Furi. I'll see you around."

Furi twists the smile from her lips and glances down, but peers back up when she takes the moment to dismiss herself. Part of her feels weird the interaction ends there but she does not to stop the other from leaving, watching her disappear through the redwoods. While some of the stress slips from her shoulders, she isn’t entirely relieved. She’ll have to face Blixen at some point but she’d like to avoid it at all costs, if possible, so she meanders away from the scene to search for something else to hunt—perhaps a chance to find something fresh to take to the mother later.