Dragoncrest Cliffs they're singing along with the banjo

After learning Arrille is no longer in the sound, Thuringwethil doesn’t have the same direction she had before. First she would deal with the traitor and then Caiaphas. If she were lucky, she’d have them both at the same time. Advancing on them now will be foolish so for now, she will regroup with the other warriors and go from there. When her heat has passed, they can proceed, but until then she puts Drageda at another disadvantage and since learning it is Kierkegaard as their neighbor, she feels against the former weight on their shoulders. The old brute is barely a threat.

It is not often she is gone more than a night, much less two, but she hopes to sling back over the borders unnoticed. Not spending the night by her mate likely won’t go unnoticed but she doesn’t want anyone near her for the duration of her season. It’s nearly impossible as commander and, besides, she has to deal with their neighbors more than anything, her heat be damned.

Thuringwethil swallows the lump in her throat and lifts her head, howling mainly for @Dio and @Eske but an open invitation for the change in news.

Feel free to skip me after this! Just wanna get him in here

It had been awhile since the fight with that asshole, but his vision had not returned to normal in his injured eye. He knew the stranger had done irreversible damage. The swelling had gone down, he could feel it-- unbeknownst to him, the only difference now was a pale cloudiness in the affected eye.
The few bite marks on his shoulders and scruff bothered him less than his lack of sight. He saw little but shadows on the right side, vague blurred shapes. It was more than a bit discouraging.
Prince nonetheless hurried to answer Heda's call, remembering the last had been important. He found himself struggling now, depth perception skewed by the sudden loss. Sometimes he glimpsed a shadow in his bad eye and flinched from something several feet away from him.
The boy tried his best to appear normal when he found Heda, walking slowly and carefully to bow before her before he settled to the side. The scent of her heat did not slip by him, but he had smelled this before on females, and had a vague idea of what it was-- he kept a fair distance, but otherwise did not react to his Commander's condition. It inspired little internal reaction anyway; perhaps that was odd, but Prince was unconcerned. He would remain on the sidelines silently, waiting for whatever was to come next.

Considering the state of all matters lately here upon the cliffs, Dio was quick to heed the summons of their commander much the same. With himself and Eske first and foremost on the note, it gave him a pretty good suspicion of what the nature of the news would be--and he wouldn't stall to learn more if such proved true. While as of late he had been most concerned with patrols and Portia, he knew Thuringwethil had been out now and then, he had scented her paths on his own rounds more than once; quite likely, Heda brought back with her something of interest.

He arrived in good time, glanced at the already assembled Prince, and settled a very careful look upon the commander before he chuffed a low greeting to them both. Deferring with the fall of his ears and stance accordingly, he too was keen to keep distance for now. The pale wocha was certainly not noseblind, and instead well aware.. so with this in mind he would stay light on his feet and ready to shift at a moment's notice. A much too tempestuous time to risk anything until he knew more, he took up a careful watch without a word to wait.

a crummy to get him here

Prince is the first arrive—he’d been at the other meeting, too—and she gives him a single nod. The expression on his face gives her enough information on his odd stance and distance (she doesn’t expect anything less) and waits for the others. With Prince showing up, she almost expects the children to come running but Dio shows up next and the wait for Eske turns great.

Licking her lips, she glances between the two. Not wanting to wait all day, and assuming perhaps @Eske is a little too far to make it in time, she turns to the wocha. “There are no signs of stray wolves anywhere near here,” she tells him, evident that she’d left alone in a vulnerable state, but there’d been no signs of those that hurt Dalia and Portia some time ago. “But the wolf in the sound that knows our language, I ran into him,” she adds, ignoring the scuffle she’d gotten in to with the sound female and the Morningside patriarch. “His name is Kierkegaard. He used to be in Seageda, long ago. He may run with them, and may fight with them, but he is no threat to me,” she assures Dio. He may have been in Seageda once upon a time, and fought with them, but their core is foreign to him and Drageda even more so.

“He says Arrille is gone. Apparently he couldn’t face the trouble he’d gotten into with the sound wolves and took off,” she explains her impression, licking her lips. “But Caiaphas is his mate,” she says in a hard voice, not entirely sure what to make of it but the woman will bow beneath her teeth and if she loses the relationship with the grey male (an already rocky stance), then so be it, but Drageda will not rest until they've taken their justice.

He came prepared to wait, and did for only so long until heda stalled no longer. His ears pricked to answer as he stayed determined to not mind what his nose was telling, and he was not surprised none came near. On his watch as well, borders had been left be save for a few sorts on business, and an occasional other low-threat matter easily shooed along. Nothing hardly worth anything, nothing alluding to the wolves that had attacked his mate and daughter, and definitely nothing suggesting foul play from their neighbors anymore--despite him being plenty ready to find more reasons to dislike them. That was easily not the focal point here, and he sets in to keep this in mind; a name comes forward, and

"Then if no threat, do you think other uses may come of him?" he asked in an effort to get a better feel for this newly dubbed Kierkegaard, so he could know how to proceed if he came across him personally. "What's he like?" he asked, but, as it found out more about the cowardly deserter and what was going on next-door, so it would seem Kierkegaard's preferences were a touch questionable. To take Caiaphas as a mate? Dio didn't shield the disgusted grimace--towards that, and Arrille's full-on exit both that complicated all manner of things.

Prince doesn’t get any closer so her focus becomes Dio only; he simply becomes a soldier in the background. The others will know eventually and he’d been there in the beginning.

She licks her lips, looks back to the brute, and considers the questions. “Being her mate, I don’t know. I’m not sure he knows what she’s done,” she goes on. Their conversation had been brief for once good comrades but his run with the enemy does not sit well with her. If he is there when they advance on the sound, then he will fall with them too.

“He was a good warrior, once, but age has come for him,” she explains, recollecting their time together. It feels like so long ago but so much has happened between then and now that she has to fumble over one memory to the next. “Smooth tongue, over confident.”

It is enough to give her a bit of patience with dealing with the wolves, but Wildfire is on the cusp of delivering, finally, and their healer and daughter of Drageda are in recovery. She’s made one mistaken going in unprepared, many, many moons ago, and she will not do it again to those that have stuck with her through all of their struggles. “We will keep our head down, for now. Tight on border control but Wildfire is to deliver soon, and we can’t put that in danger. We will discuss our offense later.”

Once or twice, he manged to flick an ear towards Prince's direction, and other than that, it was very easy to focus on the commander for now. While her subject matter is worthy enough, she has him exceptionally attentive thanks to what does not need said. He is glad to not find new worry in anything she shared, even if the details are few and there's plenty of unknowns still. It's something, and a baseline to build a certain sort of image upon just in case he should need something to expect, and a confident aged warrior was not an unfamiliar troupe. The wocha nodded thoughtfully, and clicked his teeth once done. He stowed this information, the old warrior and sea wolf both, for later.

Unsurprisingly, he was eager to agree to keeping it quiet as well. Wildfire's litter, now that it was no longer cancelled thankfully, and Portia's whole still-mending and very possibly-pregnant had him edgy enough. Add in notion of the commander's situation here and now and he just wants to see everyone stay home where they can all help keep track of each other, and effectively ward away all else from these cliffs. "Right. Sounds good," he would pass the word along on patrol to the others on guard, but so much of it came naturally to many of them. Defense would remain their mission and he knew they could keep effectively at it. "Anything else?" he asked, for good measure should she need it. Beyond that, reminded by the mention of Wildfire's impending pups: "Portia's litter will not be until summer, if so," he mentioned, ears shifting out a touch but it was all too early to really know for absolute certain or not--but he would keep track if so in time to come. He was alright with it this way, though, and was in no hurry.. despite wondering if they would have to drive their neighbors off in earnest before then. Another if--but if so, just in case, he could prepare for the possibility in the meantime.

Dio asks if there’s anything else and she shakes her head. There’s only so much Kierkegaard would give her and she knew if she pushed harder, she wouldn’t get the answers she needed. If she can make the brute think he’s safe (from them) because he is associated with Drageda, then she’ll keep him on a loose tie for right now.

”I suggest, for now, if he is out of the territory on his own, do not attack,” she tells him though she doubts he’d be able to put up much of a fight anyway. And if he’s with them? Well, she’s said her wishes to him and should he not heed such a warning, it’s on him. ”The others know what he looks like from when they came across the sound wolves.”

As the news of Portia’s pregnancy is announced, Thuringwethil slowly nods her head. The extra tension isn’t desired but with no current restriction, the other leader did as he would for his family. ”Spechou,” she offers her congratulations stiffly but a smile and brief swish of her tail hopefully makes up for it. The current change in her body, and the tension from next door, is difficult to sift through and sooner or later, she’ll truly be happy, but for the moment there’s only so much she can keep in mind at once. ”I’ll pay Portia a visit soon, then,” she says with an added, wider smile, but let’s it fade as quickly as it came.

He valued whatever pieces of information they could get. A start. Something.

Do not attack, and he does not argue with that either. It could be a very circumstantial encounter, but he knows he isn't moving out to seek the old male out. If so, he would gauge it as he went--with who, where, so on and so forth. Drageda has far too much to be protective about to go rushing into anything too headlong, he believes. But, he isn't in the business of dragging out their nuisances either, and wants them to find the right opportunity to keep this to a minimum--somehow.

Time would tell, he knew.

He dipped his head in thanks, and swayed his tail in gratitude. "Thank you," he replied, and knew Portia would not turn down a visit--and a chance to chat with the commander. She had been in good spirits and he was happy that moving forward, all was going well so far. "And let me know if Wildfire needs anything, too," he offered, though would be on high alert on her behalf in the coming days. As for now, he cast a glance back towards their boundaries and the patrols that would await, wondering where else Heda would go from here with him.

Now that they’ve moved on from the sound wolves, and on to pleasantries, Thuringwethil has little desire to hang around. Prince has already begun to turn away when the majority of the problems came to a close. Itching to be alone, or at least away from Dio, she smiles tensely and shuffles her footing to go. She gives him a dismissive nod, assuming he understands the need, and departs from her wocha.