Charon had been thinking lately; he'd had a lot of time for that. He had come to the conclusion that the Sunspire was a small pack, much like Stavanger Bay. He wondered if Amekaze ever worried for its survival come winter. The second conclusion he had drawn was that he liked living upon the mountainside; Charon loved Stavanger Bay and its cliffs, and the oceanside... But mountains were fantastic too. He mused what it would be like to live upon a mountain that overlooked the ocean directly; but the young Beta did not know if such things were even possible.
His wounds were recovering slowly, and while the trip down to the gates had made him a bit stiff again, Charon knew that time would soon arrive for him to return home.
The sun was setting and painted the world in pinks and oranges while Charon overlooked it from his throne at the top of the world (or so it felt to him as he sat upon the mountainside). He could get used to this. Deciding that it was time to make a decision Charon called for the wolf that had not left his side, not even when she was physically not by his side, for reasons that he had only now come to realise --
@Amekaze -- in hopes she would join him, not only to watch nature's beautiful spectacle.
Despite her initial reservations, and the fact that she could not be overly generous, the last several days had been... oddly well spent. A little off-put by this, she'd stuck to the mountainside more diligently than the week before been she'd readily been pulled away by the wanderings, and done decently in keeping busy here. But, there was a coldness to it she couldn't quite place -- something made most glaring by the fact that the wolf she saw the most of was not even of the Sunspire.
She was never overbearing in reminding Charon of her presence, but she oversaw his healing and generally kept tabs on him. She never went out of her way for it, and he seemed to mend up steadily enough. He made for a good guest, though, so he gave her little to worry about.
So, she'd noticed when he'd been up and around more than before, and had taken to a casual mosey tracking his way even before he called. Despite remaining unhurried, she made decent time up the paths. Meanwhile, the sunset only grew more vivid.
When she reached him, Ame's greeting was silent but sincere with a smooth wave of her tail. He had called, so she expected an explanation to come shortly as she glanced over his healing wounds, curious.
It didn't take long for Amekaze to join him, and Charon couldn't help but smile when she came into view. There was something about her - something he couldn't quite place. But he felt at peace by her side, when she was near. A lot more at peace than he had been in any other part of his life. He didn't even feel like boasting about how young a Beta he was, how great he was, nor did he feel like telling her the tragic story of his deceased parents and missing siblings just to garner sympathy. He just wanted to be with her, for reasons that Charon himself couldn't fathom.
Charon noticed that she looked at his wounds; perhaps she wondered when he would leave, too. He wondered if that's what she wanted, for him to leave. The thought left his mind moments later, because there was little use in wondering what others thought or felt, anyway.
His gaze drifted back towards the view as he said, "I've noticed the Sunspire is small." His words were unusually neutral as he glanced back at Ame. "Have you considered winter?" Again the words were neutral, because Charon wanted to avoid any notion that he might be mocking her or telling her off for not taking care of her pack well enough. His motivations were none of those. " 'cause the Bay is small, and as one of its leaders, I have." Charon studied her face, hoping to catch a glimpse of what he was looking for, and hoping she'd connect the dots on what, exactly, he was trying to say.
She left her expectations open, since there was no telling what this could entail, and settled her haunches to the earth near him. He began, and his observation was correct. She nodded slowly. They were small, there was no doubt about this. She had a small handful of wolves at her disposal and they were a distant group as well.. and she while she did what she could to pull them together, but it was difficult. There was still a small group of very trustworthy wolves here but she was their only leader.. something that did not necessarily sit well with her, especially with few candidates. She'd considered bringing the idea of beta up to Rain, but she feared it would crimp the traveling female's interests significantly. Amekaze had wished to see Jace rise back into the role, or perhaps even more, but he still was distant and probably not in a mindset in which more responsibility appealed.
He spoke on, revealing that the Bay was small and that he was one of its leaders -- very interesting anecdotes both, but he had asked about the winter, so she considered that first. "I have considered it," she began. It was part of her job, after all. "And while we have never been a large pack, it is already difficult to rally together wolves for a good hunt." This was most worrisome and while she was used to them being small, they had been a better-supported group before. "Few visit here, even fewer are worthy joiners, and hardly any that are stay for any span of time. The mountain provides still, of course, but it makes me restless," she exhaled and squeezed her eyes shut for a second. "It has me feeling like searching for something I do not know of, let alone know how to find." Hearing it, or saying it herself, definitely did not make her feel any better. The recent conversation with Dante had brought this to the forefront of her thoughts, and now, here it was again for her to revisit.
Anyway. "And what about the Bay? What do your fellow leaders think?" If he had any idea of it, that was. He had implied there were others, but how many or who they were was largely unknown. Besides now knowing that they were small, she was very out of the loop with them and their wolves, so she wanted to hear more before she allowed herself to think too far ahead. She saw the glimmer of potential in this, as unexpected as it may have seemed at a glance.. but needed more details to chew on first.
Charon understood her problems, because the Bay had been dealing with the same. He wondered if Levi had returned in his absence; he hadn't seen his brother a few days when he left, which was very unlike Levi, who tended to stick around all the time and watch the pups. He wasn't away from home that often. And who was to say Aesop would stick round this time? He'd seemed repentant of his departure, but he'd left once before. Maybe Charon should've tied him to a thrall contract like Saskia, too.
When Amekaze asked about the Bay, Charon frowned as he thought of Thistle Cloud. He loved her because she was his mother, but she hadn't been really present in a while. "Thistle's been very absent after Ragnar died and she lost one of her pups to a bear." Most responsibilities already rested on Charon's shoulders, and he wanted what was best for his pack. Maybe it was what was best for Thistle, too. "I've been making most decisions anyway since I stepped up. I'm sure she'd agree on whatever's best for the pack, 'cause she does care for it." Charon looked at Amekaze to see her reaction. He found himself hoping she wouldn't judge him too much for his take on his own adoptive mother, but he felt that she wasn't in the best place to make decisions right now.
"I think," Charon said and he looked at Amekaze with a confident smile on his face, as though he trusted she'd say yes before speaking the words. "That we should take our wolves and start anew somewhere. Find a really good place to live, and leave behind what slithers of packs we've got now to make a strong pack together. I think we could be really good together, as Alpha pair, leading our combined packs into a plentiful winter." He had never mentioned his current position in the pack, but he hoped it was clear enough that he had enough experience leading the pack to be a responsible Alpha despite his young age; still, just to be sure he was looking for equal terms, he needed to emphasise this to her, that he was going to be an Alpha beside her in this new pack. From what Charon had seen, Amekaze had a level head, and while he hated to admit it (and probably admitted it to himself for the first time in his life as he sat there upon the Sunspire), Charon knew he could have a temper at times. She'd hold him in check, and he'd do what needed to be done.
On top of what this meant for the survival of their packs, it energised the nearly one year old Ostrega to know that he would finally get what he had craved for many months: the respect and power he deserved as Alpha.
She 'mm-ed' softly as she listened, and focused her stare on the horizon. What he proposed was not unheard of and the reasons sounds. Together, they could be greater. Her own mother's pack had done something similar just before her birth.. so in a way, she had a degree of experience in living in packs that had once been two separate entities.
Straightforward and with the pack's best thinking at the forefront of it all, it was hard to find fault in the idea of moving her wolves somewhere new.. if they would follow. On a subconscious level, maybe she had considered it before, especially when the memory of Ferdie and the pack he'd created had weighed heavily on her. Even to this day, she'd think of him occasionally when she spent time around the Sunspire's hidden waterfall.. and it was sickening. But, even with that, she was still attached to the mountain to some degree, not that it would be difficult to uproot. Their numbers were small, they had no whelps or elderly among them, and they were a capable few. If she could rally them to a cause, it could be the beginning of something better.
She weighed her options and kept her expression mostly masked, save for a thoughtful smirk she couldn't deny. He looked quite confident, and brighter than she'd ever known him to -- a contrast to the struggling wolf looking for his pathway to the afterlife's sacred halls of not so long ago. Evidently, the mountain had done him very well and she took a sense of satisfaction from knowing this.
He was young and his honest ambition was admirable. She did not know the lengths of his experience, nor very many details of him. But, it went both ways. He did not know her exceptionally well either (few did, after all) and yet still felt they could lead together. She knew, though, that by herself, she had little to lose. If the Sunspire faded to nothingness during the winter, she'd simply return to life as a wandering wolf. Poorly timed it may be, she'd done it before.. but she wasn't looking for such an aimless life as she feared she may just disappear if it came to that. "A change of scenery could us all well," she murmured finally. "And I have been the only leader here for a while now, and it gets old. This poses the question of where to go, exactly.. Mountains are my home," she peered at him to gauge reaction while wondering if he was attached to the coast. Her preference was strong, and bound to bring limits. Only so many habitable mountains would be unclaimed.
Amekaze wasn't giving much away, which was frustrating for Charon. While he was confident in himself, he knew that others weren't always on the same page, and some would judge him for his age and lack of experience. He really wanted this to go through, because he did honestly think that they would complement each other well. It didn't bother Charon that they knew so little about each other; he had confidence that it would pan out well. Now that he had finished speaking all he could do was wait for her verbal response; the smirk that twitched as her lips seemed promising, but ultimately gave away nothing.
Relief flooded Charon when she agreed to his plan. The confident smile never wavered, but he realised just how nervous he'd been about her answer, regardless. It was a weird feeling, because Charon wasn't used to feeling nervous, let alone about someone else's opinion. Maybe it was because it was such a life-determining situation.
It surprised him that she wanted a mountain. He'd thought the Heartwood might be a nice place to settle, but then, the storm and fires raging had chopped away good parts of it, so maybe it was not as suited anyway. Then there was a pine forest near, too, but none of those options would work. Then again, Charon enjoyed sitting here and overviewing the world. It gave him the feeling that he was as strong, majestic and powerful as he felt most days. It felt like a throne that he was deserving of; so maybe a mountain would not be so bad.
He turned to her with a nod, accompanied by the same confident smile as before. A mountain it would be, befitting of them and their pack. "You know more about the mountains near here than me. Are any suited? I know there's some south of Stavanger Bay. I could check those out, after resting up at the Bay and informing the pack." He looked at her, wondering why they shouldn't just get to the Bay, gather everyone and move from there on out. "Or you could come with me." Perhaps it would be less practical if she needed to inform her wolves and all of that, but at least they'd get going. Now that being an Alpha was so close to his grasp, Charon wanted nothing more than to speed up the process. Perhaps it'd be more practical to wait a week or so, so that he could inform his wolves and she hers, he realised, but he decided to wait for her answer rather than add that thought.
While having never considered what territories she would want to claim before, it all came quickly. Her travels had been varied and her time in the Teekon long. Indeed, she had a reasonably good understanding of the area. Of course, bits and pieces of it were out to date when it came to knowing where packs were exactly and now with the recent storm's damages to consider, she could use more refreshing in some areas.
"Ah, as for near here, heading south on this range, the rest of the peaks are mediocre compared to this one or make for difficult travel and there is another mountain pack that way. As for north, there is the Horizon Ridge to the west and Emberflame to the east, but much of the north is in proximity to the Plateau," she thought aloud. The more she said, the lighter the words seemed to come. She enjoyed scheming up these possibilities already, and the anticipation of something new only helped.
Nevertheless, the Northstar Vale's area had housed a pack once, but storm damage had made it unstable. Mount Apikuni had a few benefits, but she didn't like its nearness to Swiftcurrent Creek all that much to be honest. The Ridges may be worth looking into, if northward was to be it, though. "There are other mountains much further north.. but I know little of their details," she added. She'd seen them, traveled along their flatlands and a few of their bases once. There was a bad encounter involving a cougar chasing after her near Duskfire Glacier that did keep her from considering that general area much.
"There could be something there, and I would like to see for myself," she decided. Suitable landscape was her main priority so this step was important to her. Plus, she still had a misplaced outrider somewhere in the wilds she wanted to find. "I want to tell my wolves first, at least give them some sort of notice before I go anywhere." If she could find any of them, that was. Which, despite the darkening hour, she could do that very soon. "How soon are you returning to the Bay?" she asked. If he wanted to go right now, she would have to catch up. She was undeniably interested in meeting the Bay wolves if she could.. since if all fell into place, they were to be among her own soon.
Amekaze knew much of the territories, and Charon listened with piqued interest. Perhaps once upon a time he would have liked to claim his prized Horizon Ridge, near to where Osprey lived and a place that he frequently visited in his youth. Now, however, the thought of settling close to Blacktail Deer Plateau left a sour taste in his mouth. While Amekaze had not asked about his injuries -- something that mystified him, because Charon himself was a very curious creature and it would have been among his very first questions if he found an injured wolf seeking help -- Charon himself had not forgotten what Dante had done to him. Some day he would get his revenge, but right now he just wanted to forget any of it had ever happened and he most certainly did not want to move close to Dante.
When he realised that he was frowning darkly thinking about the Plateau and Dante, Charon forced a smile back on his face and said, with as nonchalant a mask in his voice as he could muster: "Yeah, probably not close to the Plateau. Or any other packs, for that matter." And while he loved Horizon Ridge, that probably made it too close. It was unfortunate that Amekaze didn't know much about what mountains the far north held. Fortunately, Charon knew of some of them. "Silvertip Mountain, south of the Bay, hosts a pack. And I know that Redtail Rise is in the northeast, but it's claimed. One of my brothers lives there. There's another mountain near there, but it's pretty close to it." Charon had no clue that tragedy had struck Redtail Rise and that they had relocated themselves. "And there was Duskfire Glacier. But it's been a while since I visited that far east, so I dunno if they're still around." The foolish trip to the Glacier and all that spun from it seemed like a lifetime ago to Charon now; perhaps the wolves weren't even about any longer.
"Yeah, I get that," said Charon when Amekaze said she wanted to inform her wolves. If it were the other way around, he would probably want to inform his wolves too, rather than tell them to pack their things and come with him (or just leave and later inform them to come after him). When she asked him when he wanted to leave, Charon pursed his lips. "Soon. I'm still pretty stiff, but I don't think the scabs'll open up if I don't run into anything weird along the way. I'd like to let my pack know I'm okay, and tell them about all of this." Perhaps the road would be long and hard, but it would be worth it once he'd get there; Charon couldn't wait to be home and inform his pack of the decisions they were ahead of them. He hoped they would receive them with as much enthusiasm as he had.
He considered for a moment before he suggested: "Maybe you could come after, whenever you've let your wolves know, and we could check out the mountains south of the Bay?" It would be a trying wait until he would see her again and they could start the future of their pack together, but it'd give each of them some time to inform their wolves and get used to the idea before the search would start.
While a certain degree of seclusion would be necessary for anywhere she picked, of all the packs she knew of in the Teekon, the Plateau was one of the very few she didn't mind being nearby. They were familiar and good enough neighbors from here. However it came as little surprise that Charon wasn't interested in being in their neighborhood -- and she certainly wasn't all too enthusiastic about the area either. There were suspicions after she had time to mull it over.. Ame had seen Dante's injuries when they were fresh, and it was a curious coincidence if not. "Fewer neighbors, the better.." she murmured in agreement. "Plus there could be storm damage to account for here or there. I have not traveled too far since it happened," so her information could be out of date there. "I think we will know when we see it ourselves," she decided.
If the mountains in the south turned up nothing, they could turn their sights more northward. She wanted to check there south of the Bay first if she could. It didn't make much sense to move north in preparation of being strong for the winter.. "That works," she said. She would not be far behind whenever he did decide to go back. Naturally, she understood his want to do it sooner rather than later. He had family waiting. "It will not take me long to tell them here, but I have an outrider out traveling I need to track down too.." she said. There was a bit of frustration to bite back there. Her last efforts had turned up nothing and she worried that the storm had done something to Rain, or her pathways back.
"So, tell me of the Bay? Its wolves, anything.." she asked, watching him intently with a tilted head. Now with all of this in front of her, it was wise to consider him and his pack in a different way. He'd done well to spur her into motion, but he did so in a way that worked alarmingly well. Amekaze had been in need of inspiration badly and was looking for something to gain in all of this. Perhaps this opportunity of a chance was it. Already it seemed more hopeful than anything else she had considered, especially since had truly begun to realize her vague discontent was actually legitimate. Amekaze was interested in seeing this route out.
Charon nodded in agreement about the storm damage. He hadn't considered it much himself yet -- at least not when it came to the mountains -- but he'd seen enough damage across the board to know that it was a very real probability some of the mountains had been damaged, too. Half of Stavanger Bay had been faded to bits too, after all.
When Amekaze mentioned the outrider, Charon hoped that it wasn't a wolf that had got lost, as it might take some more time to find them if they were. Still, they didn't need to get there today or tomorrow (although Charon sure wanted to); they had time for such things. "They got lost? Or just travel far a lot?" he asked, mostly out of curiosity, and because he recnognise the feeling when the wolves you were responsible for ran off here and there and you had to go out looking for them, hoping they'd ever return.
Amekaze asked him about the wolves of the Bay, and Charon considered for a moment what he would say, specifically. There was so much to tell, but he wanted to pick the best tidbits of information to tell. He considered telling about the Bay's past, but then decided to tell something about its present wolves first: "Well, there's Thistle. She's had a hard time dealing with wolves she lost. We got a few small pups: Floki, Ragna and Kaylan. They're like, my little siblings. Levi's real good with the pups. Thistle's not my real mom, but she and Ragnar sorta adopted me 'n Levi after our parents and siblings died." He said this with little emotion, for even though he always liked to bring the sad facts of his life up to garner sympathy, right now raking up pitiful looks wasn't on Charon's agenda. "We lost the fourth pup, Jorunn, when a bear attacked and he fell into the sea. One of our wolves, Atreyu, he's got three and a half legs 'cause he distracted the bear to save the other pup that was there. He's doing pretty well on three legs os far."
Little did Charon know that his pack had further shrunk in the time he had gone. "Aesop can be broody at times, but he's pretty trustworthy otherwise. He did leave for a while recently, so... I dunno. I hope he'll stick around this time. Other than that we've got Saskia. I found her cold and hungry during the storm. She owes me one, so she pledged loyalty to me." He looked at Amekaze, wondering if she had any questions -- and if she cared to say things about her Spire wolves.
She sighed and tilted her ears back momentarily. "She travels a lot, but it has been so long since I heard back, I begin to wonder.." Amekaze shifted her weight. This had been bothering her lately and she intended to find an answer one way or another soon. She was definitely suspicious of something bad happening to Rain and Nishu both -- if they were still traveling together, that was.
From there on out, she was more at ease to think of these individuals of the Bay. She was most curious of the three and a half legged wolf, and the younger wolves were.. notable, too. She'd not been around particularly young wolves in a while. Since there were no pups there (largely because she had few ambitions on that front -- Ferdie had been different, though), Summer and Tytonidae had been their youngest for a long time. Nevertheless, the note about the bear attack did stick with her, though. "Did bears give you trouble there frequently? For a while, it was cougars out this way," she explained with a frown. The last encounter she'd heard of had actually been her own chase. After Vienna's attack, Ferdie's presumed altercation, and the one hunting on the Sunspire, then one having the audacity to chase her like some fun toy, she'd grown very sick of the rotten felines.
She did appreciate the brief look into the Bay's personalities, and she knew it would make meeting them a little easier. Of course, it would be up to her to make true first impressions. Hearing it through Charon was still useful and if he'd seem interested, she'd return the favor. "Mm, the Spire has been about this small since the start of summer when two pairs of wolves left only a few weeks apart." she prefaced with. Her explanation of the Spire's wolves was bound to be somewhat condensed. "Jace keeps to himself but was beta for a long time until recently -- since the founding, actually. Rain is the lost outrider.. and Nishu, a noble sort, travels with her. Echo is newer here.. and she seems personable enough although looking for her place, I believe. Inari.. hm, my brother who apparently suffered memory loss, is also newer here but I have not seen much of him," she said. Hopefully it did not sound too bleak to only have barely a handful of wolves here on the mountain itself. It was why he likely hadn't run into many of them, although she was curious if any of it was familiar to him at all. "No pups, no elderly.. and well, it has been quiet lately." Even the storms had mostly left them alone. They were lucky, sure, but she was still after something more.
Charon hoped that Amekaze's outrider was doing well, although his experience with departing wolves was that if they were gone for a really long time, they often stayed gone. Sometimes they'd return, but it was as though a wanderlust had grabbed hold of them and just wouldn't let them go a lot of the time. This made Charon think about Aesop and he wondered if the old coot was still around when he returned to Stavanger Bay. Time would tell.
He listened to Amekaze's query about bears, and nodded. "Yeah... My mom was killed by a bear, too." Conversations like these were part of the reason why Charon never called Thistle Cloud his mom out loud -- it'd be confusing when he referenced to his real mother. "We haven't had much trouble with them otherwise, but when we did things just got real bad each time." Charon didn't remember ever meeting a peaceful bear, except for the crafting bears from Osprey's stories. They were probably as real as Drake had been, so really, there were probably just no peaceful bears alive at all.
They should check if there weren't any bears where they were going to live; problem was, though, that bears, in Charon's experience, had a tendency to not be around and then suddenly come 'round and maul the crap out of someone you loved. He hoped not to have that experience again, but he realised that you could never really be sure about those kinds of things. Charon made a mental note to check for cougars too, but he'd only ever heard of those and had never seen one in real life so it was a lot harder to imagine how dangerous they would be and what, exactly, they looked like and how they moved, acted and hunted.
Charon listened to Amekaze's story about the Sunspire wolves. It sounded a bit like them, for before recently the Bay had been doing much better. It was mostly after Aesop left and the storm hit that things'd been going downhill -- with Saskia joining as the only bright spot -- so perhaps in light of that a move would be better. They'd have a territory that wasn't banged up by the storm and would go into winter great. He didn't recognise any of the names she mentioned: Charon hadn't seen many others, partially because he had been resting, and those he had seen he'd seen either in scent alone or from a distance. None face to face. He wasn't bothered by the fact they were with few, for it was that very fact that had driven him to suggest a merge in the first place.
"I hope you find Rain and Nishu, then," he said, for while outriders with a thirst for exploration, they sounded like they were somewhat the core of the pack, along with this Jace fellow who'd been Beta for a really long time up until recently. "Sounds good." Charon realised that the time to leave was drawing nearer, although he enjoyed this talk about Alpha things with Amekaze, who shared his enthusiasm, it seemed. However, he was also eager to tell his pack and family about the news, and so he decided it was time.
"I should head out," he told Amekaze. Perhaps sooner than anticipated, but after this talk he was really eager to get back home, inform his pack, and start looking for a suitable sort of territory.
He revealed more, and she would remember this. Bears had brought them bad luck. Amekaze was glad it had never been the case for them on the mountain, and that cougars had never managed to get wildly out of hand. It had pressed her close to feeling that way at times, though. Nevertheless, she nodded quietly when he mentioned Nishu and Rain.. for she hoped so too, but there would only be so much energy she could spend looking. With winter coming (perhaps faster than she was willing to admit) and now with all these new opportunities for better survival now in front of her, she would need to be effective with what she did set out to do.
"I will see how the others take it, and hopefully bring them scouting. If our paths do not cross again sooner, I will head for the Bay when we are ready.." she said. She was hopeful, but composed. There was a lot to do before she would feel at most ease in this decision and she wished to consider it all at length by herself. Of course, it felt natural here and now -- and really, having very little left to lose made this easier. Perhaps with Charon at her side, she could accomplish more than she had here. Amekaze was content enough here, but remembering her conversation with Dante reminded her that there was always room for more and she was often finding herself craving a change of sorts.
She nudged his shoulder -- the good one, and turned to take her leave with a last lingering look. She bid him a silent wish of safe travels then left him alone to do what he needed to do.
Charon nodded when Amekaze said that she would come to Stavanger Bay soon and hopefully bring along the rest of her pack. It would be best if they'd all stay in one place, Charon thought, and if they'd help exploring. It would make the rest of the pack feel like they were part of this thing.
As Amekaze nudged his shoulder, Charon arched his neck to briefly touch her cheek. Then he shot her one last confident smile and the yearling came into motion, starting to follow back the path he had come. As he descended towards the gates he had previously visited with Dhole, Charon made sure to enjoy the view. It would be the last time he'd see it for some time to come.