She had begun to learn this mountain's depths. The relationship deepened with every day and while there was always more to see, her senses were captivated by all she'd found so far. She'd roved the forests, hunted mice in the small plateaus, scaled risky pathways, waded in the cold creeks, and left her mark in more ways than one. In the way of the wolf, she slowly became an aspect of this mountain and it in turn became theirs.
Progress was going well and accordingly, the dark alpha's outlook was positive. A few pieces still would need to fall into place for all to be absolutely ideal, but this was certainly more than she would have on the Spire where a slow, wasting end was probably their fate. Here, she was reveling in the new strength of this mountain and the way she found such purpose with ease.
She was eager to keep her forward momentum and devoted this waning afternoon to what would be their borderlands. Her steps were smooth, content, and proud with a lifted tail and perked ears. In her wake were fresh markings to make clear the message of their intentions.
She hadn't been home in a few days, alternating between visits to Moonspear's borders and explorations of the surrounding territories. Wildfire still liked to revel in the deep, cozy shadows of the summit next door. There was plenty on her mind these days and she could sprawl on the cool ground and daydream for hours. She also spent some time in Bramblepoint and even made a few kills there, hence why there was no pressing need to go back to the caldera.
Of course, she missed her family and fully intended to head home at some point. She was just taking her time, especially after being housebound for a while beforehand. Wildfire knew winter was coming and that it would be the direst of the seasons. She figured she probably wouldn't be able to travel as far or as frequently (whether she was still living in the caldera or elsewhere). The way Njal had described it, Wildfire was pretty sure she would never stop slipping and falling between the first snow and spring thaw.
Today, she stopped by the shore of Lake Rodney and peered at the caldera across the way, a small smile twitching her lips. The young she-wolf then turned and began loping toward Moonspear's foothills, hoping to catch Floki again. Instead, she immediately spotted a dark and unfamiliar figure scouting along the boundary lines. Wildfire slowed, her posture lowering as she made her approach. This was surely one of her friends' pack mates.
"Hello," she called softly, pausing perhaps fifty yards away so as not to seem like a threat or intruder because, of course, Wildfire was neither.
Now and then, she'd cross other markings and evidence of the paths they were making here. All fresh, all strong, she was pleased by their effectiveness so far. After being the lone alpha for so long, it truly felt good to not have it all rely on her and her step was not so burdened.. like it may have felt back on the Sunspire.
When her reserves started to run dry, she began to be a touch more conservative. After a brief sprinkling, matched up with a lot of paw-scraping, she lurked on until red fur caught her sight. None here were quite so bright, especially in her own very monotone lot. Her ears perked and tail rose up just a little sharper. With a purposeful smoothness, she approached the youth. "Greetings," she said simply. Since there maintained a respectful distance between the new boundaries and the young female, Ame could be peaceable. But she was curious. It seemed this mountain already saw more traffic than she was used to secluded away on her hermit's peak. "You have business here..?" Her scent was a bit familiar. Perhaps.. Charon had mentioned her before.
When the she-wolf ventured closer, Wildfire bowed her head and sat, keeping her body as low as she feasibly could without lying down completely. She then peeked up through her eyelashes, offering the dark woman an amenable smile. She sounded businesslike but certainly curious about the young visitor so near her borders.
"More like pleasure," Wildfire answered readily. "I'm friends with Charon and Floki." It seemed more pertinent to drop the Alpha's name, so she put him ahead of her would-be "boyfriend." "My name's Wildfire," she offered. "I'm from Redhawk Caldera, though Charon has asked me to consider joining you guys here. I'm still thinking about it, especially 'cause I'm not even a proper adult yet." There were many other reasons but she didn't want to bore her hostess.
Her manners were sharp and she wasted little time answering, in which she was confirmed in the hint of suspicion she'd felt. In fact she told her more than she had anticipated right from the get go -- a name, a home, a reason for being here and then a little more. Amekaze canted her head, nodding slowly.
Since she was from Redhawk, and well.. quite red herself, she assumed she was Fox's progeny. It was hard to believe someone with any ounce of manners had come from her. Nevertheless, there was a lot she could remark on if she so chose. "I am Ame, Charon's co-alpha and formerly of the Sunspire," she added, trying to gauge how much Wildfire knew about their merge already. It was likely the topic had come up once between them. He had been eager to get to his alphaship, after all. "I do not plan for us to go anywhere anytime soon, so you have plenty time to think on it.." she said a bit more lightly. After all, she was young, and Ame didn't know how she'd feel about dispersing so soon. It had never occurred to her until well into her first year, but everyone was different.
When Ame gave her name, Wildfire heard Floki's voice in her head, referring to his brother's co-leader as simply "mysterious." She was a little hard to read, though like her young cohort, Wildfire didn't know her well... or at all. Ame would be her Alpha female if she came here, which was an oddly jarring thought. She knew Charon pretty well but she knew next to nothing about this dark wolf. Well, here was her chance, she supposed.
Wildfire smiled at Ame's remark, then said, "I'll try not to dither too long, though. Would you like to know anything about me, as a possible recruit? And would you tell me more about yourself...?" she added tentatively, hoping she wasn't being too forward. But if she was quite possibly going to come live here at some point, she wanted to make sure everyone involved was informed and happy about the situation.
No matter how long she took, she didn't doubt it would fall into place appropriately if she did decide to join them. Amekaze was already satisfied with the numbers they would be beginning winter with, so more certainly would not hurt, so long as they were capable wolves and not just more mouths hanging around to have to feed. As the offspring of alphas, presumably, Ame doubted she was useless by any stretch of the term and the more she spoke, the more she led the dark alpha to believe she had a decent head on her shoulders too. "Ah, well.. what are your best skills? Interests?" A generic place to start for any potential joiner. "How long have you known Charon and Floki?" she asked then a bit more specific to her personally.
And since the question had been turned onto her so outright, she would answer in some way. There was a lot she could say. "I am a naturalist, warrior, and chronicler myself.. and have lived in the Teekon a long time. This will be my third pack here and the second I helped to found." She'd already made mention of the Sunspire by name. Anything before that would surely mean little to ears this young but it was easy to speak of her small place in the histories here. "What else would you like to know?" She tilted her head with a casual switch of her tail. Obviously, talking about herself was not her strongest suit.
Before answering Ame's questions, Wildfire let her respond first. She declared herself a Naturalist, Warrior and Chronicler, which made the youth think briefly of her mother. Her lips twitched. Well, if she came here, her Alpha females would be similarly skilled. That was somehow reassuring, though the she-wolf before her seemed quite different from her dam.
"I'm a Naturalist and Warrior too," Wildfire said, "but I think my strongest trade is Outrider." Of course, she was only an apprentice. But the moment she took an adult rank, she would be a Journeyman well on her way to Master status. Playing off Ame's points, she added, "So I really love exploring but I've only ever lived in my birth pack: Redhawk Caldera. But I met Charon on my travels and Floki more recently, when you guys chose Moonspear."
That just about covered Wildfire Redhawk in a nutshell. Now it was her turn again. "Do you have family here? What made you decide to team up with Charon?" She had heard his side of the story but she was curious to see where Ame was coming from, literally and figuratively speaking.
The red-furred youth revealed her skills, and they were all among some of Amekaze's most respected. She may have had a small bias, with naturalism and warrior training among the aspects that had ingrained into her from such a young age.. and she appreciated outriders as well. They had served her greatly over the months of her leadership but admittedly, had also caused her much worry in the more recent months.
She nodded thoughtfully, making mental notes here and there and continuing to find herself happy to not find Wildfire to be bad company. There was little she knew about Redhawk, but decided what she said was good enough -- it was her birthplace, and that was that. On the question returned to her, she shook her head softly. Her brother had been a fleeting presence, but he counted no longer. "I do not. My homeland is about a week-long trek from here." She was long distanced from her family, and had not taken efforts to build her own.
On Charon, the answer was bound to be a bit more meandering. "Because our packs were both small, and the Sunspire has struggled with growth for so long that it was beginning to feel very stagnant there -- I needed a change." Having Charon be the gateway to it was the unexpected part. "This all fell neatly into place, the timing was right, so I decided to go with it because it was either this or, surely much less.." His inexperience was something to consider, but frankly, she was not yet finding concern in it. He'd learn, and grow into the role with her alongside him. She believed they could strike a good balance and she was plenty eager to share the role of alpha with someone else.
It seemed Ame had neither natal nor nuclear family here, although that didn't mean much. The pack was her family, regardless of blood relations. It had grown recently, what with the two smaller packs teaming up to form one larger one. The dark she-wolf surely wasn't wanting for companionship nor familial bonds, even with her homeland far away. That was food for thought for later, when Wildfire considered her own decision to leave her birthplace.
Wildfire wondered what factors might cause a pack to stagnate. Was it the location? The resources? Whatever the cause for the Sunspire's failure to thrive, it was fortunate they had been able to develop a symbiotic relationship with Stavanger Bay. The youth wondered how that conversation had gotten started. Charon was surely the mastermind and driving force behind it but there was a lot more to the amalgamation of the two packs.
"How did you meet Charon?" Wildfire wondered, her right ear flicking. Ame had mentioned the reasons for combining forces but how had the two even met and struck up a friendship in the first place?
She'd considered it extensively, and felt that as things were.. the Sunspire could have supported them as far as resources went, but with numbers so few and morale often so low, that was what was bound to drag them under. When living as a loner was almost more advantageous than feeling rooted to a practically-desolate pack land was when she knew it was time to make for some change. This way, with Charon and the fragments of his seaside pack, she didn't have to be the only one to pull all the weight.
"I had first met him months back when I explored the northern shore," she answered. He'd hardly seemed like more than a whelp then back in the summertime months and she'd certainly not imagined he'd play the role he would. "But more recently, I found him in the mountains not long after his fight, delirious and suffering." And asking for death, it seemed. "When he mended a bit and got his head back about him, I came to know him better and along the line, the idea came up." She would know the rest of it, presumably, or could piece it together well enough.
Their first meeting sounded quite typical, then Ame mentioned coming across him following his fight. She remembered Charon mentioning it that night at Granite Gate, back in September. Now that she thought about it, she vaguely recalled him mentioning Ame and the possible merge at the time. That was the first Wildfire had ever heard of her or the Sunspire and she'd even briefly confused them with another wolf and pack. And she hadn't ever gotten the identity of Charon's opponent; she only knew him as asshat.
"Ah, now that I think about it, I remember him mentioning all that when I ran into him at Granite Gate," Wildfire shared. "Who did he fight, anyway?" she wondered offhandedly. "He's lucky you took him in and looked after him," the youth added, grateful by proxy that the she-wolf before her had nursed a possibly dying Charon back to health.
The details she had gathered regarding Charon's fight all came from her own observations. Not long before she'd found Charon, she'd seen Dante too.. and well, considering his distaste for the Plateau that he had hinted at once before, she connected the dots. One day she did intend to pry for the fine details themselves if it ever came up, but it never really seemed to matter all that much. "A wolf from the Plateau. I had encountered him around that time, too.. and while I do not know who could be called the victor in it all, they both left their mark.." she answered. The sterling alpha may have bested him, based on their conditions afterward.. but it had been a few days before she'd found Charon and he'd been awfully far from home. She reasoned that could have worsened his status significantly.
She then spoke on the speckled yearling's luck, and she couldn't help but nod. "Ah, I suppose I cannot deny that.. he had not been doing well by the time I found him. But, thanks to him in turn, I have a better outlook on the months to come," she smirked. She had not done all that much for him in truth, other than give him a better place to heal than some random mountain cave, clean streams to rinse in, and company, but it had worked out in the end of it all. He lived, and so did she, now upon a greater homestead not polluted by the memories of times past.
Ame fingered the plateau, though she didn't seem to know a name. Wildfire's lips pursed. She knew a few wolves from there, not to mention its colorful history with the caldera. She supposed it didn't matter now. It hadn't involved her then and needn't involve her now. She didn't worry about the plateau's members seeking vengeance on Charon. All wolf packs were already rivals, in Wildfire's mind, and as far as she knew, they didn't often attempt to wage war on one another, especially not over a solitary altercation.
"Well, I'm really glad everything's working out for the both of you," the youngster said genuinely. "It sounds like you two make a good team and this pack is gonna do well. It makes it even more appealing," Wildfire quipped with a playful smirk. "But on that note, I haven't been home in a few days and it's time to head back. Thanks so much for talking with me today, Ame. I'll probably see you around?" She offered a final smile, dipped her head respectfully, waited a few beats to allow the Alpha any parting words and then Wildfire finally began the trek home.
Her hopes were high, true, but exact expectations were only just beginning to form. All she wanted for now was the two packs to meld without issue and for them to face winter strong. Even if the season that dawned did turn nasty and foul like the one a few winters back, at least they could unite against a common foe, essentially. But already.. she was content with progress at this point.
Then, with a nod, she took Wildfire's departure in stride. Her reason was valid and Ame was beginning to itch to return to the borderlands, anyway. "You are welcome," she offered, and chuffed a soft farewell. The juvenile had made a good first impression so afterward, Amekaze returned to her trail.