It has been a few days since Jazz had been accepted into the ranks and she often splits her time between working and spending time with her sister. She's been unable to get enough of her attention that, surely, she's getting annoying but Root is too afraid to let her go a day without seeing her. Occasionally they'd share a sleeping spot but Lagon had been the one to offer a share in the den. The obvious solution is to invite Jazz in, too, right? The more the merrier... er, warmer.
She doesn't see the fairness in leaving her friend of the Hollow cold and alone over the winter and a third body would only make it warmer. In the upcoming spring and summer months, a new deal would be made, but for now Root works on following the trails to both
@Jazz and
@Ancalagon. Whichever she finds strongest she works on hunting them down to talk about her new proposition.
It seemed like most of her time is still spent settling in one way or another, and there is actually steady progress on the matter. Slow, but improving now that she was starting to get into a general routine that helped the days pass with purpose behind them at the very least. She was getting better at the borders, knew a few scents, and all around felt better now that she was beginning to establish herself as a functioning member of the Hollow.
It was helping that she had Root around too. Time spent with her was always easy and helped to ebb away any anxiousness she stewed up when she was feeling lost, literally or metaphorically. Without Root, she would have surely passed this place by entirely and just kept wandering off into the unknown wilds without a goal except survive.
Speaking of her sister, Jazz turns to find her approaching as she made her own way back from an uneventful patrol. "Hey," she chuffed and moved to smear a welcoming lick across the side of her sister's face while her tail waved happily. "Doing anything?" she asked since she was in the market for a new task herself.
Root finds Jazz scent the strongest and it isn’t long before she’s greeted with the familiar form of her sister, grey-faced and blue-eyed, and her tail waves so excitedly that her butt wiggles. Getting tired of seeing Jazz’s face has yet to wear off but they had so much time to make up for with weeks between them, thinking the other to be dead. She’d mourn the loss of her family and now, to reverse that, seems surreal. She leans into the lick, closes her eyes, and sends off a nudge in return.
“Not anymore,” she says, showing her teeth in a grin, before she bumps shoulders. “Was looking for you.”
Lagon’s scent had become lost to her but, perhaps she could still find him; he is an important factor in this decision anyway. “So before you got here, I’d been sharing a den with someone and,” she hesitates, looking back to Jazz, “it wouldn’t be fair to up and leave him when it’s so cold.” Lagon had been pretty easy-going since they’d met and the den-sharing thing had worn off the awkwardness. Throwing Jazz into the mix might return the initial period of weirdness but it couldn’t be too bad, could it?
“Maybe, if he’s okay with it too, you could move in? It’s pretty big.”
Even though she hadn't felt tense before, she could feel herself relaxing just being in Root's company. The Hollow was certainly nice and all, and none of the residents had been disagreeable so far, but Root was just so easy to be with in a way that nothing else could compare to. "Well isn't this convenient then," she smirked with a small laugh at the end. She then fell into place alongside her sister and gave Root her undivided attention.
While the name was unfamiliar, she guessed she may know the scent since he did turn up here and there. She'd just never crossed paths with him but Jazz nodded along, wondering at first where this was going exactly before it turned into the invitation. "Oh. Well yeah, I mean, yeah if he's okay with it, I'd like that.. I've not met him yet, though, but I won't trash the place or anything so he won't have a good reason to.. not, you know?" she said with a small smile. She was of course interested in more warmth and sharing a den with her sister. She didn't think too far ahead from there, and assumed if Root liked him well enough to share with him, he couldn't be that bad.
“Then it’s settled,” Root decides with a few swishes of her tail. Unfortunately, the den would end up just the two of theirs when Lagon disappears from the Hollow entirely. For now, she feels the bubbling anxiety in her chest. Anxiety of asking a generous pack mate for this favor, for being reunited with Jazz again, the sense of impending comfort she knows to come.
The tawny girl nudges Jazz’s shoulder, leading her onward to find her friend. “I’m sure we can find him somewhere.” Root began her trek with sister in tow in an attempt to find the male. It would be easy to call and pull him toward them but where was the fun in that. “Oh, hey, do you remember when we were playing hide-n-seek with Jax and he slipped off the ledge, right into the lake?” It causes a little tension to bring up a sudden memory from the past, knowing where it eventually will lead, but for now she clings to a sliver of what she once called normal.
Just like that, it was done. Well, almost. Jazz nodded eagerly at her sister with a happy tail swish. She still banked on Ancalagon's response and did not intend to intrude. But this was certainly a start in the right direction, and she was feeling good about it overall so she fell easily into step a half step behind Root.
Mainly, she's preoccupied with trying to think about what her new (potential?) room mate may think about her moving in with them but Root brings up something from the past, not the potential future. "Hmm.. yeah, kind of," she squints as she reflects, then snickers softly to herself, remembering Jax's soggy self after it was all said and done. She then wondered what had made Root think of that, if anything, and looked around them both, fairly certain there were no ledges or lakes particularly nearby that would have reminded her if it were the other way around.
She jogs on happily with a volley of conversation between them, as its easy and curiously relaxing. Eventually they conclude their search for Ancalagon when new interests beckon, but Jazz has no complaints.