Wolf RPG

It wasn't until he had started the climb along the ridge that Mordecai realized the subtle change of the seasons. The air felt different the further away from the coast he took himself, though the ocean was never entirely out of reach. Even here, if the wind was just right, he could scent the saltwater air. The ache in his body was not entirely gone either, the pain driven sharply by a growing hunger he had not quite been able to sate fully.

Whatever sparse moments of lucidity he had were fleeting, as for the most part Mordecai moved like a drone, zombie-like and unaware of what was around bar directly ahead of him. He'd go until he couldn't any more, and then he would rest. Very much the same pattern he had adopted some weeks ago when trying to track herds in the middle of a famine—the recollection was something akin to a sucker punch when he realized that yet again, something had kept him from his family.

Of course, this time he wasn't coming back to a whole family. As it were, they had lost two of their children to differing circumstances. It was a soul-crushing experience that would not yet be quelled and the lost of the sun to the dip of the earth only meant he was in for a long night ahead. A sigh escaped him as he bought his unsteady and limping gait to a brief halt, having sussed out a stream from habit to drink from. The water was crisp and clear, but he did not look to the reflect that met him in the lowering light.

Grace limped forward from Rickon's company long before - the sun was now setting, and the yearling would need to find something to eat soon. The old meat Rickon had fed her was making her feel ill - if she didn't get something more fresh, the healer feared she would vomit. 

She cut closer to the Marauder's than she'd wanted to, but their smell on the wind was what she'd sought - upon getting it, she realized it was not that of home.... She could leave here in confidence that she was making the correct choice. 

Knowing there was a stream close by, Grace headed for that - she was thirsty, and with luck there would be a fish or two to gobble down. What she was not expecting was the face of Mordecai - Grace gasped in surprise as she rounded a boulder and was far closer than she'd have liked to be.

                  "M-Mordecai!"

The last she knew, he and Larkspur had gone on some adventure - probably to find the blonde girls sibling - but it appeared he was home... Alone? Did he know of her and Trick's abandonment? Tavi's death? Would he attack her, or talk peacefully? Grace hopped for the latter - she'd had enough of cowering and hosility. Nonetheless, she shrank back and stumbled back - only earning a very graceless sit - away from the potential danger.

He drank from the stream, the cool waters a numb refreshment to an otherwise parched mouth. It did little to sate the unease that had settled in and as he drank, the actions became more automated as an absent look settled into his gaze. He did not initially hear the approach of the other, but did take note of her stammered out exclamation of his name. That most certainly gained his attention, and swiftly.

But the wolf he looked upon did not seem familiar. Any more with as many faces as he felt he had encountered over the years, he had normally been decent at remembering them. Yet with all that had occurred in such a short span of time, he struggled to place a name with her face, let alone recall in detail where it was that they had crossed paths.

His uncertainty revealed itself rather than hide, and his ears flattened briefly at either side of his head. Mordecai's brow furrowed with it. "I'm sorry, have we met...?" He did not yet consider the possibility maybe his brains were somehow scrambled—then again, he had made it this far back towards the Keep from memory alone—but the possibility remained.

At first, Grace thought she'd made a mistake - the man drinking from the water sure looked like her old Keep packmate, but he smelled thickly of the ocean and when he looked up to her, there was anything but recognition. 

At his reaction, Grace froze where she was sitting, chosing not to stand nor leave but stare whale-eyed at him for a moment. The crusted shut eye served little purpose right now, but even through her one golden orb she could clearly tell that this man was Mordecai, even before he'd asked her if they'd met; why did he not remember? Had something happened?

            "Y-You don't remember me?"

For a moment, she consitered not telling him. Her ears fell back and she licked her jaws in anxiety - why didn't he know her? Was this a freaking test, or was he maybe doing it to show she was no longer a Marauder? So many posibilities popped into her head that she shook it as if to clear them.

 
                                                                             "You joined Marauder's Keep a couple months after me, and we didn't ever really talk or hang out, but we were still packmates."