Their members had dwindled down to a small few and the dark woman often wondered if she herself should leave once her young were old enough to and survive.
She found herself today traveling far from the lands. A lot farther than she was used to but it felt peaceful to be out of that foggy forest. She had carried the bones of her sister and sighed as she buried them.
@Kaito
Kaito didn't often wander far from Easthollow, but some days, the presence of the family overwhelmed him there. Although they had come to affirm that he was a part of them now, he still sometimes felt so other. And, truth be told, the feeling didn't surprise him. Everyone in the pack seemed related in some form or fashion, by marriage, or blood, or adoption. And he, well... he didn't really fit in as any of those things. And he wasn't really bothered by that, not usually, any way. But some days, the feeling hit, and those days, he just needed to get out.
Today was a "some day", and he made his way along the well known path to Blackfoot Forest. Snow sprinkled down in lazy flurries, splotching the half-thawed ground in white, and making the hills look like the back of a mangy coyote. He laughed at that, through a smile, and thanked the One, as he turned toward the woods, that at least the trees would offer some reprieve from the weather.
He found himself alone, until he did not. Kaito took a second to place the woman he glimpsed up ahead, but her name came within the moment, and he sprung forward with a happy clip. "Serem!" he called. His tail swung in great sweeps behind him. "It's Kaito! I never thought I'd see you on this side -- " of the mountain, he meant to say, but he was distracted by the gleam of white at her paws, the freshly turned ground, the mud on her paws, the heaviness which sunk her shoulders, and he realized -- he had interrupted something sacred, and very important. His ears slicked back, hesitant now, "Oh - sorry - I didn't... I can leave - " the boy drew a small step back.
She had just finished patting down the dirt with her paw when she heard a familiar voice call out her name and she turned her head to see her friend and her tail sway behind her. "Hey!" She called pit, when he noticed she had been burying her sisters bones she shook her head. "Oh, no need." She was finished and her kin was laid to rest. He had a packs scent on his fur that she didn't know. "By my nose it seems you finally found a pack hm?" She asked with a smile.
She received him well, and this brought assurance to the boy. While his ears remained slack, he met her with a smile and stopped in his retreat. Serem seemed better off than when he had last left her, the wound he had treated, largely healed.
"Your nose is as spot on as ever a good nose should be," he returned with a jesting grin, "They're to the east of here, and slightly north. A good clump of wolves, called Easthollow. I'm fitting in as well as anyone can," he chuckled, and returned the question on her -- a gentle current of concern slipping through his smile, "How is your pack treating you? he wondered what had brought her here -- his gaze drifted to the work beneath her paws -- and what, or who, she had just finished burying. "Are you keeping well with them?"