Easy hadn't been able to track down her nephew before she left, but she made sure that @Sumac knew she would be back soon. Her scent was slowly changing, and she didn't want to deal with that in the middle of such a large event. So she left word with him in case Dutch returned, encouraging Sumac to try and make new friends while she was gone.

And then, well — she was gone.

Northstar Vale was a place she'd never really had the chance to explore. In the past, it'd always been occupied by packs she didn't know when she was nearby. Most recently, her cousin had resided in this place, but the pack she'd been part of was no longer in residence. Easy imagined her life here, wondering at all the intervening years. They had both come so far in life, completely apart from each other. She didn't blame Meadow if the other woman didn't feel any connection to her — but she hoped they could one day be friends.

It seemed that the vale wasn't quite as empty as she thought. When Easy came across the scent of another, she followed it through the cold winter snow. The figure she found was familiar to her, somehow, but she couldn't think of when or where she might've met this young man before.

There was no time like the present, was there?

"Isn't it a little chilly to hang around up here by your lonesome?" she called out, announcing herself.

warsbane had not expected to linger, for it didn't suit his adventurous and explorative nature but something about this place settles like a gauzy haze of calm; an unexplained thread of connection that keeps him grounded here.

for the time being at least.

or, maybe, it was the snows that held him here. at least in the vale he had prey to hunt and fresh water and could sustain himself.

the days had begun to blur but he does not recall coming across too many others during his stay in the vale. except ... except today.

a voice calls out to him, garnering his attention. a flare of his nostrils as he peers over his shoulder at her snares him. jolts the nerves of his body alive in a way that he had never felt before. of course, he wasn't a stranger to the season, but it was the first time it affected him.

and he was helplessly affected; immediately enraptured.

so much so that he forgot he hadn't even answered her. he turns to face her, offering her a sheepishly apologetic smile. this cold is tame compared to my homeland. he admits.

Although she'd long since grown out of many of her insecurities, it was still gratifying to see the effect she could have on men. Even if it wasn't her so much as the season, and pheromones she couldn't control — was it a crime that she just liked what it did?

Maybe, she reasoned, suppressing a smile as the young man turned toward her. It took him a moment, but then he answered, and Easy smiled after all — and her teeth glinted in the winter light.

"Mine, too," she replied, closing some of the distance between them. He had a pretty face, and a pretty pelt, and the sort of musculature she thought would grow harder with age. And there was just this look about him. Something she liked, even if she couldn't quite define it.

Aditya had fathered her last two litters. She would have wanted him for the third as well — but Aditya wasn't here. And she hadn't wanted to wait around alone at the spine with their children all abroad just for the hope that he might show up at the right time. She hadn't even been sure her time would come at all, considering she was getting older. But not, apparently, quite old enough.

Aditya wasn't here. This young man was.

"Well?" she asked, coming to a decision. "Do you think you could keep me warm?"

warsbane's nostrils flare again, blood heating sweetly in his veins as she draws a few steps nearer. not enough, he thinks so suddenly and so fiercely that is nearly consumes him.

a baited breath is taken as she puts forth her question. it hangs in the chilled air between them for a moment; a pin drop. there were so many reasons not to —

warsbane ignores all of them.

i think i can do that, yeah. he grins as he closes the distance betwixt them in full; drawing her into his embrace.

---

though warsbane is loathe to leave the feel of her body pressed against his, he gives her space, reminding himself that they are strangers.

which encourages the soft clear of his throat, figuring he owed her ( at least ) an introduction. i'm warsbane.

Ah, young strength! It'd been quite a while for her, and far longer since she'd been with someone other than Aditya. There was much to be said for a seasoned lover, but so to were there perks to the untried and unproved.

She didn't mind their closeness, but she did not begrudge him his space when they parted.

"Good work, Warsbane," she said with a cheeky grin, feeling far too loose-limbed and sated to speak with any kind of gravity. She stretched and sprawled more comfortably in the snow. "My name is Ishara Morningside," she shared, pronouncing it carefully for his sake. She didn't imagine he would stick around, but he would prob find himself curious at some point, wouldn't he?

She patted the snow-covered earth beside her with a heavy paw.

"I have things I need to get back to, soon," she told him, and there was nothing explicit in her tone that said he was not invited — but it certainly didn't ask him along, either. "Tell me about yourself, if you'd like to. If you'd rather not, I suggest you take a well-deserved nap."

And there was and invitation in that arch tone of voice.

heavy-eyed, warsbane takes in her words. quiet. contemplative.

while he does not expect conversation to follow, he is not bothered by it. he settles back upon his haunches, picking through the important bits.

i ... am an explorer, which was why he was not at all insulted by the thought that their ways would part never to cross again. though, there was the small inkling that told him laying with her was foolish and what if, soon, her sides began to swell with his children? but that is easily batted away. why assume he would be the only? that one time was all it would take?

seeker of adventure and treasures. a wily grin tugs at the edges of his lips.

A brilliant grin snuck onto Easy's face as the young man named himself an explorer, an adventurer. He reminded her of her own youth, and as far as she was concerned, these were things on which years might be well-spent.

"That sounds exciting," she replied, filled in equal measures by nostalgia and curiosity. "Have you found many treasures yet?" She bared her teeth in a grin: "In case it is not clear, I am hoping for a story."

She arranged herself on her belly, like a teenage girl at a slumber party, to listen in. She wanted to have something she could tell her children if and when they were born. She would make sure they knew his name — it would be up to him to decide whether or not they knew his face.

"If you make it stirring enough," she hinted, coquettish, "There might be something in it for you."

she inquires about his found treasures, imploring him for a story. but there was a reason he travelled light.

oh, no doubt i've thought so. he responds with a jovial chuckle, thinking back to the things he brought his mother as a cub. pretty things. morbid things. things that he thought described the elder's stories.

but nothing recently. at least ... nothing worth sharing.

nothing that made a good story; offering a sheepish and apologetic shrug of his shoulders.

The blackbear let out a quiet little sigh, accepting that she would get no more out of the young man without prying. Perhaps she would have, under different circumstances — but Sumac would start to worry for her if she did not start back soon. So she rose, stretching tired muscles, and offered him one last smile.

"That's too bad," she lamented. "But thank you anyway, Warsbane."

Sometimes occured to her, then; her head tipped to the side, and she said, "Wintersbane."

Her gaze was imploring. Did he know this man?