Néa blinked the blood out of her right eye, wondering if that was snow falling as the world blurred and moved before her eyes. At this point of her journey, she was on her last legs. Her injuries were severe, even she knew that and she couldn't kid herself on that. She was almost a healer after all and there was no way she would survive much longer. There was a familiar scent on the wind, the scent of home and the wolves who had once accepted her as family.

Would they still want her back? Had they moved on since then? Had her newfound mama found someone else to look after? Néa had basically abandoned her after all.

The Wapun Meadows greeted her with it's sweet scent, wrapping her up in the scent of living plants and the decay of death of the sweet flowers as they fell from their mother plant on onto the ground, only to be crushed under her paws. Is that what had happened to her? Fallen, running from her home and now she was but the saccharine smell of the sweet decay of life. Her thoughts were dark but Néa was fairly sure death was around the corner. She had a right to be as dark as she bloody well wanted to be. But it was getting colder and if she didn't find someone soon, it would be dangerous.

The softness of spring had descended upon the Teekon Wilds and it was beautiful, as the plants flowered. Life would begin to spring once again as they moved along from Winter, then into the Summer times.

With the last of her strength, as her injuries pained and her stomach tightened in it's emptiness, she howled and called for the one person she knew would recognise her. The scent she had been following for days.

@Scarlett ...

Scarlett was close to Bearclaw Valley. She just left the grounds to go check on a few last things she needed for her pack. All good and well after all. She wanted to set up a mini cache of plants as a medicine cabinet. She would only pick the one she knew. A soft hum came off her lips. Her tail waving behind her. She was so in love with Kove and soon they would have their own pack with their own rules. A grin turned on her lips but that instantly fell when she heard a howl. Her whole world froze into place. Her light fur bristling in shock. Néa. Néa?! A whimper fell on her lips. Scarlett had mourned the pup for a long time. She had been convinced her little daughter was gone forever. After she accepted this Scarlett knew that she had to focus on Adlartok at the time. She could never mourn Néa to her full content though. Adlartok got injured by Tuwawi and after that she got kicked out herself. Scarlett liked to think she left herself but she was more or less kicked out.

The red eyed female practically jumped forward into gears. If Scarlett thought she had run fast before then now it didn't even compare to the speed she was running now. Her little girl was back! The white lady rushed forward onto the stretched out land of Wapun Meadow. Scarlett howled back, and howled back again some more. Luck was on her side because the wind drifted her scent towards Scarlett. She made a quarter turn and was running. That is where Scarlett found her a small pile of worn little wolf body. Scarlett couldn't help but cry already at the sight. Not thinking if it were sad or happy tears. Maybe both. Néa was someone of her past, at the time she was happy at DFG. A time where Tuwawi didn't terrorize the whole pack. A shiver went over her spine. Scarlett sniffled as she came close to the injured youngster. It felt like it was her fault. She should have been there for Néa and not allowing her to go. Scarlett had another injured youngster to take care of now.

"Néa. Oh....," she let out. Her nose went through her fur, something that scented so different and yet so familiar. Instantly Scarlett started to lick her wounds clean. She started at her face. To her horror she saw the blood coming from her eye. A whine left her throat, Scarlett realized she was constantly whining. Only her licking made her own sound stop. The red eyed female was in shock with the severe sight but also happy to see Néa. Her tongue moved once more over her closed eye, wondering if she could see through it or not. Maybe the cut was just above her eye. Scarlett continued even through the tears blurred her vision, her nose helped to locate the blood and lick her wounds clean. Scarlett wanted to bring her to Bearclaw Valley but the boulder path that made up the entrance would not be a fun thing to drag the little she-wolf over. Scarlett curled her white body against Néa to keep her warm. They were in an open field and needed to get out of here. Maybe Kove could help. Scarlett looked down towards Néa. "My poor little baby," she whispered. "I'm here."

Néa had only shut her eyes for a second, she swore. Just a few seconds hadn't hurt but by the time she'd come to again, there was a familiar scent hovering closer and closer with each passing second. Her eyes flickered open and the the soft white form of a familiar figure filled her view, as she heard the soft movement of paws over the ground and Néa could have cried in relief as the pale red eyes of her mama, for all intents and purposes, filled her gaze. There were tears curling at the edges of snowy fur, from the pale red eyes that she had missed so much and Néa lifted her head, just slightly, as she felt Scarlett's nose ruffling through her fur and licking gently against the wounds in her fur.

She whined, the sound soft and pitiful and pained as the soft movements of the maternal fae's tongue brushed against the sensitive wounds. The fae was whining too, high and constant in a form of grief and she only stopped as she licked the blood down her face, where the claws of a wolf had clipped the edge of her eye just a few days earlier in her desperate bid for freedom.

Tears drove themselves out of her eyes, as she felt the warm body of Scarlett curl around her and it was so familiar that she finally realised that she was home. That she didn't have to fear for her life anymore, or fight to stay alive during the night, didn't have to live with the fear and terror of fighting off the shadows of the night. "Scarlett...Mama...." She breathed heavily, concentrating on staying awake and alert. If she fell asleep now, it would not be good and she knew it well. "I'm so sorry... Mama, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have left but I had to find her. My sister is out there somewhere and I had to find her but the truth... I went searching for the truth.... It turns out it was here all along..." She whined a little as she shifted, her eyes meeting Scarlett's and she could cry harder at the emotions there. "I thought I was gonna die..."

Scarlett was relieved to see that Néa was awake. She moved her tongue to lick over her muzzle once more. Her poor little baby. "Mama is here. You're home," she whispered through her whines. Scarlett was quite upset to she her adoptive daughter in this condition. "Don't talk. It's okay. I am not mad," she spoke softly. Scarlett was just glad that Néa had returned to her. She would be safe in Bearclaw Valley under her super vision. She wondered how things with Néa would have been if she had been between Tuwawi's clutches. The pale female didn't even want to think about that. She had her little girl back and that was all that matters.

The albino sat up and nudged Néa on a spot she seemed okay. She wondered what happened but that was something to ask later. She grabbed Néa's scruff. "Getww uwp!," She spoke, tugging on her scruff. It wouldn't hurt since it was still very stretchy. She wanted Néa back on her feet so she could guide her to her new home. The red eyed female was going to be strict about this. "Lean against me. I bring you to your new home. Things happened here too," she spoke towards the youngster. A lot of things had happened to Scarlett. Good and bad things. "C'mon little girl you can do it. Some last power," she encouraged.

Néa whined as she felt Scarlett nudge her on a small space there seemed to be no wounds, whining higher as she felt the older fae pull her to her feet by the scruff of her neck, yelping softly as it pulled on the wounds on her shoulders but bearing the pain. She crouched on her feet, not trusting herself to carry her full weight and as the world spun and dance, she just closed her eyes until she could see straight once again.

As she blinked the dizzying dots out of her vision, she shakily pulled to her feet and leant heavily against the older fae with a sigh, allowing the stronger wolf to carry more of her weight. She just focused on moving her paws, one in front of the other and just allowing the simple but painful action of movement to spur her on further. "Where... where is it we are going? Is there a new pack?" She wondered what had happened, she had heard mere rumours but nothing concrete out of what had happened to the Glacier pack- none of it had been good from what she'd gathered on her way back.

Scarlett saw how much trouble her daughter had but she couldn't soften up now. Scarlett needed her back to her den. The one in Bearclaw Valley was closer than the one in ember wood. The light she wolf knew she maybe could call Outcry once she was closer to Bearclaw, hoping the female already arrived in the valley. Scarlett didn't mind supporting Néa's weight. It meant that she was fighting. "Terrible things happened. I don't know if you remember but another youngster joined before you left Adlartok. Then Tuwawi returned, she was the founder of DFG, and didn't permit any other children in her pack other than Meara. In that moment I was glad you were away since Adlartok was attacked badly by Tuwawi. I learned to open my mouth more, and when I did speak out this red female no one of the pack helped me or spoke up against her. No, not even Malachi."

Scarlett explained this all to keep Néa awake the story was shocking enough for it. She didn't know how Néa would react to Adlartok or vice versa. She hoped the two would get along and not create more injuries while they were both recovering. "That is when I left, Adlartok had no future there anyways, so I took him with me. Cared for him. Then my... boyfriend.. Kove suggested we could start our own pack. He left his own pack for me to start our own." Scarlett curiously glanced to Néa what she would think of her mama having a boyfriend and soon a mate. "You will like Kove, Néa. You shouldn't worry. He is amazing. Of course I would say that.. but he really is. He left his pack for me, and saved me from a mountain lion and ... he is strong and handsome.. and... I should stop," she spoke.

Néa just listened, measuring each step over the rough terrain and taking in the story behind Scarlett's past few months and weeks as she fought to keep going. If she could just keep going, paw after paw after paw, then she'd get there. She truly could not believe how insane Tuwawi's regime had become and she thanked her lucky stars that she'd been able to escape from between her claws. Who knew what would have happened if she'd stayed there, if she would have even survived the greedy claws of the alpha?

She smiled as she heard her pseudo mother trail off as if embarrassed and though she would be making sure Kove was safe, she was glad that the white fae had found someone to love- and someone who could protect her. "He... sounds great..." She puffed heavily, wincing at the pulling on her ribs. "When I left, I went north. I found the packlands where I had grown up, found the bones of my parents and my brothers and I couldn't stand it. I left to find her, to find Malia but all I found was the empty lie of a family that will never exist again and... I couldn't take it. I went wild, trying to back here and that's when all of this," She huffed towards the wounds on her sides. "Happened. Got trapped in a cave system by a cannibal pack, with razor sharp claws and wild eyes and I didn't think I'd survive. They'd torment me in the night, leaving little wounds here and there and it slowly wore me down. Then I got a chance and I fled, with their teeth right at my tail, until they gave up.."

Scarlett made sure they would go into the right direction and take the shortest route. Her light body supported the little girl. "You can do it," she whispered to encourage the young girl. Scarlett knew they were getting close to the entrance of Bearclaw. The female turned her ear to Néa. Scarlett was so shocked to hear about what happened to little Néa. A cannibal pack? She never heard of it. The red eyed female would never wish someone one would get in the hands of such a pack. Néa was clearly traumatized by the whole ordeal. Her poor little one.

Scarlett steered her onto the border path. "Remember this path it is the only entrance," she spoke with a soft tone. Scarlett didn't want to comment on what Néa went through it was too horrible to even talk about. "Hush little one. Don't worry you are safe with me." Scarlett already knew that her parents would be dead. Néa was lucky to survive both things. The caring female made sure to navigate well between the high borders. "Almost there."

Néa smiled as she felt the incline and decline of the ground beneath her paws, as the ground grew mountainous and rocky agains the pads of her feet. She could feel Scarlett's concern, as she murmured soft encouragements to Néa and urged her on as her paws threatened to collapse beneath her and send her tumbling down. But she kept going, paws shaking and legs struggling for purchase agains the ground but still she kept going.

"How far...left... until we get there?" Her weight seemed almost too much now, even as she leant most of her weight onto the white body of her pseudo mother and it was getting harder to keep herself upright and thinking straight. The slope was hard to navigate, as small rocks and boulders rolled beneath the tread of her paws, as she tried to figure out where she was going but also memorising the route they had taken here.

Scarlett knew this would be hard for Néa. Oh how Scarlett wished she could carry her. Her light body navigated through the large rocks. Often she would just jump from the one to the other but now she had to take the slower route where she was navigating between them. "Not that far. You will make it," Scarlett spoke to the young one. The boulders started to make way and the valley appeared before them. A large open field with a huge lazy river flowing through it. "We are going to the water first, we need to cross it anyhow. Just so we can clear your wounds." Through the green grass was easier to walkthrough than the rocky bottom. Scarlett helped Néa on a shallow river bank. The water wasn't as cold as the glacier water.

The red eyed female once started to take care of Néa wounds. Licking them clean. She had no knowledge of which plants she could use. Scarlett only knew bits of just licking a wound clean. Her pink tongue worked without a pause throughout the process. Every wound was licked clean by Scarlett. She was determined to make no infection get to her daughter. The light female nuzzled Néa. "Lets get you warm and cozy in you knew home." Scarlett had lucky finished it today. It was perfect. With one big entrance room where one could lounge and sit, with then three chambers attached to it. One bedroom for her and Kove, one for Adlartok and one for a guest. But now it would be Néa bedroom.

Néa struggled, wounds aching as she padded sullen-grim down the path, struggling across boulders that she shouldn't have had trouble with but that now ached down to her bones. The roar of a streaming river rushed through the echoing expanse of the valley and as they reached it's bank, she felt the shallow sand bank sink beneath her paws as water lapped at her fur and she sighed at the slight cool sensation that spread throughout her. It had been a long time since she'd been clean and safe and this was more than she could have hoped for.

She hissed in slight pain as the older fae helped to clean her wounds, cleaning out any infections that may have set in and it was clear that she was unsure what to do to prevent infections, in terms of herbs and poultices. They waded through the water, the cooling pure water an essential balm to her wounds and she followed the fae to her den, seeing an empty section and she went down on her feet just inside the entrance, muscles strained and sore from her non-stop travels of the past weeks. "You finished a den... it's awesome, Scarlett!"