despite the continued threat of the sound so close things have finally settled and blixen feels good. she's making moves for what she wants, her family's together, she has an equal and beloved in furi and friends in rose and seri and dalia. they'll track down the traitor and tear him limb from limb in good time, she's sure of it, but all and all? pretty good life for the gona going on.

but when furi doesn't come to bed with everyone else blixen feels a familiar prick of worry and jealousy. the latter she dismisses immediately -- she doesn't think furi's sleeping with rose anymore, anyway. and then furi doesn't appear for morning patrol and blixen knows something is up. their routine may not be as unshakeable as it was before their fight but by now the redhead has cottoned on to at least some of her friend's anxiety issues and the prolonged absence is enough to make her go looking.

she doesn't go to rose's den immediately, feeling weird about it, but eventually gives in to the impulse. there's no rose to be found (phew) -- furi, on the other hand.. 

"hei," she says, poking her head in without much regard for personal space. "where've you been?"

it's not the answer she wants but she isn't surprised by it either. something is clearly wrong and the impulse to pick at it immediately makes her tense up. nomi'd said to try and understand and see things from furi's point of view, right?

the redhead huffs a sigh and shoves herself inside the den all of the way, curling up around furi's side as best she can if the other girl will let her. "okay," she says, clearly straining with the effort to let it go for now, "we don't have to talk about it now." obviously she has no intention of leaving furi alone to be miserable but hey, it's a start.

she feels awkward and out of place, snuggled up close to her girl in someone else's den. the pair settle into the silence, blixen uneasy. she's on the verge of saying something, anything, to break the tension when furi suddenly buries against her and -- is that a sob? "hey," the girl says, unsettled, and nudges her gently with her nose, before pressing close as she can in a wolfy approximation of a hug. "what's going on..?" she asks softly, not really angling for an answer if furi still doesn't wanna say anything.

blixen's fairly guileless -- she takes furi's answer at face value, not suspecting anything deeper the girl might be hiding from her. after all, they're both pretty open with each other, even if furi is the quiet type. "did something happen at blackfeather?" she asks, completely prepared to go re-fight those fuckers if they touched a hair on her head (although come to think of it, furi'd been guarding with artaax, hadn't she?) 

rose, though. the gona makes a face, something between concern and a tiny pang of jealousy that rose's presence could affect furi this much. oh, that isn't fair. "have you seen her at all since we got back? i haven't," she says, realising furi is probably right. "do you think we should look for her?" blix asks, wondering if she's gone and fucked up and let someone else get hurt in her absence. every time!

relieved to hear nothing happened, but still concerned, blixen whines softly and nuzzles into her neck. "i feel the same," she admits. she doesn't blame furi and artaax for their uninvolvement, but once mother left... blix should've marched right into that forest alongside her pack. instead she'd sulked and played with the puppies. 

but this isn't about her (for once) and furi's concerns about rose seem more pressing. she presses her lips in a thin line. "i don't think she is," the gona says, recalling the time she'd spent with the other redhead. from the start arrille had been somewhat self obsessed, or at least pretty naive, with the way he'd mucked up his joining pitch -- and the condition they'd found him in originally didn't speak much to his survival skills, either. rose, on the other hand, had been totally ready to call blixen out for being a bitch within seconds of meeting her, and had been ready to commit to the pack when asked. maybe it's just blixen not wanting to think badly of someone she liked, but, "i dont think so," she repeats more firmly, "did she ever talk to you about wanting to go somewhere else or anything?" the two had spent more time together than blixen had with rose, so, who knows, maybe the girl had harbored some secret dream of adventuring or something. or had family somewhere she'd been reunited with.. or something else that prevents blix from assuming the worst.

blixen hums, not sure what she can say to soothe her girlfriend. she's not good at being comforting and she doesn't know how furi feels, still, about rose and about everything, though she has more of an idea now at least. but she wants to try, and so she hooks a paw over the girl's silvery side and huffs a sigh into her fur. "does it matter?" she asks, shaking her head a little. "uh, i mean like -- where she was from, that sort of stuff -- isn't as important as what she was doing now. or at least that's how i feel about stuff." that her friends had lives before drageda is something she objectively knows, but something she cares very little about. whether or not thats the best way to feel about something is, well, time will tell.

unsure how to respond to furi's questions, she stays quiet for a minute. her impulse is: in that case, forget her, because she can't fathom anyone ditching drageda for something else, can't fathom there might be more important things. but something tells her furi might not like that answer and for once she listens, trying to think carefully about what to say instead of running her mouth. "then," blix says, "i mean.. we can't do much about it, right?" the redhead nudges at furi's cheek with her nose, concerned by the sudden appearance of more tears. "if she wanted to go... look for something, i guess, or return to something, that's... her decision, huh? and i guess we can't really hold it against her even if it sucks."

her answer doesn't make furi angry but it doesn't soothe her either. it seems like their opinions on this stuff may be irreconcilable. at least they aren't fighting about it, she decides, and sighs softly into furi's neck. there's no war, no pressing other thing to take priority over looking for rose, so she says, "okay," not exactly enthused but ... well, maybe furi's right. "i'll help," she adds, because rose is also her friend thank-you-much and she does hope the girl hasn't gotten herself into trouble while they're gone.