Clary could almost guess at what Red was thinking just by the way the older outrider glanced her way, and she offered an apologetic smile. Their initial reception at Swiftcurrent hadn't been what either of them had expected, and the bison skin just weighed as another burden on their already weary shoulders. Clary was almost excited for the trip back to Easthollow, simply knowing they wouldn't have to carry the pelt back.

She chose to stay quiet when Red offered her voice and instead found herself distracted by a bit of dirt clinging to the bristly hair of the bison skin. Her worries elsewhere, Clary reached out absently to paw off the dust of travel. What if the leaders here at Sunspire didn't show up to give an audience at all? Her paw slowed as she turned her eyes to the mountain's rocky depths, and found herself praying desperately that someone here would regard their call as a business worth attending.

Well. The wolves at Sunspire were certainly faster than the wolves at the creek. And there were even two of them. Good. Red stepped up, but kept her stance neutral-friendly, wagging her tail a little behind her. “Hello. My name is Red, and this is Clary.” She motioned towards the girl with her head. “We’re from the Easthollow pack, which is, well, east of here.” She grinned at that description for a moment, and then pressed on, trying to remember everything Valette had wanted her to say. “We’ve come as ambassadors on behalf of our alpha, Valette, who would have liked to come herself, but she is currently pregnant. We’d like to offer you an alliance with our pack, and have brought a gift for you as a show of good will.”

Here, she did a downward-dog stretch to lay the bison skin on the ground and then shimmied her head out from under it. She glanced down on rather battered pelt, and grinned sheepishly, ears splaying. “Apologies. It’s a little worse for wears than I would have liked, but we had to take a long detour to get here and the bison skin suffered for it.”

As much as Clary wanted to talk, Red took the reigns before she had a chance and didn't give her much room to add anything on. So instead she half-listened, but mostly watched the wolves who had come to attend them. The first thing she noticed was that they were huge. Like, not fat, and not pregnant (goodness, no, not that) - but their muscles ran sleek beneath their frames, positively shrinking any mass of her own she thought she'd done pretty well at building up. And for some reason that bothered her, because holey-moley, this second guy - gosh, his eyes were just like the sunset, and she decided then and there that his insides had better look just as lovely as his face.

She only caught herself staring when Red shifted, and Clary flinched with nerves she didn't even know existed and scrambled over to the aid of her friend. The girl couldn't blink the stupid smile from her lips and her movements felt clumsy and big-pawed, but she tried to help anyway. Her eyes fell with Red's to the beat up skin, and though her friend offered a very formal explanation, Clary found herself giggling with the realization of what they'd just done, and how silly they must've looked while trying to get through the mountains with a flipping bison skin draped across their backs.

"Yeah, I think we both thought mom was nuts when she told us she wanted us to haul a bison skin up here!" and though she giggled, she caught herself once her words had been said, and the briefest strike of shock flashed across her face. Dang it! Curse her tongue, and both these cute boys! She grinned and scrambled for words to cover up her slip. "But I mean, it was so worth it still, because it's suuuper soft, and really nice! And if you have a healer, it'd make such a cozy nook for sick wolves to lay down and curl up in, or like, pups! Pups, yeah, I bet it would keep them warm, especially at night, or when it gets cold and starts to snow again... OH, oh, or you know what, it's actually kind of fun to hide under too or - hhmph - " she tucked her head with a sheepish grin when a laugh broke through her smile, "or, it's actually pretty fun to wear around and pretend to be a bison with, and y'know, I'd bet there are some folk who would get a kick out of that..." Yeah, like her, and she drew a paw across the ground. Thank the stars for her fur, because she could already feel the heat rising to her cheeks and spreading well across her face. Why did she have to be so stupid - she knew she was supposed to leave the talking up to Red - but she smiled nonetheless and just kind, you know. Tried to own it, and also not to think about it.

Red was taken aback by how many words Clary could get out of her mouth so quickly, and she was startled by the turn her charge had taken in this conversation, but she didn’t have the heart to tell her to shut up. Besides, the other two wolves seemed to be enjoying the rambling, so Red just let it go and laughed about it. When everything had calmed down, she said, to Terance, “I can’t remember if Valette mentioned Rannoch by name, but I know she told me that she’d met one of you at some point, which is why she sent me here to make this alliance formal. Thank you for accepting our gift.” She bowed her head in politeness, but when she looked up again, she didn’t know what else to say.

Then she remembered the pack at the creek. “Oh. I should tell you, there’s a pack set up at the creek northeast of here. Valette didn’t mention them when she gave me directions to get here, so they must be new. Clary and I were supposed to cross it to get here, but we didn’t want to trespass, obviously, so we called for someone to come and take us through the territory. All we got in response was a growl, so we left quickly. We had to go far to the north to find the end of the creek so we could go around it properly. I’m not sure what’s up with that pack, maybe we caught them on a bad day, but I thought I’d let you know.”

Red nodded, grateful that she’d finally accomplished her journey. Of course, she’d have to go back, and they’d have to avoid Swiftcurrent Creek again, but at least she’d done what Valette had asked. “Thank you for your offer of food and rest,” she said, smiling. “We’ll take you up on the offer.” With a glance at Clary, she followed Terance to the spot he led them to, hardly able to wait for a much appreciated nap and a bite or two of food. Some water too. She was just glad they could finally go home after this and tell Valette that Easthollow had a new ally in the Sunspire pack.

[End.]