Firefly Ravine a seven nation army couldn't hold me back

For @Stark. Dio may cameo or reply as desired. Others also welcome.

There's a new ease in her step the last few days. The worry about her relationship has reduced some of the tension. A step, however small, is still a step. It's enough to take some of the stress of the future for a little while and she begins the trek away from the borders with @Dio in tow. While things have recently changed within Drageda, she is certain more will be coming. Wildfire agreeing to spend more nights in her cave had been a pleasant surprise and the growth they encompass together. She can't help but wonder how much the other wolves might know but she isn't one to probe for information in fear she might strike something that hadn't been there before.

The mission this day, however, is to find out what happened to the Seadogs. Since the scout came to her doorstep with information a pack had been on the cusp of disbanding, she can't help the curiosity that has been creeping in the back of her mind. It's good to know who remains together near the dragon's reaches, anyway, with tensions high against the grotto. Thuringwethil makes sure to keep enough distance between themselves and the larksong territory but as she reaches the marsh, she's confident they have little to worry about. There are no scents that lead her in one direction over the next and nothing familiar strokes her memory enough to point her a certain way.

By the time she reaches the ravine, however, she urges Dio and she split up to cover more ground. He'd been there the day of the boulder and what scents he can pull may be useful, but for now she's content that an ambush isn't likely from their enemies.

Sometimes Stark felt like there was no hope - not truly. The Ostregas were gone, Octavia was gone, and things around the Wilds seemed strangely shifting. There were packs vanishing around him and it left questions as to the state of his own. He felt they were more secure now than they had been a month ago, having Banner help him was a huge relief. Things seemed to be on the right track, at any rate. The nearby pack had vanished and Stark was exploring their territory when an unknown scent caught his nose. 

He didn't know enough about the Dragons other than the whispers of what Octavia had said months ago - but now, honestly, he second guessed nearly everything that she had told him when they had met. How long had her mind been slipping like this, struggling to make sense of what was going on. How long had her reality been different from what everyone else knew? Still, in a measure of good faith and not wanting to drum up any other altercations, the Alpha lifted his head and released a howl - just calling for anyone nearby. There was no urgency, no threat in his call. Just common interest in information. 

Holy cheeseballs those avies

Hush followed after Heda and Dio, not knowing what their purpose truly was. He knows that, wherever they are going, for whatever reason, he had to help in one way or another.

The mute coywolf trailed diligently after them. He suspected this had something to do with the threat of the Grotto, but their direction of travel suggested something different. But he had no way of knowing, instead bringing up their rear, his gaze alert even as they passed farther from hostile territory.

His ears perked upwards at the foreign howl, wondering who was inquiring. He couldn't howl, at least not loud enough for anyone to hear that wasn't in sight of him. He turned to Heda, wondering how she would respond.

The call catches her by surprise and she looks to Dio and then behind her at Hush as he trails along. She turns for a moment to consider their options and whether or not they pursue. It is just as curious as they are for information and the signs of life in the ravine seem nonexistent. If they linger and run into the one that made the call, she isn’t sure what type of wolf she’ll get, but she isn’t keen on searching out another. She doesn’t dismiss the thought just yet, however, as she turns to either wolf with her.

“Go, scan the area. Then blend yourself in and stand guard,” she tells them before dismissing them and moving a few steps in the way they’d originally been going. Eventually, she comes to a stop and lifts her nose to howl and call to the one that had made his presence known in the first place.

Find me.

Stark had a few options; seek out whoever was nearby, run the potential of finding someone who was aggressive, he also ran the risk of showing some cowardice and losing that information. He wasn't willing to do so. Still he tried to test out the waters, trying to catch the scents on the wind but he wasn't familiar at all with their group. If he knew more, he might have realized that Portia was there. He hadn't thought of the woman in months, the female while unusually marked and beautiful for it, had come and gone from his thoughts as quickly as so many who had come before her. 

After a bit there was a return call, one beckoning him closer. Stark had a considerable ego, yes, but the lure of knowledge pulled him closer. He made his way closer and took his time doing so - making sure the terrain didn't trip him up. When he finally approached he found another wolf as dark as he was and gave a small dip of his head. "You answered me?" He sought to confirm, before another wolf showed up - not that it would necessarily be a bad thing but he was still feeding off the paranoia of Octavia and her promised words of hostility. 

So far, the more he thought about it, the only wolves that he had encountered that had been trouble had some sort of ties to the woman. 

yeah probably a cameo but i might post here and there anyway so ignore him in the order like usual >_>

A multifaceted purpose pulled them further and further from the slopes of the Dragon, towards old Seadog territory. He's interested in what may await them here in these waning days of summer, and it feels good to stretch out beyond the borderlands and his typical routine. Plus he knows that treks abroad with the commander suit him well, and that they won't return home empty-handed.

By the time they closed in on the ravine, he'd started to up the alert more and more with each stride. Should anything await them, he intended to be ready. Old stragglers from the pack were possible, or even the presence of idiotic Larksong wolves lingering this far away, or something else entirely. However, he knows that as a small trio, they are strong even this far from home and with time, his nose finds very little of note -- even when his path began to fan out further from Heda. The eventual howl comes as a curious surprise.

He tilted his head to listen better, then curved his neck in a short nod. Cut and dry, the instructions were simple. He lengthened his stride to move away, shifting towards his stealthiest footfalls while the commander's reply rose to the winds. Dio would only interfere if necessary, but all the while, he would listen, poised to act the instant leader beckoned. In the meantime, he may as well learn the lay of the lands immediately nearby a bit better.

With her command, Hush steals into the underbrush. He wasn't much for stealth -  his sister Quiet handled that much better than he - but he could be quiet when he needed too. He went in the opposite direction as Dio, quickly hiding his lithe frame before she met the calling wolf.

He skimmed the area around Heda and the caller, keeping his eyes on Thurin and the gray wolf that appeared, his ears pricked for the distant murmur of their voices or any other sounds around them.

Neither wolf objects to her command and quickly move off to scan the area. Thuringwethil doesn’t move too far in either direction, keeping to the same area that her howl resonated, and waits to see if whomever made the first move will seek her out. While confident neither of her guards are too far—should she need their assistance—she’s certain she can handle herself in the presence of danger. She’s far more eager to know about the abandonment, should the other have any enlightenment, than to worry about what she may be getting herself into.

The scent of another catches her attention, not Dio nor Hush, and instead one dark in color that more resembles herself. Her head squares above her shoulders but she tries to ease her posture—she’d run into another wolf near his own claim and reminds herself how far away she is from her own—and nods her head once when the man asks a question of her.

“There had been a pack here, or nearby, and I heard of it’s potential disbandment,” she explains. They’re both there for information and she doubts he is completely oblivious to his surroundings, wherever he may be from. “I am Heda Thuringwethil, from Sleeping Dragon.”

This isn't the only scent he can pick up and it makes him more aware that while his wolves are close they aren't right there. He might have paid more attention and called for them, but, really, Stark has never worried that much. Instead he had gone out with the same confidence that he always had. Even if they did make some move against him he's confident in his pack that they'll rally to his call quickly enough. 

His posture matches hers for a moment, if he's not a touch more dominant given how close he is to his pack's lands, and Stark levels his blue gaze on her as she speaks. Heda means nothing to him, and her name seems like a hundred dollar word when compared to his own name, but Stark gets the gist of what she's asking about. "Stark, Alpha of Marauder's Keep." He said. "The Seadogs have been gone for a few weeks now." He explained. "Not that we ever dealt with them, they kept to their own."

The name of the pack rings a bell of something familiar and it takes a few seconds for her to remember why. Her brows knit in thought, committing the rest of the information to memory before she retreats back to the beginning. She hasn’t met anyone from the pack, Stark being her first, but there’s a sliver of knowledge she can’t unlock. Brushing it off, at least for the moment, is all she can do when she wants to sort through the hazy memory.

“They gave us a little trouble, months ago, but beyond that nothing else,” she explains. She never saw the leaders again but she had met a member or two, neither of them entirely unpleasant but she hasn’t seen either of them in a long time. “Thank you. For the information,” she adds just as it clicks. Valette. The scout a few weeks ago that stopped by mentioned the name and nothing else.

Stark listened intently, focused on the information that was given to him even if it wasn't necessarily relevant to him anymore. Without the Seadogs at the backdoor he had little worries - the mountains shielded them and cradled his pack. "I never saw them flourish, truly, it felt like a shaky claim from an outsider's view." Stark said with a little shrug. It didn't bother him in the slightest bit. For a long time he had been worried about his own pack, their dwindling numbers, but a surge of those needing help and his own family finding him, it had surged their numbers to nearly full. 

''Tis the season, it seems." He admitted with a small chuckle. "Recently we took in a female from Rosings - to the south. They could not maintain their claim either." He said evenly, tail swaying behind him for a moment. He didn't know of any new packs cropping up, but it seemed others had fallen, and he was curious just what that might mean with winter fast approaching.

Thuringwethil didn't expect the seadogs to flourish. The wolf she met the first time in the Maplewood had already been searching for a home and Denali never seemed keen on being there. A time of need for the both of them, she supposed, but now they are long gone. She doesn't expect to see them again (which, not to her surprise, will be deadly when she does) and finds the nuisance good to be gone. Now, she only has one pack to worry about and she doesn't know if they'll be gone any time soon without any help.

When he speaks of Rosings, her ears tilt forward curiously. She knew her friend had taken over for a while but upon sending Wildfire there, the claim had been taken back. Where Kierkegaard is now, she isn't certain, but she hopes he's in one piece after leaving. Either way, the claim had not held after he'd taken it over.

"I suppose so," she says, thankful her own claim is strong enough that disbanding has never been in her mind. Her wolves have remained strong from the beginning but she knows little of this man's pack. She'd searched most of these areas prior without coming across. New, perhaps, but not so new to be in their infancy. "There is another pack nearby that has been a problem to us as well," she adds, curious to see the reaction upon her newest companion.

In actuality there has been little drama from the outside for the Keep. It's all good and well considering how much drama had plagued the pack from the inside, but, he can't be bothered to think of all of that. Not now. Not when things are finally starting to come together and there is a light ad the end of the tunnel. He can breath a little easier, even if there are still three wolves missing. 

The number is growing smaller and smaller. His pack is getting larger and larger. Stark was curious when she said there was another pack that was giving them some trouble, but the only other pack that is nearby that he knows of is the Larksong wolves. It's ironic considering that Ryujin is even closer to him but they've left each other alone entirely. "Hopefully not too much. We've kept to ourselves through summer. It's proven to be a wise choice." Which is somewhat a lie - since they imploded. 

Stark likens them to the mystic phoenix in his head though, rising out of it's own ashes. He's always had the ego to boot, but, humility is the farthest thing from his mind. 

Stark explains the status of his own home, giving her the answer on why she hadn't heard of them until now. If she'd stuck around when she'd run into Warbone last, during her heat, she might have found out more, but as his scent differed heavily from this man, the connection doesn't come together. Instead, she only nods her head.

"Their leader has given my nothing but problems since we got here," she says, and then: "he is lucky to have seen my mercy."

Thuringwethil had tried her best to keep to herself but the day Esaro crossed the river had been the end of it, breaking any peace between the dragons and the phoenixes in his ignorance. Reek's lack of communication between his wolves had been their downfall and, with one problem after another, Drageda has only grown stronger. Confident enough that if she brought her wolves to his border, his hand would be forced, but she'd yet to find much reason to do that to the unsuspecting wolves of his claim.

Warbone is all but a distant memory to Stark. The male's name will always be known, the Keep had been his castle but he had abandoned it and whatever ideals he'd left behind were long gone. Stark didn't believe in being so alone, of building some internal empire and expecting his wolves not to be proud of it. Not to want to make it their own properly. To do that meant to step from the past proudly, appreciate it for what it was, and look to the future and truly embrace it. 

"The only other pack around here I am aware of is Larksong," Stark admitted after a moment, ears curving towards Thuringwethil as if he might catch the slightest hitch of her breath or shift of her heartbeat. For now, Stark doesn't really offer his opinions either way, at least not at the start. If asked he'd have no problems telling her so - it wasn't as if there was some information there that Stark protected. Expect, of course, for Tambourine. But he didn't need to open up that far.

Short of giving the wolf the answer, uncertain on the status of Reek’s alliances (though there can’t be many, if at all), Stark was able to figure out whom she had been speaking about. Thuringwethil offers a slight nod when he speaks the name and once does she glance away to search their surroundings for any sign of Dio or Hush nearby but they have hidden well enough. Certain that they would show up within seconds if called, she releases and returns her gaze to her companion.

“That is the one,” she audibly answers. “There is another pack that is not far, on the coast, but I have only just recently learned of them.”

She thinks back to Kjalarr and the brief meeting they had, discovering things she had been surprised to find. Either way, their information had been shared, but she is curious to know the status between the wolves of the Keep and the Grotto, just in case anything were to happen. If the grotto had an alliance, they had two packs to worry about, but she doubts Reek has been able to keep good terms with anyone left in the area.

Stark wasn't surprised to hear other news of the wolves of the Grotto. To say that he was not a fan was the most simplistic answer of all. He had plenty of reasons to be upset with them, after all, given the delicate nature of his relationship with Octavia and given that he was the sole parent for Tambourine who had basically been present since the boy's birth. Warbone might have started to parent him, but, he had not done much good as far away as he was. 

"I don't think I've found a fan of theirs yet." Stark admitted with a shrug. "I haven't had any interactions with the wolves near the coast - at least, not near here. Donnelaith's leader was kind enough when we met, but that was before I'd settled in the Keep." He admitted. "Otherwise, we've mostly kept to ourselves until everything got back to normal." Which it wasn't, still, but it was headed that way. 

She likes to think they keep to themselves, when they can. In the face of a threat, they do not stand down, but if left alone then they remain on their own territory. Esaro had crossed the river, breaking the agreement (and approached their borders, a deadly mistake on his part) and the queen of the Phoenix wolves had threatened them with war. Protactive they had been and since then, quiet. Larksong kept to themselves, for the most part, and Thuringwethil never gave them the time of day that they never deserved.

“That does not surprise me,” she comments. He’d been forced from his home and made to settle else where, but for whatever reason, Thuringwethil can only imagine. The rest of the information doesn’t much pertain to her but she nods anyway before she decides she’s gotten the information she came for and had fallen into small talk.

She glances away from Stark for her own wolves but does not yet call for them.

“Thank you for the information on the wolves that had been here. My claim is east of here, north east of the moraine, should you be near enough to visit,” she adds, pleased enough with him that he will not be met with hostility. “But we must go,” she says and then she gives a call for @Dio and @Hush to meet her somewhere nearby. “It was nice to speak with you, Stark of the Keep.”

Mentally the scout filed it away, directions ticked off in his head just adding to the mental map that he's been working on since he settled in the Wilds. He's learned a lot but he knows still there is so much more - and it's a prospect that to some might mean extensive trouble to him it's near mouthwatering. "I might just find myself up that way," He offered with a thin grin before nodding back towards the Keep. "We're just shy of here, should you find yourself closer." He offered. 

It was nice to at least lay down some foundations, to learn more about other packs and to see the leadership of others. He needed to start making himself more available anyways, start to fulfill some of his Alpha duties as he hadn't before. "Safe travels back, Thuringwethil." Stark offered to her before turning around and starting back towards his pack.