Cedar Sweep Must be nice

Phox was still plenty uncomfortable in his own skin, but he was attempting to distract himself with some hunting. The fox he'd been tracking for the past hour or so wasn't too far off, he thought, and he was planning on bringing it home for the kids (assuming he was lucky enough to catch it). It was getting late, far past his bedtime, and he couldn't help but glance up at the night sky. Sagittarius and Scorpio were hanging out together, and he offered them a passing glance before resuming his main task.

The trail was clear enough, and he thought it was fresh enough, but he really had gotten carried away. Before long, Phox had gotten well out of grove territory and into the cedar forest between his own pack and Raven's. Not that he was paying much attention to all that, although it did faintly register in the back of his mind.

It had been just a day, since Maia had left and Wraen was not coping with it very well. She found little comfort in the Sunmote copse, her mind was far away, when she was hunting or playing with the kids and in general she had lost interest in anything that happened in the pack now. She kept wondering, if it was still not too late to catch up with her sister. Surely - day old tracks would be easy to find, right? She would not have gone that far by now, would she?

Without the comfort of Maia's presence in their shared quarters, Wraen left the copse to have a walk and wallow in her misery. Life sucked in so many ways at the moment and she wished very much that her decision to stay out of loyalty and sense of duty to the Firebirds' wolves would pay off in the future. She would be very disappointed, if it would not. Lost in such thoughts she missed the fox, which slinked past her and away in the darkness, however, several feet down the road she became aware of another person being nearby. 

It was not Maia, of course, but a familiar smell and face still. "Phox?" she stopped and called out to the dark form of a wolf in the vicinity.

"Wraen?"

Liffey too had left her territory that day to wallow, not just over Breccan's decision to leave, but now in Wisteria's apparent abandonment. For one beautiful space of time, she'd had seven of her eight children under her roof. Maybe not happy, but together and safe. Now, her long lost daughter was back to being long lost, and her perfect prince as well. In spite of all the good things that were happening around her, Liffey found it difficult to look away from the bad. And that is how she ended up outside of the Glade, walking right into an old friend.

The Frostfur hadn't seen Wraen since Sunspire (I think) when her friend had decided to take her leave and do some traveling. Liffey had missed her. She'd been the first real friend outside of family that Liffey had ever had, and often she'd wondered if things at the Hollow might not have turned out differently had Wraen stayed. Seeing her now brought a wave of joy crashing into Liffey's heart, so hurried her steps to close the distance between herself and her friend, paying little attention to her cousin who was also in close proximity.

He didn't recognize her right away, having only bumped into Wraen once before briefly, and he nodded assuming she was talking about the critter he was tracking. But when somebody else showed up and spoke Wraen's name, Phox actually stopped to look at the two of them. He didn't recognize Liffey right away either, but considering she smelled heavily of Raven and... Rannoch was the other one, right?—he could only assume it was her.

Not to skip out on this reunion, but I'm tracking down a fox, he said, pausing in case either of them wanted to either a) pitch in or b) insist he stay longer to catch up. The Redhawk didn't have a particularly strong connection to either of them, but each one resided in one of the sister packs. If there was any news he should know about, he'd gladly pick the game trail back up after hearing it.

Wraen's memories about Liffey and their friendship were different: the kids had been born, priorities in life had changed and they had simply drifted apart. In the months that had followed, she had hardly given any thought about the Blackthorn until this evening, when she happened to appear in flesh and person before her. 

"Umm... hi," she uttered, caught off guard, and when Phox addressed them, she felt even more awkward. "I say we track that fox and converse later? So that it's not an entire waste of a good hunt?" she suggested quickly.

Liffey's smile faltered at the reaction she received from her friend. It was not exactly full of warmth as she'd expected, but there was something uncomfortable in it. Before she had much time to consider it more, another voice was drawing their attention away. She hadn't noticed him at first, but now she was thankful for the distraction. She forced a smile back onto her face as she nodded at Wraen, accepting her term, then feeling strange again over how.. contractual this felt.

Liffey moved away then to join Phox, trying to focus herself instead on the hunt. It was awkward being with him too. She hadn't seen him since was a fidgety pup at the Caldera. She doubted he would remember her--she'd done her best to stay away from him and his siblings whenever she could manage. But like Wraen had said, they could converse later. Hunting first. God this was awkward.

If there was tension between the two wolves he barely knew, Phox was too focused on the hunt to notice. He nodded when Wraen suggested they go track the fox before bothering with further pleasantries. The Kilonova was quick to get back to the task at hand, and his nose dropped to the forest floor once again. It was fairly easy to pick up the trail, and off the three of them went to track down his namesake.

Eventually, the sound of much smaller footsteps could be heard up ahead, and Phox slowed his pace, glancing back at his two hunting partners to let them know he'd found their target.

It seemed silly now that three grown up wolves would close upon a prey so small, but Wraen did not see any other way out of the situation. Instead she shoved the rational reasoning in this situation off the table and focused on the task at hand. She too heard the footfalls and caught the sharp scent of the fox. Deciding to give Phox the lead in this, she crouched close to the ground and was ready to flank and cut off the path of escape, if it was needed.

She was quite uncomfortable. The longer she paced alongside Phox and Wraen in silence, the more compelled she felt to go. As they neared their prey and thusly determined it to be rather small, she felt even more ridiculous. But how to bail on the endeavor now that they were right here?

Liffey saw Phox's glance and gave a small nod. She too decided to simply follow his lead. Wraen had aligned to one side of Phox, so she positioned herself on the other. She would block the creature's path if it came to her side, just as she assumed Wraen would block it on the other. With any luck, it would all be over soon and Liffey could find a reason to excuse herself quickly.

This'll be my last post with Liff. Feel free to PP her tagging along quietly and then bouncing as soon as they're done <3