Ravensblood Forest It was all for a reason, it has to be.

Setting this shortly after Elysium disbands.

Although Sunny hadn't responded to his attack in the way Dacio had hoped, to hold his new title as leader over its wolves had done a great deal to bolster his ego. He had many plans for Elysium: to scrap their selfless sanctuary crap and restructure their ranks, weed out those who couldnt support him and set right to work in training their young toward their goal. 

What he did not expect was to lose his crown so swiftly. 

He was disappointed, but refused to sway. Dacio, determined to see his goal through, merely shrugged off the irritation of a pointless takeover and sent a call up for @Opalia to announce their dispersal.

Ravensblood Forest was familiar to the Drakru siblings, for they'd rested there during their hunt for Dalia all those months ago. Dacio found comfort in trailing through its bleeding trees, though he was troubled. Where would they go now? The cold season would soon be upon them and without the support of a kru, he was afraid they might suffer. "I don't like the idea of being so far from the coast," he told his golden littermate, "but did you see how quickly the herds moved on after the earth first shook? I feel we'll have a better chance if we go further inland."

He looked over a shoulder at her then, grey-green eyes soft as he sought her pale features. What would he be without her never-ending support? Where would he be? Opalia was his grounding, he was sure, and she was a main driving force behind his determination to build something formidable.

Opalia turned away from Elysium disappointed, too. It had been her initial suggestion to go there in the first place, but evidently, her knowledge had only granted them temporary reprieve. She was more than ready to see it through as Dacio saw fit under his control, and frankly, hopeful for the opportunity to have something real of the sort to help protect and build. But before it could really begin, everything had fractured worse than even the pair of them could hope to patch up with Sunny's family taking up most of the ranks, and preferring to follow him anyway. Elysium had suffered for the last time, and with her brother's call, it was done.

So once again, they were off. This time, at least more rested and fed than before and not freshly licking their wounds. But now they had an entire trembling mountain range to worry about. I don't either.. she agreed, about the coast, and had narrowed her eyes off to a fixed point ahead, between the trees a moment before glancing back to Dacio when she decided it was nothing. Too quickly. They knew first.. seemed like, she sighed, for that observation had bothered her--with winter approaching. And too close to the mountains can't be that great if it's all going to rumble like this, Opalia reasoned, casting a stormy glance to the range that had been their first plan to travel along, before Elysium's collapse.

She couldn't rest so easily both away from the shoreline and with peaks towering overhead while underfoot the earth literally shook and shifted, though, no matter what satisfying opportunity they may find within the mountains. For right now, she was going to have to suggest they veer elsewhere.. I've never been very far inland on the south of the range, though. Maybe there's.. something. But what should they even be looking for at this point, short of everything to survive the winter? A daunting thought to carry right now.

He nodded in agreement, absolutely certain now that they would find no place suitable in the vicinity of the Teekon's mountain ranges. The shaking earth had not affected the Drakru siblings directly, not yet anyway, but it didn't curb his concern that something catastrophic might be approaching.

"You're right," he told her regarding the disappearance of Elysium's nearby herds, even the dispersal of its birds. It was an assurance to him at least, that the pack would be doomed regardless of its leadership and he was not entirely responsible for its undoing. "I guess we'll just keep going, then, until we find what we need."

Did either of them really know what they were looking for? He supposed it didn't matter: they couldn't be picky in the run-up to Winter and the absence of a reliable food source. Rusalka would have to wait, at least until Springtime.

They agreed, and she was certainly thankful they had this between them to rely on when all else failed--they did not. Suppose so, she sighed. Hopefully we can at least find something worth our time, she griped. A leadership with a spine would help inspire her, but Opalia knew the two of them had high standards that Drageda had instilled upon them. And maybe further inland, the rumbles are less. Prey had to go somewhere. We will have to find out.. she reasoned, not that she could tell exactly where they originated from. Suspicion said the Sunspire range of course.. so would further away feel it less? Seemed plausible. Or how far did it impact? What did the earth shifting even do..?

Yet no matter what, winter loomed dangerously so. The inexperienced, recklessly young part of her inner voice simply said keep going forever, never settle but there came creeping a better sense to not, one grounded in the undeniable urge to survive and live to fight another day. She knew she needed to look at these given situations differently.. all depending on what exactly they could even encounter out there well beyond what she knew.