Moonspear when she smiles she draws you in

trepidation seizes praimfaya as she closes the distance with sure and swift steps, which slow with caution as she draws nearer to the pack's borders. her uncertainty is not founded in speaking to the wolves as much as it is founded in the mountain they dwell upon. how brave, she thinks. perhaps they, unlike diaspora, have not had the misfortune of losing lives to it as the earth shook beneath them. praimfaya has come to distrust mountains, thinking of all of them as cursed places regardless of how majestic they appear. would her stomach not have roiled at the sight of it she might've been breathless as she glimpses upon it in the early morning dawn, painted in an outline of soft gold.

instead, she itches to put as much distance between it and her as she can, though lucky for her their borders mark flatlands at its base and she will not be forced to climb it to seek them out; but as a budding ambassador and wanheda this strikes her as necessary. praimfaya ensures that there is more than plenty and amiable space between her and their scent markings before she tips her head back and alerts the wolves to her presence.

Every day comes with a strange, delicate tension since the earthquakes had first rumbled all of their very foundations. The rockslide in the terrace had been concerning enough as their closest hit to home, so although he was interested in keeping an eye on changes to the paths that might affect them, Jarilo wasn't overly eager to dally high in Moonspear's slopes--especially not with a light snowfall starting to accompany some certain elevations. Too soon, he reasoned, all to eager to cling to the still-green and verdant lower reaches before the snows fell there too next.. and not something he wanted to deal with when prey already seemed increasingly scarce, alongside tremors of the earth itself. Absolutely none of it was a particularly peaceful notion for nature to have, lately. 

Besides all of these threats to their mountain and family's sanctity, the steely Ostrega had been slowly working his way towards the outermost lowlands, winding his patrol gradually outward until the howl suggesting some attention gave him the motivation to pick up the pace in earnest. Jarilo threaded his way on through the trees, and eventually surfaced not all too far from sight of the young wolf--who he assumed was the one that had sang out to them. If not, then he would have to handle that. Evidently he was the first to find her.. so, with that, he stepped lightly towards her, but confident; without Hydra or Dirge here yet, he let the casual half-lift to his tail be for now. Hello, he said, neutral but forward enough for him. You called? he asked as he eased into his stop in front of her. Who was she, anyway?

praimfaya is not left to wait long. minutes pass — a handful or two, she isn't sure and it does not matter for before she can begin to grow restless an ebony figure approaches, steps light but confident. praimfaya takes note of the half-lift of his tail and ensures that her posture is respectfully neutral, though she offers him an acknowledging dip of her head as he greets her. perhaps, she thinks, i shouldn't sent one of my kru to do this for me. how seriously was she going to be taken? probably? not very; but then again she's been managing to recruit just fine despite her tender age.

hello, she replies in common. i did. praimfaya concurs with a thoughtful tilt of her head, focusing her frostbound silver gaze upon him instead of the mountain that looms at his back. how very brave of them, she thinks with a wry twitch of her lips that is there and gone like a fleeting will-o-wisp blinking in and then out of existence. i am praimfaya eyjolfur kom roankru, she introduces herself with her full name feeling the trigedasleng flow off her tongue like a comfort. and i've come to inform your leaders that my kru — roangeda — is claiming the fen to the south of here. she gestures in it's general direction — as she is wont to do out of habit. there is more than plenty of distance between moonspear and broken antler fen that she does not forsee any hunting grounds or resource disputes being an issue. still, they will be regional neighbors and it strikes her as a good idea to make the established packs aware of roangeda's blooming existence all the same.

Certain he had given his children the slip, he partook in solitude. Though this too was fleeting as it ever was—he could have ignored the summons had he truly wanted to. But it was no particular hurry that drew him there because he knee all too well someone would beat him to the punch. Moonspear ran something akin to a well oiled machine with each of them a particular cog, ever shifting and turning to cover their bases, heeding warnings, or lobbing threats.

Their doorstep had not been quiet as of late and he presumed it was another one of those social calls involving someone taking a more direct routine to being vetted into their fold. Which, unsurprisingly, remained family even to the present in all its delicate ties. Moriko may have been the outlier, but the only one. Reiko too, if she were to stay.

Laying eyes on their caller and catching the snippet of her chosen words, he discerned promptly from his vantage point that this was not like any other standard day of the week. Her words were accented, almost strangely, and his interest piqued. Since Jarilo had beaten him there—no surprise—Dirge broke into the scene far more casually in comparison to the formal context.

"Courtesy and mindfulness? That's new," because honestly, how many start and go packs had erected to crumble nearby? Too many, and he hadn't even kept count. "Why the fen? You've got neighbors in more than just our mountains there." Hydra's new friends; he looked to Jarilo briefly before settling his gaze on the young she-wolf.

His suspicions were confirmed and indeed, she is the caller--a girl with titles bigger than her. But, it wasn't a tripping point for him and Jarilo stayed attentive because this just might be important. When Dirge arrived alongside him, he subtly adjusted himself in a gesture telling enough for the discerning eye. Most of all, he was busy working to commit this to memory, unfamiliar words included and through it all, it is the mention of the fen that makes him understand what exactly this is about: new neighbors.

When so many packs, or fledgling ones, came and went around them, most were hardly worth a second glance and even fewer than that seemed to be led by any lasting capacity. Even Jarilo, only two years to his name, had seen that and his parents said that was just how it had always been for the region. So much so, expectations weren't exactly the loftiest, but he welcomed a change of pace to what was the typical outcome. Hopeful enough, he did want to hear more from her, regarding their other curious new neighbors too--which Jarilo didn't trust anyway, not that he knew much yet.

Ah, right? he scoffed, snickering a bit to Dirge's remark before he returned to his focus to Roangeda's messenger to hear her answers as to why there. Most don't seem to last anyway, he sniped, wondering if she could disprove these standards; the fact that she was here already was a start. How has the hunting been down there lately? Any damages from the quakes? he tossed in as well, mainly just curious, but quick to give her more to respond to about what establishing their claim entailed--roughly. Would more packs in the area tighten resources further, he wondered? The dark Ostrega easily felt more protective of what they guarded here on the mountain, and the chill on the air wasn't helping that, either.

it is not long before she and the ebony man are joined by another from within moonspear — inquiring rhetorically over her courtesy and mindfulness and about how it's new; which was quipped in turn by the ebony male with a following snipe at how most don't last. during this exchange, praimfaya is silent and watchful barely resisting the urge to puff up in indignation at the hopes that their sniping quips are not about her; and though she cannot help the slight, minuscule puff of her chest there is mention of neighbors aside from them and she eases the worst of her assumptions by following a new assumption that it is these wolves they are speaking of.

the pack presence in the haunted wood has not gravitated beneath her notice. though certainly more immediate than moonspear they were on her list of packs to visit all the same. because it is away from mountains — no offense — she adds quickly. and it is the place my mother decided would be suitable for roangeda. praimfaya supplies the explanation, her gaze flickering between the two. the herds appear to have been spooked by the tremors. there are a few stragglers but ... but she does not think they'll last long. the fen itself has not suffered any lasting damage. we are fortune. as for the territories around it i can not say for sure. but the truth was that praimfaya has already been deeply wounded by the earth tremors even before the official decision to make the ( rather large ) leap of faith with roangeda.

Of them, Jarilo seemed to bolster a more trenchant addition aloud than Dirge would have expected, but then again... the borders had a way with drawing out the more pointed responses in them all. It wasn't met with a deterrence by the pale she-wolf, and he took note of the subtle shift in her posture—indicative that she had taken some offense—as she lobbed back her own answers. They beget more questions that he withheld as she supplied information of her own, and they did much to confirm the suspicions that Dirge had been carrying for a time; the herds were smart to flee.

But, tit for tat and all—"We've taken note of some rock slides to our north, though our own mountain seems to be holding firm. Perhaps a boulder shift here or there, but nothing substantial. This is solid country compared to the hillocks and rises towards the sea, but indeed we are fortunate for such." And as for the sea, he couldn't wager how things fared there and little came in the way of word to their southern reaches.

He moved along to his own interests then.

"Forgive our directness, but your... accent, as it were, are you not from here? Your Roangeda nomadic perchance?" There was a familiarity in her cadence, the words themselves almost akin to the common tongue but yet they were exotic all the same. He was certain he had heard something like it before, but where?

He steadied knowingly, and Dirge's details shared well enough why. They had been fortunate here. Their mountains had handled it far better than some, he knew why she might have that aversion to them if she knew about otherwise elsewhere. He was someone trained to understand nature, but this was much bigger than anything he had seen before--yet he did not get the sense that they were not close to a focal point of.. whatever was cause all of this here at Moonspear. Maybe near some dangerous shifts thanks to it at their worst, but he had yet to find any other major damage beside the rock slide in their range; they were doing alright. I think we have been lucky, so far. he smirked a bit, but kept it tempered. It could always be worse.

Though it was concerning to know she could confirm the herds having moved along. He had not seen them nearby either.. and that ruled out south of here for their dispersal. Jarilo knew that did not bode well.. not now, and he wondered what other packs beyond their immediate neighbors might change, suffer, or move along thanks to this; they all did not have a mountain worth of resource to back them up.

But above all, here she was, looking to rise anew from this and now, of all times when nothing seemed quite so certain. Jarilo was curious to see if she could--and still he had no reasons to doubt this given the few moments he had known her. He kept to his silence then, for he was interested to hear more about what Dirge steered it towards, too, more into what it was her Roangeda was exactly.

praimfaya tries to not blanch at the words 'rock slides', for the wound of losing her mother is still very fresh and a massive crack in her armor that she does not necessarily want known. i am glad you have not had much trouble with rock slides, spoken earnestly despite that she does not know these wolves. she does not wish the pain of losing anyone to a crushing rock upon even her worst enemy. the older male's question about her origin is curious but understandable. i was born in arrow lake, actually, praimfaya informs the two of them. i speak trigedasleng natively though. my mother was drakru. she tells them, thinking that — if anything — the mention of drageda might spark acknowledgement.

If Arrow Lake was meant to ring a distant bell, it did not, and he did not reveal that he couldn't place from where she hailed from. It made her a local, in a sense, and stirred up more questions than it did settle. There was a vast quanity of different origins that came together in the wilderness out there, and he had seen them in almost every corner of the world he dared to go. This would be no different.

"Drakru," he repeated slowly, enunciating; the word had a certain heft on his tongue, but meant nothing. "Can't say I'm familiar with it. You speak like someone I met once," and would only encounter briefly, shortly before his death. The irony of such later would not be lost on him, but unfortunate. Flicking an ear passively, he shifted his weight with his feet, and continued.

"Shame I don't remember more, but it was a long time ago. That said, I don't take particular offense to your pack claiming the fen in the south, so long as you mind our hunting grounds. Perhaps once you settle we can come to a more formal arrangement. Friendly word of advice though: I would keep an eye on the others out there too, for some reason the unsavory sorts enjoy the forests by there."

Blackfeather came to mind—the reputation proceeding them naturally—but again so did Hydra's newest little friends and their capricious nature. Perhaps one in the same, but she saw an opportunity he would have rather avoided. But she was young and perhaps it was unfiltered paternal instinct to provide such detail—he didn't trust them, so why should she? Then again, why trust him?

In was in these bits and pieces of facts that he wanted to read between the lines of here, from names and places he didn't yet know. More by the moment, he was happy to let Dirge have the whole forefront of this entire thing for now.. while the dark Ostrega observed keenly, and memorized most of all. There was only so much for him to say, and the alpha could voice it with greater assurance behind it than he could after all. 

As he was content in his silence for now, Jarilo had never met a Drakru that he could remember well enough to recall here on the spot, though something definitely seemed distantly familiar about it; maybe his parents had known one, or of them somehow? Some passing mention someplace. But, whatever information that was did them no good here, now, or going forward--as Dirge veiled a warning about the neighbors, and Jarilo offered a nod to match it, confirming it so for he had seen enough to know too. Thanks to this, and the outlooks it granted around him, he had learned to trust so painfully few beyond their own.

praimfaya makes a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat as dirge mentions that she speaks like someone else he met before. aside from her mother, verx, dacio and opalia ...praimfaya isn't sure who else is left of the ruins of what had once been drageda. nevertheless, she has nothing to add and allows the conversation to shift drifting, she feels, towards a natural close. of course, praimfaya responds to minding their hunting grounds. when we are settled i will visit again, a promise of confidence. roangeda would stand, this she knows. for herself. for her kru. for blodreina. and i will keep them in mind. she responds regarding their neighbors.

she had intended to visit the pack that inhabits the woods on the other side of rodney lake but has yet to do so. taking dirge's words of caution — which seem sincere enough — praimfaya makes a mental note to not go alone as she has today. perhaps, she thinks she will take both aleks and dacio. thank you for the information and for your willingness to hear me out. until we meet again. with those words, praimfaya dips her head in a gesture of respect and takes her leave.

She would visit again? It seemed there was a bit more to all of this than he would have imagined, but perhaps he had misjudged her as being a messenger than anything else. Her youth may have betrayed her station—rather, it certainly did, and the finality in her words were what set him to wondering.

He would save his wonder and his questions for later, instead already formulating just what to relay to @Hydra about the potential in yet another nearby neighbor. Instead for the moment he mirrored the bow of her head as an agreement between them, parting words off his lips just as easily as her farewell hushed.

"Safe travels."

Whether or not her pack flourished was another, but he would keep an eye out to see.