Moonspear Summertime won't last long.

By her second morning as a member of Moonspear, her entire body ached. Meerkat pushed through it, refusing to let the soreness hold her back as she continued exploring every inch of her new home. The terrain was so different from the copse and the only way she would adjust to the thinner air and treacherous slopes was through exposure and, well, practice.

Shortly after lunchtime, her muscles sighed as the ground suddenly evened underfoot and she emerged on the edge of a large clearing. At least, Meerkat assumed it was a clearing, though it was hard to tell with the hazy fog obscuring the view. It coiled lazily around her ankles as she strode forward, fearless despite the cloudy sky and eldritch feel to this place. She actually rather enjoyed the spooky sentiment that crept along her spine as she navigated through The Pale.

Hydra followed the trail of Meerkat none too idly, wanting to spend some time with her niece and check in, to boot. Hydra would not have figured she would get so lucky as to spend so much time with Meerkat so soon, but she was ever an opportunist and would never let the time go to waste. It was too fleeting a thing, and Hydra was all too aware of that. 

Close enough, now, to bridge the gap between them, Hydra picked up her pace to draw alongside Towhee's daughter. She blended well, the girl, with the rolling fog... but Hydra's nose was what had done most of the work in finding her in any case. Meerkat, Hydra greeted, tail swaying behind her. How are you settling in? She inquired, nostrils flaring as she drank in the scents of the world around them.

The stippled fur along her back stood on end just seconds before Hydra appeared, sidling alongside her like the pup's larger, stealthier shadow. Meerkat paused and turned her head to regard her aunt, her body language naturally falling into a submissive display. Her tail hung low but wiggled rapidly, stirring the fog and making it swirl around the two of them.

-"Hi, Aunt Hydra!"- the youth chirped, her voice sounding a little too loud, though the haze quickly swallowed it. Nonetheless, she lowered it a tad as she added, -"It's so much fun exploring the mountain. I'm a little sore but..."- Meerkat grinned and shrugged before asking the obvious question, -"What is this place?"- She pulled her eyes away from the Alpha's face and toward the sweeping plain obscured by brume.

Hydra hummed as Meerkat observed her new state of soreness, and Hydra nosed her flank gently enough, her gaze warm. You will become used to it, and soon, there will be no soreness at all, she informed with a wave of her plume. Hydra was certain of it; the mountain was not at all accomodating to the feeling to start, but as you became acclimated to it you could begin to travel the place without aches at all. Meerkat then asked what this place was, and Hydra's blue eyes traced the rolling fog around them. 

We call it The Pale, she drawled, ear twitching. The place was always warmer than any other spot upon the mountain, and even in the Winter the fog was ceaseless. It is always like this... though some days, it is more difficult to see with your eyes than others. It is a good place to train, she hummed, gaze shifting to Meerkat, and to explore, too. There are likely still spots in this place others have yet to find, she remarked, knowing that might excite the young girl. She seemed to have an adventurous spirit, after all.

The youngster smiled at Hydra's reassurance. She had assumed as much but was happy to hear the Alpha corroborate her belief. She looked forward to the days when she didn't wake up aching like an old woman.

Her ears pressed forward as Hydra formally introduced her to The Pale. It was always like this? Her eyes trailed curiously over the misty plain again, mightily intrigued. She continued to listen, the corner of her mouth twitching at the implied challenge in her aunt's words.

-"Really? Can we try to find them?"- Meerkat said, chuckling at herself. She certainly wouldn't know which proverbial stones had been unturned, though surely her company would. -"How long has the pack lived here?"- she found herself asking.

We can, Hydra answered with a wave of her tail, eyes bright. The Pale was a territory Hydra frequented for training, though scarcely did she explore the place in full. It was one of the territories the matriarch least frequented, and so even she had places to explore here, though she knew the paths well enough to utilize the place as a shortcut when needed. 

The other question was easy enough for her to answer. Though she rarely spoke of the mountains history, she was proud of it; it was a part of her own heritage. It will soon be five years, she answered, and I have lived here for four of them. The mountain is large, though; there are still places left upon it to discover, I am sure, she imagined. And it was true; four years granted her more knowledge of Moonspear than any bar her siblings, but no doubt there still was more of it left to see and know, so massive was this place. The Pale is a place I mostly pass through, if I am not training; the fog is a good obstacle, but by ways of sightseeing it does not provide much, she quipped. But hers were not the eyes of an explorer. Hydra was able to see the tactical benefit and merit of the place, though found little beyond that that kept her in this particular subterritory for very long.

At her age, five years was simply incomprehensible. She only knew that it was a long time, perhaps even longer than her parents or Hydra had been alive. The Alpha female inferred as much, a comment which begged half a dozen other questions. Meerkat waited for her to finish, her mind whirring even as she slowly began to move again, intending to walk the breadth of The Pale to get the gist of its size before focusing her investigation.

In the meantime, she wondered, -"Were you born here? Did my mom ever live here?"- But no, that couldn't be right. Meerkat vaguely mentioned some stories about Heron Lake Plateau and, even further back, a place called Redhawk Caldera, the source of the family's surname, at least in part. -"How did you and my mom meet? Do you know my dad and Neema too?"-

The more she thought about it, the more questions she wanted to ask. Was Hydra a Redhawk-Blackthorn too? How was she actually related to Meerkat's mother? Was Hydra part of a mated pair, like Phox and Niamh, or was she a single mother, like Towhee? There was so much yet to learn, not just about the landscape of Moonspear, but about its many inhabitants, past and present.

Suddenly, questions. Hydra supposed she should have anticipated this, and coming from Meerkat she did not mind them. I was, she answered, and she was not. She was born nearby, though. We met in the Wilderness, she remembered fondly, and before she was able to get into that memory another question came. And another, after. Hydra was happy to answer them as they came. 

I met your Neema when one of your family members had been hurt; I escorted him home. Your father, she considered, not knowing who this was, you know, your mother had not mentioned him to me, and I had not thought to ask. Do you know his name? She inquired. It was easy to deduce who "Neema" was, through process of elimination and Bronco's own being here. Clever enough to put two and two together there at least, she had that answered for her. But... Meerkat looked like no wolf she knew, she realized.

They'd met somewhere in the wilderness, by total chance, or at least that's how Meerkat understood it. She marveled at that a moment, pausing to sniff thoughtfully at an old stump near the clearing's fringe. She wondered if Hydra knew of it. She glanced at her, prepared to ask, when she realized the Alpha surely must be well aware of such a mundane landmark.

Anyway, the leader's responses captured her entire attention. She paused in her step and regarded Hydra, eyes bright and inquisitive. Who was this family member? Before she could ask, her aunt posed a question of her own that entirely sidetracked the youth's attention. She blinked, then smiled, wondering if Hydra was pulling her leg or if she really didn't know about her dad.

-"Phox!"- she said readily, abruptly recollecting something Towhee had only told her during their long talk right before Meerkat departed for Moonspear. -"Mom said puppies are made when a dude wolf puts his wiener in a lady wolf's hoo-ha and they do a dance,"- she added, the way she said it clearly quoting Towhee verbatim. She giggled. -"That's called mating. She said she didn't mate with my dad—Phox, I mean—but she did mate with some randos and she's not sure which one put his goo in her to make me. But Phox is my dad for all intensive purposes,"- she concluded, still clearly parroting her mother, unaware of her slight grammatical mistake.

There was a pause before Meerkat continued, -"My dad and Neema are mates and they did mate to make my chiblings. Isn't that so weird?"- Her eyes were merry but she wrinkled her nose, the classic look of a youth who's just been assaulted by the mental image of her parents doing the nasty.

With no particular desire to linger on this subject, the youngster's attention soon returned to mapping out The Pale. She was determined to find a spot yet unexplored by the pack's matriarch. It would prove impossible, in the end, as every time she pointed out some feature or other, Hydra would not only recognize it but often give her a little history on it. Rather than feel frustrated about this, Meerkat immensely enjoyed hearing all of The Pale's little back stories.

Editing a conclusion since it's been a while. :)