Ocean's Breath Plateau Frontrunner

Attn: @Qilaq. And maybe @Silas?

Tytonidae was no stranger to plateau life. She had been born on one, after all. But this one in particular made Blacktail Deer Plateau look like a chump. The view was breath-taking, and while it didn't look like much when she had been on the ground below, the foliage up here wasn't half bad. To the north was a view of the ocean, and to the south was a view of some of the tallest mountains she had ever encountered.

Not only was this place downright gorgeous, the place had to be teeming with rabbits. Ty could smell them everywhere. This was definitely a frontrunner in the search for where she might bring the wolves who pledged to her.

Something she never really got to experience before was exploring the territories that surrounded her home. Since she returned, she doesn’t feel cemented to the center where she can usually find her parents. Her adventures outside the bay never ended well when she’s alone but she’s bigger now and she has @Silas keeping her company most of the time. In order to explore the plateau, she strays away from her companion for a route that leads her up. She doesn’t exactly know where she’s going or what she’s going to find but she knows she needs to get up there. 

It takes a lot longer than it should take but she manages to find a path that only ends in a few bumps and scraps but, for the most part, in one piece. Qilaq takes a moment to feel proud of herself and quickly scans her surroundings to see if anyone else had seen it too. Her tongue lolls out the side of her mouth as she then kicks herself into gear, setting a destination ahead without looking back. She trots easily as if she’s been here a time or two but the result of carelessness causes her to trip and stumble a few times and before she eats more dirt than she cares for, she starts to pay attention to where she’s putting her feet. 

The scent of rabbit sets her stomach into gear, reminding her of her lifestyle and what she’s going without. Her head turns to search for her companion but she does not find him, instead another wolf in the distance that causes her eyes to widen in surprise. She doesn’t move right away, watching the other a moment longer. After meeting the other a few days ago, Qilaq isn’t entirely sure what to make of this one.

Ever-alert, especially in this promising new place, Ty scanned the world around her and spotted the dark wolf only moments after it had spotted her. Instead of instantly becoming territorial (as her father's second mate would have done), Tytonidae approached with a guarded, curious, and open attitude. Unless the other wolf decided to get all aggro on her, Ty didn't think they would have a problem. The Vasanta (which she had recently taken as her last name) wanted no trouble.

She woofed when she drew near, a friendly gesture, and wagged her tail to show the other wolf that she was no threat. "Hello, I'm Tytonidae Vasanta. Seems you were able to make it up that rocky ledge, too. No easy feat!" In her adult years, Ty had become better at getting to know strangers and being comfortable enough to talk to them right from the start. It wasn't always the case, but she was definitely more confident now than she had been as a child.

Qilaq stiffens when the other wolf approaches with ease. Everything about her is friendly but her reserve keeps her from closing the distance, and instead she back pedals two slow steps. Her words are kind and there isn’t an ounce of threat she can read and instead she is praised for working her way up to the plateau. It hadn’t been easy but there aren’t many things that are for Qilaq, draining her energy quickly that she hardly thought much of the climb. Slowly, her tail begins to sway back and forth behind her and she doesn’t show aggression to her as she had to Nikai a few days ago.

She takes a long breath as she struggles with the name rolling over in her mind. Her ears twitch and fall defeated on her head with a frown. There is more to the name than she’s able to properly hurdle over and her jaw sets in place when it is time for her to introduce herself. She glances over her shoulder for her companion having expected him to follow, but as it is most of the time, it isn’t time for them to come together. When she swings her head back around, feeling the anxiety run through her legs that makes it difficult to stand in one spot, she finally draws in a breath and nods once, albeit awkwardly.

“I’m Qilaq.”

"You can call me Ty for short, if that's easier," she said, knowing her name was a bit of a mouthful for some. She didn't want anybody to feel awkward around her in case her full name was too difficult to pronounce or remember. Qilaq, on the other hand, was a perfectly simple name, and Tytonidae didn't think she'd have any problem at all remembering it. She noted that Qilaq had turned around to look behind her, almost expectant, and she wondered what that had been about.

"Waiting on somebody?" she asked, using her own eyes to scan the area behind the dark wolf. Perhaps Qilaq had come here with another to scout out this land for herself. While it would have been disappointing to learn, Ty tried not to jump to conclusions. And even if that were the case, she could mention that she planned to settle here, and maybe they could come to a compromise; heck, even join one another!

Silas had lagged back to scour some trails that had lured him astray, and he hoped seeing more of it would help him feel better about the plateau's terrain too. This seaside vantage point was not like the forests and hollows he had known most intimately. It was taking some time to get used to, all exacerbated by the fact that they drifted along to wherever they needed to go, day by day. Instead of a home base, his routine came in those cyclical motions instead of a set point on a map; he was learning.

But as it turned out, none of those trails panned out, so before frustration could get the better of him, he went back to tracking Qilaq. The hunter felt a little bad about being so empty-handed, especially with hunger creeping on anew him too.. but nothing yet tickled his nose just right. Wasting energy on a futile hunt was not on his agenda for now, after all.

First things first, he'd regroup with Qilaq then go from there, he decided, and picked up a game little trot after the freshest route.

When he could make out her familiar shape, he noticed another with her too and sped up just a notch. Torn halfway between dreading this and wanting to know what was going on, he ambled towards the females wearing a wary look that focused on the stranger.

“Yes. Silas,” she tells the other with a swish of her tail. Most of the time, he finds her. Sometimes, she finds him (or so she thinks) but they always come back together. And, as if on cue, Silas appears in the distance. His form materializes the closer it gets and she feels a little dance in her feet, turning to greet her friend. Qilaq happily circles her companion before she comes back ‘round to rest, realizing she’d been in the company of another a moment ago. “This is Titan,” she whispers into Silas’ fur, head turned slightly, but her discretion is less than subtle.

This wouldn't be the last wolf to call Tytonidae "Titan," though she didn't mind. They could've called her "Bubs" for all she cared. The female had mentioned her companion (Silas), who seemed to appear on command. "Lovely to meet the both of you," Ty replied, smiling at each one. She paused, though neither of them seemed particularly... spirited. Maybe the loner life had taken its toll on them.

"Are you two from around here? I'm starting a pack here... looking for recruits... if you're interested..." Ty trailed off, eyes attempting to gauge their reactions. "Not that you have to decide right now. And you'll probably want to know more about it before you make any commitments." She quirked a brow in silent inquiry, wondering if it was something they were even remotely interested in.

The greeting he was given helped ease some of his quickly-growing concerns, especially since Qilaq did not seem overly bothered with the stranger's company. With his sights still on 'Titan', he nodded hesitantly since he was still getting up to speed here, and naturally, he worried about everything always--although so far, she seemed pleasant enough. "Oh.. hi. I'm Silas Ostrega.." he offered (since he didn't know if she knew) as his ears folded back for a moment He realized this and stood them up again just after in an effort to collect the rest of himself too. 

It seemed these days everyone was recruiting. He should've known. Did he really look that valuable? "Uh.. not really from around here-here myself.. but my last packs were north and south a ways.." he attempted to explain (since he couldn't quite speak for Qilaq), and hoped too many other questions about why he wasn't with them wouldn't come too.. even if only one of them was a sore subject. He wasn't proud of leaving the other behind either. "We've just been roaming around here for a bit.. I don't know.. we don't really have a plan." Silas had begun to cope with lonerhood, but it wasn't easy. The idea of a pack made him uneasy after past heartbreak, and he'd struggled to grow attached to the Glade. But instinctively, he knew he needed his fellows. He could try to hear more. "Why here? Is it just you?"

Their new companion speaks with purpose, announcing her decision to settle. Her ears fall back against her head and she glances to Silas with uncertainty. They struggle as a pair existing together but before, when she’d been alone, she’d been a lot worse. Having plateaued, Qilaq could go for something consistent. She always figured it would be back home, with her mom and dad and their future together. Grey eyes look upward as Silas takes over the conversation and she only eagerly waves her tail, letting him lead for the both of them as she stays quietly out of the way.

"Why here?" he asked, and Tytonidae found her response easily. "It's pretty," she admitted, although it was a shallow reason. Thankfully, it was not this land's only redeeming quality. "There's plenty of prey here, and the ocean is only a short distance away if we need to supplement the land prey with fish. Besides, I don't plan on sticking here for too long. The thought of moving on a few times a year is more to my liking than committing myself to one place forever. Prey migrates, so why shouldn't we?" It was a rhetorical question, but she let it linger in the air a moment longer before answering his second question.

"For now, it's just me and one other: Earthsea." The girl had followed her here, though Ty wasn't sure if she'd stick around. Recruiting was hard work, but getting them to stick around was even harder. "I've only just begun," she added, not wishing them to think that she was incapable of getting and maintaining recruits (even if it were true... which she wasn't entirely sure of yet).

He stayed vaguely wary, though all ears. Here and there he glanced at Qilaq, then offered a small nod. Everything she said seemed reasonable enough—if not obvious. Immediately, he did not find anything too intimidating about it either. Small numbers and plenty of prey were both key points especially relevant to his interests.. He couldn't quite tell if he liked moving on sometime soon. Since it was a lot like what he was doing now, he knew it wasn't impossible. In the past, he had always liked the stationary homebody-type lives—but each time he'd had that, it had ended sadly somehow.

"Oh.. thanks for telling me, and, well, maybe.." he explained full of pause as he tried to gather his momentum properly. "I haven't got to check it out much myself yet. We've just been wandering, and I like to track whenever I can," but he'd not been able to run into very much here yet. It was all still new and fresh to him. He still wasn't even that good at the seaside sort of aspect of things. "I left my last pack, and all my ones before that ran into bad luck so.. I don't know how to feel about it yet," he licked his lips nervously with a posture shifting uneasily. "But I know we will need something more than just us two before long.." Silas went on to say, wishy-washy about giving the female some kind of confirmation as he searched Qilaq's face then. She had seemed most comfortable close to the shore.. did she like it here? Would he like it here? There was always Nikai's offer, and probably others if they looked but did they have the means to keep going indefinitely? He worried about always being able to avoid other predator's claims and find suitable hunting for himself keeping up like they had. It worked, most of the time, but it wasn't always easy to do.

The woman offers them a more concrete place to stay and a part of Qilaq wants to turn it away. She is traveling with Silas and her home is not here but, the weather will change in the next few months and she doesn’t know when she’ll return further south down the coast to her parents. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if they stayed somewhere for a little while. She is hungry more than she is not. The stability would be good for both of them. She leans a little bit to the left to brush lightly against her friend.

Gonna wrap this up. :)

"Of course," Tytonidae replied. She understood that a decision like this couldn't be made hastily. "Take your time, and if you decide to stick around permanently, lemme know." She smiled briefly to each wolf, then spoke once more. "I have other things I need to get to work on. It was nice meeting you!"

For all his awkwardness, and overwhelming indecision, she seemed to take him in stride. Perhaps even.. warmly. It was a way easier response than he had been expecting, that much was certain. Maybe she understood, or maybe he was just tired and looking for fewer ways to run into resistance, but Qilaq didn't seem opposed either. The decision would weigh heavily on him still.. although it was nice to not have to rush. He was terrible at that, anyway. "Okay.." he nodded. "Ah, thank you," he tacked on quickly, with a "You too" although he felt awkward about that too since he didn't want to hold her up if she had better things to do—which he didn't doubt she did, so he shut his mouth until she was gone for now.

With that said and done, he nudged back against Qilaq and sighed. Vaguely enough he was hungry, and as always, down for a cozy place to rest a while if he could help it. "Wanna find something to eat?" he asked quietly, though with a glint of motivation in his eyes. They could look around along the way.

The woman is nice enough, letting them to talk to one another and decide. It would be nice to have somewhere to rest her head at night that she didn’t have to worry so much. She bobs her head once as the other departs, turning to Silas with expectancy and he does not disappoint. Again, she nods her head, letting him lead them on to find something to eat.