Moonspear aisi chhoti chhoti baatein

attn: @Charon @Amekaze @Hydra -- looking for @Little. backdated to yesterday evening, around dusk

despite the meandering path the scouting party had taken a short time ago, a direct journey to the moonspear--especially when the wolf was on a mission--took only about a third of the day. the she-wolf had scurried down here, reeling from the attack, the loss of her tail, fleeing over the flatlands and toward the safety of the mountains.

aditya came to an abrupt halt behind moonspear's border. she had come here, seeking asylum. whether she had been accepted into the pack's ranks was a question that needed answered. he doubted very much that moonspear would be keen on accepting a wolf that had clearly faced some recent trauma--especially if she acted as belligerently here as she did at morningside--but you never did know.

letting out a puff of breath in the cold air, aditya tipped his nose back and let out a long howl for one of the pack's leaders. surely one of them had intercepted the rogue woman here; they would be able to tell him where she was, or at least where she had headed next.

She prowled from the depths of the nearby woods towards the call after settling on her suspicions that she, of their trio of leaders, was currently the closest to take this caller. Besides, recently, they had seen a hearty share of traffic... which didn't necessarily soothe her any. She did have a tendency to miss out on the most eventful of visitors lately but it was a varying range of fellows that the mountain had evidently lured in, from loners to otherwise, all of varying degrees of worthwhile. Thanks to this, matched with an increasingly low tolerance for nonsense as winter settled in, she was keeping her intuition painfully sharp considering the climate of all things, weather and beyond.

With a little finesse, she picked upon a route down towards the stranger, and found him in time to close in. She smelled the flatlands, and others as well, the nearer she drew. Not knowing what brought him calling kept her invested, however, and she arced her tail as she moved smoothly into his proximity. "Why have you come?" she asked with a stony expression not meant to say much just before she halted her paws. Through every gesture, she was watching him keenly, although it surely bordered on expectantly now that she had asked. He had howled for leaders, after all, and so graciously, she had granted.

he received an answer in a short while's time, appearing in the form of a dark-pelted woman with intense green eyes. aditya felt a little deja vu as he saw her, wondering if they had met at one point before. but, no--she was too unfamiliar for that, and she had not been one of the wolves they had met on the border last month.

"greetings," he said, lowering his head in deference to her--for she carried herself like an alpha, after all. "i've come here from the morningside pack, just across the valley, in search of a wolf who has harmed our own.

"this woman attacked members of our pack on our border and then fled; i followed her scent here, to this border. she is missing a tail, i've been told, and probably looks the worse for wear." he gave her a long but respectful look, his eyes sincere. "i have reason to believe she'll strike again, and want to eliminate this threat. have you seen her?"

the thought suddenly occurred to him that this rogue female could be a member of moonspear's pack already, and was sent on assignment to tangle with other packs. but he had been informed that no pack smell clung to her pelt, and besides, what grievance had moonspear with morningside? still, best be wary.

By just a hair, she seemed to ease up when the details came, shifting away from demanding to know more and towards listening to take this in. Evidently, he hailed from a pack she seemed to hear a bit more of these days: Morningside. All noted, and when he mentioned a wolf harming theirs, her ears tipped forward with a new attentiveness. Naturally, considering the recent affairs spattered across these wilds, she wondered if this may connect back to Blackfeather as the trends would point towards.

He had just enough descriptors to give her something to think on. Although it had not been her encounter, it had been Charon's. "Ah, perhaps, but not myself.. Not too long ago, I believe my mate repelled a rough-looking loner--freshly lost tail, too," she said, as that had been notable from what had been passed along. Since there had been little to be said on the encounter, besides fresh wounds on the stranger, Ame had imagined the whole event to be brief and had thought next to nothing of it. As long as she wasn't here, or anywhere near here.. "I do not know what she came here for, but she was not here long. Neither do I know exactly where she went from here. All I do know is that it is not near," she said with a small nod, despite knowing this was not the most promising of information to pass along. Still, it held more value than nothing. "She had no pack-scent or noticeable affiliations, right?" she asked, just to be certain this was not more problems leaking from the dark woods. 

he heard out the woman's story, nodding intermittently as she described the scene. it seemed that she, too, had not actually seen this wolf--but her mate had, and had chased the rogue away. not near, she said. adi's eyes turned to the forbidding mountains in which moonspear was nestled. had she decided to risk the passage over those crags?

"thank you," aditya said, his voice suffused with gratitude as he bowed his head once more. "i myself did not witness this incident on the border. . .but i've been told that she carried no pack-scent, nor gave any sort of affiliation."

he realized, as he answered, that moonspear was also on-guard against the pack to the south, probably even more than morningside was. after all, it had been a girl from this mountain who had warned dawn of their threat, and he had gathered that this pack was more tied up in the drama than morningside, who--for now--were curious but wary bystanders.

"those mountains," adi said, pointing his nose at the barrier range. "would a desperate wolf attempt to traverse them? it's not worth climbing them to chase her, is it?"

So although neither of them could speak from firsthand experience with the tailless stranger, Ame had to take it for what it was worth and go with the belief of no affiliation. She couldn't help but always be prone to her skepticism (ever-present and no matter how small) but it did make sense for a loner to turn desperate and savage after enough loneliness and hunger. It definitely made it easier than having it tangling into the Blackfeather mess in some way, or into any other pack-related nonsense that these wilds could dream up. She had enough of that as it was without some tailless menace dragging more to their doorstep.

"You are welcome," she replied, tipping her nose in a quick nod after the words. As for scaling the mountains, they would have to be terribly unwise and she shook her head before advising against it. "Attempt them, maybe, but it is a surefire death sentence this time of year," she answered, and would make a point to ask Charon which way he'd run her off. "Even the experienced do not test it now. If she did try it, and with fresh wounds? She is vulture food by now.." Of this, Ame was well certain.The barrier range was not for the faint of heart even in gentler times.

she was right. those mountains were far higher than the sunspire's range, just north of the plateau, and of gargantuan proportions compared to the crags he had climbed in the south. it would do no good to risk life and limb on a wild goose chase on a woman most likely dead.

"i hope so," aditya said fervently, a faint sense of pleasure coursing through him as he imagined those giant birds pecking out her lifeless eyes. in fact, perhaps they had done it while she was alive. . .

he hastily pushed away the sadistic thoughts, instead giving the woman a small smile. "i thank you again," he murmured. "for all the information you've provided to me. hopefully she will not trouble either of our families again."

with one final bow of gratitude, aditya stepped back from the border, waiting for her to depart before he took off himself. it would be rude of him, he surmised, to leave without being properly dismissed. she was an alpha, after all, and a seasoned one at that.

The Moonspear matriarch had lived here long enough to give the bordering range the reverence it deserved. When even her hardened, mountain-born and bred wolves were not capable of scaling it, then no random stray fresh out of the flatlands had any chance there in her opinion. If she had been clueless enough to attempt it in her wounded state, then that was just the way it was meant to be.

She hoped that maybe he could take some solace in that fortress of mountainside, and knowing Moonspear had very likely repelled her already. A part of her wished there was more concrete truth she could share, but it wasn't so. "You are welcome." she nodded, and shared the sentiment that their families never have to deal with her again. She lead up with a small wave of her tail. "Any attempt, and she will find no mercy here," she assured him, then felt satisfied with his tie-up of the exchange. She dipped her muzzle in a deeper nod, and shifted just enough for her own farewells. "Safe travels." she bid him before he left entirely.

Ame loitered long enough to see him off before going on her way.