Fox's Glade i wanna fall through the stars

There is never a point where traveling may not keep his feet going but he finds no enjoyment when there is nothing to return to. His mind often wanders to the offer the dark woman gave him months ago and whether or not he’ll return. If she lingers this much, why not make the effort? Something obviously keeps him going back and though he knows he is far, he does not mind making the trek back. The path is familiar and he’s confident in his abilities but he knows it will take time. A new mountain range separates them but as he’s found all that he desires, he decides to work on his return.
 
Atlantis’ nose touches the ground and he sniffs the thick of fox in the area. His stomach rumbles with hunger but chasing fox is the last thing on his menu. Instead, he searches for something else to tide him over before he begins his way back to the west. With a single glance up the clear sky, he sets off through the rest of the glade.

Through the meadow, into the Glade. Lyra moves with her, but a familiar scent in the wind gives Hydra brief pause. There is nothing so important to her now as finding Alya, and she would not be stopped in finding her. It would take her minutes to deduce what this scent was, and minutes longer to catch up to Lyra once she had—

And there it was. A pale figure in the distance, as handsome as she had made him out to be in her memory. He had not sought her out again, to her disappointment, but in finding his scent she had to be certain for herself he was alive, that he had made the decision for himself that Moonspear was not his path—she did not know that he had returned to seek her. 

To see him alive and well, then, wounded her a measure. She had thought that he had died. She believed the same of Riordan, who had left long ago and had not returned to her. Her tail lashed behind her as her ears pricked, her blue eyes not shifting from his form. If he did not see her yet, he likely would soon sense her unwavering attention. Hydra did not seek to hide it. She was ready to move on, but something kept her here for a while longer.

It is not scent of prey that tickles his nose, nor does it come from the ground that seeks his attention. Instead, the same tickle she feels for him is noted and he blinks a few times before picking his head. Unlike her, he know what it is the moment it crosses his memory. Does his desire to return to the peak take so much of him, that he hallucinates her smell? Once or twice in his travels, he thought he’d once smelled her but it only lingered in the back of his mind. This, however, gives him pull to stop in his track and slowly turn to see the dark figure in the distance. 

Atlantis stares across the way, unwavering as he tries to make her out. Surely his mind is playing tricks and he has not misplaced his steps. He turns toward the mountain range to re-evaluate and decides it is not Moonspear he is near. Licking his lips, he turns back, and releases a low awoo in dark form’s direction. If she is a hallucination, then eventually she will perish, but for now he lingers on the hope that happenstance brings them together once more.

The noise he emits causes her to stand at attention, lowered head lifting as she looks on with interest. He would not be calling for her if it was not her he sought, she boldly believes, and so she snorts loudly and shifts her weight to confirm her presence. She does not stand still for much longer. He has not made discreet his own attention upon her, and Hydra felt some relief for that. Not hiding, or ignoring. Perhaps seeking, though. And she had no time to waste to figure this out for certain. Hydra seeks to bridge the gap between them, long-legged strides carrying her toward her pale counterpart.

It is her. He can almost hear the sound she makes but only notes the motion, watching for a moment as if she considers whether or not to come closer. One paw lifts from the ground to close the distance but her long strides pick up and carry her closer, before he can really consider whether or not he should meet her halfway. As she gets closer, his nose twists upon the air and when she’s but a few feet, he steps up close and gives her a gentle nudge with his snout (should she allow).
 
“You make me question my sense of direction,” he tells her with a swish of his tail, a playful twitch of his muzzle. “We are not close to Moonspear, are we?” Brows knit together as confusion takes up his expression, though, and an undeniable sense of relief for something familiar.

Hydra is surprised by him, so much so that as he offers his affections [as the vain Hydra perceived it] she cannot evade them (having not believed that such a thing, friendly as it was, would be offered in the first place). It is not an unpleasant surprise, and it is evident in the resumed swinging of her plume how she feels. There is a part of her that wants answers, however, and it is this part that causes her to not react in kind... though she is unwilling, then and there, to see any space between them. He was as she remembered him, and where once her nerves had grated at such a thing, his gesture had mollified her to the point where she commended her own memory for its work, and nature for the part it had played in the creation of him. Strong, tall, handsome—her perfect stranger. 

We are not, we are some distance from my home, she confirmed, and her tone is playful as she inquires with the slight tilt of her head, why? Were you hoping to avoid it? there is a roguish grin that comes to light, then, and yet, playful though her tone was, Hydra needed to hear him say the contrary—to put any animosity that lurked within her belly toward him for making her think that this might have been the case to bed, for good.

After finding out he is where he has assumed he is relative to Moonspear, his tail matches hers behind him. She is the same as she had been that day, a few months ago but he is still surprised nonetheless to see her all the way out here. New questions form but he does not have time to ask them—as all things, the answers will come eventually—as she poses hers first.
 
“I assume we have the same destination in mind,” he tells her, certain she hasn’t left her bellowed family on such a monstrous peak. “It will make the last leg of my journey that much easier.”

His admittance absolves him of her anger. She is appeased, and glad—he was wrong in his assumption, but she knew the meaning behind his words. He had been coming to the mountain, after all. Oh, yes, I do intend to head back, she nods, though it is not my present destination. Lyra and I are in search of our sister, Alya, Hydra revealed. We will not return until we find her, and the way she spoke such words would permit him to know she thought such a thing only a matter of time. Hydra was confident in her ability to track her sisters; even if she had not encountered Bruges, Hydra would know which way to turn in the pit of her stomach. She did have him to thank, however, for putting her on the proper course sooner rather than later. 

Would you like to aid us in our search? She invited, wondering if he might take her up on it. She could not help but ask—Hydra desired to keep him near, now that she had found him again. And she could not deny the appeal of the thought of what he might look like when he was at work; she imagined it, the picture vivid and delightful, though as it stood she wanted the reality of it.

Atlantis enjoys the added on questions he gets when she continues to speak. He knew she has a family but the details are not there. Their conversation had been short lived when they’d separated, spending most of their time in comfortable silence. He could have been finding out things about her, but after consideration, what would she have shared with him if he’d spoken more? Perhaps not as much as he already possesses, which isn’t very much.
 
“Of course,” he says smoothly, turning his head the presumed direction she’d been going. He moves an inch, offering her the chance to lead. The more they walked, the more they could cover. “Tell me about your sister.”

He accepts her offer swiftly, much to her pleasure. And here, they would make up for lost time, so she hoped. As he moves, so too does she, beginning to walk and brushing her nose against the earth. Nothing to reveal anything to her about the wolf she sought, but plenty of information gained about those that had recently passed through. Nothing of true note, and nothing worth remarking about or committing to memory. 

Hydra's ears cup backward as he asks about her sister. She is a scout, she informed him. We knew she would be traveling. Something may have happened, Hydra shares, open with him as she is distracted by the task at hand. She is not hard to miss. She looks precisely like me... and Lyra, her gaze turns back to him, tail waving. You will meet her soon. She is a healer, largely self-taught. Still, she has repaired a broken leg... as well as one can be repaired, I suppose, he would have a limp for the rest of his life, apparently, but Hydra herself, as she thought of it, had never seen it. Perhaps because one is blind to the faults of those that they love. As she remembered Gannet, he was ever in good health. From what Hydra knew of such an injury, it could prove to be fatal if it did not heal well. One could not hunt then. Or defend themselves as well as they could.

A brow quirks upon learning there are two wolves that look identical to herself. A scout and a healer. Looking upon the muscular woman, he can only assume she is the threatening prowess of the trio. Slowly, Atlantis nods, absorbing the information. It’ll be easy to find a third wolf that looks like the one he is privy to, so long as he keeps two of them close not to confuse them. He doesn’t know what he’s about to step into.
 
“How long has she been gone and where was she going?” he asks. They know she’s traveling, likely they knew where she was headed. It gives them a start but surely they’ve already crossed all the necessary bridges if they’re this far from home. “What is her name?”

After Atlantis feels he has enough information, he slips back into a comfortable silence until they meet up with @Lyra.