The Sunspire "there's a man, and he's overboard"

in reference to the crew splitting, which was discussed in Discord

coelho was troubled upon her return to sunspire. after finding @Pyro and briefly spending time in his company, she had left in search of Rannoch.  Passing by the den she had in the past visited and bestowed a hare, coelho found it suspiciously empty. 

the girl hadn't known the wolves who had abandoned their halls, but her first measure of business was seeking @Rannoch so she might inform him of her expedition. once that was completed she might find a sunny rock in which to rest her limbs, and sleep the weariness of her long journey away.

hope ya don't mind, can be a cameo!

Maia was hungry, and for the young girl, that meant a good deal of hangry too.  Add that to the fact that she hadn't been feeling at 100% lately and she was in a state lemme tell you.

While not exactly slacking, she had been doing her fair share of dramatically wallowing, in a way that only a girl can who wants sympathy without being accused of asking for it of course.  She knew the moms and pups had it way worse of course, but was it too much to ask to (as my dad so often used to quote) have a 'poor poor thing' every so often?

So when Coelho passed by, it was with a bit less verve than usual they Maia gave a "hey," in passing greeting.  Seemed like the smaller wolf was busy though, so maybe she shouldn't bother her.

coelho was always busy -- but whether or not said "busy" included things of importance was... well, it was up to debate.

ever the scholar, coelho had paused as a butterfly tracked past her features; frozen half in awed interest, half in predatory interest, several parts of her wrestled for control until maia came along.

her shoulders seemed to melt, and she abandoned her stiffened pose; a brightness came across her features as she recognized the wolf. with her tail beating submissively against her side she chirped "hi! haven't seen you in a bit." it was by no means an accusation -- coelho had been gone for weeks delivering rannoch's message, and was eager to settle back into home.

The other girl's cheerful demeanor was infectious, and Maia felt her own slipping, just like last time.  Why did she always run into her on bad days?

"I've been hunting.  Well, trying to."  She said, then let out a small groan.  "But there's really nothin to find, so its a bunch of random walking."  Zero fun in that.

Coelho's was way more interesting though anyway.  She'd left, hadn't she?  "Where'd you go?"

assuming Maia knows, lemme know otherwise and I can edit

certainly, coelho had some sort of contagious affability -- while most wolves didn't respond so positively as maia did, coelho's usually free-faring way of existence was simply irresponsibly fun. she grinned at the mention of a not-so-good hunt; oh she knew that pain too well and shared a sympathetic grin with maia.

"random walking is not so different from what i was doing - we went to redhawks, pyro and i." she paused, for she didn't know if maia knew the direction of that pack or not. "it was fun - i got lost a few times but we found them eventually. they were really nice. have you been?"

wowza yikes

"Fun!?" She was surprised to hear anything positive from the place she now remembered as 'Redbirds'.  "That place? Did you meet any of em?"  Surely she couldn't have, at least not the ones Maia had.

"I went there lookin for Wraen and Terance the first time and they were super rude.  Wasn't even like I was asking for anything hard, or to join!"  Every time she told it the situation had scaled, and now it seemed to her the entire pack had been in on keeping her in the dark on whatever they knew about her siblings.  Dad so woulda put them in their place if he was with her.

coelhos' cheery ears fell as maia detailed her troubles; they had been rude? she felt her jaw slacken in surprise, and shut it abruptly. the wolves she had met had been nice enough - maybe they were different wolves than before? maybe, because they had moved, they had gotten a better attitude?

"that's not very nice." coelho concluded, trying to look for the optimism in the situation. there wasn't really one, kind of like how there wasn't really anything good to be taken out of what had just happened. "poor terance, huh?" she mused, feeling a soft pang in her heart for the beta. "maybe we can get him lunch or something to cheer him up."

***

after that, coelho decided she would get lunch for @Terance. it took a fair bit of tries, and a lot of frustration on her part, but eventually she found a rabbit, and delighted with the idea she might brighten someone's day, coelho left in search of sunspire's beta.