The Sunspire Or as an indication, change the dedication

@Rannoch if you want; I know you wanted a thread, but if you wanted a backdated (at this point?? wat r timelines) one instead, LMK! AW either way, making assumptions about BTS/moar backdated stuff.

There had been decisions made and they hadn't been ones she'd expected.  She was still here and apparently going to be staying, which seemed outright counter to what she'd been planning.  Funny how the world worked that way, but Treason was at least going to give them a chance to fix their errs before she decided to burn down bridges -- and if it went wrong, she was holding @Terance personally responsible.  Speaking of which, he'd headed off on whatever weird adventure to see the kids that probably had been a bit of a bad choice to father at this point.  Maybe while he was there, they'd do something that'd drive a bigger wedge between them and he'd quit fussing.  Treason still found the whole thing stupid, but at least they weren't Sunspire's problem any more -- they could go infest some other land.

Treason herself, though, was just waking up even though it was late in the morning, finally getting up from the spot at the foot of a tree where she'd nestled herself with a good amount of stretching.  With recent hunts being successful, she hadn't wandered as much as she had been in the past, though she was figuring that another adventure was likely pending just so she could keep up her physique if the next hunts weren't so blessed.

Stretch.  Yeah, time to head down to the borders, because even if today wasn't going to be going elsewhere, she should at least do her job.

FORWARD DATE, FORWARD DATE

and thus far, nothing had gone wrong...

yet.

terance had informed wraen and rannoch of treasons promotion-- with minimal backlash-- and so now it had been some time where treason was technically of a higher rank. his own right-hand, which he desperately appreciated-- especially when he travelled to the sanctuary to visit his children and seabreeze.

but since then, things had changed. wraen was leaving and terance was unsure where to go from here. all he had left was rannoch, since there was no guarantee that maia would stay where there was promise of adventure. and treason, perhaps, but even terance knew that she was here of convenience more than anything. and when she got bored, he could only assume she would leave. 

everyone always left. 

but he was positive enough. there was nothing else to be done about the inevitable. and so he found treason along the borders as he always did-- a constant-- and called out to her in a deep woof. his pace quickened as he moved to catch up with his packmate, giving her shoulder a friendly nudge in greeting. "how are things?" he asked her with a wave of his tail. 

The pale devil was in a way a simple creature.  She expected respect, she expected recognition and she expected both because she believed her actions deserved them.  It was simple as that.  If her ego was well-fed, she need not wander except if she had a hankering to cause some trouble.  For now she was satiated.

That wasn't to say she didn't have drives that sometimes pushed her in odd directions.  Making the assumption that she'll mention Corvus in that one other thread and find out he was gone, she was currently plotting going on a small loop to look for him.  There was no other reason for him to be missing from that pack unless he'd realized that she was right -- that they were fools and he probably deserved better.  So, if he was out wandering around the Wilds as a free agent, she should locate him and bring him back as her prize, rescued from the hellish pits of stupidity.  She still had more questions for him -- more tests.  Just needed to do so before they actually did move.

But at least for now, the patrol was keeping her reasonably occupied while she worked out the details.  The patrols had been pretty monotonous as of late -- all the trouble had arrived in the early days of the pack and now it was just... gone.  She'd paused for a moment to investigate the comings and goings of some of her packmates, barely starting forward again when Terance called out to her.  She still wasn't sure if he was still hopelessly broken or not -- sometimes she thought she saw cracks again, but as long as he was able to do his job, she wouldn't fuss.

Since she was just coming out of a dead stop, she didn't really need to slow down to let him catch up, dipping her head to reply, Nothing exciting again.  Not looking forward to retraining my feet to walk a different path.  Because the monotony did lead to one thing at least -- a keen ability to walk along without thinking too hard but still be able to pick out the odd thing out of place.

terance chuffed lightly. "it'll be easier to travel i'd bet, though. don't have to worry about cliffs and tripping over stones," he returned with a shrug... not that treason of all wolves would trip over stones, terance assumed she was too spatially aware for that.

behind the scenes, terance had had a short conversation with @Rannoch (might edit this part out lol). after wraen's leave, there was a lot to be discussed, especially after treason's promotion. 

"i came to let you know that wraen has stepped down-- she'll be leaving when we relocate," he told her with a gentle sigh. he knew that treason wasn't wraen's biggest fan, so he doubted the information would be hard hitting... but, it was good she knew anyhow.

I'm sure it'll have it's own annoyances after a few patrols, no place is perfect.  Or at least, she didn't think so.  There would always be some give and take, because the more close to perfect a spot was, the more likely someone was already living there.  And somehow she really didn't think Sunspire was going to go boot a pack off their lands.

What Terance said next, though, wasn't at all expected, Huh.  Of all the wolves around, hadn't figured she'd be one to jump ship.   It really did surprise her, and though the expression was subtle, it was there on her features.  Treason had assumed that they were stuck with Wraen around unless she got eaten by a bear or something.  That Wraen would always be lurking around causing Treason some problems because for whatever reason they just really didn't get along for whatever reason.  It'd probably turn out to be something like chaotic good versus lawful evil or something like that.  But who knew for sure.

Does she have a plan or is she just going to wing it?  It did put an interesting spin on Treason's much earlier thoughts.  She had been the one close to wandering off, but now here she was with some power and possibly a new opportunity opening up once Wraen left.  Weird how that was working out -- it certainly wasn't logical.

"you and me both," terance chuffed with a dry amusement, his shoulders shrugging as they moved along the border. this seemed to affect terance a drastic amount less than seabreeze's leave, but, it more or less came down to the fact that terance was merely growing used to abandonment. he couldn't quite trust anyone not to turn their back on him. of course, he still opted to see the good in wolves.

with a quick thought about wraen's plans, terance merely shook his head. "she's winging it," he returned with a slight cough to clear his throat, "don't know what that means, but she said she'd let me know where she settled." if it even mattered, terance wasn't sure, but he supposed it would be nice to know his sister was safe.

"but, i'm guessing you know that this means the beta spots back open," he added, giving her a side eye as they walked, offering up a gentle hint of that warm smile terance was so well known for, "if you're interested."

On the one hand it did mean that there was now only a slim chance of someone interfering in her plots, so that part would definitely be appreciated.  Not that she had any ideas where those plans currently stood -- as the move approached they'd been put on pause, even the more subtle bits like just investigating but part of that was because Corvus was apparently gone and she thus far just had bad luck wandering beyond the borders.  So far, only disappointments.

She did have another question about Wraen but couldn't figure out how to phrase it without making it sound worse than she probably meant.  Basically, Treason was wondering if Wraen would be the sort who might come stumbling back if things went wrong, but since her leaving in the first place left the rank open, Treason was more willing to hold her tongue so she could get what she wanted since it wasn't that important anyway.  If she got the rank and they tried to kick her from it to give it back to Wraen, she would not go willingly.

Instead she settled for an initial nod, then another when he spoke of the rank.  I am, if that's what you and Rannoch agree to.  Patience had thus far given her things she hadn't been expecting, so she could afford to wait a bit if she had to.  As long as the opportunity was there, that was the important thing.  She couldn't see any of the others in the pack being a good option for it anyway, but that was probably just her biased opinion.

terance nodded. "we've already agreed to it," he said, as simple as that. what else was there to do? terance figured treason was ready to step up to the plate and since wraen was gone there was nothing stopping her from doing it. simple, as, that. 

sunspire's beta let out a hefty sigh and then continued, "when we move and wraen leaves, you'll automatically assume the role. i think you and i are good partners and sunspire needs a little more level-headedness." not that treason had the most level head-- she was pretty motivated by... herself. but, all the same, terance felt she was more balanced than him. or, in a simpler setting, they balanced one another out.

Huh.  That settles that, then.  That was quick.  She'd expected this was a "hey, here's a heads up" kind of thing but that was certainly a fair bit more solid than that.  If anything comes up in the meantime, obviously let me know.  Perhaps that made her seem eager to see the back of Wraen, but at this point, if it got things together faster, she was all for it.  Whatever it was.

Her next words reflected this. Though I will say waiting around is rather irritating.  It's this weird void with not enough time to do anything important, not so little that you don't have to care.  She was mostly referring to hunting and to a lesser point the patrols.  Like if it was still at least a week out, they couldn't just let things go to shambles -- people would get hungry, trespassers could wander in before the mountain was left to go to rot on its own.  And if they hunted larger prey, there was no saying the whole thing would be eaten in time.  It just wasn't a great scenario, in her eyes.

terance sighed, followed by a few deep nods. "you're right-- it's a frustrating limbo," he returned with a light shake of his head, "but it's what we're working with-- and we'll be moving out soon enough." sooner than later, he'd hoped. rannoch and liffey had been prepping the pups and terance had been... well, not doing anything differently. patrolling, mostly. 

"got any other concerns?" terance asked. it almost sounded like a joke but he was serious, he cared about her input and meant to hear her out.

She shook her head, Not for now, at least.  We'll just have to see how everything shakes out and then I'm sure something will come up.   Something always did.  Besides, at least for now she was just doing the same old thing.  Starting then, she'd be taking on new duties.  Sort of.  Were they even anything particularly different than what she already did?  Mostly just making things all official, she imagined.

What would the future hold?  How much time would they have to spend in the new territory before things got on track?  How long before she was able to piece her plans back together in some way?

are you sure you don't have any questions, treason?

with a light chuckle, terance shook his head. "oh i'm sure something will come up," he returned with a wry smile, his tail moving. something always came up, it was just inevitable. "we'll have to scout around the hollow and look for potential joiners-- with winter around the corner i'm sure someone is looking for a place to stay," terance added to his fellow beta, his ears pricked.

his smile widened into a playful smirk, eyes gleaming. "how well can you handle being inviting?"

Are you implying I'm not the most gracious of all wolves?  Though it was said fairly evenly, she put a vague hint of a faux-insulted edge to it.  Yeah, she was totally the most gracious ever.  Honestly, she thought most of the time she was pretty reasonable.  A little sharper edged than most, sure, but she hadn't gone full tilt verbal evisceration in a while...

After enough of a pause, she continued, Mm. For real though, I haven't had the best luck finding people when wandering.  Not that I was trying too hard.  Maybe there'll be better recruiting in that area. Or at least different ones.  I think heading towards a mountain might be a bit off the beaten path in most wolves' travels.  Speculation.  That's all it was.  She honestly had left all the recruiting up to other people (except trying to steal Corvus away from the Plateau, but member-thievery probably didn't count).

"absolutely not," chuffed terance with a small grin, tail wagging. 

"yeah... i'll check that out. just do your best. i'll do the same, come winter we'll be just fine," he added with a small shrug. he was taking this seriously, absolutely, but all the same. the hollow would, eventually be a better move for them all. "wanna finish this patrol?" he asked with a quirk of his brow.

And there would be more changes to come, ones that weren't predicted.  How they ended up in the end was clouded at this point and the passage of time would be the only thing to reveal it.  At least for the short term, the patrol was a good idea.  Treason nodded. Yeah.  Hopefully it's boring.  And they would continue on their way.