Lost Creek Hollow looking back to look forward

They probably could've made the trip in half the time, if Bat hadn't purposely stretched it out (occasionally by going in the wrong direction on purpose), just to spend more time with @Tegan. Eventually, they did find their way to the edge of Lost Creek Hollow. It was only vaguely familiar to Bat. She hadn't been very well when she'd been here, nor spent a lot of time among the wolves of the hollow. But still she owed them a debt of gratitude.

"This is the place," Bat announced, a note of reluctance in her voice. It wasn't that she didn't want to see @Terance and thank him. In fact, it had nothing to do with the hollow at all. She just knew this road trip with Tegan was coming to an end. Perhaps other things were too. She put that thought on hold and took a breath. "Lost Creek Hollow."

rubs hands in preparation of threading with herself ... i'll throw terance in when bat calls for him.

"you don't sound so sure of it," commented tegan, who stared into the forest with his nose twitching. his brow was deeply furrowed as he did so, his tail flicking. clearly the yearling was deep in thought himself, though it was unclear what he was thinking. he made the offhand comment of, "i don't think that chick is here anymore," though that wasn't relevant to what he was thinking, honestly. "but..." 

he glanced down at bat with one brow quirked. "you didn't recognize anyone here?" he asked, ears flicking, "there's totally a scent on this border i know."

terance, who rarely left the borders save for night-time, treason-time, and a few things in-between, didn't even need to be summoned. he heard the pair before he saw them, the male voice especially was rather loud. he caught a few words but was far enough away for them to sound muffled. when he approached, he was surprised to recognize one of the visitors. 

"fish," he commented with clear, enthusiastic surprise. his ears pricked and a warm smile spread across his face. he didn't miss the wince (along with a confused expression) directed his way from the lanky gray male, who from terance's expert opinion and observation skills, reckoned to be around the same age as treason. he ignored it, though, instead opting to continue speaking with bat. "you returned -- i was worried about you," he said, and without much time in-between statements, looked to tegan, "did you find her? how'd you know to bring her back here?" the questions were probably stupid to the other two, but from terance's perspective, they were all the right questions.

Bat shook her head. "I really didn't come into contact with anyone besides Terance. I just slept a lot. As soon as I recovered enough, I took off." Her ears flicked backward at this admission, her silver eyes dropping guiltily. She hated that she'd done that. She didn't regret making her way home, though Bat knew she owed a debt to the wolves of the hollow. And that was part of why she'd come here today.

Before they could delve into whose scent he might recognize, the man in question arrived. "Terance!" she said, dipping her head and wagging her tail. "I'm sorry I made you worry. I shouldn't have left the way I did. I just wanted to get home so badly." Bat paused. She'd been looking at her feet but her gaze lifted a little, to settle on the Alpha's chin. "This is Tegan, my pack's Beta. I asked him to come back here with me so I could apologize and thank you."

Bat let out a long, whistling breath before getting to the next bit. Her body tensed a little as she continued. "I actually wanted to offer to stay here a while and make up for what I owe you by giving back to your pack where I couldn't before." Before Terance (or, gods forbid, Tegan) could say anything to that, she rushed to add, "I'd not stay permanently but I'd really appreciate the opportunity to make it right."

Gannet didn't recognize the strangers on the border initially, but as he was passing by, something about one of them struck a note. He paused, staring from the side, and turned his head curiously. They were familiar.

He circled back and came around, standing somewhat ghostlike behind Terance, though he had an easy smile on. Oh! It was one of the Redhawks... he had to think a moment. Tegan.

feel free to skip him! Until he's addressed!

"i guess you needed the rest," commented tegan idly with a shrug, who was still sniffing trying to find out where the fuck he recognized that scent from. but nope, nothing. 

it was, of course, then that some big ass fuckin dude shows up. and this guy looks scary. i mean, like, his face is nice enough or whatever but who the fuck has that many scars? in what world do you let that happen? tegan winced sort of noticeably, but the guy didn't mention it, so he didn't say anything. this must've been terance, who called bat fish and then directed a bunch of questions at him... oh yeah, cause bat totally couldn't speak last time she was here. he wasn't sure about the fish part, that must've been some sick name they gave her since she almost... ya know, drowned. 

bat flew into conversation before he had the chance to, leaving tegan only the time to give a subtle nod and comment, "ambassador," like a dumbass before taking on, "nice to meet you, thanks for taking care of bat." and then he stood idly before them both as they conversed. 

of course, literally as soon as tegan was feeling mildly comfortable with the thing, bat asked something really head ass.

like super head ass. in fact, so head ass and so out of pocket, that she might as well have just fuckin killed him on the spot. 

his head whipped around to look at her, his brow deeply furrowed and a small ripple at the bridge of his nose where a scowl/snarl was being held back. he looked absolutely bewildered, on top of all that, but he held his tongue. so focused on bat, tegan didn't even notice that gannet was in the background.

not stay permanently. yeah? fuck you, bat.

terance's jaw dropped a little bit to notice that fish was suddenly talking again, more surprise as the grey wolf (tegan) called her bat. well, he supposed that she had an actual name... fish was, after all, just a placeholder. he let her get her spiel in, giving a nod to the male politely even though his ambassador comment was sort of funny. "mercenary," he replied in a friendly tease, giving a wave of his dark tail. 

and then bat thanked him, all things he expected, reassured him she was alright and had made it home. all good things in terance's eyes and all things that he appreciated hearing even after she'd disappeared. it was nice to be thanked, too. even better, after all, that they were allies with the redhawks, this would've definitely helped their relationship... not that it really needed it. 

terance did not miss tegan's look at bat -- it was really hard to miss something so stoney -- and found his own brow furrowing. clearly this wasn't discussed prior, and whether or not a wolf had free will was not a discussion he cared to have with the two, strangers or otherwise. he probably didn't have much say in it, but he tried to ease some tension. "i have a daughter your age," he said gently, "and a son, but if the same thing happened to either of them i would hope someone would treat them the same way as we cared for you... just until they were well enough to travel home. i didn't expect anything in return from you." which was true. even though neither ibis or okeanos lived with him, he remembered when ibis was missing... he was quite relieved that she was back in the territory by the time he visited. "but if you wish to stay, you are welcome to. we have room in our ranks and plenty of puppies on the way, we could always use an extra paw." his emerald gaze travelled once to the beta, ears flicked forwards. 

beyond all this, terance sort of assumed that treason would appreciate her coming back to help... she was a bit sterner when it came to these kinds of political polices. or, whatever. terance was just pretty easy-going. whoops.

She refused to look over at Tegan, though she imagined she felt his eyes boring into the side of her head. Bat resolutely focused on Terance, what he was saying and how she should respond. She appreciated that he'd let her off the hook, though this was something Bat wanted to do to clear her own conscience, regardless of whether Terance expected it.

"I'd feel better if you let me stay a while and make things square," Bat said. She almost mentioned that she had the other Beta's okay, though decided against it. Tegan was probably already furious with her for blindsiding him, he would be extra mad if she undermined him too. But she had approached Towhee, who'd warned her that Tegan probably wouldn't like it and let her know that she didn't much like it either but that Bat should do what she needed to do. (Towhee had seemed rather resigned to the fact that pretty much everyone was a flake who'd leave at some point or another.)

Another wolf appeared in the background and looked their way in passing, though Bat only spared him a second's glance before redirecting her attention to Terance and saying, "If you'll excuse me, I need to talk to Tegan for a few minutes. Can I come find you when I'm ready? And you can put me right to work."

the dark wolf was givin him some serious eyes, tegan could feel them, but bat wasn't even looking at him. it took a few moments of this anger to boil down and fizzle out into an entirely calm demeanor, so much so that you might've been shocked to learn that he was practically steaming just moments prior. 

as bat turned to look at him so they could be excused to talk, tegan merely rolled his shoulders in a lofty shrug and nodded to terance, who just nodded back to the both of them sort of wearily. "just let me know, bat," he said with a smile anyway, and then stepped back towards the white wolf that tegan had still yet to notice. but whatever. 

tegan followed her (i'm assuming) a little bit until they were somewhere private. and then he stared at her.

terance was giving tegan some eyes, mostly because this was (again) turning out to be a pretty high-tension case. but the youth died down almost and quickly as he'd flared up, leaving terance to do some mental recalculating. there was a lot going on right now that made little sense to him. hmpf. 

either way, he nodded to bat, giving her a quick, "just let me know, bat," before nodding to the both of them and turning towards gannet, who was hovering in the background like some sort of ghost. he blinked a few times before offering the male a warm smile and padding over to wait for the yearling with his packmate.

Once excused by Terance, Bat slowly turned to face Tegan (without looking at him too directly), then began to walk. Neither one of them spoke as Bat plodded a short distance away. She finally rolled to a stop and steeled herself with a deep breath before facing him again, meeting his hard stare.

"I'm going to stay here a little while, repay my debt, then I'll head back to the plateau. But," she continued, trying to keep her voice even as her legs threatened to tremble, "I plan to go traveling after that. I want to check out the other packs around here, see the sights. I don't plan on leaving the general area but it's something I want to do, by myself." She sipped in a breath. At first, she'd wanted him to come along as much as possible, though as she'd made her plans, she'd come to realize she needed to do this on her own. Now that her romantic feelings had gone, it was time to work on their codependency. "And if I'm welcome, I'll always call the Redhawks home."

She loosed a shaky breath, then braced herself again, anticipating some yelling and "fuck yous," among other things. Bat had prepared for this moment. She thought she could handle whatever Tegan threw at her, though her heart skipped rapidly in her chest as she wondered whether she might lose Tegan's friendship for good.

bat started explaining something to him but tegan entirely tuned her out. instead, on his face was a mostly neutral expression save for the twitching of his nose. his tail swung casually at his hocks as the charlie brown adult voice echoed through his head with every word that she said. sentimental shit? miss him with that. she was fucking leaving and that was her own god damn dumb ass fault. "sure, pup," he said with a chirp, ears cupped forwards, "good luck out there." what else was he supposed to say? did she expect him to beg her to stay? 

because tegan didn't beg, thank you very much.

To say his response threw her would have been a massive understatement. He was entirely too casual, given the circumstances, and rather than be offended by this implication that he didn't really care, Bat dared to hope. Was it really going to be this easy? She knew he was feigning it at least somewhat, though if Tegan wanted to play it like this, honestly, she would simply be grateful.

"Thank you," she breathed, the words heartfelt. Her limbs had gone jellylike with relief and disbelief. "I'm going to miss you, a lot, but I'll be back," Bat added, certain he would pretend the feeling wasn't mutual but she wasn't bothered by that. She knew Tegan far too well by now.

Bat wanted to give him a big old goodbye hug, yet she didn't want to tempt fate. She was still partially expecting an explosion. For this reason, she also held back from apologizing about blindsiding him with this change in plans. It played better into Tegan's approach to the whole matter: it was no big deal, right? And they'd see one another again.

"sure, pup," echoed tegan again as she thanked him for... whatever. he didn't even know what she was thanking him for. not yelling? yeah, what the fuck ever. she seemed hesitant about something, so tegan just reached out a forelimb to pull her into an embrace, head falling over her shoulder, and held her there for a little bit. his expression faded in these brief moments, green gaze weary as it fell to the ground beyond her, chin pressed to her shoulder. he suppressed a heavy sigh, instead pulling away and regaining his usual expression. "'ight, giddy up," he said with a bounce of his head, a small smile laced upon his muzzle.

When he reached out, she gleefully threw herself at him, snuggling Tegan to within an inch of his life. When she stepped back, something came detached between them. Bat fought the impulse to restore order, instead letting them drift apart. It hurt more than she'd anticipated, making her question herself. Was she really over him? Could she really break up part ways with him?

You need to do this, for so many reasons, she coached herself, taking another step backward, eyes lingering on Tegan's familiar face. Love you, she thought but of course didn't say. The nature of that love had changed, yet it beat steadily in her heart. I'll come back for you one day. Bat did offer one last crooked smile and then forcibly turned away from Tegan and back toward the hollow.

maybe the smile was returned, maybe it wasn't. tegan didn't really think about it. she turned and left, and so did he. he didn't look sad, didn't feel sad, either. no tears, this day, just betrayal. and this time, it was on purpose. 

tegan didn't look back.