Redsand Canyon And we might have seen something

assumptions all based on discussions <3

Feel free, if you join, to decide where they run into her! (Tags are for reference)

Apparently this pack was a military pack. Fennec had been told she'd be in a medic's rank and assisting @Aquene. At one point she would have argued and insisted she be given a soldier's rank, but instead she accepted @Germanicus' placement without a single issue. She just didn't have the fight in her - medic was fine.

After the euphoria of the beach, Fennec had sank into a trench so low she wasn't able to claw her way out. She'd had low points before, but never one that made her feel this dead inside for this long. The breaking point had been the realization that, more and more, she lingered on the notion that she should have drowned just to spite them. For the first time, Fennec feared her own mind.

That thought faded when she wasn't alone; the numbness continued. She forced herself to eat when she could, but even getting up when she woke was difficult. What's the point. She needed to do well here for Killdeer. Whatever this was, it would pass.

She needed to learn the territory and busied herself with that. Later she'd stop in on her mom, like she promised. But through the morning she explored carefully, letting this new place fill her and overwrite the boughs of the Emberwood in her mind. Maybe there was some catharsis in that.

"lady fennec."

her entry into mereo had been easy. she was a skilled medic and they would need that. but she was not only a worker of herbs. germanicus was interested to know how fennec's blindness might enhance her other senses in an arena regard.

but now he came forward.

"how are you settling?" mereo must be a loud place if she was used to more silence. she was going through mereo in a detailed fashion, but the eagle had not missed how she had gone to ground for a time.

'Lady Fennec.' At one time she would have smirked at that, but she oddly appreciated how formal and respectful it was. No one who knew her would ever consider her a lady. She'd never considered that she might have opportunities to reinvent herself even in a pack full of family.

And this place. When she realized, it hit her with the weight of a mudslide. Fuck, of course, it was too funny.

It's quite the home. She said, scuffing idly at the sand beneath her paws. She must have come at it from another direction, not to recognize it immediately. I've stayed here before. When it wasn't claimed. Correction - she'd spent weeks trapped in the bottom, injured and unable to get out. The absolute irony of giving up on her attempts to disappear only to end up in the exact place where the Wraith had made her debut.

It wasn't quite so crowded, then. She would need to learn this place extra well. It wasn't bound to be kind terrain if she didn't and she had no intention of falling here again. She'd need to find the paths in and out that she could walk without needing to climb.

she had been here before.

germanicus looked around at the high stone walls. "you have an eye for fortification." idly he wanted to ask her about tactics, but in observation realized he would allow fennec to lead them that way.

"we have explored the southernmost part of the canyon. it is uninhabited. i intend to send a patrol that way for the purpose of refreshing the borders. they might benefit from the expertise of one who lived here."

I never lived here, she replied, heading off the assumptions before he could form the idea that she'd ever claimed this place. At one time she might have delighted in tricking him. Now she found herself slightly annoyed, for some reason, and had to keep her tone neutral. Maybe it was because, if she had made a claim, this was the last place she'd have ever chosen. She wasn't overly happy about being back in it, but it was worth it to stick around for Killer.

I was just stuck down here, for a week or so. Hard to get in usually means hard to leave too, especially when you're injured. There weren't enough trees here. She wasn't in a place to complain, but she'd take that over 'defensible' in a heartbeat.

I'll go with, but I'd be about as new to it as they would be. She'd explored the length of it, maybe, but she didn't recall how far she'd gone or what the place looked like in detail. She hadn't thought it mattered since it hadn't been her intention to ever really come back. Really, she should have known better.

fennec corrected him and directly so.

germanicus was quiet for a moment and then he cleared his throat. "you are a woman of many talents." it was an assumption and he made it boldly. all of towhee's family had so far been the same way: dry and skilled.

"but mereo is a new place for you. i would be interested to know what it is you truly want to do."

What she wanted to do?

There were a lot of things she wanted. None of them were possible, so what she wanted was to stop wanting altogether. Fuck wanting things. Maybe what she wanted was just to be left alone.

I don't want anything. She replied, pressing forward without hesitating. She didn't want to enter that conversation, least of all with a relative stranger. I'll do whatever I need to here to be a part of this. That's all.

Medic. Soldier. It was all the fucking same in the end. She'd made a promise that she intended to keep. That was the only thing that really mattered now.

germanicus let it go.

she did not wish to talk to him. she was not obligated to do so.

"as tamar has gone away to found mereo, we no longer have a housekeeper. i will have bedding sent to your doorstep."

between towhee, phox, tierra, and killdeer, she had much family here to support her. he would not try to be something adjacent.

Housekeeper. Fennec did falter for a moment, first out of surprise, then a dislike, which quickly turned to acceptance. She'd just said she didn't fucking want anything. She hadn't been quiet about her skills and her mother knew what she could do, but he'd chosen to use none of them.

Housekeeper.

Fine.

She didn't say anything, but assumed her silence would be taken for the acceptance it was. She shouldn't have expected she'd have any real value to them. This was why she'd wanted to avoid joining a pack in the first place, but her son wasn't something she could simply throw aside and forget about. Her silence held with a firmer edge. She figured his job here was likely about done - he'd gotten what he needed.

unbeknownst to germanicus, fennec had taken his suggestion of furs to mean that she would be housekeeper. he would not have dreamed it. 

the irony was that this would make her learn the packmates with which she lived.

he wanted her as an auxillary. but she wanted to do nothing. germanicus had a basic level of empathy but it did not extend beyond that.

she must decide what she wished to do. the eagle straightened. "lady fennec." it was a goodbye. 

he turned to trot in the other direction.

Fennec listened to him part and continued wordlessly. As she walked, the familiar sick frustration surged up and turned her mood even darker. She felt more trapped than ever by these ravine walls.

The rank they gave her didn't matter. If she did not feel the work was her way of helping, she would do what she chose anyway. She'd never allowed ranks to hold her back before, and if Germanicus did not see, he wouldn't be the first. She'd forced harder wolves than him to come around.

She would fight. She would continue to gather her supplies, continue to heal, and keep her son and her family safe. For the moment, the perceived wound to a sore spot burned away the apathy she'd been feeling. She needed to hit something.

Fennec changed directions and eventually found her way to the sparring pits, drawn by the sounds of conflict.