Moonspear plain wooden casket

i have permission from kat to npc towhee. tag for reference! <3

it was decided that the redhawk family would stay at moonspear; and while the prospect of having a new place to explore was exciting for jr she was not entirely thrilled at the idea of getting used to new packmates.

and that was purely because of her own issues with 'strangers' and her struggle to equate pack-mates with non-strangers.

but with @Towhee trailing goodnaturedly behind her, jr takes the lead to explore their new home, her destination: the marks of the strange storm.

Fennec wouldn’t avoid her brother for the remainder of his time here, but she wouldn’t seek him out again either. Whenever they spoke she kept it surface level, focused on others instead of herself, and maintained the same aloof neutrality that she had drawn about herself anytime she had spoken to someone as Imperatrix. It was a character, one that she’d use to keep her brother happy until he decided to move on.

Maybe it was immature of her to handle it this way, but it was also the way he seemed to prefer. She’d do what she needed to in order to manage it, but she could already feel a cold resentment where she hadn’t before. Maybe she’d get over it. Maybe not.

She skirted the subject with family when asked too, and she didn’t talk with Penn about it again either. He couldn’t help. Instead she put her energy into learning the mountain again and finding the places of interest. She’d resolved not to start a garden but still took note of the things that grew and where they were. They still might come in handy.

Today she was wandering near where she’d begun her “uulaq”, though she had yet to make it official. She slipped into the more barren region, all rock and rough edges. Her path would take her on an eventual likely collision course with both Towhees, not that she realized this yet.

I wasn’t sure where they were so kept it vague, feel free to pp her coming across them at any point if you like

strangers were almost everywhere that jr stepped — and though she might put forth some effort to temper the worst of her bitchiness towards them: she does not.

she does not like wolves she does not know, neither does she trust.

so when a stranger approaches, jr tries to ignore her; but towhee stops ... and though jr itches to slink off, she does not.

she lets out a loud huff of annoyance, signing in her usually demanding way -who are you?- to fennec.

a small step up from 'who is' as she begins to understand the structure of language from watching towhee and phox use ptero.

it does not yet occur to jr that she is the outlier and that many, if not most, wolves do not know ptero, so she eyes fennec awaiting some sort of response.

Missing Jack left almost no room for missing Maxim, though truthfully losing the beautiful life she had built, piece by piece, really took a toll on her. It was nice being with family—Towhee didn’t want to to imagine how horrible she’d feel had she stayed in the vale, even with Jack there—but she couldn’t escape it. The depression she had tried to outrun caught up to her and descended like a great black shadow, hanging over her even as she tried to rebuild here on the mountainside.

The last thing she wanted to do was let her melancholy affect her kids. Although she would’ve preferred to sleep all day, Towhee trailed after the exploratory Jr. Moonspear must seem so big to such a young child, not just the slopes themselves but the village that called this place home. The elder Towhee knew it would take some time for everyone to adjust, though she was glad her mini-me was curious enough to have a look around.

Towhee didn’t notice Fennec right away, only the change in her child’s body language tipping her off to someone’s approach. She looked up and managed a tired smile as Fen wandered closer. She should’ve realized it sooner but it was only as Towhee Jr tried to interrogate Fennec with Ptero that a light clicked on in Towhee’s dark, depressive brain.

-“Jr, this is your oldest sister, Fennec. She’s blind, which means she can’t see you, so I’ll have to…”- Eyes looking to Fen now, she continued, -“Fen, Jr can’t hear or speak, plus I don’t think she can lipread quite yet. She only uses Ptero. I don’t mind translating, if we wanna give it a whirl…”-

She was already feeling off when Towhee came upon her, and having her feelings of disconnect reinforced in that moment didn’t help. Normally she didn’t mind being on the outs with the rest of her family’s communication method, but right now it felt like another inconvenience she couldn’t control.

It’s fine, mom. We don’t have to. She backed off a few steps to let them pass. There was no reason for her to sideline whatever they were doing.

jr's gaze focuses on her mother's introduction and explanations, some sort of realization dawning upon her when her mother explains the fennec is blind and cannot see her.

which is a bit of an issue because jr does not know how to communicate beyond body language and ptero.

except for the occasional huff as was her favored way to express her distaste for things.

jr's lip reading is abysmal and ...non existent but she sees fennec's lips move and then her head whips towards towhee for the translation, incorrigibly expectant of it.

Maybe Fennec just didn’t feel up to the effort today. Towhee understood that, though she was a little disappointed, even hurt. Neither was hard to accomplish in her current mindset, so she decided against expressing any of it.

-“Another day, I’d like to try,”- Towhee said and signed so they’d both catch it. -“We’ll work on lipreading to make it easier,”- she added for Fen’s benefit, though she was looking at her mirror image. -“I want you two to know each other. You’re sisters.”-

She reached out to touch Fen’s shoulder in a tired farewell, then motioned for Towhee Jr to keep exploring their new home. Perhaps they would come across someone else and get to practice communication. Otherwise, there was plenty of mountainside to prospect.