Blacktail Deer Plateau Daily shaver, coupon saver

The important part of claiming a new territory, for Solveig, was finding a safe place for the puppies to go for shelter, should need be. There would be future generations as well, so finding a suitable denspace was important. Fortunately, Thyra had spotted something that she'd told her mother with excited words- refusing to explain exactly what it was she'd seen, but insisting that she would follow to see what it was. 

Solveig had simply been pleased when both Thyra and Baldr returned without a scrape, and without being skunked. It had certainly sounded as though Baldr had tried!

"And you still won't tell me," She said as they picked their way down the slope and toward the plateau.

"That is why it is called a surprise, Mother!" Thyra laughed. Her heart thrummed with excitement, as she led her mother down. She hoped that it would be even better than she remembered it being- and the mere sight of the hidden cavern had taken her breath away. It had taken every bit of bargaining she had had to keep Baldr from spilling the beans, but he'd also been very tired on the way home. Now, in the evening as the children had settled in for the night, she took her mother back to the plateau, to see the mysterious veil of vines that covered a section of the great wall of mountain that rose up, straight up, into the sky which had begin to fill with stars.

Thyra was tight-lipped, but Solveig had a feeling that if the journey had been much longer, she could have prompted her to free a couple more details. Still, she too wanted to be surprised when she got there, so she fell silent, breaking the quiet only when she hummed lightly to herself as she carefully minded her footing down the hillside. 

It was not a very far walk from the Keep to the Plateau- perhaps if Greyfalcon's falcon survived to maturity, it might choose to love very nearby. 

Thyra stopped, in front of a vine-covered wall of rock that led up the side of the mountain. Solveig looked it up and down, and chuffed. "Do they flower? Or..." 

Was this truly the surprise?

Thyra grinned, pleased her mother did not figure the secret out right away. She walked along the vine-covered wall, until she could see it- a patch of darkness through the vines. She turned, grinned at her mother, and then cleverly side-stepped toward the wall, disappearing through the thick vines and into the dark cavern within, where her excited laughter rebounded all around her. 

"Come seeee!" She sung out, before she poked her head out through the vines, so that her mother could caught another glimpse of where the opening was, before she turned and dashed back inside.

One moment her daughter was there, with a sheep-eating grin on her face, and the second, she'd stepped sideways and out of sight. Perhaps under some overhang that Solveig had failed to notice, until she heard the ambience and reverb on her laughter. She knew instantly that her daughter had found a cave, and she hustled closer, pausing as her daughter emerged momentarily to call her in, before she investigated the entrance herself. 

For a cavern, there was a surprising amount of light. The vines fell together behind her, obscuring the plateau mostly from view, especially with how dim it was. But within the cavern there was light- as in the middle of the high, domed ceiling, there was a skylight. Through it, stars were visible, and moonlight trickled in in a silvery veil. Solveig stood, awe-struck, by her daughter's lucky find.

Thyra bounded around, enjoying the spongy moss underfoot as her mother gawked at the skylight. She grinned and laughed, flouncing to her mother's side where she could lean against her and peer up into the darkening sky above and feel the cool air sinking down into the chamber from its lone window. 

"It is perfect, isn't it?" She asked. "A safe place for the children to play, a place for meetings...More than enough space for the whole pack to fit in if the weather is bad- and this beautiful moon hole to let in just enough sunshine, just enough moonshine," She explained.

She considered the arguments her daughter made for the place. Perhaps it lacked the intimacy of a birthing den, but this could easily be considered the rendez-vous site, where the children could be brought to grow once they were older. The children were old enough now, for this year at least, to move directly into the cavern. 

"It is" She said softly, still awe-struck by the fortune they had been granted. Moved, she bowed her head to pray silently, a silverish tear trickling down her cheek. 

She felt guilty, for having a lived a life so devout, only to have let her faith fall into the background as duty and motherhood consumed all that she knew. And perhaps that was the way of it, she thought, as she lifted her head again. Perhaps finding true faith was finding a family to love.

Thyra had not prayed in some time, though she bowed her head somewhat awkwardly when she noticed her mother had begun to pray. She didn't know what to think, who to thank...Their Gods, so many of them, had been so far from her thoughts, but she felt she lived a fulfilled life nonetheless. It wasn't enough to convince her that the Gods weren't watching, but perhaps that they watched, but needed less veneration from the mortal wolves of the world. 

Now, they could live for themselves. 

She stepped back to her mother's side. "This will be our home. We will survive winter, here," She said.

She was grateful for the hallowed place that her daughter had found. Her blessed daughter, who came to her with smiles and optimism, blossoming every day into the beautiful, kind, and soft-hearted woman that she was. There had never been the need to transform her daughter into a soldier- it would have been like trying to work with a handful of water rather than clay. This was who Thyra was meant to be, and Solveig finally accepted her for it. 

"We will bring the others in the morning." She said. "This will be our new home."

Overhead, a raven flew, silhouetted against the moon that passed above them.

...And moments later, a second one flew overhead, its wings silverish in the moonlight. 

"Two for joy," Thyra said. 

The raven calls faded as the pair flew away, and Thyra remained by her mother's side, considering the significance of the visit they had just been given. She touched her mother's shoulder, and began to lead her out of the cave, to where the air was wild and clear, and the silence of night time was interrupted only by the hoot of an owl off in the cedar grove.

"Two for joy," Solveig echoed, as she watched the pair of ravens pass out of sight. 

She left the den behind her daughter, considering the fly-by as somewhat of a symbol of the things to come. Joy, family, togetherness. And in a place as lush and full of life as this, she felt they had finally found their stronghold. The Keep had had its beauties, but the Plateau called to her now, and it was with great ambition that she set her sights on moving the family to this new, hospitable sanctuary. She breathed in the scent of the place, and then smiled to her daughter, before the pair left to return to the Keep once more.