Northstar Vale Go ahead and cry little girl, nobody does it like you do

While Phoenix Maplewood is en route. Maybe @Luke @Casmir @Indra @Laurel ? No obligation to play with me, though! Marked private 'cause any lone wolf that approaches would instantly be mauled so it's technically not all welcome, lol, but any PHX/Nomads character is welcome!

The first day felt long, but the second feels even longer somehow. The pack rose with the sun in the shadow of the mountains and ascended into them without hesitation. As they crested the rise into one of many passes, Saena chanced one last look back over the taiga she'd lived in for over a year. Her eyes touched the charred Redtail Rise and the towering Nova Peak behind it; the sun glinted off the face of the glacier and glittered across the Qeya River; and with a wrench in her heart, she stared last over the tops of the distant maple trees. Never again would she smell their sweet, sugary aroma and know she's home.

From there, the pack travelled through the mountains and descended into a heavily wooded vale, walking endlessly, until now. By the time a rest stop is called, partly because the babes are fussing terribly, partly because Milo has shit all over himself and partly because Saena can't hold her neck up any longer, the sun is beginning to sink as early afternoon becomes late afternoon. They still have several hours of travel time left, though, and she isn't worried about this break. She flops to the ground, coiling her legs around a screaming Milo, and attempts to soothe him with swipes of her tongue. No doubt all of the cubs are cold or hungry or tired or all three. They aren't meant to be out this early in their life, and she's desperately worried they will perish before the pack finds safety.

She gathers her remaining cubs from the pack before they disperse to find food and water and to rest, and for the time being, Saena curls around her greedily nursing brood and stares blankly across the vale.

the pack had chosen (or perhaps, it had been ordained) a poor time to relocate -- if only because for indra it was a time of increasing noise and mobility. she babbled often, drooled even more often, and at times, would issue a toddler's delighted scream that likely assaulted poor @Casmir's ears. she was not easy cargo either, for she had discovered with kicks of her paws she could sway herself back and forth and that seemed to amuse her more than anything. when saena had rescued casmir from her she had gone willingly, if only because she was hungry. with little content gurgles she suckled her fill and then clumsily turned to face saena. she would have made the small trip with no ordeal were it not for her lack of coordination -- before she knew it she had tripped over one of saena's outstretched legs and was face first in the dirt blinking in surprise.

this fuckin' kid, man. Casmir was used to running for short distances and hunting, not carrying a wriggling, shrieking bundle for miles and miles. as a result, he had developed a wicked crick in his neck, one that radiated pain along his spine with each step he took. saena called a halt -- the children were tired, hungry, and cranky. Casmir was as well, but he gently deposited Indra down with her siblings and settled on his haunches to make sure Saena was settled before he murmured, "i'll be right back." they were not alone -- luke of course was ever present, and after the boy checked on the nearness of the alpha male, he loped into the forest.

some time later, he returned with a marmot and dropped it in front of the pale woman, noting the strain on her face. "you should eat, cuz," Cas muttered, though warmly, taking up his post near her and the kids. it was with a familiarity that they probably didn't have yet that he'd addressed her, but maybe she wouldn't mind. either way, the Mayfair boy was hungry and tired and selfishly focused in that moment on his needs and how maybe when luke came over he himself could steal off for a bite to eat and a nap.

It's not ideal, but the maplewood pack will have to make do. Transporting such small cubs any distance is a risk, but it came with the chance of a safer life. Had the situation not been so serious, and had his own dark thoughts not been inclined to routinely gnaw at his mind, the white wolf may have been excited by the prospect of a completely fresh start with Saena at his side.

The alpha females called for a break, and Luke set Laurel down beside her. He shifted his jaw; it had not taken long for some level of stiffness to settle into the muscles there, aided in part by the tension that had taken occupancy throughout his body. Luke nodded to Casmir as he made to leave. The blue-nosed wolf would have went to hunt too, but with Casmir off, he would play guardian.

The pups nursed as Luke stepped near to tenderly nose the crown of Saena's head, before he too laid down in a way that would block any wind from cooling the pups. Keeping them warm and fed was of the utmost importance. Luke gazed on as one tried to have a stretch and ended up faceplanting into the dirt.

Casmir returned soon with a marmot, and he looked to the black male to see if he would stay or would go for his own rest.

She's guilty for having made them walk so long, and it shows in the draw of her brows and the creases of her sallow cheeks, but she can't stomach the thought of them being discovered by hunting Dragon wolves. Surely they will search long and far when they discover their enemies have left, or so Saena thinks given their seemingly savage nature. For now, she presses her teeth insistently to the downy fur of her foreleg and chews at an itch, with eyes locked on the suckling babes at her belly.

Luke remains near while the remaining pack members spread out, but after a time—around the same time Indra finishes her meal and promptly trips over Saena's leg, eliciting a giggle in spite of their dire circumstances—it is Casmir who returns. Saena's stomach is twisting with hunger when he drops the marmot nearby, and her eyes leap to his face to search it questioningly. The boy is devoted, perhaps in a bid to make right whatever has left him so guilty in the wake of his beloved's death (of which she knows almost nothing), but that too brings guilt upon her shoulders.

"Have you eaten?" she asks softly, glancing briefly over the marmot to see it's untouched. For the moment she leaves it, silently offering it to the boy who expended his energy to get it, and she scoops Indra into her embrace to give her a thorough tongue lashing across the face—partly because the dirt of the road has made Indra filthy and partly to spark a reaction from the most energetic of her children, looking for a much needed distraction.

his cousin spoke, and Cas turned from his reverie to look into her face, lovely despite the lines and darkness beneath her eyes that stress had put there. "not yet. i'll go ... sometime." the memory of his conversation with Shreya arose and he shifted against the ground, looking between Saena and Luke. "where are we going? i only ask because -- because my dad's pack is on the coast. and he has friends there, too."

he paused. "maybe we could settle there? it would be ... safe." Casmir was innately uncomfortable suggesting stuff like this to the alpha pair, but the kids were so little. they needed a den. consistency. Donnelaith couldn't house them all, but settling close could provide the former Phoenixes with the security they needed to rebuild.

she was stunned: one, that the dirt could be so unforgiving, and two, because there was a strange sensation in her nose she had never experienced before. she wrinkled her little nostrils and a sneeze rocked her body backwards -- with a yelp she tried to coordinate herself but was seized by her mother and had fallen to the lashings of her tongue. indra wasn't having it: with great struggle she writhed and wormed, her loud babbles punctuated by ridiculous and high pitched sneezes.

Luke had no answer for Casmir; as far as he knew, Saena did not either. There was no destination in mind. The pack would stop when Saena felt she had covered enough ground and had found someplace acceptable. He only hoped it would be by the water, though it was not the sea he had in mind. But the white wolf held his tongue as he rose to his paws. Casmir could stay and chat with Saena about the possibilities, Luke would go hunt.

Exit Luke

While Luke was silent and Casmir was pensive for a moment, Saena was all activity. She attempted unsuccessfully to corral Indra with quick sweeps of her limbs, but the flailing child proved too much for her. When one of Indra's paws, equipped with still-sharp baby nails, popped her in the side of the jaw, the Alpha female growled out an affronted, "Ow," and promptly let go of her thrashing tyke upon receiving a splatter of mucus and saliva from one of Indra's sneezes.

"You're disgusting," she proclaimed, not even managing to sound teasing as she shot Indra an immature jab of her tongue. Casmir drew her attention by speaking then, and Saena listened while lazily reaching out a limb to swat her paw playfully in Indra's direction, but when Casmir finished his suggestion, she fell still and grimaced.

"We're going as far as we can from Reek and the Dragons," she told him. "I appreciate the suggestion, Casmir, and I've the utmost respect for your father, but I cannot bow my head to Dante ever again." Or anyone, for that matter. She respected Lasher, but to resume life as a subordinate, beholden to those above her, and to see her children demoted from their status as firstborn of the pack and privileged... Saena wouldn't have it, not until the situation was direly desperate. She was too proud for that, and her children deserved the best she could give them, which in her mind (and perhaps wrongly) was not in the territory of a pack that was not her own. "We'll find a safe place of our own," Saena assured him, "and we'll never give it up."

Casmir listened, chuckling a bit at Indra's interlude with her mother, and noting that Luke departed, surely to hunt. He didn't know what had happened between his cousin and Dante, but at least there was no bad blood when it came to his dad and Saena. he already knew that, though, given the fact that she had him in her pack -- didn't that count for a lot? 

"all right," he agreed, understanding her need to get away from her psychotic ex mate and the alliance he'd formed with this arrogantly named "Dragons." "i trust you," the boy added, quirking the corner of his mouth up into a smile.

he reached out a paw to bat at Indra; he would assist Saena with the kids until Luke came back, and then find a bite to eat and a rest.

Posting just to wrap up my involvement. Feel free to continue if you two want to!

It felt good to know she was trusted, even though her decisions in the past and even now were surely questionable. Saena's ears twitched and she returned Casmir's smile, hers a ghost of its usual self if only because of the things that weighed heavily on her now. She turned her head to watch Luke depart, unaware that this was the last time she would ever see him. His fate, she would never know.

"Monster," she snorted playfully at Indra, who was free from her grasp at last and was making all manner of noise. As Casmir reached out a paw toward her, Saena smirked and said, "careful, she's the devil in disguise." Surely Indra would grow up to be quite the woman, not unlike Saena herself. The thought was terrifying.

For now, however, they would rest. She settled herself and lay her snout across her forelimb and within moments was dozing, with Laurel and Milo napping alongside her.