Sleeping Dragon when the sun has set, no candle can replace it

Uleön obviously needs some help over here...

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For as much as she hated it, Uleön had to get to it at some point. Her body ached from the uncomfortable position she'd obliged to sleep in for the past days, having found nothing better than an undersized hole under a rock ledge, probably abandoned weeks ago by a tiny badger. It wasn't suitable for Uleön's elder body.

Her hips cracked and her muscles ached, but the old female made long and slow slashes on the den's walls to expand the room, and then dragged the earth out with her weakening hind legs. That was until her body gave up, and she dropped down at the entrance feeling dizzy. She was breathing heavily, so she closed her eyes for a moment and allowed the shade the ledge provided to cool her body down as the heat dissipated through the cold earth. Whoever looked at her would think she'd passed out, and in truth she had been close to it, but she was awake, and her efforts hadn't even been very fruitful for the chamber behind her was perhaps just as small as it was an hour before.

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He’d been filled in a little from his absence, including a new joiner, but he hadn’t gone out of his way to find her. Most of his time had been spent between the borders and his children, making sure his home is safe for all of them. Eventually, he decided the time to meet her had come, he began searching for something he didn’t quite recognize. Most of the terrain becomes familiar, realizing he’s getting close to Heda’s cave site, but he didn’t get a chance to dwell on it.

Brown eyes widen when he sees a slumped over wolf hanging half way out of a whole in the ground. He inhales a sharp breath and inches closer to see if the female is okay. There’s a slow rise and fall to her chest Gavriel’s able to catch and for the moment, she’s at least alive. “Hello?” he calls out with a slight whimper, head lowering while his nose sniffs a few times.

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There wasn't enough energy in her to even be surprised, but Uleön's ears catch the male's call and her head turns around lazily to find him. He was large, surprisingly so, and she manages to distinguish some scars hidden beneath his tawny fur. She finds his brown eyes for a second, just to store them in her memory, but shortly enough not to disrespect him, and then her gaze goes back elsewhere.

"Oh, hello" she speaks, short of breath, before letting her tongue hang lazily out of her mouth as she pants heavily. She was a mess, covered in dirt from nose to tail, but she was too tired to care about her appearance. "I was trying to dig out the walls a little... I should have realized by now that I do not possess the energy I did in my youth..." she laughs, and then drops her head on her paws in exhaustion.

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His brows burrow between his soft, caramel eyes as she tries to settle up right but struggles to do so. Her explanation gives him enough and he slowly nods his head, curious to why she’d been brought in if she’s incapable of taking care of herself. However, giving her the benefit of the doubt, he rolls on shoulder indifferently. She’d been accepted as a member of Sleeping Dragon so there had to be some potential hidden beneath her.

“I could help, if you want,” he offers but he doesn’t move forward, “or I could help find a better place for you to stay that doesn’t involve any digging.” There are plenty of crevices and caves and shelters that one could make their own, personal home but he doesn’t know how attached she is to the place she’s chosen. “I’m Gavriel, by the way.”

The male offers his help with the remodeling, something Uleön had been dying to hear. She lifts her head with bright eyes, ready to accept the proposal, but another suggestion is made before she can take the previous one. The old woman bites her lip, suddenly feeling a bit ashamed for having put herself in such unnecessary trouble about something as simple as a den. She had chosen this one for it's proximity to Heda's own den, but by that point she had realized that no matter how close she was, Thuringwethil wouldn't stick around to one particular place.

"That sounds like a good idea, actually..." she speaks, "Thanks Gavriel," she adds. The hips crack again as she makes an effort to stand up, but she manages to make it. "I'm Uleön," she offers with a smile and takes one step closer to the male suggesting she's ready to follow.

The elder’s eyes widen with appreciation and Gavriel finds a smile appearing on his muzzle, dipping his head a little. Part of being Drageda meant taking care of one another, even the new ones—something that has taken some getting used to—and given the opportunity to get to know the other adds an extra benefit. While post of Seageda’s older wolves had been born and raised within their confines and wolves not often at their borders to join as they had their own civilization within their walls.

“Come, I’m sure we can find something near the rendezvous site,” he offers and steps forward to give her support should she need it. He hasn’t spent much time within the area that has their sleeping quarters near one another, keeping close to Gyda and the whelping den when he isn’t patrolling or otherwise working. Once she’s up and ready to go, he begins the trek at a steady trot. The community of caves and dens isn’t too far from where she’d selected her own little space and to his surprise he finds it empty of another. 

He clears his throat a little and glances around, and with a tilt of his head he turns to Uleon to ask: “do you prefer something small? Or open, like a cave?”

Taking his offer of support, Uleön gets to her feet to follow Gavriel. The Rendezvous Site should have been the first place that Uleön went to look for a den, but the idea of keeping close to Heda Thur had stuck in her mind like a gum on her shoe.

The place looks wonderful, and it already feels more like home than that old badger hole she'd picked before. Now she'd seen the real problem with her choice, she didn't have to be close to Heda to gain the pack's trust, perhaps being close to the most pack-mates she could would help her more.

"That badger den was way too small... It would be nice to have some space again," she answers with a smile across her face and kind eyes gleaming gratefully.

Gavriel hadn’t spent much time at the rendezvous site since before he left to take Seregrýn back to Trigeda. Upon his return, he’d been near the whelping den ever since. He imagines soon the puppies will be old enough to relocate and he supposes it wouldn’t be a bad idea to scout for a new place when the time comes. He puts the idea aside, at least for now, since the purpose is to help his newest pack mate find a comfortable place to sleep.

When she decides what she wants, he nods his head and nudges her along. The expanse of the site is big enough that no one is on top of each other and the caves are spread out, making it so they are all within calling distance if the need arises but enough so they could have their private space. He avoids the caves that have a smell lingering to them, following along so that she may pick the one she likes best.

Once they find a suitable one, he helps her gets settled in before he goes about the rest of his day.