Dragoncrest Cliffs your mouth is a church and i forgot how to pray

While it has been tense since Wildfire's heat, and denying her the chance to have children now, Thuringwethil has given her mate a little space. She'd been nearby during the week, preventing what may, but as it has died down, she'd seen less and less of her. After more than a full day, Heda grew concerned that not all is as well as she'd liked. Maybe with the hormones out of her system, the bandrona will have a clearer her to understand the decision she had to make, she knows it'll be a sore spot for a while. 

She'd woken without Wildfire near and as the day progresses, she realizes something is amiss. Not wanting yet to alarm anyone, though uncertain as she is if anyone knows, she begins the search as best she can. With Wildfire no longer in heat, it isn't as easy to trace, but her scent lingers—even dilute—but the worry still hovers the back of her mind. 

She searched where she knew and where she might be but now she works her way through the redwoods that barricades their home from the outside. Thuringwethil heaves a sigh and frowns as she finishes the western side of her home before she lifts her nose and howls—for Wildfire, for anyone.

Once Wildfire's heat had subsided, his focus had shifted considerably. Frustratingly enough from his personal perspective, no productive efforts had come of it, but dutiful as ever to the protection of Drageda, he'd been among the first to enforce this ruling -- second perhaps only to the commander. Although it was abundantly clear that Wildfire had not been keen to any advances anyway, as she wouldn't be having highly-desired her whelps already, it had still felt necessary to keep an eye out, especially when he could do nothing else except dwell on the scent anyway.

And in the next breath, she'd vanished without a word it seemed. The Heda's eerie howl confirmed his creeping concerns just like that, and he swallowed thickly. Just when his head cleared out the odor of the fresh estrus, she'd neatly given him (and others) something else to worry about.

He tried not to look to into it too extensively, yet. She was Bandrona, a master of ranging the wilds, so she could navigate them as expertly as any.. although he knew the blow Heda had dealt in denying her had cut deeply despite the reasons behind it. Dio had, in the end, tried to limit his involvement in the ugly, bitter details, and now found himself pulled towards the commander's call. Perhaps to touch base, or even gauge what her next move would be should there be no answer to her howl as he feared.

The wocha's expression was hard, almost sour, for he could bring her no news but felt compelled to see her anyway. His ears fanned when he caught sight of her unmistakable form, and other than his soft footfalls, all was unfortunately quiet.

The silence the settles around her once the call has died off does not bring her any comfort. The lack of voice does nothing else for her and a puff of smoke billows from her face as she sighs. She has to remind herself she made the right decision when it came to their survival. They may not be at war with other wolves but the season is against them and their home in turmoil. Having lost their home so suddenly has not gone as smoothly as she liked. If she’d trusted her gut early on, she could have them all together once again and not let in wait. Now, her own mate is just another one missing from the group.

The sound of crunching pulls her attention and she swings her head to see Dio. His harden expression gives her enough information and she looks away, focused on the expanse that leads past their borders. Another sigh slips past her lips and she turns her whole form to meet his.

“It was not the wrong choice,” she tells him with a frown. They hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk, even before they found refuge on the cliffs. The timing for everything pushed everything back and she struggles to find footing on anything solid. The first big decision she had to make hasn’t been received that well and a knot ties itself in her stomach. Her eyes find him again for any hopeful reassurance but she’d never been able to read him since that day on the beach.

Before her, he is leagues more mindful of himself than with any other. He squared his paws and watched her carefully, all while some of his usual pride was exchanged for respectful deference. It may still be wise of him to be extra attentive, he suspected, but small steps forward will help him feel it out better.

When she spoke, his ears turned forward and he blinked. He took a few seconds to truly formulate what he intended to say about this -- any and all of it. None of it was wrong. Between founding their new claim on the cliffs to delaying the hedonakru litter, and all else throughout. "I know," he did agree first of all, as much as he didn't like the sound of it. "Not wrong. Not easy, either." he added quietly. To not only make the choice (among many others lately), but to deliver the crushing standards, and then see the outcome. He wasn't envious, instead only quietly as understanding as he could hope to be. She had his support regardless.

He licked his lips, squinting thoughtfully into the cold breeze. Wildfire's heart may have been broken, but he didn't want to see her and her (his, theirs,) cubs suffer when the pack could not support them as strongly as they deserved. Maybe weeks or months down the line, Wildfire may understand the decision beyond the sentiment. Although he still understood why she was wounded. "How much of her absence has to do with that, you think?" he asked delicately as he could, assuming her to have had better contact than him.. but he could only imagine. It had been a hectic week. Maybe it was more than just her angst manifesting in needing to be away from everything here. He couldn't say.

Thuringwethil no longer sees the straggler she found in the woods nearly a year ago as he now stands as her proud Wocha. His strength had been proven time and time again and she knows her trust in him is just as solid as if he’d been born among their clan in Seageda. To hear him understand her reasoning is enough to let her guard down a fraction and return her focus away from her fault. If she knew how they'd be in two moons, then a more accurate decision could have been made but there is little to be done. She, nor the commanders that speak to her, have been certain of their future and, in fact, they've been relatively quiet since their arrival.

“I don’t know,” she muses after a long moment. She looks away to the open terrain past the border of the redwoods. Nothing gives her any answers and so she turns back toward her companion and moves if only to keep her legs and blood circulating to generate some kind of heat. “She’s unpredictable sometimes but I didn’t really expect this,” she explains. She’d stand there and wait at the borders if she had to but she knows she can’t leave her wolves any time soon with such a shaky claim. If they had still been on Sleeping Dragon, things might have been a little different but she clings to their new home more than anything.

With the push and pull of instinct versus reason in mind, he respects her choice but knows deep, deep down he would've otherwise. Maybe it's just what they need. He can guess, or hope, or anything else. Now is not the time and that's.. that.

Dio keeps a thoughtful silence and only shook his head. He'd not thought it'd be like this. Any of it, really. The smoking Dragon had only been the catalyst. That was where he'd thought he'd see those hypothetical pups grow up, anyway. Not by the sea, but rethinking everything appeared to be a reoccurring issue for him lately; he had to stay determined. "Ah. Hopefully she turns back up soon and the timing is right when it's.. right." Dio only knew a piece of how badly Wildfire wanted it to happen. Thuringwethil's logic tempered it, considerably with him at the mercy of the in-between. He had a feeling she'd get what she wanted, eventually, but there was a lot of delicate matters at stake. "Every day here is just more in our favor, though," he sighs quietly. The claim remains strong, strengthening even. He has a good feeling about it all, besides the Bandrona's absence.

Thuringwethil nods her head when Dio speaks his optimism. She’d lost in the last few weeks and found herself a little more reserved than usual. They’d lost a few since the group shook beneath them and they’d yet to go back for them. The weather made it difficult and it will only get worse. She sighs, hopeful they are somewhere safe even if they cannot get to them. Eventually, she hopes, the loyal will remain and her heart aches for those she’s lost in the meantime.

“Sometimes I miss the mountain,” she says. It isn’t something she’d say to anyone else but the mountain had been good to them for some time. Even if everything in her being clings to the coast, there will always be a part of her that will bow to the mountain for the time it served.

All in all, it's not the worst it could be. Not the best, either, but he'd rebounded from worst and whatever it was this pack needed to help stay strong, he'd hoped to provide. Supporting heda was easy, coming second-nature almost, so perhaps before her he was at his most optimistic towards this all and most eager to make that happen.

"I do too," he admitted easily. "Maybe it was just too good to be true, there.. considering what it was," he wondered. Even though it was an active volcano, and perhaps it was lucky they'd had the chance they did. "Didn't really think I'd be back at the sea so soon, though," he chuffed. It had almost been a year. In all things in life, he'd been able to count on the coastline to be there for him when everything else went wrong -- sometimes it wasn't always the easiest, but he'd survived. First a cocky yearling, second at his worst, third as Drageda. "But at least this time it's with far more," he amended.

do you wanna wrap this crusty thing up?

Thuringwethil had not known the extent of the dragon they lived on for some time and there had been a feeling brewing within her when she’d found out. The exact reasoning behind it had not been noticed and there had been no other signs until the moon grew and shook the ground. The feeling had anchored but she had not listened soon enough and she knows she can’t forgive herself for it. How will Gyda and Gavriel react to their delay in going back? Has she mistaken how capable the children actually are? They’d accomplished as much as any other Seageda child, given their circumstances, but their failure still reflects their current heda.

“Hopefully for the last time,” she finally says once she realizes how lost in thought she’d gotten. They can still go scout for them in the days to come but if she have not resurfaced now, the chances were slim. She brushes off the thought of the mountain, for a little while at least, and looks along the borders they’ve marked. They are not as concrete as they had been on the mountain but it will come, in time.

an icky lil endcap lol

Maybe it had been for the best, yet to still have thoughts of those who were lost never let the peacefulness settle as it rightfully could. The solace in knowing they were strong was only so much. Many questions would go unanswered, loose ends left untied, and so much more but with their futures in mind, their option was to solider on for the good of those who did remain, alive and well with certainty.

Noting the thoughtfulness, and finding it vaguely contagious, he soon nodded with a look of concentration on. "Hope so too," he offered with a small nod, and let silence ease in from there on out between them -- which would soon, surely, move them forward towards whatever beckoned. Dio bumped her shoulder, and would likely round out the last bit of patrol before the cold grew too tiresome.