Honeyed Pasture the stars at night are indifferent to our plight

All welcome. Tags for visibility but they are welcome to pop in (or cameo). If there is any problem with the PP I've written, please send me a message and I will fix it!). Those in the scouting party, feel free to start separate threads around this. :) Set for 9/27, mid-afternoon, chilly weather.

The scout trip is different than the one prior. They are not searching, necessarily, for for missing mate. Most of these lands have been accounted for anyway but Eske and @Étoille and the others. Their mission is to arrive at the Caldera in a few days with a few breaks but that does not mean their senses are direct. Still, they look for signs and clues of Wildfire but they do not waste time where time has already been given.

Their party is bigger than she initially planned with the addition of @Artaax and @Blixen tagging along. She is ever grateful to have brought @Eljay and @Portia to keep an eye on them even if they are nearly grown. Their adolescence shows but their strength and stamina is born and bred from Drageda. Still, it puts Wildfire's cousin to use when he'd originally caused doubt in her mind and she hopes her trust in the man-child isn't misplaced with her children.

As the second day starts to come to an end, the sun still in the sky but the day cooling, they set up camp for the night in deepwood weald. The cover keeps them protected for a short stay and she divvies up tasks before nightfall. She sends @Dio and Artaax off to hunt—she has to take a moment to acknowledge how similar they look now—and @Hux stays back with Eljay and Blixen in the campsite, scouting around for any in the area to be a threat and she, feeling restless and anxious, sets out of the territory into a pasture she's never seen.

These lands are all unfamiliar to her, further south than she's ever been. She found the bay earlier in the day, and the scorched forest. She smelled nothing of Arturo and his broad but the scent in Ravensblood caused her to skirt around and avoid it. The pasture she slips into has tall grasses and a gentle breeze, the air cool around her. What may once be relaxing is filling her with anguish and exhaustion instead, and so soon into her travel. The woman huffs a sigh and lowers her nose to the ground for scents and rummages through aimlessly if only to keep her occupied.

I hope it is okay for me to throw winny in here!

Awinita had been travelling from her home pack for a long while before finding herself in Teekon. The smaller bodied female was exhausted and her emotions were scattered. She hadn't been here more than a day but had already scented many different wolves, and found the borders of two nearby packs. She had heard of a place where many wolves claimed the land stretching a great distance, but she hadn't believed it herself. She came from a small area of forest with seemingly no escape. It was beautiful and even had a lake with a waterfall, but there was a weird sort of barrier surrounding the edges preventing the pack from moving. One day a storm came and knocked down a large tree, allowing them to escape their stretch of homeland and explore for once. Most of her family was wary of travelling though and soon returned to their land, all except for Awinita.


She had chosen the pasture to rest in, her small lithe frame pressed down into the tall grasses. The grass was tall enough in her section that only the tips of her ears and shoulders showed from a distance. The grass tickled against her nose and she lifted her head, nose twitching before she suddenly let out a loud sneeze. The sound would certainly alert anyone who was nearby, but Awinita was unaware that a she wolf was walking through the grass about fifteen to twenty five feet ahead of her. Instead of focusing on her surroundings her eyes were following the slow path of an ant, as it made it's way toward a teeny hole in the ground.

There are more with them than Étoille had anticipated, and still none that he knew besides Heda. He was glad to have an assigned purpose for the trip - in truth he was feeling terribly awkward about the whole ordeal. On the plus side the large group allowed for an easy division of labor. On the down side the titan had not been given a specific task today. He supposes he could remain with the camp, but it makes him restless. 

He is not trying to trail Heda specifically, but his course takes a similar chart. He lingers by the bay, thinking of Mirabelle, before pressing further south. He catches Heda's scent and thinks of leaving her to her solitude - but suddenly there is a sneeze. "Á tes," the giant says automatically, then stops. There is another here. Awkwardly he looks between the Commander's form at rest and the new figure - a woman, he notes, small and white (another spectre of his, perhaps). "Er," Étoille says after a long moment, unsure how to rectify the situation, "Heda. And... you. Hello."

just a quick cameo! feel free to pp/reference Eljay if the kids are going to have any cameo's too! :)

Eljay stayed with the pups that night while nerves swirled around in his gut. He wasn't too happy still to have come along but at least he had the children to distract himself with. He'd try to think of fun games to play and made sure to keep his eye on them at all times so they wouldn't go anywhere dangerous. It kept his mind off the journey they would undertake as well gave him some company and feeling of purpose.

cameo for hux too, reference him if needed

Hux lingers at the campsite with Eljay and the young ones, while Thuringwethil wanders off to scout the area. The large, pallid wolf sits on his haunches, his eyes and ears alert. Part of him had wanted to trail Heda, but he's of more use here at camp, should anything happen with the two youths. They are beyond need of babysitters, and it isn't as though they aren't trustworthy... Hux is simply on high alert of outside forces with all the negativity that has befallen his pack lately. Anything can happen; Hux's rather selfish desire to wander and explore have no place here.

She sees the figure ahead of her only by the tips of her ears and shoulders. Her hackles ruffle along her spine, making her already large form even bigger. She lifts her head—in both with an air of superiority as well as an attempt to see whom is up ahead—but she cannot garner a better looked from the distance. The wind shifts a little, her ear twitching as Étoille comes to one side just in time to hear the sneeze from up ahead, causing her to flinch in surprise. Lips twitch to show teeth that goes unseen in the moment but she does not stifle a step or two closer to disengage the threat.
 
While she does not have a claim to back up her stance, in the presence—and easy approach of the rest of her crew—of her own wolves, she still holds herself as if these lands belong to her. “Show yourself,” she demands in a low, gravel tone. The brute to her side is noted from the corner of her eye but she does not break away to greet him, though her appreciation will be addressed later.

edit bc i suck at reading... cameo

portia, who is normally very upbeat and chatty, is silent more of the trip, holding tightly to her bundle of herbs. @Hux had offered to carry the other one, which portia greatly appreciated (since it meant she didn't have to personally bug anyone herself), and since dio was focused on more formal matters, she chose to hang back around hux. and she has no problem with him, of course, but she's suddenly lost for any kind of word. 

all she could think about were her children. sirio and dalia hung back, and while she was sure that they were being taken care of... she still worried. what if something happened while she was away? what if someone stole them? wildfire had gone missing... and it would so much easier to still naive sirio, or tiny little dalia. 

oh how she worried.

so she remained quiet for most of the trip. and later, she hung back at the campsite to watch over the younger parties. they made her even more anxious for her children back home. but she was doing her job, serving her pack and her commander-- and all would be just as it was when she left the territory when she returned. 

Awinita wasn't expecting to be met by someone showing such hostile behavior, she was simply lounging in the grass. There was a male who had greeted her that she eyed from below the tall grass hesitantly, seeing that he at least was not looking at her like she was going to harm them. She was confused and the way the large black female stared at her was alarming so she did as she was told. She lifted herself from the gras enough to be seen fully, and slunk closer to the female submissively on her belly her tail twitching partially tucked. Her ears flattened and once she stood in front of the she wolf she crouched lower, pressing her belly to the ground and angling her head so she was looking upward at the she wolf.

She would not speak quite yet, she did not deem the situation in current need of words. Her behavior spoke for her: Please don't hurt me, I am not a threat, I mean no harm, I am nothing. She gave a plaintive whimper hoping that the she wolf would not attack her for the proximity, and that she would see Awinita submitting herself freely to the two wolves.

He is not completely surprised by the aggression with which Heda reacts. It does not bother him though it feels slightly unwarranted - though perhaps Heda had not seen the small woman. Or perhaps Étoille is just biased towards not taking seriously those he perceives as 'small'. 

 In this one case, his bias is correct. He glances at the commander in the face of the woman's submission. Part of him wishes to reassure the stranger, if only because he feels somewhat awkward still, but he holds his tongue for Heda's response instead.

The wolf doesn’t come forward as expected and instead submits to the pasture floor. Her grey eyes focus narrowly on the woman, and feeling the tension for Étoille keep her standing silently in place. It is not common for her to run on frustration but with one thing after the next, she can’t help but feel on edge for the sudden outburst. When it is obvious the other is not a threat, she eases back and pauses a few seconds to reconsider. There is nothing of use to her here and she glances at her newest pack member with a brief snort. Instead of engaging further, she turns to leave the wolf on the ground and head back fo camp.

last post for me!

Awinita released her held breath as the large female turned away from her, but she didn't move until the group began to head away. She gave a small twitch of her tail and a faint smile toward the nicer seeming male before turning and bounding away through the tall grass, not wanting to be around these parts anymore. There could be have been a lot more cruel wolves she could have ran into, but even so Awinita was a bit spooked. She didn't look back a single time until she was far from the field.

 He returns the small woman's faint smile with a nod, not moving to follow Heda until she has completely disappeared from his sight. Satisfied the situation resolved so calmly, the titan turns and follows after his Commander without a word.