Bramblepoint you are not the butterfly i expected

@Cyclone is welcome to drop in whenever. This is AW!

Fern didn't want to spend her every moment chasing after her little sister, cock-blocking vagrants, or scouting out wherever the heck Finley was living, but she did all of these things. She did them because Neasa was too young to know the harm in it herself; she did it all so that the Blackthorn name could retain some quality of goodness. 

When she woke that morning on the fringe of the forest where they'd made their camp, Fern took one glance at her sleeping sister and decided to take a break from all of that. She slunk away from her as quietly as possible, found a tree behind which to do her business, and began exploring. If nothing else, she'd try to find something to fill their bellies.

Besides, Fern liked hunting — it was physically demanding, tactical, and thrilling. The perfect wholesome thing to occupy her mind and her body. Returning to Neasa with a fresh kill was bound to put her in to a better mood, which would help in the long run.

So it was morning.  Time for him to go wandering! That was the plan, at least.  His whole idea now in reflection seemed pretty stupid, but he did think the pack needed more people (female, preferably) so to a certain point he was fortunate when the first scent that crossed his path before he'd wandered too far from home was female.  Not exactly the ideal landscape to go tromping around after people, as he'd been hoping to make it all the way to the lake before finding someone, but he'd take what was served to him by fate.

The scent seemed to be mingled with one other, was it?  That or he was losing it and the one wolf somehow had a scent-related identity crisis.  Probably not a pack either way, so he should investigate, despite the thorns hidden behind small snowdrifts and the like.  His paws would hate him later.

Hot on her trail, it didn't take long before he rounded a bend and spotted the woman up ahead.  He didn't know anything about familial stripes or anything like that, so Quixote had no clue that the grey wolf's pattern might have been a giant flag saying that she was family to his friend and the beta -- and of course, then also the pack's pups, but that was obvious.  Instead, he canted his head and let out an inquisitive whuff to hopefully get her attention.

Tagging just for the reference ~

There wasn't much around here, which was somewhat vexing. The most she could get out of this was a good run but Fern wasn't accustomed to failure; she would find something to bring to Neasa, even if it was itty-bitty. Just as she came upon a game trail leading through a thick patch of brambles, she heard something from behind her and redirected her path so that she came around a small copse and, as a result, was facing the oncoming stranger.

Her ears shot forwards atop her head, and she look him over - sizing him up and determining his threat level in one fell swoop, much like a police officer might stare-down a potential criminal. She took a breath - ready to ream him out for ruining a perfectly good (well, lame,) hunt - when she caught a scent upon his pelt that instantaneously reversed her mood.

Who are you? She more or less commanded, drifting close to his position as if personal space wasn't a thing. Do you live nearby? Fern asked next without giving him any chance to respond to her first statement, eager for answers. Of course she could've been more charming about it; maybe introducing herself first or mentioning Finley would get his attention just as well? But that wasn't the scent she recognized. She could've sworn this guy had been hanging around @Colt at some point, which was a person she hadn't expected to run in to all the way out here.

Her attitude was throwing him a bit for a loop.  First she seemed critical, rather like Towhee staring people down at the borders or something, then suddenly she was much more interested.  Who the hell was this chick?!  Either way, she was getting a bit too close for comfort and he backed up a few paces.  And then a couple of more as she made her demands.  His voice was tinged with uncertainty, since he wasn't sure what that did to the script he'd thought up, I'm Quixote.  I'm fro-- His words were cut off by a yip as he backed into a thorny bush and got stabbed in the rear.  He scuttled slightly away from the bush, so that if he had to back up again, he wouldn't hit a demonic spiky plant again. He tried a second time, I'm from one of the nearby packs, Redhawk Caldera.  Was just wandering around to see who was in the area.

One would note that he wasn't trying to recruit her -- he'd pretty much left that out at this point.  He'd had an idea of what meeting people out here for recruiting would be like, but his idea had involved more bad jokes and some lady giggling and him being totally suave.  You know what?  He was supposed to be the cool one here.  Quixote pulled himself together a bit, staying steadfast if she approached further.  You know. Usual stuff.  Maybe if she came closer again he should growl a little to demand his space -- he'd have at least a few seconds to think on it, wouldn't he?  Pushy loners were a super odd concept to him.

What transpired after she had made her demands was something out of a slapstick routine; she would have laughed openly at him if this boy was a member of her family but he wasn't, so instead she just watched as he yelped, scurried, and tried not to deflate from the light puncture of his bottom. The mention of the Caldera should have clued her in - wasn't that the exact place Neasa had been looking for? - but Fern was not yet convinced that she had all the information.

You smell funny, she commented seriously, her inflection limited since it wasn't meant as a joke or an insult, but rather an observation. Like someone I know. The chance of her ne'er-do-well older brother living in any pack seemed far-fetched enough to put a pause in her thinking though. Fern decides not to ask.

You uh, okay there? She rounded behind him and tried to get a good look at his ass - purely for altruistic purposes of course - Didn't mean to spook ya.

Smelled funny?! I came out to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now.  He was about to make a snarky comment in return when she continued.  Oh.  Like someone familiar, huh?  Well, at least that was theoretically better than him smelling like a pile of rotting flesh, but that didn't eliminate someone being a serial killer or something.

He was also still a little bit cagey from the war, so wasn't going to be listing off their entire membership.  Well there's quite a few wolves in my pack, so you'll have to be a bit more specific if you wanna know if someone's there.  Technically it did narrow things down a little.  He didn't hang out with many people, so Colt was a likely suspect, along with whoever ends up joining the thread made last night.  Sure, he likely carried the scent of the rest of the members in the pack, but it was to a significantly lesser degree.

Again she came towards him, so Quixote turned in place slightly to continue to face her relatively head on, Hey! He was pretty much returning to form, his words sharper, I'm fine.  Just was expecting to be the one doing the damn interrogation.  That thought amused him, so he shifted the subject back a bit, more playfully, Though I am the odd wolf out in the pack, so it's ok if you want a closer look in case you're someone's long lost sister or aunt or something.  He swished his tail towards her, his hips following, but he didn't seem particularly serious about giving her much of a chance.  Let's be real, Quixote was not gonna win awards for being some super charming guy, he was a scruffy ball of snark who had a decent chance of cleaning up well.  He was the only one in the Caldera without family members as far as he could tell, though.  Or at least he was pretty sure that by now he'd heard enough stuff in passing to work out roughly who were related even among those he hadn't really spoken to.

She continued to chase after his tail as he evaded, listening as he spoke but otherwise not finding any reason to stop. She took his fluttering tail to mean something entirely different from what he likely meant (that he was having some fun, not that he was annoyed or exerting dominance) and only paused in her perusal when he mentioned being a long lost sister. Ah-hah! That was a clue!

Well I'm not long lost, but I do have a lot of siblings. Too many, I think. Can't really stop mom or pops from doin' the deed though, that last bit was added as a bit of an afterthought as she stared over Quixote's head, but then she fixed him with a look and raised her eyebrows suggestively. But she would take his bait - clearly he didn't like having all of this attention, which she could appreciate to some extent. You smell like my big brother Colt. Know him?

She was a stubborn thing -- rather like some of his own family, including himself -- but at least he finally said something that literally would get her off his tail.  He was pretty conflicted about this whole thing.  If she'd approached him differently to start, he likely would have been up for being a bit more silly, but she'd managed to work herself squarely into the land of 'unpredictable, uncertain if safe' in his mind.  Despite this, he did return the look in kind, with a cant of his head and a sidelong glance as he took at turn to orbit her and give her a once over as she confirmed Colt was her brother.

Yeah, now that she mentioned it he could kinda see the familial resemblance. Yeah, he's a friend of mine.  Your family is like.. I dunno, half the pack or something.  Hope you weren't trying to go somewhere nobody'd know you.  He'd ended that on a bemused note.  There's a whole herd of nieces and nephews from Finley to meet, too, if you're not trying to avoid 'em. And more on the way, he was pretty sure they announced, but he was also pretty sure that parents liked giving that news themselves, didn't they?

Well, shit. Not only did this guy know her brother Colt, but he seemed to know a whole subset of Blackthorns that Fern had never known to exist! Plus there was Finley - so that should make Neasa happy. That also meant their little adventure was over; Fern was charmed by the idea of finally being able to go about her days without her little sister to mind (not that she didn't love the little Cyclone obviously, she just wanted to do more with her life than become a giant cock-block). 

Oh! Well, uh, cool, That came out wrong. I was hunting for Finley actually. Hmm, myself and my little sister Neasa. Let me just — without much of a warning Fern shot her nose up towards the sky and mostly shouted, @Cyclone! Get your lazy ass over here! But who knows, maybe Fern had wandered too far from her sleeping sister? Or maybe Neasa had taken the chance to bolt from Fern's protective eye at the first chance. Either way the girl was shouting and then looking impatiently around for the other girl.

If having her show up here would screw up timelines too much, there's always the option of crashing Cyclone's RHC border thread thing? :P  MAKE IT A BIGGER THREAD!11one

He flinched. 'Loud.'

If she wandered off or whatever, can always track her down before heading to the Caldera? I mean, I assume you want to go there?  He wasn't going to count on them doing anything super logical, mostly because the Colt-sister had pretty well thrown him far off track.  He wouldn't be surprised if she suddenly said she was an alien and tried to crack open his skull to feast on the goo inside.

Quixote then turned and looked around as well, expecting someone else to come out of the bushes but not sure if they would.  Despite the fact he had earlier surmised that she was traveling with someone else, there was also that little voice in his head that wondered if she was nuts and maybe seeing things.  And all because their meeting here wasn't what he considered "proper" and expected.

Maybe having them invade would be best, lmao... Fade this?

When nobody came, Fern sighed laboriously and rolled her eyes in a dramatic fashion. That stupid girl! I bet she ran off in the opposite direction on purpose, first chance she got. God I don't even want to be here - uh, but her complaints were cut short as the guard dude mentioned heading to the Caldera. The girl huffed but, there was no other option - Fine, I guess. Lead the way! If you can manage to get there without impaling yourself on another bramble bush, that is. Without further ado, Fern was striding by him and making a point to step around the massive tangle of brambles between the trees, and cast him a glance as if to say, 'See? Easy.'

One of the good things about coming somewhere alone is that there wasn't anyone to be responsible for aside from those you chose to be.  No annoying siblings for him, nor anything else of that sort.  It had it's pluses and minuses, but right now this chick was a good example for going places alone, no matter what side of the card you were on. Hey, I was headed to the lake not Spike Central -- there's perfectly good places to camp out over here instead of Caltroptopia, I've got no idea why you guys set up camp here instead of going somewhere more comfortable.  Also no fun to drag geese through the region, but at least here he was retrieving someone who could carry themselves along under their own power.

And so, they headed off towards the Caldera, even though they weren't going to arrive there at the same time.  Did this even count as a successful recruitment?  Oh hell if he knew.