The Tangle You let me down, I fall so far

backdated! thorry for taking forever life eated me. also located @ the tangle which isn't listed?

Hydra gave all claimed territory wide berth. She and Dirge had parted ways, though she wondered if she was to blame for that, for moving so far ahead without him. Alya and Lyra would have caught up, but as she looked over her shoulder she recognized that she could scale no one to them; their superiority proved unmatched, and none could contest their place in her life. Before she returned to Moonspear Hydra wanted to learn a few more things; as she looked to the moonlit sky and saw its phase, she knew she had time yet.

Though she did not know it yet, she neared packlands. They were not yet in her scents reach, and so there was no questioning here that she did not know the place to exist. Still, there was a vaguely familiar scent in this place, and Hydra was given pause as she sniffed near the base of a tree. Her trained ear listened to her surroundings while her eyes observed what was in seeing distance. The scent she detected was from no enemy of hers, because those were scents she could never forget, but then and there she could not put her paw on how this scent was recognizable to her.

Another restless night has her out of Drageda. She stays away from the sound, for their visit to them will occur soon—a slight wrench had been thrown their way—but she does not worry about it until she is needed. She trains with the others, when she can, and she anticipates the day they go over. Hopefully soon so they can move forward with their next plan, whether it is to get rid of them (something she isn’t entirely fond of) or moving on with them as neighbors. Somehow, she doesn’t suspect the latter will be the most desirable option.
 
The tangle proves no more difficult than any other time but the more she frequents, it’s just a little easier. Her nose twitches as the wind moves, opening up to a thick tangle of witch-like trees. There is a little snow on the ground but for the most part, the thick branches above block any flakes falling to the ground. The scent of anther has her attention and a sliver of black is noted up ahead. Is that the jerk-ass she’d been told about?
 
Ears slick back against her head and she moves slowly, chuffing her presence so she doesn’t startle the stranger.

Hydra's ear flicked as she heard movement relatively nearby, and her head lifted to peer in the direction she heard the sound even as her other ear pivoted to the right in observation of another sound. To her left was a squirrel chasing another off the earth and up to the tree, and as her head turned to the right she observed only the silhouette of a wolf before they emerged from the treeline and took shape of something more than a shadow. Her movement was slow, and when they chuffed Hydra's ears mimicked that of the other, falling back against her crown before flitting upward to display she meant no harm. 

The other female before her is entirely unique in appearance. Their thick furs give them the appearance of some sort of noble descendence, though their bearing did not indicate that at all. It was soft and unassuming, though timid did not seem to be the right word. Silver furs exploded forth from her nape on a canvas that was otherwise uninterrupted from her current vantage point, and Hydra admired her discreetly. 

Looking for something? She asked thoughtfully; each time she had run into a stranger, this seemed to be the case when one came to converse with her. She had her fair share of wolves that had simply passed through, but when she was directly approached she felt it safe to guess that such a thing might be the case.

She garners the other wolf’s attention and watches her closely as she makes herself non-threatening. Pointed ears slowly relieve from her head and start to rise and she eases some of her posture. The woman’s scent isn’t familiar, either; at least she isn’t a wolf from the sound. 

”No,” she says. Well, not really, anyway. She’s often on the lookout in this area for signs of her littermates after spending time with them but that’s nothing the other needs to know. ”You?” she asks, curious why she’s lingering nearby to two pieces of claimed land.

The others question was to be expected, and Hydra informed the other, Just passing through. A familiar scent gave me pause. There was no reason not to tell the other that; perhaps the other would know the scent herself, after all, and could help Hydra figure it out. The wind was in the stranger's favor, enough so that Hydra had yet to know that the scent Hydra recognized was upon her.

Hydra's memory was typically sharp, though her singular encounter with Drageda's Commander was one that could likely only be awakened in her mind's eye by Thuringwethil's own distinct scent. This held only hints of it, and it was fading and mingled with others. There was enough there that caused Hydra to pause and reflect, but it would not hold her very long. She might have left, were it not for the other arriving when she did. 

She gestured toward the area she had been investigating, in case the stranger wanted to sample the scent for herself. Hydra withdrew from the area, taking several steps forward, but not nearing the sooty she-wolf. She stopped near another tree, turning to observe. The Ostrega wondered if the other would know it, and if she did whether or not she would reveal it—assuming she even went to see for herself at all.