Sleepy Fox Hollow on the prowl

Tag for reference, no obligation to join. <3

Today, Cyclone took a break from ranging and returned to the little place that she had taken a liking to. Surrounded on all sides, it felt safe, secure, and quiet here. She wondered what Vyn had been up to these past couple of weeks, although Cyclone had kept her promise to stay in touch via howling every couple of days. She hadn't heard anything back, perhaps because they were just out of range, or maybe Vyn didn't have anything to report. In any case, there wasn't much Cyclone could do if the other girl had decided against joining her after all.

She didn't want to make any hard and fast decisions without consulting her recruit(s?), but she had returned to the hollow each evening to sleep. She was pretty sure this was where she wanted to stay, but Neasa wanted buy in from the majority at the very least. Cyclone wished to be a fair ruler, at least to some degree, and that meant making sure that everybody was happy with what she was doing. Communication was key!

The Blackthorn set up another howl to @Vyn, letting her know that she'd be staying here for a few days, should she want to meet up at some point.

As for Cyclone, she went on the prowl for some small game to fill her belly.

teleporting her but I want a thread!

The sisters had gone inland more now after a stay around the beach, and while Wraen broke off to go south, Maia had an urge to take a quick visit back to the Sunspire.  She wasn't sure why - mountains weren't really her thing.  Maybe she figured she might see her brother there? Which was dumb because she knew where he was.

She wasn't nostalgic, that was lame, it's just a neat mountain.  Heck she missed her brother too.

Maybe she should go for a visit soon?  She thought about this as she walked up one of the sloping paths of the mountain, one overlooking a deep valley beneath.  She wasn't going to climb too high, since she had a long way to go back, but the view was always so pretty here.  She stopped, then sat down, gazing at the (she thought) vale.  Yeah, she was going to go visit soon.

Sooner or later she'd realize this wasn't the correct mountain, and what she was looking at wasn't actually the vale at all, but another little valley altogether.

Her nose led her up the side of one of the mountains that surrounded the depression below, and Cyclone spotted yet another something up here that was of interest: another wolf, and not one she knew to be part of her crew. Curious and wondering if the other might have been sent this way by Vyn or perhaps Ingram (assuming they exchanged names), Cyclone approached with an amicable expression. The footing here was pretty good, and the path that led up to the stranger wasn't a difficult one to follow. The prey was forgotten, at least for now, as Cyclone assessed the stranger.

Ahoy there! she called out, eventually stopping a few paces down the mountain from the other wolf. She was panting, but not so badly that she'd be unable to speak.

Oh! Uh, hi!  Maia blinked, then turned to face Cyclone with a friendly smile, startled slightly.  Just admiring the view! We used to live on this mountain.  She looked up, then frowned.  Now that she looked at it.... Or maybe not this one.  Why do so many of them look the same? Everything is just grey and rocks.  Right?

Hopefully yes, right.  Because it was reasonable that everyone would have as much trouble with getting turned around as she did, even though she knew that wasn't the case, at least with Wraen or practically anyone else she'd ever traveled with.

Oh yeah? Cyclone asked, You trying to move back? Neasa paused, then realized that didn't come out quite as she had hoped, and it could definitely be taken as an aggressive question. Not that you couldn't! Or shouldn't! Cyclone didn't want to scare off any potential recruits, and that was how she saw just about everybody she came across. Besides, this particular wolf seemed pleasant enough, and those were exactly the kind of wolves she wanted to have hanging around here (or wherever they settled).

Sorry, she said sheepishly, I'm still working on the whole balancing recruitment with trying to stake a claim. Shit's hard, yo. She'd probably already talked too much, but Cyclone's mouth tended to have a mind of its own. My name's Cyclone. Okay girl, calm down now and give the other girl a chance to talk.

Oh, wow.  Maia blinked, then relaxed as she amended it.  For a second she'd thought maybe she was somewhere she shouldn't be, and was going to have to apologize, but fortunately seemed not!

Nope! This place was great but it's nice to be able to walk places and not feel like I'm dying all the time, she laughed, remembering what it was like scaling the Sunspire paths every day.  She would likely have gotten used to it, but man it was tiring.

I'm Maia.  Are you claiming here? She looked around curiously.  I don't think this is actually the same mountain, but that's cool!

Cyclone was glad the other wolf seemed to relax a bit. At least she hadn't made a complete fool of herself. And even if she had... whatever! It was just one wolf. There were tons of them around here, and Cyclone wasn't even sure if this wolf would fit in with the rest of the group. Even better was the fact that this wolf, Maia as she would soon introduce herself, wasn't planning on coming back here to stay. Well, maybe it was better. If she had been, Cyclone might've used that to her recruiting advantage.

Maybe here, she replied, still not one hundred percent sold on the idea of the hollow (even though she'd taken a strong interest in it). Haven't exactly decided on where I want to plant my feet, she admitted with a sweat-smile emoji expression.

I feel that.  My sister and I have been running around these past few months just exploring.  It's been fun! But I think she's getting tired of it. I mean, Maia was too.  But she didn't really want to admit that to her new friend here.  Winter, am I right?  It hadn't been that bad of one, but cold and snow made everything harder small game wise.  Except tracks, those were real nice.

What even goes into making a pack? Just pick a place, or is it hard? She couldn't imagine it would be that hard, but she'd only ever really joined existing ones, never much considered making her own.  Dad hadn't made it sound too hard when he talked about their home, but he had mom and the rest to help.

Cyclone smiled gently. She knew that feeling of running from place to place and how fun it could be. Hell, it was possible this would be another one of those instances... but then again, she had a goal in mind. She thought that might help her stick to a place (or at least a group) a little longer than she had in the past. Or maybe not. Who knew! Cyclone was down for the challenge, even if it meant she didn't stay.

I'm still figuring it all out, she said sheepishly. The hardest part is convincing folks that they should join you. Even harder when everybody's trying to build their numbers up, I guess. Competition and all. Finding the right spot is proving pretty challenging, too. I don't want to be too close to anybody else. Not trying to start any drama with the neighbors. It was likely that she would start that drama without even trying.

Oh wow, I bet.  How do you convince them?  She couldn't imagine.  One of a good many reasons Maia would likely never start a pack - she'd need to find reasons another wolf should follow her.  She knew she definitely had a lot of awesome qualities, she just always failed when it came to listing those off.  This seemed like joining a pack but worse.

Convince maybe isn't the right word... Cyclone said, trailing off to find a better-suited one. More like... I gotta find like-minded wolves that who get along with each other who are also at a point where they want to join up with a pack, and they've got to be willing to start out a bit shaky. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. But the few she'd found were absolute gems, and she planned on keeping that trend going. She knew Libertine Coterie wouldn't be for everyone, and she was perfectly happy with that reality.

All this was said wondering if Maia would fit into that category, of course. Cyclone was far from desperate, but she was always on the lookout to see if anybody she encountered met the baseline requirements.

Ah, ok.  That sounded really hard actually.  That's a lot.  She knew for sure that was way more effort than she ever wanted to put out.  Have you found many?  It didn't even occur to Maia, at that moment, that she and Wraen might be two such wolves.  She was a little dense when it came to these things sometimes, and she hadn't quite hit the tired point that Wraen would reveal she was at next time they met up.

Only a few, Cyclone said. She had no doubt that she would find enough, but she knew it would take time. Until then, she'd just have to keep looking and hopefully she would keep getting lucky like she had with Imrathil, Vyn, and Dashiell. Not all of it was luck, she hoped, but Cyclone was willing to bet that at least some of it was. It was a big world out there with lots of wolves, and happening upon the right ones only happened on occasion.

I was going to rustle up some grub; you interested? she asked. Even if Maia didn't plan on joining the cause, Cyclone wouldn't mind having another set of paws and teeth to help her out.

Hmm.  Sure!  Grub sounded great, Maia as usual was famished.  She found herself liking Cyclone quite a bit too; the girl's easy nature appealed to her own, and she liked that she was able to hang out a bit longer.

If the subject eventually came around, Maia would agree to talk to Wraen about joining her and helping to up her numbers.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?) her sister would have found a spot as well, making Maia forget all about it.

Wrapping up here. We should have another! ^__^

Maia seemed into the idea, and Cyclone's stomach was already rumbling at the thought of food in her belly. She led the way, eventually finding her way to one of her favorite spots. They managed to catch their meal, and Cyclone scarfed her portion down quicker than she had intended to before parting ways with Maia.