Hideaway Strath Shriek.

She didn't want to subject her brother or the kids to her ire, so Towhee rose early and threw herself into a full patrol of the hideaway's perimeter. It took hours and by the end, her bladder was spent and her body was pleasantly achy. But her temper hadn't improved much. She muttered under her breath as she stood by the tree line near the northern fringe, glaring at the rocky passage that would lead to their sister packs.

Just a few days ago, she had been hopeful about keeping the alliance strong. Towhee still wanted it, though she was definitely bitter about the changes Raven and Quixote had made. She didn't know Liffey or Rannoch, yet right now, she resented them hugely for apparently swooping in and wiping out the Redhawks legacy as if it all meant nothing. Towhee didn't really know the facts, yet that didn't stop the feelings. She had plenty of those right now.

Still grumbling, Towhee decided against returning to the rendezvous site. She could use a distraction, some other productive use of her time. Abruptly, she made a decision and threw back her head, howling for someone she didn't know but wanted to meet: @Ruenna.

If Towhee's mood wouldn't be perceptible to Rue, I'll strike out the last three sentences- just lmk! <3

 
Towhee was also someone Ruenna was eager to meet.

Rue answered swiftly, unwilling to keep waiting the woman Dingo referred to as the boss. It did not escape Rue that Towhee's call came from the Strath's northern edge-- the only boundary with access to the outside lands, as far as Rue had been able to find. A call from that specific part of the territory piqued Rue's curiosity and concern; it was possible that there was some sort of problem requiring the attention of multiple wolves. 

"Towhee," Ruenna greeted the woman, bobbing her head downward in a gesture of respect. "I'm Ruenna Redfern." Rue was a sensitive wolf, and she immediately picked up on an air of irritation around Towhee. Rue's tail twitched apprehensively. Stars, had she already managed to get on her leader's bad side?

That's 100% fine! :)

A rather plain she-wolf appeared promptly, which definitely made a good impression on Towhee. Her eyes fell to the woman's lips as she offered an introduction, right after saying the mercenary's own name. This one was on the ball, which was a good thing, seeing as how little patience the mercenary had right now.

"Thanks for coming so quickly. It's nothing urgent, I just figured it was time we were properly introduced." Towhee shifted her weight, pondering what to say next. "Tell me your story, Rue. Can I call you that?"

Ruenna slowly let out the breath she had been holding, relieved that whatever vexed Towhee seemed unrelated to Rue's summons. The champagne lady nodded, and her nervous tail-twitch relaxed into an amiable wag. 

"Certainly. Rue works," she agreed, surprised but by no means offended. Rue was what she called herself in her own mind, although she never introduced herself as such. Until now only her close friends-- namely Liri and Soltero-- used the nickname, but Rue had no problem adding Towhee to that list. 

"I came to these lands after dispersing from my natal pack, Red Fern Grove." Rue's dispersal had been far less voluntary than what she was implying, but she wasn't yet ready to share the sordid details surrounding her departure from Red Fern Grove. 

"I spent the last year following Liri Blackfoot and her mate. We lived in different locations and packs around the Sunspire mountain range." Again, a lot of details were being glossed over here, but Rue was not a woman of many words. She inhaled, steadying herself for the next part of the story.

"There.. there was an accident with Liri at the beginning of the summer. She fell and sustained a concussion." Rue swallowed, expression darkening. "She is able to care for herself, but she is no longer the leader nor the friend I know. It's as if our year together was erased completely from her mind." Rue's brow knit as she spoke, her pain tightening her features further. 

Another breath in. Rue shook her head almost imperceptibly, as if to fling the sadness from her countenance. "I came south to restart, I suppose. These wild lands remind me of the place I grew up, and.. and I hope this can be home for me." 

Rue nodded again as she finished, pausing in case Towhee had any questions about Rue's very brief synopsis. If not, Rue was curious to hear more about Towhee's background if she was willing to share.

Rue didn't seem to mind the nickname, nor Towhee's request. She began to tell her tale and the mercenary paid close attention. The chronicler in her appreciate the woman's storytelling abilities. Although she knew none of the characters in this tale, Towhee commiserated with the twists and turns in Rue's recital.

This Liri's amnesia stirred some memories of her own, though Towhee ignored them. "Sorry about your friend," she said, well aware that it was a platitude, though she'd seen the way Rue's features had contorted and really did sympathize. "I've never heard of Red Fern Grove but the Sunspires, those're the mountains east of the caldera," Towhee said to herself as much as Rue, "I think. So you're not new to the area." It didn't matter that much, though it was an interesting detail.

"I have a random question for you," the mercenary said next. "In order to get to the grove, you had to walk past two nearby packs, the Firebirds and the—Frosthawks." Her expression soured before she neutralized it again. "What made you pass them up and decide to join us?"

Rue's expression softened as she accepted Towhee's condolences. Rue knew that Towhee too felt the sting of a recent loss, if she had been close to Fig and Fennec's mother. 

"That's right," Rue confirmed. She wasn't new to the Teekons as a whole, just these southern territories. "I've lived at Blacktail Deer Plateau, Swiftcurrent Creek, and Arrow Lake." 

Rue tilted her head in curiosity, eager to hear Towhee's random question. "Hmm," she murmured after the question was posed, mind whirring.

"I did pass several packs before I reached your border," she recalled. "They all seemed to be large, well-established, thriving packs." Rue's tongue flicked across her muzzle in thought. 

"But that wasn't..." Rue trailed off. With a shake of her head, she continued. "I don't want to join a pack, I want to help build one." When children are building a tower, the pieces added last are easiest removed. Rue wasn't going to be some throwaway piece-- she was going to be the foundation. 

The perceptive woman noted the shift in Towhee's demeanor when she mentioned the other packs. Rue had picked up on a similar air of irritation earlier as well-- was this the source of the Towhee's trouble, then?  "What we build here will be different from the Firebirds and the Frosthawks. It will be better," Rue assured her leader.

None of the packs' names triggered any sort of familiarity in Towhee, though perhaps later, she would remember that her parents had once lived at a place called Blacktail Deer Plateau, along with Finley. She hadn't actively chronicled in a while though, so for now, the connection escaped her.

The reason Rue gave for her choice seemed a surprisingly solid one. Towhee couldn't fault her for it and it made sense. There was definitely something amazing about being part of a pack's very foundation. They would be its core members, there from the first, a claim to fame as the pack established itself.

She blinked at her comrade's next words. Towhee felt two contrasting emotions at once: on one hand, she agreed fiercely but, on the other, she felt slighted on her legacy's behalf. That reminded her that Redhawks no longer existed. The pack she had left had somehow winked out of existence in the past week, taking on characteristics that redefined it so thoroughly that it was almost unrecognizable.

Towhee swallowed against the bitter lump in her throat and forced out, "You should know that those two are our sister packs. You're right, we're going to be different and I'd be a liar if I said I didn't want to be the best of the three. But in theory, we're one big family." She omitted the word "happy," because it simply wasn't the case right now, and wondered what Rue would make of this information.

Hmm. It seemed Rue's sentiment had been somewhat misplaced-- perhaps she had read Towhee's body language incorrectly? And yet, even now Rue could still detect traces of some shadowy emotion moving beneath the woman's countenance. 

"Two sister packs.. that's a strong start already for Asterism Grove." Rue was impressed. Most leaders didn't look to build alliances until after their packs were up and running, which was a mistake in Rue's eyes. Some leaders-- Stigmata in particular-- didn't wish to build alliances at all, which was even more foolish. 

"What are our connections to these sister packs?" The very of phrasing sister pack indicated that there was some sort of deeper relation that went beyond a mere alliance.

"We're spin-offs," Towhee explained, trying to keep her feelings out of it and just explain the relations objectively. "The Redhawks began at Redhawk Caldera, on the east side of those mountains." She gestured at the Barriers. "We relocated to Heron Lake Plateau a while back, after warring with our neighbors. Earlier this year, my older sister, Wildfire, branched out to start the Firebirds. And as you know, Phox and I splintered to establish the grove more recently. Our other older sister, Raven, leads what I would've called the original pack, although they're not the Redhawks anymore; they're the Frosthawks now." None of them was OG, truly, and Towhee chewed on that a moment.

But after a brief, considering pause, she said, "We're all on good terms, in theory. The reality is there's always some tension around these things but I'll spare you the gory details. At the end of the day, we're sister packs forming one big Redhawk collective. But we're also our own entities," which made her want to point out some of the things that made Asterism Grove unique. "I don't know if Phox went over the theme with you. Did he explain the ranks and all that?"

Rue nodded, catching on quickly. This was very similar to the type of collective in which she had grown up. Red Fern Grove had been part of a large system of allied packs, and there were so many familial ties between packs that nobody really knew all of the connections anymore.

Phox had been careful to make sure Rue knew that she was joining a family-centered pack, but until this conversation Rue hadn't known just how much family there was in this area. Would Rue be able to find her place among all these brothers and sisters? Would there be room for her to have her own family someday? 

"Sounds like every family I've known," Rue agreed when Towhee mentioned the inevitable tension between packs. Even the happiest-looking families weren't perfect. Especially in these circumstances, some sibling rivalry seemed natural.

"I assisted my previous leaders with our alliances-- like an ambassador of sorts. I'm happy to lend a hand if you ever need a neutral party." Rue would certainly defer to Towhee's and Phox's expertise where the sister packs were concerned, but perhaps she could take point on pack relations if anyone new moved to the area. 

"Theme?" Rue questioned, tilting her head quizzically. "No, we didn't discuss anything like that." Phox had said only that their pack would take part in "the usual stuff." There was also the casual mention of Phox's love for the night sky, which Rue took to mean that she should anticipate a few all-pack stargazing sessions.

Rue's mention of ambassadors made Towhee think of Tegan, which made her stomach feel like it was full of fire. She quashed the sentiment as best she could, then focused on the fact that her brother somehow hadn't shared his neat astrological theme with his recruits, at least not this one.

"Yeah, an asterism is sort of like a constellation; it's a group of stars. And he plans to name the ranks after... space stuff." Okay, that came out sounding lamer than intended. "Phox could explain it better than I could. You should find him and ask him sometime." That topic was dead in the water.

"I won't keep you," she said after a beat. "I need to get off my feet, probably catch a nap. I'm sure I'll see you around, Rue."

Feel free to fade. Thanks for the thread!

Of course! Anytime! <3

 

Rue's previous experience and offer of assistance went unremarked upon, which was slightly unsettling to Rue. Perhaps ambassador was not an acceptable trade in this pack. Rue was happy to assist where she was needed; she didn't want to squander her energy scouting if that would not be useful to the Grove. She made a mental note to speak with leadership further about her career ambitions once the pack was a little more settled.

"Space.. that's kinda neat." It didn't really make much difference to Rue. She just hoped she could remember and pronounce the names Phox came up with. Those foreign titles in Diaspora had given her fits.

Towhee was quickly disengaging, passing her off to Phox to finish a conversation that she herself had brought up only moments ago. This was further evidence to Rue that she had misstepped somewhere with Towhee; she just couldn't for the life of her see where. "Okay, I'll ask him," Rue agreed simply.

"It was nice getting to talk. I'd love to meet the pups too, when you get the chance." Rue had stayed purposefully away from the children, knowing better than to approach them without permission from their mother. However, each day they grew a little bolder in their explorations, and soon they would be difficult to avoid.

"Swing by the rendezvous site anytime," were Towhee's parting words, shooting Rue a quick smile before departing in that very direction, oblivious to the impressions she'd left on the other she-wolf. As she plodded back to where Phox, Fig, Fen and herself kept house, she was grateful to note that her foul mood had lifted, although maybe she was simply too tired to care anymore. She'd take it, either way.