Cedar Sweep Skeletons in the closet.

Making sure to invite @Fennec and Sugar to join her if they wished, Towhee insisted on taking a walk. She went slowly, favoring her leg, minding the layer of frost carpeting the ground. It was a cold day, though sunny, and the fresh air did wonders despite her aches and pains. It was a little after midday by the time she reached her destination: the center of the sweep, where she could see the wall off in the distance.

Her heart went out to those still trapped, though for once Towhee turned her mind toward those who weren't. Raising her head, she howled for @Aneira, @Effie, @Keyni and @Rye. She could only hope they were still somewhere in the area, within earshot. They needed to regroup. Licking her lips, Towhee then lowered her weary body to the ground, orange eyes tracing over the cedars, whose crisp, fresh scent made her lungs tingle.

The howl seeped into the males dreams, evoking a sleepy howl of his own. Quiet, and airy, his attempts to respond would go unheard until his tired mind pulled him from his slumber. Through his sleepy confusion Rye was able to hear the last bit of Towhees call. His ears perked up, standing at complete attention, they scanned the surrounding forest. Waiting, hoping to hear another. Nothing but that wasn't going to stop him from letting a howl of his own come forth. With a deep, crisp, cold breath in, he exhaled all the air in his lungs into a song. He prayed his song reached the mountains, reached his pack. 

Rye wanted to walk towards his assumed direction of the howl but he had @Effie to think about. He didn't want to leave her. Not to mention his hip, as tender as ever. Knowing Towhee was alive, and presumed to be well, Rye could stay without too much worry. He trusted her, she was as tough as claws, whatever her situation was; Rye was confident she would be okay.

I'm posting again to introduce the random event! I already tagged the "outies," gonna tag the "innies" as well. ;) @Dorea @Elfie @Figment @Phox @Pippin @Ruenna @Sundance

As she sprawled there on a bed of pine needles, Towhee contemplated whether this place might serve as a new stomping ground, once they freed everyone from the grove. She had wandered here often enough to know it could serve. But would remaining so close to their former home—not to mention, within sight of the wall—only serve as a bitter reminder? Even as she considered this, her gaze lifted to the impasse, picturing those still hidden within even as she waited for those lurking without.

Just in case anyone had returned her howl, Towhee turned to glance at her company. Before she'd even finished curving her neck in that direction, she felt the telltale tremor beneath her paws. She froze at the eerily familiar sensation, which she hadn't felt since the day of the landslide. She stood there like a statue, her heart breaking into a sprint, her stomach churning and a scream building in her throat, as the trembling grew worse.

Her bad leg buckled nearly right away, causing Towhee to fall onto her wounded hip. She hissed at the impact, though there was no time to see if the healing gash had torn open again. "Get down!" she shouted, the quaking so bad she couldn't even turn her head. Her teeth rattled as she clung to the shaking, shivering ground. The only thing she could manage was moving her eyes, which darted hither and thither before fixing on the distant rock wall.

Evidently, there was another part of her body that could move currently: Towhee's mouth fell wide open as she watched the rocks near the top of the pass shudder, shake loose and begin to slide. Some of them tumbled forward, into the sweep, while others disappeared from view as they presumably careened backward into Hideaway Strath.

Once reunited, Fennec wasn't about to let Towhee out of.... well, earshot at least.  So when her mom wanted to go for a walk, Fennec tagged along, a tan shadow.

She added her voice to Towhee's, helping to hopefully make it louder.  She heard Rye's return, and was just going to turn to Towhee to say something when the shaking began.

I heard... But then the earth began and she snapped her mouth shut, panic once more siezing her.  Instead of running in panic this time, though, she scooted in close to Towhee and cowered, her heart thrumming with the noise and the terrifying motion.  When was this nightmare going to be done?

She heard the rock slide, but didn't see the result.  Unable to tell in the chaos where the noise was, she buried her head in her paws and waited for the worst to happen.

As of this date, Elfie can be considered as missed in action.

As the weeks wore on, the food began to become scarce in the strath and Elfie experienced for the first time in his life the painful ache in his belly and down-trodden mood that came with the hunger. He no longer patrolled against the tall wall of rocks and rubble, where Towhee had made her way over several days ago, and which no one else from the pack had attempted to conquer.

The feeling of not belonging here and being forgotten by everyone grew in his heart stronger with every passing day. So did anger, because he had not left home to suffer here like this, he had come to learn. And none of his dreams had become reality, because no one cared. That hurt even more. He sulked through the forest, sought food and felt no inclination to join the remaining Asterism Grove wolves. In his eyes, they had betrayed him, even if they had not promised him anything to start with. 

A quarter of an hour before the earthquake took place and freed the way to the outside, Elfie found himself on that end of the Hideaway strath, which faced the Boartusk Heights. A white hare appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, but, what made the young hunter follow him was not the hunger alone. It was the smell of a world beyond the strath. The animal had found another door here that no one knew of. Elfie was determined to find out, where it was. 

He found a tunnel with low ceilings and after some hesitation crawled inside. He sensed the tell-tale tremors of the ground, he quickened his pace and all of a sudden the world around him was a chaos of loud crashes and rubble, dust blinded him and the walls closed around him. With a muffled whimper he pushed forward, not knowing, where exactly it would take him, but his young mind not accepting the idea of being buried here alive. 

Then something hit him on the head, another pressed his body against the stone floor and the last thing he saw before he passed out, was the warm glow of his mother's golden-brown eyes looking down at him.

after this thread, aneira left asterism grove, as these events deeply affected her both emotionally and physically.
i loved my time with this pack a lot <3

Aneira felt restless; many sleepless nights over the course of only one month. When she actuall managed to get some sleep, nightmares took over, replaying the events. She also lost a few pounds, as food was scarce. Her mind was everywhere, and nowhere; she would sometimes pass by the wall that trapped her in. After what happened to Towhee, she had not once tried to climb it, as it was just useless. They were meant to die there; she was meant to die there.
 
Today was no different, but Towhee’s howl woke her from her thoughts as the ivory maiden answered her call. Marble body froze in place, as she felt another quake. Azure gaze widened, not once moving from the ground. The sound of falling boulders on the ground bought back the first quake she felt.
 
As the ground settled, finally, she stood a few moments, staring at nothing. Shaking her head and heavily breathing, she continued to Towhee just to see the wall.. was no longer a wall. A feeling of joy filled her heart, yet her mind still in shock of what just happened. Azure gaze turned to Towhee, questioning, “Are..” silence; she could barely make out words, “Are we free?”

She had been returning to their temporary camp, mouth full of willow bark when Towhee's howl sounded across the sweep. She paused a few moments in surprise and then quickly trotted back towards Rye. Her mind raced with what this could all mean. What if the wall was gone now? Maybe they could go home, and Rye's injury could be treated by a proper medic. Rye's howl sounded next, and she quickened her pace, dropping the bark as she finally arrived and went to over to where he was resting. How do you feel? she asked first, despite her eagerness to investigate the call. She looked from him to the direction of the call. Do you feel okay enough to find Towhee? she added. Maybe we can go home. The thought made her heart race in anticipation. But as much as she wanted to check things out, she wasn't going to leave Rye here or force him to make a journey he didn't feel he was up to. So she offered him a soft smile, her tail swaying behind her as she waited to see what he thought of all this.

I apologize for skipping @Rye (who looks to have gone inactive, oop) and shoving this forward but my continuity is breaking and I need to move this along. :P

The quaking stopped as abruptly as it had started, though Towhee's heart continued to pound as it subsided. Shakily, she tried to regain her feet, her attention immediately fixing on Fen. She darted a little drunkenly to her daughter's side, pressing her cool nose against the curve of the youth's neck. She appeared fine, though Towhee asked (perhaps a bit too loudly), "Are you all right?"

After making sure no real damage had been done to the girl, Towhee glanced sharply at the crumbled pass. It was an entirely different shape now, the sheer rock wall lowered where many rocks had tumbled in either direction. But it was no less treacherous, she could see that from a distance. The ground was littered with sharp bits of broken rock. Trying to navigate through this minefield of sharp objects would be like running a gauntlet.

She turned to Fen again. Towhee wanted to tell her daughter to stay put, though she knew that wasn't fair. "Stay close behind me," she said sharply, then began to move. She was forced to pace herself, moving much more carefully and less rapidly than she would've liked. But Towhee had done enough damage, she wasn't going to go kamikaze all over again.

Somehow, she managed to reach the former gateway and scale what remained of the fallen wall. Her blood pounded in her ears as she called out to her loved ones and pack mates, one by one. "@Phox! @Figment!" she shouted desperately at the top of her lungs. "@Elfie! @Sundance! @Dorea!" She sucked in a loud breath. "@Ruenna! @Pippin!" Her voice cracked as the last name left her lips and Towhee pivoted, seeking Fen's face, awaiting some sign that anyone had answered Towhee's call.

I think.  She didn't seem hurt, but who knew if that would still be the case if the ground moved again?  Fennec could feel her heart hammering in her chest.  She was terrified.

Oddly, that made her think back to Wraen's meeting with her, and their talk of monsters.  A giant beast who shook the ground and made it crack and buckle.  Somehow, putting an imaginary cause to it made her feel a bit better.  Enough to pick herself up and follow Towhee silently.

Then Towhee started yelling and Fennec abruptly remembered.  FIIIIIGGGG!!! DAAAAAAAADD!!!  She joined in the yelling and strained her ears for the response she knew her mom wouldn't get.  They had to be here.  They had to.

I think it's just down to the two of us now, Starr! Wanna conclude it?

Towhee paused at the cracked threshold, her heart pounding hard in her chest, her entire body thrumming with it. Although her breath came short and her throat was beginning to hurt, she shouted her pack mates' names again... and again... and again. In between, she looked to Fen to read her expression, her apprehension growing when it became clear nobody was answering their calls.

She finally dove into the grove, determined to ignore the horrific anxiety and plumb its every depth until they found their comrades. But even as Towhee scoured the width and breath of their homeland, Fennec trailing at her hip, they turned up no one at all. It was the greatest mystery since the Roanoke colony (not that she knew about that): somehow, their trapped loved ones had disappeared without a trace.

"It can't be," Towhee barked. "It makes no sense. They have to be here. They have to. Where could they have gone?" Frantic now, she fired off questions to no one in particular (though she shot her daughter a stricken glance every few seconds), even as she continued running back and forth. "I don't understand. What the fuck? Where are they? Where are you.....?"

But there was nothing for it. Inexplicable though it was, they were gone.

She couldn't see anything, but her strained attention to hearing everything around them was punctuated by Towhee's increasing panic.

It was awful.

The longer they looked for their former packmates, the quieter Fennec got.  It was likely Towhee wouldn't notice, but she stopped calling and simply listened.  But she couldn't hear anyone.

They're gone. she said, quietly, and she felt her stomach drop.  She'd been so excited to see Fig and dad again.  Now she felt shattered and numb and a little like nothing at all.  She forgot that Towhee wouldn't hear her.  She was talking more to herself anyway.

fine with this ending it for me

Fenn is blind, and as she's older, will take all of her character insight from tone.  If you are ever uncomfortable with an assumption she makes, please let me know!