Emberwood old gods

Easy's home! I rolled some dice, and it looks like Easy can catch two turkeys, provided she has some help! If more than one other wolf joins, feel free to catch more than that. Tagging @Dauntless just in case he is in the area to hear Easy howl.

After delivering Valiant to Easthollow's borders, Easy had taken off once more with @Lavender in tow. She was telling the other girl what little she new about Bhediya, such as that she seemed nice enough, and that she was now mated to a rather charming fellow named Pygmalion. Other than that, there was not much to tell; she explained that she had not been in the pack long when she'd learned of Sunny's continued survival in Easthollow.

As they drew nearer to the borders, however, Easy caught a familiar scent. Her nose twitched as she dropped into a hunter's gait and turned aside to investigate. Soon enough, the warbling sound of turkeys reached her ears. "I'm gonna see if I can catch a few," she said to Lavender, inviting the other woman to come along or to seek someplace to rest after a rather arduous trip. Easy knew her sister was not quite as used to travelling as she was.

With that, the girl tipped back her head in a two-part message: I'm home! and Someone come hunt with me!

Family reunion time!!

Daunty's time spent at the little creek just south of the pack where Easy supposedly lived went slowly. He felt like it had been ages since he had first gotten here, so when he heard her voice rise up (at least, what he thought was her voice... it had been awhile), he scrambled to his feet and sped toward it as fast as he could. He tried to remember the last time he'd seen here, but it felt like a lifetime ago.

With a giant grin plastered on his face and his tongue flapping in the wind, he arrived to find not just Easy!... but Lavendar?! here too. What about Huskarl? What about her kids? But maybe she was just visiting. She'd known Dauntless was coming up this way, so maybe she felt left out and wanted in on that good ol' fashioned reunion party.

He had entirely ignored any of the scent markers to get there, assuming that Bhediya's offer still stood. Maybe that was a stupid assumption to make, but I think we've all learned that Dauntless isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

Exhausted both by traveling and the influx of familial knowledge, Lavender opted out of hunting with Easy. "Go ahead—I'll only slow you down," she replied. Lavender was already struggling to keep up with Easy's stronger gait; she'd be a useless hunting partner in her current condition. Lavender removed herself from Easy's side, situating herself close enough to talk and further from Uaine Gorsedd's borders. 

Distracted in mid-spin, as Lavender had begun to circle the spot in preparation for settling down, she twirled around and faced Dauntless as he approached. "Dauntless!" Lavender exclaimed, her excitement reinvigorating as she threw herself at her brother so that she could pull him into a hug.

For now, Lavender's excitement kept her thoughts at bay; they had so much to catch up on.

Easy did not, at first, recognize the voice that called out her name. It was easy to write him off as a packmate she hadn't gotten to know very well until he called Lavender's name as well — and no one should know Lavender. No one but Bhediya, and it wasn't her.

It wasn't until Lavender called out to him that she fully processed who it was. "Wo-hoa!" she cried out, shocked and delighted at the sight of her long-lost brother. She had not seen him since before her fateful trip to visit Heron Lake Plateau with Tegan — he had been there when their father died, but gone by the time Easy had returned. They'd missed each other then just as they nearly missed each other this time.

Thankfully, Dauntless has been just patient enough.

"It's you!" she said as she came closer, trying to ram her nose into his cheek while Lavender was still hanging off of him. "I haven't seen you in forever and a day!"

Truth be told, Dauntless probably could not have pinpointed their last meeting. His early life was pretty fuzzy, especially when it revolved around family. He remembered Dad, of course, and their moms, and the three wunderkind, but specific events were lost on him, as well as where they fell in the timeline of it all. It was so strange to be together with his two sisters again, but at the same time, it felt really, really nice. He peppered them with kisses all over, basking in the moment and fully embracing the... embraces.

He pulled back once things settled down a little bit, giving Lavendar a teasing, quizzical look. Did you get jealous of me going to find Easy? he asked, completely unaware that her reasons for being here were much, much more dreary. And you! he exclaimed, turning to Easy, I had to wait for like three days before you came back!

Lavender reciprocated Dauntless' affections, ceasing her kisses only her excitement had subdued slightly. Pulling away from her brother's embrace, Lavender took a step backward as he teased, "Did you get jealous of me going to find Easy?" And instantly, her blissful moment of ignorance vanished as she was reminded for her reason for returning. 

"Oh," she exclaimed quietly, rapidly blinking as tears began to gather in her eyes; grief coiled snugly around her heart, making it difficult for Lavender to focus on anything else. Flustered, she looked away abruptly, her ears flattening and her frown cutting into a visible frown. "Yeah, that's the reason,"Lavender agreed; she wasn't ready to talk about what had happened.

The happy moment was quickly bowled over by Dauntless's harmless ribbing; Easy's breath caught in her chest and she cut her gaze quickly to the smallest of them and then quickly away when Lavender chose not to explain the real reason. That was fine; Easy wouldn't have wanted to talk about it either, she imagined.

"I was bringing Valiant back to Sunny," she explained, hoping to distract Dauntless from Lavender's less than enthusiastic reply. "He was one of the pipsqueaks running around while you were there. All white, with a grey mask and saddle, and speckles all up his legs like Dad's. You probably met him. But that's Sunny's kid -- and he and Dawn are both at Easthollow. It's a long story how they got separated, but they're back together now. And so are we!"

She was unambiguously delighted to be standing among her two littermates once more. She had only good memories of the two of them; they hadn't always gotten along, but those has just been the petty squabbles of youth.

"It's really good to see you again," she said warmly, looing between the two of them. "Do you think you'll stay here at the Emberwood with me and Lav? At least for a little while?"

Lavender's reply wasn't... Lavender. Something was up, and Dauntless knew her well enough to know she was hiding something. He may have been a little dumb sometimes, but he didn't lack empathy by any means. He was so focused on Lavender, he barely heard what Easy was saying, snapping out of it only when he sensed she had asked him a question. Oh, uh. I don't know yet.

He turned to Lavender again. Are you okay? Did something happen to Brave or Journey? Dauntless had grown close to them at Round Valley, so he needed to know that they were safe. Was that why Lavender was here? Now he felt like kind of a dolt for joking about it.

Lavender couldn't evade Dauntless's curiosity for long. "They're fine," she replied, feeling his eyes on her. "They figured that it was time for me to go out and see the world, and Easy agreed." It wasn't entirely a falsification, at least; she hated lying, especially when her siblings were involved. That minuscule fact was able to offer her some solace—but it wasn't enough to completely calm her. 

Still, Lavender was desperate, and she regarded as such, her expression pleading. "Right, Easy?" Lavender asked, as she focused on her sister.

Moving this along since Easy is inactive. Feel free to hop back in whenever, Mixed!

Dauntless kept his focus on Lavendar. Something was off, and he knew it. Not only that, but he didn't understand why she would try to hide something from him. Yeah, but... what about Huskarl? He was, after all, her mate. His brother-in-law. The father of her children. Why would she go off and leave him behind? None of it made a lick of sense, and although Daunty wasn't the brightest, he could tell when something was going unsaid. These were his sisters, after all.

It was clear to Easy that Lavender wanted to avoid the topic, and she'd done her best to help out with that -- but when Dauntless asked point-blank about Huskarl, she uttered a soft, "Oh gosh," that quite clearly gave up the game.

She looked uncertainly between Lavender and Dauntless, wondering if it would be better to let her sister talk it out or to simple bite that bullet for her. Everything seemed to point to her not being ready to talk about it, but was she ready to hear it?

"Mir -- Huskarl passed," Easy said quietly, deciding that quickly and gently was the way to go. "And Lav's trying to keep her mind off it."

Feel free to hop back in whenever, Chan.

The news was shocking, to say the least. His brother-in-law had seemed fine when he left, and Daunty couldn't begin to imagine what Lavender had been going through. It now made a lot more sense, and he rushed to his widowed sister's side. Lav, I'm so sorry. I'm such an ass. He leaned into her, hoping he could give her at least a little bit of comfort. More so, he hoped he hadn't opened her fresh wound too much. How could he be so insensitive?!

Dauntless spent some more time apologizing and catching up with his sisters, but he ultimately decided this wasn't the place for him, at least not yet. He wanted to do some more exploring nearby and see if he actually wanted to stay here or somewhere else.