Moonspear i was born in this ga[m]e, and i will die in this game

backdated a wee bit! open!

Hydra had returned to the whelping den to regurgitate meat for her cubs to eat, stretching. Remembering she had heard @Opalia had returned the matriarch called to her. The she-wolf had news... Opalia had been searching herself, when she had heard of Praimfaya and her decision to go on her own way... with the rest of them none the wiser. It was disappointing, that; she had expected much more from the woman she had hoped to see rise again. Certainly not leaving without a word. 

It would be unfair to keep what she knew away from one who cared so much. And perhaps Opalia could help her work out what this meant; she knew Praimfaya better than the matriarch, given they had run together for as long as they had before Moonspear. Opalia had lost her brother, and stayed even still. 

Hydra had more news yet, now; she knew of where her (Opalia, in this instance) brothers killer rest her head at night. There was much to discuss, none of it easy.

The golden Drakru had largely kept to herself, picking up a some circuits of patrol, and making some small kills to help feed on as she still counted herself on the mend from the road. While not normally something she should have considered an issue, on her lonesome, and at the mercy of her terribly vast grief, it had shaken her worse than she had realized until she finally caved and returned after two moons. Visiting the shoreline had brought better sense back to her first off, and now home on the mountain, it had been time to piece it all back together.

Today she was feeling lucky, and in decent spirits. With a little rabbit limp in her teeth, she tracked up the mountainside towards the alpha's den--knowing that whelps had been born in her time away thanks to one of the yearling sons her patrols had intersected with. She had delayed a proper visit until now, feeling guilty about her time away, her empty-handed return, and in part, herself too. But now that she had taken a little time to clean herself up to be more presentable, and had an extra fresh catch that she didn't want, she could stand it.. hopefully. She swallowed her pride and went on with it, anyway.

Finding it took little time for a keen enough nose. The family was prevalent over the pathways, so she knew it was well looked after. Still, the last bit of nerves had to be kept locked up tight as she closed in. When she saw the entrance, she set down the quarry, and chuffed softly. Hei.. Hydra? she asked for a moment of her time, if permitted.

Opalia soon answered her call, and Hydra was glad to see the familiar face. For although she had been gone for some time in her search for Praimfaya, Hydra had high hopes she would become a longterm member of the Spear. She was certainly on that road. Hei, Hydra rejoined with a grin, striding toward her with a welcoming rumble and echoing the familiar language Opalia had been born to, and that she and Praimfaya both had instructed her in. I had news, Hydra relayed once more in Opalia's tongue; she had been a quick study, though still had plenty more. But she fell back into English, after you had left, I found two wolves who had run into Praimfaya. She had left, for revenge I was informed, she drawled, expressionless despite her distaste for Praimfaya having left them both behind in her endeavor. 

The matriarch could not help but feel slighted, her own desire to get revenge having been made perfectly clear. But Dacio had been Opalia's brother. Who more than she deserved to be involved in such, if not Hydra herself for her desire for retribution for her own son that had been wounded, and might have met the same end were it not  for Lyra's early and consistent interventions? Dacio had not desired it himself, and wore himself thin with his own continued hunt... but the ravens fang had caused his early end to begin, even if Dacio had put the last nail within his own coffin. And Hydra would ever blame the other for that. 

Hydra shifted her weight and drawled, I still desire an answer for what has been done myself. With the children being born, it has... slowed things down. But ultimately, I will see it done. Do you still wish this, yourself? She inquired with a lash of her plume, to be sure Opalia was prepared for what might occur in the months to come. Opalia was a fighter, and it was time, Hydra felt, to begin training operations.

Greeted, and soon feeling more welcome than she had anticipated, some of her nerves soothed then. Though her ears twitched eagerly towards the notion of news (considering how bleak her findings were lately), she first picked up her slain rabbit and nudged it closer to the dark alpha. Gon the yong, o yu, she said in her familiar, rarely-used lately trigedasleng, not wanting to get too ahead of herself and overlook her offering.. and she then realized too she didn't know quite how old the little ones might be, if they were even approaching an age where that might be of use to them even. Well, if nothing else, they could shred the skin, having a nice game of tugs with it.

Anyway, on Praimfaya.. she was quick into a pensive expression. Revenge. Not an unfamiliar feeling, one she had carried often throughout her young life after Drageda had fallen, though she had rarely been given the chance to follow through entirely. First, a soft sigh. I see. I wondered if that might be the case. Or that she did not want to be found, considering my lack of.. real leads, or anything.. she admitted as she curled her haunches into a curt little sit. Dacio's end hurt, I know.. but.. she glanced away, unsure of where she was going with this besides the feeling that it needed said.

But did she still wish this herself? Of course, she answered, no hesitation, and a hardening look about her. Where grief ended, revenge's promise seemed to sate some of that loss, though it was never a completion; it was something, perhaps the very least she could do as one who did remain. She did appreciate fully that Hydra wanted it too. Jus drein jus daun, she said. It has always been a familiar mantra, Opalia could remember sharing it with her brother many a time, though those memories threatened to make her heartsick now.

The matriarch observed the food brought, truthfully having missed it with her eyes though her nose had recognized it. Motherhood was exhausting, to put it lightly, and she acknowledged what was brought with a thank you, in the language she was learning. Hydra shifted back to English for the remainder to start, not too confident in the rest quite yet. But she would learn. 

Perhaps both, Hydra drawled, age giving her some wisdom. But still, she judged Praimfaya for her rash reaction. If Praimfaya wanted to lead, and lead well, that she ran away from those that she was meant to protect—her own kru, that had decided to follow her—did not bode well. Hydra had not suffered a blow such as the loss of a loved one to death, but worse. Her sister, and then, the friends that turned their back upon her. 

The sting of Praimfaya's turning her back upon them stung, but only mildly in comparison. The girl was young, and though Hydra had hoped to help her become strong... that she had given into her desires when she felt weakest meant that perhaps she was not a pupil yet worthy of her. All for the better; she would spend her time upon those who deserved it. Those who would not flee from the challenges life would always bring, whether they liked it or not. 

Hydra breathed out. None of her wolves were a number to her; she knew them each. And while Hydra did not know Dacio as well as Praimfaya or his own sister might, he had been among her ranks for a time and so was family to her all the same. No matter the ultimate cause to his end, the one that had a hand in the turn of his fate was who Hydra would ever cast the blame upon. 

Hydra did not care what caused the death of the nameless witch. All she cared about was that it was done. And she would have it be so.

That Opalia was so accepting of it, and echoed the brutal sentiment she felt with words to match, caused her eyes to brighten. In a comradrely fashion, the matriarch swept forward to nose the woman. And we will have it, she drawled, ears swept forward a moment as though to punctuate the thought with the aggression she felt. They were quick to relax some, the notched one flicking casually. What, tactically, do you think is the best course to do so? She drawled, interested in the warrior womans wisdom and method alike.

Tipping her muzzle to the thanks, she had wondered if both had played into it. Very likely, as much as she had not wanted to admit it, but dark days alone, grieving, and tired on the road far from anyplace she could call home had invited intrusive thoughts of the sort. She had wanted to give the wanheda some benefit of the doubt, but she knew the pains of it all too. In the end, the Drakru had been left with conflicting feelings. Abandonment and loss, with nowhere else to go but.. here.

And, as for going forward, Hydra's outlook gave her a renewing strength. That they would have it, too, straightened her ears up tall.

The question she left her with gave the pale gona plenty to consider. She shifted slightly, attempting to decide where she should begin. It was Dacio's descriptions of the wolf that had done it that she held fast to, but more than that, the details got hazier. He had told her what he knew, that she had associated with others of the type. I wish I could say I knew how to make it come quickly, completely unexpected. Out of nowhere, like she was to your son, Opalia answered with a faraway look on, sadness lingering faintly. Easier said than done, however, and life with all its loss had taught her to think realistically.

Do you know anything about where they stay..? she asked, next. Not quite piece of a conventional answer, but her way of gathering thoughts--realistic ones, before she might make a better reply on a tactical standpoint. I know that it's not near, which does make it difficult without knowing, though, maybe this information had trickled back somehow; Opalia was aware enough that Hydra had allies in a few places, perhaps they had found out. Was there more that she knew? When I searched for Praimfaya, I never came across anything.. Nothing about the dark wolfess that had laid her teeth into Dacio and Hydra's son, or the other sickening sorts she had run with.. not that Opalia could say she knew a lot about them specifically. There was that distant remainder about the black-headed wolf from the coast along with it too, but even that had paled in comparison over time--those wounds scabbed, scarred, fading away into history behind her.

Any way to find out more.. is what I would want. I know it is not something to rush into, she sighed, despite how badly she wanted to just run headlong into revenge's welcoming grasp--she didn't need to see the pack, or Hydra's family, suffer thanks to it--though she could not quite say so yet.

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Hydra agreed with all of her points. It would be lovely to do to her what she had done to their own. Of course, the wolf unworthy of even a name would not live to see any companion she might be with die of infection. She would die for touching a hair upon her childs head. The matriarch looked to the horizon, considering what the woman must feel like now. 

Safe, Hydra hoped. Secure. A flash of her son, brought to her in agony—

For as long as Hydra lived, and as long as that malcontent breathed, such would never be so. One day, the wretch would look to her left—or perhaps her right—and see that the length of her shadow had grown. Except that her shadow now had teeth, teeth that were unforgiving, teeth that would not stop until the cadence of that bitches breathing did—

Old anger became hot and new again as she remembered her son that way, that day, and the look that passed over her features revealed only but a sliver of rage still bridled. 

Opalia wanted to learn more, as surely as Hydra did—it was her brother who had died. Hydra breathed in, the storm passing in her eyes. We will find them, she said knowingly, stepping nearer to Opalia. Wolves of that sort... they cannot hide for long, the more trouble they sow. And they will reap it, came her dark words, we will be sure of it. And we have all the time to do so. Their time, she hummed, is running out.

Indeed—the clock would stop for the wretch who harmed her son. One arm splayed to ten, the other to two, the secondhand sputtering on four while those she wronged freed her of the limb that she would never need again, where she was going (halfdead already, no fight left in her, just as her son had looked!)—for that miserable things violent delight, they would all see to its equally violent end.

We will find them.

Their time is running out.

As it had been, it was the greatest assurance she had in moons, and as the shadowed leader moved closer, Opalia had no reason to doubt this. It came as a strange sense of solace, one balm over the old, festering aches she had harbored. Though it would never erase the damage that had been done, it was only her basal nature to want to take from them what theses wrongdoers had from her--make their own hurt as she had, or worse, it didn't matter anymore. They just needed certain things to play in their favor, and the right information to trickle back from afar. It was a careful balancing act of not compromising themselves (she saw the beauty in being an unexpected problem for their foes) and getting what they needed to know.

It was true that the more trouble they made, the more attention would come. She had not viewed it exactly from that angle yet, and wondered who all else they had brought pain upon.. even those they did not know. Another beam to steel her resolve, especially. Yes--we will get what we need, she said, knowing that she must believe it to be true. If there is a benefit to the distance between us and wherever they hide, they may not know to see us coming, or expect it. Maybe they've made closer enemies than us that may whittle them down? Even if that feels presumptuous, not being something to count on. Either way, we can train, stay sharp, and preserve ourselves in the meantime, the gona noted. The mountain stood strong, and she was glad to be on their side, not against it as more details came forward between the leader and her charge.. until the meeting wound to its close.

As always, there was more to be said, and more importantly, done.. but this was a step forward that Opalia felt was needed, maybe even deserved. They would have what was theirs, someday.