Blackfeather Woods change of tides

At times, the spirit visited the land from which she was born; well, her mortal soul, anyway. Today was no different than any other time. The priest did not remember when last she visited. The only thing she knew was that when she arrived today, it was different. The scents warned her, but the spirits lured her and the ghost, she could not stop herself. Still in high spirits from the hunt filled with bloodlust and anguish — for the prey, not the wolves, of course — but also still very far lost in the spirit realm, she wavered for but a moment at the pack's borders.

They were calling her, and she could do nothing but heed. What sort of madness would it be if the priest would value this mortal bag of bones and flesh and skin over their commands! Besides, the wolves of these lands must know of Sithis — some must even hear his whispers too! — so how could the visit of a priest, of a ghost chosen to deliver his will ever be wrong?

Without hesitation she stepped forward, pale eyes swimming and her steps light and ethereal; longing once more to be engulfed in the deepest darkness of the forest.

gonna have to do some timeline fudging for this but *eyes emoji*

It was unusual for Puffin to be patrolling the borders but here she was. Even now, one could call it less of a patrol and more of a stroll.  The borders had weakened slightly in their absence and with Zephyr still injured, she figured it couldn't hurt to step up to the plate and do some chores.

As she came around a particularly dense swath of trees and bushes she caught sight of a girl who so confidently and ethereally made her way towards the Woods that Puffin thought she belonged here.  And maybe she did.  She scented the air but noticed a different pack smell than the one she would've figured to find, and her brows scrunched as she weighed her options.  Padding cautiously towards the other, she peeped out only a Hey.

Akari took chances and departed, at night, to scout the forest. It's her new home, now, so the least she could do to get started is to get familiar with it. She let herself be guided by the wind and the pale moonlight patching the trails as the light breaches the canopy.
With every step, her scent becomes one with the forest's, and so the bond between her and that place strengthens.

The forest speaks,  guides her. The wolf only had to interpret the signs, get used to its subtle language. The cold breeze hissed as it shakes the bushes: it carried a scent to it... Or better said a sense, something that stirred with Akari's soul.

A presence.

Curiosity made her detour from her original path. What feeling was that?
Picking up a trail, the female wolf meandered through the trees. The forest took little time to show her she was on the right path: dust, glowing with moonlight, held her sight for a while. The dust hung in the air around her, enlightening the trail even further.
And then, at last, Akari spotted it, between the dark foliage of the bushes. Two wolves in a small clearing: one was dark as the night, and the other... the other glowed as if it was made of moonlight itself, having a white blindly aura cloaking its figure.

"Tidings." She greeted while she squeezed her body between the heavy bushes. "Who are you?" She asked with a note of innocence tainting her voice. Her question was meant to both wolves, but her eyes couldn't detach from the pale, ethereal presence.

A wolf greeted her fairly promptly after she stepped over the borders that the new wolves of Blackfeather Woods had established. It surprised her to be met without violence. The ghost turned her head in the general direction of the wolf who had greeted her. It did not take long for a second to show up. A second greeting, too.

The wisp continued to walk into the territories, though she swung her head in light indication they they could follow, should they wish. The fogs of wispmother grotto beckoned her, whispering louder than these wolves.

The second wolf asked her a question that garnered a chuckle. What a question — did anyone ever really know who they were? It never ceased to amaze the priest how wolves seemed to care so deeply about their little names — as she was mortal enough to know that that was what they truly meant. Shh... Don't you hear them call? the ghost said as she halted and glanced back at the two other wolves; then continued her journey inward, absolutely delighted to find out how they might respond.

Wolves were absolute killers for routine, and the pale wisp loved nothing more than to kick down routine and see just how they would respond.

For then, then chaos truly came out.

UuuUUUUhhhhhh....

Puffin was certain that this woman wasn't supposed to be doing this — she should have stopped at the borders.  But there was something about the way she walked that transfixed the younger girl.  She remembered @Zephyr saying that this place was creepy and oh... maybe he was right.  The pale wolf let out a laugh that chilled Puffin to her bones.  It was like she didn't care she was breaking one of the most important, universally-known laws to wolf kind.  Don't you hear them call?  

But she couldn't.  Who?  Not knowing what to expect, she blathered unintelligibly for a few seconds before shouting at the top of her lungs, 

HEY!

YOU CAN'T DO THAT!  As if that would solve anything.  But the girl hadn't done anything dangerous yet, and it felt wrong to attack her just for encroaching on their territory.

Akari's question just died in the forest without getting an answer. But perhaps Akari had made a rather inappropriate question to the Whisp: maybe ghosts have no name. Maybe they're just condemned to forget their names: not a difficult thing to do when you have an eternity ahead of you.

But then... Why? Why was she still there, haunting those forests? What does she seek? What's her purpose?

Don't you hear them call?

Akari pointed her snout against the wind, feeling it caressing her snout. She couldn't hear a thing, but she could feel something, ever since she entered the forest, some kind of connection: like invisible chains binding her to that place.

She didn't know how to interpret it, and maybe because of that, she had known no fear when she encountered the ethereal creature: just a sharp curiosity urging her to know more about that mystical aura that surrounds Blackfeather Woods.

So when the ghost told her to shush, she fell in silence, her small, round-tipped ears perking to any sounds hidden in the winds.

Until the dark she-wolf shouted and her voice echoed through the trees, catching Akari off-guard: she almost jumped with the scare.

Akari believed the ghost wasn't a threat: there was something in her colorless eyes, in the way she moved... She knew these woods. But Akari was a new member of the Ivory Rose, so she wasn't yet at ease to share this thought. To imply the ghost wasn't a threat when she was the most inexperienced wolf in there.

So she cooed to the dark wolf:

"I don't even know if we can attack her. She's a ghost, after all..." Despite her calmness, Akari felt lost: she didn't know how to address the situation, but in her mind, she had two options: either to follow the ghost to see where she was heading or reporting the sighting to the rest of the pack.

The first option was definitely the most alluring.

The two wolves seemed to have a different approach. The pale wisp met the shout with a bemused smile. She was certain that many wolves who lived in Blackfeather Woods prior would have torn her to shreds. Would she welcome it and go down cackling in a pile of blood and mess, finally at peace with spirits surrounding her? Or would she fight tooth and nail to keep clinging on to this mortal coil? Oh... Some days she certainly wished she could shed it, but other days; mortality brought certain joys.

Not that she'd ever find Powergirl again. There was something inside of her heart that whispered to her that they might meet again in death, at the earliest, though she had no foundations to base these beliefs on.

The words were ignored, though she said, You can guide me, if it makes you feel better about your failed border patrol. while she continued inward towards the wispmother grotto. She cast a sassy glance — and for a moment her eyes seemed very present and sharp, very mortal, before they returned to their hazy, absent and distant stares — over her shoulder towards the shouty wolf in particular as she continued onwards.

The ruckus wouldn't go amiss in his lands.
Especially with Puffin's cry to try and gain some sort of order.
Rowan loped towards the border, slowing upon the scene of...whatever this was.
Some woman had wandered in - looking like Maegi or Tundra, for a moment he thought it may be one of them. Except her face wasn't cleaved and her fur too thin and whispy.
He frowned, his tail rising, a frown fixed on his face.

He neared, watching for aggression. Then her scent touched his nose.
"A member of Ursus, I see," he smiled, remembering Skoll Almir. Perhaps he'd sent her. The man never did come back, and Rowan never made it all the way there. He moved to block her wandering path. "Did Skoll Almir send you?" 
Or perhaps she was drawn for another reason.
He nodded to his packmates, who were definitely unsure of her. As they should be. She should have asked for permission, rather than just wandering in.
She could have been hurt.

The petite female was caught in a meandering of loose phrases that meant little to her. Her eyes waved between the pale wolf and the dark one, right before the alpha shows up, muttering about a pack named Ursus and a guy named Skoll.

The presence of the alpha was reassuring. She could feel her tail wagging slightly with increased confidence, but she was aware of her own ignorance and of how much she has yet to learn.
But it's when things are not clear to her that she becomes more eager to make some sense of them. In this particular situation, Akari had to acknowledge one thing: that the ghost won't answer her. Perhaps the alpha of Ivory Rose meets better luck.

As for Akari, she had little choice but to remain a bystander, watching as the scene unfolds, her gaze silently on the track of the elusive Whispwolf.

I believe it was my turn if I'm following post order correctly: [Averna -> Puffin -> Akari], and with Rowan's entrance putting us at [Averna -> Rowan -> Puffin -> Akari].  I don't particularly mind in this instance, but it's something to be mindful of going forward. ^^

The pale woman continued walking, and only revered Puffin with a distant and preoccupied smile.  But she wasn't listening!  Suddenly, Puffin discovered what it was about this whole thing that had started to bother her. 

She could understand someone's ignorance.  Puffin herself was not particularly intelligent, and she was painfully aware of that fact.  But this came down to respect.  If this Ursus pack was sending someone as representative, she thought that the least their ambassador could do is show some common decency.  What that girl was doing was totally out of line, and Puffin wasn't sure why they should tolerate it.  Her father would have said something by now, and Puffin had pedestaled her father so much that it was unlikely that Rowan could save face with her unless he acknowledged it.

But she knew better than to act so indignant given the position of Rowan's tail, and it's not like Puffin was offering anything particularly worthwhile to whatever was going on here.  Frustrated, she remained silent and stayed put just in case anything weird was going to happen.

A third arrived.

There was no aggression in her body language, demeanour nor voice; it was a bit as though she was barely there at all. As if she did not realise that body language was a thing. Some might describe her body language as neutral, but some might outright say that her body language was... absent.

In response to her retort, the interestingly coloured woman seemed indignant. It spurred the flames in the wisp's heart; she enjoyed when others were put off, because it means chaos and it was an invitation for destruction. There were many entities living in these lands, but none screamed as loudly into her ears as Sithis himself; or perhaps his underlings, longing to see his wishes fulfilled.

Ursus, he mentioned, tail flagged dominantly. She canted her head as she considered that perhaps that was what her pack was called. The name Skoll Almir meant nothing to her, though. Who? she asked, head still canted as glazed eyes stared at the wolf who was clearly in charge here. The indignant woman shut her mouth and the shook one seemed to grow a little more confident, both in the face of this man who was no doubt her glorious leader.

Your mortal feuds mean little to me, she said, her voice hoarse from disuse; hoarser, it seemed, than when she made her sassy and more grounded-seeming remark, almost as if she was a different wolf altogether. This is my birthplace. Even though you wolves think everything is about you, the way she said 'you wolves' suggested she did not count herself among them, I am not here to visit wolves. The priest smirked; how typical, that the mortal wolves would think that everything was about them! Ha! As if she would walk into their lands uninvited for the sake of the wolves! It was hysterical to her, and she found herself chuckling an eerie laugh at the thought.

Of course not; she was only here for the spirits.

He noted how Puffin was irked. How her eyes flared like there was a candlelight - or inferno - in her pumpkin hues.
Their newest addition too seemed to settle a little with his presence. But they were wary with the aloof stranger.
Ghosts peered from her hollow gaze.

Rowan swallowed, he wondered why Skoll hadn't returned. He let out a soft sigh, "Perhaps you just missed meeting each other," a soft smile. He barely remembered how the man looked by now, apart from a dark shadow in his forest.
Though, he was surprised that she spoke. After toying with his packmates, she seemed content with giving them the silent treatment. Or was he just another toy?

Though, her speaking further was intriguing. "It's mine too," he replied, still holding his soft smile. But mortal feuds? He didn't know what she babbled about there. Perhaps them being territorial? He blinked, thinking her over.
Not here to visit wolves. Well, that wasn't new. Many showed up for spirits; Nyra, Eldritch, and even Imiq felt them.
"Perhaps Meldresi, then?"
She would know, if she was born here. Probably. If she spoke of spirits, then surely.
He'd just have to see. Maybe she knew more than him?