Phantom Hollow how the wild magic, becomes

i have no idea where this fits into mato's timeline at all, lmao. seabreeze is traveling with him & will be joining the thread but this is (still) welcome to anyone! :D scout thread 1 of 4.

Mato knows that to the south west of Phantom Hollow lies Broken Antler Fen and that he is almost tempted to make the diversion. It would cost little to stop by and check up on his family as he has promised them, but he continues west. It would cost him time and when he informed his superiors that he was going on a small trip to the Hinterlands, drawn by his druidic desire to see the Wilds in all of it’s splendor that he did not intend to be gone all that long …and though he expressed no such thing the trip is not as innocent in nature. He has ideas and like a grand architect he needs a place to build; and though Mato has never been one to believe in the idea that leadership is something passed from father to son he supposes the desire has always been there. A smoldering ember waiting for the breath of life, the oxygen that it needs to take hold and burn to life. The empyrean is not sure what has given that ember the fuel it needed but he is taken with it.

It reminds him that he should likely confer this with his traveling companion. Mato was surprised when @Seabreeze sought to go on the little adventure with him but as he had no intention of spurning her company she now kept pace with him. The Hollow is quieter than the Heartwood, a bit colder but the druid welcomes the reprieve from the heavy heat that has settled over the Wilds. Except the Hollow feels…devoid of life. It is too still! The leaves greying with decay under foot and the fur along the imperial’s spine bristle with unbidden unease. He knows immediately that this is not the place he would seek to claim for Tindómë; for that was what he would call this idea. Starlight Dusk; but not here! He does not like the feel of this forest and wishes he could speed up their progression through it. The sooner they left it behind, the better.

“I must be honest with you, Aerlinn,” The nickname falls from his lips without thought, given earnestly for that is what she reminds him of: a song of the sea. She came to the Vale from the sea and she is named for it (or a facet of it), after all. “this trip is not strictly for aesthetic purposes. I seek a territory I may build my —” kingdom sounds so crass to him. It sounds pompous (not that Mato is not capable of such things because he quite is) but the Morwinyon struggles to find a word that fits it. Empire sounds even worse and thus he settles for neither. “I have ideas for a pack. I’ve had them for quite some time but things have halted me. My age, becoming apart of Northstar Vale — of which has been a great choice of my life, but I feel that it is time to take flight.” As a baby bird deigns to leave it’s nest: it is only nature. Perhaps nothing will come of it, or perhaps he will fail …but if he does not try he will never know and that is more crime than anything else. Emerald gaze slides to his lovely companion to search for her reaction to his words. She is not obligated to stay, to continue on knowing his intentions in full, but he feels it only fair that she know. Mato is not a deceitful beast by any stretch of the imagination: he never has been and he has no intention to start any time soon. He feels it is important that Seabreeze knows the intention behind his task and that she make her own choice regarding it.