Redtail Rise other loves, other vices

A familiar scent soon hit her nose, shaking her from the fugue state she'd often found herself slipping into. The dark woman look up and then around, her gilded eyes scanning until they came across the dust-and-honey figure of her brother-in-law. Blackbear waited for the almost-forgotten rush of nerves and affection that'd always marked his presence, but she was not the same girl that had fallen for him so easily. She looked at him now and felt wretched and broken, and found the presence to wonder why he looked just as wretched and broken as she felt.

Blackbear had been worried about running into one of the Morningsiders. Ever since she'd crossed paths with the grey girl and had received word of her father's death, she'd avoided the area and kept to herself, mourning in private and doing her best not to hate herself. As much as she blamed herself for her father's death, she knew that he wouldn't, and that he would be terribly sad if he knew how badly Blackbear had taken it.

He would also be sad, she decided, if she ran away from Aditya right now. The man looked lost and small - and Blackbear realized with a start that he was small, compared to her. Not tiny, of course, but she stood several inches taller and wider than the older wolf, now. She measured all these things as she approached, halting a scant few yards away and giving a low, wavering woof in greeting.