Dragoncrest Cliffs and the sky is gray

The opkepa veers them quick to a looming notion, and though he shows the tips of his teeth in a slow, lingering grimace, this isn't new to him--not in the least. It's just louder now than ever before, but that doesn't mean he likes it. The biggest concern has always been if not here, where? Then when? And now, right this instant, at very entrance to spring and with one mother very soon to whelp. He couldn't imagine the stress and the strain, and if there was only one saving grace to ever be found in Portia's untimely death, it was that he did not have to see her through the same--or any of this constant misery, for that matter.

His shoulders were still tense, even as the wormana confirmed. He didn't disagree, though, and met her glance with the smallest nod he could. The cliffs had taken from them, then left them bruised and beaten afterward. They had all failed when heda had left them and even in the aftermath, he knew it wasn't good, and neither was it getting better with the situation at large beyond. No part of him could fault Blixen, Rose, or any of them for feeling this way.

As for the new heda, the trip would not be an easy, or brief one. He had never made the trip to any of the other packs, his place rooted to here after they had fled from the volcano.. and with the new threat of upheaval, he was only numb. Really, he had been for a long time, so it comes far easier than he planned for it to. These last several months have worn him down more than all of his years combined. It's what, a week's travel at best? he said, still considering the logistics here once he got past the hurdle of leaving here, where his wife's grave lie and where his offspring had grown and flourished. To have it all end like this...? It isn't good.

Still, the distance worried him, and not knowing what awaited for them there didn't bode well either. What if war had come upon them or one of their other branches too, and they would only be trading their problems for another. They really didn't have time to send scouts and organize a real, smooth transition though, unless they wanted to continue as they were. We leave a lot at stake by doing so, but we cannot keep losing like this, he agreed. But I know nowhere else we could go. Even here in the Teekon, it may only be a matter of time before we face all the same all over again, he said. Going to the new heda could at least offer them some support, instead of simply flinging themselves into the wilds blind and wounded.