Blacktail Deer Plateau I Made a Wrong Turn to Right

Edit on 01/14: I'm going to edit in a conclusion for this'un.

"Same here," Pied said after Vires finished. "There was nothing wrong with life in the valley. I just wanted to see what else was out there." She squinted as she peered forward along the path, as if examining something only she could see, and added, "It was a beautiful place. I was actually born just outside of it, in a pack called Jawbone Hill. When it disbanded, my parents and I joined my grandparents—my mom's parents—in their pack called Flightless Falcons." Pied decided not to darken the day by adding the part about her father disappearing promptly after that, never to be seen again—until his ghost appeared to her the first time some weeks later.

Now that Hawkeye knew her secret and it had changed absolutely nothing about their relationship, Pied wondered what others might make of it and whether she should inform them as well. She glanced speculatively at Vires at her side. They were no longer affiliated with religion—Pied had pretty much let those beliefs fade as they moved on from Bon Dye—but they'd all definitely dabbled in it during Jinx's brief rule. Her pack mates might be more likely to believe her than others.

"Were you a close follower of the Bon Dye religion—Sos and Atka and all that?" Pied questioned lightly as they continued traipsing along the game trail, with no signs of prey just yet. Even as she spoke the name of their former pack, she felt a tremor of repulsion which manifested itself in a shudder that traveled from the nape of her neck, down her spine and even made her tail give an involuntary twitch.

They did not touch on this topic for long, as quite suddenly a squirrel leaped across their path. The pair of wolves forgot the hoof prints entirely in their pursuit of this smaller prey, eager to slay the small beast even if its meat would only take the edge off any wolfish appetite. The sounds of their voices gave way to the noise of the chase, all of which faded into the distance and culminated in a single shrieked note of conquest.