Emberwood Swore I’d never let a man in my way.

Tags just for reference! If anyone wants to nab, feel free. :)

It felt as if she was utterly out of the loop on everything. The ranks had filled swiftly and then stagnated, which she was thankful for, but there were faces she did not recognize and scents she could not place. Beyond that, it felt as if there were things transpiring around Ibis that she was not privy to, or at the very least they happened so swiftly that she remained mostly unaware of them. Everyone was so busy! It felt nice in some regard, since that meant Ibis didn't have to run around doing everything herself anymore, but there was always a double-edge to everything. She didn't know the goings-on of her own home turf, and that bothered her.

So she patrolled loosely around the territory, cutting through the heart of the forest, spending a few hours at the foothills leading to the sheer cliff of the nearby mountain, and back again — seeking out familiar faces, refreshing her memory as best she could. The scent of @Bhediya mingled most often with @Pygmalion and that made her heart swell with pride and hope; she remembered that they were going to try for kids this year with her blessing, the thought of which made everything feel lighter. She came across the scent of @Kavik and @Lainie next - and further along, closer to the edge of the claim where @Reiko had left her marks on the tree trunks, she found the fleeting scents of @Awol and @Kukulkan.

Except there was something else, too. Her heart thumped in her chest when she came across Kukulkan's scent; it had been ages since she'd seen him, and while she knew he had the same wanderlust that she had been forced to curtail within herself, she was surprised to find his scent so thick within the forest. She followed it; there was no reason to do so, and she wasn't sure what she would do when she found him - if she found him - but what struck her as odd above all, was the way the scent mingled with the Magician's. It was strong; the scents trailed off, weaving together... And it made her stomach churn as if she had been gut-punched, but Ibis couldn't figure out why she would have such a visceral reaction.

Figuring that she was merely hungry, the girl abandoned her pursuit of that trail and made her way back through the white spires of the trees; she couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something obvious, that some deep secret was being kept from her, but that was stupid. Ibis trusted everyone within the pack implicitly, none more-so than the Magician, and what would it matter if Bhediya and Kukulkan were together -- ? They were her friends, and the fact they got along well, worked together well, was good. Right?

Before she knew it Ibis had trailed along to the western edge of the territory, and her legs ached. Her chest did too, but not in a physical sense... It was hard to place what she felt, and as she tried to make sense of it she began to pine for simpler times.