Redtail Rise Paper Boats

Junior's disappearance early in the week didn't strike Reek as something out of the ordinary.  She had been the epitome of an outrider and possessed a wanderer's heart, just like Reek himself.  However, as the days passed without her return, the raggedy herbalist had began to grow more and more restless.  Something was amiss.  Saena had noticed her prolonged absence as well.  After waiting a few days, she took off in search of her sister, leaving the fate of the rise in @Arion and Reek's, somewhat competent paws.  His daily travels came to a sudden halt as he temporarily took the wheel alongside his friend.  But, Saena was only supposed to be gone for a little while... what's the worst that can happen?

What was supposed to be a short search, turned into something a bit longer.  Three days had passed, and Saena was nowhere to be found.  Reek found himself counting the hours until he caught her scent by the borders, but the hours passed and she never came.  Worry tugged at Reek's heart for the sisters' well being.  Aside from Wynter,  Junior and Saena were the closest wolves to family that the raggedy wolf ever had.  Reek tried his best to expel the negative thoughts from his mind while patrolling the border, but something just felt off.  Like he was missing something obvious.

Like a jigsaw puzzle with a few missing pieces, the big picture could still be discerned.  However, coming to an effective conclusion would have to take some serious mental gymnastics.  But, other than patrolling the border, Reek had little time for much else.  He started from the beginning... Junior's outburst.   Reek's return from his foray in the Caldera had been the last he had seen of her.  It had to be important.  

Junior was an outrider, Arion knew, after all she had told him personally that she held an outrider and warrior trade. Therefore, when she left, he had presumed that she had gone exploring or had taken a short trip. She had the heart of a traveler, and wanderlust surely tugged at her gut like it had in his own. Days passed without her return, her scent growing fainter and fainter on Redtail Rise's lands, and then the stallion began to worry. He sensed something was wrong, but he couldn't place his paw on it.

Arion was about to head off to search for her himself when Saena informed both he and Reek that they were in charge while she searched for her sister. It had been an honor that she had chosen him and he patrolled and hunted as diligently as ever, but their leader did not return. Three days had passed since her departure and the indigo eyed female was still absent from home. Once again, worry and restlessness plagued his mind. The same question went round and round his head as he patrolled and did his duties, what happened?

They were packmates, and though he had known them only for a short time, they were soon becoming the Acheron's family. Bound not by blood, but by friendship and loyalty. Arion was known to be a heartless bastard who cared not for anyone. He kept that facade on, speaking formally to other wolves he encountered and only let the mask down when he was talking to his friend and temporary leader Reek. The pack mattered a lot to Saena, he knew, and she would never be away for too long, that meant something was keeping her away. And it probably wasn't good.

His mind wandered as he hunted and after several escaped prey, Arion gave up and began to search for his friend, it wasn't long before he spotted the ragged wolf patrolling and quickly, he moved forward and trotted next to him. "Still no sign of Saena or Junior?" he asked in a worried tone, but even before Reek answered, he knew the answer. "There's something wrong with this whole situation," he murmured to his friend, "Do you have any clue?"

Continuing on his way, lost in the thought of scattered scenarios, Reek paced the border with his nose pressed to the dirt in a hollow attempt to put his worry to rest. Nothing.  The scent of his alpha had already grown stale.  Reek began to wonder if the sisters would ever return... What would be the fate of the Rise?  At this point, Reek had grown far too attached to just let it go and move on.  No, Reek and Arion's temporary positions would have to become permanent.  However, the raggedy wolf hoped it would never come to that.

Arion approached from behind, and Reek pulled his nose from the dirt to face him.  "Nothing," said Reek, confirming Arion's worries.  "Not a damn trace."  It seemed Arion shared the same suspicions on the matter, and rightly so... It was only a matter of time before the whole pack began to panic.  "You're right, something's seriously fucky here Arion," he continued with a hushed voice.  The last thing Reek wanted was a pack-mate to overhear and launch into a panic.

"I've got a few ideas, but, they're pretty hazy at best.  Remember Junior's outburst when I came back from the Caldera?  I haven't seen her since.  What if she went to confront the bastard that did this, about what happened there?" Reek motioned to the now scabbed over gash across his muzzle.  The wolf that inflicted it was obviously prone to violence over damaged pride. Who's to say he wouldn't turn that anger on his own daughters. "I may have, er, said some things... gotten the caldera all riled up.  What if they came for them?  Arion... I think they're trying to fuck with me.  Fuck with us, and it's all my fault."

Just like he thought, the scents of Junior and Saena were nowhere to be found and although Arion had expected it, it did not stop the worry increasing. The warrior's ears briefly flattened in restlessness and distress while his tail flicked back and forth. These movements were only done because he was currently alone with Reek, if he sensed another presence nearby, he would act as normal as ever. The pack could not panic, no one other than the two friends could know, Saena had entrusted them to do their duty and even though she was currently absent from the Rise, he knew he still had to do what he had to do.

"Obviously," he muttered back, even though the circumstances were rather terrible, nothing could stop his sarcasm from appearing. But this time, it disappeared quickly enough and he pricked his ears to listen to Reek's theories, though he was a master of solving things like these, it had been a long time since he had delved in those abilities and they were rather rusty now. Or actually, terribly rusty.

Junior's outburst had included several things, but what had struck Arion the most was the fact that most of the words she spoke was not about the gashes on Reek's snout but about a replacement kid and a terrible deadbeat shitty dad. Perhaps Reek's words and the injuries had triggered this reaction but ultimately, Arion believed it was mostly about her history with her father that made her scream like a banshee instead of Reek's injuries.

"No," the stallion said firmly, his fierce golden gazed fixed almost sternly on his friend. "It isn't your fault, Reek, none of this," he gestured around with his muzzle, "is your fault." His brows creased into a frown as he shifted his weight between his paws and twitched his tail deep in thought. "Junior's outburst. Remember how she was mostly shouting about about a replacement kid? That's probably her father's new children. Then she said something about her history with the Alpha guy running much deeper and that she wanted to be the one who dished out the punishment." Arion tilted his head slightly and frowned.

"I'm not trying to dishonor her or anyone or anything, but what if she only said she wasn't going to the Caldera to pick a fight just to stop us from suspecting anything? What if she went there and...." Arion gazed at the horizon and then looked at his friend. Various scenarios ran through his head and the Greek finally managed to shove them all away, "I honestly don't know," he said in an almost helpless tone. "Everything is fucked up and everything is wrong, I can't make sense of any of it."

It was good to have someone to vent to.  Getting his concerns off of his chest allowed Reek to relax a little more, however slight it may have been.  Theory helped put the story together, but it did little to bring Junior or Saena back to the territory. Unfortunately, the hows or whys where useless, but Reek still felt the urge to know.  Arion had listened intently to Reek's idea before offering his own input into the situation, and for that Reek was thankful.  Deductive reasoning was more of Arion's deal anyway, perhaps he would drum up a better reason.

Although Reek may have believed the blame fell on him, Arion provided a different narrative than Reek's explanation.  However, the crux of both theories was Junior's outburst, which the two had ultimately decided had something to do with her disappearance.  

"You don't think she would have— ?"  Reek's trailed off toward the end of his question. Although, he barely knew Junior.  He didn't have any particular reason to think that she would have gone out and actively found trouble.  Her words during her outburst may have suggested otherwise, but Reek understood that sometimes others overreact when they're angry.  But, even if she did make trouble with the caldera, that provided no explanation of why Saena hadn't returned.  While the narrative made more sense this time around, something was still missing.

Janus, his father had always put an emphasis on how knowledge was power. The older Acheron taught his sons the way of the warrior, of fighting, guarding, hunting, doing their duties to serve the pack. But he had also taught his children how to think, drilled various kinds of facts, of different methods to use their brains into their heads. Some of his kids liked the way of the warrior more than the ways of thinking but Arion loved both equally and therefore learnt a lot. The stallion hated being in the dark and the urge to know, to understand was always in him.

He shrugged in reply to Reek's question, "There's always the possibility," he murmured, still deep in thought. If Junior had indeed ran off to the Caldera to do..probably horrible things, that might explain her absence but did not explain why Saena had not return. "If Junior did go to the Caldera and told us she won't, she would probably have taken measures to throw us off track if we attempted to track her, false turns, doubling back, that kind of thing unless she didn't think of that which is stupid. Lets say Saena tried to track her but couldn't find the trail, she then would have returned....what could have kept her back?" Arion pondered.

Their leader would not suddenly go to the Caldera, nothing made sense at all. "Something's missing. You got any idea?"

Reek nodded along as he listened to Arion's assumption about Junoir's deception.  Although Reek was no stranger to lies, he didn't expect Junior to deceive the pack about her whereabouts, especially her sister.  However, a smart girl like her could disappear and never be found if she didn't want to.  But, again, none of this explained Saena's extended absence. The raggedy wolf was grasping at straws and couldn't fit the pieces together. Like a blind man looking for a black cat in a dark closet that wasn't even there, Reek was lost.

"Well, there ain't anything we can do about it now," sighed Reek disappointedly.  All the duo could do was ensure the safety of the remaining pack members at all costs. "We need to go on damage control, Arion," the raggedy wolf continued. "No one can know something's up, and panic isn't what we need right now."  he paused for a moment, shifting his gaze back to Arion.  "Understood?" He asked.  

A dark scowl crossed the Greek's face at Reek's words about them not being able to do anything about it now, he wasn't angry at his friend, no, he just hated not knowing something and worse, not being able to do something about it. If there was something Arion hated worse than boredom, it was waiting, just staying, waiting and doing absolutely nothing. He wanted to stomp around like a spoiled child but restrained himself, instead dipped his head, showing he agreed with his partner's words.

Reek spoke, and the chocolate stallion listened with sharp ears at the commands issued. Technically they were supposed to be partners but in the end, he supposed, he was still a rank lower than the ragged wolf. It didn't surprise him, after all life was unfair, but it didn't mean he had to like it. Shifting his hard honey gaze towards the other male's face, he gazed into Reek's yellow eyes for a moment before nodding. "Got, it....partner," Arion nearly spat the word 'partner' out but stopped himself and the word was simply spoken with a few drops of venom and contempt coating it.

And regretted it instantly. "Sorry..." he muttered and pawed the ground awkwardly. "Its just..I hate sitting around, waiting...I hate the feeling of being able to do absolutely nothing, knowing absolutely nothing." Arion shifted his weight, "And having no friends to confide in...except for you," he then frowned and asked in an almost childlike manner, "we are friends right?"

Unbeknownst to Reek, his take control attitude was pushing his friend Arion away.  With their jump into temporary leadership, the raggedy wolf's desire to micro-manage had amplified ten-fold.  Coupled with his normal narcissistic tendencies and me me me attitude, of course Arion would be angry.  However, Reek had yet to catch his irritation with his conduct... well, until he heard the vitriol dripping from Arion's voice. Reek's eyes went wide in realization and he turned his head to Arion to say, "Fuck... I'm being a douche," in a somewhat apologetic tone.

Arion went on to apologize, and Reek desperately wanted to cut him off and explain his actions, however Arion launched into an explanation himself.  "Don't apologize, he said, moving in to give Arion a brotherly bump with his shoulder. "Please... tell me when I'm being a cunt. Okay?"

In a way, Arion had become Reek's confidant as well, other than Wynter of course.  And when he asked if they where actually friends, the raggedy wolf was somewhat surprised. Perhaps Arion wasn't as good at reading others as he previously thought.  Sure, they started off on rough terms, but Arion was more than just a friend, he was family.  "And, of course you're my friend," he said, raising a brow.  "Why the hell not?"

His words seemed to have woken Reek from his douche attitude, quickly, the ragged wolf's eyes widened and he turned to Arion, seemingly apologizing for his behavior and telling him not to apologize. The brotherly bump his partner gave him stunned the logical, stoical Greek and drew him back to the time when his best friend and arch enemy had been the same wolf, Chiron, drew him back to the time when his life had been simpler and he had friends and family surrounding him everywhere.

Arion quickly pulled himself back into the present world, just in time to hear Reek tell him to inform him if he was being a cunt, drawing a half amused smile onto the warrior's face. "Sure," he said with a birdlike tilt to his head. "Just not everytime, cause if I have to tell you you're a cunt whenever you're being one. I'll be talking to you every second of every day."

Truthfully, the chocolate εὐγενής was extremely good at reading others. He knew if a someone liked someone, he could spot their secrets easily but with things regarding himself...he was clueless. He knew he and Reek were no longer simply drug dealer and drug addict but where they were with their relationship, he did not know. Arion knew he considered the homely man a friend, if not a brother and family, but he did not know what his partner thought of him and so, was relieved when Reek replied, saying that of course they were friends.

"I'm not good at reading others on an...emotional level, especially if the relationship includes myself."

Sorry for the long wait! Fell pretty far behind on my threads and now I'm playing catch up. Think I'm gonna wrap it up and archive here... if you want to squeeze in one last post, you can!.

Arion was like a brother to Reek.  An annoying, awkward, know-it-all brother... but a brother still the same.  He wouldn't have traded his friendship with the snarky stallion for the world, especially now.  Hard times had fallen upon the rise and Reek needed all the help that Arion could provide.  Although he tended to forget that he shared leadership alongside, Reek did realize that he was a valuable asset to the pack and and a valuable friend.  Plus, he'd be his douche-meter, 
neat-o.

"Thanks buddy,"  he said smiling as Arion made light of the situation.  "Just tell me when I'm being more of an ass than usual." Reek paused, returning his nose to the ground and letting out a loud snort. "Come-on buddy," he motioned for Arion to follow as he continued his patrol.  The border game was a dull one to play and the company of a friend would make the time fly faster.  "Come patrol with me."  And with that, Reek lead on to continue what he had started along with his friend.