Moonspear And that first kiss coming

The moon had just risen above the horizon by the time Shrike reached the borders of the second pack he would visit while on a search for Lucy and now Qilaq, the four month old pup from Blackfeather. He'd scoured the free territories between the two packlands looking for any sign of Lucy's scent, but found nothing and found himself wondering if he hadn't simply chosen the wrong direction to begin searching. He knew roughly how far away he was from his home territory, and that he was about as far away from the Caldera now, if not just a bit further, than he had been when he'd gone to Blackfeather Woods. This way he knew how long it would take him to get home for a rest, deliver the disappointing news, and head out again, making a clockwise search around the pack borders and stopping at the packs he met on the way.

Needless to say, he did not want to spend a great deal of time at any pack in particular, as he had no friends or family in or near them. All the wolves he knew and cared about lived in the Caldera, though it was with a pang of guilt that he remembered Rowan, and the promise he'd made that he would visit her. She would have had her pups already, he assumed...And he had let down his side of the promise, and had not seen her again before her due date. Her pack was not too far away- so he set his designs on visiting Silver Creek next, in hopes of both apologizing for missing their meeting date and in finding any information about the missing pups.

Still being polite and mindful of the borders, Shrike tilted his head back to call for anyone nearby. He did not summon a leader in particular, as he was not a lone wolf looking to join the pack. He was a scout on a mission, and would talk to whoever came to greet him first.

Now that the puppies were a bit older, they needed her specifically at their beck and call for every moment of the day. She was quick to take advantage of this when she could. It bothered her to find her scent less prevalent on the borderlands already, so after a day spent exhausting the puppies to the best of her ability, she tucked them together neatly with their father and slid off. He could get some rest in the meantime, but she was itching to get out herself -- so she may as well put the energy to good use on the borderlands, shaking the rust off her own patrols and picking up wherever the last one she could smell had finished.

Although the unfamiliar call that rose up did not specify who precisely it sought, she was near enough to warrant an answer and slid through over the landscape to find the stranger. When she did, the wolf was not one she knew all dressed in silvered leanness, but the subtle scent of Redhawk made her immediately skeptical. Considering her absolute distaste for the (presumably still) leading pair, she wanted nothing to do with them and their lot. Bad things always followed in their involvement and she would have none of that here.

Amekaze's tail was up tall and her coat stiffened as she finished her approach, smoothly bold and confident as ever her on her borderlands. "What do you need?" she asked right away, not looking like someone interested in anything short of business.

Shrike was a patient wolf, despite the fact that he knew there was limited time for him to use in which to find Lucy if he hoped to find her alive. With autumn closing in and the nights becoming increasingly more chilly, the pup would have a much harder go in the winter unless she had been taken in by a pack. Finding her scent out in the wilderness would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack, which was why he had found hope in searching the nearby packs. If one of them had taken her in, then there was hope in finding her alive.

A female wolf, with an imposing and dominant posture to her stride was the first to approach him, and he submitted wilingly, bowing his head to the female with the olive-leaf eyes. Her voice was commanding nd her message clear- waste my time and I'll lay waste any of your ambitions. "I'm Shrike, from the Caldera." He said, figuring it was best to at least let her know who he was and where he was from, in case she had never heard of his pack. Shrike had absolutely no idea where the wolves of the Caldera stood with the wolves of other packs. As of yet, he'd only ever heard of Silver Creek and had only actually visited Blackfeather Woods. "I come in search of a pup of ours who was kidnapped. By a black, male wolf with red eyes." He said. "Lucy is about three months old, black pelt, blue eyes. Also heard of a pup from Blackfeather Woods, a four month old female named Qilaq who is also missing." He said. He fell silent then, hoping that the female would have some sympathy for their situation.

Being from the Caldera was perhaps his worst offense in itself. Despite the disdainful undertone she knew she wore, he was respectfully presenting and quick to the useful explanation. Tempered, held steady as she was, she listened on, but still had next to nothing to supply. Her puppies were the only ones on this mountain. "Hm. Nothing of the sort here," she shook her head, quick and curt. Only nearby, had there been another that she'd not known personally and did not exactly meet any of the descriptions even remotely. Aside from being a wayward youth. "Just a tawny juvenile passed by here a little while back, moping along. My mate encountered him," she gestured vaguely northward out into the wilds. The details wrung from Charon hadn't been overly numerous, but it had come up idly somewhere along the line considering their mutual feelings for the Redhawks. Mainly she was glad the speckled alpha had done what she would have, too, and that the wandering boy was deflected elsewhere. She didn't have time for any emotional baggage like someone's orphaned whelp right now.

"The kidnapper, though. Anything else to know? How.. did it come about?" she pried lightly. Black wolf with red eyes was just a start and truth be told, the circumstance of a kidnapped pup interested her for her own reference's sake -- what to avoid doing if at all possible with her own lot. She didn't want to send her own scouts on similiar missions one day.

Shrike frowned slightly when the female gave him the answer he both expected and feared to hear. No black wolves with red eyes, and no Lucy. At least she didn't go on to say that another wolf was missing, so that was a one up from when he'd visited Blackfeather. She did mention a tawny youth, and his lips pursed for a moment, before he was struck with a name. "Jack?" He asked. He hadn't seen Jack in some time, not since Peregrine had been attacked by Ferret. He wasn't aware that the boy had gone very far from the pack, perhaps he'd just been out searching for Lucy...But he was young yet, and probably too young to be out searching when it was the pack's youth that were going missing.

He shrank a bit when she asked about the entire situation. "Wasn't there, just heard after and found the scents." He confessed. "'Nother one of the pack's young ones saw the kidnapper taking her. Just inside the borders; they were too close." He said, regrefully. Would he ever have pups? This whole ordeal with Lucy and Peter had caused him to think otherwise. Having one of his own children taken away or killed would be too horrific. "Kid said he saw a big black male wolf with red eyes. I found the trail, and I've been scouting the area for any sign." He said. Realizing that she could possibly think he meant that the wolf was in her area, he continued. "Everywhere West of our pack. No trace of the scent around here. Just need to alert the other packs around here that he's out, and Lucy's missing." He said, hoping that might set her mind at ease.

The name, so she assumed, meant little to her. Perhaps it had been him. Or maybe not. She did not know if they had exchanged names at all. Odds were good that it had not exactly come up. "Perhaps. Not sure," she replied with a soft shake to her head. If they had someone who evidently fit that description, however meager it had been on the exact details, she wouldn't be too surprised if it had been him. How many wayward youths could one scout know?

Still, the details came forward and her frown remained steady at the thought of such a culprit slithering free still. While not necessarily in her neighborhood at least, she didn't like it anyway and nodded in somber understanding. Shit happened, more or less, and it seemed the pups had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. All the more reason to keep her girls close, and as soon as they're able, endow them with the skills to protect themselves -- the world's far too full of horrid monsters for her to give them anything less. Knowing a bit about just one of them doesn't ease her thoughts any, but it does give her reason enough to root for them to find him and get what they deserve back: their lost pup, and revenge as they saw fit. She nodded steadily; it was all noted.

"I can spread word to my scouts, and stay vigilant here," she added. It was what they were doing, anyway, and she knew about Floki's itch to get out and do some scouting before winter made travel more difficult. Although she had no better information to give him about the kidnapper or the whelp, she'd still try to peer in a little deeper if she could help it. "Do you know anything else about the Blackfeather pup's circumstances, or no?" An unsaid implication being whether or not they could be potentially related, for an added twist. She had limited interactions with them, especially since the enigmatic Meldresi was no longer at their helm. There was only a fleeting encounter with one female of theirs moons back.

"Hmm," Shrike hummed, when Amekaze expressed that she didn't know the name of the young male she'd seen skulking about the area. He told himself to check in when he got back to the Caldera and see if Jackrabbit was home and safe. He was the only youth in the pack that really fit the description, he thought, and he wouldn't have been surprised- though quite disappointed, naturally- if he got back to the Caldera to see that the boy was missing. It seemed to be an unfortunate trend. 

He dipped his head gratefully when the dark female offered as much help as she could. "Thank you. Very much appreciated," He said, the tone of his voice sincere and genuine. He was quite pleased that he had not yet come across a pack that turned him away, belittled his pack for losing a child or offered no information. She asked about the pup from Blackfeather and he shook his head. "No idea." He said quietly. "She been gone the same amount of time or so," He said, but apart from that, he didn't know if she had left, been kidnapped, or what the situation had been.

Despite her lack of involvement in these misplaced youths, if she could glean her own information from it all, it could hold her attention long enough. But, that had about run its course and her offer was all she had to give in return. Plus, it seemed he did not have a whole lot to say about the Blackfeather case, which was all the same to her in the end. She'd make it a point to keep her own close to avoid all of this for herself best she could since it was evidently a reoccurring problem in this stretch of the Teekon.

She dipped her snout in a quick nod to his thanks. "Ah. Well, all noted. You probably have more ground to cover," she said before (likely) seeing him off to do just that, and exchanging any vague farewells should it come to that. She could resume her own patrols in the meantime.