Wild Berry Meadow animus vox

Anyone welcome!

It was rare she ventured far from the Caldera; she had a wonderful talent for getting herself hopelessly lost, and whenever she traveled outside of their territory, she felt a little undercurrent of anxiety rise in her when she could no longer smell her packmates' scent markings in the breeze. From where she was now, though, she could easily see the caldera itself and felt very little concern. Sometimes, necessity dictated that she leave home in search of medicinal herbs, and that was what she did today.

A little rumble of hunger gnawed at her belly but she pushed it aside -- food had been a little scarce of late, but it didn't worry her too much. She had no way of knowing that they were heading into a time of severe scarcity at the Caldera; she merely assumed that the pack had run into a tough bit of luck with hunting and would soon have their caches replenished. She forced her mind to focus on the task at hand: hunting up some wild horsemint to replenish her stock. There were few places near the Caldera where she could find it, but Wild Berry Meadow always had a bunch of it growing in the sunny, open areas of the fields. It was one of her favorite medicinal plants because it was useful for so many common ailments, and that was why she used so much of it. With so many puppies in the pack right now, someone always had a bellyache or a cut or a scrape or gas or a toothache as adult teeth replaced baby ones. She was burning through her supply quickly, and so she scanned the sunny hillside on which she now stood, electric yellow eyes on high alert for the bright magenta blossoms that betrayed horsemint plants hiding in the tall grass.

hi hello

Once again, Tytonidae strayed from her (hopeful) home. She was on the lookout for other wolves, and although she had crossed several territories without encountering one, she still had hope that she would run into one at some point. Bhediyon was growing, and as the days passed, more wolves pledged themselves to the cause. To say she was excited was a gross understatement. She was thrilled to finally be cultivating something. A community, a group of wolves that would look out for one another—not because they were expected to—but because they wanted to.

Her travels brought her south and east, and she found herself walking among a rather delightful field of flowers. Not only that, but Ty's attention was drawn to a single dark figure in the distance. A potential recruit! Excited by this prospect, she loped forward, eager to meet this new wolf. And yet... when the thick, recognizable scent of the caldera reached her nose, she relived Birk telling her that her father had died. Ty pushed that thought aside, put on her best smile, and woofed to announce her presence. "Hi there!"

omg howdy! It's been like a million years since we had a thread together!

She'd scored pretty big on this trip, and she wondered if she might have to make multiple trips to get all of her horsemint back to the caldera. There wasn't much of it growing in shaded areas, but out where it could get full sun, there were pink flowers all around. It was really quite beautiful, and she smiled with satisfaction at her success. She'd braved a few angry bumblebees and ants as she'd worked to pull up as many stems as she could. The plant tasted somewhat terrible at first, but as the spearmint-y essence overwhelmed her tongue, it really wasn't so bad. At least my breath won't stink for a while, she thought to herself with some amusement.

So focused had she been on her work that she completely missed the arrival of another wolf. She startled a little at the sound of its voice, but its friendly tone made it clear that she was in no danger. "Hello!" She waved her tail amiably and smiled as she returned the young she-wolf's greeting. She had no idea she was looking at her half-sister; if there was any familiarity in the dark wolf's appearance, Raven was oblivious to it. Just as she was oblivious to how ridiculous she looked with leaves, sticks, and other detritus sticking to her coat and her teeth stained green from plant juice.

I know! Probably last one we had was a Fox/Raven thread.

Tytonidae, having never met Raven as a child, also had no idea they were related by blood. In fact, she wasn't even able to recall the names her father had given to that first litter... if he had told her at all. Those conversations seemed like lifetimes ago. They may as well have been with the changes that Ty had gone through since then. But she wasn't thinking about that; not really.

"You, um... collecting things?" Tytonidae asked, then lifted her lips to show off her own teeth, wondering if this wolf would get the reference to her own green-stained enamel. Ty knew little of plants, though she vaguely recalled being interested in such things as a child. Then again, she'd been interested in plenty of things as a child, like woodland creatures and her uncle Atticus who had talked to her while remaining silent to everybody else.

Yikes -- sorry about the delay. Been focusing on WWS too much and not on this place enough. x_x

Raven was a little confused by the she-wolf's fleeting show of teeth. It was clearly not an aggressive gesture, as every other aspect of her body language was welcoming and friendly. She was entirely oblivious to the greenish hue of her own teeth -- or of how ridiculous she looked in general, really -- so she just assumed that maybe her new friend was just a little quirky (ironic, considering she was the one doing some very unwolf-like things at that moment).

The stranger then inquired as to what she was doing, and Raven was only too happy to reply. "I'm collecting medicinal plants!" Okay, maybe a little too heavy on the enthusiasm there. With a little less crazy in her tone, she continued, "I'm a healer in my pack. This plant --" she gestured to some of the purple blossoms nearby, "-- is one of of my favorites. It treats all kinds of ailments and injuries, and there's been no shortage of those lately. We don't have any where I live so I have to come out here to find it." Turning her eyes back to her new acquaintance, she offered, "I'm Raven, by the way."

Ty moved in a little closer (but not too close) to see what Raven was talking about. Tytonidae knew very little of plants, though there was a time when she had aspired to be some kind of healer. Right now, her only real passion was recruiting for her pack. Not that she would dismiss anybody who wasn't interested. Just as with Chusi, there was an opportunity to learn, and she planned on doing just that.

"I'm Tytonidae," she replied, figuring it was only proper to give her own name in exchange. The name Raven rang some very, very distant memory bell, but Ty couldn't really place it, so she figured it must have been somebody she had known long ago. Perhaps somebody who had passed through Sedona when she had first arrived. "Which pack is that?" she asked, curious to know where Raven currently resided. "And does that plant have a name?"

Raven thought that Tytonidae was a strange name for a wolf, but made no comment. She'd heard weirder names (them Blackthorn kids, y'all). Had she actually known what a tytonidae was, she might have found it interesting that this she-wolf was named after a bird in much the same fashion that she and many members of her own family were. But memories were like cobwebs in the winds of Raven's fickle brain -- they didn't tend to last for very long if they weren't medicine-related -- and if she had ever known this young female, there was no recognition whatsoever.

"Someone once told me it's called horsemint," she commented. "You can use it for an upset stomach, toothache, infections, cuts, fever, gas, headache...it's really useful." Raven loved to share her knowledge, and the thought that maybe -- maybe -- one day Tytonidae might recall this information and benefit from it made her happy. Remembering the green-eyed girl's first question, she added, "Oh, and I live at Redhawk Caldera, just south of here. How about you?"

Had to do a lot of old thread-reading to make sure I got my facts straight. xP

For a split second, Ty thought she heard "horseshit." Thankfully, her brain corrected her before she uttered the nonsense, and she choked-back a laugh at her own mental mistake. "Gas?" Tytonidae asked, having never heard that term used before as an ailment. Raven seemed plenty knowledgeable on the subject, which was great. In fact, Tytonidae was about to ask her if she'd be interested in teaming up when Raven mentioned where she was from and the name finally clicked with her.

"Raven," she whispered, tasting the name on her tongue once more as she dimly recalled her father mentioning the name to her once, long ago. "Your father was Peregrine?" she asked, though now she saw it more clearly in Raven's features. She was, after all, a spitting image of their father. Had he even told his younger children about their half siblings? Ty didn't know. In fact, she was blissfully unaware of her own sister's demise at the jaws of her father.

I've had to do a LOT of that since picking this girl back up again, haha.

Raven wasn't terrifically surprised when Tytonidae mentioned her father by name. Peregrine had been around for a long time and had made a lot of contacts across many of the packs in the area. His fecundity had also had a lot to do with it as well; children of his ran in other packs now, most notable among them her sister Wildfire. "Yeah, he was," she commented in response, noting with interest that the twisting pain she'd felt in the wake of Peregrine's death was becoming less pronounced with the passage of time. Seating herself amongst the litter of blossoms and stems she had pulled, she focused more fully on Tytonidae as she asked, "Was he a friend of yours?"

"Um, yeah... Well... He is, er, was, my dad, too." Ty found herself tripping over her own words, feeling oddly back in her younger personality of being unable to talk to strangers. It was hard to know what to make of Raven. She'd never been allowed near her younger siblings, though she was never given an explanation as to why. And though Birk seemed less standoffish than that other guy had been long ago, Tytonidae suspected that the Redhawk clan remained tight knit.

And what would Raven think of it? Did she even know that she had two older sisters? Ty hadn't seen Junior since... well, she couldn't even remember. They'd still been kids. Saena had just founded her own pack (though that didn't seem to be around anymore). The memories were fuzzy, old, and hard to put together.

Raven stared, electric-yellow eyes wide and face frozen in shock. She took in the lanky black physique, the lines of Tytonidae's face and shoulders, and something clicked. A cold little coil of horror slithered in her stomach as the memories of her father tearing the head off her older half-sister replayed in her mind. The phantom scent of death -- blood and offal, so thick in the air it almost hung around them like a mist -- tickled her senses as images of white bone and torn flesh danced across her vision. As an adult, the death of an animal didn't bother her at all. But that particular death, witnessed at such a tender young age, had almost been her complete undoing. And she would never forget the sight of those jaws around Wildfire's throat, her sister's vibrant eyes full of panic and pain as her windpipe was being crushed by a deranged psychopath.

All of this passed within the space of a few seconds, but the effect on Raven was clear. She closed her eyes, taking a breath to steady herself and generally just trying to get her shit together. "I'm sorry," she said softly, no doubt in her mind that she was probably making Tytonidae extremely uncomfortable. "It's just....a long time ago, another...half-sister...tried to murder us. When we were puppies. Her name was Junior." Her eyes lingered warily on the black she-wolf. She didn't have to ask if they were of the same litter, as her dad had only had one mate before Fox. She knew there had been children from that union, but the details were unclear. Peregrine had never talked about them much. She had no desire to judge Tytonidae for the sins of her sister, but a dark and unpleasant idea had surfaced in her thoughts: was she here to finish the job that Junior had left undone? Without even thinking about it, she took a step backward, suddenly aware of how far she was from her pack as the irrational fear of a terrorized child wrapped its icy fingers around her heart and squeezed.

Raven's expression changed drastically in a matter of seconds, and Ty felt she could see one emotion after another go across her half-sister's face in waves. Raven's explanation sent a sickening sensation in her own stomach, and for a moment she thought she might hurl. Swallowing hard, she sought words, but found none. Osprey (or "Junior," as she was more commonly known) had always been a firecracker, but Ty had never expected that out of her sister. She (and Saena) could be cruel at times, but not once would she expect her to attempt to murder a child.

"I had no idea," Ty finally croaked. Raven had taken a step back, and Ty didn't make a move to close the gap up again. "The last I saw her... I think she was... I don't even know. It was a long time ago. We had gone our separate ways." Tytonidae had long since given up on her sole littermate, assuming that Osprey had been doing well with Saena, perhaps with a mate and children. She hadn't wanted to know, in all reality. Osprey had always been better than her, more successful, more driven.

Her nerves jangled, as if she expected at any moment for the sibling of Wildfire's would-be killer to fly at her throat. But nothing happened, and for a few seconds, Tytonidae's stricken expression mirrored her own. When the she-wolf finally replied, Raven felt her tension ease somewhat. She didn't know, she thought to herself, feeling a sense of horror and remorse rise up inside for her half-sister now. Raven imagined what it would feel like to find out that Wildfire -- whom she idolized in some ways -- had attempted to slaughter a defenseless child, and shuddered.

She took a deep breath and sighed it out, calming herself a little more and gathering her composure. "I'm sorry," she apologized again. Her voice was soft, humbled by what they'd just shared. "I hate that you had to find out this way. It was awful." She was still unsure of how trustworthy Tytonidae was, but some unacknowledged sense of sisterly kinship and compassion kept her from divulging details of Junior's grisly end.

Ty wondered if her half-sibling considered her capable of the same atrocities. She couldn't imagine wrecking the life of somebody innocent, let alone a child. In some ways, she expected that sort of thing out of, say, Pura, their estranged cousling. But Ty hadn't seen him in ages (nor Saena or Junior), so maybe it was nothing to worry about now. But then, what if Junior was still out there.

"Did she get chased off?" Ty asked, unaware of the grisly end that her sister had faced on that fateful day. She wondered if Osprey was still around somewhere nearby. Did she have remorse for what she had done? Had she tried to make amends with their father before he had passed away? Was there any hope for her to come back from something like that?

It was inevitable that Tytonidae would want to know what had happened following Junior's attack, though some naive part of Raven had hoped she wouldn't ask. She quailed inside at the images of the decapitated head swinging from her father's jaws, the way it had thumped to the ground with a sickening little splat and rolled a little before coming to rest alongside the slumped, broken body over which their father stood. She couldn't tell Tytonidae any of that -- it was too horrible. Her voice abandoned her for a moment, so she could only shake her head slowly in response, the implication clear in her expression: Junior had most certainly not been chased off.

Raven didn't answer, at least not verbally, and Ty understood. Either that, or she didn't want to know. Whatever had been Junior's fate, it hadn't been a good one. Not only had her father died, but Ty's sister had, too. Coming back to the Teekon Wilds had not been the reunion she had thought it might be. Then again, when had it ever been a particularly happy place? Probably when she had been with Summer, but even that had a rough start (and a rougher end).

"I see," she murmured, at a loss for words beyond that. "Thanks for letting me know." Even if it wasn't the news she had wanted to hear, she now knew the fate of her sister and her father. As for her mother... well, Ty didn't think she would ever know. Hawkeye had vanished before she'd even reached her first year, and it didn't seem as though she had come back since then.

The silence that descended between them was a little awkward. What was there to say after all of that? Raven looked down at her paws for a moment before looking back up at Tytonidae, sorrow and anxiety clear in her eyes. This meeting had been one of the wildest emotional rollercoasters she'd ever been on. "I'm so sorry," she said, her voice soft. She didn't know what else to say. Had the dark cloud of Junior's fate not been hanging over them at that moment, perhaps she might have been delighted to meet a sibling she had never known. But it seemed that even in death, Junior was still determine to wreak havoc on her family.

She remained a bit stunned, though she tried to see the best in things. Raven, at least, seemed open to the idea of getting to know her. At least Ty hoped so. "I hope that I can prove that I'm nothing like my sister," she said, trying to find the right words to fit together for what she wanted to ask. "I'd love it if you'd come to the plateau where I'm settling sometime and visit. I know we're only related by blood, and only half-sisters, but I'd like to get to know the family that I have left here." Much of her family had left here, so Raven and her siblings were about the only blood-related family she could think of unless Hawkeye showed up with a bunch of kids under her wing.

Raven smiled at Tytonidae's words, feeling a bit of regret at how she'd reacted earlier. She'd always been a little too sensitive, a little too reactive, and clearly that hadn't changed with time. "I'd like that too," she replied earnestly. Curiously, she asked, "Tell me about your plateau? Are you joining a pack there?" The thought of traveling had never appealed to her, but ever since meeting that strange female who'd traveled the entire Teekon, she'd been pondering it more and more.

It seemed as though Ty wasn't the only one who wanted to kindle bonds with distant family, and she wagged her tail and nodded when Raven agreed. She had thought that Raven might excuse herself to get back to the caldera, but much to her delight, her half-sister seemed keen to know more about the plateau, a place Ty had grown rather fond of.

"Not quite," she replied, "I'm actually gathering wolves to start a pack of my own." She had never quite liked that wording since a pack was made up of its members more than a single (or a few) leaders. But it was what it was, and she was the driving force behind Bhediyon. "The plan is to honor those who work had to contribute to the pack by recognizing well-trained wolves of any skill." That, of course, was only half of the pack's somewhat-unique features, but she would let Raven dig for more at her own pace.

When Tytonidae mentioned starting her own pack, Raven's eyebrows shot up in a look of surprise. That was actually impressive and kind of awesome, and she nodded her head appreciatively. Her family's bloodline burned with a passion and strength of will that made for good leaders, and several of her siblings had aspired to climb ranks. She was the exception -- that gene had skipped her completely -- although she'd ended up at the top of the caldera's hierarchy anyway due to age and service to the pack. "That's really cool," she commented thoughtfully. "Which plateau will you be settling at? And what will you call yourselves? So I know where to go and who to look for."

Tytonidae's comment of "honor[ing] those who work hard to contribute to the pack by recognizing well-trained wolves of any skill" particularly appealed to her. While she didn't necessarily need praise or recognition for her work as a medic, sometimes she felt her skills and contributions to the caldera were a little taken for granted. It wasn't a huge deal to her, and she didn't resent Elwood or Finley in any way, but...this was certainly some interesting food for thought.

"It's called Ocean's Breath Plateau, and it does the name justice... right on the coast!" Ty responded giddily. Every time she got to talking about what she was building, cultivating, growing it put a bounce in her step and a sparkle in her eye. "But we won't be there forever. I'm a traveler at heart, so I plan to pick up and move every few months to keep that itch scratched. The pack itself is called Bhediyon, meaning 'wolves' in another language once spoken to me by a traveler." Again, she felt she could have gone on-and-on, rattling off all the ideas she had for the pack and what sorts she hoped would be drawn to it.

Maybe it was because she had dealt with so much loss during her short lifespan, but Ty found it easy to refocus her attention on this and off of the horrific actions her sister had taken. Raven did not seem to judge her too harshly based on Osprey's reactions, so perhaps that was part of what made it easy to move on quickly (or at least shelve those emotions for a later day).

Raven took all the information in, noting that the plateau had a rather beautiful name but thinking with dismay of how far away the coast was. Perhaps she'd do some traveling soon, after all. She definitely wanted to keep contact with her half-sister, get to know her better. "Bhediyon," she said when Tytonidae finished speaking, tasting the unusual word. "Well, I hope that one of your moves will bring you closer to us but I'll definitely try to come and visit you. I...don't think I've ever even seen the coast. I don't have the best sense of direction so I mostly stay close to the caldera." The more she contemplated it, the more she realized that she wanted to change that. She was dedicated to her family's pack, of course, but that didn't mean she couldn't expand her horizons a little.

Thinking on it a little more, she realized that she did have something she could offer to her newfound sibling. She wasn't sure how useful Ty would find it -- maybe she was already covered in that area -- and the distance certainly complicated it somewhat. But nevertheless, she offered anyway. "You know, I'm an experienced medic. If you ever need medical help, I know it's a long distance but send a messenger and I'll help. At least send them back with advice, medicine, whatever you need." It wasn't her place to make alliances between packs, but her skills were hers to share as she saw fit, and they would always be made available to blood family, no matter what.

The realization that Raven had never seen the coast was astounding. Tytonidae had traveled all over, and though she was older than Raven, it was only by a year. Perhaps her half-sister's wanderings had just never taken her out that way. Raven also included that she'd be happy to help with medical advice, should Bhediyon need it in the future. The sentiment was a rather generous one, and Ty smiled fondly in response. "I'll keep that in mind," she replied, happy to know yet another friendly face in the Teekon Wilds.

Perhaps if there was an aspiring medic in Bhediyon, Ty would attempt to send them to Redhawk Caldera to learn the trade more quickly, rather than the usual trial-and-error that most seemed to learn by. And perhaps she could make it an exchange, with one of the caldera's members coming to live with Bhediyon for a time to learn some trade or another. These were the kinds of alliances she hoped to make with other packs, even if they were fleeting and fragile.

"If you ever decide you want to hone in your scouting skills, I'd be happy to give you some tips, too." It seemed an obvious leap, considering Raven admitted to having a history of getting lost.

Raven's offer seemed to be well received, and she hoped that she'd have an opportunity to make good on it someday (in a capacity that didn't involve someone getting injured or killed, of course). She couldn't wait to get back to the caldera and share this with Elwood and Finley; on second thought, however, she wondered if the memory of Junior's sins was still as fresh in their minds as it was in her own, and if they would be so willing to look past them where this new half-sibling was concerned. She would have to think on that later and decide if it was a good idea to tell them of the offer she'd made to Tytonidae and her fledgling pack, or if it would anger them.

Tytonidae made an offer of her own, and a look of obvious delight came over Raven's face. "That would be great, actually!" she replied, willing to take any and all expertise to heart. Clearly her half-sister did a great deal of traveling, so she was probably chock-full of experience and good advice.