Sleepy Fox Hollow [ tm ] the girl with the face that launched a thousand ships

tags for reference! ♥

when @Mahler calls upon her and the golden woman @Nyx, blodreina thinks her name is, to scout nearby territories for diaspora's location there is some surprise but it is quickly swallowed and graciously accepted. blodreina's no scout and though her most recent activities roaming the sunspires with her daughter might give a different impression it is at @Praimfaya's own request. while her daughter sought to make friends and quasi allegiances with the wolves she comes across blodreina is content to be a homebody. nevertheless, as the gargoyle entrusts her as one of the scouts with the important task of seeking out a potential new home she does not question him nor raise fuss. she offers him a sage nod and after informing @Ingram she'll be gone for a few days exploring territories she departs.

her journey takes her first to shadow mountain and though it is directly adjacent to arrow lake it brings back memories of sleeping dragon's trembling form, the cascade of rocks that had almost crushed her; and blodreina does not trust the loose rocks that the look as if they appear to teeter on the edges of jagged outcroppings. she moves further, thinking first of sleepy fox hollow and that upon first impressions it'd seemed a pleasant enough territory when praimfaya and her had been there last.

if nothing else it offered ample prey and freshwater sources which was a good enough basis for her to begin her true exploration of the territory. she shrugs through the green foliage that she knows soon will begin to turn with the changing of the seasons and peers wonders if the peaks that close the hollow in like a fortress would work to their advantage and keep the worst of the snows from them.

When Mahler asked her to aid in finding a suitable area of the range to relocate, she was both confused as to why he would trust her with such an important mission and glad for the opportunity to escape. Nyx had made no effort to pursue the title of "scout" but she was an avid wanderer. Her trails had seen her through a variety of terrain and the new General's request had, undoubtedly, breathed new life into her.

She trailed along at the dark-furred wolfess' flank, content to follow and study the land as they walked and steal glances at her companion. The journey was mostly quiet and while Nyx appreciated the company she felt a little awkward and unsure how to prompt any conversation. "So," she finally found the courage to reach out as they pressed on through rogue foliage, "how'd you and Ingram meet?"

blodreina is admittedly used to being quiet company: she never felt the need to fill silences with idle chatter. when she'd been antumbra's cheka she had been the silent sentry she'd been meant to be though as she's taken on the role of her daughter's seda she's grown accustomed to speaking more, telling her things about their culture, their people and slowly her past. that doesn't mean that blodreina's well versed in opening up to others. ingram knows everything now, she saw no sense in keeping secrets from her husband and praimfaya was young still and there are things about her past that reina isn't quite so willing to subject her daughter to.

though, like she had in drageda so many times, blodreina tells herself now to open up to her gold dappled companion. nyx's willingness to stick together and not go their separate ways comes as a surprise to blodreina but she welcomes the other woman's presence all the same, maybe hoping, somewhere deep inside that the other woman would prove to be someone that she might one day consider a friend.

the question about ingram and her's first meeting draws an ear in nyx's direction as blodreina's blue-green gaze studies the horizon. aside from a few fading trails here and there she does not scent any lingering scents that might present an issue in their explorations. it was right before a blizzard, actually. literally. we were forced to take shelter and we got snowed in for a few days. the wanlida is aware that her and ingram's courtship was atypical and backwards to how most traditionally happened but she was not ashamed. she wouldn't trade ingram, praimfaya or how it all came about for the world.

She could have loved Lycaon. She knew she could, though for all this time had refused to acknowledge the very real possibility that she did and always would. Nyx, spurred by the hormones that came with the season, had gone looking for either of the brothers that fateful day - it just so happened that Lycaon was the first to find her.

Just as easily, it could've been Ingram.

Her gaze lingered on Blodreina, feeling the prickle of jealousy that trailed the length of her spine to find release in the irritated sweep of her feathered tail. The tawny Ostrega never yearned to take a partner and raise a family, but something in her was always oddly possessive of Lycaon and Ingram. For a long time she believed them to be her grounding to the coast, perhaps even to this world, until one had left and she'd ruined the other.

That's nice, she thought bitterly when her companion answered, and thanked her lucky stars for reliable resting bitch face that would never betray her inner dialogue. "We ran together some time ago," Nyx shared, still fond of the earlier days in Grimnismal before the shitstorm that drove her away. "He left the pack when his sister did, and so did I shortly after. I didn't think I'd ever see him again."

this post got long & rambly. no need to match the length!

when blodreina had used to envision her future it hadn't included a husband, nor children. it'd included the heady thrum of war and the kill marks that would mar her shoulders. they did now, but not nearly as many as a younger blodreina would've liked. then again, in her visions of her future she hadn't lost her heda to suicide either. life was never straight-foward and while she'd never ever thought herself to be the wife and mothering type ( and ok maybe she wasn't ) she is not unhappy; and there is a distinct feeling that she is right where she needs to be. war cannot be tamed out of her but ingram doesn't appear to mind that and she couldn't have asked for a better partner to share the rest of her years with.

blodreina was not commonly a jealous woman — only really when it came to freyja — but she feels a stir of it beneath her breast as nyx admits that she knows ingram from time past ...and not for the reasons one might expect. she wishes that she could once more be reunited with kru ( besides verx, for while praimfaya liked him reina was still on the fence about him and his penchant for disappearing ) regardless of how she thinks they might have dragged her name thru mud, tied as it no doubt was, to natrona. have you spoken to him at all since you arrived in diaspora? blodreina inquires curiously, knowing that ingram's memory was not whole. did he even remember nyx? blodreina cannot help but wonder.

i might've not been looking for a family when i first met him, blodreina admits, offering the sincere words without prompt simply because she feels like she needs to. but i love him and i'm glad we found each other. not just the first time but also when he'd found her in diaspora and had decided to, despite that he could have easily walked away, stay with her and praimfaya. ingram saved me. she says quietly, not out of shame but because admitting it out loud was massive for her.

but all that she said was true. when blodreina had been so very lost and shattering from the inside out at heda's death, threatening to drown in the sea of the storm ingram had rose from the murky and atrociously vicious waters like a lighthouse guiding her to safety. guiding her to him. and the gift he'd given her: their praimfaya, a commander to be ...together the two of them gave blodreina direction and purpose.

but this all feels so heavy and a bit too personal for blodreina to wish to continue sharing. even though all the good ingram and praimfaya's done for her, blodreina, at her core, still likes to keep her feelings pressed tightly against her chest especially in the presence of strangers. i brought praimfaya here a couple of days ago, blodreina shifts gears then and gestures to sleepy fox hollow with a small shift of her muzzle. it was the first place i thought of when mahler approached us. there is ample prey, trees to offer shelter, freshwater and the sunspire's peaks could offer plenty of protection from hammering winds or invasive wolves. but it was true that blodreina hadn't had a whole lot of time to explore.

Had she known that Blodreina was jealous of her (lol wut?) for knowing her lover in a past life, Nyx would've boasted her best Cheshire cat grin. While not naturally a cruel creature, she was naturally selfish - it brought great satisfaction to have something that others might yearn for. But alas, the tawny Ostrega was no mind reader - she carried on behind her companion, sure to follow in her pawsteps to save herself pushing through rough foliage to forge a path.

"Yes," she said, but that thread has barely started and Rebel doesnt know how it'll pan out so let's assume Nyx fills Blodreina in on some of the deets. "We built Grimnismal together, and made a pretty good team." She missed those carefree days, just she and her two beach boys frolicking in the sand without having to give a rat's ass about anyone or anything else.

The teal-eyed wolfess explained how deeply she cared for that loveable rogue, and Nyx quietly considered how the Ingram she knew would have scrunched his nose in distaste at such a proclamation. But they were different wolves now, she recognised, and he definitely appeared to have grown up a lot more than she did - despite being a year his senior. Nyx didn't say anything in response to Blodreina's admission of love, instead padding along at her heels in an awkward silence.

Glad for a change of subject (even though she'd started the previous conversation), a raven-tipped lobe sprung forward and both females turned focus to the task at hand. "Sounds good to me," she lifted her muzzle, resting the air. "No competition nearby?"

blodreina makes a noncommittal noise as nyx tells her they built a pack together and that they make a pretty good team. i'm glad he has a friend like you, then. which was more than blodreina could say for herself. she'd never been the most social nor the friendliest — she'd been the residential salty bitch of drageda and that doesn't appear to have changed much — and she was on barely speaking terms with aurëwen whom she had once considered a friend. no matter how much good ingram and praimfaya have been for blodreina it appeared there was no extracting the thorns from her ...and for whatever reason ingram and praimfaya continued to love her.

no. not immediately, at least. blodreina replies to nyx's question about competition unaware that a new version of blackfeather woods has cropped back into blackfeather woods, but even if she would've she couldn't have been bothered to think of them as a threat — though that was certainly a victor's arrogance speaking. i haven't taken praimfaya outside of the sunspires yet. loathe as blodreina was to go adventuring ( hermit that she is ) she knows her daughter will soon not be satisfied with just ghosting about the neutral territories of the sunspire and will want to taste the true wilds soon enough. even so diaspora's pick of territories in the sunspire are uncontested. just the way the basilisk had intended it to be.

She breathed deep, confirming Blodreina's observation that there were no groups settled in the lands nearby that they had to worry about. Nyx remembered vividly the day she'd approached Ingram with her concerns of having set up camp so far up Drageda's ass, having not bothered to go any further beyond the sound herself. She'd been naturally anxious over competition for food and territory with the wolves who made their home on the cliffs, but her own comrades were confident that they could hold their claim.

Nodding in acknowledgment of the warrior wolfess' assurance that the range was uninhabited, she turned her yellow gaze toward her. "Anywhere else youd like to check out before we head back?" Nyx asked, content with what they'd found but unsure if it was right to choose the first place they'd seen without further scouting. She'd made more than enough poor decisions in her lifetime - she wanted to be sure that this one would be better.