Hideaway Strath tacoma

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Each day it got a little easier to accept that maybe — just maybe — her mother was not coming to get her, that her sister might not follow whatever trail Dorea had left behind from Elyisum. It had filled her with anger at first but it was already starting to ebb away some. She had things to distract her here. Most notably were lessons with @Towhee (referencing this) which she looked forward to. There were also plenty of other adults to trail after. Not to mention kids roughly her own age.

Part of her was loathe to admit it but things were good here. Better than Elysium had been (although she missed Sundance terribly some days, wondered what he made of her absence) and better than her hazy early memories of the creek. Certainly better than roaming the Wilds as some angry hooligan.

Things would be fine, that much she was sure of as she meandered towards the narrow opening to the Grove. Perhaps she would find someone to tag along with.

To say Figment had been distraught since Fennec's disappearance would've been an understatement. He was entirely lost without her. They had come into the world together and taken nearly every step of their lives since in tandem beside each other. Fig had very few memories that didn't feature Fenn in some capacity. Caring for her and looking after her had become an entire part of who Figment Redhawk even was. Without her, he didn't know what to do. He struggled to even understand how to exist.

Which is all to say, Fig had been pretty darn withdrawn since her disappearance. He searched for her endlessly for a couple of weeks, but eventually, the hopelessness had set in. He tried to pay attention to his continued training, he tried to do well. But mostly, he just haunted the places where he and Fenn had played and gazed listlessly off into space, wondering where she was and what he could've done to keep her.

It was during one of these long, lingering stares into nothingness that he spotted the other pup wandering across his path. Fig knew little about her and he wasn't much inclined to change that fact today. So, he merely glanced at her before looking down at his paws like the skinny, awkward sack full of sad he had become.

Truthfully, it was a bit odd being the new child when the leader's had just lost one of their own. It filled her with an awkwardness and she wondered if somehow this was tied in with her. Probably not but no one said Dorea's thoughts made total sense. When she spotted the boy who was still left, her tail offered a few hesitant wiggles behind her form. Hey... She called out with hesitancy. He didn't exactly look like he was bursting with life or in search of company. Here she was though so he'd have to deal with it. Or tell her off, because Dorea was admittedly growing a bit softer during her days in the grove. Wanna do something? Maybe they could tussle or explore the grove. The thought of dragging Towhee into their shenanigans crossed her mind for surely the Kilonova would know how to cheer up Figment.

He didn't watch to see her stop, but he heard it in the shuffle of her paws. He sighed inwardly, but otherwise didn't move until she called to him. Fig glanced up at her with a blink of his soft, apple green eyes. He studied her for a moment as he waded through his feelings about being approached, then about being asked to do something. He didn't really do much these days outside of the periodic meandering along the borders where he mostly just gazed sadly off into the Wilds beyond his home, wishing Fenn might appear in his line of sight. The thought of doing something else was... Well, it wasn't really anything.

"Like what?" Fig asked, not rudely, but in a tone that was about 95% weariness and 5% mild curiosity. He didn't think he was likely to want to do whatever it was the girl had in mind, but regardless of how little he wanted to interact with others these days, Figment was still a gentleman and wouldn't just send her packing outright. He would chat a little, then send her packing, and then he was on his melancholy way once again.