Stone Circle BWP - BYEson.

Valette looked out over the plains with a frown on her face. From the clearing she could not see any of the bison herd. Normally, they would be far in the distance or just further north of the territory, but they usually stuck close to their home grounds. They always returned but now they had been gone for a few days. The matriarch ran down the hill out onto their fields. She ran all the way to their border. The fields continued all the way to the hollow, but they never claimed more ground as it was not feasible to claim any larger, unless they would have more wolves.

Valette looked from left to right, all around her see was surrounded by blank open fields. Her frown deepened. Where could the massive beasts have gone? She had seen them running and panicking after those shocks but the main gamekeeper expected them to return. They hadn't and there wasn't a sight of them. This was worrying, as she hadn't seen as many signs of deer in the forest either.

As much as Nanook was a mercenary, she was by same percent a naturalist; her passions divided between the trades in an even split. The art of the earth fascinated her as much as the methods of war, and even though her primary focus now rested with Siarut, she never stopped watching nor feeling the world around her - how the wind shook or the ground shifted beneath her feet. There were changes with every season, and she had lived many seasons - enough to know their patterns, the repetition from winter to spring to summer to fall.

She had lived long enough to know when something was amiss. And she had known her sister long enough to know when something was awry with her, too.

Nanook had tracked Valette to the borders, and she felt the eerie absence of the plains. Bison and their young should have dotted the field - but she had not seen hide nor the tail of the beast since the tremors, and their fading scent suggested they hadn't stepped within Easthollow since the ground had first begun to shake.

"They are gone," she said, and she too stared into open space where her sister fixed her gaze - an opening for Valette to voice the worries that Nanook already knew were on the matriarch's mind. They were on Nanook's as well.

Valette's ears turned to the approaching footsteps. They were unfamiliar to her for a moment, but when she caught her sister's scent. She turned her face to Nanook when she spoke. Valette could only nod. Nanook didn't came at a good time with their territory having all these tremors and now the bison leaving. She let out a long sigh. They would have to stick together and keep their eyes out for other prey. "They left before when the water dried up," she stated.

Still she was worried. She had four children that were growing up and needed to be fed. Greyback was getting older. She knew she was going to put everyone before herself. But that was okay. "We need to keep a look out for other prey and make sure they are still around," she spoke, worried.

Nanook listened to Valette's worries. They lined up perfect with who her sister was; a gameskeeper, a matriarch, a leader, a mother. If they had no food, they had no livelihood here, or anywhere. The disappearance of the prey caused enough worry in that matter alone. The mercenary wondered if Valette had considered what their departure could mean for the pack, beyond the obvious.

She tipped her head, nodded. "You can count on my eyes to be open," and she frowned. There was a problem beyond the disappearing prey - and though much had changed here, Valette had trusted her council before. Still, she hesitated. "But what of these tremors? The bison left once when the water dried up, you said that yourself - they deemed this place unsuitable to live, and kept away until the land could sustain them again, " and they had returned, "These tremors keep growing. I have studied the earth, and I have never felt anything like this before," and with this, her voice grew quiet, and she fixed her copper eyes upon her sister's face. "The movements of prey can be seasonal, but they can also be a warning. Perhaps these tremors are more sinister than just a little shaking we can learn to live with and ignore."

Valette nodded at her sister. Glad to have an extra pair of eyes. She turned more to her sister with her brows in a frown as she spoke. Nanook spoke about the tremors and how the bison saw these lands as unfit. Valette disliked hearing it because in her mind Easthollow as perfect. The matriarch kept her green eyes straight into those fire colored eyes of her sister as her voice turned quieter. "I hear you," she responded to her. But she didn't want to move. Easthollow had been her home for years and she was very reluctant to even consider moving. Her precious stones and her emotional connection to them.

'I will keep a close eye on how the tremors progress," Valette assured her sister. She was not like her sister. She was connected to her home, she didn't travel anymore, not that often. She was clearly not as free as Nanook. The female wanted to stay in Easthollow. This was going to be another another decision of listening to her heart or listing to reason. "But it could be that everywhere we go there are tremors as well, and also no big prey," she returned.[b] "This can't be so local as only here in the rising sun valley."

Her sister had heard her, but Nanook wondered how much she had listened. She would submit, when submission was needed, but Nanook had always been a fire -- and Valette had always been a mountain, fixed, and unmoving, a stubborn one -- different, yet not so much unlike herself. Her sister could hold her own, and so could Nanook.

"I don't doubt these tremors are elsewhere. The land is not so divided as to care about the boundaries and divisions we set for it." The earth was an arbitrary figure in her equation of the worth of a place. She found peace at Easthollow, but she knew if her family left these stones, they would carry that belonging with them. Where her loved ones roamed, there her heart followed, whether surrounded by ice and snow, mountains and crags, valleys and hills. Her home was with Siarut, and now with Valette, Greyback, and their kin.

"You yourself know that statement is absurd," she retorted, "Those bison didn't just disappear off the face of the earth. They travelled somewhere, and they are staying there. Whether on the move, or in a sanctuary devoid of these shakings, I don't know, but many wolves live nomadic lives in pursuit of the herds. I know you have lived here a long, long time, and that I have only just returned - but you must understand, I speak for the love of our people too, for the love of our family. There is enough small game to sustain us for a little while longer, but that will thin and disappear as well, and then we might have no other choice but to move. I need to know that you will be ready to make that call, if that time does come."

Valette was glad to hear that Nanook thought the same about the tremors. It was clear that they had been everywhere. Valette didn't feel like moving, especially with not knowing the territories and if they would be safe there as well. Valette's eyes hardened a bit when Nanook called her statement absurd. She slowly nodded as she continued to indicate that she was listening. She absolutely hated the idea of moving away from easthollow. To leave it alone. "There is no way I will let anyone starve to death," she spoke. If that means we have to move then I will have to make that decision," she spoke but with distaste in her tone.

Valette didn't want to move but she also didn't want anyone to stave, if Easthollow didn't provide them with food then they would have to find it somewhere else. Perhaps track after the bison. Though Valette mourned at the thought of leaving her stones. Leaving the land she knew every inch of.