Emberwood Swore I’d never let a man in my way.

Tags just for reference! If anyone wants to nab, feel free. :)

It felt as if she was utterly out of the loop on everything. The ranks had filled swiftly and then stagnated, which she was thankful for, but there were faces she did not recognize and scents she could not place. Beyond that, it felt as if there were things transpiring around Ibis that she was not privy to, or at the very least they happened so swiftly that she remained mostly unaware of them. Everyone was so busy! It felt nice in some regard, since that meant Ibis didn't have to run around doing everything herself anymore, but there was always a double-edge to everything. She didn't know the goings-on of her own home turf, and that bothered her.

So she patrolled loosely around the territory, cutting through the heart of the forest, spending a few hours at the foothills leading to the sheer cliff of the nearby mountain, and back again — seeking out familiar faces, refreshing her memory as best she could. The scent of @Bhediya mingled most often with @Pygmalion and that made her heart swell with pride and hope; she remembered that they were going to try for kids this year with her blessing, the thought of which made everything feel lighter. She came across the scent of @Kavik and @Lainie next - and further along, closer to the edge of the claim where @Reiko had left her marks on the tree trunks, she found the fleeting scents of @Awol and @Kukulkan.

Except there was something else, too. Her heart thumped in her chest when she came across Kukulkan's scent; it had been ages since she'd seen him, and while she knew he had the same wanderlust that she had been forced to curtail within herself, she was surprised to find his scent so thick within the forest. She followed it; there was no reason to do so, and she wasn't sure what she would do when she found him - if she found him - but what struck her as odd above all, was the way the scent mingled with the Magician's. It was strong; the scents trailed off, weaving together... And it made her stomach churn as if she had been gut-punched, but Ibis couldn't figure out why she would have such a visceral reaction.

Figuring that she was merely hungry, the girl abandoned her pursuit of that trail and made her way back through the white spires of the trees; she couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something obvious, that some deep secret was being kept from her, but that was stupid. Ibis trusted everyone within the pack implicitly, none more-so than the Magician, and what would it matter if Bhediya and Kukulkan were together -- ? They were her friends, and the fact they got along well, worked together well, was good. Right?

Before she knew it Ibis had trailed along to the western edge of the territory, and her legs ached. Her chest did too, but not in a physical sense... It was hard to place what she felt, and as she tried to make sense of it she began to pine for simpler times.

Easy was making her way through the territory in what was becoming her routine check of the borders and caches. The borders just to check in on things and place her scent alongside that of her dam and her siblings', but the caches to drag out anything that was rotting and to be sure that they weren't running terribly low on food.

Today, she'd found the half-eaten remains of a fat raccoon that'd been largely picked over, but were now giving off an awful scent. She had plans to lay it out in the open and see if she could nab a few vultures when they came to eat -- but that was before she came across the matriarch's scent and decided it was time to say hello.

Easy began to follow Ibis's scent, and set the carcass aside so as not to offend as she trotted the remaining distance between them. "Hey -- Ibis," she called out with a wag of her tail, drawing closer to the other woman in tentative friendliness.

The sound of a voice hit her ears and Ibis was inclined to move off again, to escape before being found. Take this time to be alone and to wallow a bit. Except there wasn't time for that. Easy appeared swiftly, her plush and mottled coat arrayed with bits of snow, curling at the ends just like her mother. Ibis felt an intense jealousy seed itself in her heart as she looked upon the beautiful girl; much as she had been covetous of Eleuthera's pelt when they were children together, the Archdruid could not stop a similar comparison from flourishing in the back of her mind. She felt her shoulder-fur bristle; but she composed herself and smiled all the same.

Hello, she replied. I would've thought you would accompany your mother on the trip abroad? Ibis intoned conversationally, not really wanting to think about that trip or the fact Bhediya had taken Kukulkan with her instead; that was fine, it was proper to have an escort, and Kukulkan would keep her safe. So then why did Ibis feel so bad about it? It was nonsensical.

The question that was posed felt almost impolite until Easy remembered that not everyone had such a difficult relationship with their mother. She took a moment to brush away the unease before replying, "Oh, well -- we don't really know each other that well. I didn't even realize she'd left."

Which hurt, a little, now that she thought about it. But there was no point in resenting the woman for it; Easy had not really talked to her about leaving the territory on her own outings, had she?

"I joined this pack to get to know her a little, but that hasn't been working out the way I hoped it would," she said gently, as if breaking a hard truth to the other woman rather than admitting one to herself. "But that's the way of things, sometimes." Easy had no desire to speak more on the subject; it was something she'd been putting off thinking about, merely because she knew it would make sticking around that much more difficult. She wanted to put in the time somewhere, and since she'd already invested a while in this pack, it might as well be here. Even if it wouldn't bring her closer to her mother.

"How are you?" she asked, hoping to make a connection with someone.