Silver Moraine If you must die, sweetheart, die knowing your life was my life's best part

Now that things were settling down on the mountain, Wylla thought it was high time she took a little personal time off. The painful reality of losing an eye made her reluctant to check out Dragoncrest Cliffs again, so she went the other way, descending from the cold stone heights through the pines and down into the sprawling taiga plains to their south.

She walked mindlessly on, allowing her senses to do the surveying for her while her mind wandered, until she arrived at a landscape comprised of broken stones and barren ruts. It had the look of a wide riverbed that lacked a river. Wylla slipped nimbly down into a groove in the earth and lowered her head to sniff. If there had ever been water here, it was a long, long time ago.

Emerging, the charcoal she-wolf picked up her head and ears, scanning her surroundings before selecting a large rock to perch herself precariously on. From here, she could see the silhouette of the Sunspires. On a whim, Wylla lifted her muzzle into the air and howled a long, low note—a hopeless and haunted song for her son, who was oft thought of and dearly missed, even if he was dead.

A howl burst through the brush, making Sunhawk jump like a flushed pheasant hen. He reeled in surprise as he saw the perfect silhouette of a wolf against a backdrop of stone and sky. Not just any wolf, but that wolf.

Wyclops.

Oh shit.

Sunhawk hunched back down in the brush, licking his blueberry-stained lips in nervousness. Had she seen him? She'd probably definitely heard him. Oh fuck, oh fuck, he was in trouble.

Maybe he could slip off in the direction her bad eye was in? Sunny squinted, unable to pull any details from the sharp silhouette that cast his heart in full terror. Nothing to do but wait - if he was lucky, maybe she'd think he was some sort of bird startled by the eerie longing in her song.

Mid-howl, a great clattering of branches and limbs made her wrench her ears forward. She cut her voice off abruptly and panned her remaining eye around her surroundings, pausing on clusters of bushes. It'd sounded almost exactly like a grouse breaking cover, only Wylla knew grouse a little better than that. They were clever little birds and very, very brave. You could practically step on one before it would give up its hiding place.

That was no grouse.

Down she hopped from her rocky perch to slink suspiciously toward the nearest stand of bushes. On the off chance it was a grouse, it had gone right back into hiding. She couldn't see it now. To the left there was another large bush—the very one that Sunhawk hid behind. When she found nothing of interest, she turned toward that one next, lifting her lips in a very quiet, disconcerted growl.

Wylla be like:

She might have lost an eye, but that didn't slow her down any. If anything that single eyeball glared from her skull like the all seeing Eye of Sauron - Sunhawk melted under cover as it came searing his way. In two second she would be onto him. In four her head would probably flip back like a Xenomorph and she'd suck the life out of his skull while skinning him alive. 

He wished she'd stop advancing (literally, the first time Sunhawk EVER wished a woman stopped coming close to him). She did the opposite. A quiet growl curled around her lifted lips as she made her way to his bush (and not the lewd kind, much to Sunhawk's dismay).

Fuck. He wasn't going to remain undetected for long. Even a wolf freshly widowed of their eyeball would see him as soon as they came close. He had no choice but to own the fact he was about to die at Wyclop's hand.


He rose on shaky limbs from the bush. Fuck me, brother. She looked as terrifying as ever. If Sunhawk was going to turn into dog food, at least it was done at a semi attractive lady's hand instead of some freak in a Jigsaw mask. "Uh." He cleared his throat, licking his blueberry stained lips nervously. "You look nice today."

She'd been far too busy at the cliffs trying to destroy Umbra's leg and losing her eye to really get a good look at Umbra's companion, so when Sunhawk himself rose up out of the bushes to eclipse her, Wylla didn't recognize him. Her memory of that night was hazy at best and was focused primarily on Umbra, who she would easily recognize if she saw her in the future. Sunhawk had been something of a specter and she'd taken no notice of his distinguishing golden stripe at the time.

Didn't mean she was any less baffled or annoyed when he stood up and spoke in a voice warped with nervous energy. Wylla's lips pressed tightly down over her teeth as she considered him, then growled, why are you hiding like a weasel? Already she was spinning an explanation in her mind, for there could be only one reason a wolf would be skulking about like that so close to a pack's claim, and it didn't paint Sunhawk in a very favourable light.

Who do you report to? she asked, more stern now as she drew herself up to her full diminutive height.

Judging by Wylla's reaction, she either didn't remember Sunhawk, or had forgiven him for his involvement in the destruction of her eye. If you asked Sunhawk, he'd say Wylla was exactly the type of wolf that would carry a slight to the grave, die, host the funeral, and then reincarnate herself mid-sermon to finish her business of terrifying everyone on the mortal plane.

Yup, she was as forgiving as a cat who had its tail slammed in the door.

He tried to straighten himself from the bush once he realized Wylla was subtly accusing him (or not so subtly - she was layering it on like a glutton spreading thick cream cheese on the world's most delicious bagel). Painfully aware his lips and chin were stained in blueberry sluice, Sunhawk licked his lips nervously.

"Because you scare the shit out of me." Sunhawk answered unflinchingly. No use trying to disguise it - Wylla was goddamn terrifying and that was before her eye ended up like a skewer on Umbra's fangs (another terrifying lady). Thinking maybe he needed to demonstrate his station before Wylla, Sunhawk kept his shoulders and head low with his ears lower. "No one really. Well, I have a friend - that lady that you tried to kill.. but I'm alone right now." His scent would be sample enough of that truth: no Kraken to be found on his scraggly hide.

She blinked, stupefied. That was about the most straightforward answer she'd received to a question in her life. There was something kind of satisfying about being told she was frightening. Probably it was the pirate appeal of being monocular, but she was waylaid by it for a brief moment while she grappled with a confusing sweep of validation.

It was all completely derailed when he mentioned a woman she tried to kill. That could only be one wolf, and her stance changed instantly toward the aggressive. Sunhawk's saving grace was that for a second or two, he'd made her feel like she was worth something. It was enough to stay her teeth, but not enough to stop the crackling snarl that accompanied her next question: why the fuck are you spying on me?

Nothing could prepare Sunhawk for the way Wylla went from confused to aggressive in the drop of a hat. Ever.

He could watch her do that ten thousand times, and every time he'd have the same visceral reaction. ( ( F L I N C H ) )

Sunhawk ducked away instantaneously. His instinct to self-preserve was so strong that his reaction to her snarl was automatic. Ears flattened, stomach dropped, balls tucked way up inside of him. He ducked so low he nearly disappeared behind the blueberry bush he'd been peacefully grazing on until Wyclops rolled into his life.

Wylla accused him of stalking her. Of all people, her?

"Bruh." Sunhawk interjected. He was stunned. Absofruitly posi-groovely stunned. So stunned he let his mouth get the better of him before he realized he was speaking to Wylla, Eminent Dragoness Esquire. She would probably rip his head right off his body once she heard the way he addressed her. "I mean ma'am.." Sunhawk hastily tacked on. There, fixed. Cordial as a peach pie. "I been eating blueberries. You came to my patch and nearly made me drop a road apple in them."  One thing Sunboy had going for him was the blueberry mustache on his chin. Wylla might think he was lying, but his lips held one truth and that was how much he'd been snacking lately.

If ever a wolf could shoot a laser from their eye, it would be Wylla. Her gaze attempted to pierce through Sunhawk to his very heart, which she would have telekinetically crushed if she had the power to do so. If he was telling the truth, then she was jumping to conclusions and had already endangered her pack by being so reactive to his presence. A clever wolf would work out that she had a reason for behaving that way and would know that her family must be somewhere nearby.

Don't let me catch you in this area again, she snapped, bristling. But that was all she did. She stepped away from him and began to leave, keeping him in her sights and angling her course toward the Sunspires rather than where her home really was. If Sunhawk did report back to Umbra, then she was determined that he would tell her the wrong direction to go if she sought vengeance against herself or Mahler.