Firefly Glen it gives off the heat of a sunbeam

Although she wasn't entirely sure why @Fennec wanted to be taken to the caldera over the glen, Meerkat gladly escorted her there. They met up with Towhee at the borders. She waited for their mother to assess her older sister and welcome her into the territory before telling the Sovereign the news: she hadn't just found Fen, she'd also located Kaertok!

She didn't get home until late and curled up in the first comfortable spot to get some much-needed sleep. She didn't stir until late the next morning. Meerkat languished for a few minutes, stretching and yawning, enjoying the contrast between the cold ground and the sunshine warming her back. She eventually pushed to her feet, rubbing the last traces of sleep from her eyes as she began looking for @Bronco.

While Meerkat had been off on the journey assigned to her by Towhee, Bronco had restricted his earching to the areas only immediately outside the Glen. While he wanted to go further to search for Fennec, he also wanted to be at the Glen when his younger sister returned just in case she needed something. He was anxious about her going so far on her own, and off into a territory he wasn't familiar with- but she was an adult now, he reminded himself. Meerkat had had the sensibilities of a young adult her entire life. She could handle this. 

So when he came across her trail leading back through the borders while he was on patrol, he abandoned his guard post and followed it, only to find the spot where she had been sleeping- a nice soft, open spot that was cold by the time he reached it, but he could tell he wasn't far behind her. He picked up a jog and began to pursue her trail at a hunter's pace, moving swiftly but accurately along her trail in hopes of catching up with her soon.

When ten minutes passed without finding any fresh traces, Meerkat paused and considered howling. Right before she could toss back her head, she heard thumping footfalls behind her and turned. Her entire face brightened when she saw Bronco loping toward her. She spun to face him, heart skipping with the news she had to share with him.

"I found Fennec! She's at the caldera," Meerkat shared, then realized how that sounded and clarified, "She fell into a canyon and hurt herself. I found her and took her to the caldera." And though Bronco might not be able to process anything else in light of this news, she couldn't help but excitedly add, "I found Kaertok too!"

He cautht sight of her and continued to approach, noticing with small amusement that she didn't seem to hear him until he'd closed the distance a fair amount. Maybe she was distracted- she looked like she might have been in the process of hunting something down. She looked fairly well, though, when she turned to greet him, and her expression was as sunny as always- if not a bit more. So she'd managed well throughout the journey, without getting hurt, and she smelled-

He froze and the fur at the nape of his neck bristled when he caught a familiar scent mingled in with her pelt as she closed the final few feet between them, and before she even spoke, he knew what she was going to say. For a second, he simply sniffed through the fur of her shoulder and ruff, making absolutely certain that he caught Fennec's scent- and had a tight, squeezing feeling within his chest when he took a second to process what Meerkat said, and what that meant. Fennec was found- fell into a canyon, and was at the Caldera. 

"Is she OK?" He pressed urgently. "How did she...Did she get lost, or...?" Had she run away? Had he been thinking this whole time that she'd left because she was holding a grudge? He felt extremely guilty- he'd even told the others that he thought she'd run off. Now, to find out she'd been stranded and hurt...He felt extremely bad. Meerkat mentioned Kaertok- a name he registered, but didn't immediately recognize. One of her friends from Neverwinter Forest maybe. "Why is she there?" He asked, in a hurry to find out as much as he could before he even figured out how he felt about it all. Was he relieved? Sure...But that relief was hard to find and feel when he also felt so ashamed and guilty.

It caught her off guard a little when he bristled and thrust his snout against her, though Meerkat held still as he presumably studied the scents clinging to her pelt. He didn't ask about Kaertok, though he fired off several questions about Fennec. She understood and nodded, mostly to herself.

"She's injured but I think she'll be fine," she answered. She paused to think back on Fennec's exact phrasing. "She said she got turned around," which made a lot of sense to Meerkat, considering her blindness, "and she fell into the canyon. She was hurt and couldn't get out on her own. She said she called but it was a ways away, I don't think we would've been able to hear..."

That answered all but his final question. She was a little less certain of that answer, though she replied, "I think she wanted to see Eljay. She said when she fell, she thinks she broke something in her side." That made sense to her too, especially since, "I don't think there's any other medics in the glen, besides her. She's in good hands."

He was relieved to hear that Fennec hadn't run away, but that she'd gotten lost. Sheer luck had allowed Meerkat to cross her path and guide her back to the Caldera at least, where she would be treated by Eljay, but being told that something had broken in her side her made him feel nauseous. That sounded so wrong- and while he had no doubts that she would be in the best possible place having Eljay to take care of her, he had to wonder if something like that even could be fixed. He thought of her ruined herb den- there would have been no sense for her to come back to the Glen at all, not with her supply being buried. 

There was a distant stare in his eyes as he considered what to do next. He wanted to depart immediately for the Caldera but he knew that she would shrug him off and he would be hurt gain, the way spring warmth loosens icicles from a branch, letting them fall to the ground where they would shatter. He pursed his lips. Even if she didn't want to see him- would she be more annoyed with him for doting on her, or would she resent him for not bothering to check in and see if she was alright? His expression was contemplative, but sombre, and he sighed deeply. He reached out to touch his muzzle to Meerkat's cheek but the movement was deft, and lacking in its usual affection. When he spoke, his voice was dry, vague and distracted. "I'm glad you found her."

She watched him carefully, mostly out of sisterly camaraderie but also because her inner counselor couldn't help itself. Meerkat knew there was something more to this story between Bronco and Fennec. She hadn't wanted to poke and prod her injured sister but she didn't share that reservation here and now, with her older brother. They were a lot closer too.

"What's going on between you two?" Meerkat asked plainly, her expression open. "You can talk to me." Again, this was Bronco, so she didn't hesitate to take it a step further and push, "Please talk to me."

She'd noticed. He hadn't expected her not to notice, after all- he'd been distant and glum since Fennec had gone missing, and he'd done a poor job of trying to hide it. She'd waited to talk to him about it until now, but he guessed that that was only because she'd been talking to Fennec. Given the fact she was now asking him, he could only assume that Fennec had either done her typical brush-off, or had chosen not to say anything. He frowned more deeply when she pressed him for information and looked at his sister with an expression he hoped might tell her that he was tired, and upset, and that he didn't want to talk about it. 

But it was really hard to not talk about it to someone who had the softest brown eyes that shimmered with sincerity. He supposed, given the fact he'd already told Figment what'd happened, that the word would get out eventually, so he sighed and sat down, his posture slouched and tone rather dejected when he spoke. "She's mad at me because I accidentally collapsed her den." He admitted. "I brought her that coconut shell from the beach as sort of...An apology, but she was just kind of...I dunno. Didn't really seem to care." He drew in a breath, sipping it in because even the thought of mentioning his panic attack made him tense up. "Then she tried to show me her new den but apparently, after nearly being buried alive, I'm now....Terrified. Of dens. Or caves. I went back to our old cave on Moonspear to see if maybe a bigger space was fine but...Nope." He said with a stiff shake of his head.

He frowned at her and she just keep looking at him, her eyes imploring him to share this burden with her. When he finally spoke, his story lined up with Fen's. "It's been weird ever since he collapsed my den." Meerkat could imagine how this might have upset Fennec but it had been an accident. And Bronco had evidently tried to earn her forgiveness by bringing her a gift. "He keeps... doing shit for me. Which, fine, 'cept I didn't ask for it." Her lips pursed when he haltingly admitted to a new fear of enclosed spaces, which shed some light on, "Then I tried to do something for him and he got so freaked out he couldn't even see it."

There was a lot to unpack between the pair of them, though Meerkat couldn't help but stick to this last bit. "I didn't know," she said softly. She remembered vague mentions of the incident itself, yet she'd had no idea how much that cave-in had affected Bronco's entire worldview, apparently. "I'm sorry, that's..." She didn't know what to say or what kind of advice she could even offer for something like a phobia. She drew in a breath and scooted closer, figuring a hug couldn't hurt.

He instantly felt worse when he realized that he had kept Meerkat in the dark about the den collapse, and about the friction that had begun to build up between himself and Fennec. Perhaps if he'd told Meerkat, she might've been able to shed a bit of light on how to fix things...She had a way with making other wolves feel comfortable with opening up, but he'd kept things to himself, and hadn't even mentioned the cave-in. He wondered if she felt hurt by the fact that he'd not told her; everything between them was generally an open book but this...This was something- a major something- that he had kept to himself. 

Fortunately, she didn't seem to pull away from him, even though it had taken him longer than it should have to tell her about what had happened. She moved closer and he found her presence reassuring, and helped him to relax a bit. She was at a loss for words, and he was as well- so he defaulted to trying to use his sense of humour to do something, rather than succumbing to his own incompetence. "I think it means you're gonna hafta be the one to go to our old den, and bring some of the sparkly dust back for me," He said, with a feeble smile.

"I can do that," Meerkat murmured with a slight smile in her voice. She supposed she'd wondered why they hadn't found a den yet, though she hadn't pressed the issue because she honestly hadn't minded just sleeping out in the open every night. She hardly held any of it against her older brother, particularly with this new information, though she did wish he'd told her sooner so she could help, even if there wasn't a whole lot she could do but be there for him.

She still held onto him, a paw rubbing up and down on his back a moment, before Meerkat pulled back a little to catch his eye and say, "You should go and see her."

He relaxed slightly when Meerkat rubbed a paw against his back, and might've leaned into it had she continued, but she pulled away to return to the role of being his life coach, and offered him her advice. He nodded; he figured he should go and see her, even if she didn't necessarily accept his visit. "I will," He said, though he still had to figure out exactly how to approach her. He had several excuses- he could say that he'd stopped in to see his siblings (as he was well overdue for a visit) or he could say that he'd simply been passing by. He could also just tell the truth, and go to visit her to see how she was, because he cared...But he knew that that might give Fennec the whelmies. It seemed like most of his kind gestures did. 

But he wanted to make that decision on his own, so he sought to avoid the topic. He shook his head to release some of the tension that'd settled in between his shoulderblades, and remembered, then, that Meerkat had mentioned something else. 

"So...This Kaertok guy, eh?" He said, figuring that might be enough to prompt her to talk. That was the name she'd been given when she'd been sent off searching, and she'd managed to find him too. No doubt, this was big news- and he wondered how that meeting had gone.

Unaware that he actually needed some time to himself to make a plan before heading to see Fennec, Meerkat threw him a grateful smile and shook her head. "I'll tell you all about it," she replied, pausing for a beat before finishing, "after you come back from seeing Fen. Go." She even pressed a paw gently into his shoulder, urging him to pay his much-needed visit to the invalid.

She must have sensed his restlessness, and addressed it with a gentle shove. He did truly want to hear about what it had been like to meet her biological father, so he pressed his temple against hers for a moment, as a show of both appreciation and respect. He appreciated that his sister was letting him dodge out, even if she had just found out important news. Her news would still be there when he came back, and he would demand that he got the story in full. "I want every detail," He said, giving her a look that said he would certainly hold her to keeping up her side of the bargain before he gave her cheek a kiss, and headed out toward the Caldera at a gallop.