Broken Antler Fen But I'm still around

lmk if anything here isn't correct! Aw, tags are for reference <3 but also welcome

@Jasmine was missing.

Initially, Maia had tried not to worry. They were older, they were bound to want to explore and run off. While she wished she'd been told, she wasn't going to be upset about them finding more stories to share. But then more time passed and she did not come back.

She didn't want to go far but when @Eljay had the situation at home under his eye, Maia took to the borders. She tried to find any sign.... but if the girl had left a trail, it was lost in the previous night's storm.

They'd tried so hard but it wasn't enough. Maia felt an absolute overwhelming despair take her and she sat down, closingt her eyes against it. Diantha would be next, no doubt. What did she do wrong? She couldn't physically love them any more than she did - they'd quickly become no different than her own two, albeit in a variety of different ways.

With nothing else to do, Maia lifted her head and howled. It was a plea, hoping that maybe she'd hear and come home. Evena if it wasn't to stay; she just needed to know if she was okay.

Lele had taken her time to learn the new surroundings and observe all of the new packmates from afar. The old habit of being a lone wolf, who did not socialize much, was very hard to break. One one hand she wanted social contact, on the other she either feared it or did not have the right motivation to actually seek it out. It was always easier to do nothing. 

However, a summoning howl was something she could not ignore and having been hunting in the vicinity, she quickly found Maia, who had called, and approached her with a neutral expression and a friendly wag of her taile. "Is something wrong?" she asked, looking around, seeking any culprit of problems and seeing no one else, but the Auspex's mate here.

Maia let out a small sound of surprise when Ukulele seemingly appeared behind her. She'd been completely in her own head thinking about Jasmine and it hadn't even occurred to her that the pack would hear her call as well. Her ears turned back and she felt a little embarrassed, but she got past it. Heck, she needed all the help she could get.

Jasmine, she's... just a pup still. And she left a while ago and hasn't come back, and I can't find her anywhere. Maia tried to keep calm as she said this, but her voice ticked up a bit despite her attempts. She was worried sick.

She might be hurt out there, or lost. Or hiding from them, which hurt way worse but would also be way better? It was hard to think about, and Maia felt her eyes prick when she did. That wouldn't help anyone right now though. This wolf had a knack for timing, didn't she?! But something about her made Maia a little more at ease confiding in her, even more than some who had been here longer. She just seemed so nice... and also, somehow, like she got it. Even without being a mother herself.

Though Lele loathed her awkwardness in social settings and wished to be more fluent in her responses, as well as eloquent, she had observed that by not having a ready answer to everything, she had the ability to truly listen and think, what people were telling her. Even more - if they were looking for an actual help or just needed a shoulder to cry on. Giving her full attention was a nice side effect to her overall sluggishness in conversations. 

She listened to Maia and observed her carefully, her gaze meeting the silver of hers briefly, then tracing the lines of her face and taking in her expression, her stance and the general demeanor. Lele concluded that Maia had not changed much at all from the first time they had met. She sensed the same nervousness stemming from her own lack of confidence and fear of failing. Fear. That was the keyword here. Now - what was she looking for. An actual help? A little late for that, since the pup had not disappeared recently. A reality check? That bad things happened to people and there was nothing anyone could do about it? Lele was not that cruel.

Lie? That she will probably turn up at some point? Soothe - tell that there is nothing to worry about? Somehow it felt very counter-productive. "What do you want to do?" she asked in the end, because it was the simplest solution. She could not solve this problem for Maia, but the girl herself could suggest a plan. That would keep her busy. Put that nervous energy into something else. "I am here to help," she hoped that this did not sound too formal. That the other would see a genuity in her offer.

I just want everything to stop. Just..... she broke off into frustrated, overwhelmed silence. Just for how long? As long as it took for her to feel like maybe the world wasn't constantly falling out from under her. To feel like she wasn't just constantly being thrown backwards right when she thought things were okay again.

She needed to find Jasmine, but she also needed a break. And selfishly, she just wanted to run from this and everything and just, for a little while, forget about everything that depended on her.

She didn't know what to ask for, though. She couldn't put it into words, and she didn't even know how to start.

Oh, no... oh, no... oh, no.... Lele bit her lip and looked nervously around to see, if there was anyone else there to comfort Maia, just in case she was about to cry. Listening was one thing, seeing that the other needed an actual physical contact - was something different. And of all people here she felt the least qualified for it. Not that she was averse from touch, but she had learned to reserve it to those few people, who she really cared about it. It had never occurred to her that she might pass this gesture around to strangers.

She made half-attempted movement to touch Maia's cheek reassuringly, but stopped abruptly. An awkward hug was not going to do much. "It appears that you are under a lot of pressure," she told her. "Why don't you take a break and have me and someone else look for the missing kid?"

Maia barely noticed Ukelele's reaching out and hesitation, and when she realized with a delay, she didn't make anything of it. It was nice of her to even listen, let alone do anything more. It seemed like they never really met under good circumstances, it was always her complaining and unable to manage her own life.

She couldn't go, and there was no sign that she could find. She couldn't leave Hymnal and Sylvie, Diantha and Roswell. She should have thought to ask. Why hadn't she thought!? She stared at Ukelele for a second. You'd do that? That'd be... yes. Please. She's still young, and she's brown, with dark markings on her back. I.... I can't. And if you don't find her, it's... thank you.

It wouldn't be fine, so she cut herself off. But she wouldn't hold it against Ukelele either. She was just appreciative that she would try, and that someone she barely knew was so willing to help her out. That was what pack was for, but Maia had only ever really had a pack and family that was one and the same. She wasn't at all used to taking this sort of thing for granted.

Lele had half expected that Maia would decline her offer, because in the deepest of her heart she was not very willing to leave the safety of the territory to search aimlessly a track that had gone cold already. But now that she had promised (or been drawn into doing it), there was little else left but to stick with it. 

She saw Maia off to the first person, who was fit enough to take care of her, and then left to search the outer perimeter of the Enchanted forest, all the while wondering, if it could not be so that the missing kid had disappeared in one of the swamps within the claimed grounds.

[ooc]Wrapping this up. Thank you![/i]

<333

Maia went willingly with Ukelele, now wondering miserably what kind of a mess she must seem like to this other woman. How was she always so... put together? And why was it Maia always seemed to be in crisis mode when she showed up?

Probably because, lately, Maia was nothing but one big old crisis. Still, that self-conscious worry was nothing compared to the feeling she had over Jasmine's absence. Before Ukelele left she'd get another round of awkward, but profuse, thanks from the spiraling mother.