Northstar Vale One Week Later

It had been a week, or perhaps a tad longer - Khalys had honestly forgotten; the days and nights blended together as she struggled from lack of sleep, caused by night terrors of the cave-in. Her pelt was bedraggled, her eyes were dull and stained with tear tracks. The sun within her was just... gone. And she didn't know how to move forward. But, today, she visited the gravesite, tears falling freely as she murmured to the winds, "I'm so sorry... I'm so sorry, I lost them..." She choked back a sob, and then she cried out angrily, desperately, "I lost everything of you that I had!" Several deep, shuddering inhales later, and she whispered, "My memories of you are plagued by a replay of that night, every. single. night. I just... don't know what to do."

Descending into the vale, River picked a careful path forward, moving in stealth. She had her nose to the ground and deer tracks to guide her, all of her focused on locating the herd so that she might harry a doe to its inexpedient demise.

She became distracted at the sound of a voice crying out, utterly anguished. Though River hesitated to locate the source, curiosity eventually overcame her hunger, and she abandoned the hunt to find a distraught she-wolf standing over the remnants of a cave-in. The Sandraudiga studied her profile for a moment, drawing in her tawny features with sad recognition.

She knew grief when she saw it. She remembered well the sight of her own reflection after her children had passed, and the sight of her bereaved mate. She hated to see it on another wolf.

Unable to find the words, River kept her distance and reclined upon her haunches, hanging her head as she watched. She politely cleared her throat for attention, waiting to see if the wolf preferred to be left alone.

The intrusion of another hag Khalys' hackles rising - before she realized that Kinfolk didn't even exist anymore, that the vale was no longer under her ownership. So many were free to pass here, now, and none of them would have the slightest clue about the tragedy that had occurred here. He would be forgotten - eventually, only she would remember him. Maybe one day, she wouldn't.

Khalys swallowed hard, then forced her hackles to lie flat. "Uh - sorry, I - someone I knew died here." She didn't bother mentioning that it was recent - she thought that much would be obvious. Awkwardly, she attempted to mop herself up, though she knew she looked a wonderful mess.

River had expected the response and swiftly averted her gaze as the bereaved wolf before her turned defensive. In this instance, she was prepared to submit, having learned from her recent encounters with the one-eyed bitch and the redguard that she needed better control of her own emotions and to learn a little more humility, respectively. But as the she-wolf spoke, River found her deference to be unnecessary.

She watched as the wolf pitifully attempted to make herself more presentable. Don't apologize, the Sandraudiga insisted. This site is sacred to you. I'm the one intruding. But it felt wrong to leave you. Her posture straightened. We don't have to talk. I can just patrol the area and make sure you aren't further disturbed, if you want.

Khalys wasn't sure what she wanted. At first, she had sought solitude, but now that another was here, she didn't quite want to be alone anymore. "Thank you," she murmured, trying her best to smile at the other woman. "Er... what's your name? I'm Khalys - I... I live in the canyon just past the sunspire, with Mereo." She didn't want to think of the vale as her home anymore - all it brought her was grief and pain.

Ah, the pack in the canyon is called Mereo.

Though she felt no ownership of the region, no inkling to revitalize her Diasporan birthright, she did feel bitter about a pack being so near her father's grave. There was nothing to stop them from laying claim to the ground consecrated by the bones of her kin. Nothing except her own pathetic wants. Wants that meant nothing to anyone else but her.

My name is River. I'm sorry to meet you under these circumstances, Khalys. She wanted to tell her that she could sympathize -- of the graves she had left behind, and the one she knew stood in her birthplace -- but none of it seemed right to say. Nothing had helped her, in the end of it. So why would anything she had to say help this stranger?

Still, she hadn't been immediately dismissed, so she felt inclined to say something. I don't have a home myself right now, but I was born here. Well, near here, she amended, gesturing towards Arrow Lake. I haven't seen these mountains in a very long time.

River offered her apology, and Khalys gave a small nod, listening as the other wolf spoke of her home. A home beyond the mountains that shielded the vale; Khalys had never been so far. At the mention of not having seen the mountains in some time, the grieving woman admitted, "I wish I never had to see them again." She had thought about leaving Mereo, but where would she go? She had no friends, no family... nothing. She looked to River, almost guiltily, shuffling her paws. "I... I should get back." Coming here had done her no good.