Redhawk Caldera Come at me and you'll see

She was up here for a few reason. First - she needed to do something impulsive or she was going to do something she'd regret even more. Second, and the one she was going with, was she needed to work on her stamina and her balance. She'd pushed herself more and more these last few months, but she hadn't tried tackling anything like this since her fall. Now was as good a time as any.

The slopes of the southern caldera weren't nearly as imposing as the mountains but Bridget was still out of breath and aching by the time she was halfway up. She'd slipped up once, flailing out with a hind leg that of course hit nothing but air, but managed to catch hold with her forelegs enough to pull herself back up. That had been her signal for a break.

It was getting harder, standing by and watching.

Her dislike for Reyes was growing at an exponential rate. Maybe some selfish part of her still hoped, but the hard part wasn't not having her. It was knowing the one who did didn't deserve it. She could do so much better and Bridget was having a harder and harder time keeping her mouth shut.

So she was here, doing something stupid instead of what she really wanted. Which was to knock Reyes into next week. She barely knew him, but that didn't matter - in her mind, she knew enough.

Bridget looked back at the sky, turning orange as sunset drew closer. Her legs were burning and her chest was heaving from the effort, but looking down, she'd made it quite a ways up. The next bit was going to be tricky, and she might call it, especially if it was getting dark. Still.... she'd gotten all this way already. Bit of a waste to give up now, right?

Hovering his muzzle above the ground only high enough so that he didn’t bump his chin against the rocky slope, he dithered in a serpentine pattern around rocks and boulders as he ascended, hot on the trail of a lone deer. 

The golden hour had come, drawing the shadows out to long, stretched shapes. He heard rocks bouncing and lifted his head, looking up to see a pale figure outlines against the orange sky. 

At first glance, the backlit woman’s blonde fur caused him a moment of panic- but he realized quickly that this wasn’t Fennec. His nose twitched. They weren’t terribly familiar with one another, but he knew the blonde, three-legged woman to be a hard worker. He bobbed his head in a quiet greeting and collected himself a bit. The rocks underfoot were a bit loose.

Bridget hadn't even registered the deer. In her defense, she wasn't near ready to be hunting on these slopes... she couldn't even take down something like that on flat land. At least, not anymore. Not yet.

She was oblivious to Bronco's approach while she eyed her next target. It was a bit of a jump to the neighboring ledge but, from there, she could see a path that led higher that seemed a bit easier to traverse. It would mean a little less workout, but it also meant jumping a leap that was questionable and getting high enough to consider today a success before dark completely set in. Win-win? Hell yeah.

She looked over at the sound of rocks sliding and realized she had company just as that decision was made. Oh shit, she knew this guy.... some relation of Eljay, yeah? Looked like a bruiser, which was odd for Brecheliant but not exactly something Bridget was about to judge him for.

Meet you at the top? She asked, giving him a smile. It was funny because meet. Get it?

Without any hesitation, she got a running start, then planted her one hind leg and jumped for it. The leap would have been easy to clear before, but now, she had maybe half the distance she did previously. She made it with all four paws but with very little ledge to spare behind her, and she could feel the nearness of that space with the adrenaline that coursed through her. Bridget released it with a laugh, then looked back to see if Bronco was going to follow or not.

The pun went over his head, but was enjoyed elsewhere in some parallel universe by someone who appreciates a good pun very much. 

She was challenging him to race her up the slopes, and for a moment, his confidence faltered. All the landslides he’d seen had left him with some remainder of trauma, but this area wasn’t nearly as dangerous, he thought. Not like Moonspear. And she’d looked at him and smiled at him in a way that was too refreshing for him to ignore. 

She bounded across a gap between a couple ledges and he nodded in appreciation. She was bold; but she was putting herself up against someone who had trained to become a guardian and warrior on one of the most formidable mountains in the area. ”You had a head start,” he called out, before he took off after her. ”But that’s fine- you’ll need it!” He huffed, after leaping across the gap. 

He wasn’t in the same shape he’d been in when Hydra had been training him, but his paws remembered the tricks of the trade. He was lighter now than he’d been before, but the strength had returned to his lean muscles. While once the slopes had made him huff and puff, having to carry all of his weight around, he found himself leaping and bounding up the slope, following directly behind Bridget, without nearly as much effort. 

With each bound he scanned the area, looking for somewhere he could pass her- and ended up seeing steeper ridge rise off to the side, a shelf in the face of the rock. It was only a few inches wide, and it ended up ahead- but he thought he could make it work. With a few bounds he leapt onto the perilously narrow shelf of rock and being careful to land only one paw at a time, he galloped forward and once he reached the edge of the ledge he leapt-

-and landed with a grunt, ahead of Bridget. He wished he could see her espression, but in the interest of maintaining his lead he sped ahead, feeling obligation and guilt gently slip from his shoulders and spur him on.

He caught the important part and seemed to take up the challenge, thank god. She needed this race and the familiar thrum of competition set her blood to rushing. She pushed herself faster and sprinted recklessly as soon as she was able to, but the instant she saw him overtake her, she grinned with a gleam. It wasn't likely she'd be able to win this but it didn't mean she wasn't going to try like hell.

Figure it's my way of evening the score, since you've got a bit of a leg up on me. She laughed at her joke, quickly and somewhat breathlessly, and tried one final push to surge past.

The slope, and her previous climb, had exhausted most of her reserves though. Combine that with the fact that she had one leg doing most of the work and Bronco likely had this in the bag. She would be miffed at losing, maybe, but really the winning was having a reason to drive herself further in the first place. That and, for a few moments, a reason to forget everything in favor of the race in front of her.

He felt her close in at his hip, but he gave her little more than a side-eye, knowing if he turned his head, he’d lose his advantage. ”Hadn’t noticed,” He huffed between strides. She lunged forward, her shoulder drawing even with his, and the peak of the rise looked not so far ahead. 

”Alright. Fun chatting with you. Got a race to win.” His words came with some effort as he tried not to surrender the race to her while being funny. He drew forth the last of his effort and lunged with each stride, paying less attention to the earth that fell away behind him, and focusing only on the ridge ahead, set against a sky that grew more and more crimson.

When he slid to a stop, there was a faint veil of sunlight visible to only those at such an altitude as the sun lounged against the horizon. The few wispy clouds in the sky had turned bright gold. He panted and stared toward the sunset for a moment before he grinned at Bridget, and straightened his shoulders a bit. The exhaustion felt nice.

Oh god, she was dying. This was what dying felt like, right?! That was the last breath that she wasted also as she drove herself forward, only nearly stumbling once, but catching herself before she could lose any momentum. Still, it wasn't enough. The muscles in her rear leg were protesting heavily and she couldn't make up the distance, so fell a length behind while he crested the rise.

Fucking hell. She took a moment to breath (and let the disappointment go). Look, she'd never been much of a racer, but losing in general sucked bigtime. He so better not be the gloating type, she thought, sucking in air and trying to let it out somewhat reasonably.

Nice. I suppose since you won, fair and square, you earned an intro. My name's Bridget. As her breathing slowly began to calm down, she started to stretch. If she wasn't careful, she'd stiffen up and the trip down would be a nightmare. Wouldn't be the first time. You're new, yeah? She honestly didn't know if he'd arrived before or after she joined back up. It could be she'd just completely missed him.

It really sucked, not letting himself just pant as heavily as his body needed him to, but he tried at least for a moment to keep up this “super fit” appearance, before he allowed himself the chance to sit and cool off, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. 

She stretched, and he realized he should probably do the same, but he wanted to catch his breath first. He nodded at her introduction, and the corner of his lips pulled slightly. Where he was already panting, he already likely looked like he was smiling. He shook his head when she asked him if he was new.

”No. I’m Bronco. If I meet New, I’ll point him your way.” He said. He huffed, finally catching enough air so he didn’t have to pant so much. ”How long’ve you been with Brechelient?” he asked.

Bridget laughed with unabashed delight at his joke. Ayyyy, nice! If a wolf could give finger guns, now would have been the perfect time. Alas!

God, how long had it been? A year, maybe more? Teya and I found this place a while back, but I got a little sidetracked for a few months. Managed to make it back just in time for the place to be overrun by little ones. Not that I'm complaining. Bridget gave him an easy smile, thoroughly genuine. Things were way more complicated than that, of course, but there was no real reason to get into any of the rest of it. They were having such a nice time right now.

How'd they hook you? Blackmail? Or was it the promise of spectacular company? She gave him the jokes for the fun of it, but also to give him an easy out. His scars were out of place here, but that didn't mean he didn't belong. There were a lot of reasons a wolf with that kind of history written on him would choose a peaceful place like Brecheliant to hide away. Few, if any, were bad - and none were really any of her business.

He flinched when she laughed- he hadn’t expected for her to find that Dad joke so startlingly funny. He smiled quickly, ashamedly, hoping she hadn’t noticed the way his muscles had twitched. He reached around to nibble at his shoulder, as though to pass off his flinch as a fly bite. 

He was surprised to learn that the choice to move to the Caldera had come from Bridget and Teya, not Eljay. He didn’t doubt that Eljay’s affinity for the place had some influence on the decision, but it was quite a coincidence for two others to have also scouted the place and deemed it ideal. 

It felt ironic, to him. His memories of the place were mottled, mixed with emotions and experiences too vivid and extreme in nature for him to look upon it fondly. But it was a means to an end for him- as close as he could be to Killdeer without being part of a military.

”Huh.” Was his response, amused and thoughtful. ”Nepotism. Eljay’s my cousin, so,” He chuckled and shrugged. ”Actually, I lived here a few years back, with another pack, before Brechelient was formed…They split off from our pack, Maia and Eljay.” He didn’t figure he’d have to go into too much detail as she likely had some idea of the pack’s history. 

”My son lives with Mereo,” He gestured toward the mountain range to the North. ”I want to be in the area, but give him some freedom.” He wasn’t sure mentioning his opposition to the militias pack would be a first meeting type of conversation so he continued. 

”But yeah. You can tell yourself that you an’ Teya found this place first but I was totally here before you, so…” He trailed off, allowing her to come to whatever conclusion she made to about his dismissive tone before he smiled ”Guess it just means we have similar taste.”

She noticed but didn't comment - just filed it away with things to know about him. He was clearly jumpy. She wouldn't exactly tone herself down for him; not unless he asked. But she would be sure to keep it in mind and give him a little space.

Not exactly this place. We joined Brecheliant when they lived in the other forest, but I came back to find them here. A few things changed, while I was gone. She shrugged, huffing a small laugh, partly to keep herself from thinking too much on that. But that happens, yeah? Can't expect everything to stop just because you did. It was honest, and though she still struggled with it at times, she knew better than to really dwell. Rolling with it was better for anyone. Eventually it would be like she never left.

It is a nice place, though. And neat, that you can see your son but still give him some space like that. Bet he appreciates knowing you're nearby. Bridget hadn't heard much of Mereo or anyone with that name, but any family of Eljay's was bound to be worth knowing. She was glad he'd picked here.