Emberflame Ridge She appears in his dreams

Keeping this a bit vague because my thread with Desna is still ongoing.

With the news Desna brought to the grotto of Saena's birth, Reek wanted to run straight to the maplewood to see his pups, but as soon as he was left alone, he realized he could do no such thing. Reality had a way of leveling the initial high, and Reek found himself cascading into another hard low. From Spring's reaction to seeing Reek after being caught snooping around Redtail Rise, Reek expected to be met with hostilitiy upon the border of his former claim. He would wait to avoid such conflict— when the time was right, he would speak to Saena alone.

Even still, it was not the threat of conflict that kept Reek from the maplewood to see his pups (while it was indeed a factor), but it was Tavi's ongoing disappearance that kept him at bay. He couldn't bring himself to walk into a potentially dangerous situation while the other alpha of the grotto was unaccounted for. One disaster had to be sorted first before Reek could address the next.

And so, he headed south, towards the mountain range that seperated the north from the south. He scaled the wooded ridge and stopped his forward push at it's peak. From there, he had nearly a full view of the Taiga. He settled to his haunches and howled once more. The message was the same as the last.

@Tavi please come home.

Also vague because of her thread with @Warbone -- tagging for visibility in case they want to drop in too -- and idk how quickly she'd travel.

As luck would have it, the sound of his call did reach the ears of the wounded woman. The message was clear, if a bit pathetic, and tugged at Tavi's heart strings while she made her gradual way back home. It was tricky business navigating towards the grotto, as she had the choice of crossing a perilous ravine or confronting yet another pack which had settled there. It seemed like a good idea to avoid further contact with strangers. 

Tavi had not met any beast of the sanctuary - in fact she had no idea the Seadogs existed at all - but the mere mention of wolves upon the wind made her path deviate. Once she reached the tangle, Tavi wondered if her companion would follow her -- they had become separated, but it was entirely possible that Arkham was tailing her, just to be safe. Why he would do such a thing was a mystery, but Tavi was still trying to understand why he had helped her in the first place. She hoped he was there, somewhere in the dark, but did not let herself stay focused on him for long.

The tangle was a tricky beast. The last time she had been near it, she had been inside of it - lost, and alongside Ukko of all people. Thinking of him and the hasty, angry words she had thrown his way only soured her mood further, so she ignored the memory, and pressed on.

Tavi came upon the grotto from the west. She spied the looming mountain to the north as she crossed beyond the tangle, heading in to the dense forest that populated the ridge line. Some of what she passed was familiar, but only just. It had been a few days since Tavi had been present here, and in her tired state she did not care to look for landmarks; she knew by scent that the pack was beyond the next ridge.

Before she could work her way across the shale bed or hike further, she paused and canted her head back - her mind spinning briefly from the effort - and called out: Reek.

Settling in, Reek knew he would have to wait. From his high position on the mountain, the sound of his call would echo through the taiga -- if Tavi remained in the north, she was sure to hear his voice. Reek wondered, however, if his call had possibly fallen on deaf ears. With the days of Tavi's absence from the grotto beginning to pile high, Reek was unsure if he'd ever receive a response from his baby-mama. Upon discovering her condition, Tavi had left the grotto in a hurry. Her intention to return was never properly communicated, but Reek's uncertainty did little to stop his tireless search.

Reek waited on his mountain perch for what felt like hours, listening only to the sound of radio silence. Every minute that passed by took with it a piece of hope that he had desperately clung to, before it finally slipped away from his grip along with the setting sun. Reek hung his head on his forepaws and shut his eyes: expression both defeated and disappointed.

But then, there was a howl in response.

Reek's ears immediately perked and turned forward. Without conscious thought, Reek was back on his feet and sprinting down the ridge towards the sound of Tavi's voice. He ran until his limbs shook with strain, but he soon found her -- battered and broken -- traveling across the shale bed. His eyes fell briefly on her injured legs. "Who did this to you?" he asked. Without a further word, Reek pressed his head into the crux of her neck as tightly as he could.

She did not have to wait long before he was there, like in her dream. His arrival reminded her of it - or rather, the subtle terror she had felt prior to waking, as everything else had fallen away upon waking. The look he gave her held a mixture of emotion, though the only thing that remained apparent was the look of brief revulsion as he examined her wounds. She did not have a quick response prepared for him. As Reek pulled close and touched his cold nose upon her neck, Tavi visibly stiffened - and then looked apologetically at him, hoping he would not take it personally. She was still on-edge after the entire ordeal upon the coast -- or that's the story she'd be sticking to.

It doesn't matter, she breathed the words softly, her head lowering for a moment as she looked over the cuts and tears in her limbs. I... didn't mean to leave, she wanted to say. Except that was a lie too, and he would've caught her in it easily enough. I'm sorry. He must have been worried about her. How long had it been? A week? Maybe just. Tavi looked around with quick little glances, wondering if anyone else had heard her call and would show up - maybe Reek had moved on after all, and -- she paused in that thought and pushed herself against him, letting his dark fur mingle with her silver; Tavi breathed him in, wondering if there would be a stranger's perfume on him to make up for her absence. She covered by mumbling, I'm so sorry.

Feel free to skip me at will; WB's not near enough to find them or be discovered yet ;3

A loneliness found him in the absence of Octavia. Warbone could not be asked to describe his decided proclivity to stalking her, but he merely followed as was his want, and he chose not to question himself of his motives. His actions suggested he cared, but if one were to ask him why he did this, then he would only shrug or mention an unscratchable itch, a buzzing nuisance in the back of his head, that made him an instinctive guardian over injured females. It might have also had something to do with the fact that as he could no longer protect his ex-wife, he projected this desire onto strange women in an effort to sate his useless solitary. 

Being alone meant he only ever had to worry about himself. But that had become boring, and his stay at Sleeping Dragon had reminded him a pack mentality he had buried deep during his self-imposed isolation. 

So he trailed her. A far away shadow, with a strong set to his lope and a goal in mind. He would see that her trail made it to the Grotto, and at that point he promised himself to go his own way.

Reek felt Tavi tense in the wake of his touch, yet he thought little of it. It was obvious she had been though some sort of trauma, and just as Tavi imagined he would, Reek believed her response was in direct relation to whatever she had faced out on her own. She pulled away, yet Reek remained rooted to the spot— a statue, etched with an expression of bittersweet sadness. A soft sigh passed his lips. She was right in her muttered response: whatever happened, it no longer mattered. Still, Reek felt it his fault that he had not been able to keep his partner, his companion, safe.

He would do so now— he was sure of it.

Next came the muttered apologies. Reek hung his head, casting his gaze low. Tavi pulled in close and Reek reveled in the comfort of their contact. She breathed in deep, yet, all she would find was the scent of the road -- the scent of solitude. "Shhhhhhhhhhhh," he whispered, allowing his teeth to lightly pull through Tavi's neck fur. If anyone was to apologize, Reek felt it should have been himself. "Everything's going to be ok— we're going to be ok." In a way, it probably served as more of a comforting mantra to himself than Tavi.

"I never stopped looking for you Tav," he continued. Though - in its literal meaning - it was a lie, Reek felt as if his search had been all encompacing. Despite having set out beyond the border only twice, Tavi had been on his mind the entire time, and that, Reek felt was enough.

There was nothing to him; he smelled of petrichor and springtime grass, of dust and dirt and stone, which only told her he had been to the grotto's tunnels recently. There was no other aroma to him, which eased some of her fears, but only bolstered others - the kind she did not want to think about. Saena's voice rang out in her mind: He'll do it with the next pretty thing that crosses his path — and she wondered, if he hadn't already moved on, why not? His commitment worried her more than anything else. She couldn't just up and leave -- not without feeling like she was ruining another good thing.

Were they a good thing? Were they even remotely healthy? God, her mind was whirling. Reek tried to ease her worries, but his words only made Tavi feel more despondent. Her guilt was stronger now; if it were possible, perhaps he would have seen her pale before the timber of his voice. I'm home now, she murmured, and then suddenly pushed by him - stepping around and beyond his stationary self as if to move ahead to the grotto, and not just linger on the outskirts. And I'm very tired.

Tavi's posture was hardly that of a leader, and she wondered if the rest of the pack would care -- maybe they would ask questions. Surely they had noticed her absence? Or maybe not. It wasn't like she was keen on the position or making-nice among her subordinates. Hell, she couldn't even remember all of their names; they followed Reek more than they followed her. Tavi canted her head up slightly, regarding Reek with a side-glance, before turning in the direction of the grotto's heart.

Reek found himself much more comfortable now that Tavi had made her way back home, now hopefully to stay. There, in the safety of the grotto, Reek knew he could shelter her from harm. It was an instinctual drive, strong in its nature, to keep both her and the pups she would soon birth safe and sound. Though he had failed to admit his growing feelings and emotional attachment towards Tavi to her in a verbal sense, let alone to himself, he felt the swift undercurrent of his feelings evident now more than ever.

She pulled away, causing Reek to exhale a short and shallow breath. Turning toward the grotto, Tavi set her course toward home. As she stepped forward, Reek called out, "Tav, wait—" the conversation he had with Jhala crossing his mind as she went. He bit his lip: awkwardly, uncomfortably. While Tavi was away, Reek had come to a conclusion of his own. He opened his mouth again, this time, to ask her to be his mate -- the only solution Reek could imagine for their little predicament -- but his voice stopped cold in his throat. This, however, was not the proper time. Here, on the outskirts of the grotto, there was no magical moment between them signaling the proper moment to label their relationship. Even still, Reek wondered if there would ever be a proper moment: things had become too complicated, too fast.

He shook his head and sighed, defeated. "Nevermind," he managed to croak. "It's nothing." It was a lie, but this time, he directed it toward himself. "Let's go home." There would be other times, more opportune times, to talk about such things. And so, Reek placed one tired paw in front of the other and followed Tavi's course back to the grotto.

Warbone achieved some rendition of "road blindness" as he went, drifting in and out of a consciousness that knew exactly where he was. He moved automatically, a tracking machine that could have followed Octavia's trail in his sleep. After a time— when the afternoon was lengthening, reaching for night— he found the spot were she had met with her mate, and the scent of Reek woke the male up. His tail swayed as he ventured the area for a while, and then followed the twin trails back to the Grotto. He stopped neatly at their borders, ears pressed forward as eagerly as his nose, and his eyes were wide and searching. Hopeful, maybe.

But after about fifteen minutes, he stopped feeling anything at all. He compartmentalized, and rationalized the situation and pulled himself away from such a useless thing as anticipation. Or even desire. Such things had no place in a lone wolf's heart— There was simply no time for it. She was safer with her pack, anyhow, and now that he was certain she had made it, he could be on his way. Warbone's head lowered, angling with his shoulders as he began to amble away into darkness.

A hunt would filter his thoughts, clouded by a vast and complete loneliness, so that was what he did.