Hushed Willows oh, the earth fueled the flame

hi @Tavi

The heat of the day was reason enough to venture to the lower climes that the Keep laid claim to. Though the still bare canopies of the woodland did not offer much in the way of shade, there were points where the trees were close enough together to cast long lines across the earth. Here the surge of greenery came and stretched, though how long it would be before things returned to whatever state of normal they had been in was beyond him.

His ranging to that lower zone had not been entirely to escape the summery warmth; the cougar was on his mind. He wondered if had moved on too, driven away by the turn of the herds and of the wolves it had relentlessly picked off one by one. He had never ventured to the south on his hunt and now as he breached the southern quarter of the Keep, his eyes instinctively moved to study those bare canopies as though he would find the cat lounging in wait.

It was not there and so, he moved on to follow the rest of the border.

the arcs — pistol made of bones

While the older man was watching the boughs, and the light which trickled between them, Tavi was watching the ground. She hummed a little tune to herself; being in high spirits was odd for her, but she had woken with a great need and Stark had satisfied that need. Now, wearing his scent upon herself without caring who knew it, she patrolled through the willows. As she came upon one of the large and weeping trees she noticed its familiarity, and for a moment her humming stopped. It was the tree where her firstborn had been buried — by Kunik if she remembered correctly — and with a dulled sigh, she paused before it.

Not two minutes later, she was drawing away from the tree's roots and the bare spot of earth where her son rested. She was sluggish in her escape from that place, and her eyes lingered a bit too long on that bare patch - as if it were the bald head of a great uncle you knew you had to love, but didn't see the point. As she moved towards the borders, Tavi felt the excited thrum of her blood begin to dull, and by the time she sighted the older wolf, she was her old morose self. She did not say anything when she saw him though; only watched, and gave a small bob of her head if he caught sight of herself.

Gradually as he ventured onward he settled into the familiarity of border patrolling. It had become a means of passing time when life was easy, though he was hard pressed to say things were easy. They made have been trickling back to normal, sure, but Mordecai did not know how things would pan out in the end. Their difficult summer was just as likely to bounce back as it was to persist into a harsh winter. But as with all things, there were ups and downs, and perhaps time would eventually tell.

A flicker of movement on the edge of his narrow perception stole his attention; his head turned swiftly in time to see her, this other alpha female, and the bob of her head. His steps halted as the path he was on came to intersect with her own, and his gaze was left to wander the uncharted expanse of the south momentarily as she drew near. "Looks like things are getting greener again," he said, an offer of conversation. He barely knew her but for what Harlyn had imparted to him, but he knew there was a matter of thanks to give.

At his words, all she could think was, yeah, and it took long enough to come back. Maybe now things would chill out. The herds would come back, rabbits would burst from their burrows all over, and they'd all be well fed again. Back to their usual selves, instead of these... She had no term that could encompass "paranoid, angsty, immature, foolish," and gods know what other phrases.

Octavia nodded at his words though, and looked up at the fresh buds that were all over the willows. Yeah. This place is amazing when its healthy. I can't wait to see it again, she had only glimpsed the trees and the rest of the foliage for a couple of weeks before the locusts had come. The woman licked her lips, thoughtful, remembering.

Then, she moved on to other things. I suppose you are.. Mordecai, I presume? Harlyn's husband. She looked to him, studied his face, traced that scar carefully with her eyes. She's in much higher spirits now that you're here. I'm glad.

She spoke of the scenery that was there before and he wondered after it. He knew the trees to be willow, but their peculiar tendrils were all but there now. Whatever seclusion the place may have brought was diminished considerably, but he would not deny that there may have been beauty within still. There were features to the territory that made it a likely fortress in trying times such as those—the caverns that housed them certainly came to mind.

But their conversation deviated from small talk, though he did not mind the dive into the source of his being there. He affirmed who he was with a simple nod, unable to stop the ghost of a smile at the mention of his mate. Mordecai had not entirely been one to attach a moniker to what he was or wasn't, though it was an easy wager that he would not stray from Harlyn.

"I had hoped to bring word of larger game back to her, to you. But it would seem that the herds have moved on for now, and hopefully not for too long. Those bugs... they certainly made a mess of things for as far as I was willing to travel." It had stretched much farther than he could have ever anticipated; the traces of his mirth moments ago were long gone at the mention. "We owe you," he went on to say after a beat, shuffling his weight out of habit. "I"m sure that Harlyn has told you that she's a healer; I'm more of a hunter, a guardian." Likely, she already had several of the sort beneath her, but the unspoken offer remained. He'd make certain they earned their keep.

We owe you. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Tavi wasn't about to cash-in any favors. But his words did settle in to the back of her mind, and she smiled dimly in response to them. It was a short-lived expression. If the herds really had gone so far then there would be a great span of time where nothingness prevailed. Feeding this much larger pack would be quite the task. It was a wonder how they had managed to only lose one wolf thus far.

We need healers, and guardians, and whatever else. We need everyone if the pack is to survive this. Just because they didn't have a great need for hunters in a place void of prey, didn't mean the world would be barren forever. Eventually the herds would return. Tavi had to believe that. To think otherwise would invite bleak thoughts in to her mind, and she couldn't do that, not as a person in power. It is good to know where the herds are, even if they have left us. That sucks actual balls, but at least we know. If they were just gone one day without any warning and without a trail to follow, then I'd be worried. Or if the herds had lingered but, one by one, dwindled and dropped dead from some unknown malady.

The marauders had knowledge, and knowledge was power.

Do you have any sort of.. uh, inkling, I guess.. As to when they'll come back? Octavia was no hunter. She had once actively pursued the role, but upon finding herself as the sole leader of a pack, her priorities had shifted and a mountain of new tasks had been presented to her. Her days of bird chasing and bug-munching were over.

He nodded with her words. It would take all of their cooperation if they did intend to continue to survive. Of course the skeptical side of him wondered if this was really survival and perhaps with a puckered sense of negativity there had been a part of him that wondered if they were only delaying the inevitable expiration. Smaller game was sparse still, though there had been lucky moments he could recall. Stark and Silas had happened upon a rabbit and he had seen them, but it was with wavering strength and stamina that he had not pursued them at length. There were fish of course, but again stamina came into question.

His head lifted skyward for a moment to consider her question. Mordecai had never been asked such a thing. "I'd like to think soon," he said, but uncertainty clung to his words. "I suppose it will depend on how quickly their food comes back, and whether or not other packs don't thin them too much." Of course, that was based on the assumption that there were others left out there. The Hollow had fallen, but before it had come countless others he had forgotten about over time.

"Are there any other packs close to here?" he went on to ask, his gaze levelling off to look her over. Gauge the reaction. "I've heard talk of others, but I can't say that there are any to our south. We came from there, our home was there. It was isolated." And for good reason, he did not add.

There are a few, and I'm glad we've hidden ourselves away from them, she responded hastily, and then when a brief moment of silence blossomed between them, she realized how ominous that had sounded and ducked sheepishly, licking her lips as she contemplated her next words.

In the east there is a meadow that connects the mountains to a giant forest of maplewoods. If you go to that meadow and head north, the land gets pretty rocky and unstable, but there's a pack living not far from the first few ridges. The Larksong Grotto. It felt strange to be speaking of it like a tourist, considering she had lived and ruled there for a bit. Octavia didn't explain that part as she did not wish to delve in to her own history too much — it was something she adamantly avoided these days — but if Mordecai had questions, she'd answer them.

Further east from there is a mountain range, and a group of wolves had claimed it for themselves. The Sleeping Dragon is the mountain, and the wolves there are pretty volatile. Or they were when I encountered them. Then there's the Maplewood, which I sort of mentioned before.. I'm not sure if its still populated. For a while this place was a hotbed for activity. I guess the famine disrupted a lot of that.

In the moment that she spoke of their being hidden away, Mordecai pondered just how hidden they truly were. He had found them after all, and not on the cleanest of instructions to go with either. Still, the trek had been long and not pleasant at all; the conversation moved along and with it, his thoughts. She spoke then of the others that were nearby of them, the names foreign at best. It was enough to form a mental map of crude design though, and enough to make him wonder if those individuals were close enough to affect what prey they would find along the lowlands and slopes of the Keep.

"The wolves at Maplewood are gone," he said, confirming her voiced thought. "We had gone to them first, being our closest neighbor." And it had been where Spring lived, though he did not entirely recall why they had gone there at all. Perhaps if not for encountering Warbone in the sprawling meadows of the valley, they may have still been wandering. The reality in that was false though and a thought that Mordecai did not entertain.

"But the others, are they concern to this pack? The food is one thing, but if their closeness brings another..." His head bobbled and canted somewhat, as though the action could convey the words he was not finding. He hoped she would get the gist of what he meant, no doubt informed of their troublesome history that had brought them into her pack. It was not something he wanted to worry over, though strangely enough history was quite apt and bound to repeat itself.

It wasn't so surprising to have her thoughts confirmed. It made her wonder briefly of Saena though, and how the woman was doing - but then she caught herself. In the same situation would Saena have thought about her, or of Reek? Not likely. As Mordecai went on to ask his question, Tavi sighed softly, righted her thoughts, and responded: The wolves of the far mountain are militant, but very far from us. I don't think they even know we're here.

The other pack, here she paused and had to think of the best way to phrase things, The Larksong was my home, I ruled it. Tambourine's father... If he's still alive, that's where he is. I haven't heard anything about the group for a while so I'm not sure how they're doing, but I do think they're a threat if they weren't wiped out by the famine. Her voice hollowed as she spoke; it was morbid and more than a little strange to wish such poor fortune upon another entity, especially when Tavi in her heart did not actually hate Reek, she just didn't trust him. And her love of her son trumped all other things.

I worry that one day Reek will try and find us. Then again, another sigh, maybe I'm being selfish, and putting everyone else at risk because of it. I just want Tambourine to stay safe. Do you... Think that's wrong? It was a strange and loaded question to levy upon her new friend, and after voicing it she realized this. Tavi's ears slicked back in a brief show of embarrassment or something similar; she was shy. I'm sorry, I sound so dramatic, its such a stupid situation - and nothing you should concern yourself with.

As Tavi came to the end of her winding information-turned-tale, Mordecai felt the tug of his lips, a too late tempted to spill out of his mouth. He caught himself however, finding neutrality in his expression swiftly as he approached consideration of the question she had poised. It may have been a loaded question given all that she had subsequently dumped with it, but he did not see it that way. At least not entirely; he understood the necessity to protect something.

"It's not wrong to want to keep him safe," he answered. "Harlyn and I both wanted to keep our children safe, which is why we left the home that we built as well." A passing thought of Reek troubled him though, if only because he couldn't put a name to a face. Someone he had no doubt met a long time ago. Even if it hadn't been that long, it was still long enough given all that had happened since.

"A cougar threatened our home," he went on. "You probably know the story, but our numbers were too small to defend against it. It must have gone through half of us before we decided to pack it up and leave. The risks didn't outweigh the benefits of staying there, not when our children were so small. I guess the bugs and the herds leaving was just insult to injury." Whether or not that cougar still lurked out there was unknown to him, but it hadn't followed them. Maybe it had died with the locusts for all he knew.

He hoped so, anyway.

A cougar, she repeated, as if he had been talking about something utterly alien and terrifying, and truth be told she thought the big cats were both of those things. Tavi had never experienced the terror in the way Harlyn's wolves must have, and she could only imagine what they'd been through. Mordecai went on to explain the dangers, the losses, and Tavi's features darkened. That's awful. It's amazing that you guys survived - especially the kids - you're both amazing parents for managing that.

But he did have a point. Struggling like that, then faced with the locusts and the famine, and now -- they'd found a new place to restart their lives, but it must have been hard for them. I think... Tambourine... Might be the only reason I've survived this long. I don't think I'd have the drive to do it without him. It wasn't exactly a breakthrough, but the manner in which Tavi spoke the thoughts aloud made it seem as such. I mean, I could've saved myself a lot of stress if it was just me, but, I dunno... I live for him. I think we're all stronger because of our kids, you know? Am I making any sense at all, haha, she let out a tired little laugh and then shrugged, as if to answer her own question. I don't know where I'd be without him.

"It came with a price," he commented quietly, when Tavi opted to say that they had done an amazing feat of management. Mordecai did not think of it that way, at least not now. How on earth they had managed to survive as individuals was something, and it was often a wonder to him how they had not lost any of their children to one thing or another. Perhaps thankfully, when the cougar had picked them off at their borders, it had not come inside to pluck at their oblivious young. Memory certainly knew what it had made off with.

"But, I understand what you're saying. You're making sense," he said with a quirky smile. "Everything we've done, or I suppose we do in the future, it's for them. It's the way things have to be, otherwise I'd reckon we wouldn't have them in the first place." He certainly hadn't gone into things blind. He may not have had an entire grip on what it meant to be a parent, but his children were growing and learning all the same. Some things they took to like a fish in water and other things, well, time would tell.

He paused for a moment, only to add: "We'll get through this, one way or another."