Moonspear moonrise kingdom

Prefer @Floki, @Charon, @Constantine, and/or @Aria

After talking to Mamakaze about her Big Plans to go on a Grand Adventure and become The Best Scout in the History of Scouting Wolves, Alya went in search of a willing chaparone. There was a bounce in her step as she traversed the territory on the lookout for a willing adult. For some reason, she had an idea that going on this scouting trip would be most exciting if she went with Constantine. She had not had many chances to interact with the stoic stranger, but there was something about him that made Alya believe that he would make this trip awesome.

But she didn't know how to approach him about something like that, and when she'd pictured this trip as a child, it'd always been with Daddy or Uncle Floki. Thinking about going with one of them made her feel a lot less anxious about it, and maybe that was what she would want on the scouting trip. And maybe she should go with Aria, who was cool like her mom but no so... mommish.

Yipping to announce her desire for attention, Alya made it into one of the busier parts of Moon Pear.

moonspear turned out to be much different than she had thought it would be. she loved it, a lot, but she missed a lot of things. and since casmir's visit (damn him) she missed him. she missed the ocean, and the giant sentinels, and her old den. she hadn't really established anything here-- and constantine and eilidh weren't always easy to find. she couldn't decide if this was her own fault-- or maybe she had done everything right. but once again, she felt like everything she had was being ripped out from under her feet. it was terrible, and she once again felt like she was drowning.

a small howl caught her attention-- mostly because it was for her. usually no one called for her-- she was still new and a low rank, and if anything was only called for pack meetings. it was a child's call too, so all the more reason to be curious. the pale woman made her way towards it, recognizing Alya from the day she joined. she smiled to the princess and tipped her head respectfully. "need something?" she asked with bright voice, still curious what the child might have called her for.

To her delighted (and inexplicable dismay) it was not Constantine or even her uncle or father who answered her call, but Aria. The darkling quickly forgot her disappointment in favor of awe as she drew nearer to the pale shewolf. There was something about Aria that seemed very impressive - maybe just because she'd never seen her act goofy to amuse her and her sisters when they were tiny, but maybe it was something else.

"Hi," Alya breathed, tail wagging excitedly as Aria inclined her head, and Alya loved to be treated like the princess she was, but it seemed so cool that Aria was being so proper instead of sneaky like her mom or playful like her dad, or like any of her other family members, either. She was Aria, all regal and cool. Everything about this encounter was so. cool. "Uh... hi," she said, mentally berating herself when she realized she'd already said that. Now Aria would think she was stupid, and maybe she wouldn't want to take her on the trip. "I need," she began, trying to answer the shewolf's question but then... not really sure that was how she should start off with her request.

Time to start over.

"Hello, Aria. I was hoping that you... that you'd take me on a scouting trip," she explained in a small voice, unleashing the full force of her puppy-dog eyes on the older girl. It usually only worked on her dad, but maybe Aria would also be susceptible to this form of manipulation. She could only hope.

it had been a while since aria had been described as regal. as of late she was fretful and a bit out of sorts more often than not, but perhaps children brought out a certain calmness to her. she didn't think anything of the child's repetitiveness, in fact she hardly noticed it. her ears remained perked as she listened, a smile broadening her white features. "where do you want to go?" she asked with a gentle tilt of her head. as she asked another question surfaced, and she leaned forward slightly. "have you talked to your father?"

"I wanna go see - I mean, I want to explore that big black place in the valley. I wanna find out why it looks that way," she explained, and then quickly added. "Yeah, I already asked!" in an easy, cheerful voice. It was not a total lie. She hadn't asked her dad, but she'd asked her mom, and really, wasn't it Mamakaze who made all the real rules? She could never be afraid of her father, but there was a glint in her mother's eyes that Alya wouldn't dare mess with - not when it came down to it.

she knew better than to take the word of a child, but alya's excitement warmed her smile. "then sure, kiddo, i'll take you. it's not too far from here, really," she added, assuming the kid was taking about the spine or the moonstone quarry. she'd been to both before, or at least passed through, and she could easily go exploring with her. maybe floki could come too, or perhaps charon himself would. she wasn't sure. "we need to prepare first though, it'll be a few days before we can head out. a good scout is always prepared," she told her with a raised eyebrow.

Alya did a happy dance as her request was, yet again, granted. Everything seemed to be going her way, lately. She did not know that Aria had mistaken her vague description for another place - it was the Heartwood, where she truly wanted to go - but that hardly mattered, anyway. It was all about the journey, not the destination.

"How do we prepare?" Alya asked, looking up at Aria in awe. She was so smart. Alya wanted to be smart like her, and so she would do whatever the older girl asked.

"easier said than done," she said with a smile, settling before the dark child, "we need real permission from the leadership first, so your parents have to a-okay our trip. then we have to plan our route, and when we've got all the big stuff done we need to make sure we have some food and herbs... usually medics put together a bundle for scouts to eat for health and strength."  she knew the bundle by heart, as she was once a medic herself, but she assumed there was someone here who had all the equipment... since she did not.

Urgh. That all sounded incredibly boring (especially the part about having to ask for permission again), but Alya was willing to do whatever it might take to see this through. "I can talk to Pyx about the herbs, and then maybe we can both go talk to Daddy," Alya said, the finishing thought coming out rather reluctantly as she thought about how asking her Dad for permission might complicate things. Whatever, though - she could convince him. She knew she could, and even if she couldn't, Mamakaze could. The only problem she could see was if her parents decided they didn't know Aria well enough, and then one of them could just go with her. Mamakaze had practically offered to accompany her already.

It wouldn't be so bad.

"Can we plan the route now?" she asked, tail wagging as she came back to a more interesting topic. "A little bit, at least?"

she nodded. "sure, we can both go talk to your father," she said with a smile. that was the plan anyway, in all fairness. she nodded again, glancing out over the cliffs into the lands around them. "if you want to," she replied, glancing at alya, "show me where you want to go, and i'll tell you how we'll get there." it wouldn't be hard to get anywhere, but there were strategic ways to travel in regards to food and water... and so on and so forth.

At Aria's request, Alya led the way to a jutting ledge of the mountain where they could better see the lay of the land that sprawled out below them. Everything was, currently, covered in a thick layer of white, but it did not take Alya very long to spot the dead, harsh circle of land.

"That bit over there," she said, gesturing with her nose. "You can't see it right now, but it's completely black. Like someone took all the green and brown from the land and turned it into black."

Because it wasn't just rock or something, like some of the black spots on their mountain. There were trees down there, she could see them - but they were sharp and short and jagged, unlike any trees she'd ever known.

[ooc] sorry! i've lacked a lot of motivation lately... do you think we can wrap this up in the next few posts? (: start a new one! [/small]

aria grinned as the pup pointed out her location of interest. she noted it's location in reference to a few of the places she knew that she knew, trying to pinpoint exactly what that place was. had she been there? she knew she'd at least passed through, was that bramble point? she stared a few heartbeats longer. "well, then we can go there. make it a short trip so we can explore more of that place, yeah?" she offered with a smile, her tail wagging. it would be easier to get permission to take the child out too, just one quick trip. when she got older they could go further and to more places...  perhaps.

No problem!

"Yeah!" Alya agreed, maybe a little too quickly. She'd agree to pretty much any circumstances if it meant she was allowed to go out. She was too frightened to do it on her own, but with Aria around (and hopefully the very dreamy Constantine), it would just be awesome!