Moonspear and time is frozen

aria has lost all her friends! come make nice <3

eilidh was gone. she'd disappeared not too long after they arrived, her scent was hardly noticeable in the territory to begin with. it was sad, but aria hadn't searched for her. Constantine was gone as well, more recently though. he hadn't returned yet, but the days grew longer and longer and she was beginning to think he might not. he'd gone to donnelaith to visit his sisters, but it'd been quite the lengthy trip... and she worried something had happened to him, or that maybe he had decided to stay. and even @Floki had gone. he had merely gone on a scouting trip, but his scent had faded from the territory. he'd been gone for so long... she worried he would never come back.

so now she sat, her ears pinned to her head. she was in the same position she was in donnelaith, and it was the reason she left. she was alone and tired, without friends or a true purpose. deep thoughts consumed her mind as she sat, trying to figure what the hell she was even doing here anymore.

It was perhaps not the best moment to meet the new wolves, since a bunch of them had just left; Charon was pissed off that they had left in the middle of winter, just like that, and it didn't even occur to him at the time that Aria, the one left behind, might feel crap about that or that she might still like them. He sure didn't, not if they didn't return within a short period of time. Besides them and their disappearances to worry about — Aesop, of all wolves, Aurelius, and those two new wolves that'd come with Flóki's friend whose names he'd already forgotten but Alya had loved them so they were assholes all the same — he was worried sick about Flóki. He hadn't been apart with his brother since his birth — well, not for very long, at least — and that meant that something must've happened for him to be suddenly gone after one and half a year.

When one of the new chicks came into view — the one that'd stayed, Aria — she looked about as pissed and lost as he did. He wondered if she was pissed off too, or if she was just feeling sad. He sort of hoped the former, so that they could rip on her former friends together and be angry together. Sad wolves were always so depressing.

As he approached, Charon chuffed to announce his presence and hoped to catch a glimpse of what direction her mood was swinging in her response.

AH<3 wild charon/iris <3

aria hadn't been angry since the whole deirdre incident... not since the depths had merely taken over next door and waltzed through their own territory, given permission by only a child. it was a rotten thing to do, but aria knew that she had only done her best... and that the rest of the pack cared little for her own leadership, so eventually her anger had been replaced completely with sadness. the only one to spark the anger back in her was casmir, and even their last interaction had been positive.

when she saw the alpha male, she stood right away, dipping her head low. she had been among the hierarchy for a while at donnelaith, even when she wasn't sole leadership, but she knew how to be respectful, she knew her current rank and place. "good morning," she said in a slightly chirpier voice, though her smile was less than half-assed. and now that she thought about it, she wasn't even sure it was the morning anymore, she'd sulked for so long she lost track of time. "can i uhm, help you with anything?" she then asked, trying to forget about it. maybe she could distract herself, she hadn't even thought about ranting-- especially not to the alpha male.

Although he was always posturing dominantly among wolves who did not show proper respect or who he doubted — or at the borders — Charon's posture was pretty neutral, especially when she submitted right away. He didn't think that Aria would really be any trouble, considering Flóki had recommended her so heartily. It was evident from everything about her that she was trying to keep up appearances, and Charon was, after her question for helping out, quick to say: "Don't."

He looked at her sharply, something that was off-putting sometimes, but he didn't care. He wasn't gonna sit here and have a polite conversation with someone he didn't know when they were both hurting for the loss of Flóki. "I know you miss them, and miss Flóki, and I miss him too and I'm pissed off so many of them would leave in the middle of winter." His eyebrows darkened to reflect his anger. "And it's okay to be pissed off and angry at the world and sad and whatever the fuck you need to do to get past it, but you don't have to be nicer than you feel. You don't gotta pretend around me." He hoped she could appreciate his harshness, though at this point he felt like being nice or nasty or honest or not wasn't gonna make any difference, anyway. A bunch of them had left regardless of it all and he felt this was fairest for Aria; she could just be however she wanted to be without pretending.

his sharp don't actually made the pale zeta straighten up. had she done something wrong? was he here to scold her and was merely getting straight to the point? her ears perked atop her crown as she waited for the rest of his spiel, which came quickly after. midway through his harsh rant-- who aria knew wasn't directed at her, although it did feel like it-- her shoulders drooped and her ears fell back to her head. partially because she felt like she was being yelled at, and even though she knew she wasn't in any real trouble, just the thought of being yelled at made her nervous heart race. but, mostly, she fell in stature because he was right. it sucked.

"we just... constantine was my right hand. he was my beta back in donnelaith and even after we left i wouldn't have made a single conscious decision without running it past him," she said quietly, ears flicking once before falling back, "i just... i could've sworn he thought the same about me." aria didn't care much for eilidh, selfishly, who she hadn't seen much of in months anyway. but constantine's leave drove her made. and floki... god damn it, floki.

she glanced back to charon, her nose twitching. "and i don't even know what to think about floki... i just don't want to believe it," she said as she furrowed her eyebrows, "i just don't understand."

She seemed taken aback, which he had somewhat expected. A lot of wolves were first taken aback by his direct approach, but a lot of them had grown to appreciate it too, so he knew that he wasn't doing any harm with it. At least he was being honest where others tiptoed around subjects like these or just sat around and sighed. Everything plain sucked and to tip it off, it looked like there was bad weather coming in.

She shared something about Constantine, the guy that Alya hadn't been able to shut up about for a few days after he'd come to their borders. Charon wasn't sure whether he felt good to be rid of someone who got his girl so riled up so he could go back to being the one favourite person in her world, or if he was pissed off because he could've been a good role model to his kid and now she had to go and learn that the world was unfair at such a young age already. Anyway, Constantine seemed something special to Aria, maybe a bit like what Flóki was to Charon; or maybe something more, he wasn't sure.

"That sucks," he said, because he wasn't sure what else to say. In regards to Flóki, he shared, "Flóks has been on my team since the day he was born. I helped raise him, we've been best buds forever. I know he would never up and leave, so something bad must've happened to him." He could not help but wonder if maybe Constantine had met the same fate, or if the pair of them had gone off together or met up somewhere along the line. It sounded like Constantine had reasons to leave Aria about as much as Flóki had reasons to leave Charon, and from what she'd said it sounded like Aria felt like he wouldn't ever just go

He glanced at the sky, frustrated with the darkening skies. "It looks like bad weather is incoming though, so we may have to wait with the trip until after..." Charon sounded like he wasn't entirely sure if he had the patience to wait until the bad weather had passed, though. Paw prints and scents would be erased and it would mean that it might become impossible to find them. But Charon wasn't so sure any of those reasons were enough to risk putting his daughters without a father.

she stared forward. she looked at nothing, possibly even more confused. when her eyes dried too much, her vision blurring over, she blinked, and looked back at charon. "he probably went back-- his sisters live in our old pack, i handed down leadership to them. he disagreed with it... which is why he left, but, family is important to him," she said as she furrowed her eyebrows. it made sense, sort of, but she didn't understand why he wouldn't have told her... they were not blood relatives, but she felt they had grown to be close friends over the past few months. maybe she was wrong.

she paused, her rambling train of thought being brought to a screeching halt. her pale gaze looked up to the sky, their own clouded confusion mirrored in the dark, blanketed sky. she stared at it for a moment before her gaze fell back to her alpha, her ears flicking. "is it not just another snow? i don't mind scouting in the snow... i'm sure we could find floki," she offered, though the hopefulness that her last comment inferred was not heard in her tone of voice.

Charon wasn't sure what to say to Aria's thoughts on Constantine. He didn't know the guy at all, so he couldn't really say anything that would confirm or deny her thoughts. Who knew what'd gone on inside of his head that had made him leave. He'd left his previous pack too. He couldn't help but wonder why Aria'd given leadership to the dude's sisters, though. Had she really been an Alpha, and left? He'd have to ask later, but for now he was focussed on the approaching weather.

He looked thoughtfully at the sky when Aria said that it was probably just a bit of snow. He was pretty sure that it wasn't, but, Flóki... "It looks pretty bad," he said, but his heart said, 'we should look for Flóki before his traces are erased'. Yet somewhere, he knew it was unlikely they'd find traces of him. But maybe they would be able to find wolves that'd seen him leave? "Maybe you're right and we could get in a quick round before the snow comes in and covers all the tracks." He thought of Alya, who wanted so badly to come, but he couldn't let her get stuck in the snow. He looked at Aria and said, "Are you feeling good, just eaten, not too cold? The snow might make the journey longer and colder than normal." He'd eaten something not long prior and felt he should be fine. The pack had been strong and it seemed only recently that it had been crumpling in numbers; they'd stocked up on prey throughout the end of fall and the beginning of winter so they had a lot of caches spread throughout the mountain. He'd just call out to Ame that they were going and she could take care of the pups and make sure they'd stay somewhere warm if the weather got bad.

she stood, almost immediately. "i ate this morning," she said, already ready to go. she was cold, but it was sort of inevitable at this temperature. she was, at least, born up north, and so the cold wasn't as alarming as it was for some warm-climate wolves she'd met. "where should we go? i am ready to leave right now," she told him, gaze narrowing down the slopes. she didn't care about cold or long, she cared that they find floki... and maybe, just maybe, this was like a glimmer of hope. maybe they'd catch a trace, or meet someone who had at least seen him-- anything was welcome.

"Alright, let's head out," he said, not wanting to linger any longer. He glanced back at the mountain a moment, thoughtfully, then raised his nose to the sky to call for @Amekaze and inform her that he and Aria were going to look for traces of Flóki in the Tuktu. He knew that his mate was no fool and she would know that bad weather was coming too, and perhaps that was why he didn't wait for an answer before setting off. "He said he was going to explore to the southeast," he informed Aria, and then set off down the mountainside in southeastern direction, presumably with Aria in tow. If Ame would return his howl with a warning, he would not ponder it more than a second or two; the promise of the bad weather made him only wish to find his brother sooner, rather than give it more time.

we could do another thread set somewhere in the tuktu in the middle of a blizzard? 8) and @Alya if you wanted her to join in so you can have her exploring career started, maybe she could sneak off after them?

aria nodded, thrilled that charon wanted to do something. this is what she wanted in a leader, and in charon she saw lasher (although hopefully she didn't fuck charon, because that'd go poorly for many parties). she smiled a bit, standing quickly and waiting beside him as he howled to his mate. her tail wagged once before she nodded, replying a simple "right," to single her agreement on the topic. they would go southeast, and maybe-- just maybe-- they would find floki. though, somehow, she doubted it.

sounds good!