Northstar Vale i'd be home with you

For anyone other than Liffey or Rannoch. Set when they're away visiting RHC!

While the boy had taken to training alone, or patrolling alone, or eating and sleeping alone - he still felt the absence of the pack's leadership. The scent of Rannoch would likely never die in this place, but it wasn't as strong as it could've been. It was lacking in spots. Vague reminders that, yes, this was home. He would come back eventually and life would persist at its normal pace - there was no need to worry.

Titmouse wasn't worried, but he disliked the thought of Rannoch chasing after Liffey. He was still ignorant to the connection between the two of them; it was more like... Titmouse disliked that they were friends because Liffey wouldn't be his friend. He was, to put it bluntly, jealous of his cousin (or jealous of Rannoch, maybe of both of them!). Titmouse did not have any concrete connections within the pack, and he felt this keenly with the absence of both these wolves.

It had not occurred to Tit that Liffey wasn't really family. That his parents were his adoptive parents - that he was, effectively, an orphan. The concept had been lingering in his mind since he'd last spoken to Rian. He hadn't gone out of his way to figure things out, but he had been thinking about it - about what it meant to have nobody, to be alone, to have no real family - and the thought of LIffey always comforted him to some degree, even if they'd stopped talking.

Her absence was a strange thing, then. It left him feeling a bit numb. He told himself, who cares if she comes back? But if she stayed away, maybe Rannoch would to? And that sent him into a spiral of thoughts and strange emotions - what if Rannoch doesn't come back? What do I do then?

Redshank revelled in the idea of Rannoch being away — the adults weren't home, time for mischief! — and so spent most of his time terrorising the local fauna (or pack mate), raiding the caches, or ripping apart the trees of the Vale. Not for any particular reason, mostly just because he could. He could do these things anyway, but not having the Alpha possibly looking over his shoulder was freeing, in a way. Redshank didn't fear — or respect — the other adults nearly as much as he did Rannoch.

He spied Titmouse from a ways off and set off a quick trot to catch up to the other child. Even from a distance, the grey-furred boy seemed wrapped in his own thoughts, sad even, though if that mattered to Redshank, he didn't show it. Instead, he approached his fellow pack mate with a wag of his tail and an impish grin. "Hey, Shitmouse!" he called, proud of the nickname he had just come up with for the other boy.

It had been a long time since Titmouse had seen Raven, or anyone else from the Caldera. To say he was jealous of Liffey's choice - once he found out about it - would've been an understatement. The boy could not admit to the homesickness in the weeks since their arrival, though. Titmouse had been plagued by his guilt, and too young to fully comprehend the events as they had unfolded. Now though, without the adults he trusted most to comfort him, he was left to pine and consider things. Not all of it made sense, but more and more of Tit's past experiences had begun to unfurl within him.

He thought of going back - somehow. His thoughts didn't get too far before a familiar voice called out, and before Tit could do anything, his pack-brother was there. Shitmouse? The name made him scowl (mostly because he wasn't quick enough to spout an insult back).

With his own tail swaying softly at his hocks, and the eeyore-esque mood settling across Titmouse's features, the boy merely grunted a greeting - it could've been anything really. He didn't want company all that badly, not unless it was Rannoch.