Greatwater Lake Never again a lost ranger

AW!!

It felt really strange to be on the move again for the alpha female. She had been traveling a lot before she gotten a leadership role. It seemed that this trade wasn't really that compatible with a leadership role. Valette didn't mind it too much. She was happy with her children back at Easthollow. The female was surprised how much she remembered. The female crossed the mountains and was now in the flatlands. She remembered the massive lake. She knew that Silvertip wasn't far from here.

She glanced in the distance at the white-tipped mountain. She used to live there. It seemed so long ago. She had a mission though, and that was to Moonspear. It was close to the other mountain range, or so her son told her. Valette didn't want to cross the lake on Blackfeather Woods side. She didn't want to smell that scent ever again. However, what the female did do is go for a quick drink before she would travel further along the banks of the lake.

She had cruised across the flatlands and hung closer to the new range of mountains on this recent leg of her mission out. Of the areas so far, she was really reaching into ones she knew very little about and those she had not traveled on before. This was something she intended to change, but she still had ground to cover and a long way left to go even when she did point her nose back towards the forest of the elk.

Jomyo's attentions had been lured in by the large lake from a good distance away. Now that she was closer, she approached its shore and this led her towards another wolf--a darker-shaded one. Her ears pricked up and carefully, the small scout eyed her from afar before she went in even closer to get a drink of her own, and in turn, towards where the other was heading it seemed. Without knowing if the other was a neutral company or not, Jomyo would exercise her caution; she was a long way from home and smelled mostly like her travels, not so much like the camaraderie she had waiting for her far-flung from here. She wore her posture lax and unassuming as she headed down for her drink. Once there, she nodded first the other's way to gauge her before she dipped her muzzle to the water.

Valette glanced up from her drink when she noticed some movement further up. Her hazel eyes fell on a female not too far away from her but taking a safe distance. She could understand why. Valette's ears were pricked up on top of her head as well. Valette dipped her head. She then stepped closer to the female with a neutral demeanor. Valette might be an alpha in her pack lands but she didn't expect other wolves to treat her like one. Outside of her lands, she felt just as much a normal wolf as all the others roaming.

Valette then offered the other a smile once she was at normal talking distance. "Hello," she greeted with a sip of her head. She also smelled for the female's scent. She wondered if she might know where she came from if she was in a pack. She looked well fed enough to be a pack wolf. "Are you in a pack close to here?," she asked. The other female didn't smell like Blackfeather. She didn't know the scent of Moonspear yet, as she was traveling towards them for the first time.

It did ease her concerns to see her neutrality mirrored well enough from the stranger, not that just that would take her guards down yet though. Also, it was nice to see her take the initiative on the greetings and question. Jomyo didn't have to seem quite so nosy just yet and was more than happy to let her take a bit of a lead in this for now. "Hi," she returned, stepping a little closer as well. She still was quite content to let the other scouting wolf set the pace, so long as her boundaries did not push her own--and nothing was giving her any concerns yet.

"No. Not one close," she answered with a shake to her head. Not yet.. at least, if she was picking up the hint that Delight may move them here if things panned out. Tindómë was still quite a hike away from here and she knew she should think about heading back that way soon. It wasn't like she had a lot to report back with yet though. "I'm scouting for a pack southwest of here, Tindómë." she answered, keenly watching her company to see if that name may ring a bell, or not. "Do you live near?" she asked back.

Valette really liked that she was meeting with another Scout. It had been such a long time that she talked with a fellow scout from a different pack. Her pack seemed to be far away just like her own. More than a day's travel for her. "I am on a scouting trip as well," she spoke with a nod. "I'm a ranger from the Easthollow pack. It is Northeast of here. Quite far away from your pack then," she chatted.

She wondered if they lived in a very different region. Probably she did. Maybe it was very different from her valley and the taiga above it. "Is the region you live very different from here?," she asked curiously. "Our pack is in a quiet valley with lots of plains and even out landscapes," she tried to paint a visual for the other scout. They did have some forest but most were open fields.

Relief was sure to be evident on her bright blue expression when the other said she was on a scouting trip too. Another piece of common ground, and since she might have had a bit of a personal bias to favor scouts like herself, she was feeling more inclined to like her well enough if she had business like that out here too. "Yeah, pretty far.. I don't think I've ever heard of Easthollow to be honest," she said, although was unable to imagine the true distance (and imagined it to be great). The ambar had yet to ever cross the Sunspire range herself but very likely, come spring or summer, she would. "Or met any of your lot before now," she said, shaking her head and knowing she wouldn't forget something like that. This was a first, so she gave another small, amicable wave of her tail in show of good tidings.

Her ears tipped forward and she hadn't exactly come prepared for a question of a detailed scope like that, but she could get up to speed quickly enough. After being in the roving, ground-covering mindset for a few days now, conversation was lacking. "Hm, I wouldn't say very different, but a bit. There's mountains on either side, some meadows, and quite a few different waterways.. plus more forests than up here, I'd reckon.. though can't say I've seen it all up this way yet," she drawled thoughtfully, noting how she had said theirs was more evened out by fields, or so she imagined. Their swatch of hinterlands were quite forested on the whole. "Our spot is pretty quiet--a forest. Almost too quiet, tucked down in the southern parts of the area." the agouti Eizokusei detailed. "I actually came up this way to see about a place near these mountains called Northstar Vale." Jomyo mentioned. Maybe she'd heard of this as a scout and a resident in the other direction from her, so it seemed like a good chance to slip something like that in.

Valette chuckled softly when the other admitted that she hadn't heard of Easthollow before. Valette could understand that as she never heard of her pack either. "That is alright. I don't know your pack either," she admitted. They were so far away from one another that it made sense they didn't know each other's packs. At least that seemed reasonable for Valette. "We keep quiet as well. We are a family based pack so we focus more on our own then try to interfere with other packs," she added in explanation.

Valette eagerly listened. There were more forests compared to here so than compared with their valley they lacked forests. They were mostly used to open fields and plains. Valette liked it as it made her job as a deerstalker easier. She could watch them from Stone Circle. "How interesting!," she beamed. "I assume you don't have bison in your region then?," she asked in wonder. She forgot that they weren't as common in other regions. For them, it was their main prey but then again, in the valley were rarely any mooses. Not enough water for them.

"Oh I know it!," she spoke. "It is a valley in the mountain range over there. I often use it as a resting place when crossing the mountains or for when it gets too dark," she spoke with a nod. "You are pretty close to it! If you go up the mountain here you should enter it on the east end," she explained to the female with a smile on her lips. Since she lived at Silvertip Mountain for a long time the mountains around it were not so much of a mystery to her anymore. "You are also welcome to visit Easthollow if you are curious about our region," she invited the female. "I well tell my pack to be welcoming to you and wolves of Tindómë... What's your name? I'm Valette!," she introduced.

Easthollow sounded like a straight-forward enough place as described. Nothing suspect about a family pack like that. Jomyo would keep this information handy for sure, especially if her elk forest comrades did move closer to this region and it may be more helpful to have an occasional tie here or there. Anyway, she was plenty content with where this was going so far. If there were any bison herds in the region they inhabited, she had yet to see them, so had nothing to report on their behalf except an absence. "Bison.. nope, not that I've seen and I've been around there since the fall. We do have elk.. moose, lots of deer.." she listed. The elk in their claim were particularly noteworthy to her, but not only for the reasons of filling their bellies and caches.

But all of that aside, luck was on her heels today. She perked up when she found out the other scout knew the place; this just got even easier. "Nice.. thanks. I've heard it's a pretty nice little place," she said with more tail waves. Really only Mato knew, and Delight passed it on to her, but still.. she had positive reviews to back it. "So there's not a pack there anymore then, right?" she asked, guessing so if she went there to rest casually. Plus she didn't talk about it like it was a pack... which did beg the question of where it had gone off to since Mato had left them.

Speaking of packs, she suddenly found herself with a neat little network right to Easthollow--and she had not even been looking for that. "That's generous of you, thanks," again, the ambar said, this time dipping her snout in a little gesture with that thank you. "I'll keep that in mind. I'm Jomyo," she said with a straighter stance then. "Come summer, I do plan to travel more, and further out too.." because she just might be taking up the offer then sometime when she did, which would be helped if they did relocate to further north a ways.

Valette liked to hear about wildlife as well as being a gamekeeper was her main profession. The scouting was more of a side hobby of her. It was interesting to hear that they had lots of deer. In their region, they were somewhat common. But most of their prey animals felt more comfortable to live on plains, like caribou.

Then the topic shifted to the valley in the mountains. "No, not that I know of," she admitted. She hadn't heard of a pack there, it would make her passage harder as she couldn't cross through the valley anymore. "I didn't even realize there had been a pack there, but then again, I haven't traveled for a long time due to having kids and being the pack leader," she explained. Valette didn't mind that she couldn't scout as much as she could do before.

'Nice to meet you, Jomyo. I will keep my eyes and ears out for you in summer then," she spoke with a firm nod. Now she was thinking of summer Valette wondered if she would have children by that time. She would love to.

"Well, hmm. I think it has been a while since they were there," she nodded, wondering where the pack Mato had splintered from had gone then if not in the Vale then. If there was no pack waiting for her in or near that very Vale, she would need to rethink this finding Rannoch and company thing a bit, then likely prioritize ranging the area itself in hopes of picking up a hint in some terribly short span of time.

Delight seemed to be keeping the avenues open when it came to a possible relocation, too, which she was always aware of in the back of her thoughts. It felt right to keep her feelers out in the meantime because of this. "Pack there or not, I need to go check it out. Thanks for the directions." the ambar said, and, since she had picked out the mention she made of being a leader with a family, that posed questions of its own. Jomyo would start in the most general sense before she would soon be on her own way. "Are you out scouting for any particular reason yourself?" she asked, wondering if she may have any useful information to exchange in return--all depending on what Valette was up to, but honestly, she seemed pretty well-adjusted and well on her way to her.

Valette didn't know much more about the pack that the other was talking about but she was glad that she could have given the other some directions. "You are welcome," she spoke with a nod of her head. Fellow scouts should help one another in her opinion. She hoped others would think the same when she needed help.

"I'm heading to a pack called Moonspear. My son knows someone there, I am just giving them an update about his health," she explained with a nod. It felt great to travel again and not have the responsibility of a pack. Though she missed her family, she had to admit that. "Along the way I keep my eye open for things that changed," she spoke with a hum. "See what new packs popped up etc."

Moonspear, Valette mentioned, and the ambar felt her ears give a little perk. "Oh yeah, Moonspear. I came around the mountains from that direction.. It's west a ways still.. hard to miss," she gestured off that way, west, but maybe a little south too. Her sense of direction wasn't that refined beyond a good old point in that general direction she meant to reference.

 "But cool. I need to get back to it, too honestly, so I won't hold you up anymore," Jomyo said as she shook out her coat and now considered her next route straight towards the Vale: the main centerpiece of her whole trek out, and she was feeling good about her oncoming success in it.. assuming nothing stopped her between here and there. "And safe travels, okay?" she offered with a quick, curt nod to her newest fellow-scout acquaintance as she prepared to part ways with farewells to get back to the road of her own.

Valette dipped her head in thank you when the other gave her a description as well! The female was glad for it, and would keep her senses alert when looking for Moonspear. "Thank you," she spoke with a smile. "Same for you!" Valette dipped her head to the female and was pleased to have met her. Valette moved into the direction of the mountain range. She was confident now that she would find Moonspear.

- end -

Thank you for the thread!!!