Sun Mote Copse Last transmission from the island radio

When the hunting party had returned from the coast, they had had full bellies, but they were missing one very important thing: Sugar Glider. As soon as Avery found out that her sister hadn't come back, she had been thrown into a tizzy. She was inconsolable, though she didn't cry; she simply paced, gritting her teeth, asking over and over again where Sugar had gone. Elwood tried his best to calm her, but it was to no avail.

She had half a mind to go out looking for her, and had marched to the borders countless times in the days since Sugar's disappearance. But something had kept her from going, and while she couldn't identify it herself, it was fear. What if she got lost too? What if she couldn't find Sugar? What if she got hurt, or Sugar got hurt? What if they died?

Avery was presently sitting at the edge of the territory, facing towards the distant coast, her tail wrapped tightly around her paws and her blue eyes unblinking as she willed the universe to bring her sister home.

Snowflakes tumbled from the sky, refreshing the blanket of snow already covering the ground. Towhee ignored it for the most part, keeping up her trudging march around the copse's fringes. She'd felt peculiarly emptied ever since her rendezvous with Hydra, her anguish over her missing family members ever present but somehow more manageable now. She supposed the best word to describe her emotional state was "resigned."

More pressing was her concern for her little sister's whereabouts, though Towhee had by now given up on combing the surrounding territories. She was beginning to lose hope that they would ever find Sugar Glider either. Towhee had come to calmly accept the recent and numerous reminders that, sometimes, people just went away: got lost, went missing, died... it was always hard but it was also an inevitable part of life.

She knew she wasn't alone in her struggles. When Towhee spotted Avery up ahead, she could see the misery and stress written into every line of her young body. The mercenary padded up to her remaining little sister and bumped her nose against her silver shoulder, a silent gesture of comfort and companionship. Without speaking, her orange eyes said, "I know exactly how you feel. You're not alone."

She wasn't alone for long; Towhee arrived and settled by her side, without saying a word. Avery turned her head to glance up at the older female, reading Towhee's message in her silence, body language, and expression. Her knowledge of ptero might have still been rudimentary, but those particular gestures were not even necessary at the moment in order for her to communicate with her sister.

She leaned against Towhee and sighed, feeling words bubbling up inside of her. She kept her mouth closed, though, knowing that they would come out in a stuttering jumble -- and while she was used to that, she just didn't feel like dealing with it right now. Towhee understood; she didn't need to say anything. Still, she huffed again, sending a snowflake or two spiraling away from her cold breath.

The ease with which Avery accepted her presence, then the comfort of her shoulder, made Towhee's insides feel markedly less hollow. She twisted her neck to gently rest her chin on the smaller wolf's head. Neither one of them said anything and the mercenary wondered what might be going through her little sister's head right now. She'd lost two of three siblings in a matter of weeks. Towhee's insides clenched in empathy with that particular brand of loss.

"If you want, you could come with me to look for her," the former Kilonova found herself offering without thinking. If it might help Avery, she could resume her searches. "We could keep an eye out for Crow too. And everyone else who's gone." She drew in a breath and sat up a little straighter so she could look down into Avery's face as she said the next few words. "A lot of people will walk out of your life. But some stay. We can look for the former but don't forget to hold onto the latter too." She smiled encouragingly, thinking of her recent conversation with Hydra. "Your mom and dad, for instance. And Eljay," Towhee offered in way of example. "You can always count on them to be there for you, to stay."

And me too, she thought though didn't add. Although she appreciated the easy, sisterly affection between them, Towhee didn't know Avery that well and vice versa. Maybe that could change, beginning today. They had a lot in common, after all: they were the ones left behind.

Towhee offered to let Avery accompany her on a search for Sugar Glider, and Avery opened her mouth initially to protest. The thought of leaving the copse, even under the care of her older sister, was intimidating. But another part of her thought that it might be worth it, if it meant that they found Sugar and brought her back home. She closed her mouth and gnawed on her lower lip thoughtfully.

"M-maybe," she agreed hesitantly. "I d-don't want to slow you down or get in the way, though. Where w-would we go look?" she asked, then fell silent as Towhee spoke at length about the way that wolves would come and go from their lives.

She knew that; she had many older siblings who weren't present, and her parents had talked about how they were out living their own lives. Just because they weren't here didn't mean that they were gone, necessarily. But Sugar had disappeared without a word; that was what worried Avery.

Towhee was particularly adept at reading body language, so she immediately noted Avery's hesitation. Despite it, her little sister asked how they would go about conducting a search. Towhee weighed her words before replying, wanting to make sure Avery felt helpful and included, without pushing her too far out of her comfort zone. There was some merit to that, though in the wake of Sugar's disappearance (and all the others), Towhee wasn't in any hurry to risk losing track of yet another.

"I've been searching the areas between here and the coast: retracing the route we traveled but also broadening it," the mercenary explained. "I'm willing to bet Sugar's just lost and trying to make her way home, so she could show up anywhere, including somewhere nearby. I think that's where you and I should look first."

Avery nodded as Towhee shared that she had searched between the copse and the coast. It was a little worrisome that she hadn’t turned up any evidence while retracing their steps, but Avery tried not to lose hope yet. Towhee seemed confident that continuing to search would yield results, so she nodded her agreement.

Okay. N-nearby, she concluded with a nod, standing to show that she was ready to follow Towhee’s lead.

Avery looked prepared to head out right then and there, which Towhee silently commended, though she struck out a foreleg to stop any forward motion and said gently, "Before we undertake something like this, we need to make sure we're properly fueled. You didn't go to the coast with us. Have you eaten lately? We should get a square meal in your belly before we go anywhere."

She pursed her lips in thought as she assessed her level of hunger. She wasn’t starving at the moment, but Towhee was right — it had been a while since she had eaten something pretty substantial. It was easy to get used to living leanly, although she supposed it would be important to have the proper nutrients even for a short excursion.

C-can we grab a snack? she suggested.

Wanna fade and have a new one sometime? They still need their boot camp thread! :D

"No," Towhee answered Avery's question firmly, holding her gaze, "not just a snack. We need to find something substantial, a decent meal. As soon as we do that, we'll head out. Come on, let's check the caches. If we can't find something there, we'll hunt something fresh. It'll be good tracking practice."

She blinked in surprise at Towhee’s initial response, though her sister quickly clarified. A snack wouldn’t be enough to fuel them for this particular task. It made sense. Avery nodded, then obediently followed Towhee — first in search of food, then in search of Sugar Glider.