Morningside Cuesta traveled a million miles too far

Kasatka had left the remainder of her family with a bit of a heavy heart. She loved and adored them all, but something bid her to move on. So she dispersed (though not without saying goodbye) and traveled; the young Corten found that perhaps what she had missed was traveling, and sight-seeing. Where her wanderlust came from she could not say, but every step away made her heart feel a little bit lighter. For a large portion of her travels, all had been well; the hare-footed youth was adept at catching smaller prey, and lucky to come across old pack kills that had not yet found their expiry date. There was no competition for her in those early days; bears had retired, and she ate with the crows. 

She could not say when she realized where it was she was headed, only that the epiphany came and went. Oh, was all that she thought to herself, smiling a little. There was nothing else for her to do but to keep going, and so she did just that. 

Kasatka arrived to the Valley one fine morning; the snow fell in droves, but it was no deterrent to any able-bodied wolf. The pale-furred yearling moved at a slow trot, her eventual destination the plains. But one misstep sent Kasatka in a spiralling descent; she had not expected the pitfall, and with a yelp down she tumbled. By the time she realized what had just happened, it was over, and she was no worse for wear (with the exception of a few bruises and her smarting pride); with a quiet ahem, she gathered herself and rose to a stand, covered in snow. Shaking out her furs and ridding herself of only a small portion of it, she squinted ahead to make sure her path did not have any other surprises in store for her.

terance and his family, and what was left of the hollow, migrated. they were moving north -- though not too far up he hoped, to distance themselves from easthollow in an attempt to lessen the competition for food. easthollow wasn't much of a competitor, in that they were allies, but it seemed their pack drew in all the resources -- recruits included. arbiter and terance opted to move, start fresh, and bring whatever wolf that chose to come with them. terance was off on his own currently, scouting a lead they had gathered on prey. it'd come up short, of course, but he hoped @Arbiter was having more luck in her searches. 

while this wolf was looking for a clear path, she'd find instead a dark wolf blocking out a patch of snow. he noticed her too, though only by scent, as the snow was plentiful and her fur was pale enough to almost blend in. he paused, a fair distance away, and studied her for a moment before his tail began to wave. his ears cupped forward gently. thought you were a snow drift, he called through the drifts themselves. though she was certainly too sandy, and furry, to be any kind of snow.

She was surprised to see the movement of something dark and large in this great big place of white and grey. The yearling had taken quite a tumble, hadn't she, to have missed him so close? Well at least the stranger had not noticed. Squinting at him and realizing snow stuck to her lashes, Kitten was quick to paw at her face to clear her gaze before looking back to him. 

Who was this, now? Feeling a little weak in the knees by the look of him, scarred and strong, she bet, Kasatka wondered dreamily if this was what her own family had felt when finding their person. The world around him was rosily aglow, and the young kitten smiled warmly toward him, laughing effusively when he spoke as if what he had said was the funniest thing she had ever heard. 

The young Kitten had no wiles about her as she asked, you did? as though she wanted to hear all about it. She looked to her furs, which had grown simpler in their coloration... but... hmm. The snows a far more brilliant shade of winter white, I think, but she appreciated the mistake he made all the same. Snow drifts were pretty; they always looked so soft, and Kitten preferred to hole up in them and nap during her travels. But thank you. I'm Kasatka; but, well, most wolves call me Kitten, and she had come to prefer the moniker. Still, to honor her parents, she let the name be known.

a low chuckle rose to terance's throat as the wolf neared, seeing now she was a bit younger -- older than his current litter, but perhaps near ibis' age. actually, he thought, this wolf looked strikingly like his daughter and former mate -- but most pretty little sandy colored females did from a distance. his tail waved gently again, nose twitching. no pack, to his surprise, most of the wolves in the valley seemed to be claimed by one pack or another. 

kitten, he repeated with a flick of a ear, as if charmed by the name -- it was much cuter than anything arbiter would choose to nickname their kids, so it struck terance with a bit of humor to think of calling brou something like kitten. granted, he did call ibis much sweeter names -- god, what juxtaposition -- and god why was he thinking so intensely about this? i'm terance, he introduces with a small smile, i used to lead a pack a bit south of here, but we're moving north to find more plentiful prey. his nose dipped, and he added, are you from around here, kitten?

Terance, the handsome now-stranger-no-more introduced. Grinning winsomeley, the young girl listened as he spoke on. He led a pack south of where they were now, but the prey was scarce there... her grin was quick to shift into a frown. Kasatka was an open book, a picture one at that. One need no level of skill to decipher what it was she was thinking, and there was no subtext to interpret. Deception was not her strong suit, though that didn't mean she'd never tried her hand at lying before; still, no need for that here and now.

Weird, she spoke, not yet answering his question as she looked over her shoulder, food was really hard to find back there too. I was hoping it would get better here, Kasatka said sighingly, looking back to Mr. Tall, Dark, Handsome, and Scarred—and realized he had asked her something. The question registered half a beat later, and she nodded: yeah, actually—well, I was born here, but from here and there. A lot went on, she explained, some sad, some happy—but, something compelled me to go find... did the semantics of it matter? Did he even care to know? He had asked a simple question, and here she was, prepared to give him her autobiography. With a little laugh, Kasatka grinned again and kept things brief for his benefit: well, long story short, kinda-sorta. Born here, raised... here, but also there. Kitten shrugged, summarily expressing with the rise-and-fall of her shoulders: it's complicated. 

What was far more interesting than that, Kitten felt, was the topic of food. So, North, huh? You going all by yourself? Oh, no, you did say we, didn't you, she crinkled her nose; she normally was not this flighty, but, well, she also normally didn't encounter wolves quite so good looking as this out there. Not to say her families chosen ones were not handsome... but Kitten was loyal to a fault, and so hardly thought of them in such a way.

terance frowned at her response, feeling a little bad to have been the bearer of bad news. there were some earthquakes -- it drove the prey away. it's slowly coming back, i think. not a common occurrence here, though, he told her, trying to soften the blow... not that it would, or that it mattered. 

he gave her a small smile that expressed understanding -- to show her he knew what she was feeling. terance too was from here... and here and there... and through all the good there was bad -- and all the bad there was good. and here he was, compelled to find something... different. though those weren't her words, terance finished the sentence in his head -- for himself. he nodded to her. i see, he said simply, though it wasn't meant to blow her off.

to her comment, his grin deepened, eyes crinkling gently. north, yes. my mate and my kids are with me... and a wolf or two from our previous pack, he explained with a flick of his tail. he noses a little west of them, towards where he assumed ibis resided. my other daughter leads a pack west of here, and my son resides there as well. so it'll be nice to be a bit closer to them, he added, even though he knew that ibis wasn't sure where okeanos had gone... he assumed by now they had reunited. he would ask when he visited. ah, was he oversharing now?