Sun Mote Copse Spring lettuce

@Sundance 

Though Wraen was not a guardian or mercenary by calling, she too did her fair share of shifts at the border patrols. Niamh, Bronco and Towhee were doing a very good job. Now and then the Sovereign caught scents and footprints of other packmates joining them and she decided that right after her co-leader's-to-be spring madness ended, she would catch up on, how the training was going. She knew already that not all people were that excited about it, her own sister being a big, black exclamation mark to begin with. Perhaps, it would have been better to call a pack meeting first and explain the reasons to all, not let Towhee battle on her own (she did not complain - apparently bossing people around was in her nature). 

When she came around a small hillock, Wraen decided to take a break from patrolling. She climbed it up, sat down and observed calmly the lands beyond the borders. All was peaceful and quiet.

Dorea had been scarce lately, which was...  worrying. While he would never ask her to change, her previous flight from his life was at the forefront of his mind as he trailed along the edge of Firebird territory in search of any fresh scent trails that might belong to her. The most he expected from her was honesty; surely she'd know that if her heart sought to settle elsewhere, his was sure to follow.

He loved her. She was all he had left of Elysium and, desperate to keep her close, he didn't really know what to do with himself if she did choose to disperse once again.

The sight of thair pack's leader was a welcome distraction, and the gangly youth ascended the hill from behind her with a soft woof to announce his presence. "Hey," he greeted gently to accompany a friendly sway of his tail, content to settle alongside her and cast his powder blue gaze out over the land before them in search of whatever may have held Wraen's interest.

Since the kids were no longer babies, Wraen did not keep frequent tabs on them. The adolescents were hard to keep track on and used to disperse in every possible direction and were not very keen on telling, where they went or when they were expected to be back home. So, no wonder that she had not noticed or worried particularly about Dorea's absence. Towhee was her primary caretaker and person to trus, so, if her aspiring leader did not cause alarm, she was not inclined to do so either. 

"Hi," Wraen turned to greet Sundance - a very handsome young boy, with whom she had not had much to do ever since accepting him in the ranks. So, it was lucky coincidence that he was offering her his company now, rather than her seeking him out herself and being awkward about reasons of wishing to talk with him. "How are you doing?" she asked. "Are you settling in well? Any troubles that Sovereign can sort out for you?" 

"I'm okay," the silver youth answered sweetly, a shy little smile on his face. "I like it here. I wanted to say thank you, for letting us stay."

He hoped that Dorea's absence was temporary, and kept it to himself for the time being. The last thing he wanted to do was rouse worry among the Firebirds if his friend would reappear soon, so Sundance figured it best to wait things out for a day or two. "What're you doing up here?" Sundance asked, blinking curiously toward the territory that Wraen had been looking out over.

"Watching, observing, technically - this is also a patrol. The lazy kind," Wraen joked, but the statement was true. One could walk a thousand miles and not see a single thing, and you could learn thousand thins, by staying still at a single spot, by observing carefully. 

"Dreaming too. In the past I travelled a lot, now I cannot do so and now and then my heart yearns for the world just there on the rim of the horizon," she told Sundance and, if he was interested and time allowed, she told him many other things and only bid a goodbye to the kid, when an urgent call rised in the air and demanded her immediate audience.