Golden Glade Then I set fire to our bed

Firebirds BWP adventure @Towhee @Phox @Eljay @Weejay @Figment @Fennec @Vasa @Chanel @Alyx @Quetzal 

She was fully prepared for the rain to stop, and for the sun to come out the moment they reached the Glade, proving their decision to evacuate the Copse to be fruitless and irrational. It didn't, however, and the miserable, cold downpour continued as they forced their way through the Bog with the golden dame leading the way, knowing that Towhee would be their sweeper who kept track of anyone who fell behind. But the task at hand was getting as many of their packmates through the squelching muck of the bog as quickly as possible, so that they wouldn't end up surrounded on all sides by hostile waters in the Copse. 

The long-legged Regent shook some of the water out of her pelt, but found herself still caked in mud all the way up her legs to her flanks in the places where she had attempted to forge a path- and had found herself sinking into the mud instead. As one of the tallest wolves in the pack, she'd been a natural leader given the fact she could move quickly but also due to the fact that whenever she was surprised by a sudden softness in the ground that had her sinking into mud past her elbows, she was able to pull herself out and find another route, saving the others- especially her children- from potentially getting stuck in the mud or pulling a muscle. In some places, the water flowed a bit more freely, but she did what she could to find easy crossings. 

For the most part, she kept her ears flattened, knowing she would either have to put up with Quetzal's delighted shrieks or Alyx's horrified gasps. She'd suggested to Phox that he encourage Primrose to follow along with pretty young Chanel- knowing that as long as he had a new love interest to follow, he'd be one less child they'd have to watch. 

The first day would close with the tired band reaching the halfway point but by the time their journey began on the second day, a fog as thick as soup rolled in, whirling about their small, mud-covered band. Niamh would take the lead again, guided by little more than intuition given the fact that there were no visible, distant landmarks to follow on account of the fog. In places, it thickened so much that she could only see a few feet in front of her, leaving her to wonder how the others were faring. Every now and again, like a lighthouse beacon, she would send out a call to guide her packmates along behind her- but the best she could do was assume that they were staying close enough together to follow the tail in front of them, and if not that then the tracks left behind in the mud where the ground was visible. 

She reached the glade, emerging into the forest like some creepy swamp-monster, and turned to wait for the others to appear out of the fog.

Vasa had done her best to keep up with the rest of the group. From what she remembered, the trip between the Firebird's current and future claims was a short one. With the addition of the rain and mud, their journey was much more arduous than before, and it took them longer to arrive. Vasa stuck close to the middle of the assembly, keeping an extra pair of eyes on the children. 

Everything seemed to cling to Vasa's pelt—mud, sticks, percepitation—and throughout their trip, she did his best to deal with the added weight. There was no use in trying to rid herself of the ailments, as she knew they'd return in time. 

Vasa had begun to feel nostalgic once they had arrived at Golden Glade. Even with the thick, rolling fog, she was already able to identify some landmarks. She smiled despite her fatigue, feeling as though she had made it home; there were a lot of good memories she had collected growing up here. "It hasn't changed at all," Vasa remarked to herself, breathless as her gaze swept the crowd. Even with the flood, her homeland was recognizable. Now that they had stopped, she wanted to make sure that nobody had been lost in the haze.

Leaving behind Wraen and Maia had proven to be more painful than Eljay liked to admit. Out of all the wolves of the Firebirds pack, they were some of his closest. Wraen had been his first real friend after deciding on a whim to follow Wildfire to the Copse, and she had helped him and made him feel at home. He'd tried to do something back for her when she was a leader, tried to take some weight off her shoulders even though he always felt that he only piled on more.

Now Towhee was in charge, someone with whom Eljay had never seen eye to eye until the day that she gave birth to Meerkat. But Meerkat was no longer here now, and Eljay was afraid that Towhee's liking of him might have formed back to its old ways after the rough patch following Finley and Elwood's deaths. He just didn't know where he had Towhee and he was still very bad at ptero -- it'd never caught on for him -- and all of that left him feeling rather alienated from the pack at times. Weejay was all that was keeping him there.

Niamh was one of the few other wolves that he knew and got along with, that he had a history with, although at the same time Eljay also knew that she was very different from him and that she probably didn't understand him very much.

If they'd stayed in the Copse it might've been fine, but now that the move came up it made him feel even more out of place and unsure. He didn't want to uproot, even if he saw the necessity in it, too.

He just wanted things back to the way they were; with Wraen and Maia still there, in the Copse.

But reality was a bitch and so he moved through the rain with the rest of them until they reached the glade; a place he had never even visited before.

Just as Niamh had anticipated, Quetzal was annoying most of the way. There were moments where she would pause in her antics when she could sense her sisters distress was at its peak (in the beginning of the journey, at least) where she would say, y'okay @Alyx? Want me to beat the mud up for you? I'll do it, she huffed, and then would quiet down to be good for a little, for her sister and her sister alone, until they were done with a particularly awful leg of it. 

And then she'd stretch her legs and play slip and slide. She would surge ahead of the adults when she spotted a hillock and use her body as a sled; she would send mud flying everywhere (having the sense to go ahead of her sister to not strike her with it at least) and spin out with a pleased little squeal. Once that was finished she would do donuts, spraying mud and water everywhere until the adults caught up (she had not gone too far for that to take long at all).

Towhee had stayed behind to collect any stragglers, which Phox was both thankful for and worried about. He knew she could handle herself, but it still didn't sit right with him. Niamh led them, and Phox followed, keeping an eye on the children as best as he could. Primrose, at least, kept close, but of course the girls were more rambunctious. When they finally arrived in the glade, Phox felt both a sense of relief and a sense of dread. He was glad that they'd made it, but he was also worried about what they might find when they got back to the copse.

He focused his attention on Eljay then, knowing he hadn't wanted to go. Not really. Hey, Eljay. How you holding up? he asked, coming shoulder to shoulder with his cousling. They'd never been particularly close, but Wraen had always seemed worried about him. Phox had even tried to track him down several times and just bro-out with him, but they never seemed to be in the same place at the same time.

Alyx fell into an overflowing stream that will carry her into the river west of Golden Glade. She is missing as of August 23rd!

It was the most miserable time of her life.

Everywhere they went, the ground was wet. Sometimes it was just spongy underfoot and she could get by with only a little mess on her pretty legs, but other times they were practically wading through disgusting, horrid water. Her fur was fluffed up with indignation and displeasure almost the entire way to the glade, when it wasn't plastered against her slender figure. Alyx had never entertained the idea of dying before, but prayed for death almost hourly as they trekked away from the copse.

She didn't remember the fog rolling in or when she'd retreated so far into her head, only that after a while, she looked up and didn't see anyone around. She didn't see anything but thick whiteness obscuring even the closest trees. Alyx lashed her tail a couple times, peering around for any sign of her packmates or even her loud, annoying-ass sister. Hello? she called.

When she was met with silence, she began to panic. Quetzal definitely would've responded. That was when her legs began to move a little too fast and her brain began to spin a little too much, sending Alyx into a panicked trot through unknown territory. Once or twice, she called out for her family, but if they heard her, they wouldn't be able to easily locate her in the fog. She began to pant, her legs churned even faster, and then there was nothing under her paws and she was falling. Next thing she knew, she was underwater, being pulled north by a strong current. HELP! she yelped, but no matter how hard she paddled, she couldn't get back to land.

The most miserable time of her life was about to get much, much worse.

Tidying this h'up

Niamh waited, counting as one by one, her packmates appeared through the fog. Weary, muddy and wet, her beleaguered packmates trudged from the mucky bog, joining her in the Glade where at least they had some shelter and footing that wasn't two inches of water. She greeted each with an affectionate growl and a nuzzle, a show of her apreciation that they'd gone through this arduous endeavour, placing their faith in their leaders that this was the right decision. 

She'd been made aware that Towhee would be late, having remained as a sweeper searching for Fennec and a few others who'd been stragglers. Those wolves were at least accounted for, in terms of their absence. She trusted that Towhee knew who she was looking for, and that it was a short, finite list. Amongst the wolves who had left the Copse in a group, and travelled together to the glade though, there was one missing. 

She could have screamed when Phox showed up without Alyx trailing along with him. She'd been watching, waiting for her children to show up, hopefully each being escored by an adult. Quetzal had come earlier, and seemed tired but happy- and she wouldn't have expected anything less of her adventurous daughter. Primrose too arrived, and no matter how muddy or rainsoaked her little boy was, there was still such a sweetness in his gaze whenever he looked up at his mother that she could completely overlook everything else in the world, for a moment or two. But everything ground to a halt when it was discovered that Alyx was missing. 

Was she with you? When did you see her last? I thought she'd been travelling just behind me. I was certain I'd seen her just ahead of me.

None of it mattered. She fumed, but she did not ream her packmates out. In a voice firm and crackling with tension, she announced that she would be searching for her daughter- and once her packmates were settled, she left them in hopes of finding the sweet baby girl her packmates had managed to lose.