Firefly Glen I've heard since I was younger that oil and water don't mix

@Osiris (or anyone else from Firefly Glen!)

There it was, broken up in the morning fog: Moonspear.

Or, so she hoped. Dhalia tipped her charcoaled head and squinted against the sharp grey light of the overcast sky. Literally every mountain fit the description Jasper had given her, and even though she'd been here once before, the landscape looked a lot different in the golden hues of autumn, rather than in the patchy white of the winter they'd travelled here together. And last time, anyway, Jasper had only pointed the mountain out, hardly thought to take her to it, even as he rattled on about relatives and Ostregas and wolves who had known their parents. He'd been too driven to find the Caldera than to linger here a while, which in the end came up emptier than most of the mole holes she'd poked and prodded in the prairies that now lay some miles behind her.

Oh well. She was here now, and anyway, regardless of whether this mountain was Moonspear or not, she found her journey disrupted by the soft, yet certain marks, of some other claim. Pretty weak still around the outer ranges, nowhere near as formidable as some of the packs she'd drifted across. An establishing band of loners, perhaps? In any case, someone took up residence in these foothills between the prairies and the mount.

"Hello?" she called out, a half-howl straight into the heart of the land. "Anyone here?" Curiosity drove her to linger on the edge of the Glen, ears tall and cupped for an answer, head raised and sharp eyes aglint with bright awareness. Moonspear, Moonspear, Moonspear could wait a little while longer, as it had done for what, almost a year now? An eensy-weensy detour never hurt anyone.

After her exploratory foray around the glen, Meerkat wondered if she should head back to Moonspear. Or was it okay—expected, even—for her to spend most of her time in the glen, helping establish their claim? In any case, she couldn't make herself leave the expansive territory. She slowly roamed, feeling quite content with her decision to relocate here, and wound up curling up with a grunt beside the boulder at what would become the pack's rendezvous site.

She woke suddenly some unknown amount of time later, at first unsure what had interrupted her sleep. Then she heard it: "Anyone here?" Sitting up, the youth rubbed the grogginess from her eyes with a fisted paw before dropping it to the ground and loping toward the sound of the voice. Meerkat didn't fancy herself a guardian, yet the idea of meeting a stranger at the newly claimed borders and telling them about Firefly Glen was all sorts of thrilling.

The air was cooler than before her nap, with mist clinging close to the ground. It swirled around Meerkat's ankles as she reached the far side of the glen and saw a dark she-wolf there with the most striking eyes. It immediately made her think of the lake somewhere behind her. Her tail broke into a wag and she smiled as she approached, feeling every bit the ambassador as she strode up to the stranger with a warm, "Hello! Welcome to Firefly Glen."

things were tense. yana much preferred nothingness to whatever strange thing had taken up residence in neverwinter. wolves kept leaving, or dying, or going missing only to return and shake things up again. there wasn’t any consistency; she didn’t think she could take the constant changes anymore.

liliana had only meant to go for a short walk, but quickly found herself much further from home than she’d intended to go. this part of the wilderness wasn’t unfamiliar, despite its foreign appearance.

she walked quietly toward the intermingled scents of another nearby group, eventually stopping to hide in the barren branches of a bush. two wolves stood in her line of vision, presumably out of earshot, until— 

"welcome.. fly-glen!" liliana smiled, surprised that she could actually hear the general friendliness in this stranger’s voice. after a moment’s deliberation, yana walked into the open and began her timid approach. hello, she parroted, looking between the other women, what’s this place called again?

Osiris did not recognize the voice that called through the misty morning, and he could only assume that it was another individual intrigued by their presence in the glen. He set off in the direction of the borders in a hurried clip and arrived soon after Meerkat had introduced herself and their pack. He stilled at her side and offered her a grin before speaking.  

"Hello," he greeted. There were two strangers, which was unexpected, and one appeared to be much younger. Dhalia smelled of the wilderness, while Liliana carried Neverwinter's scent; it was curious that they had both happened upon Firefly Glen's borders.  "How can we help you?" he asked.

They descended on her in perfect pentameter: a drop of sunlight, a sterling shadow, and a rock that looked cut from the mountain itself. Dhalia took a generous step to better include the silver yearling in their circle, no clue to her name or what brought her here but tickled by the peculiar timing of her arrival. What fun! To have not only pack wolves but strangers around her, strangers, it seemed, both to her and to this Firefly Glen!

A gathering of this many, though, meant a shift in energy and conversation, a necessity to give up her own grab for the air and defer to courtesies where she might have preferred to talk. So, at the silver girl's question, which came in the space Dhalia herself might have filled, the Ostrega kept silent and offered space for the blonde girl to give the name of the Glen again, even though it took every ounce of self-restraint not to dance the title from her own tongue instead.

Of course, this courtesy also served her own selfish whim. In the silence she let her admiration linger on the man who rounded off their quartet. His smile played well against the intelligence of his eyes, and she felt a pleasant warmth fill her cheeks.

"Lovely name, and a lovely place," she remarked, "I've got some family in the area, but I'll find them well enough,"  she waved her tail, as if to shrug off the notion she was in any hurry. Right now this place was much more interesting than Moonspear, anyway. "Guess I've always been piqued by comin' across wolves and packs I've never met. And last time I was by, the closest pack around was on that mountain over there," she gestured to the range beyond the foothills, "Just had to see what y'all were for myself. Curiosity," she shrugged and smiled and, with an air about her as easy as the wind through the prairie grass, glanced to the silver girl with the playful twist of her smile, "I'll blame it on my upbringing."

Another, younger wolf joined the first, Meerkat assuming incorrectly that they were together. If she'd thought the adult's eyes were striking, she was nearly mesmerized by the pup's. They were two different colors! Her lips parted and she stared for a beat before catching herself.

"Firefly Glen!" she repeated when asked, just as bubbly as the first time. Before she could add anything else, Osiris arrived, prompting Meerkat to press her lips together and lower her head in her Alpha's presence. She did peek up just in time to catch his grin, which she returned, her tail sweeping to thunk dully against his thigh.

The older of the two strangers had a lot to say on the matter of the glen. Meerkat's eyes danced as she listened to her speak, all the while sneaking glances at her younger cohort. She had yet to realize they weren't actually together, that the grown she-wolf spoke only on her own behalf.

"You mean Moonspear," Meerkat supplied helpfully, gesturing at the neighboring peak. "We came from there originally. We're branching out into a second pack here. Osiris is the leader!" It was kind of thrilling to get to introduce him, her face turning sideways toward him as she did.

liliana’s anxiety remained hidden despite their leader. she gulped and stared downward, but tried to keep her composure otherwise; surely, this man wasn’t like the other.

oh, it’s really pretty! yana agreed with nervous enthusiasm. she smiled, then looked between each of her companions, is it new? 

they weren’t asking where she’d come from, or where her parents were, and it wasn’t information yana necessarily wanted to give either. she would keep quiet about neverwinter for now, afraid that they might send her back.

Osiris had begun to feed into Meerkat's infectious optimism and the warmth in Dhalia's stare; the mood change was welcomed, as he often acted stoically in these situations. "It's nice to meet you both," he said once he'd been introduced. "We've only just started staking out claim here, so I understand the curiosity," he said to Dhalia in particular. 

Speaking of curiosity, Osiris soon found himself interested in the younger of the pair. Although he was fairly certain that the two strangers weren't traveling together, he asked for good measure, "You two didn't come here together, did you?"

Dhalia found it wasn't hard to keep her smile genuine with the likes of this lot. Warmth right about oozed from the blonde girl who'd met her first, and the others weren't too far off themselves. Pity, that they've gotta be from Moonspear, though, she thought, as her eyes swept Osiris again. He did look old enough that he might've been a dispersal from some other place, but then, she'd known many wolves who had lived and died in the pack they'd been born to. And if Jasper had met their aunt at Moonspear -- and serving as their alpha, no less -- well, then at the very least, she imagined she and this Osiris might very well be related.

Which would make them related, too. Bummer, but what could you do? At least she could still find him a pleasant thing to look at, even if he did turn out to be family in the end.

"Pleasure's ours, really," Dhalia said. The wave of her tail accented her words, "I've seen plenty'a'packs in my life, and lemme tell you, it's not every day you come across something as new and exciting as this." She wondered, what that would be like. To establish a pack, and stay there, instead of being on the constant move. Could her paws even stay in one place for so long? She had no clue, but that was something, she fancied, she might like to try.

Dhalia shook her head at Osiris' inquiry. "Nah, we're as new to each other as you are to us," yet even still, she looked to their sterling companion with the warmth one might afford a long-time friend, "say, though, what does bring you here?" her question aimed at the sterling girl, "Totally jabbed my mouth away, and never got to hear your answer."

Osiris's astute question caught her off guard, causing Meerkat to blink at their guests curiously. The older of the two clarified that they weren't together, which earned another few blinks. For all her gusto, Meerkat suddenly realized she'd totally forgotten proper introductions aside from Osiris's. She gave herself a mental smack upside the head.

"We're expanding from Moonspear," Meerkat repeated when prompted before minding her manners and including, "I'm Meerkat, by the way. What are your names? And where are you from?" Her attention strayed chiefly to her fellow youth, wondering about her most of all. "If you don't have packs but you do have skills, maybe you could join us?" she thought aloud, making finger guns and shooting Osiris an inquisitive look, a silent, Right?

my name is.., she thought to herself, it’s liliana. it would’ve been too obvious if she’d come up with an alias, and yana wasn’t sure she could have maintained one, anyway. i’m from neverwinter. my dad is the leader there. 

liliana didn’t know why this confession embarrassed her, but she could nonetheless feel herself recede. she didn’t want to feel weak though, and so continued, i’m exploring, trying to, uh.. explore. a smile was shot to meerkat, then shared with both osiris and dhalia.

she didn’t know if she had any skills, or any that they would want anyway. these wolves probably didn’t know about yana’s religion since it seemed to be more localized, but that was the only thing she’d put any real time into learning. she stayed quiet, allowing dhalia to take the offer in her place.

"I've seen plenty'a'packs in my life, and lemme tell you, it's not every day you come across something as new and exciting as this." Dhalia remarked, and Osiris couldn't help but agree. He nodded in reply, silently marveling at the moment; they were on the verge of their life's next chapter, and it was thrilling. 

Osiris turned as he felt Meerkat's poised finger guns on him, and he found himself further humored by her antics. Right, he silently confirmed, smiling slyly at her before returning his concentration to their company so that he could learn more about them. 

Liliana introduced herself and revealed that she was Mal's daughter; an unexpected reveal. "You were right to not trespass past our borders," Osiris praised. She looked no older than his younger siblings, and he loathed to think of them out in the world like she was—they were all still practically whelps! He felt compelled to offer her some free advice.  "Remember to stay cautious as you travel," he advised, "There are some dangerous individuals out there that will not hesitate to hurt you if they are given a chance." 


"Thankfully, here at the glen, you are among friends," he said, regarding the others with a smile.

Dhalia noticed how Meerkat pointed her questions largely at the sterling youth -- soon-to-be-known as Liliana -- and so she let the girl speak first. The name Neverwinter she tucked away -- a curiosity, for another time.

The nerves seemed to spark from Liliana like some kind of black-market firecracker, and Dhalia encouraged her with an easy smile, right about the same time Liliana shared one with her. She was clearly quite new to this, and while Dhalia couldn't really empathize (since her parents had more or less forced her to be a scout since birth by their very way of life), she'd met enough pack-born wolves through her parent's nomadic travels that she could at least understand.

And Osiris did a marvellous job of handling her; he only continued to impress. And Meerkat seemed just the kind of sunny company she reckoned would be a thrill to hang around. If Liliana joined them, well, she seemed brave despite her nerves. The Ostrega imagined she'd find good company in her, too. Dhalia dipped her head to Osiris' vibrant embrace into the little family he'd had the mind to knit together here.

"Thanks, the both you. Makes me pleased to hear," she said, "and yeah," tossing a smile to Meerkat now, "if you'd have me, I'd love to be part of this. I'm Dhalia," she considered adding 'Ostrega', but withheld her surname in the end, 'cause where was the fun in making a name for yourself if your name was already made? "I've never quite run with a pack before, not long term anyway. My parents were travelling healers so we moved around a lot. They taught us all they knew of herbs and medicine," using the plural, forgetting in speech that Jasper wasn't with her this time around, "but I'd say I'm as much a scout as I am a healer."

The leader gave her a sly smile and Meerkat clicked her tongue against her teeth, facing their two guests once more as they answered in turn. It seemed Liliana was simply a visitor from a neighboring territory, curious about the new pack setting up shop in the glen. Meanwhile, Dhalia seemed prepared to take the ambassador's offer of membership. Of course, the rest was up to Osiris.

Her brown eyes shone with excitement as she glanced to the Alpha again, pleased to have played a minor role in quite possibly recruiting a new member. There were a couple things she wanted to say, though she pressed her lips together to give the Alpha an opportunity to vet Dhalia further. Her attention turned to Liliana, offering the other young girl a smile of camaraderie.

Fading with permission!

Dhalia had become Firefly Glen's newest member by the time that their chat had ended. At some point, Liliana had excused herself from the conversation—presumably to return to Neverwinter Forest. He had written the child's presence off as curiosity and figured that this was the last he'd see of her. 

With Meerkat and Dhalia in-tow, Osiris lead his packmates into the territory. They helped the newest recruit settle in, giving her a quick tour and lay of the land. When all was said and done, Osiris excused himself from the group. It was getting late, and he still had a stretch of land to patrol before nightfall.