Noctisardor Bypass Like a Bad Penny

For @Warlock, yes?

Bedraggle-furred and limping slightly, Brou paused on the last small rise before the territory borders proper to gather her thoughts and attempt to sort out her feelings. Triumph? No. Vindication? Eh... Relief? Well, maybe a little. It had been an unexpectedly long journey, and for once she was surprised to discover that it truly was good to be home... at least a little bit.

She gave a small, disgusted sigh and leveled a quick little glare at the sore patch on her paw whence a little thorn had worked its way in-between the pads not that long ago, however, before she stumblingly marched onward. She'd wiggled the thing loose with a bit of blood and a lot of half-muttered curses and imprecations against whatever malevolent plant had left the damn thing lying about, but it was still fairly tender. It had been in that one white forepaw she had once considered her "lucky" one, to boot; nowadays she was really starting to doubt that characterization. Regardless, it would still bear some weight, and she ruthlessly pushed forward on it along with her three more-cooperative paws even if her pace was a little more halting than usual.

The scents of home wafted through her nostrils, both familiar and strangely alien at once. The breeze seemed to be moving the scent molecules along faster than her actual paws were going, a fact that did little to improve Brou's mood. Still, she was not particularly upset, as she halted and raised her nose to get a better whiff. Having actual familiar scents among the bouquet in the air was enough of a balm to her soul to counterbalance any irritation trying to take root. She raised her head a smidge further as she sorted out one particular scent from downwind, and turned with an uneven soft crunching of the layer of old snow beneath her paws to prick her ears and look the source of it measuringly up and down.

Warlock had gone along the borders for some reason or another, but the thing that this time had made him come to a stop was a particularly confused herd of deer, or so it seemed. They'd apparently sometime the previous night passed back and forth over the same path so many times it was a little harder to figure out which way they'd ended up going in the end. Was it something that he should bring up to Arbiter? Or had they headed back out so it wasn't actually a thing? It was hard to figure out.

He looked up then trying to see if there was any visible sign of them farther out. However, didn't seem like it. Nothing brown was spotted aside from non-animated things. Hm. So, how did he figure out this puzzle? He started to turn to look back the other way and instead spotted someone coming his way. Blink blink. Brou. Huh. So, she did exist.

Comparatively, she looked awful. He just stared at her for a moment before finally saying, You've missed a bunch, I think. So uh.. How long had she been gone? Look, he had mostly been glad she wasn't messing with his stuff, he'd only recently realized it had been a while. His expression was kind of perplexed, and not sure if she was going to try to be snarky at him or what. But then again, he also had rank over her, so nya nya if she tried anything, basically.

*types this in Discord popup on mobile and then realizes this maybe isn't the smartest/most secure, and in fact she no can access chat unless she posts*
Lolwhoops. ...So yeah will edit in a wee bit more here later but this is the bulk of it.

Oh hey, she recognized that face, that smell. She wasn't about to jump for joy or anything—that was not nor ever had been the quality of relationship they had anyway—but she did admit it was good to see a familiar face. Oh hai, brah, she drawled. What weird crap you been collecting over there now?

... A bunch a' what? she asked sulkily, adding more grumpily yet: Stop being so vague! Such an inconsiderate no-longer-quite-so-little brother, gosh. 

 She let her rump hit the ground with a dramatic and loud dull THUD on one of the increasingly rare fairly clear spots of earth, raising up a small puff of brown winter-dry dust. She was glad to let motion cease for the moment, glad to be able to sit still and just breathe and drink it all in. Well, that and expend effort coaxing all the latest gossip out of her dumb brother, it seemed. She blinked at him, really looking this time as she again gave him the once-over. It seemed a little hard to believe this was actually the same gawkish boy she'd last seen... it had to be months ago at this point, especially since Brou and he hadn't really spent any much time together since they were quite young pups, on the whole. Hell, it felt like half her childhood had been spent with Pike's teeth lodged in her tail; far more time than she'd really ever spent around her much weirder and more reclusive sibling. At least, yeah, that was how it felt. Not that you'd get Brou to admit she maybe wasn't the most objective observer of reality, here. Spit it out, Spook, she added in a somewhat sharp-toned prodding, possessing only little and rather thin-worn patience at this point, especially for brothers of all people.

She hadn't changed at all. It was no wonder that he'd been taken into their mother's confidence (if it could be called that) instead of Brou. She might be bigger than she used to be, but still pretty much still some punk. She really should grow up. So perhaps it was unsurprising that his response was, Warlock, he corrected, tersely. Did you even meet our younger siblings? Or have you just been off running wherever? You should have been here with the rest of the family. Like duh.

It wasn't like Brou could have known what she missed -- unless she was secretly psychic or something -- but she really should have been around. He wasn't really sure if there was much that could be done about it, but hey. He knew she should have been around at least! Where would he even begin trying to catch her up?

Warlock? she repeated, blankly at first, and then: Wait you got your name?! Okay, yeah, even if only in the privacy of her own small self-absorbed head she had to admit that stung a little. How could Spook of all people gone and beaten her to such an important life landmark?! Darn it, why was life so unfair?! Brou's eyes fell to her dirty white paw for half a second as she sweared her wound gave an extra-hard throb of assent in response. Ugh.

Brou tossed her head in careless disdain at her brother. It's not like I could help it, she groused growlingly to him, and then bit her tongue. Did she really want to admit to her all-too-grown-up baby brother that she'd gotten so lost and detained? Not really. In fact there was only one part that she'd wanted to share, but... There was this cougar, see, she began, and then abruptly stopped because now in light of Warlock's attitude, here, this seemed like nothing more than a fraudulent confabulation aiming to falsely impress, a blustering attempt to hog back some of Warlock's spotlight for herself. What the hell! Brou glowered, feeling quite unjustly cheated of even this one small triumph now.

Fine then Mister Know-It-All, she snapped, shoulders hunched up grumpily as she stared broodingly at her brother's winter-poufed form. No way this could be the same bratty kid...even if his disapproving attitude toward her wasn't really that different. Yeah, sure, that was the shit she'd dragged her homesick carcass home for, right. If you're so smart then why don't you tell me all this oh so important shit I apparently missed, gee. And seriously—she had spent months sitting at home with dire warnings of danger klaxoning in her ears from Mom while not a damn thing actually happened. Honestly, if everything exciting really had just waited for her departure, Brou was going to be mad. What ever did Fate have against her, here, anyway?! "Warlock." PUH.

Yes, he said flatly. Duh. It wasn't like she was gonna be the one to get her name first. Honestly it probably would have been Pike but he didn't stick around. Pike would have had fun chewing Brou out -- literally chewing her, maybe. But she always had been kind of the slacker of the bunch. At least War tried -- even if he was kind of disappointing.

But no, at least he had a sister who was worse in a way. Maybe she had potential or something, but Warlock just saw her being obnoxious and stuff. You mean besides all the stuff with our younger siblings? And that Kaertok left? You were supposed to be here and helping the family too! He scowled. Instead it was just up to him to help mom, seemed like. But they were family and supposed to help each other and stuff, right? So you ready to actually like... help? Or is mom gonna be all pissed at you? I mean, she might be already, I dunno. So you should watch out.

Yeah she pretty much knew what answer she was going to get there already, but it still smarted to hear "Warlock" confirm it. Maybe even a little more so because he didn't brag about it like his sister would have. Brouhaha's ears airplaned out into an unamused, flattened state, though she still kept listening to her brother's words no matter her disgruntled pinnae.

Her eyes narrowed though as he did then try to rub in all that she'd missed. Everything, apparently. Well gee. I— she started to protest automatically before quickly and sulkily buttoning her lip. Was it going to help to whine at him how she'd gotta cut off and lost like some helpless halfbrained pup? Probably not; and it might in fact only give him more ammunition to use against her. So instead she let only a huff of frustration and protest escape her flaring nostrils, and gritted her teeth as he kept right on going. Oh like there's ever any time mom's not pissed at me, growled Brou, sulky and snippy and unable to hold it back much longer. And most of the rest of the world. Hmph! Besides, whaddaya need my help for; apparently you've already got it all figured out yourself, Warlock. She put as much of a sneer into the name as she could muster, and hoped it would serve to stealthily slather over the raw envy that she was worried might otherwise leak through. Her paw was throbbing even more nastily now though, its wound stinging and seeming all too eager to heap injury upon insult. She thought for a hot second about getting up and flouncing haughtily away, but even if she hadn't been bone-achingly tired already it was rather difficult to properly flounce with an injured paw. Dammit, all she really wanted to do was have a nice cozy spot to curl up and sleep for a week... why was it she found it with herself, or rather her obnoxious brother already picking fights? Spook had been an annoying little runt and Brou found it quite dubious she was going to like the new "improved" Warlock any better. What ever had he done to deserve a name anyway?! Brothers! Really!

She just wasn't getting it, was she? If you tried with anything, maybe she wouldn't be pissed, he spat. Come on. You're supposed to help us. With hunting, protecting the borders, all of that. You don't just get to skip. Be responsible for once and maybe she'll quit treating you like a kid. Though that might be impossible for you, huh? His ears pitched forward, challenging. Normally she was the one trying to provoke him but the shoe was definitely on the other foot here.

All things considered he was pretty no-nonsense about it all. Maybe that was odd, but he wasn't a child any more. He was a responsible figure in the pack, he was an adult in all understandings of it. And Brou was not. Sure, she was just as old as him, but she certainly didn't seem to want to actually live up to her own age.

Brou tossed her head in a fine though likely unconvincing show of disdain. She was trying! She'd needed to explore all around their new home and see if there was anything important to report which of course there really wasn't much but then again she wouldn't expect Spoo—Warlock of all wolves to understand that. She sniffed haughtily and tilted her head to look down her nose at him to tell him what she thought of his little challenge, though despite not stepping back from it she also didn't move forward to engage. You have no idea what I've been going through, she said, trying for immense gravity and dignity though with mixed results, as another sharp pang from her thorn-stabbed paw made her all too aware. And look, now, despite all your fine words about pack duties and loyalty and shit you can't even actually come up with anything specific or important that I actually missed, so there. Hmph!

He stared at her, then said quite sternly, Weren't you listening? Kaertok left. Now we gotta step up and do all the stuff he was supposed to be doing. Both as a leader and a dad. Or you just gonna make mom do everything herself? We aren't kids any more, we're supposed to help out, so get with the program. How would that go over? Her getting talked down to by her otherwise kind of wussy brother. But he had his limits, and all things considered, he was a responsible wolf. You help out, you stop acting like a kid, people will stop treating you like one. That's how it works. Duh. But how long was he gonna stand around and listen to this? Ugh. At least she was back and alive. That was better than nothing.