Redhawk Caldera no way out

She had tried to make it back to the Glen, but she simply couldn’t.

What had brought her back here? She was insane. To prove she wasn’t a coward? Because she couldn’t bear to face her family, knowing how she had ran?

Was this any better?

Dhalia knew her parents would understand. She liked to think they would. She knew Jasper would, too. But she was trying to make it in this world, dang it, and make it on her own...

But still, she hovered around the borders of the Caldera, howl in the air, and still very uncertain. This wasn’t even the Glen ... but they had been allies, and Dhalia needed to know what had happened. She just couldn’t face seeing Osiris herself.

Still stricken with grief over Niamh's departure, Phox sent out a beckoning howl for her every few hours. She had to come home. She had to come back. She had to get better. Whatever was happening to her, he didn't know, but his anger had turned into something else. Sorrow, loss, depression, wanting. The wolf who had been by his side for over a year, who had gotten him through some of the hardest times in his life, was gone. Wherever she was, he worried for her. Whatever was going through her mind, he worried about that, too. What would drive her to leave? Surely there was more to it than a grudge?

He felt the beginnings of another migraine, and he stilled himself for a few long moments, taking deep breaths and trying to bring down his racing heart. The voice that called wasn't familiar to him, but maybe whoever it was had heard his calls and had news. He feared for the worst, especially considering how heavily pregnant Niamh was, but he propelled himself forward to greet the caller.

It felt like a sick joke when he realized who it was. Phox swallowed, his mouth and throat dry.

Dhalia, he greeted. A wolf he had once foolishly pined after when he had Niamh at home. His lovely wife. If this wasn't karma, Phox didn't know what was.

In those moments of silence, within the weight of the waiting, Dhalia's mind raced quicker than the antelope on the prairies back home. She thought of everything and nothing at all; conjured up worries that were justified and ones that were eccentric. Wondered if the Glen had survived - or if they had relocated, and merged, with on of their sister packs. Wondered if Osiris' face might greet her after all.

She didn't realize how she shifted in place, or chewed her lip, until who should arrive but the familiar gunmetal face of -

"Phox!" she felt the tightness of her muscles uncoil in relief when she saw the man - even more when he recognized her. "I'm so glad it's you!" There was a hint of strain to her voice, and her words tumbled out without much forethought. Although she was generally an observant girl, she missed any sign of unusual distress on Phox's face. Whatever she did notice, she chalked up to the bear attack -- for it had been bad, and she wondered, now, aloud, "the bear, the Glen - are you - were you - did it get you guys too?"

He didn't feel glad to be the one greeting her, but Phox sucked in a breath and forced a smile. She mentioned a bear and the glen, but those things felt so faraway now. Still, they'd lost Primrose, Alyx had been badly injured, and Bronco hadn't gotten away scot-free, either. Phox had been away for it all, returning to find Niamh was injured as well, though he had never gotten the full story on why. It sent another flicker of pain through him.

My son passed away, and several of my other children were injured, but we are okay. Meerkat, my daughter, lived at the glen. Phox was fuzzy on the details regarding the meteorite. Something bad happened to Moonspear and Firefly Glen. I don't know everything, but Meerkat has a better handle on what happened there. She's living with a small band of survivors just north of Moonspear. Phox honestly didn't know when or if she was planning on coming home, but he suddenly wished she were here.

"Oh, no!" she gasped under breath as he began to share, and the smile Phox gave her felt nothing but out of place. Why did wolves do that? Hide their sadness with a happiness that wasn't really there? At least that's how the young healer perceived Phox's pleasantries, for what would losing a son bring but grief?

Injuries? Something happened? Survivors? "None of that sounds okay," she said, with a nervous laugh and a tight concern twitching the length of her tail. "But I know Meerkat," how could she not forget the sunny girl's face? She'd been the first she'd met, even before Osiris, and her heart felt a little easier knowing that she had survived, "maybe... maybe I'll go to her..." but the thought of Phox' other children sunk her mind into dark and heavy places. "Gosh, I can't believe... I just... I'm sorry... I just -- I just ran..." oh, she should have stayed! Could she have healed them? Maybe. But Jasper had always been the one who had been great with plants... if only he had been there instead...

Phox wasn't sure how to respond. Dhalia apologized, but for what, he was not sure. She had done him no wrong, and he did not think running from whatever had happened to their two sister packs had been a bad idea. Whatever it was, it had decimated Moonspear enough that the pack no longer lived there.

If you do go to Moonglow, can you keep an eye and ear out for a wolf named Niamh? He opened his mouth to say "my mate," but that didn't seem an apt descriptor based on the way she had left. She's pregnant and missing from the caldera. She went of her own free will, although I'm not sure she's well. She's blonde with yellow-gold eyes. I'm worried about her.