Jade Fern Grove we've got honey dripping through our veins now

She had remembered last time she had been here.

The things she had asked — near begged — for, but she was not here for such things now. The thought tucked away in the delicate tunnels of her heart.

She came bearing a gift for @Mahler — or whoever he dubbed it appropriate for. A part of deer hide with some chunks of meat within, carried closed between her teeth. Both the hide and meat could be used.

She figured it would be well, if they had new mouths to feed as well. Soon enough they would likely both guard resources closely for hungry children. Only she saw it fit to give him this before that time rained down upon them. A way to uphold the alliance between the two northern packs.

mahler had gone out again, searching for praimfaya. perhaps she had come back to a nearby territory to tend her wounds. he had revisited the site of the attack, and this time he had followed the cat. but both sets of tracks were beginning to pale. the gargoyle guarded a short distance around them.
hunger spoke in his body, and with it, a reminder that sequoia could not be tasked with feeding all four children alone. and so he pulled himself from their mother's trail, and headed into the glinting emerald leaves that marked the grove. several game trails here, and he too distracted to focus upon any of them.
but there was something here he did know, and it was the duskfire tint of ice and taiga flowers. he cut through the trees, stepping forward in relief and hardly registering that the beta carried anything. "a mother has left rivenvood. my co-leader. her children are still young enough to need her, so i am concerned." the words, tumbling, and then nothing.

He emerged, a lilac shadow among the jade tinted woods. Quick were words to greet her. Only it was not a greeting. It was news of the bad sort.

Carefully, she placed the bundle she had carried at her paws.

Willingly? Do the children require milk still? Perhaps an odd set of questions — but the details of them felt important to know! — yet her concern was present all the same.

"not villingly, i believe. there vas a cat. both vounded. i did not know she had gone so far." he considered how restless praimfaya had been, and how he had set it only to the normalcy of early first motherhood. had he been mistaken? "vone month. there is another to nurse them, but they can be veaned now."
yet perhaps she would see the resistance grow in his gaze. mahler was not yet ready to make such decisions. 
"she has only been avay not yet eight hours." but even such meant a good deal when her children were so young.

A cat meant danger. There was a flood of questions.

Why? Where? When?

Selfish thoughts bubbled up. She wished to make sure it was nowhere near the glacier, yet she was here upon Mahler's land with kindness still in her heart. She would help him first. Nothing could be done until she returned home anyway.

It is a risk to burden one mother... She trailed off softly, not wishing to step upon Mahler's say. Certainly he knew as well how draining children could be upon another, especially if they already had their own. He was midwife!

I had brought you this. Deer meat. Careful with her words as she nudged open the hide to expose her few chunks brought along. Save it for them, if the time goes on. It was more of a request than any sort of command. Still she hoped it would be heeded.

And tell me how I can help. Whether that is searching or...with the children. A tightness building in her throat for her own voiced words.

If she overstepped, she would whisk herself away from the scene. For now she remained steadfast.

mahler stared uncomprehendingly at what iana had brought, transfixed only by the scent. "yes, you are right," he muttered, swallowing. he lifted his grateful gaze to her once more. "i vill ... give this to them. tonight." 
it was time for all of them to be weaned, he suspected, but did not elaborate.
"the cat. the cuesta," he muttered in the next, attempting to put himself back together. "directly east of rivenvood. tell vintersbane and the others. it vas hurt, i think. i do not believe it vill stay around wolves."
pride in praimfaya, mingling with the mounting worry.
a blink. "you came to bring me this?" belated, belated, touched by her forethought. "i vish i had something to give in return."

It seemed gentle encouragement was what was needed here. Grateful that she had not been met with a lash for her sudden interjection upon his affairs.

The cat. The cuesta.

She would avoid the place. Easy, seeing as it laid east of here. Away from the glacier. Selfishly grateful for that. Everyone will know. I will keep watch as well. She assured him. Ready to offer him more resources if needed, she could expend herself.

Only to be met with his touched words.

I did and, please, do not worry. You have done plenty for me. I might have brought more had I an inkling of...everything. It was impossible to know without being here. She knew that. Still it lingered within her. I am at your disposal, Mahler. However I can help I will.

iana offered so freely of herself that mahler felt half-compelled to ask her back to rivenwood, to take praimfaya's place as a proxy. he had served too long in this stead, and the idea that he was alone as graf once more if the young commander did not come back — it cut off the things that he had planned.
for now, he looked quietly and openly upon iana, wondering in a sort of desperation if he should tell her that his coughing had turned to blood.
instead, he described praimfaya, down to her height and her scars, talked of the son and daughter left back in rivenwood. and still mahler stubbornly knew that the woman would return; how could she not?
"you have done all that you are able, iana. now there is only to search."

A warrior woman with scars. A son and daughter left in her wake.

Her heart clenched — or perhaps it was that tightness in her throat that threatened her. If she was this overwhelmed, she could only imagine the frenzy that Mahler had lived in the last few hours.

Softly, her head nodded in understanding. Only a call away, if more is needed. If there is any update. Although their words almost seemed to conclude their encounter. She felt...reluctance. Worry in her gut for him and those left behind.

So she lingered on willow limbs...unsure if he would allow her loitering or if she'd be ushered off to do what she had promised.

but mahler did not want iana to leave. while he put things back into the place they had been before the shattering with wylla, the gargoyle felt his feeling truly unfair: the sensation of a man without friends, who found his comfort in the company of women he denied.
did he only make use of the duskfire woman, now? he would not be right to ask —
"if praimfaya does not come home," mahler began, slowly, "i eventually vill need another leader. in rivenvood. perhaps —"
he thought of wylla and how she might take offense to it, or that he laid too swift of plans for a future not guaranteed.
"vintersbane may not vish to spare you," mahler said aloud, more for himself than for her, and found he was too tangled to say the rest.

She had not expected that. Yet they had built trust, hadn't they? He had placed upon her knowledge of sacredness. His health, the matters of Rivenwood, and the awkward moments shared in between.

We will wait. She started with slowly, not wishing to completely diminish hopes of finding the wayward mother. When — if — it comes to that...then I will discuss it with him — and further with you.

A slight pause of thought.

I can visit more often, in the mean time, if you would like.

A spare extra set of paws and teeth to his claim when she was not upon her own.

a sigh. a nod. "i had vanted to step down, you know." a little bemusement to spice the worry as he finally looked away from iana toward rivenwood. "there are others in rivenvood, but —" wylla and he had not even mended things completely yet, though he was hopeful. she was still injured. and laurel — he could not conceive of leading with laurel after so horrid a rejection.
that left sequoia and speedy, but he felt the latter would not take kindly to the role, and their second healer was busy among the green leaves. 
"she vill come back." third time thought, first time spoken aloud. "praimfaya is stubborn vhere it suits her." a wan smile to the other's offer. "i vould like this. i vill let the others know you are allowed passage." it was a comfort to know that despite calcifer's departure and praimfaya's odd void, they would not be truly without another hunter.

She almost wondered aloud why he wanted such a thing. Then she thought of all the things she knew of him.

A man with a past of bad fatherhood.

A midwife who could be easily busily tasked with others.

A man plagued with a cough that, to her knowledge, had not gone away.

Why would he not wish to step down? Recline into an almost retirement like state. She imagined such would be good for his well being. Who would she be to argue with that? Not a very good doktor.

She will. She reassured him. Even if Iana did not know Praimfaya, it felt evident in the way Mahler had spoken of her and the way things had fallen apart. At the expense of a cat. I will share her looks with the others as well so they know that too when we patrol. Perhaps she would already be at Duskfire's door. A pack so close to the warrior's home.

I should go and tell the rest of everything. Reluctant still but each moment that ticked on was a moment they both lost to the hunt. Anything more before I depart? Careful fondness in her gaze as she met his, claws clenched the soft ground.

"thank you." they should part, then, and yet did not. his gaze fell to the things she had brought, and then back to her. "you remain a joy, even in light of this all, iana." a statement he meant as matter-of-face, though he did not consider how flippant it might see, given the history of this greenway grove.
a shake of his head. "no. i vill be searching in all the cardinal directions." praimfaya must come back.
now, clock ticking close to eight hours.
"i should bring this back to them," the man told himself aloud, suddenly shattered beneath an agony of tiredness. he coughed, shoulders shaking, and smiled balefully at iana. "i seem to be a mess each time ve meet. i hope not to be so the next time ve see vone another."

I try. Soft in response, a flex of her toes. She knew that sometimes she had been...a bit too much. Some nights she had worried about the talk they had had in this grove.

Yet it almost seemed like that had never happened — or that the memory of it had been buried beneath everything else.

His cough, a rattle against her worries. He had spoken of it being bad when he overworked and she feared that now, in such a frenzied search, he might push such limits.

You are a mess with good reason. She teased in return. Rest with them, the children, tonight when you give it. Let them anchor you so you might recover from your searches. You'll do yourself no favor bringing back the brunt of a cough.

She would not scold any further than that, but the concern lingered in her eyes all the same.

<3

mahler had not forgotten at all; he had not forgotten the way she had looked at him, nor how he had been tempted. it would not have been a horrid pairing; they were both leaders and put the health of their pack before one another. each a healer, and each with their own skills.
but he did not love her in the same way, and mahler felt that the absence of this would only serve to do as it had done to wylla: bring bitterness and resentment.
perhaps he was not made to love anyone.
"i vill obey," mahler told iana, agreeing to her medicinal order with some genuine semblance of relief. the idea of returning to a pair of young pups who would be confused and boisterous — he was grateful for the presence of the bypass wolves. "until ve meet again."
terrible, perhaps; he leant forward to brush his shoulder against her own, took up the hide, and turned toward home, with more determination and less reluctance than before.