Redhawk Caldera We're on the frontlines

AW! Set for today, 8/30/2021! Being kinda vague cuz of active threads

 


Nyra had been searching for a while now. After finding the one pup, @Jasmine, and Moonglow having had 
Alduin, the little shit seemed to have bailed. 
Where was he?!
Nyra was starting to show ribs through her pelt by now. She rarely ate in her search for her boy...
She more or less staggered to a stop at the north borders of the Caldera, panting for a moment before she tossed her head back and let loose a tired but determined howl for whoever could come to her call. 

She was hellbent on finding the brindled boy, whatever it takes.

Towhee woke him up in the night making the most godawful noises he'd ever heard in his life. Still mostly asleep, he jumped to his feet in alarm only to watch her heave a few times before bringing up her dinner. This happened a few more times before daybreak, the boy's concern and unease growing. He felt a little sick to his stomach by first light.

He offered to go get Fennec, which earned him a pained look he didn't understand and a shake of Towhee's head. He opened his mouth to ask about consulting Bridget then when Towhee cut across him to say, "I'll be okay, Cal. Why don't you go get something for breakfast and I'll try to eat? Maybe it'll settle my stomach."

Reluctantly, he stepped out into the morning light to go find some food. There was nothing particularly recent in the nearest cache, so he mulled for a moment before going in search of another. Surely rotten meat wouldn't help Towhee's stomach. She needed something as fresh as possible.

The howl went up as he sniffed his way around the territory. Caracal paused and raised his head, looking around as if expecting wolves to appear out of the woodwork in answer to the call. When nobody magically appeared, he chewed at his lip. He knew a bit about guardianship, yet it wasn't really his calling. And his mom probably wouldn't like it if he confronted a stranger on his own. And speaking of her, he was kind of busy here...

He'll arrive in my next post. :)

short post from me ;w;

 

Nyra waited with what little patience she had left from traveling. @Jasmine was around, somewhere, if not by her side?
The warmaiden planned to leave the brown pup in the care of the Redhawks, assuming the pack was allied to Jasmine's own. 
If not, she'd take the detour herself to plop the cub back in the arms of Home before the Shieldmaiden headed eastward again, for her own domain. 

Her regal, monarchial appearance had withered from her stressful travel, falling away for the meantime to disheveled and tired.

It was really curiosity that won out in the end. Caracal huffed a breath and began trotting toward the borders to see who was calling and what they wanted. State your name and business, he chanted to himself with every footfall. He'd since decided guardianship wasn't really his bag, though he wouldn't soon forget Towhee's training.

He saw a pale figure and moved toward it, though he stopped a good twenty feet away. She was big, like his mom, with bright yellow eyes. Something about her world weary look made him think of Sarnai. Did she need help too? Caracal's head cocked, though he didn't come any closer.

Clearing his throat and raising his voice to be heard, he said, "State your name and business."

Ruenna was the one responding to howls these days, given that Towhee seemed either too sick or too down to keep her normal post at the mouth of the Caldera. And since Ruenna was answering howls, that meant that the Caldera's visitors would need to exercise some measure of patience. Ruenna's limp had improved somewhat thanks to her daily hydrotherapy, but her top speed was still a far cry from anything that could be considered quick.  

At first, she thought that Fennec had beaten her here, but as she approached she realized it was Caracal. Stars, the pups sure were growing quickly at this stage. He addressed the visitor (visitors?) with a little more coldness than Ruenna thought was strictly necessary, although it was rather reminiscent of the way Towhee would greet strangers. Ruenna drew up beside Caracal, waiting to hear the visitor's response.

Two, it seemed, would join her, 
One, youthful and cold, the second, a female, looked older, more experienced. 

"My name is Nyra, Overseer and co-leader of the Saints of the Dying Light. I'm looking for one of our young who went missing at the start of this season (meaning beginning of August). He is dark, striped with red eyes. Alduin is his name. I'm also here to see if your pack is allied with that of the youth that I brought with me. Brecheilant, I think? I found her (Jasmine) further north of here, and want to make sure she's returned home safely before I myself head back to my pack." 
A long stating of business, yes, but Nyra was weary, tired in a way that only worrying about a child could do to oneself. She just wanted to find Alduin, and make sure everything at home was still in good shape, 

"I mean no I'll intentions here, I just want to find my boy." She sighed, head uncharacteristically low. Alduin indeed was like a son to her, and the slip of the tongue calling him her son went unnoticed a little too long. Too late to take it back.

Please let me know if I need to edit the following assumptions about Jasmine's position on the Battleship grid, lol.

Before the strange woman could answer him, someone sidled up alongside Caracal. He turned, tail breaking into a low wag when he saw it was his, "Auntie Woo, hey!" She shuffled forward to flank him and he made a point to bump his snout to her chin in affectionate, respectful greeting.

He hadn't forgotten their guest, though, and faced her when she began to speak. Saints of the Dying Light...? he repeated in his head. What kind of name was that? A laugh burst out of him, which he quickly tried to cover with a paw and a fictitious cough even as he shot Rue a sheepish sideways glance. Caracal tried to get a hold of himself as Nyra continued speaking. She had quite a lot to say.

She was looking for a young boy by the name of Alduin. Meanwhile, she had found another youngster, a girl by the name of Jasmine. Only then did he notice the smaller wolf concealed by Nyra's massive white figure. Caracal's head reared back and he cast another glance at his auntie, only for his eyes to cut back to Nyra when she mentioned Brecheliant.

Of course, they knew all about Brecheliant. My dad lives there! he thought inanely, tempted to say it out loud. But Caracal maintained his silence, deferring to the Sovereign. Meanwhile, he kept trying to catch a glimpse of Jasmine hidden away by her pale guardian, though she remained mostly out of sight.

"Hey yourself," Ruenna murmured to Caracal, quickly licking the top of his forehead as he nudged under her chin. The boy had done a good job, despite his disinclination for the mercenary trades that he had recently begun vocalizing. Rue sympathized with him there. She had also known from the time she was Caracal's age that she was not a fighter.

The woman spoke, identifying herself as the leader of the Saints of the Dying Light. It was the first time that Ruenna had heard the full name of the pack, and it was a little cheesy. Caracal had been a clown since he was a baby, so of course he wasn't going to let that go without a snicker. Ruenna pressed her shoulder into Caracal's pointedly, and his laughter transformed into semi-convincing, hacking cough.

The Saints were the hottest topic of gossip lately, and it was only a matter of time before they showed up one way or another in the flesh. Ruenna knew that these were some of the more ill-reputed wolves in the Teekons, and she meant to keep her distance from Saints-- particularly if they went to war with Ursus, or so the rumor foretold.

Ruenna also understood that Brecheliant had had some neutral exchanges with these wolves, and even belligerent packs were not hostile one-hundred-percent of the time. Nyra went on to insist that she meant no harm, presumably aware that her reputation proceeded her. 

"Red eyes?" Ruenna murmured under her breath, exchanging a quick glance with Caracal. He hadn't run in to anyone like that, right..? Surely such a child would have stuck out like a sore thumb. 

Turning back to their company, Ruenna raised her voice to address Nyra. "I'm Ruenna Redfern, Sovereign and co-leader of Redhawk Caldera." She styled her introduction similarly to the Overseer, immediately identifying the practicality of her language. "Your boy isn't here. I haven't seen or heard of anyone fitting that description. I'm sorry." Her voice was sincere. She had gotten a taste of Nyra's anguish herself when Tierra had taken her walkabout last month. 

Of course Nyra was in a hurry. If Alduin wasn't here, he was somewhere else, and so Nyra would wish to be as well. The last thing she needed was some other lost pup slowing her down. 

"We will see the child back to Brecheliant." Was this one of Eljay's, then? He always seemed to be a bit nervous even on good days, and Ruenna imagined he must be beside himself with one of Brecheliant's most vulnerable missing in action.

acknowledging Jasmine's thread going back to Brech!

 

Caracal's outburst aside, Nyra noted the separation of the child as soon as the Warmaiden brought up going back to Brecheliant. The strained puppy howl from afar assured that, but sadness flew through her intense golden hues at Ruenna's response to Alduin. 

"I see...thank you anyway. Best wishes to you and your pack." Nyra responded with a small exhale, one of defeat and exhaustion. 
With a dip of her head, the Overseer turned and began to depart. 
She would stop if she was called to, however.

He was apparently too busy trying to peek at the girl, he missed the rest of the adults' conversation. Caracal blinked when Nyra abruptly turned to leave, looking over at Rue with a partially open mouth. He didn't say anything, just glanced back and forth for a moment before shrugging.

"Mom threw up a bunch last night. She asked me to bring her some breakast, so I'm gonna go do that now," he said to his auntie, brow furrowed before a look of determination settled on his face and he tacked on an, "if that's okay." Ruenna was his aunt and his second Sovereign now, after all.

Ruenna received Nyra's farewell with a nod. "Thank you. May the stars guide your search," she returned the Saint's well-wishes. 

Their visitor departed, and Caracal meant to continue on with his own business as well. The update on Towhee's status was not good news. "She getting worse?" Ruenna murmured, almost to herself. Her brow wrinkled. After a moment she caught herself, realizing that Caracal had technically asked her permission to leave. "Yes, yes. Please take care of her," she urged the boy. "And make sure Fennec is aware of the situation." Towhee and her daughter were not on the best of terms at the moment, but surely this trumped whatever the issue at hand might have been. "I'm going to see about getting that child back to Brecheliant."

Ruenna was so distracted by her concern that by the time she made it down the hill to the child, the girl was nowhere to be found. What Ruenna had thought was the child from a distance had turned out to be nothing more than a boulder tucked in some tall weeds. Had there even been a child with Nyra? Was this some trick-- some strange plan, perhaps, to put Brecheliant and Redhawk Caldera at odds with one another..? That seemed paranoid, but she'd been warned to suspect such things from the Saints. 

Ruenna's worries had increased twofold. She set off to search the borderlands for the missing cub, still unconvinced that the youth she sought had ever really existed.

Rue's question made Caracal draw in a breath. Before he could figure out how to answer, she spoke again, letting him off the hook in more than one way. He bobbed his head emphatically, slowing a little when she urged him to debrief Fennec. Towhee had made it pretty clear she didn't want his older sister's help, though maybe he could talk to her anyway. After all, his auntie had just commanded it and her word was law too now, wasn't it?

"See you, Auntie Woo," Caracal said a little absently as he turned to leave, not really registering her mention of the mysterious other child.

He would have to think about whether to go to Fen against his mom's wishes. For now, there was the more pressing matter of finding sustenance for Towhee. He chewed at the inside of his cheek as he pondered which stockpile to check next, still determined to find something as fresh as possible. He glanced at Ruenna shuffling off into the distance before facing uphill and bursting into a gallop. He'd already made Towhee wait too long and wanted to get back to her with food in hand as soon as possible.