Kildeer Rest Just to find memories plagued by constant misery

For @Arlette but @Bridget is always welcome; I've made a few light assumptions about our prior thread but as always feel free to let me know if it needs editing <3

It was time to start back toward Moonspear; in spite of her doubts and her failings, Keen was determined to make a home of it. It had felt good to express some of her fear and dread to Bridget, but ultimately it had only been that: a much-needed expression of what had been building for weeks. She was done running just because things didn't work out the way she'd wanted.
And that applied to Bridget, too, in a way. Keen was working under the assumption that they would never be more than friends now, but that was okay. She still liked the medic, and still wanted her company and friendship — so she dedicated herself anew to that as well, for now remaining attentive as she tried to start learning the ins and outs of being open and sharing without oversharing.
She'd wandered off for the moment, as traveling partners tended to do in her experience. Everyone needed some time alone, particularly when they needed to pee as badly as Keen did just now. She was searching for the perfect spot, sniffing around for that one place that just screamed pee on me!

After visiting Easthollow, and the current pack that resided there, she was a little lost. She wasn't sure if she wanted to join that pack or live in a place that was once lead by her mother. The pack was friendly though. A pack that might suit her but she would need to think on it to join them. Seeing the stones might be painful. She never got to say goodbye to her mother, or Greyback.

Arlette was also curious about some other wolves, and how they were fairing. Or if she perhaps would run into familiar faces along her travels. She had made a loop past the moor, past the fields that got more barren with each day she traveled. When she reached killdeer rest, a name not known to her, Arlette realized that she might have traveled too far north. She probably missed a landmark that would have guided her west.

Had this been winter, the female would have vanished within the surroundings. With it currently being spring her white fur stood out amongst the plain. Arlette didn't mind it. She tried to navigate west, as that was what she had been aiming for. She didn't know anyone that lived this far north. She continued her travels, noting the plants and investigating the ones she didn't know yet. Her mind mostly occupied on that instead of anyone that might be around.

Bridget is still welcome at any point, cameo or otherwise!!

Keen had finished her business and was on her way back to Bridget when she spotted a pale figure in the distance. There was nothing familiar about it to her; it had been so long since she'd seen Arlette, long before the scars that littered her body in the present, that she could no longer remember her sister's face. She could barely remember Merrit's.
But something about the moment made her stop. She wasn't sure what it was. Later she might think of it as intuition, or maybe something like fate beckoning to her. In the moment she thought only of how stupid it was, to walk up to a total stranger with no purpose or plan in mind. Hey, She greeted —
And that was the second it clicked. Wait - wait, wait, She blurted, mouth moving faster than her thoughts. Arlette? Keen didn't remember her face, but she could never forget those eyes, or her scent. But for a heartbeat she couldn't believe it, and all she could do was stare.

Arlette looked up when she heard someone approach. Her red eyes took her in for a moment. Female, perhaps younger than she was? Brown in coloring. Arlette had a brief friendly wave in greeting with her tail when the female approached. "He---" Arlette raised her eyebrows.

The other was close enough but Arlette didn't recognize her. The female blinked for a moment when her name came from the female's lips. Arlette looked puzzled trying to think where she would know this female from. But it didn't ring a bell at the moment. Her confusion might also be mistaken of being called a name and not being that person. But she was. "I am Arlette." She had very distinct coloring that she knew.

Arlette took in the other female for another time. In her mind Keen had passed away. But she reminded a little of her sister, those blue eyes and brown coat. "I'm sorry-- But--," she blinked at the staring female. Arlette suddenly felt a little self conscious of her scars. Remembering what she looked before and how marked she was now. She wanted to shake that thought off. Another popped into her mind. Could her sister be alive? "Keen?"

Arlette didn't recognize her at first, and she didn't know how to feel about that. It had been such a long time since they'd seen one another... but how could she just forget her own sister? Keen stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, just processing everything.
There was so much about Arlette that was different now. The scars, signs of motherhood, even the look in her eyes was different; aged, saddened. Keen still remembered the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed youth she had played with in the mud, the cheerful girl she'd grown up alongside for the first six months of her life. Arlette had changed so much it was difficult to fathom.
But that just meant they had at least one thing in common.
Yeah, She said finally. Uh. It's been awhile...

Arlette was quite stunned as well. The female confirmed she was Keen. Her sister! Arlette was just so surprised as she didn't expect to run into her sister. "You're alive!," she spoke out loud, and then realized she said it. She blinked. Her mother always thought Keen had died when they couldn't find her. "We always thought something happened, you were so young when--- Well when you vanished," Arlette spoke. Keen was probably one of her first loses.

Her red eyes roved over her. Perhaps it was good that Keen found her own way, away from Easthollow. "It has been a long time. How have you been?," she asked, genuinely curious. She was amazed that her sister was here. "Sorry I need a moment to just adjust. I thought you died, there was even a stone for you at Easthollow. I-- Wow..." she stammered.

Keen found herself hitting a wall as Arlette went on, unable to process anything past the revelation that her sister had thought her dead. She didn't understand. Couldn't. Merrit had known she was alive, of course he did, he was the one who had found her — and Valette...
What? I - Arlette, I visited! Keen cried out, and she couldn't seem to stop herself. Mom knew I was alive. So did Merrit. And they - they kept a stone for me? She felt sick. No part of her was capable of calming or slowing enough to wrap her mind around this information, not in this moment. The only thing she could really think about it was that it was twisted in a way that seemed so very fitting for the family she'd left behind.

I think I made an oopsie sorry about that

Arlette blinked and then thought about what Keen said for a moment. Merrit and she hadn't really talked about their lost sister. "I'm sorry, Keen. I think there was a stone before you visited the pack. It is all a blur, if I am honest. It is painful to think back to my time in Easthollow," she admitted. Arlette looked at the woman before her. She hardly knew her, but she was her sister.

She was curious as to why Keen left. She just couldn't remember. Arlette felt bad that she didn't know. She also felt bad that she still thought her sister was dead. Perhaps that had been the easiest thought for her, that wolves didn't leave her but just died. "How have you been doing?," she asked.