Her presence had barely been acknowledged at the plateau. Her sister, as always, had stolen the spotlight, and Tytonidae had gone unnoticed, unrecognized, and unappreciated. Granted, she had never been an attention-whore, but Ty realized that she would never be anything more than Osprey's sister so long as she remained wherever her sister was. When Osprey had taken off to live with the sea witches, Tytonidae had gotten a break from it all. And when her sister had returned, she had been mean and horrible. So had Saena. If Ty stayed at the plateau, maybe she would be horrible, too. So she returned to The Sunspire, feeling that her entire trip had been a waste. She should have just stayed here in the first place.
By the time she was close enough to The Sunspire that she thought her voice would carry to the innermost depths of the pack's land, the sun had been gone for several hours. Ty was exhausted, malnourished, and dehydrated. In fact, she looked quite pathetic when she finally called out for somebody to come greet her. At this point, she didn't even care who it was, although Summer's presence would be welcomed the most. Ty slumped to the ground, her eyes closing and her breaths deepening as she fell asleep without intending to.
In those sparse few moments over the past week when he'd somehow captured brief flickers of controlled and conscious thought, his mind had been on her. Wondering where she was, if she was safe, if her sisters had welcomed her kindly or if they'd been cruel. In the turmoil of sobering up, there had been little additional thought he could have given to her state, particularly considering all else that the boy had had to think about. He'd attacked his beta, lied, then shirked all of his responsibilities to lie there for days on end in utter misery and anguish. When finally he'd emerged, it was like being reborn, and since then he'd wandered the Sunspire like a toddler learning to use his legs for the first time.
Summer knew that there were many amends that he needed to make--to Jace and to Ame for being such a terrible packmate those past few months, to any who had had to suffer his company during those times he could barely remember. He wasn't mentally prepared for those moments yet, and so he instead went back to his routine and continued to lurk near the borders, not patrolling exactly but watching. Waiting. Hoping. Hoping that maybe his charcoal pelted friend might come back, for it was when he was with her that he felt the most clear and level-headed. Focusing on her well-being brought him through his haze, just as before the poppies, focusing on contributing to his pack had brought him through the pollution of his anxiety issues.
And as luck would have it, there she was. Summer followed the sound of her voice, feeling a mixture of excitement, relief, and worry. When his eyes finally landed upon her a while later, he felt nothing but relief, if even for his own selfish reasons. He walked slowly up to her sleeping form with his tail wagging and leaned down to press his nose gently against hers. Waiting until she awoke and blinked up at him, he smiled and murmed softly to her, "Can I please feed you now?"
“I want to stay here,” she croaked warily before Summer had a chance to run off and find food for her. “Once I’m better, I can help hunt. My dad was helping me become a gamekeeper before he left with Fox.” She had been his apprentice for a short while, and she had learned much in that time. Tytonidae knew that she would be required to pull her own weight at The Sunspire, but she was not put off by such things. At least here, she would not have the constant family dynamic weighing her down.
Here, she had Summer.
"We do need hunters," Summer replied with a glimmer of authority in his tone, "Winter is almost upon us, and our caches can never be too full, and we have only one gamekeeper. Are there any other trades that interest you?" It was partly his job as a warden to ask the questions, but more so he simply saw it as an opportunity to learn more about his friend.
She had been deep into the mountain's heart when the call rang out -- of course far, far from where she thought the sound to have originated. It would take her longer than she preferred to close the distance between here and there, but odds were, someone may make it there first to entertain whoever it was that called out. Still, she would go, and abandoned her insofar failed rabbit chases for the evening and dutifully headed for that particular stretch of the borderlands.
Once she neared, she found herself trailing Summer and slowed to a trot. Not long after, she tracked him to the source, and spied the thin young female of dark shades -- with which he seemed comfortable. Curious, she glided up to them both. Greetings,
she chuffed lowly, and her raised tail slowly waved.
![[Image: 5ifpFkc.png?1]](http://i.imgur.com/5ifpFkc.png?1)
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
“Hi,” she squeaked. “I’m Tytonidae, a friend of Summer’s. I want to live here.” Simple enough, right? Hopefully, being a Summer's friend would help her, and hopefully he could vouch for her. At the very least, having Summer here would boost her confidence.
Summer's attention was fully taken by Ty, and thus he had no idea of another's approach until he saw the shift in her gaze to some point beyond him. His hackles raised instinctively, but only for a moment until his eyes landed upon Amekaze, closing the distance between herself and them. He relaxed visibly, lowering his head and tail in deference to her authority, though not to the extent his friend did. He moved in to nuzzle affectionately at his alpha's chin before pulling back to give her space.
"This is the one from the Plateau," Summer added after Ty introduced herself, "The one the outsider was looking for--Lasher." He would say no more for now, knowing that it was Ame's right as alpha to ask what she would of his friend. He would offer advice, but only if asked for it.
She rumbled softly to Summer's greeting, and nosed at him gently when he was close enough, although her eyes stayed on the juvenile stranger. Amekaze was not the best judge of exact age when it came to the not-yet-yearlings, but the female had a simple look about her that Ame could appreciate with her almost-black charcoal coat that came with accents of darker in places.
Then, it pieced itself together; this was the female the Plateau wolf had sought. Ah, I see.. does Lasher know she is here?
she glanced to Summer then back to the girl. Here and seemingly in one piece (from what she could tell, anyway)? The swamp-eyed wolf's concern had been real and Ame considered that it was plausible that she had been to the Plateau before here. Unless she had avoided them entirely. She could not yet tell exactly what it was that had shooed the youth away from her home in the first place.
Nevertheless, she was satisfied by the youth's manners so far and had relaxed her posture just some. Do you have any skills? Or.. aspirations for any?
she asked of Tytonidae, since she had missed out on the brief exchange between her and Summer on the matter beforehand.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
The leader repeated Summer's question (in so many words), and Ty repeated what she had said to Summer (in so many words). “I was my father’s apprentice. He is a gamekeeper.” It was not much, but it was something. Tytonidae realized that this leader might not even know who her father was, and felt it necessary to explain. “My father is Peregrine Redleaf-DiSarinno. He used to be the Alpha of Blacktail Deer Plateau, but now he’s leading Redhawk Caldera.” Ty had not made it there, yet, but it was on her list of things to do as soon as she was in better shape.
But, the conversation continued, and she was sharing more details about herself and where she'd come from. It wasn't anything he didn't already know, though he would've kept quiet anyway in respect to his alpha. Summer brought his gaze to Ame to see what she would say in response.
The answers came readily, although however unexpected they were to find that they did not care, Ame took it all in with a thoughtfully stoic look about her. Lasher's concern had led her to believe differently. But, circumstances could have easily changed; the dark alpha had little to do with the doings at the Plateau, so could not even hazard a guess.
Ah,
she breathed, after the names and titles were dropped. While that was of little concern (although it did perhaps explain the girl's manners, being an alpha's daughter and all), it was the bit of being a gamekeeper's apprentice that did interest her most of all. Do you still maintain an interest in gamekeeping? We could always benefit from more,
Without her father's direct tutelage to learn beneath, she wondered if the youth planned to continue what he had started. Jace would be especially pleased to hear of it if she did have aspirations of it. He had expressed his want of more gamekeepers not so long ago.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
Very well,
she replied, finding herself satisfied with the response and the overall course of this meeting. She glanced briefly to Summer before speaking on, for she was not finding herself in the mood to drill the girl on every aspect of everything. There was nothing about her that inspired suspicions and she got the sense that recent weeks (or maybe even days) had not been the smoothest for her. While she was curious about the circumstances at the Plateau that had made it no longer her home, she did not need to know. You are welcome here. I can guess Summer may have.. informed you of some matters of the Sunspire, but I am Ame,
she introduced; the youth didn't need told of her title here. But as she had mentioned, chances were that she may already know of her name through Summer. Now she definitely knew. Any questions?
she asked, and if not, she would leave them be.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
Summer kept quiet as Ame and Ty spoke to each other, feeling no need to chime in for the girl was holding up well enough on her own. When Ame accepted her words shortly, the boy could not keep his tail from starting to wag softly and then harder still when she went on to approve his friend's admittance to the pack. He cast his gaze over to Ty to gauge her reaction to his--their--alpha's acceptance, succeeding in keeping the excited smile from his face, but not from sparkling in his bright sunlit eyes.
Tytonidae had a feeling it was going to be a long while before she could think of The Sunspire as her home. It was not like she could consider the plateau her home any longer, though. They had driven her away, and she was not likely to go running back to them any time soon. When Amekaze asked if she had any questions, the young DiSarinno shook her head, then looked to Summer. "Food?" she asked him, nudging his shoulder gently with her muzzle. Now that the nerves were slowly wearing off, she could feel the hunger gnawing in at her stomach.
With that, matters seemingly wrapped themselves up here. The ones involving her at the moment, anyway, as was clear to see while she glanced between Tytonidae and Summer. Seemingly, they had plans for food. Since there were no other questions, or need for further involvement out of her, Ame was silent with a tiny nod of a farewell towards them both. She would watch them go on their own way, then lope off for a scope of the borderlands until hunger motivated her otherwise.
i want to bleed in the 「r a i n」
"Thanks, Ame," Summer said with a soft wag of his tail. He turned his gaze back to Ty as she quietly made her request and he nodded gently. With a dip of his muzzle to Ame, he excused the pair of them and led the young Redleaf-Disarinno into the heart of the Sunspire so that he could finally begin to take care of her the way he'd wanted to for a long time.