The shrine of your lies

@Summer

The vale boasted an enchanting charm to it that drew Saena back, though she only visited it once before. Finding the thin trail up the mountain was easy, and she scaled it as though it were a favourite path of hers, even though it was only her second time making the journey. She stumbled once on a patch of ice, but made good time, and soon was trotting across the pristine snow of Northstar Vale toward the massive, gnarled tree at its heart.

She was no Chronicler, but Saena could feel history in this place. It wasn't necessarily a good sort of history, but something must've happened here once, something miraculous or magical. In reality, it was something dark and primal, the overthrowing of a gentle monk by a veritable monster who bore the name of "dragon", but all of that was before her time. Now, she could only wonder at the stories buried in the soil here.

She paused when she reached the tree to dip her head and snap up a mouthful of snow. The young bitch was unfamiliar enough with the vale that finding running water was out of the question, and snow served well enough, so long as she didn't eat a lot of it at once. As she swished her tongue around to facilitate its melting, Saena twisted her ears to the side, listening in hopes that her unique gifts might allow her to learn something more about Northstar, but a part of her knew it was unlikely. Her gifts only really came in handy when she didn't need them to.

Besides the Sunspire, the Vale was by far his favorite place in the Wilds. There was something peaceful about the little valley - peaceful and safe. It was comforting being tucked between the mountains, and the land was so vast and open that it could still breathe in spite of the walls around it. Recently, it was starting to seem that he was spending just as much time there as he was the Spire. It seemed the Ostrega wanderlust had bitten him at last.

Fortunately, he had the strength and stability of a DeMonte to keep him grounded in the Teekon Wilds. And thus, it was through the Vale he wandered now instead of through some far off canyon going who knows where doing who knows what. As he wandered, his thoughts strayed to Magpie. He wondered if things were going well at the Caldera. It was strange to think that she was living now with Ty's father.. That she was technically his sister in law, and thus technically her aunt... He shook his head, brushing the strange thought away. That the two women he had feelings for were related in such a way... too strange.

Speaking of which.. It was right about then that he came upon another of his romantic interests' relations, although he had no idea yet of their bond as he stepped towards her and made a gentle rumble in his throat to draw her attention.

Lo and behold, no dreamy simorgh or ghostly bear arrived to tell her anything about the history of this place. She could feel it all around like the pressing weight of water, but knew that the secrets of the Vale were tightly locked beneath the soil and the sealed lips of whoever had roamed here in years previous. Feeling a little disappointed in her nonexistent counterparts, the Blacktail female continued trekking past the white-barked Chenrezig in search of something else that could reveal the story.

At length she came across a ruined wolf den and long-dried scat. It was so old, though, that even sniffing at it could tell her nothing new about the place. She sighed, resigned, and looked up just in time to catch Summer striding toward her with a rumble in his throat. In typical fashion when encountering new and unknown wolves, Saena froze in place and pitched her ears forward, silently deterring him from making a move against her.

Of course, she didn't make any further aggressive moves. It wouldn't do to paint herself unfavourably, and so far the male hadn't done anything to earn it. She instead shifted slightly in the snow, never removing her gaze from him, and asked, "do you know what happened here?"

Summer slowed to a stop in his approach, instinctively responding to her posturing with a neutral lowering of his tail and slightly dip of his muzzle. Her studied her for a moment with a shrewd gaze. She was a handsome creature with a coloring he had never seen before. His eyes trailed across the ginger edges of her ears and eyes, lingering upon shock of depth in the color of her eyes against the stark white of her coat.

His ears twitched as her voice broke the quiet that had expanded between them. His brows furrowed slightly over his brilliantly yellow eyes, curious about her question. With a quick, surveying glance, Summer searched their surroundings for any sign of something out of the ordinary that might explain what exactly it was she was questioning. His senses revealed nothing to him, and thus his gaze slipped back to her face with a question on his own. "No," Summer answered simply, watching her with interest, hoping she might expand upon her intrigue with no more encouragement than the mild wonder in his eyes.

His inky form didn't tense challengingly or aggressively, so Saena allowed herself to relax and observe. It would be a lie if she said that Summer was remarkable, mostly because almost every wolf in Saena's life was black or grey, so another black-haired male was just the norm. Nevertheless, she watched him for a time, contemplating him and his as yet unknown story, before shrugging lightly.

"I think there's history here," she admitted, "I've seen signs that wolves were here, but I've never found one who knows about it. I thought, since you were here, you might know." She waved her tail slowly, glancing away as if to dismiss the issue, then said, "I'm Saena, from the plateau. You?"

Unbidden yet not unwelcome, the female continued to explain the workings of her thoughts.  Summer took a moment to again scan their surroundings, this time trying to look at them less as what they were and more as what they might mean, or might be saying.  He was not too intuitice of a wolf, though.  Sure, he was rather perceptive when it came to the ways others felt or the way they would think about things.  But as for sensing the history in landmarks such as those that surrounded them, that was for other wolves such as this one to recognize, not the Ostrega.


Still, he was deeply intrigued by the girl's unusual insight, and thus he turned back to her quickly when she continued in her commentary.  He shook his head lightly just to confirm that he truly didn't know anything of the area's history, though he was certain she was already confident in this.  What she said next caused him to pause, however.

Saena?  Summer's brows lifted slightly in surprise.  It certainly wasn't a common name, was it?  And he had no doubt that it was the name of one of Tytonidae's siblings.  One of those that had been the reason she'd left...  And yet, also one of those that Summer felt certain had the power to bring her out of her slump.

"You're Tytonidae's sister, aren't you?"  Summer said quietly after a long pause, his eyes searching hers for a reaction.  He truly had no idea what to expect - the impression she'd given thus far was so vastly different from the one he'd ascertained from Ty.  Which would win out?  Or would there be a new version of Saena to surface altogether?

She watched him as he looked over their surroundings, and the corners of her lips twitched upward inexplicably. Nothing about what he was doing was amusing or even unusual, yet she found it amusing somehow, the same way that an awkward dork's adorable behaviour was amusing to a cooler dork. Thinking that his attention was elsewhere, she dropped her snout and lapped at the fur on her chest in an effort to make it more presentable, but soon his demeanor changed—she could see it more than sense it—and she glanced back up.

What he said was unexpected and caused Saena to freeze on the spot. She hadn't heard her sister's name in a long time, and certainly hadn't thought about her in just as long. She was convinced the airhead had gone off into the horizon and found herself a place to live. Saena never could've guessed that the horizon was the pack just next door.

"Yeah," she said slowly, snagging her lower lip between her teeth for a second as though this revelation made her nervous. She assumed Summer was a friend from their childhood, one that Tytonidae had never mentioned to her. It was that simple, wasn't it? "She left a long time ago. Why, did you know her?"

I love this thread

The female admitted to being Ty's sister and Summer sucked in a deep breath.  He had never anticipated just happening upon a member of her family while on a random stroll.  Especially not one of those that had directly been responsible for Ty's departure from her home, and her subsequent depression.  As he'd suspected, she didn't at all match the picture Ty had painted of her.  She was thoughtful, inquisitive, and held a certain depth he couldn't quite place.  Not at all the cruel, gossipy child Ty had described.


"I know her now," Summer replied in his typical, soft, deep voice, "She lives with me at the Sunspire.  She has since she left the Plateau.  Since she left you and your sister."  His golden eyes swept across her face, eager to see her reaction.  In spite of his mild doubt in Ty's description of her sisters, she was still the one he was loyal to, and he wanted to make sure that they felt remorse for their crimes against her.

She lives with me at the Sunspire. Saena glanced over Summer's head at the distance mountain peaks, wondering which of those was the one he was talking about. The name sounded like a mountain, and she knew the ranged was called Sunspire, but the exact mountain, well, she'd never seen it or been near it. It was brief ambivalence that crossed her features as she looked back to him, though, rather than relief. On the one hand, she was glad Tytonidae was still alive. On the other, she had next to no interest in her airy sister any longer; the duskiest of them had made her choice in leaving on bad terms. That wasn't something she was about to fix.

"That's good to hear," she said lightly, as if it were a news topic like the weather. Nothing to be overly concerned about. "I figured she was with our dad. Good to know she has somewhere to stay, anyway. I haven't seen her since then." Saena didn't particularly plan to change that, either. While she didn't hate Tytonidae or even dislike her, the two had never been close, and the harsh words her sister said that day still stung her.

The reaction he received from Saena was not at all what he had expected.  Instead of excitement, or even real interest, she responded with what seemed mostly to be like indifference.  Summer frowned as he watched her, not understanding how she could barely care like this.  About her own sister.  To a wolf who had barely ever had any family in his short life, it made no sense to him at all how she could be so nonchalant about learning the whereabouts of her long lost sister.


"She doesn't really matter to you, does she," Summer said quietly, his interest in this female growing even more.  He didn't approve of her lackadaisical response towards her family, but that made him wonder even more about her.

"She does," she answered immediately, putting to rest any concerns Summer might have about her being a complete misanthropist, "but probably not the way you want her to, no." Saena thought Tytonidae was weird, simply put, but she would care if she learned her sister had died. She was relieved, in a way, that the dusky weirdo had somewhere to stay and wasn't out in the world starving and freezing to death. She might not care to see her, but Saena cared in some little way, which was greatly dampened by her last and most significant memory of Ty.

"When your family walks out on you one by one by one, it's hard for them to matter anymore. The last thing Ty said when she left was that she hated me, and this on the heels of both our parents walking out on us," Saena revealed, certain that Summer had probably heard some biased or otherwise untrue account of it, "so no, I don't care the way you probably want me to, because if I did, the number who have left would break me apart. I'm glad she's not dead, but it's not like a reunion is imminent. We weren't close anyway."

Saena denied it without hesitation.  What Summer had said was bold and it was harsh, but the girl hadn't balked for even a moment at telling him he was wrong.  Had she known him better, she might have seen the smile in his eyes or the flicker of relief in his face.  Ty had spoken so harshly of her sisters, but she'd also had such remorse for her own words.  He didn't want to believe that her family would think so little of her, nor did he want to think that his friend had grown up in a family so cold and hateful.


The words Saena shared with him were not altogether comforting.  There was pain in the Redleaf-Disarinno family, to be sure.  But there was pain in every family, even Summer's, even though he'd barely known any of the Ostregas besides his father.  The yearling pondered his words carefully, as he often did.  "For what it's worth..." he said slowly, choosing his words carefully, "She hasn't been the same since she left the Plateau.  I've done everything I can for her, but... there are some things only your family can help you heal from."

He gazed at her then, wondering if she'd understand his meaning.  He knew that perhaps Saena was not the one who could bring Tytonidae out of her funk, but it felt right to let her know that her sister was in need and also that she might be able to help.  He could certainly understand her position on the matter, and he didn't seek to make her feel guilty for what she needed to do to preserve herself, but he didn't wish for her to think that Ty had been unaffected by their parting.l

Saena wasn't surprised in the least to hear that Tytonidae wasn't the same wolf anymore. None of them were the same anymore. She herself had gone from timid and tremulous, the underdog, to the most ambitious of them in a matter of months. Pura had unknowingly gone from slightly misunderstood to completely psychotic. Junior, wherever she was, surely had changed in similar ways, so expecting Ty to stay the same was ridiculous. Change was inevitable as far as Saena was concerned.

Still, something about the way Summer said it told her it didn't mean it in a good way. Lifting her shoulders into a helpless shrug, the juvenile said, "I doubt I'm the one who can help her. We never got along well." I thought she was a freak, Saena wisely omitted. She somehow doubted Summer would find the same humour in that admission. "Our dad can probably help. You should take her to him. He lives in the southeast, at a mountain with a flat top. You can't miss it."

Summer watched as Saena processed his comment.  He didn't know the girl well enough to realize that she truly was not the one Ty needed in order to bring her out of her slump.  But even if he had, the Ostrega would have tried nonetheless.  As much as he felt for Amekaze, Jace, Vienna, and even Magpie - Tytonidae was easily the most important wolf in Summer's life.  All this time, he'd been functioning under the impression that it was Ty who needed him the most.  But there was the very real possibility that he too needed the meek little oddball as well - not that Summer was anywhere near realizing that.


Though he didn't particularly like what Saena had to say on the subject, he could respect her reasons for being of that opinion.  He cast his gaze down towards her paws thoughtfully, but she didn't give him too much time to consider her words before she was suggesting he seek out their father.  A smile flickered briefly across his muzzle.  "I went to the Caldera already, actually, at the start of the new year," Summer admitted, "I invited him to come visit her at the Sunspire - our home.  He has not yet shown..."

In truth, the Ostrega wasn't quite sure what to make of that yet.  He had instructed the beta to invite him to come in the Spring, which  was only just recently upon them.  But still...  Summer thought of his own father and he knew that nothing would have held Dhani back from coming to him in the same moment he learned of his son's whereabouts.  So what was taking Peregrine?

She wished she could say she was surprised to hear that Peregrine hadn't visited following Summer's invitation, but Saena wasn't. Somehow, their father had become a villain in their lives. The man had turned his back on his previous litter, hadn't bothered visiting them or proving that he gave a shit about any of them. This would become even clearer when their birthday would come and go without any sign of him.

Instead of assuring Summer that this behaviour was unusual (it wasn't), she said, "yeah, he's kind of a deadbeat. You'll have to bring her to him. I don't think he cares enough to come to us for any reason. He hasn't visited us once since he left, I really can't see that changing unless you tell him someone died or something." It was pretty harsh, and Tytonidae was unlikely to approve of Saena's judgment or the fact that she'd shown it to Summer, but she was unable to stop herself. The hurt of Peregrine's abandonment was still very much there, and probably would be for a while.

"Still, you should bring her there. Seeing her is more than he deserves with his negligence, but she loves him to death, so it'd be good for her."

Saena showed no surprise that their father hadn't made the trip to see Tytonidae yet in spite of the yearling's invitation at the dawn of the new year.  It was disappointing to Summer to know that the man's children thought so little of him, but the yearling was not so naive as to believe that they had come to their conclusions simply based on childish selfishness.  He was quite confident now that Peregrine was not a wholly guiltless party in the shaping of his offspring's opinion of him, in spite of what his sweet-hearted friend insisted.

"I appreciate your candor," Summer replied once Saena finished her commentary, "Truly.  I will see what I can do to get her to the Caldera.  She has been listless and reluctant to do much of anything more than what she needs to do survive.  I do think she'll come through it, I just wish time would take us faster towards that end."

The Ostrega's gaze shifted slowly across their surroundings as he fell quiet and thoughtful.  It was quite unlike him to share so much with someone.  Even with his closest companions, he was a wolf of few words.  It was rare that he found himself in the presence of those who might understand Tytonidae as he did, and there was something about Saena's nature that made him feel comfortable speaking frankly about his thoughts.

Summer was eloquent in explaining what was truly wrong with Tytonidae. Saena would be lying if she said she didn't worry at the thought of her sister wasting away, but she firmly believed that there was nothing she could do about it. Probably the last wolf that Ty wanted to see was Saena. Even Pura would've been a better substitute, she felt. She made a mental note to speak with him about it if ever he showed his face to her again. If Tytonidae couldn't be convinced to go to the Caldera, and if Peregrine was too negligent a father to visit his offspring, then perhaps Pura could play the part for a little while.

"If you wouldn't mind," Saena said, going off on a somewhat different track, "I'd like to hear about it if... if she gets worse or anything. I don't think I can help her now," she repeated in case Summer mistook her intention, "but if she takes a turn for the worst, then I'm sure I'm better than nothing, and I'll come."

Saena toyed briefly with the idea of telling Summer where Junior was—maybe Tytonidae's blood sibling would be enough to break her out of her funk—but decided to keep that information to herself. Junior's whereabouts were Saena's best-kept secret. It was selfish, but she didn't want anyone else to be able to find her sister for fear that they would ruin whatever life Junior was building for herself out there, and she also didn't want Junior to come home just to run with a different pack. She belonged at the plateau, and if ever Junior returned, it was Saena's wish that that was where she would go, nowhere else.

"Anyway... thanks for the update on Ty. If you want, you can tell her everyone at the plateau is well, and... we miss her." Saena wasn't totally included in that number, having lived so long now without Ty's presence, but Summer definitely didn't need to know that. "If you need anything, I can hear you from here if you howl, so... let me know."

last post for me! <3<3

A heavy sigh escaped Summer's throat as a moment of silence fell between them.  His ears perked when Saena broke that quiet to make a request, one which caused him to pause and regard her for a moment with interest.  It seemed that she wasn't completely void of affection for her sister.  It warmed his heart to hear it, even though she was quick to reassure him that she was a last resort only.  He couldn't help the small smile that flickered across his muzzle at her insistence, though it was gone just as quick as it came.


It seemed their meeting was coming to a close, which Summer had no objection to.  This discussion of Ty made him miss her.  Even in her half-life, she was still his best friend.  "I will," he assured her with a bow of his dark head to serve as his farewell to her before he turned away.  He paused for one moment more to say "Thank you, Saena," before he took his leave.  He didn't know what history it was in that place that she had sensed, but he knew now what history there was for him.

She couldn't begin to understand the reason for Summer's thanks, having done nothing to earn it, but the yearling accepted it nevertheless. She didn't need to know his reasons. She would've refuted them and in the end would have ended up seeming rude for it. Instead, she smiled at him as he turned to leave, stood there long enough to watch him disappear, and then headed back to her own home at the plateau.