Jade Fern Grove it rises with the fall.

The days had gone by one by one and still Tytonidae had not returned.  As worried for her as the young Ostrega was, his melancholy at missing her was slowly becoming something he'd never expected - bitterness.  Why was it that those he cared so much for kept leaving him?  Both Magpie and Ty had left him not once, but a few times each.  Ferdie had left.. Red, Aleera, Cuan, Mallaidh... Now even Vienna and Sumayl were planning to go.  As much as he despised himself for thinking it, the Sunspire had become a mountain of ghosts to him, and each day upon it had grown more painful than the last.


And then there was Karveila....

Summer had spotted the girl lurking in the outskirts of the Sunspire a few times.  Every couple of days, he'd slip down the mountainside to search for her - never coming anywhere near enough for her to know he was there.  He had no desire to speak to her again, not yet anyway.  Seeing her snowy white form upon the landscape was proof though that he hadn't dreamed the whole thing up - his father really was alive, and she truly was there, waiting to take him back with her.  For once, Summer was not the one waiting; he was the one worth waiting for.

It was late in the evening when Summer slipped down from the mountain and crept past the borders into the neutral lands.  He again made certain to avoid the messenger from Sedona as he went as he still had no idea what to tell her.  He felt suffocated at the moment within the shadow of the Spire, and so he quickly broke into a run and allowed his long legs to take him as far away from it as they could.

When the young wolf slowed, he found himself in the middle of a forest.  The ferns grew so thick upon the entire floor that it felt almost as though he was wading through elbow-deep water.  Summer paused to sniff at a leafy frond, his tongue flicking out to taste the drops of dew that had collected upon them.  Somewhere overhead, thunder began to rumble heralding the coming of a gentle rain shower.  Summer's ears fell back as the drops began to fall through the canopy, but instead of seeking shelter, he continued to meander, just as aimless as he felt in his heart.

She began wandering in search of other packs, like Cicero had mentioned once before. It had never occurred to her to seek out other wolves from other packs before; she had been too wrapped in her studies for that. But now, with her studies halted by her wound, she took the time to leave her dark forest and seek out the mountains. She had never been on one before.

The young girl climbed onto the mountains know as the Sunspire, enjoying the view of the flatlands and peering at the dark stain that was Blackfeather.

A sobering experience, is it not? The voice spoke again. The young girl did not make any note that she heard it, but looked around at the dip in the mountainside. There is more to life than a little dark forest by a swamp. And you can lay claim to any of these lands if you wish. A forest, she saw, though not dark and overbearing like Blackfeather. There was practically no other forest like her Blackfeather.

The Snow Princess slipped into this forest, her single sapphire eye gleaming as she slid through the thick ferns gracefully, like a fish through water. Her gentle wading stopped however, when a single drop of water landed on her nose. Then another. And another. Wrinkling her nose, the princess began in search for a refuge for the rest of the storm, though she quickly realized that she was not alone. A black wolf was walking through the ferns, young, yet older than she. "Looking for a place to hide?" She asked, innocently.

Summer had not anticipated that he would be joined by another during his wanderings, but when he heard the voice breaking the quiet, he was not disappointed.  For a split second, he thought that it was Karveila.  The girl's coat was just as stark white as the messenger from Sedona.  The yearling quickly realized there was a great difference in their ages, but more obvious than that was the porcelain orb that stared out at him from out a single eye socket.  Karveila certainly didn't have that.


The Ostrega regarded the stranger's words for a moment before a faint smile twitched briefly upon his lips.  "No, unfortunately," he responded, dropping his gaze to regard the ferns that brushed against his elbows, "Finding a place to hide is not the problem.  Deciding whether or not to hide.. that's the real question."

Potema regarded the wolf with curiosity, her single eye noticing something in his own that was familiar.

Recognition. The voice said. The look quickly went away before a smile tugged on his lips. He thought you were someone else.

Potema was slightly confused about what he said. Choosing whether or not to hide? Why wouldn't you? Her mother hid from the rain any chance she got; it ruined her marks, and it was a pain to repaint them. Potema had developed the same habit, since she drew crude marks of her own on her fur - made of mud and clay instead of the dyes her mother used - but marks that she was proud of the same. And besides, most creatures sheltered when a rainstorm hit, so why didn't he? "Do you like being in the rain?"

Summer's mind had begun to drift to the hidden meaning behind his words in the quiet that following their utterance.  Would it really be hiding, leaving to join his father in Sedona?  Or was it hiding to remain?  On one hand, he knew that leaving was akin to running away.  He would leave behind all of the pain and heartbreak he'd felt here over those that had left him to start anew elsewhere.  On the other hand...  His father had been one of those who'd left him - the first one, truth be told.  Though he'd never felt any bitterness towards being left behind, he felt a bit of it now knowing that Dhani had left him to continue his life elsewhere, without him.  But did that mean staying meant he was avoiding the conflict and hurt at seeing his father again?


Or maybe being here, away from either scenario... that was how he was hiding...

Luckily, the girl dragged him back away from his thoughts before he could lose himself too deeply in them - a dangerous thing for a wolf with such an unstable history of mental illness.  He regarded her curiously for a moment before lifting his muzzle skyward.  "I don't mind it," he admitted after a moment, "I think it even feels nice sometimes--don't you?"  He glanced back at her.

Her single eye focused on his two yellow, noticing how they had grown distant for a moment before she spoke. What he was thinking about, she did not know, but she had a feeling that it was something deep and personal that she dare not delve into. It was his problem and his alone.

"I prefer snow." She was born at the onset of winter, and had lived in the cold for many a moon. Snow was calm, peaceful, almost beautiful, even in blizzards. Her first thunderstorm had frightened and confused her; it was loud, both with thunder and the pitter-patter of the rain upon the trees. But she soon learned of the different kinds of rain: the storm-rain, the normal-rain, the misty-rain. She loved the latter, especially when fog was around. "Do you live in the mountains?" She gestured to the higher, snowcapped peaks. "Don't you get snow all year long?"

Summer had not expected her response, but then again, there was very little that he felt confident in expecting from her.  She was unlike anything he'd encountered before, and he felt a little uneasy around her, truth be told.  It wasn't that she seemed dangerous to him, just.. unpredictable.  Summer was a wolf of logic and incredible care.  He did not like risks or mystery, and this young female seemed enveloped in the latter at least.


"I do," Summer confirmed with a nod, "The high peaks are always covered in snow, but not the lower lands.  Not until Winter."  He fell quiet for a moment before fixing her with another thoughtful stare.  "What sort of land do you come from?" he asked, canting his head.  He wanted to know more about her - solve the mystery, if you will.

The wolf did live on the mountains as she thought, but not in the snowy regions she had seen from far away. The snow only crept down during winter, and from what she knew from her mother's teachings on naturalism, their winter would be colder and fiercer than everyone else's; altitude was the deciding factor. But her father did not come from a mountain, he came from a place where it was cold all year long, no matter if you were on a mountain or not. That was a place she wanted to visit one day.

"A forest." A vague term, but it would serve for her, fitting the mystery she had already shown to the mountain wolf. "It's south from here, a few minutes south of a large lake." He should know what she was talking about if he was a wander and had ventured past the comforting hold of the mountain peaks. He might even know the name and reputation of that forest, and the pack it held.

  Sorry to cut this kind of short.  One more post from you should get it to ten though :) 

The girl described where it was she came from - a forest of some sort.  He wondered vaguely if it was anything like the one in which they stood, but he didn't voice his question.  As much as he didn't want to be rude by parting her company so soon after coming to it, he suddenly felt far too weary for idle chit chat.  There was too much on his mind that he needed to sort through and he didn't wish to burden his feelings onto a complete stranger, particularly one so young.  He was an independent young wolf and he had suffered through much worse on his own.

"I need to return to my mountain," he said after silence fell between them for a moment.  He dipped his muzzle politely to the young girl before heading off through the ferns, allowing his mind to return to the conflict that plagued him.

And just like that, it was over. Potema was grateful that he was at least respectful in his departure. He didn't just leave. Potema tilted her head curiously, wondering what urged him to leave so quickly. "Goodbye then," She called to him as he disappeared into the ferns. Potema turned away, looking for a place to hide from the rain as it came down, harder and harder.