There’s a full moon glowing red above the sea

@Hydra if you have time? >D Not a big rush! If it doesn't work, LMK on Discord and I'll make it a normal AW and/or invite other Empyrean peeps. Figure it would be in the no-man's-land somewhere kinda near the mountain.

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Arbiter and @Terance headed south. How far would they end up going? Well, she wasn't sure. There wasn't a place that made her come to a complete crashing halt and said that she needed to stop. Then again, would anything? She needed to scout out all the options, after all -- to be able to find the best. At least it seemed they'd finally found the majority of the wolves. The north was barren, then sparse, but as they'd headed down here, it seemed this is where the population hid.

The issue was finding someone to tell them more about it. Terance wasn't far, or wasn't at last check, but walking over the same path together wasn't going to make a search for anyone -- or anything, always gotta keep an eye out for dinner -- go any faster. She did hope that this time there would be a bit more that came out of it than some of the past trips. At some point she'd have to make a decision as to what to do -- and Terance too, she supposed -- but at least winter was far away. Arbiter moved through the foothills with ease, alert and searching for signs of nearby wolves or easy prey. Cautious, but never optimistic -- this was Arbiter after all.
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Navigating through the woods in the lowlands was time-consuming, but Hydra knew it would be well worth it in the end to know what surrounded she and hers. Whatever advantages might be nearby, she would claim them as she ever had. As of yet, there was nothing of note—but the day had only just begun. The altitude began to shift as she moved toward the foothills of the mountain neighboring her own, and the matriarch expertly began to pick her way upward. As of yet, she had not taken the time to navigate the spaces closest to Empyrean... but now seemed as good a time as any. 

It was a bleak, grey day; as Hydra sniffed at a wind that caused the trees to stir, she realized she was not alone. They might have realized the very same, or perhaps they had yet to—whoever it was—but should it be the latter, they would have more than enough time to escape her company should they wish to. Neither of them appeared to be near enough to one another to get even a halfway decent look, and before Hydra decided to approach she determined to ensure this stretch of the mountain was still as of yet unclaimed. Sniffing silently at the earth, it did not appear to be the case so far. At ease with the knowledge, Hydra pressed ahead, appearing nonplussed despite her guard having risen, the stranger still not in her own line of sight. Her senses worked, listening for any indication that they might be in the company of another she had not caught wind of yet. For now, her own intent was simply to pass through... while simultaneously ensuring there was no building threat close to home she needed to eliminate.  

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Summer nights always were Terance’s favorite. You know how like, it’s blistering hot all day, and then out of no where a storm rolls in. When the rain settles the sky clears, almost like nothing had happened at all, and then the sun would set over a cool night, and you could see the stars almost too clearly.

They were getting closer to that weather, at least Terance hoped. This new place brought up all sorts of challenges... but he hoped the weather would be reliable enough. Arbiter, so far, had been the most reliable thing he’d encountered. She was certainly rough around the edges — actually, she was all edges. But Terance found that her stern, plan-for-the-worst-but-don’t-whine-about-it attitude blended almost too well with his it-is-what-it-is-but-make-the-best-out-of-it attitude. He hoped one day they’d be really good friends. Surely Arbiter had those right?

As he trailed close behind his new companion, the dark-furred brute found another scent... if not a few more faint ones as well... mingled with hers. His ears pricked, nose twitching, and he picked up the pace slightly to follow the breeze and where she might be. By the time he arrived, he could only see Arbiter, who he chuffed gently to, but the scent of one more still lingered fairly close...

”Did I miss something?” he asked when he was close enough, at a quieter volume. He hesitated before offering her a gentle, friendly greeting nudge to the shoulder, then took a few steps past to clear her some space. His nose still twitched as he observed, but he looked expectantly at Arbiter.
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Someone was near. Her paws slowed, lifting her head to the breeze. It was a scent that she'd walked past before, or so she was pretty sure. Which meant that this was a wolf that could give them information... She hoped. Far more likely than others, at least. Who were they beyond that? Who the hell knew, it wasn't like they'd found many useful sorts around.

Terance caught up with her then. First one ear tilted back to him, then a brief look at his nudge, but her attention was quickly back in the direction the stranger was. This was a time for business, so no casual goofing about from her -- not that she ever did. “Not yet at least,” was her quiet reply. “Might be the best chance of learning about this place we've had.” Between the wolves Terance was looking for and Arbiter's own search for knowledge and her own future, they did need that information...

She woofed towards where she was pretty sure the wolf was coming. They'd been scented, so no sneaky business if that was part of their plan. Another quick glance to Terance -- hopefully he was ready. It could go good or bad, and she supposed they'd find out quick enough. Arbiter herself was relatively neutral -- she was alert and suspicious, but that was probably the most offensive part of her current posture.
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As she moved forward, there was a more familiar scent that came to her then. Outnumbered, but sensing yet another near enough that gave her some strange creature comfort, Hydra increased her pace only just to arrive before the others all the sooner. The familiarity was something she knew she needed to get to the bottom of, and she arrived in time to catch only the tail-end of Arbiters latest word before she emerged through the tree-line that kept them from her line of sight (and she from their own). 

Her eyes were not for the speaker, though. They landed and lingered upon the familiar face of the man near to her, and all that might have been said or thought fell to nothing as she looked upon the man, flooded with memories both bad and good. It was the latter note they had left on, and even with all of her pride in this strange place Hydra might have found room in her heart to make a singular exception from the weight of her grudge. But for that final, better note, there was no grudge at all—he had learned the truth of all that she had forewarned... and he had considered banding with her, then, and his mate too... but it had needed discussing. Enough time had passed where Hydra imagined their odds had found enough improvement where he had not needed to return, which she could not begrudge him either, given she understood family and all that it took to keep them safe and healthy better than most. 

“Terance,” she spoke, voice warm. He looked... different, somehow. But she remembered him this way too, and for the moment second-guessed nothing as she could only feel another sense of gratefulness that she might find him here. “Is this... Arbiter?” she guessed, peering toward the woman and regarding her with a polite dip of her head, introducing herself regardless, letting the she-wolf speak for herself as she was certain she had a tongue and mind of her own both: “I am Hydra,” she hummed. Arbiter, a woman Hydra who, as Hydra understood it, had a far better head on her shoulders than her former leader, Liffey. Looking at her,  though, she looked young herself... which was interesting to note. Was she old enough to bear children...? If this was not Arbiter, perhaps it was a child of theirs. They were a healthy, hale looking she-wolf. Who else would Terance travel with but for his wife, or children...? Sniffing the air lightly, Hydra wondered if any other of their children were nearby so that she could meet them, too... but she caught wind of no others.

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Arbiter’s response gave Terance a prickle of excitement, he wondered if anyone else actually had some information about this place. Surely, someone did, right? He gave a soft but eager chuff in response, and then stood close by as he waited for the stranger to approach.

Surely enough, she came into view. A striking creature, similar to him but her fur was jet black— in the dead of night Terance was sure she’d be almost invisible. But instead of a territorial greeting, one that Terance almost expected, he was greeted by his own name. Her expression was warm, familiar, her tone like she was greeting an old friend. The young brute had an almost opposite expression, brows furrowed with heavy concern, especially when it was revealed she ... knew? who Arbiter was? She almost didn’t seem certain, like she was connecting dots. What?? He glanced at his travel companion, hoping to exchange a look of concern.

”How do you know our names??” Terance asked quickly, not aggressively but with suspicion apparent in his voice, ”Hydra? I— I don’t think we’ve ever met, who are you?”
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No matter which Arbiter it had been, there would have been no returned look of familiarity. This version, though, hadn't even heard tales of Hydra -- she was just some stranger and perhaps the smallest wolf Arbiter had run into thus far, which was just a hilarious stroke of luck. But she apparently knew Terance? Arbiter's head whipped around for a brief second, confused, maybe a little accusatory in a "who the hell is this" kind of way as she looked at him to figure out what was going on.

Her fur raised a little defensively as she looked back over to Hydra, not liking being at a disadvantage here -- why did she know them both? Arbiter was not a fan. It was not what was expected. Terance had already gone and asked the important question, so she didn't really need to add any more besides to watch with the suspicion appropriate to give someone who knew far too much for no reason. Yeah, it was pretty obvious that Arbiter was not happy, huggable sort, wasn't it?
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hopefully one of y'all will get that gif reference lOLOL.

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If there was any hurt upon the words of Terance dawning upon her, it did not show. But this was Terance, and now she knew for certain that this was Arbiter as well. If not for his words confirming it, then perhaps the displeasure she sensed. Arbiter did not hide that much with her body language, and Hydra could hardly blame the woman. She was at a loss; knowing Terance as well as she had, she knew the truth would hardly help. 

But it was all she had. 

“You are not the first to forget me here. I do not understand this place,” she drawled with a short shake of her head, looking around them for a moment—though her remaining senses were still honed upon the two of them. “It was not here that we met. I... woke up here, one day,” she started, blue eyes then turning to Terance once more, “but this was not the place I have lived for all of my life. When last we spoke,” she explained, “you left to discuss our conversation with Arbiter. I imagined that the two of you might have followed prey patterns, and migrate with them... and when I first saw you here, I wondered if this might be where you had come to eventually settle. But,” she hummed, gaze drifting to Arbiter, “I imagine you ended up here in a similar fashion as myself...?” 

Though she felt she knew that answer. Meaning, no one had arrived here by walking. Waking—that seemed to be the common theme. But she waited to be corrected, even hoped for it. The strangeness of it all was not lost on the Ostrega, who felt the ache of being forgotten by someone so dear to her (although that much did not show). It was not lost on her that he had awoken and found Arbiter, and a part of her was relieved to know that much; Hydra knew little of her, but in their last lifetime he and Arbiter had united and formed their own family. 

A family she could not see, nor smell. No spoilers, then.

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Terance stared, for a while. The silence from him was filled by this… Hydra’s comments. She seemed to be telling a story from memory, filling them both in as if to jog their memories. He was waiting for the pieces to click… but nothing was. He gave a glance to Arbiter, trying to see if any of this made sense to her, and then back at Hydra.

”You’re right — I guess? About the waking up part. But I’ve never met you. I’m like, not even two years old yet I’ve never been anywhere that wasn’t with my parents until recently, and I’m positive I’ve never met you,” he said, trying not to fall into a ramble… but Zeus was his head feeling scrambled, ”And Arbiter, we just met the other day, you’re saying all three of us know each other??”

This was… a lot. Terance was so confused. Almost? scared even? Yikes. He shook his head, ears splaying back. ”How did we know each other?? in… in the other world?” The words felt sour on his tongue. What did that even fucking mean?
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Terance was so willing to just give this woman even more information! Well, Arbiter wouldn't have. She'd have been rather monosyllabic, but instead she'd opted for saying nothing at all. But then again, she also wasn't the one who had been looked at with any familiarity. So, in a way she didn't have much skin in the game.

Though Terance's reaction might have been confused, maybe even having a little bit of fear, Arbiter of course continued the other direction -- to her, being in the unknown meant stand firm, be ready for things to turn worse. Honestly, what Hydra was saying sounded pretty insane. Like she'd gone and made things up and was trying to lure them to do... Hell if she knew what. But then again, Arbiter was also not one to just admit things had happened in the first place. It was irrational, after all. Stuff just didn't happen that way.

So she offered a more reasonable suggestion/question. “Could you have met someone he knows who'd gone abroad and just been.. misinformed?” It seemed less likely Hydra had run into anyone of Arbiter's family. There weren't many out there. It didn't sound like the best answer either, but the other worlds stuff was sort of nonsense. There was no good match to anything reasonable.
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It was not difficult to read the room. Terance did not hide his emotions, and Arbiter, though not an easy read, and her displeasure were clear enough. Hydra could not know what they were thinking, but she felt like a madwoman herself in this moment because he was right. None of this made any sense. Not their arrival here, not the forgetting, and the torture she endured to know that she had once again been forgotten. With no one to blame, Hydra's resentment had no place to go. It would never fall upon herself, and Terance... well, Hydra's own care for him saved him from herself thus far. 

Had Hydra been younger, she might have blamed Arbiter—but she was old enough now to know that was a senseless thing in of itself. No matter what the other thought of her—which Hydra could only guess—she kept her own judgments reserved for the woman. The other had yet to speak thus far, and so there was nothing for her to think. Terance might not be the brightest, but the matriarch refused to believe he would wed a halfwit like... like...

Who? The name escaped her. The vexation, though, remained. Deep-rooted and ugly as it ever was. 

Terance spoke, and as he spoke from where he had come proverbial fingers pulled at the cobwebs in her own mind. They had known each other for so long, but what would make sense to him here? At once, she knew. His parents had been their own beginning, long ago. If he did not know her, perhaps he would know this: “your mother was a friend to my father, Charon,” she remembered, “I was born upon Moonspear, before waking here,” and to his other question, she answered, “Her I knew only in name.” 

But still, she felt mad for this; there was no recognition from him, as he looked upon her. She was an absolute stranger to him. And as Arbiter spoke, Hydra looked to her. The other was trying to make sense of it, Hydra could understand, and it would be all too easy to simply agree and say, ah, yes, that is right. I am mistaken. Then she could simply walk away from this, from them, and let Terance become nothing but a stranger. It might be a selfless and selfish act, simultaneously, to not burden Terance with the weight of her memories and to give herself some immediate relief. But said relief would be short-lived for her, and Hydra was far too selfish to allow herself to carry the weight of this alone. 

“No,” she answered simply. No. There was no making sense of this. This was madness. 

Hydra hated it. She looked back to Terance, half wanting to throttle him to see if that might inspire any familiarity and half wanting to walk away. This task felt fruitless, and it would be a fools errand to engage further. Of that much, she was aware. “You truly do not remember me,” she recognized, and she knew that prolonging the acceptance of it would only cause her more pain. Still, she was not there quite yet. Not today. All the same, she knew that nothing she could say, nothing she could do, would change this... and she was quite unwilling to bang her head against stone hoping to change the shape of it. 

Years with him, gone for one but not the other; she felt she had been dealt a cruel hand, and she could not understand why. One would think there was an advantage, to know all while the other did not—but she felt powerless, especially in knowing him. Terance, who enjoyed his mother stories but could not spin one well for the life of him. Who liked to look at the stars. Who had fought alongside her. Who had been one of her closest and dearest confidants before... but he had apologized for that, he had realized—

All of that, the highs, the lows, all of that gone. His stare lacked any recognition, and even if he knew her fathers name, her homelands name, he still did not know her own. 

There was no giving him the weight of that. This was something she would need to carry alone. In him, she could sense the desire to understand... but in his companion, a wolf she imagined she would always be second to as surely as she had been to the rest of the wolves in his life, she could sense no such compassion or desire. Hydra neither wanted to be the wedge, or watch the other become it. If one truly lived and learned, should she simply disallow the pain of all that in this lifetime? 

“If you do not remember it,” Hydra drawled, “I would waste your time no further with the past. It will likely mean nothing to you,” she imagined, while it meant so much more to her. Hydra was a strong woman, though to hear that... to know that... would be a blow she did not know how to recover from. Tearing hide from bone was one thing—but matters of the heart? A weakness. Terance, her own lingering platonic love for him, a weakness. None of it was visible to the eye, nor did her voice break to reflect the mirrored state of her heart, and she felt glad, then, that he did not know her. 

Because even still, he (as those closest to her may) would have known that, had he. 

Perhaps in time the memories would come, or perhaps they never would.

Hydra could only go off the here and the now, then. If nothing else, Terance would surely know of Charon from his mother, right? That remained to be seen, but she felt no harm in the both of them gaining knowledge and information of this place, regardless. “Moonspear has become Empyrean,” she informed, gesturing toward the direction of her own home, “and I am here to become acquainted with what surrounds it. Other than our own shared experience with our... arrivals... and then being accosted by me,” she quipped, “have either of you come across anything unusual during your travels?” 

The past was the past. While she wished she could simply bury it, it still remained for her—but she would not live in it.

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This was so much. Holy shit. A little bit, Terance felt like he might be sick. His face remained laced only with concern, his furrowed brow showing his strain to try to remember this Hydra… Charon. Yes… This name he recognized. ”I met your father,” He returned with a low tone, ”But only once, I think. Too little to remember. My mom’s talked about him plenty though.” He glanced again at Arbiter, who didn’t seem to buy any of this. Terance knew himself not gullible but… was he stupid to play into this? He ventured to say his partner might think so. ”Your mom’s name was Amekaze,” he added regardless of Arbiter’s comments. But that… that was all he knew. Hydra was not a face or name that pulled at any of his own heart strings.

When Hydra seemed to finally admit that they were not acquainted, Terance could not help the ”I’m sorry,” that fell from his lips. Above all things, Terance was born to protect. Though Hydra’s demeanor did not suggest pain, Terance felt a twang in the pit of his belly that told him he was letting someone down. It hurt him to think that he could not do more now. But the topic fell, and they moved on.

When Hydra moved on to explain more, Terance shook his head. ”Nothing past waking up here,” He returned, and looked to Arbiter to see if she had more to reveal… or if she’d want to reveal more.
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To her, they were all strangers. Her family usually kept to themselves so it wasn't surprising the names that Hydra had mentioned meant nothing to her, even though they apparently did mean something to Terance, even if vaguely. But what would it mean for the future? Arbiter had not made her own decision yet, so she just listened, as she was apt to do.

Though eventually the conversation did leave a gap where she could say something. It wasn't much, really. She rolled a shoulder in a shrug. “I found it odd that the northern areas were virtually void of wolves. It's only in these southern mountains that the populations became more what I was expecting. But I'm not sure yet what that means.” It just made it really annoying to figure out what her plan was. So far, she still wasn't sure. It wasn't like there was anything else that stood out to her as outlandish.
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How could he remember that, but not her there with him? She remembered that day; she remembered their spar, when she had first beaten him, and then his acceptance thereafter; he even remembered her mother, but not her? “Yes,” she breathed, “those are my parents,” in answer. Late, or otherwise, their blood ran through her all the same. It was her mothers that caused her own temper not to flare at feeling so forgotten. It was not his fault, Hydra kept reminding herself.

In any event, Terance knew little of this place either; Arbiter, too, it seemed, though her observation would no doubt be a helpful one. While Hydra supposed it was due to prey, there could be an outlandish reason too given their way of arriving. Jarring, truly, but Hydra was glad enough to be building with what had been found in the ashes of it. 

On that note, she looked to the two of them and drawled, “hmm. Well, I should return return home. Should either of you be seeking one for yourselves, I invite you to consider Empyrean,” she drawled, having already articulated the direction they ought to head in if so; both vexed and perplexed by the events of the day, Hydra thought it best to leave the duo to their own devices. It had been a strange day, and she wished to speak with her own husband on the matter. Did he remember Terance...?

What was going on in this place?

Should neither have anything more to say, Hydra would move to depart with a polite dip of her head in adieu. She did not permit her gaze to linger on the perfect caricature of the man who had once been her best friend. A shell, now... but still, Terance all the same.

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[ooc]Just gonna wrap this! More of a summary than anything![/q]

But before Hydra left, they informed her that there were still more places that they needed to investigate -- just in case. They'd be back later, as it was clear Terance had felt some sort of pull towards the pack just because of the somehow-entwined histories. It didn't make much sense to Arbiter, but assuming she didn't find a place along the way that seemed more appealing, perhaps she could agree to the same.

For now, they'd bid her farewell, then head off again into the mountains.
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