you & I were forever wild

attn @Dirge tho

Territory Discovery

One of the tallest peaks within the chain of mountains stands sentinel to the Bay situated neatly alongside it; so high does it seem to stretch that the clouds reach where the eyes cannot. As broad as it is tall, the territory is home to coniferous forests near its base that slowly dwindle before eventually erupting into strange spires, making the territory appear impassable and inhospitable to start. Indeed, it is a difficult labyrinth to make ones way through and a stranger to it could risk injury if careless upon entry. But x(TERRITORY NAME?) offers much to those who dare to test their luck, one of which includes the best view of the surrounding territories

---

Although it had taken her some time, now, Hydra descended from the clouds to the lower reaches of the mountain. Try as she might to rack her memory as to how she had gotten here, she found she could not pinpoint what it was that precluded the moment she had awoken in this place. Nor this mountain without a name. It seemed to defy logic, but Hydra knew that thinking to that end would not serve her any good. No—now, Hydra would work to pick up the pieces and bring together what she could. Getting a sense of the land seemed like a decent place to start.

Laying alongside those gathered to them then, Hydra nosed her husband when the sun began to rise. With that last thought in mind, it seemed wise to get a lay of the land... and who better to do it with than he, while the rest slept? Gently prodding him and then coaxing him with a few licks (that would soon devolve into affectionate nips should she get no response from that), Hydra gently rose and sniffed at the morning air. The sun had not yet risen, but that hour was nigh.

+1 Discovery Point

---

the staff team luvs u

Her first attempts of waking him were to no avail, but the nips did the trick.

He stirred with a groan, anticipating a headache that wasn’t there. Things were still in a very confusing place but Dirge had taken it in stride; being reunited with parts of their collective family and pack had certainly been a relief. But there was still the matter of those who were not with them, questions over the gaps in his memory that he could not explain and yet did not entirely bring himself to reason with.

The labyrinithian mountain and its woods had been a welcome reprieve with all that they had been through, memories intact or not. The change in locale had ignited his sense of adventure and as he yawned, he suspected this may have been one of many reasons why Hydra had woke him in the first place. It was early and frost still coated most of what he did see, and it would. The elevation would let it linger for a spell, just like his groggy sense of things around him would.

“Ever the early riser,” he mused to her. “You could have at least waited for the sun to come up.”
the staff team luvs u

Hydra seemed to consider his words for a moment before nipping him in playful admonishment. “Well, time waits for no one,” she quipped with a grin, “why should we?” Her tone was light and well-meaning; the matriarch respected nature and its whims, and time, too—the Ostrega did not think herself above or equal to either. Infallible things, those two—they simply were. Her curiosity, though, could not be put to rest—and so when she had awoken she had not even considered trying again to fall back to sleep. 

And fortunately, Dirge did not seem interested in returning to such a state either. Nosing him affectionately, Hydra huffed a warm breath that rolled out from her nose in a plumed cloud of vapor from the warmth there. 

Darting ahead, Hydra swept her nose against the earth and sniffed. It smelled much the same as yesterday, which might be an obvious assessment to some... but Hydra, not at all in her own element and not so certain of anything about this place, remained ever the same in this way too; she would leave nothing to chance. Why that was, Hydra could not identify—in time, these thoughts might not present themselves at all. But this was all new to her, and Hydra did not like not knowing where it was she stood... both literally, and figuratively. 

Looking back to her mate, she turned to step alongside him so that they might travel shoulder to shoulder where they could. She wanted to ask him what he made of all of this, but around the children of theirs that were present... well, she did not want to worry them so soon before coming to know how she felt about this all as well. Seeing her mate there, hale and healthy settled her some, though; they would get through this (as they had so much already) together, too.

the staff team luvs u

She pulled away from him and so he rose to follow her lead, stretching long limbs ahead of him with another jaw-splitting yawn. With a shake of his coat, he cut the distance between them easily to rub against her. Of course, he couldn’t help but sneak in a nip behind her, mussing the soft fur there.

“They say fortune favors the bold,” he mused to her, “and I do love a good adventure.” Unfamiliar place that they had turned up for one reason or the another, the questions that did not seem to have answers, all of them as troubling as they were did still weigh heavily at the back of his mind.

And he was certain that Hydra was not unaware of this in him, but he had always reserved in that regard, only seeming an observant party solely rather than an amalgamation of many things. But for her sake—rather, more his own—he would grasp the threads of a new adventure. His heart had longed for it, though he would have much rather the circumstances be different.

Besides, there was really no telling what they would find here either; he held out for the hope that their children were out there in the world somewhere. They were all capable of caring for themselves now, this he knew, and the experiences passed onto them through their parents and relatives were invaluable to that. Altair had found them, after all, and he was certain if whatever willed it would, the others would too.

As they came to a curve along a ridge, he paused to take in their surroundings in the growing light. The sun would pierce the horizon soon he thought and the world as they knew it would unveil itself soon thereafter. He was curious what was out there, sparing a thought for what unsavory things could lurk just beyond their rendezvous.

His gaze left the view for her, questioning.

“Where do you think we should start first? Should we go down the mountain further, or travel this path to see where it goes?”

+1 Discovery Point

---

the staff team luvs u

Hydra huffed as he mussed up her furs, turning to nibble and preen her furs into a neat and orderly submission. But her heart warmed, and when she turned back to him there was no annoyance there... only a fondness that ever seemed to grow. This familiarity was soothing to her in this foreign place, and as she looked to him Hydra felt a new sort of admiration blossom. Before her, Dirge had been an adventurer... a wanderer. And here, that was his advantage. Where she was not within her own element she reckoned she would come to see him in his own, and for once Hydra felt the desire to take the back seat to see him at work. He was one of her own personal world wonders—in this place too, just like the last. 

She remembered their first trip together; entirely different circumstances, those... and her mind shifted back and forth of what to make of these ones. It somehow did not feel bad or wrong, just strange. While she did not enjoy feeling out of place, knowing she had her own bona fide adventurer at her side put her at ease. She would have felt better with all of her children there, and would never feel entirely right until her own proverbial right side found her way to her... but at the very least, Hydra did not feel a welling sense of dread. 

Hydra considered for a moment, and then thought aloud, “perhaps down would be a good place to start,” as she gazed into the darkness before them. Hydra wished to take stock of the things that might come up, and get a grasp on what was around them. “But I suppose we are here, and to head straight ahead might conserve some more energy, depending on what we might discover there...” here she looked to him, and nosed him. “You are the expert adventurer, where do you think would be best to start?” And from there, Hydra was all too willing to follow his lead—her trust in him was implicit, and her gaze revealed as much. His adventurous spirit would guide them in the right direction, she imagined.

the staff team luvs u

He was silent as he delved into thought, the options giving him much to consider.  There were plenty of pros and cons to either option, but his deliberation was brief at best.  His gaze drew back to the path before them and he gestured towards it gently.

“I think it may be wise that we get a full lay of the land as the sun comes up.  Best to see what’s out there from our vantage point before we make a descent.  We can have a better goal in mind of what to scout out… perhaps see if there’s a herd or two we could pick through.”

It was a standard practice he had employed time and time again—scout out the resources, make a plan, and proceed.  Hunger had yet to really gnaw at him but he knew it would come, and their travel would spark that sooner than later.  He moved away from the edging then, ushering his wife along to keep their even pace together.
the staff team luvs u

Hydra nodded to him, agreeing as he spoke his points. Expert scout that (she figured) he was, the logic of them made perfect sense to her. That decided, Hydra moved with him in cadence, slowing and picking up the pace as he would. This was more than getting from Point A to Point B; this was figuring out what lay in between the two... and discovering, now, what Point B even was. The further they drifted from their rendezvous, the sooner they might arrive to that place. But as they created that space Hydra was inclined to speak her own thoughts, now that they were not within earshot of their children. 

At least she did not think so. A cursory sniff and a good look around seemed to confirm as much, before she looked ahead again—her eyes sought to distinguish any particular landmarks. They were not so high as the clouds, now, having settled on some aspect of "middle ground". But that in of itself was difficult to deduce, given they had gone no lower. This mountain felt greater in height than Moonspear did, which felt like some sort of sin to think. Nothing could be greater than that place, she had thought—she would have never left it... 

But here they were. “What do you make of all of this?” she asked in a quiet breath, disturbing the peaceful quiet that had settled as they moved together in harmony. Hydra herself felt... perplexed. And despite all of her love for Moonspear, there was no compelling urge to turn back to find it—the only thing she wished to find was those strange, missing pieces. But deep within her, Hydra felt that whatever she was looking for would find her; answers would come, and so would those things and beings she longed for. Shadows within her mind, dark enough to obscure much of her recollection which was strange. Her mind had always been so sharp; it did not feel like altitude sickness, nor lack of sleep, though... 

And she felt a new spring in her step, too. Not age then, not that she imagined that time would come soon. She (still believed that she) was only four, and at five or six she imagined she could find her prime. So no, it was not age (she could have scoffed at the thought, were she not a more... aristocratic lady). What did her husband think, then? Did he think anything strange at all himself?

+1 Discovery Point

---

the staff team luvs u

“I’m not sure what to make of it,” he admitted, not letting a lapse in their conversation happen. It wasn’t necessary for him to give his answer much thought because honestly, what was there to say? He had no recollection of coming to this place, whether it was of his own volition or not. He also had no way of knowing where they were on the grand scheme of things—time or otherwise. He certainly didn’t feel any different than he had before… the troublesome nature of the world was still there, just in a different form.

Truth be told, he hoped that perhaps as the sun rose they would find some sort of landmark that would guide them back towards home. And perhaps along that way they would find the rest of their pack, safe and sound, and perhaps just as perplexed as the rest of them. All he could do was draw theories rather than conclusions, holding hope ahead of him like a shield.

“Maybe we all ate something bad,” he suggested, but it was half-hearted.

He wished he had an answer to offer her that was better than nothing.
the staff team luvs u

[size=small]His answer was met with silence to start as she wondered. It was truly enough to know that he thought something of it at all, and yet she had hoped that he could bring to life what she had been thinking... which was, in truth, much the same as he. She did not know what to make of it, just like her husband; in this, they were of the same mind. Perhaps it was unfair of her to desire more, and perhaps a part of her realized that...  but the greater part of her felt frustrated. It was not so much with him, though; it was the whole of this strange ordeal. Of being a stranger in a strange place. The unknown did not excite the matriarch as it might excite most. This new venture took her away from an important place, from important wolves—again, a thought rose unbidden. Perhaps not, she dared to ponder. [/size]

[size=small]His light words were met with a glance, and it earned a surprised laugh from the matriarch who had been so wound up within her own frustrations she had not expected at all his "answer". [/size]

[size=small]“I am not either,” she admitted, voice soft; she hated to speak it. To not know felt like something of a weakness, and yet it was not as though she hid those from Dirge at least. Hydra detested feeling vulnerable, but there it was! And here, she felt exposed in every regard. Hydra found her gaze panning to the sky, looking instinctively for something else familiar; the colors were shifting, changing with the slow rise of the sun. It was not that her eyes hoped to behold, though. Her ears pricked as she listened, hoped, for a familiar sound. Even while her notched ear shifted, Hydra sighed to him, “just that it is all very... strange.” [/size]

the staff team luvs u

A thin band of purple began to streak across the sky. It was faint, but it signified that sunrise was imminent to accept them as they did it. Dirge drew in that detail, almost committing it to memory as Hydra spoke alongside him. He didn’t need to look at her to know the subtle way her brow would furrow as she grappled with their new found predicament, but the lack of verbosity on her part spoke volumes.

“It is a strange thing,” he agreed in a murmur. Too strange, really, to have awoken alone and separate from all they had once known. Stranger still to be scattered as parts of a whole, unaware and unknown as to their own location. There were too many variables outside of his control, outside of his knowledge. The more thought he put into it, the worse it dared to make him feel… but a part of him wondered if he had simply grown too complacent with things.

He wanted to suggest that they ought not think of it all and simply embrace what was reality for them as they knew it—but it wasn’t that easy, was it? A frown threatened to cloud his expression, but he held it at bay as he had so many things. He could wonder after his children, his siblings, the extended family that he shared with Hydra, but to what end?

What did it all mean?

“Perhaps we are not to make any sense of it at all,” he wondered aloud then. “The world works in ways we will never understand.” They had been mired in one round of unfortunate circumstance after another and the mounting stress and strain had left them on edge, even now. Relaxed as they were, he could sense that cord of tension in the air that emanated from them, but he was at a loss of how to expel it.
the staff team luvs u

She looked down when what she sought did not appear then and there. But as he looked up, Hydra found herself mirroring him once more; she too caught the purple ribbon unraveling its thread in the sky above, its rippling threads bringing with it other hues by the minute. Pale pink bled into it, and peach too; it was beautiful, and Hydra marveled at the simple beauty of it. It was not her first sunrise with her husband, but it was her first with him here... and somehow, this meant something to her. 

Hearing him echo her sentiment helped, too. So he did not think this normal. It was not as though she were alone in this place, that this was but a dream that all else felt was normal. No... this was no dream.  And they both could see that. Feel that, she thought as a particularly fierce wind picked up and rifled through her furs. A calloused paw pressed against the stony, cold earth; at this height, there seemed to be little else but for rock, stone, snow and boulders. She lowered her head to sniff at a stretch of the cool white substance, and her tail swayed behind here as she recognized, “goat,” 

Mountain goat. Not Moonspears own, but...

His words seemed to resonate, though she had not acknowledged them off of the bat as she mulled them over. “You may be right,” she hummed, “there feels to be little point to it, in what it will... or really, I suppose will  not do for us. We are here, after all,” she acknowledged, and though like him her eyes looked for the same things his unspokenly did, as the new world was bathed in a warm, ethereal sort of glow the matriarch caught sight of a potential vantage point. Hydra coaxed him toward it, guiding him with her own movement as she leaned slightly into him.  

the staff team luvs u

As they progressed towards the point that she indicated, Dirge mulled over her words. It was true that there was little point to it all, even if they couldn’t help but spin their theories and ponder. And worry too, though he was not quite ready to concede that fact. Worry had its advantages, but it was every bit as exhausting as anger could be.

“Better for us to focus on what we can and we know,” he rejoined, “or what we will learn.” Getting their bearing would help, whether it was to place where they were in the world to begin to compile resources. He did not yet believe they weren’t far from home—surely all they held familiar was just to be seen from this vantage point.

But they reached it, and he realized that there was naught familiar in the low light. A frown did cross his features then, fleetingly; his hopes were effectively dashed in that moment but he latched onto the promise of something else. Down through the lowlands beneath the spires, he could see the waters of the inlet below. Where it led, he could not say, but he knew from experience that waterways and their lines often led to a great many things.

And a great many not so good things.

The first ray of morning light pierced his gaze then and he squinted against it, withdrawing from the edging to look to Hydra as she surveyed for herself.

“Do you see anything familiar?” He posed the question gently, hoping that something would spark recognition. She was a creature of the mountains and while he may have been also in some innate way, he did not prefer the heights like she did. But if anyone would know the jagged spine and spires of stone, he believed it to be her.

+1 Discovery Point

---

the staff team luvs u

“You are right,” she thought and realized aloud. Not that it surprised her; Dirge was an intelligent man, which was one of the (many) things that drew her to him in the first place. Look ahead, not behind—

and yet as they both drew to the edge, Hydra found her eye seeking things that led to the latter. Any indication of Moonspear's own Summit and range. But first, her gaze caught the sea nearby. Far closer here than it had been to Moonspear; it seemed, if things could be measured accurately from here, to be the same distance as the Glen would have been... Hydra's gaze continued to wander, and it could not be said that Hydra saw more of the same. Everything was miraculously different here. She could sense Dirge's own expression without looking as surely as he would have guessed at hers. And when his eyes held her, she looked for a little while longer to try and get a grasp on their situation. 

With a sigh, Hydra looked back to him. “We have much to learn, it seems,” she drawled. She turned to him, moving to bridge the small gap between them. “None of this is familiar,” she sighed, a ray of light striking Dirge just so, his eyes looking bright and warm, “it is a good thing you love adventure so.” A smile, then, soft—and while some of it reached her eyes, it was short-lived as she looked again out toward the open horizon. While Hydra knew the best thing for them to do would be simply to embrace the future and the change, she felt safe enough with Dirge to reveal to him her wariness. It was the first true day of this new life, and with it came nerves which did not feel so out of place. Self-preservation was one of the many reasons the both of them had lived for as long as they had. 

Food was a thing here; she had smelled goat along the way, after all. Hunger too, which was not something that bothered her then and there. Survival instincts still intact, the matriarch felt her train of thought straying briefly to why us? And then—what now? As the sun continued to rise, Hydra drew in a breath and spoke her thoughts in her low drawl, “we ought to get a lay of the land. See if it is sustainable, and stake a claim if so,” and her gaze turned back to him then. 

Her sisters name and heartbeat rang within her ears. Within her, Hydra beckoned.

With so many uncertainties, and so many unknowns, Hydra wanted their own home base. They could do this; they could figure this out, and make the best of things. She believed that.

+2 Discovery Points

---

the staff team luvs u

Her line of his love of adventure pulled a thin, fleeting smile across his features for a moment. It was true that he did enjoy a good adventure and truthfully his life had very much been one adventure after another, but here he wished the circumstances were a touch different. But Hydra, ever plotting, reached a goal in mind just before he did.

He knew that getting a lay of the land was tantamount to their survival here. It was still winter and truth be told he wasn’t too sure how far north or south they were, or whether or not it was simply the mountain’s height at work that kept them chilled. He nodded in agreement, knowing there was only so much ground they could cover and that it wouldn’t hurt to have some sort of rendezvous point while they searched out others of their family.

“We know that we have food, at least,” he rejoined, thinking of the goat scent. Tricky bastards that they were to hunt, it at least meant that there was something about to sustain them. “And where there are goats, there’s bound to be other prey. Perhaps when daylight hits, we could begin to investigate the low lands beneath us. Fresh water would be nice. Perhaps we can find better shelter as well, should we need it.”

+2 Discovery Points

---

the staff team luvs u

The matriarch listened and nodded as he spoke, thinking it a wise idea. The new day was swift in its approach now, and with those among them then they could discuss this next step in mind. She did not want to roam too far from them; it felt as though she had lost something, and though Hydra could not put her paw upon it she understood that she did not wish to lose more. Her ear twitched as she considered the most important thing, first to even food—freshwater. Mountains oft had such sources of the stuff, and at the very least they had snow to hydrate them. 

“Let us find some water,” she determined, “on the way back to our present rendezvous. An alternative rendezvous as we get a better lay of the land would be nice,” she drawled, agreeing with him there. They had slept in the higher reaches of this nameless place for the night, in part to see if others of their ilk would come to them there after her call. Leaning toward her mate and making an effort to gently nose him, Hydra tried to make light of their confounding situation: “perhaps we might find some hot springs,” she hoped aloud with a sway of her tail. Beyond wolves she hoped to come across, they could imagine places that might suit them or else enjoy, could they not?

the staff team luvs u

She sought creature comforts, he realized. The things that she held in familiarity, of home. A telling thing; it betrayed some of the calm in her demeanor in his eyes and his alone, even where she shone through with mirth.

“Perhaps,” he said in that agreeable tone, though it was mostly to humor her. Dirge did not know or fathom what it was that they could find, or would find, but he knew to put necessity before all. Secure themselves and their position and only then could they begin to aid others as they pieced things together.

Assuming they would ever make sense of this.

He turned back the way they had come then, brushing against her to guide her along. His thoughts were still scattered, perplexed by what was missing and endlessly, endlessly concerned with the unknown. Something that ought not have bothered him, being a former creature that had boldly ventured into such things with particular poise. But it had been different back then—he had his wife to think of, his children.

“At least the view is remarkable,” he went on to say instead, the words dispelling welling worries like a wave of a hand. “I had always dreamt of stealing you away for adventure.” And it would seem in a way, he had.
the staff team luvs u

Hydra could agree with his sentiment; the view rivaled that of Moonspears, though perhaps aloud she might never admit such a thing. It was definitively not Moonspear, and Hydra wondered where that might be. She might have asked him, are we dead? But that did not make sense. She could feel. She could breathe. She could speak and think and nothing else had changed about life but for where they were, and the things she felt were missing. As he coaxed her along and she felt his furs mingle with her own and a jolt of electricity pass through her flank, she felt very much alive. 

His words were met with a soft look as she moved to match his gait then. For all the things Hydra aspired to do and believed she would accomplish, this much she already knew to be truth: “you are my greatest adventure,” she admitted, the cool air providing wind to her proverbial sails: “this... here,” she gestured around them, “it is all very confusing. There is so much I do not know. But you and I,” she breathed, “you,” she pressed, “well, our adventuring together has always felt inevitable to me. Since the moment I first saw you,” she revealed with a twinkle in her eye that could, at that moment, rival the northern star. It was true, all of that; she had always felt drawn toward Dirge, some sort of cosmic pull that was never a tangible thing. 

And even here, amongst all the strange and new, there was him. And that her soul knew him, her mind knew him—it meant something, did it not? Hydra believed in that now more than ever before; something to hold onto, when all else had fallen to some void. It was a rare moment of open vulnerability; other than Dirge, only Lyra and Alya knew of its existence and that, now and then, Hydra was capable of such feelings. Speaking on them, too. 

+1 Discovery Point

---

the staff team luvs u

He was at times a very basal, carnal creature, and her words stoked the ever burning devotion and passion between them. For as much as it bolstered his confidence and ego, it was a reassurance that if there were only one thing in this world meant to be constant, it was their bond. A thin smile spread across his features, turning gently into a smirk; he pressed his nose against her cheek as they moved briefly.

“You flatter me,” he murmured softly. It went without saying that for all the treasures in the world he could have searched for, she was perhaps among the greatest of them. For as hellish of an arrival that had brought them there, it would have been far worse had he wandered and never found her again.

The same could have been said of the others as well.

As they rounded a bend previously trekked, he continued: “I suppose that this is only the next chapter of our lives, come what may.” He knew could not let worry and the seeping of fear taint what lied before them. Whether or not they would all reunite or find themselves cast to the four winds, they had to embrace the change and what carnage it wrought. And he had never truly been one unable to adapt to change.
the staff team luvs u

His words were answered with a grin of her own. 

There was one thing that felt absolutely wrong about this... something missing. A great portion of her heart. She felt an imbalance. 

But it was not him, and that she knew for certain. 

More familiar things as they moved around a gentle bend, her nostrils flared as she drank in the scents around them. The trail they just traversed carried (beyond the two of them) scents of small prey that were quite literally creature comforts. The winter hare, the snowshoe rabbit—these things registered within her mind as things that intersected their path. But no threats at least; cougars, or other wolves, were not noted then. A tentative sense of safety, for once, even with all the mystery present. 

Appreciating his sentiment, the matriarch leaned against him. “We will make it as grand as all the rest, I am sure,” she drawled with a wave of her tail. They always managed to. Ascending slowly, the matriarch looked around them. “What should we name this place?” She asked with a grin, thinking this, too, a fun way to embark on this chapter. A name for their book seemed as good a place as any to begin.

the staff team luvs u

The topic change took him off guard for a moment—name the place? The mountain? He had never put much thought into such things, though he had once or twice heard Hydra speak of the lore that had gone into the name of Moonspear. But this mountain was most certainly not the grand pillar that they were most familiar with and truly, Dirge was lost on what would have suited it.

His gaze abandoned the trail ahead of them to scale the peak and those that followed it, tracing over what snow-capped summits he could see, and wondering of those that pierced through the clouds. They were awash in dayglow now, the sky constantly lightening and shifting through colors of the predawn sort.

“I don’t know,” he rejoined thoughtfully. His tear tore away from the peaks and back to her, curious of what could have been working through her mind. “I think I’d rather see more of what this place has to offer before I think of something. Perhaps Altair and Lyra will have suggestions.” And perhaps they would do none of those things and abandon the notion; Dirge desired to see other things, as well.
the staff team luvs u

She supposed he was right, and so she nodded; and in any event, naming the place sounded quite nice when doing so with their family. Her tail swayed behind her at the thought, and the matriarch warmed to the thought the longer they moved alongside one another. It seemed that this place was to be their home, and so she imagined now the new beginning to be had here. All the while, her gaze searched for further semblance of familiarity; her heart felt several pieces of it absent, but one far more stark than the rest. But that it beat even still, she knew all that she sought was coming. Ahead she saw the slumbering figures of their family present, and Hydra moved to rouse them. It was time to begin this chapter, together now. 

the staff team luvs u