Ours

Cameo howls totally welcome <3

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To the borders the matriarch kept, now—with things more or less understood (as best as one could in the environment), the matriarch still would see to the safe keeping of her lands. It would not be a mystery that there was a claim here to any passing by, at least. She navigated about The Dragonsteeth, catching a strange scent that caused the furs along her nape to lift and her muzzle to wrinkle. Lifting her leg to leave her mark upon the offending scent, Hydra's gaze swept the horizon before her. 

Her ears cupped backward to pick up on any sounds that indicated she was not—or would not be—alone... but thus far, beyond the sounds of nature, Hydra did her duty independent of any others for the time. For good measure, the matriarch lifted her head to rally her brethren (@Bronco, @Altair, @Dirge @Jarilo, @Desdemona, @Element, @Nyx) to make known that by and by, this place was not free for any to idle upon.

+2 Discovery Points

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Upon hearing the Queen of it all, Desdemona joined on the howl that followed through the winds. The mountain was the groups; though she did not know what they were called by. Moonspear was the name she always knew, but the place they were at was no longer the same spear they once knew. She howled loudly, for the new beginning that they would create.

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He'd been wandering when the call reached him, and the dark male let his steps slow to a halt as he tilted his head towards Hydra's call. A hint of pleasure and sadness struck him simultaneously as he realized her voice was becoming familiar to him, but there was still loss in his heart, and he could not help but wonder what other voices were slipping further and further away. Another voice joined Hydra's and her call became a duet, the second cry rising from some other shadowed nook of the mountains. Element whined quietly to himself from his his perch on a haggard peak, unsure of how to proceed. He'd heard invitation in the call, and there was no mistaking the offer Hydra had given him. A new home, a new pack, a new beginning.

The problem was the way all the new and the old still clashed in his head. He heard the sound of his once-familiar falls, the constant drone of the water from his cave behind the waterfall where he had settled and reigned. Well - reign was never the right word for him. But there was something about all this that felt faintly of betrayal. His home, his past, his old memories - they were still lost to him. This - this was here. This was now. And he was unsure if he felt shame or relief at how badly he wished to be a part of something he could rely on right now.

Stepping forward and raising his head to sniff gently at the wind, he took a shuddering breath and held it for a moment... let it expand in his chest until he could hold no more, and then released his own song to the peaks - an acknowledgement and a thanks. It started coarse, halting, and unsure, but as his tone climbed and found harmony adjacent to Hydra's, it steadied and found its place.

+2 Discovery Points

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As treacherous as the Dragonsteeth were to navigate, especially with the snow beginning to melt, there were plenty of natural caves and overhangs, which made it even easier for Bronco to spend the majority of his time patrolling along the borders of the mountain he now called home. Whenever he needed to take a break or rest for the night, he could find his way to one of the many shelters he'd found to sleep, and had taken to stashing small meals nearby as well so he could replenish his energy mid-patrol. He wasn't the only one doing so- but he'd have to track the others down at some point, to let them know that his little hideaway spots were welcome to them as well should they ever need a break or a snack. 

He'd been forging his way along the borders when he heard the proud, almost defiant voice of his leader, echoed shortly thereafter by Desdemona and another he'd not yet met as they paired their voices with hers. In a pledge to serve her, and as a means of warding off unwelcome trespassers, Bronco too raised his clear baritone voice to join in, harmonizing with his future packmates as they sang to claim the mountain as theirs.

+2 Discovery Points

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As the days and their nights passed, Jarilo seemed to integrate himself steadily. There were times when he still felt a disconnect, a hesitation over the memories he couldn't find, or balking at the gaps he became aware of in his life. He willed them aside, choosing instead to help familiarize himself, build new routine, and find his strength for it all. Important pillars in his life did remain, so with them, he could stand proud again too--even if he still felt the urge to search for those that he had seemingly left behind.

From out on his explorations of a pocket of low-elevation woods he did not know well, he paused when his sister's voice rose to the winds. He let his posture be lifted by her song then, ears tall, and chest tingling as it all began to set in. Simultaneously familiar enough to warm his heart, and terrifyingly new to carve their own way out of such unknown, Jarilo couldn't help but add his own voice to the cause soon enough. He howled back his sonorous tune, one lighter than he had sang out with in many moons, now that it was all beginning to feel real again.
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In the distance, faint where he was on the other side of their broadening claim, Dirge heard Hydra begin to rally them. It was a natural inclination for them to lay a claim to this place, however strange it were that they had awoke along the snowy slopes; the place was beginning to become familiar to them. It may not have been Moonspear, but it would do, and any doubts he had in their confidence to muster and thrive had been squashed one by one.

Gently, lowly, he too offered his voice. Quiet at first, he let its volume increase and carry out across the expanse he had been trekking. Make no mistake, they would hold this territory just as fiercely as they had the one before—Dirge hoped others would hear that rally, that the missing pieces and parts of their whole would find their way. That their song would not be out of reach to their ears, no matter where it was that they were. Perhaps they could not unravel the threads of this mystery yet, perhaps they never would, but he knew that they would weave another saga into the tapestry as it were.
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She'd been tracking her brother when Hydra's call went up, and a raven-tipped lobe pricked to listen - quietly at first. Her response did not come instantly as she took a few moments to listen for the other voices to join that of their Queen, familiar and unfamiliar, one after the other. It warmed Nyx to know how the Moonspear stragglers had managed to rally together despite the mystery of their arrival to this strange place, and her hope to find Ciri and Elke never wavered.

From close by, Dirge's low howl joined that of their pack-mates, and the lioness canted her own muzzle skyward to send forth her own call. She sang for those present and those lost, willed her voice across the valley and beyond so that it might lure her wayward daughters.


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Disoriented was not something that happened often to the wayward Ostrega. Comings and goings were things he had acclimatized to throughout his years, but this was very different—the sky had been alight, and then darkness and fallen on him… and now he was here.

He had always considered that when death came for him, it would be at the jaws of another—a punishment for his assumed crimes and that none would weep nor hold a flicker of memory of him.

The latter was likely correct, but the former… He had yet to grasp fully what had happened. The darkness wasn’t unwelcome though, and Pippin, above all else, was a creature that adapted to his environment with impressive resolve.

So as he loped along the regions of a great mountain and heard a now familiar to him song—Hydra—echoing her claim within the air, relief pressed to his chest, and upward his muzzle tilted, calling to her—the dark wraith, the shadow of the mountain… family. ‘Hydra, I am here. I am with you,’ his own cry called—and as his howl would begin to fade, the tawny wolf would begin making his way to them, his prowl revealing the hunger he felt for answers.
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He heard his mother’s call raise through the haze and chill of the late winter—Altair could not help but think back on the words that Desdemona had imparted to him some handful of days prior. She had been right, they were rebuilding. Whether it was truly rebuilding what was lost or creating something else entirely, he couldn’t have been sure. But others had found their way to them one by one, some faces he recalled and some… well, they were familiar at least. He may not have been able to put a name to a face entirely, but they were there too.

And he heard their call raise up along with hers; he heard his father and his aunts, was certain somewhere out there through the dreary day he heard an uncle even. Or it could have been imagination altogether. It wouldn’t have surprised him; he still couldn’t quite shake that he was in the middle of a waking dream.

Still, Altair lent his voice to the call. It wasn’t the boyish cry that may have joined them some odd weeks or months ago for fun. He may have still been a child in almost every sense, but he was feeling less and less of it. There were things to do, things that his parents employed and expected of him, and he had taken to it in this strange place. Only now, it was beginning to feel less like a strange place and more familiar, but perhaps not quite home.
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She felt bad for delaying their journey a little, but she had been a little bit too hasty and had hurt herself. Now, at least, all was better... so that was a plus. She and Osiris had been hunting for more of his family, and still did. In the Rippling Heights, Leta heard the proud call of the family... her family, too, since she had determined to join them all that time ago... and she could not help but lift her own head to call back in solidarity. Osiris was right alongside her, and she paused to look at him with a waving tail before again joining back in, listening for his voice.

+2 Discovery Points

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Leta's wellbeing has been Osiris's priority. She was better than she'd been before, but he still kept a close eye her—just in case the injury flared, and they needed to take it slow. They weaved through the upper reached of Rippling Heights, Osiris a pace ahead of Leta to ensure the path was clear for her, searching for any sign of their loved ones.

When Hydra's howl sounded, he halted as his heart skipped a beat. "Mom," he acknowledged with a hitched whisper; she wasn't alone. His gaze briefly swept towards Leta, his expression bright. He didn't show his excitement often, but this was a special occasion. 

Osiris was able to identify some of the cries that followed her; Dad, Jarilo, Nyx, Altair, Desdemona, Bronco ... His tail wagged, whacking against her every so often as he lifted his head and howled in reply. "We're coming," he promised, his voice strong.

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