Own me, I'll let you play the role,

She did not know when they vacated, but it wasn't a surprise. Remus venture within their lands proved futile, they never came out, nor' ever caught. Although she still remembered @Minthe, and @Persephone as well as @Hades and wondered, where had they gone? One man seemed like a King, and although she wasn't fond of the Queen, it was a wonder if such a fragile woman could survive without a home.. And with no reason for their departure, Celnes could only wonder and assume.

Bold as she was, the Queen entered the Winterheart forest. They were right to say it was flushed with life, and rivaled The Elk's Crown. The trees were far larger, far older to say the least ; but they lacked the herd that Celnes adored so. It was no wonder they claimed it so long, and maybe why even the auburn-beauty ventured into it's claim...

She roamed it, wondering who was still lurking.

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Since the attack on Faust by her own kin, Maral had felt conflicted. She was torn between the responsibility she'd adopted for her little siblings and squirrelling herself away to a quiet place where she could find the solitude she so craved. Since @Warwick and the other favoured siblings had dispersed to trail Northward, her watch over the Queen's newest brood had lessened. They would continue to roam, no doubt, but the shadow was young and without experience - she believed they'd be safe(er) simply with Edith far beyond the forest, and did not consider what other very real dangers might lurk within.

The opinions of Rohesia and Melrose, still, were unknown to her.

So she sought her freedom beyond Elkshire's claim, picking her way farther than ever before. She'd never been a girl to venture too far beyond her home, having never known anything beyond the woods she'd been born into and their surrounding hunting grounds, but Maral had been inspired by Warwick's adventure. She made her way to the Eastern edge of the range and beyond, following the base of the mountains until she felt her legs tire. Maral stopped to rest for a short time, seeking shade that might relieve her from the heat of a Summertime sun.

Dark eyes spotted a familiar frame, lean and sleek, and at once Maral recognised her dam. She observed her pass by and, curious, finally gathered herself to follow at a distance. Célnes disappeared among a strange forest up ahead and the shadow quickened her stride, keen to see whatever it was that drew the Queen away from her babes and territory this time.


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The caches were rotted and empty, nothing fresh to be laid and her inspection to see anyone recent or alive lacked ; complete vanishment from the disappearing pack. There was quite a few individuals she met, and even wondered where did the lackadasical @Poseidon swim to? Though wouldn't admit openly she enjoyed his more freshening presence that led the more political, and sinister Queen feel a bit like a little girl again, one that hadn't sinned, just yet.

As she sniffed the ground for any traits of the firebrand woman, her nose twitched and turned to see a lurking daughter! And she smiled, "It seems our neighbors are gone." A disband or a movement she wondered though.

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When at last her mother noticed her lurking at the rear, Maral paused. She lifted her dark eyes to look upon he Queen, to seek her sharp features and search for any sign that she might be displeased at having been pursued. Instead, the shadow found a smile bloom on her lips, and she prowled forward to close the distance between them.

Their last encounter had not gone so well, and some wariness remained on Maral's part. She moved with subtle hesitation, not quite allowing herself near enough to her dam to be touched, though she was receptive to her companionship. “Who were they?” Maral questioned, testing the lower reaches of a tree trunk to find the stale scent of wolf urine. A pack had failed to refresh their claim there, and the yearling curled her lip slightly; she didn't feel particularly comfortable to be there, among trees that belonged to ghosts.


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"The Pantheon, no one important," Celnes was swift to say, feeling her more dark smile curling to her face. She would deem them as so until otherwise, a distaste about them in both of jealousy and scorn to say the least, and an overall dislike to the golden Goddess who laid claim, "they claimed to be Gods." Which brought a mockery of a laugh, when thinking of the woman who told her of this news and thought of the foolishness that they were.

Meek for one and the other more Kingly but she felt not holy appearance by any. Unknowingly the Queen interacted with another, but did not know at the time they joined The Pantheon, and never saw again. When she thought of though interacted with quite a few of them, and all held a bit of an interesting twist. Though the recent few months, they remained secretive within this forest.

"They held a weak ruling."

She followed the nose and lightly scented that of the mark. There, but weakened, a diligent way they kept continuing their borders for some reason, and the oh-so desire that Celnes wanted against them. A war, a claim, a brawl ; but far too busy with other situations that it never came to be, and in the end, did not. Stale, gone.. Left in the mud.

Nothing else to be noted besides their departure.

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The Pantheon, she said. Maral cocked a velvet ear in her mother's direction to acknowledge her response, and was intrigued to hear that they claimed to be Gods. The shadow huffed a breath of laughter through her teeth, one of amusement and disgust, for she could never trust any mortal wolf who compared themselves to a higher power. She found herself thinking no sensible creature could believe such nonsense, that the only followers they could accumulate were those who'd been brainwashed into believing their leaders were something they were not.

What had driven them from such a forest, however? Her dam observed that their ruling had been poor, weak, and Maral rather cruelly fancied that they'd been forced to disperse. By the Nightwalkers, she came to assume. Her donor father ruled that particular band of rogues, she recalled, and going by Edith's attitude upon return she felt safe in the belief that they were feral. The yearling frowned deeply; she had zero interest in learning the Nightwalker ways and no desire to know the beast who'd sired her.

Maral moved on, padding along at the matriarch's flank as they trailed deeper into Winterheart territory. She maintained careful watch between the foliage as her dam nosed at old scent markers, mahogany eyes searching for movement should there be any stragglers hoping to hold their claim.


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"I came to know of that by a woman named @Minthe.. She joined us, for but a short moment, and disappeared later on. Her tracks pointed toward this forest, but was lost by the rain." She peered in a den, one within a ground that looked to be an old burrow, but the remains of what seemed to be a wolfs, or one that was once used. Perhaps one of their own? But not one that smelled familiar or knew, much less of overall the red godly-woman that Celnes spoke of.

"Remus was tasked to scout to see whether she was here, but nothing came from it." A shame for the Queen enjoyed her, and hoped she would return. Her attitude was much to enjoy and to talk of the scorn of another? What a delight. But now they dwelved into the forest, there was still, no signs of her.

Not even the abandoned dens.

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Her mother spoke of a she-wolf who'd come to join Elkshire very briefly, before venturing off without a word in the direction of this particular forest. Maral scrunched her nose, resisting the urge to curl her upper lip in disgust; it was unfair of her to judge, yet the tale made Minthe sound like nothing but a sponge. She'd probably leeched from Elkshire's resources before abandoning them. The shadow sighed through her nose, made mildly frustrated by the information, enough for it to spur some qiet satisfaction that The Pantheon had dispersed.

“Good riddance, then,” she said out loud. Maral had thought the same on learning of Edith and Calhoun's disappearance, then later of Vermillion's after the hurt had shifted to anger. Those who sought allegiance elsewhere could never belong to Elkshire, not truly, nor were they deserving of the High Elk's guidance. Maral curiously poked her nose into the empty hollow where the Queen had investigated, before she withdrew to follow her.

The mention of Remus, the old guard, made Maral wonder where he'd gone off to. She recalled her mother mentioning how he'd be escorting her sister to whatever pack she'd deserted them for, somewhere in the plains, but she hadn't caught even a sniff of him since. Silent, the yearling considered his whereabouts - did he remain with Vermillion still, perhaps, despite Elkshire's need of him?


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"She was interesting wolf, a true shame she simply.. Disappeared. Even now." Although Maral said of good riddance, Celnes always thought there was something more to it. She seemed thankful to be welcomed in Elkshire, only to disappear without a word, and never seen again? Then to the point where Remus entered their realm, simply to not even be approached? Everything that was about the Pantheon was suspicious, to the way they acted, to the godhood, and now finally, their disappearance altogether. If she tried to smell, none were around as far as she could tell ; no one that the Queen could pick up for Elkshire.

"But it seems they're all gone." A final look around that delivered a silence. To the caches that rotted, to the stale scents of what was once a border.. She couldn't even tell when they were gone, it was neither recent or too late.

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Truthfully, Maral found little interest in anyone of her own species, so she was not convinced when her mother described the she-wolf who'd dwelled briefly among their forest as such. She did not pause to consider what it was that apparently made her so, nor did she care to ask. The shadow simply carried on with her prowling, and fell silent once more.

She agreed that the territory seemed entirely vacated by the wolves who'd once made their home there, and something about that discovery pleased the tainted youth. Maral veered to the side, sweeping her flank along the rugged bark of a tall evergreen, spurred suddenly to deliver her own mark. The land wasn't hers and she had no desire to claim it, but occasionally Maral's dark streak would surface. She squatted to urinate, then moved on - past her dam and deeper into the woods to carry on her explorations. 


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