how far do I have to go to get to you?

It was the very first mountain she came to. Of course it was. It was fate, wasn't it?

Alya stood in the foothills and gazed up toward the summit, remembering a different time, a different place, a different mountain. These things felt so very far away from her, but they were a part of her, too. They could no more be taken from her than the color from her eyes, and standing there so close to home, Alya felt her birthright settle upon her like a king's cloak around her shoulders. This was her mountain, her people.

Alya tipped back her head and howled for her family — for @Hydra and @Lyra most importantly of all.

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Rex will prolly dip when Hydra gets here! <3

---

Rex halted, lifted his head, and cast a look across his shoulders toward the nearby call. His squat ears rose, and his brow knit. A summons for Hydra? To his understanding, Empyrean had yet to commit to any alliances, nor was he aware of any other groups in the area. But this song was familiar in a way that made his skin prickle, and his tail crick with a trace of confusion. Rex swung around and shot off at a decisive clip toward the borders. 

He carried himself neutrally as he approached, but his authority—owed to his newfound kinship with those who dwelled upon the Nameless Mountain—was maintained with a militant grace. But the sight of Alya, a perfect mirror of Hydra, brought him pause. Was this some trick? A test from the reigning queen? Rex's honey-brown eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the she-wolf, and the situation. The sincerity in her clarion call suggested this was certainly not Hydra, but she had not mentioned a twin... 

"I would say that you're making a bold play, calling for a leader on her borders," he remarked with a flick of his ear. His expression relaxed a touch. "But I would be made a fool in kind for turning away her family."
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Alya. 

Hydra had known she was somewhere in this place, and day in and day out had searched. For family, yes, but undoubtedly for the missing portion of herself most of all. It was strange enough to awake in this strange place without her, and yet when the day had come that Hydra could once more feel her twin she had managed to settle... some. Alya was a woman who embraced adventure and traveling most of all, but she knew that—like herself—her mirror image would not rest until they were united again. 

Her howl was answered with Hydra's own joyous cry, and then she was off. Alya! 

Here, now, and with that this place could be home again, truly, she and @Lyra together once more. A familiar voice, but Hydra did not slow as she broke through the treeline and bounded with a pantherians predatory spring toward part of what made her whole. With a companionable, appreciative nip toward Rex (not missing for a moment his presence and willingness to protect what was theirs), she still did not miss a beat in her step as she ran. 

Alya! She did not speak, but no doubt her sister would feel then her boundless joy—perhaps already had, from the moment Hydra had heard her call she had felt it within her. Her sister was, like herself, a guardian, utilizing her teeth and her tongue as weapons both. Seeing and sensing no hurts upon her sister, which she was quick to assess, the matriarch moved to embrace her sister in a full-bodied welcom; there was no doubt as to Alya's own place here.

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The road has been long and confusing. Alya has been made up of missing pieces and empty spaces for what feels like a silent lifetime. The loneliness of it has built and built behind her cool, calm façade, until she can hardly bear the pressure of pretending everything is alright.

So she does not appreciate the presence of a stranger on her boarders. Not even one that smells like family — not when she was so close to breaking apart. Alya manages a quiet glower but nothing more. If she opens her mouth, she will lunge or she will cry, and neither action is appropriate if this really is one of her wolves. Glowering isn't, either, but she can hardly make herself friendly at a time like this.

Thankfully, Hydra arrives to rescue them both, silent and dark as the reaper, and Alya does feel her soul leave her body; it never belonged there, anyway. It belonged here, with her, all this time.

They embrace, and the still-standing world begins to move again. Alya hides her face in her sister's dark fur, holding her breath when she knows they will come out loud and choked. But no doubt Hydra can feel her shuddering — that is fine. She only hopes that the stranger will miss it.

Finally, a whine slips through her tightly-clenched teeth.

"I've missed you," she breathes, her voice hardly audible at all. But her tears have dried and she's wrestled down the worst of her emotions, so she pulls back to look her queen over. Hydra is too beautiful for words, and Alya has never felt so in love as she does in that moment. "But I could feel you, here, guiding me. I woke up and knew to come."

Her dark gaze turns on the stranger. She is more welcoming, now, her friendly façade easier to slip on now that her heart has been repaired. "Who is this?" she asks, addressing them both. Hydra will know what she wants: to be introduced like the royalty that she is.

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Hydra feels everything, she believes. Mentally, physically. The turmoil and its end, the hope realized—the relief, oh, the relief... and it is because she feels it, too, so deeply, that she believes it—no, knows it. Hydra stood strong, embracing Alya, lending her strength and her iron will and all else that she could. “You are home now,” she soothes, pressing against her mirror image to both inspect the new scents upon her and provide once more the security of their shared one, all of it again. I've missed you, Hydra thinks even as Alya says it. 

Hydra felt her sister move, and adjusted herself to look upon her twin. It was not vanity that compelled her thoughts—or was it?—as she regarded Alya, who had always been radiant to Hydra—indeed, there was not a star in the sky as dazzling to the matriarch as her sisters. The best of them, she believed, and were there to be a pretty twin... well, surely it would be Alya! Her own adoration would be plain to her sister, who the matriarch only had eyes for... it had been so long, too long!, and “I knew that you would,” Hydra breathed, the ghost of a smile upon her features, “I knew you were coming to me. To us,” her tail waved slowly behind her, eyes bright and spirits high. Hydra had patrolled high and low with that in mind, even beyond—but it was all for naught, until today. Better now than never, she knew.

She had been about to ask about all that Alya had discovered in the meantime; she had nearly forgotten that Rex lingered until her sisters eyes turned to him. Hydra looked to him, too, then. “This is Rex; he is new to us, but no less important for it,” Hydra introduced, stepping now to come alongside her sister so as to walk toward him with her, and into their door. He was a handsome fellow, their Rex... and she regarded him with a sisters eye rather than a Queens for a moment, though was discreet about it. “Rex, this is my dearest sister, Alya,” she revealed, as though that were a question at all. 

A strong, handsome man who could keep her sister safe... and fight with them, too... idyllic little thoughts that she gave little credence to, then and there, unless Alya's own interest became suddenly apparent. From a guardians standpoint, Rex, to the matriarch, was a good catch.

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Rex stood, full-bodied, and impeccably steadfast despite the scowl and accompanying tempest brewing in the woman's cerulean gaze—so implausibly like Hydra's own. The soldier is far too duty-bound to leave her here alone, even with Hydra's immediate answer, and the logician in him does not take offense to her chilly reception. She does not move, so neither does he, until his right ear swivels to heed the approaching queen. Even still, he barely has a second to even register the streak of black bearing down on them, but his skin does feel the aftershocks of the grateful nip as she bounds past and draws her mirror image into a fond embrace.

A warmth blooms in his heart at the sight, but it kindles a strange ache in kind. The sensation is altogether perplexing, but Rex maintains the presence of mind to turn his gaze away and focus his attention elsewhere, granting the siblings the privacy they were owed in such an emotionally vulnerable moment. He thought perhaps it best he leave, but he hadn't been granted permission to do so. Hydra might need him to take over a patrol, or alert other members of the Ostrega clan that another of their own had returned to them. 

The weight of their combined attention brought his own to the forefront again. Rex straightened promptly, and splayed both ears to the side out of respect for both the reigning queen, and her mirrored shadow. And it was this twin who spoke first, in a voice not dissimilar to Hydra's, but different in a way. An echo of similarity that he knew he would easily mistake in the coming months. New, but no less important. Hell, he rather liked that, but the spark of pride in his gaze was decidedly concealed as not to give either woman the wrong impression. 

"It is an honor, Alya," he answered, his cadence and tone unmistakably proper, but warmed considerably when he added (with a small smile): "Welcome home."
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For once, there were no thoughts of romance on Alya's mind, but she, too, smiled warmly at the man as he was introduced. Sometimes it was necessary to advertise her elevated position to the more common folk, but in that moment, she was all too grateful to be amongst friends once more.

“Pleased to meet you, Rex,” she said sincerely, and his handsome face had her trust quite immediately, and for no good reason other than that Hydra had introduced him to her. He reminded her of someone, she thought, but lent those distant memories little credence and quickly brushed them away. Still, she looked between them a little longer, looking wistful and glad and then quite energized, and on this last note, her gaze turned to their palace — the mountain.

“What do you call this place?” she asked them, her tone plain and wondering.

I'm so sorry for the wait! Still trying to get back into Alya <3

---

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Her sister, well-groomed and refined as ever, was polite in her greeting; Hydra could not help but step a centimeter nearer, and even this felt nowhere near close enough. Rex, too, was polite; how she did enjoy a gentleman! Her gaze turned toward Alya, her inquiry causing Hydra to look upward at the mountain before her. “The Nameless Mountain,” she responded, a little flatly; after all this time, she still could not conjure up a clever name. Perhaps Alya could, though, or perhaps... 

“I am sure another name might come along,” she considered aloud, head tilting as she licked her chops. But there was also something daunting about the simple name. It lacked creativity, sure—Hydra was not very imaginative when it came to naming conventions—but there was something ominous about it. A thing... without a name. 

But it was theirs all the same. 

And as far as this place, this pack... “I have come to call us Empyrean,” she drawled, tail swaying, gaze falling to Rex too as she spoke it. For all that had happened, their empire remained... and would grow. Hydra would continue to protect it, as she did even now. As Alya surely would. It was her duty, and even with the change, even when she longed for what was... well, the woman knew they stood to build something different, but no less great. Greater, perhaps. And Empyrean... It had a regal touch, which the royal-blooded girl appreciated as much as she did good-grooming and manners. Shifting to gently nose her sisters cheek (should it be permitted), she hummed, “would you like a tour?”

And, presuming such was accepted, Hydra turned on her heel to do just that, though not before regarding Rex. “You can come along, if you wish, or continue your patrol,” with a nod of her head—and then, departed.

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