With the calamity seeming to finally be letting up Torin knew they would be moving back to their old home soon enough, but first he wanted to check up on their sister pack. He hadn't had much time to worry about them with the sudden evacuation and his children to worry about. But now that things had started to calm down he had the room to allow new worries creep in. So that was what had driven him to Valhalla's borders, his daughter Lili close on his heels, for once actually listening to him when he'd told her not to run off. His children would be a year old soon and as such Lili had much she had to learn as his heir. Though Torin suspected her good behaviour had more to do with finally being allowed off the island rather than any actual understanding of her duties. "Now, stay here, we may be friendly with Valhalla but we can't just cross their borders. I'm going to call for their alpha, I want you to be on your best behaviour, you can answer any questions asked directly to you but other wise, you should listen and try to learn what you can." Torin said, settling onto his haunches and watching as he daughter came to rest beside him. "Am I clear?" He asked. Lili looked sullen but finally nodded: "Yes dad." Torin nodded and then tipped back his head to call for his cousin. Talk Think

Lili followed along behind her father, silent but otherwise buzzing with excitement. She couldn't wait to tell Lachlan all about getting to leave the island, or Aryn! She knew her sister had been chomping at the bit to leave and it had been her that their father had chosen to come with him. Of course she didn't really seem to grasp it had more to do with her position in Lirim than anything else. The gravity of who she was still hadn't quite sunk in for the near yearling, the idea of every succeeding her father one day seemed much too distant to actually mean anything. Her father was a constant, that she might ever need to step up to take over seemed impossible.

Still when they arrived at their destination she could feel the seriousness in her father's tone as he instructed her on what to do. The girl pouted for a moment, then nodded. "Yes dad." She said sullenly. Then composed herself and puffed out her chest as she settled onto her haunches beside the slate alpha. If this was serious then she'd take it seriously! Or at least as seriously as the girl could... which wasn't much yet. So she'd wait, visibly impatient for whoever it was that would show up to answer her father's call. The girl had pretty much already forgotten the festival the alpha had held, the excitement of the volcano the most recent event in her life she even bothered to try remembering.

"Speech"

Art by ulfeid3

Aurielle Adravendi

She was digging,, working to mix the soil beneath the ash with the ash that seemed to coat the land as far as the eye could see. She hoped to glean something from her effort, and the seeds that Paladin had provided. Peach pits, actually. The activity was a distraction. But a much more welcome one brought her head up, ash smudged fur sticking out in all directions. It was Torin, thank the gods. She abandoned the project, though Aelloshir took up the slack while Ayodele sat, pit in her nimble fingers while Aurielle bounded across the plains. She slowed as she came to the wall, padding along the inside before she came into sight, eyes searching the man and landing on his red daughter, visible relief on her features. “I’m so glad you’re alright, cousins…” She wanted to cling to the two wolves, to reassure herself that they were alright, but she retained her dignity, smiling wearily at them. “A right lovely pawful of trouble the world’s handed us, don’t you think?” It was hard to miss that she seemed thinner. The gloss was gone from her coat, smudged over with ash. She almost blended with the stuff, now. It was pointless to groom it from her coat when the stuff clung to it not a moment after she stepped into the open. She searched the faces of both wolves before asking, “Is everyone alright at your end, Torin?” Please don’t let any of his pups be hurt or… Please.” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

It wouldn't take too long for his cousin to appear, smudged and looking hagard but alive and Torin felt a wave of relief. The young woman too looked relieved to see him. That was to be expected he supposed, after all, the world had practically tried to kill them all and yet... they'd both survived. He couldn't help the harsh bark of laughter at his cousin's satement, he could see Lili looking at him quizzically. "That's an understatement."  He took a moment to note the way the calamity had taken a toll on his cousin. Torin grimaced a bit at the question but also gave a nod, maybe not the most convincing one though. "I took the pack further west to Emerald Island. Many of my members made it including all my children and mate, some made it later after seaching but some faces are still missing." He gated to admit that some of his own members had been left behind and he didn't mention leaving behind his own sister, father and one of the elderly members of the pack. Much as Kairi had said it was alright that didn't stop the guilt he felt. "I trust since you chose to stay you're managing your own pack fine?" He asked, though he noticed again how worse off she was looking. Talk Think

Aurielle Adravendi

Such words were never truer, and Aurielle nodded to Torin’s response, then slowly let her haunches lower to the ground as she listened intently to his brief account of the events that had transpired. Relief rushed through her as he reported that his mate and children were all accounted for, and she beamed a smile down at Lili. However sadness returned to her features as her eyes lifted back to Torin’s face and she blew out a sigh. “Most of us are accounted for. There are two that are missing for sure. Uncle Laisren, one of our experienced hunters—though he went missing before the eruption took place. And one of Gwenevere’s children, Geoffrey. So far, we don’t know if he’s alright. The rest of the pack was here in the lands, and we only felt the initial shockwaves and the occasional tremors in the Moorland. And the ash, of course. I don’t think anywhere in the whole span of Boreas or Auster have escaped that…” Her eyes swept the grey lands around them, and she hissed through her teeth. “We may have to begin trading with other packs for some things. More ways to preserve meat would be nice. And I worry that raiding may happen. We were bolstered by a large whale carcass through winter, but the prey is so malnourished that I don’t think they’d reproduced well. Any ideas?” Her eyes returned to her cousin’s as her ears perked, listening with hope to anything he might offer. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Torin nodded solemnly as his cousin spoke of her own missing members. "We'll keep an eye out for them." He said, glancing at his daughter who nodded enthusiastically. Still it was good to hear that they'd been mostly untouched by the calamity on their doorstep. The cold and ash seemed inescapable but at least the pack seemed to be surviving if not thriving. Torin listened as Aurielle spoke her worries and Torin couldn't help but agree. The lack of resources was part of what both kept him on the island and made him desperate to leave it. The island they sheltered on was hardly able to sustain such a pack during the best of times but the mainland was almost worse. Even spring hadn't brought about any new growth, no signs of life starting to spring back to bolster their spirits or help the rebuilding process. "I suspect you're right about trading." He said, though Lirim had little it could offer itself. "The only other thing I can think of is ranging further, perhaps even into Auster. It was far enough away there is a chance parts of the continent are richer in resources than Boreas." Not that he was keen on sending his wife so far away, but he had considered it. Talk Think

Aurielle Adravendi

Aurielle listened to her cousin as he spoke, nodding slightly as he spoke of ranging further. “Father was in Auster with Grandmother once. Back when he was a pup. Although that was actually the second time, now that I think of it… The first time he snuck off and was grounded for a whole season when his mother got him back. A native rescued him from a wild boar.” Her ears tipped southward in thought, and she pondered aloud, “I’ve heard that the Abraxas reside in Auster. They haven’t been of much threat in a while, but we can’t grow too complacent. I recently had council with a recent alpha named Pegasus Beaufort, and he was on a sort of war path against them… apparently, they took his father prisoner. I’m wary of going beyond the Bifrost, to be honest…” Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Pegasus since the Festival. Had there been a major battle? Or had the volcano wiped them out? Her gut churned at the thought. Pegasus had seemed a good man, and his death would be a loss to the world. Her eyes lifted to Torin’s as she added, “How are your supplies?” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Torin couldn't help a slight smile at the idea of his giant red uncle getting chased around by a boar, though he supposed Regulus must have been younger than, probably not really all that big at the time. But he felt his heart sink as his cousin spoke of Pegasus and his pack. He nodded as she spoke of the young man. "Pegasus used to be one of my members before he went on to found Olympia, he was very close with one of my nephews. I was worried about both of them but when I went to check on them, they were very close the volcano... but when I got there I couldn't find a trace of them. I don't know if they fled somewhere and set up there but someone else was occupying their lands when I got there. As for the Abraxas, I am warry of them but they surely can't be in all places of Auster at once. If I had warriors to spare I'd take a foray into the continent and avoid their packlands. If you'd be willing to spare any I'd be more than happy to go on a foraging run beyond the land bridge." His cousin asked after his stores and Torin shook his head and sighed. "The island we settled on is too small to sustain us for much longer but the packlands are taking too long to recover for me to feel comfortable leading my pack back into them..." Truth was he was stuck between a rock and a hard place, many of his members, including himself were getting antsy, they wanted to return to their home and get off the cramped island but he wasn't certain he could guarantee their safety if they did so. Talk Think

Aurielle Adravendi

Torin proved to be a surprising source of information about the Olympian alpha, and she listened with interest, and not a little worry as her mind went to how violent the blast from Volkan must have been in the east and south. As he went on to speak of forays, she gave a soft, wry laugh. “I’m afraid I have few adult warriors, and our youngest wolves… never got the mentors they truly needed to thrive. Valhalla is dormant. We scrape by but we do not flourish. Not yet.” It was a rare admittance to those who weren’t directly witness to the troubles and the near-dormancy of the pack. But Torin was her cousin. She considered his words then suggested slowly, “The Dancefloor may be able to house Lirim for a time. It was one of my options if Valhalla had to flee westward from the eruption.” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think