Thalia still hadn't gone home, though the more time went on the more her concept of home blurred until she wasn't sure where it ended or began. She'd lived in Abaven for long enough now that it seemed as much home as her packlands far to the west, though admitting that out loud seemed taboo somehow. She was still here for a purpose and she still served Abraxas, above all else. That would never change. Still she struggled with what her next step was. Surely soon she should reconnect with Eligos and encourage him and Theory to work out the details of a more formal alliance. Surely the terms would be agreeable to them both; she had learned Theory was fair in her dealings with outside packs and she had no doubt she could convince her of the merits of working together to achieve a common goal. But until then, Thalia did her best to keep her mind occupied. Things were quiet as of late though, and though she appreciated that, part of her still wished for a task. She was built to serve her God and when she didn't know how to best serve Him she wasn't sure what else she could do. Making a gift for Theory seemed a viable alternative, at least until the dreary day passed them by. Rain seemed a probable threat for the later portion of the day, the skies shifting to a dull grey as the sun disappeared from view behind the clouds. Thalia had worked on gathering an assortment of things - a few small shells and items she'd found along the beach, along with some dried plant fiber that would serve as the base to the makeshift necklace she was brainstorming up. Being thoughtful in this manner wasn't really her forte, but she knew this sort of thing seemed to be well-received by most wolves, and she figured it was a nice gesture even if she failed terribly at it.

The trip to The Hallows had been hard on her frail body, but somehow the return trip home had been even harder. Finding out about her mother and father's deaths in one day on top of the lengthy trip to Auster wiped her out and for days all she could do was lay in her bed like she once had when she was incredibly ill. Today she was feeling slightly better, but only just enough to be able to walk out of the den and down toward the near by river before she had to sit again, every movement feeling difficult with her muscles and paws still sore from the trip. When she had pretty much no muscle to begin with suddenly putting herself through something with that much exertion pushed her to her limits. It had felt like it would be worth it when the left since it had been so, so long since she had seen her mother, but now she was gone and the trip was for nothing.

Once she had gotten a drink of water and rested for a bit with her paws in the cold, flowing river she made herself get up again and keep moving slowly across the plains. Her gaze eventually found another woman as she went, but it wasn't someone she recognized. That wasn't all that surprising given the fact that she knew little to no one outside of her siblings. Everyone was a stranger to her with the time she spent bound to the den so she had no clue if this wolf was friend or foe, family or complete stranger. She curiously moved toward the earthen toned woman, spotting the materials she had with her which drew her curiosity even more. "Hello," she said sweetly as she drew closer, giving her a smile. "I'm Azzurra... Are you making something? Do you want some help?" she asked hopefully, even if it was just an excuse to have someone to sit with while she rested again.

"Azzurra"

Finally she settled down once she was sure she had everything she needed. She wasn't totally confident she could even construct the sort of gift she was envisioning for Theory, but she'd give it her best effort regardless. She slid to her belly and laid out the materials she'd gathered, wrapped up in a strip of hide. Thalia had no clue what she was doing and she paused as she sunk into deep thought, eyes drifting from the dried plant fiber and back to the adornments she'd gathered that might prove useful. Lost in thought, she barely noticed someone approaching until the yearling was upon her, and she looked a bit confused when she finally lifted gaze to meet Azzura.

"Hello," she returned the greeting a little less warmly. It was rare for her voice to demonstrate much emotion at all, let alone warmth; since getting used to life in Abaven she had become a quite a bit more comfortable but she'd yet to lose her guarded edge. She was hardly standoffish though, nodding at the stranger's questions. "I'm Thalia. Sure, you can join me if you'd like. I'm not really sure what I'm doing," Thalia admitted carefully. Showing weakness was difficult for her, even when it came to something as unimportant as making a gift like this, but the prospect of help was nice too. "I'm trying to make a necklace for Theory. I have this twine here--" She lifted a paw to gesture toward the length of the dried plant fiber. "And some shells and bits of leather, and uh..." There was an assortment of things she'd collected but she doubt most would really work, now that she thought about it more. Instead of finishing her sentence she gave a little shrug, glancing toward Azzurra hopefully.

Azzurra grinned gratefully as she settled back onto her haunches once Thalia introduced herself and agreed she could join her. She lowered herself down to the ground with a soft, relieved sigh. Her legs were achey and she knew she'd need to go back to the den soon before she was too tired and would have to get Balthier to help her back, but for now she could lay down and relax while she examined the supplies and odds and ends that were spread out between them. Her ears perked with curiosity as she heard that this was things that were meant to be made into a necklace for Theory. She knew that Theory led the pack and she knew that she was a relative to her of some sort, but she wasn't sure that she had actually met her at any point. If she had she couldn't remember. But even still, the idea of making a necklace was exciting and it made her small nub of a tail wag while her sapphire gaze showed her interest.

She looked through the various things from the twine to the shells to the bits of leather as they were pointed out to her, humming thoughtfully as she reached over to turn over one of the shells to look at it more closely. She did have a good amount of the twine here and it reminded her of some of the things her father would give her to keep her occupied when she wasn't quite well enough to leave the den, but she was well enough to think clearly and wanted a task to do. Dainty paws lifted the twine, unrolling it to see how much there was. "I know how to make a pretty braid from this kind of stuff," she suggested. "Dad would give it to me to make ropes out of, but I never wanted to make ropes - I wanted to make braids and bracelets." Her smile grew a little sad for a moment before she tried to brush the thought away, quickly adding, "I think we could probably weave some of the other things into it too. Like a thin strip of leather down the middle or maybe some of the shells."

"Azzurra"

Though her mind was busy, finding physical goals to work toward helped briefly distract her thoughts. And right now at least she had something to do, even if that something was a relatively small and mundane task - it was still better than doing nothing, at least in her mind. She stretched out her forepaws at Azzurra helped look over her supplies, hopeful for the prospect of some real help. Making a gift that fell apart immediately was hardly better than no gift at all; she wanted to make something a little longer-lasting. Something Theory could remember her by even when she wasn't around. The thought didn't settle well with her but she knew she had to be realistic; the future was unknown and she knew her God worked in ways that she couldn't pretend to comprehend, so she couldn't pretend to know what the future held for either of them.

Thalia watched as Azzurra examined her materials more closely. She explained she knew how to make braids and Thalia's ears perked slightly with interest. "I noticed some of the shells had holes in them. Maybe we could use them to weave the twine through?" She added after a moment of thought. This was so far out of her realm of expertise that she honestly felt at a loss but she was grateful Azzurra was willing to help her, and she'd take advantage of her help as much as she could. "Could you show me how to braid it, then?" Asking for help wasn't something she was good at nut Azzurra's interest made it somehow feel easier. She'd shift so she was sitting a little closer to the other woman, brows furrowed as she focused on the task at hand.

Azzurra smiled when Thalia accepted her idea so readily, mentioning the shells that already had holes in them so they could thread the twine through them. She nodded in agreement and was already beginning to fully unwind the twine to start the braid when she asked to be shown how to do it. "Sure! It's pretty easy." She guessed at how much twine they would need for the length of the necklace, laying out three pieces next to each other before pausing and deciding to lay out three more since there was plenty of the material to work with. "We can double up the braid so it's nice and thick,"

She laid the strands so that there was three pairs of two and then started weaving the pairs in and out of each other. "So you have this one in the middle and then you take the one on the right and bring it over the middle and then you do the same with the one on the left and you just keep doing that over and over all the way to the end," she explained, slowly demonstrating what she was doing before handing it over to Thalia to try while she started looking through some of the shells to find the ones with holes she had mentioned before. "Whenever you get to a spot where you want to add some shells we can just slide one onto one of the strands!"

"Azzurra"