Keahi had been out gathering information for the Armada when Menagerie had fallen. Word had not reached her ears until the moment the red wolf’s paws step back into her pack’s lands. The news causes sadness, worry, fear, and grief to roll through her and, the fact that Wren had gone missing, only deepens her worry. They say there was blood and signs of a struggle which has the red woman pondering who could have done such a thing.

Only having just returned to the Armada, Keahi is faced with multiple choices. Part of her wants to go find Mercury and share in his grief and another part wants to go and find Wren. However, it has been three days since Wren disappeared and she wonders if she is already too late to help. Indecision wars inside the red woman but, luckily, a bird helps to make the decision for her.

Solar, Mercury’s cormorant companion appears through the trees of the forest that the Armada holds, swooping down to Keahi and relaying how Mercury is doing. Armed with this new information, the red wolf quickly returns to the col to gather supplies, hastily stuffing food, water, healing supplies, and bandages into an old leather bag she found. Throwing the bag over her shoulder, she nods to Solar to lead the way and the pair race away.

Red paws thunder over the ground as she chases after the cormorant, nimbly leaping over roots and anything that stands in her way. They fly with the speed of worried friends, racing against the wind as they go. When her paws touch the land of the sparse pines, a former land of Menagerie, the scent of blood hits her nostrils and it feels as if like someone has slapped her across the face. Keahi knows whose blood lingers on the breeze and, while it is not a lot, her worry only doubles.

Leaping over a rock, ocean blue eyes spy bloody paw prints marring the landscape and Keahi curses to herself. Legs churn and soon, a lone figure appears on the horizon. As soon as she is within earshot, the red woman shouts, “Mercury!” Pain, sadness, and worry lace the word and she pushes her body to go a little faster. Soon she is nearing him and all she wants to do is envelope the tall man in a hug.

He walks away from her and she traces the lines of exhaustion in his frame, the weary way his body sags slightly with each step and she calls out once more, “Mercury?” Tears sting her eyes, forcing Keahi to blink them back as she comes up alongside him. It hurts to see him so lost, so broken but the red woman knows that she will take care him… even if he won’t let her.


"Keahi Mogotsi"

Mercury thoughts were an exhausted fog. For a while, his winged friend had flapped about his head, trying to get his attention. To get him to stop. He wasn’t entirely certain when her efforts had ceased. His sharp and clear grid pattern search had started to mender somewhere along the way. Had he walked this path already? His blurry eyes searched the floor, pawsteps in front of him. A spark of home in his chest, before he realised the marks matched his own pads perfectly. He blinked blurry eyes, squinting, and struggling to focus. Focus, focus. Wren was out there, waiting for him. She had to be. The alternative couldn’t exist.

He didn’t realise another wolf was with him, not until she was already alongside him. That, more than anything else, should have told him what a fool he was being. How could he find Wren, when he could see a wolf five steps behind him? He blinked, red-rimmed eyes turning to the wolf beside him. His eyes settled on Keahi for a long moment before he spoke. “...Keahi?”


"Speech"

Red paws pull Keahi up alongside the tall slate blue form of Mercury, her voice calling out to him uncertainly.  The fact that he did not register that she had called his name or that she was approaching him has worry bubbling up in her chest. He turns red-rimmed eyes to her and says her name but almost as if he isn’t sure she is real. A warm, troubled smile appears on her red lips as she nods her head, choking down the sob that threatens to break through.

Once she trusts her voice, Keahi softly says, “Oh, Mercury. It is time to stop. You need to rest and I need to look at your paws. Are you hungry?” Ocean blue eyes leap over his form, taking stock of any injuries he may have and the tight lines of worry and exhaustion that chord every muscle in his body. He looks so weak and, if it comes to it, the red woman is confident she can take him down and force him to rest.


"Keahi Mogotsi"

The weary and bone-sore wolf took some time to come back down to reality after his gruelling hunt for his missing partner. He didn’t want to stop, even for the short break it would take to talk to Keahi. A part of him insisted that he keep going. Stopping was the same as giving up, and he owed her more than that.

“I can’t… Keahi. What if she’s just over the next rise, bleeding out? If I find her too late… I’ll never forgive myself” he said, grimacing at the vivid image that came too easily to him. He remembered the time she had been attacked by a bear. Finding her and thinking… It was like that all over again, but so much worse. There was no relief. No ‘oh, there you are. Everything’s okay now” all he had was assumptions, guesses. Nothing but empty air in his paws.


"Speech"

It is easy to keep pace with Mercury since his jerky, wobbly gait makes him slow and Keahi easily stays in step beside him. When he speaks, the red woman can hear the exhaustion lingering on every syllable and it physically hurts her heart to see this titan brought low but some unknown entity. Right then and there, the tropical wolf makes a silent vow that, if whatever dragged Wren away ever shows its face again, she will personally make sure its last few hours are hell on earth.

But vengeance will not do either of them any good right now so Keahi instead focuses her attention on the hurt and drained Mercury. When she had been tracking him, the red wolf had tried to find Wren’s scent lingering on fringes of the breeze but all she had found is the missing wolf’s mate and his blood. The once alpha’s trail has gone colder than Mercury’s now empty den and the search that he is wages on his own is as futile as it is exhausting.

Thoughts swirl around in her mind as she watches him, biting back a scoff at his question about her bleeding out. Sorrow lingers in her gaze as Keahi turns her blue eyes upward, trying to catch his red-rimmed gaze. Her voice is softer this time as she implores him, “Mercury, please. Stop. There is no more trail. She… she isn’t here or over the next rise. But, judging by the dried bloody paw prints, you have already searched them.”

Wren may be gone and Keahi’s chance to help her sister taken from her on that the cold night but she will be damned if she allows her friend to hurt himself any further on a hopeless task. Taking a deep breath, the red woman moves into his path, turning to block his forward progression and force him to look at her. Determination blazes in her eyes as she says, “You need to rest Mercury. Let me tend to your paws. You won’t do Wren any good in your current state.”

It is a low blow but she hopes that the stubborn, injured wolf will take heed and stop. If not, Keahi will continue to block his path until he sees reason… or knock him out cold and tend to him then. Honestly, now that she is standing in front of the stormy man, it looks as if a strong gust would knock him right off his paws. Damn it all to hell.


"Keahi Mogotsi"

He finally paused, and the expression he shot Keahi was a mixture of frustration and helplessness. Keahi had called Wren a friend, too. In fact, he was sure he’d heard her call the other wolf her sister. Now she was counciling him to give up? To let her go? He didn’t think too hard on the state he was in, or the countless hours he had spent searching every inch of the territory for her. The days immediately after a disappearance were the most crucial. Every second that passed meant more clues would fade, the trail growing colder.

There was an alien urge inside of him to snap at Keahi, and his face twisted with the desire to say something sharp and painful. As painful as the feelings squeezing his heart until he couldn’t breath. But in the end, even this Merc. This injured, hurting wolf he was couldn’t do it. He let the words fade into a breath insead. Keahi was right, if he collapsed that would slow down his progress even more. He wasn’t willing to give her up, not yet. But a respite would be… tolerable. “Alright… alright. But I can’t stop long” He said at last.


"Speech"