It seemed to roll around quicker than she expected, the snow giving way to the grass of the plain as the sun sunk lower across the land. She had been busy, yes, but what was this anxious feeling that had been holding her back? Perhaps it was best to just cut the strings now, to send her bird to fetch her bother and break free without any long goodbyes?

How the landscape had changed. There used to be a pack here once, and now, it was just another plain. Their marks remained in the overgrown gardens and the dens in disrepair. How long would it be before all traces were removed. Life was far too short.

She tried to shake off her melancholy, bumping her shoulder to Dread's. "Yer know, sometimes I wonder if this band thing is worth it at all when we could just run away t'gether an' not 'ave ter worry about anyone else." Maybe, she wasn't responsible enough to be a leader.

"speech"

This place is... it's a ruin.  It turns to ash in his mouth.  The same place they'd staged during the raid on the Raiders, the day shit had hit the fan.  The Armada had called it home once.  It's why they'd chosen it as the safe place for their healers.  Halo knew it well.  Hell, she'd even taken him down here to collect herbs, what felt like a lifetime ago.  Dread wove between the trees, stride lazy, contemplative.  The ground here felt... almost weird.  Holy, but in a way he couldn't articulate.  He pushes the thoughts back.  

Her shoulder pushed against his, Dread reached down to pluck a white daisy from the ground.  Sticking it behind her ear with a cheeky sort of smile, he thinks for a moment about her words.  "What would you like to get out of leading a band?" It's an analytical question. The years of leadership had worn his father down-- he could only imagine what Sirius had been before. What he would have been, if he hadn't been run so ragged keeping the pack and his family together. Dread wouldn't dwell.

Really, he was trying to sort out what would make her happy. As long as they were happy everything else could come later.

Deluge grinned when he pushed a flower behind her ear, silly little gesture that it was, and it turned into a lazy contemplative smile as he asked her why. Nobody had really done that yet, though she hadn't really left the floor open for questions either. In her mind it was what needed to happen. She couldn't stay under her parent's rule, and she didn't expect Dread to strike out on his own since she was the one that practically ripped him from his family.

“Jus' ter know that I can,” She hadn't failed at anything she had put her mind to yet, why should this be her downfall? Her smile started to show more teeth, “an' I guess, it's easier ter raid with company.” It was a good question though, one that deserved a bit more clarity in her response. “But I like movin' around, meetin' new people. Seems like th' best way ter do tha'.” Make new friends, then raid them and rob them blind, what wasn't to like?

"speech"

The question makes her think, and Dread is glad for it. Giving her a chance to stew on it as they explore. Meandering closer to her, letting their shoulders brush as they walk. Her presence here would be what grounded him in this moment. The place shouldn't matter. It shouldn't make his sides ache the way it does. Hasn't Dread always been a sentimental bastard? Yeah. Maybe that tracks after all. The way he looks at Deluge tracks too, actually.

The pieces fall into place for Dread as she speaks. This is her getting out of her own way. Some questions lurked in his mind, his anxiety creeping in somewhere between his ears. No... why was he anxious about not being anxious? Dread finally felt free when travelling, like the weight had been shed. He didn't need to worry so much anymore. "I like it." Grin tugging at the corner of his lips. For once he was feeling... hopeful? Hopeful about things. "I think you'll make a good captain." He reaches over, bonking at her ears with his muzzle. Dread couldn't bite back the grin. "Just want you to be happy. Everything else is secondary." Tone surprisingly earnest, the words soft as he speak. Advice, but something more tender than that, too.

"Who're we raiding first then?" The grin doesn't falter. Looking for another way into her head, picking her brain.


"speech"

Who're we raiding first then? "Heh, why not the Raiders? It'll be good fer th' kids." Better than getting maimed by butthurt fuckers with a chip on their shoulder for sure. "Though if they're busy we might 'ave ter shop around. Who knows who'll be left standin' by th' time Scald gets free eh?" It was feeling more and more like her brother might have changed his mind. It only added to her own uncertainty about striking out on their own at all. "We'll leave Armada alone until yer tell me we're good ter go. Doesn't make much sense ter attack the pack with a market if we're gonna be tradin' on th' side..." Not shitting where you eat and all that. It'd be easier to have access to the markets... for commercial purposes.

"speech"

She wasn't wrong, uncertainty shifting to mirth in Dread's gaze. A little smile cracking his dark lips, flash of pale teeth beneath. "Wild that they're getting to be old enough already." His tone slips for a moment, far away. Thinking about his nieces and nephews back in the Armada, and how they'd be getting to raid soon too. Would they be among the next crop to come knocking on their door, when the time came? Stopping that train of thought in its tracks, Dread was suddenly rather glad they'd be heading out soon.

"We're best off staying on neutral terms with as many of the well connected packs as we can," Dread has more intimate a knowledge of the empire than most, though some things have changed. It's still the freshest information at their disposal, and it seemed their strength had yet to slip. "Maybe we can go looking at some of the smaller packs while we wait for Scald." A light suggestion. Advice from a boy who was trained as a diplomat. Something like that.

"speech"