It had been quite a while since she'd been out this way, and a good season or so since she'd seen Bass. Last time she'd seen the man was at the Festival, and she hadn't the chance to bid him farewell before the other packs returned home. She was going towards the battlefield to see if anyone might be looking for a pack, but decided to make a detour and stop by Abaven first before going on her way. The large femme seemed to gallop across the lands, fur brushed by the wind as she ran. It felt good to go on a run, and she would take advantage of everything chance she got before she got too old to move properly. Summer was quickly approaching, and with it she'd be seven years old. Seven years since she'd seen her family, but fate would give her back a lost brother and sister. For that, she was grateful. She would arrive near the territory where she'd first called for Bass, the lands unchanged. She came to a stop a few feet from the borders, pausing long enough to catch her breath before tilting her head and calling for him. She didn't have too much time to spare today, so if he wasn't able to show up then she'd have to try again later. "Speech"

He had been resting on the top of his den when the howl rang out, his ears twitching atop his head. He knew that caller, and quickly his head rose. That was Avalon! He hadn't seen her since the festival, and a lot had changed since then. Slowly he rose to his paws, stretching out his limbs before jumping out and heading towards the thicket. It didn't take him too long, nor was it very hard to spot the female sitting at his borders. She seemed slightly out of breath, and his head tilted to the side as he approached her. "Did you run all the way here just for me?" he asked with a chuckle. Placing himself in front of her, he curled his tail around him and dipped his head in greeting. He highly doubted that she had, but he was glad to see his friend. "Anyways, what brings you all the way down here?" Bass asked. It wasn't every day that he had another alpha visit.

"Speech" -- "Italian"

She'd been looking at her paws, chest heaving from her effort of running. But the moment she heard his voice, her ears perked and her tail began to wag as she looked up. "It's a possibility." She joked, something she'd finally caught on to. When he sat, she took it as a cue to sit too. Thank god! Her legs were tired from the run, and that was when she knew she was getting old. His question was answered easily enough, she simply wanted a visit with a good friend and to see how he was doing. Not that she assumed anything was wrong, but she had a lot she wanted to tell him and maybe catch up on. "I thought I'd swing by and say hello, see how you're doing. Maybe even talk each others ears off!" She chuckled, amber gaze warm as her tail thumped lightly on the ground. "How've you been?"

At least this time she understood that he was joking, last time it had gone right over her head. He chuckled in response as he sat down in front of her, waiting to see what had brought her here today. Apparently she was just stopping by to chat, and he hoped that she hadn't left the north just to talk to him. His ears flickered at her next words, but it was like he hadn't heard him. Was his mood so bad lately that everyone noticed? But no, he hadn't even seen Avalon since her festival. Snapping out of it, he blinked slowly at her when he asked how he had been. Well, that was a pretty loaded question at the moment. Bass shifted, letting out a sigh and redirecting her question with another question. "Have you felt the pull between being an alpha and being a mother?" He asked, his tail curling around his sides. "I feel like my attention has been constantly split between my kids and Abaven, and with their mother not being around... I don't know. I almost feel like I failed them in some way. Lark says that I haven't, but it's really hard to shake the feeling," Bass knew that it was a pretty heavy topic, but for some reason, Avalon was really easy to talk to. Shrugging his shoulders, he inspected her face with his golden eyes. Could she see how tired and old he felt? That was what he felt like any time anyone looked at him, was that they couldn't see past the tired old man. That he just needed to figure out his way, and what he was going to do with his pack. Offering the tan marked woman a soft smile, he laughed a bit. "Sorry, it's probably a lot more heavy stuff than you came here looking for."

"Speech" -- "Italian"

Her head tilted at the reaction she got from him. Did she ask the wrong thing? Maybe a question as innocent as that had uncovered something far more problematic then she intended, and when he asked her about feeling a pull between mother and alpha, her brows furrowed. She didn't feel like she did...and if it was already happening, then perhaps she didn't notice. She hadn't spent as much time with her older kids for some time, but since their most recent meeting, she had made the effort to do so. She'd slowly shake her head, she hadn't quite...felt that just yet.

She listened to what he had to say, realizing that her question did indeed open something up that she hadn't expected. As he spoke, she studied him. Noting that he looked more tired and stressed then the first couple of times she'd seen him. She frowned, wishing there was something she could do for the male. After all, he was the first one that she felt comfortable with, even more so then Valentine and Arian. Which for her, she thought it a miracle to find someone she was so comfortable with, especially an Alpha at that. The woman would reach out and touch his shoulder with her nose, an attempt at trying to comfort him. She didn't know that the mother of his children was out of the picture, just like the father of her first litter was out of hers. "Don't be sorry for speaking what's on your mind, Bass."

"You've been an alpha for so long, there's the chance that subconsciously, it's simply a habit." That was a possibility, right? She felt that if she had a pack for as long as he did and then had a family, she probably wouldn't realize she was giving more time to one over the other. "You've done a great job with your pack. And I am sure that Lark is right. You look tired." She eyed him, as if to inspect him closer. "And I know tired when I see it. It's also something I've been familiar with for a long time." She sat back and thought for a moment. Perhaps what he needed was a break, or maybe some help. But what could she do? She was the alphess of a completely different pack. But surely he had some close friends or family that might be able to help him? "I don't know if it'll help, but why not assign someone to help you with the pack? Even a little help will go a long way. It might help take some of the weight off your shoulders."

His ears pinned back further when she shook her head, apparently she hadn’t run into that with her kids just yet. Bass was sure that he wasn’t the only one to feel like this, but he was mildly disappointed that he couldn’t share those thoughts with his friend. He was surprised when her nose brushed against his side, but he was grateful for her trying to offer him some comfort. When she spoke, a small smile returned to his lips. He wasn’t expecting to hear such wise words from her on a subject that she knew very little about. Perhaps she knew more than he was giving her credit for, though. He had had Abaven before he started his family, so maybe he just kept going on like normal and not even realizing that his children suffered for it. Would Wren have stayed if they had just been loners, without the invisible walls of a pack border around her? He came back to the current conversation and chuckled at the tired comment. "I think all parents know the signs of tired very well," he said with a slight wag of his tail. A parent who wasn’t tired was a myth, and they were lying to themselves.

She mentioned someone helping out with the pack and he nodded his head, it was what he had been trying to decide for so long. "I’ve been talking to my kids about it, I want to train someone in anyways before I retire. But it’s just picking the right wolf. Abaven is not something that I want to force on anyone, it’s not meant to be a burden," Lark had been his first pick, but he just wasn’t ready yet. It was okay though, like he said he wasn’t going to force someone to take the pack and make them unhappy. It had to be a willing wolf and someone that he trusted with his life’s work. ”I won’t just pick a random wolf and toss them into a rushing river. There is a big learning curve with being an alpha, as I’m sure you know. I pretty much just took it all as it came at me, and I made many mistakes. I don’t want that to happen again, and it would be like a testing phase of sorts. See if they really want to be an alpha," Perhaps he had been young and foolish, but they all had in some point. It was a spur of the moment idea to have a pack to contain is wandering family, but it hadn’t quite worked up that way.

"Speech" -- "Italian"