Aurielle Adravendi

She padded slowly through the packlands, fresh off a patrol and a conversation with Paladin, who had returned with news about Cairo. It wasn’t the most ideal situation, but she agreed with the healer’s assessment that it was as good a solution as could be settled upon. It would only be a couple weeks, at most three, he’d wagered, that Cairo would be hale enough to handle a journey home via travois or two-wolf stretcher. She would have to speak with the Nomads—they were due to visit any day now, come to think of it. The Nomads had a vested interest in her and her own, and would be giving her a good, thorough check-over while they were visiting. As it had been for generations. As it had been, for Redwood. If she were a more cynical creature, she might have considered whether Sirius had pushed Cairo off the mountain, in order to have some sort of leverage over Valhalla, but she doubted it. Paladin was a good read of character, as was she. If anything, Malalia would not allow anything to befall the Valhallan man while he was there. She caught scent of Justice and deviated from her path, tracking the older woman. She knew her beta-ranked pack-mate was getting antsy and constricted by her high rank. While Cairo would be set back by his injuries, and subsequent reconditioning once he was healed enough to work himself back into shape, she was sure he would be ready to rise a lot sooner than he himself seemed to think. He’d guessed four. She was pretty sure he’d hit at least Dauntless by three, if he pushed himself hard enough. “Justice?” She called out as she spotted the older wolf ahead. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Justice had just finished a rolicking bunny hunt and was heading back, tired and satisfied, through pack lands with a pair of extra hares dangling by their ears from her jaws when she heard Aurielle call out to her softly from behind. Justice paused, turning her head back with her brows arched inquiringly. Now that she'd seen her, she turned back completely and waited for the alpha to catch up, rocking back onto her haunches and dropping the hares at her paws. "What's up?" she asked in an informal tone, head tilting to one side as she regarded the younger alpha with lively curiosity.

Aurielle Adravendi

It seemed the Sentinel had been busy. Aurielle nodded at the hares as she sat as well, remarking, “Nice catches.” She stretched her shoulders and looked over the woman before she said, bluntly, “Cairo fell off of Fenrir’s Maw. Unfortunately, he’ll be laid up for a while, and Paladin had to leave him with the Armada until he’s well enough to travel home from there.” Her shoulders twitched in a shrug as she continued, “It’s not ideal, but he will be well cared for. He has a good friend there by the name of Malalia, and I trust her to let nothing ill become of him. I rather think they like each other. Just don’t realize in what way, yet.” A crooked grin flashed over her muzzle before the expression fell into a more serious one. Her eyes flicked back to the dark woman as she added, “I also wanted to touch bases with you about your assessment of our fighters so far. What have you found so far? I know Cairo sought you out for his spar? How’d he do?” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Justice shrugged modestly at Aurielle's compliment, though she was pleased. She was pleasantly full already from the rest of her catch, so even if she didn't think anything particularly amazing of hunting hares it was satisfying nonetheless. Her brows rose rapidly in concern though as Aurielle continued, then dropped again to furrow. "Yeah, definitely not ideal," she agreed, glancing in the general direction of the other pack with hackles half-raised. The idea of one of their own being left alone in an unallied pack was alarming, to say the least, and she dismissed the whole thing about Cairo's friend being there as being reassuring. After all, Dragon had been her cousin, hadn't he, and he'd still taken the first opportunity afforded him to undermine her pack and cause them harm. She didn't know much of anything about the Armada except that it had originally been part of the pack that had been Valhalla's neighbors, so that put them a lot more firmly into the rank of strangers to be suspicious of than Talis had been. Her ears flicked back and she was clearly thinking furiously, but ultimately failing, to think of an alternative. But falling off a mountain wasn't exactly one of those things that you just get up and walk away from. "Well fuck." A sudden suspicion reared its ugly head, and she shot a glance over to Aurielle with narrowed eyes. "Do we know they didn't arrange for this?"

Aurielle switched gears suddenly enough for Justice to be left blinking and dragging her mind out of the suspicious morass the situation with Cairo had bogged it down in. "Hm? Yeah, I've been testing out fight readiness in case of another raid. So far I've learned that Domari and Artur are ready to go and Paladin is busy." She gave a crooked half-smile and huffed out a sigh. "Though I guess since he would be hanging back with the healer camp it's not as imperative. I haven't decided if I should even test Regulus - he's getting up there in years and I don't think he'll bounce back from a spar like the rest of us. Might be better just to let the old man enjoy his retirement." She shrugged. Making decisions like that wasn't really her forte, she was a lot more the rank-and-file type rather than a leader, but she was a healer as well as a fighter and she was wary about putting a wolf at Regulus' stage of life through rigorous exercise. Frankly, if push came to shove and he had to fight, Valhalla would already be in way over their heads. He'd be way better off getting the rest of the non-combatants to safety while the warriors covered their retreat.

"As for Cairo, he did come to me for a spar. I was hoping to catch them all unaware, because when it comes down to it we aren't likely to be prepared if we get raided, but as a fighter in a spar he does good work. Thinking I'll throw a fight at him when he's on sentry one of these days to get a better metric."