Aurielle Adravendi

She padded slowly through the plains, ears swiveling and twisting in thought. The day was crisp, snow under paws glistening. Abruptly, her path veered, and she trekked eastward, through the mists and snow until she reached the border. She carried with her a flag. It was black, edged in silver and gold thread. She’d spent much of the first part of winter crafting it with Ayodele and Ardyn’s help. She set it carefully on the snow as she crossed the strip of free-land and stopped at Aerie’s border, tipping back her head, muzzle to the sky as she called for Eligos, haunches lowering as she waited. Either he was still on board with the raid plans, or he was not, and she’d figure things out from there. Loshir sat a ways away, eyes glinting as he scanned across the border of their neighbors. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Eligos was unaccustomed to aching so much when he woke up as he did these days, and he'd have chalked it up to getting old if he actually had been old, but he wasn't so it made little sense to him. There wasn't, as far as anyone could see, anything wrong with him to make his bones ache and his head hurt all the time. He thought, perhaps, that it was as the witch who had given him his eyesight had said, that he would need to make a great sacrifice to regain his eyesight. Perhaps the pain was the sacrifice he needed to make. Well, it was one he was more than willing to bear, to have his sight again. It was still a bit blurry, but noticeably regaining clarity day by day. He was confident in his ability to fight, now, and had returned to patrolling without the acompanyment of Kida and Cypher, who did their own patrols now to make up for the fewer wolves. With Aureus dead, Thalia in Abaven, Saren and Loviat vanished entirely, and Fel, Zagan, and Proserpina rarely around, it left them short pawed until Deus and Danta were trained. They were, it seemed, going to be chronically short-pawed until they did something to stand out and attract members.

Useful members, which made things more difficult.

His head lifted - he squinted against the sharper ache momentarily caused by the sudden movement - when he caught the sound of Aurielle calling at the border. Well, hellfire. He huffed out a sigh, not particularly looking forward to needing to own up to his own poor behavior when he was blind and grieving and even now not feeling particularly inclined not to be snappish and angry, but he could hardly keep avoiding her when they were literally right next door to one another.

He set out for the border, though, resigned to the inevitability. Something in the snow at her paws caught his attention, but it wasn't until he was nearly upon her that it deblurred into a pile of black fabric. His brows drew together in confusion a moment before smoothing again. Oh right - they'd made a contract to raid, capture the flag style. So much had happened since then that he'd all but forgotten that winter was the time they'd agreed on.

He dipped his head in greeting to her, carefully avoiding a squint as he looked at her, or a wince at the pain in his head, or shifting to ease the ache in his limbs - stoically ignoring all of that in favor of just standing calmly. Maybe he was getting old. "Aurielle," he rumbled simply.

Aurielle Adravendi

He came, and her eyes swept his frame, noting that he seemed to be able to see, though she kept what she did note to herself for the time being. The momentary frown as he noted the black flag at her paws was noted as well, meeting his gaze and greeting with a nod, though she studied him again as she returned, “Eligos.” in kind. She bent, lifting the flag for better viewing, letting the light catch the edging before she stretched it out at his feet. “What do you think? Suitable for Aerie?” She straightened, settling back to sit with her usual poise, watching him with interest. If he wished to broach the past, he would have to do it himself. It took a strong wolf to set aside pride and admit his missteps. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think

She didn't say anything about their last meeting, simply flourished the banner. He took a better look at it now that it was opened and close enough to see, and nodded - he needed to srop doing that, his head was killing him. "It suits well," he said. "I might trade you something to keep it once the contract is complete - it would make a rather visible border marker on a flag at the far borders." He nodeed completely mentally this time to keep his head from feeling like it was going to drill through his skull, then continued in a carefully neutral tone. "I had almost forgotten about the raids, but I am glad that you have reminded me. Aerie needs the training time this will provide. We have new members and we are not yet used to working together, and this will be a good test of their skill levels." He hesitsted, then added in a voice somehow even more neutral than before, "My brother was the best battle asset Aerie had when we began to plan these training raids. He died in the time since your festival. It makes this training more imperative for Aerie than even before." His voice, his breath, his expression all remained steady, though his expression was grim and hard, but his lungs felt like they were on fire with the pain of his loss, as though something were drawing claws down the inside of his chest. Time had done little to dull those claws.

Aurielle Adravendi

He was agreeable to the flag, and she offered a light smile. She could see it now, billowing in the western breeze to stand sentinel over Aerie’s lands. Again, her eyes studied him as he spoke on. It was good to hear that he had new members. While it might mean that one day Aerie could be contracted to raid Valhalla with those new members, it also meant that Aerie was a bigger buffer between other packs and Valhalla. One day someone could siege Valhalla, and if, by some miracle Valhalla secured an Alliance someday, an ally next door was a valuable thing. His admittance to his brother’s death squeezed her chest. It was an unspoken apology of sorts. He was level now, rather than the blind, vengefully malicious beast in the swamp. Her eyes drifted away. Her brother could be alive out there, but she hadn’t seen him in so long… And Mother? Nolan? All those that had disappeared? “’I’m sorry for your loss’ never sounds sincere, does it… Especially from someone who never even knew them… It’s like a storm inside that never really goes away. And it’s full of claws and rage and screaming.” There was a brush of caverns and midnight in her voice, a genuine statement of personal knowledge, though it was as steady as his own, as was her expression, though there was a thread of that chilling, feral rage in her eyes before she banished it and straightened, head cocking as she locked eyes with him. “I look forward to knocking off some rust…. Three weeks from now? Two at the soonest?” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Aurielle's words and gaze brought a hint of darkness and flickering fire tonhis red eyes, like the hint of the scaley back of some ancient leviathan arching up just beneath the surface of the ocean. Something dark and fell, a lovecraftian horror of rage and blood and flame. But just as quickly as it surfaced it sank away out of sight without a ripple. He chose, out of the belief that nothing good could come of being vulnerable right then, and politeness, to refrain from answering her words on the subject. Some things were better off remaining unspoken.

He did take the opportunity to steal a steadying breath and let it out slowly as she turned the subject back to the raid. "I look forward to the opportunity," he said. "But don't tell me precisely when you plan to raid. I want my wolves as surprised as they can safely be by it, and I cannot know for certain that I would not give away the timing unknowingly. They will know to expect a training raid at some point, but it would be best that only you know when." The retreat to calculated planning was just that - a retreat - but he embraced it nonethess.