[private] Let the only sound; Tangerine

[Circinae]

-Oh my love, don't forsake me; Take what the water gave me-

Her meeting with Amet concluded, Circinae now bends her attention to finding the absentee of their party - Tangerine. Where or why the known Adviser of Hyaline had slipped off to was still a mystery to the shifter, but she was determined to solve one or another of the riddles constantly plaguing her and so she chooses to, quite literally, hunt down the answers she seeks. Nose pressed to the dark earth, the little brown wolf disturbs stone and stick in search of any hint as to which direction the two-toned mare might have slipped off towards, beginning with the obvious entrance from the south of their homeland.

It isn’t until she reaches the mouth of the great river that the last, lingering tales of Tangerine begin to surface. “Got her.” The coyote-like hunter thinks, driving her tender, wet pointer into the soft bank of the winding landmark. Tangerine had come this way and, with good intentions, seemed to be heading due east along the curving water-snake; straight to the heart of the Riverlands. “Hopefully she’s not in some sort of trouble.” Circy thinks, raising ears and head alike to peer downstream. “No time to waste, either way.”

And so she journeys.

Eventually, her steady tempo gets her to where she’s going and to her surprise, Tangerine’s scent grows stronger the further she ingresses towards the sea. So, the mare had come here but not decided to leave? Even with the quick turn of her path to send her winding about the sparse growth near the shore, she can still pick up fresh dung and the occasional fur leftover from a good trunk rub. It would seem that Tangerine has simply relocated … permanently. 

Easing to a walk, Circy pads away from the end of her guiding line and begins to tread north once more, eager to cover herself in the protection of seasonally-grown grassland. It will be harder for Tangerine to see her, but she’s confident in her ability to find the mare first - and her intention is not be found before that time. Getting side-tracked was always a possibility in open land. Abruptly, she pauses in her walk - head rising just enough to allow for her bright blue gaze to peer out across the nearly void expanse of field. 

There is only one very familiar shape looming nearby.

“@[Tangerine]?” The brown wolf calls, hesitant but quite sure that this is her. “It’s me - Circinae.”

Circinae

[Tangerine]

Tangerine

In the middle of the night, I go walking in my sleep

 
Her heartwrenching conversation with Amet was behind her. 
After they had parted Tang had felt something close to giddiness, she had felt freed by his understanding, and now she was one step closer to her homeward journey. Riding her high she had decided to leave for Tephra, with Celest, that same day.  She would stop in the volcanic land for a week or two at most before returning to her her ancestral homeland, and the familiar excitement she always felt before a new adventure had coursed through her body.

But Celest, her tigress of a daughter, had other plans. The girl refused to leave Beqanna. The seafoam filly had slowed them, refusing to start the journey with her mother and halting any progress Tang had dreamed of making. The painted mare had never been a strict disciplinarian and now found, when the time came for her to demand her daughter's cooperation, that she was outmatched. So they had stalled, somewhere in the eastern reaches of the riverland with Celest refusing to leave and Tang refusing to leave her behind. 

It is a new day, and when Tang had awoken mid-morning she had found that her daughter was gone - but this wasn't unusual, as the girl often went exploring on her own for long stretches of time. So, the mare continued with her morning of grazing knowing Celest would be back when she was hungry. 

But as Tang hears he name called in a vaguely familiar voice she quickly turns towards the sound with eyes widened in surprise. The flash of panic she feels at seeing a wolf passes quickly as she recognizes the form of one of Hyaline's residents. Blowing a puff of air from her nostrils and giving a shake of her head, she smiles at the she-wolf who had been present at Celest's birth. 
"I was never able to thank you, for being there during Celest's birth." she suppresses the anxiety which rises in her chest at the memory of that spring with a deep breath. Carnage's brand had still been weeping on her neck then, but now it has healed into a pale spiral scar.  "It was a difficult time, and the support meant a lot." 

Her voice takes on a concerned tone as she glances beyond the wolf to see if she is alone, "is everything alright in Hyaline?"

@[Circinae]