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Mu'sha loped through the damp grass, rain hitting her back in big, fat drops and running down her sides, her face, and tail. It was a warm rain, though, and despite the threatening thunderous clouds which promised a heavier deluge later, she was enjoying the cleansing rain. She thanked Rhiavet in her mind for the rain, and then turned to her companion.

"How's the crow wolf?" she asked, using her sisters name for the wounded, ill young male that Sati and Kalain had dragged to their lands only a week ago. He had been bedraggled, thin as a rake, careworn and had a soft aura of sadness about him which she had thought might be the death of him more than any injury. After a while and some ministrations from her sister and Kalain he had seemed to come around, though, and she was sure she'd seen him hobbling about the day before inside the rock shelter which Kalain had claimed as his den. He'd be a handsome wolf when he healed, she thought, and maybe another strong hunter if he stayed.

"Amazing what a pretty young female will do to aid recovery" she smiled "and Sati is fond of him…" she left the rest unsaid. She had never seen her sister interested in males before and had wondered if, in some way, she was too naive for all of that - maybe she was growing up now after all, just a late starter.

The pack had been scouring some time for a new 'Shrine' - they had temporary places to use and had not swerved in their duties to the land and it's spirits in that time; though light, they were important to the Aves members and teaching them to Ely had been a renewal of their own faith in some ways. Of course Kalain and Sati had always had strong connections with the world of spirits but she and Jove had been a long time travelling and they were stronger as hunters than in matters of spirits.

"Not far now" she answered "he said he had to go some way through a patch of overgrown brambles to find it, though, so it might be slow going".

"I think he said it as near dusk and he saw light pouring through" the alphess knew Ely a little better than Kalain - more intimately certainly, and that, whilst on his own, the dark, dappled male was wont to follow his poetic soul towards beautiful places - even if it involved some effort. In truth, she had been expecting Ely to be a bit more rough and tumble than he was and, though she certainly hadn't been disappointed by his energetic nature, she had found an unexpected tenderness underneath. She trusted him implicitly now, knowing him as she did.

Mu'sha gave Kalain a teasing grin "Not worried about getting a little dirty are you?". The pair had bee travelling a while together and she had come to know him well in an entirely different way to how she'd come to know Ely. They hadn't always gotten along well - often bickered and even still did sometimes, but each had slowly gained a mutual respect for the other. Now, it was even more important - she was his alpha and he her spirit seeker. His advice was valued and he had known more about the day to day running of the pack than she did - for which she was mildly embarrassed.

She had been brought up to run a pack, but he had lived and healed and spoken with others where she had helped lead and hunt…

"Ah, here, this way" she fought through the undergrowth: as promised, thick with brambles, but Ely's body, teeth and claws had created a passage through which the plants hadn't recovered from yet and she slipped through more easily than he must have.

The clearing was small, compact, surrounded by thick pines in a multitude of varieties - grey through yellow - with a dense layer of brush guarding their base as though fencing them in. In the middle, on a small hillock, was a lone, thick, low-lying tree which snaked heavy roots into the ground around its base. Why it should stand alone, Kalain did not know, but it seemed to be the very spirit of trees - as though in some way more tree-like than its companions.

It was somewhat like the others - a needled tree - with a grey-ish foliage and small cones dotted all over… but it's form was like no conifer he had yet seen. It sprawled, branches in a wide spread - like a lowland tree - but without the usual broad leaves. It was magnificent in its irregularity and spiritual in its singularity. The branches were not straight in any way and, even as they moved sideways, they curled and curved, twisted and looped so that each branch had the look of a snake tying itself around a vine.

The sky, allowed through the canopy in this one place, beamed down onto the tree and the surrounding clearing, leaving a good-sized meeting place within a sheltered domain. It was perfect!

"It's… beautiful" she stammered, when she came to and saw the benign smile of the other beside her. She wasn't the type to be easily awed and was rarely left wordless but there was something here which struck a chord deep within - something spiritual. Her thoughts took an unexpected turn towards sadness, though.

"She would have loved this…" she said, immediately regretting saying it, knowing she would be bringing as much pain to Kalain's heart as she had in hers. She looked towards him, an apology in her eyes, but his were elsewhere, looking at the tree or a bit beyond - she couldn't tell.

Her sisters death had hurt them both, she had followed him to what seemed the ends of the civilised world to bring him back from the pain that death had caused him, she had stayed here because he felt it was his fault and that he needed to atone… She understood - though she knew Jove did not - and she also understood how it was to miss that bright, shining presence in her life.

Cy had been bright, bubbly, cheerful and totally the opposite of the shy, retiring male who she had mated. Mu'sha had seen another side to Kalain, a strong side, though she had not admitted it to herself, and had come to understand that he was not as aloof as she had taken him to be - only a little shy, unobtrusive.

In a gesture of soft affection, which would have been unthinkable for them only a year ago, she lightly rested her shoulder against him. They were linked, inextricably and she could not leave him out in the cold with his pain as she might have done before. No, she could never do that now. It was almost comical, though - she was a good head taller than him and far broader so it seemed as though she was a tree which had toppled against another one and would, perhaps, push it's smaller companion over in its turn.

Another worried expression clouded her face now, though. "I… I sometime feel she's still with me" she said, quietly, with a slight tone of worry creasing her forhead. For the wolves of the Aves pack this was not said lightly and could be a bad omen even, in certain circumstances.

It was like watching the sudden shattering of an iced waterfall in spring - it's imperial majesty broken, so suddenly, by a roaring, gurgling, splashing reality which tore it down to it's foundations. Yes, it was like watching the ice melt from him…

"Kalain…" she began "I have felt only happiness, it was how I knew who was with me" she answered softly, truthfully. "She's only here with me waiting, isn't she? If it were anything else I wouldn't feel her goodness?" she was trying to assure him as much as herself, leaning towards him comforting, consoling…

She had never, not once, heard Kalain howl before - his voice had never started one and was always lost amongst many but here, in it's purity and tone, it was startling. It was also painful, for she felt his heart wreck itself again and felt it was her fault for mentioning it. Although he had been thinking of it at the same time, she could not have known and only knew she had spoken the words to him which seemed to set him on the road towards this personal horror.

Maybe, though, he needed it. She had not seen him mourn, not truly, he had been half living in the spirit world all this time - being told when to eat, when to sleep, being ordered to come and to go and to please not help others without helping himself, too. He was incorrigible and although at least some of that was just how he was, the rest had been an amplified form, a caricature of himself.

She might be no healer, or spirit talker, but she saw the sense in bringing him out of this bleak mood once and for all. She had dealt with her sisters passing - it had been hard and it still hurt hellishly but it did not tear at her inside like it seemed to do for Kalain.

She felt so protective of him, so attuned to his hurt, and was suddenly aware of him. Him. A male. She had not, ever, ever had such an inclination towards this particular male - he was an acolyte, he was distant and he was otherworldly to her. He had been almost… not male to her, but something different, something neuter. Why had that changed? She had known he had these feelings, had seen his pain before, but she had truly never seen that iron resolve of his, the inner strength which made him seem so... unusual, weird perhaps, shatter.

When his voice broke, his long howl coming to a jagged end, she nuzzled back against him and whispered happy memories in his ear, silly things about their travels, childhood and the like. Eventually, he calmed, his voice lost the deep, savage pain and he quieted.

"Kai…" she trailed off, and lapped softly at his muzzle, comfortingly...