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Sedi Waya was not having a very good week. He'd missed the entire Sky Festival this year because his grandmother had gone missing.. and they hadn't even managed to find her. He'd sneaked off again since the end of the festival, when they gained a feathery little spy meant to be partnered with the missing alu'nadi, but there was still no luck. It was extremely unlikely they would find her at this point, he knew that- he'd known that after the first day of searching for any sign of her. But it was hard to just give up.. and now that someone very specific was looking for Tsi'hilu Waya in the clan, the secret had to come out and it had to come out soon.

But so far, nobody had done or said anything. The family was doing a fine job keeping the bird (and the rest of the clan) distracted. They'd all stopped for the night again, still on their way back toward their regular migration path, and this was when it was worst. There was no excuse to not take the bird to the alu'nadi, there was no reason someone else might not notice. He wasn't entirely sure how they'd made it through the first two nights.

Exhausted but restless, he resigned himself to spending the night pacing.

Sedi nearly jumped out of his fur when Kawani appeared. She wasn't even very sudden, loud or obvious.. but he was on edge. He was just waiting for something to happen, the inevitable discovery of the deception. They were already in trouble, how much worse would this make it?

He stood still, studying his sister silently for a moment before finally just sitting down with a shrug.

"Any idea where the bird is?"

Sedi looked around like the bird might suddenly be beside them, listening in to their very incriminating conversation. But they had about given up anyway, they just had to stay in control of the situation.. and, he supposed, letting the small, white spy find out before they were ready was one way they would lose control.

"Do you think we did this wrong?" he asked in a hushed voice, "Trying not to ruin the festival seems like a given but.. should we have said something before we left?"

Who was in charge of those decisions now? Technically Ukahada was now the only authority figure in the clan but they had been avoiding putting all that weight on him.. but that was probably why they hadn't done anything sooner too.

"This is a mess."

Sedi nodded, frowning. Kawani was right, it would feel different if they had been successful. The fact they kept their secret this long now was amazing but also unnerving. How were they supposed to just walk up and tell Skan, who was already intent on criticizing everybody but Bird and Shadow clans.. that they were in trouble?

He certainly wouldn't, the Wolf Clan could manage itself- and it would be doing better if they didn't have a feathery nuisance making it impossible to tackle this issue head on.

"I hop--"

He cut himself off, distracted by an odd pale figure approaching.



Ukahada was lost, he didn't know what else to do anymore. He'd spent the whole festival distracting from his great grandmother's obvious absence, which had been easy enough.. but as annoying as it was to know the bird from the wanidatsi was around, she had spent all day now, stuck to Ukahada. He couldn't shake her- he had done OK distracting her, redirecting her for a while.. but eventually she seemed to realize he was the only leader she could consistently find and he didn't have any special work to do like hunting or whatever. So he was stuck and he didn't know what to do anymore, especially now that they were stopped for the night. Finding his aunt was his only idea now.

"Aunt Kawani," he said, his voice almost a whine- he'd been keeping himself composed but he was very tired, "Have you seen grandma? Galiha- Galiha and I can't find her."



Galiha had been spending a lot of time in her new clan getting to know the inhabitants. She'd been happily distracted for their first two days together but early in the third day she realized she ought to have made a point of meeting Tsi'hilu Waya right away. Her best bet, she decided, was to following around Ukahada Waya. He wasn't old enough to hunt, and even if he could he probably wouldn't since he was the nvwati. Or he would be. That was as close as she could get and he was easy to boss around when she needed to for now.

She was perched on his back, they had been walking around trying to find the alu'nadi for a little while now.

Sedi's frown deepened as his nephew came up, asking if they knew where Tsi'hilu was. He didn't think there was any chance they could make it through another night of lies and it seemed he was right. He glanced at Kawani, nodding silently and looking back at Ukahada and Galiha passively. This was it, Kawani's answer was far from clear but it was far less evasive than every other answer they had been giving over the last few days.

Galiha watched the older lions with interest, she was surprised to hear Ukahada whining- she didn't get the impression he was very fond of her and he was small and it was getting late. But she was surprised by the interaction between Sedi and Kawani.

"Huh?" she squeaked.

Ukahada didn't say anything at first, barely comforted by his aunt's attempt to be reassuring and apologetic. He blinked when she answered honestly in front of Galiha, but he quickly realized and accepted that this meant it was over. With a sigh, he sat down- not at all concerned about the fact this sent the little bird tumbling.

She pushed off of Ukahada's back in time to avoid being thrown to the ground, with a flap of her wings she landed gently on the ground a few feet away from him.

"What does that mean?" she asked huffily, looking back and forth between all the lions.

His expression became more serious as Kawani stepped up to explain the situation, though Sedi didn't move to help her out at all. If any of them could handle this now, it was her. They were all in this together but Kawani was definitely the best option here for trying to explain it. It seemed like it should be a much longer story, full of details and excuses.. but none of it mattered when the simple fact was they didn't have an alu'nadi anymore.

Sedi's eyes moved back and forth between Galiha and Ukahada, almost expecting them both to just disappear. No doubt Galiha understood this was serious and she was almost certainly going to head back to the Bird Clan to get the wanidatsi..

Galiha puffed up indignantly, reviewing the last few days and suddenly piecing together why nobody could find the alu'nadi and how easy she had made it for them to distract her up to this point. She had picked this clan, wanted to help them- had been looking forward to meeting Tsi'hilu Waya.

"How long exactly?" she asked, "Why has nobody said anything?"

Ukahada frowned, looking down at the little birds little feet, feeling guilty. She looked silly as mad as she was, but he didn't find it very funny either. This was trouble.

"Just before the festival," he answered, still not looking up, "Nobody knows."

Sedi nodded along but once his name was brought up, he pushed himself back up to his feet and stood beside Kawani to show his support. So far he didn't have anything else to add to the story the other two were telling but he wasn't going to stay entirely out of it. It was amazing how intimidating the little puffball could be.

Galiha looked to Ukahada as he finally offered some answers, but then right back to Kawani as she told a much better version of events. It was smart enough, not letting the pride panic.. but letting it get to this point..

She clicked her beak. The clan was just going to handle it- was that reasonable? Galiha didn't know. She did know some of them were suspicious of her and her role in the upcoming reviews, and it was part of her job to keep them in touch with the wanidatsi. She just wasn't eager to prove anybody right on the idea that she was a spy, sent to tattle on them if something went wrong. But she didn't even have a real leader here to tell her what was right and wrong in this situation, she was stuck with the small white one.

She didn't have anything else to say but she turned a suspicious, mean look on Ukahada.

Ukahada held his breath, waiting for the little bird to say something- scold them, say she was going off to tell the wanidatsi that grandma was missing, that they didn't tell anybody- that he knew and kept it a secret. He wasn't expecting the glare he got, though. He leaned away and then looked to Kawani for help.

A frown returned to Sedi's face when he saw the look Galiha was giving Ukahada. He managed not to flinch when his sister openly doubted the wanidatsi, but he didn't add to it or try to make up for it. The little spy could think what she wanted, her presence alone supported Kawani's claim. He changed sides, stepping around Kawani and placing himself at Ukahada's other side so his paw rested between Galiha and the little nvwati.

"We have done nothing wrong," he said, finally speaking up, "We noticed her absence right away and took appropriate steps to find her and avoid any unnecessary panic. We're not even back to our own land yet, it's barely been enough time to give up."

What else were they supposed to do? He had been unsure when talking to Kawani but now he knew she was right, they did do exactly what they were supposed to do.

Galiha's glare turned on Kawani and then Sedi. It didn't matter what they said, she could hardly take them for their word now. They admitted to their deceit, didn't even sound sorry. She hadn't been warned about the state of the Wolf Clan, not like some of her companions had been warned about theirs. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Ukahada felt very small as his aunt and uncle stood up to defend him. He wasn't even fully trained, he didn't know what he was supposed to do in this situation. He knew just how much easier this would be if he was grown up, how much more reassuring he could be to his clan, how much easier this would be on all of them.

Frowning, he stayed quiet.

Overwhelmed and uncertain, Galiha didn't see any other way out of this situation. She wasn't prepared to deal with this, she wasn't convinced the Wolf Clan was prepared to deal with this (no matter what Kawani said). So she pushed herself up off the ground and flew off without another word. She could back track but it would take some doing to find exactly where the Bird Clan was, though the other birds around now would probably help her. She needed Skan's help and so did the Wolf Clan, whether they admitted it or not!