It had not gone unnoticed, his friend's lack of presence within the area where they each denned. He had grown accustomed to the scents of Kiyomi and Ailith and her children always nearby, both females having chosen to den somewhat near to him. He treasured each of their friendships for different reasons, and even now as summer threatened to give way to autumn he still stopped by to check on Cadwan and Kirsi and their mother from time to time. But of late, when he had gone to see the female who had once saved his life, she was nowhere to be found. Slowly her scent grew stale in the area, and Sleekwing found himself growing a little worried about her. During his border patrols he'd never discovered her scent leaving the pack lands, so he knew she was still on the mountain; but it seemed as though she had almost gone into hiding. His concern grew as summer reached its zenith and then began to give way to the coming change of seasons. If she did not seek him out soon, he would go looking for her.

As luck would have it, however, her call rang out across the reaches of Spirane, her voice familiar but somehow changed as Sleekwing's head tipped up from the clearing outside his den towards the peaks of the range. His ears flickered momentarily before pricking forward, listening to the notes rise and fall in her song, the message clear. At its completion his ears folded back slightly, displeased to hear such a morose tone in her voice. Pushing his torso up off the ground, he sat back and howled out to her. His baritone voice carried with ease across the distance, answering her and reassuring her that he was on his way. When the final note was expelled from his lungs, he rose to his feet and shook out his pelt before setting off at a lope up the familiar trails of the mountains.

The last time she had called upon him from such heights she had ascended the peaks for the first time. She had been unsure of her place within the pack, but he had felt his camaraderie that day had reassured her on at least some level. Was it something similar that had drove her away from the heartlands of the pack? Surely he would soon find out. He knew the paths as well as any wolf who had been born and raised here, even though he spent a large majority of his time within the lowlands ensuring the security of the pack. Spirane's numbers were greater than ever under Daenerys' rule. More wolves patrolled now, but Sleekwing would never relent in his duty. He loved it. Even so, his physical condition was at its peak, and he made the ascension to the spires with ease.

Her familiar scent filled his nares the further he climbed, and before long her's became the only potent one present. As he jogged out into the small opening where Kiyomi lay, he realized why. Not many wolves chose to den so high on the mountain, for it could become very dangerous during the winter. Ragnarok and his family denned just below the snowline, but even they could be at risk from time to time if avalanches occurred. For a moment his brows pulled together in concern at her choice to den here, where within the first months of fall snow would begin to accumulate. But then he reminded himself of the message that her howl had spoken to him, and he fluidly allowed his thoughts of concern about her den to mold into concern for her wellbeing. "So this is where you've been," he said, with a small smirk. He jogged over to her, lowering his head and softly bumping his forehead against her cheek in greeting before he stepped back and immediately lowered to the ground. He lay opposite of her, close enough that if she wished it would only take a shifting of her paw to establish physical contact between them. "How have you been, Kiyomi?" The smirk remained, but his worry for her was self evident. After all, she had looked out for him when they had barely known one another. It was his responsibility to look out for her now.