Every once in a while it still managed to take me by surprise - just how grown up Haven was. Some part of me would likely always see her and Idunn as the youthfully innocent children they had been when our world had come crumbling down around us. They had been the last vestige of Alcide and MoonGlow's love, and it pained me to think that my dear sister had never gotten the chance to know them as I had. The blue-gray of Haven's eyes was almost the same shade of the flecks that had existed in their father's dark brown eyes, and I smiled as I saw the expression of my sister illuminate at the prospect of our night out together.

Together we turned tail and fled from the den site, loping across the landscape and picking our way along familiar trails that we had known since birth. I laughed out loud when Haven extended her gait, pushing her head down and streaking ahead. She truly was a Courser then, her lithe bodice eating up the ground as she raced along the mountain paths. Finally she returned to me, and as she circled around I moved out and bumped against her shoulder playfully before leaping over a nonexistent object in the path. Haven never failed to bring out a carefree youthful side of me - a side that perhaps only siblings were privy to.

We reached the hill that overlooked a meadow we had come to observe on more than one occasion, and my sides heaved from the exertion of the run. Panting, my tongue lolled from my mouth in a wolfish grin as I stood stoically beside my sister, looking out over the wildness of the mountains that were a backdrop to the meadow. Looking over to Haven I laughed at her comments. "Wrangling young adults seems to be my chosen challenge, these days! I want to inspire them to step up, rise to challenge of the tasks needed to set them apart from the masses - but for the most part they appear...uninterested. I had hoped the fruits of Arthfael, Baird, and Nymeria's efforts would blaze a trail for their peers to follow, but it does not seem that is the case." Bracing my legs, I shook out my pelt before lowering my hindquarters to the earth and glancing out towards the slowly setting sun. The nocturnal fireflies had not yet made their appearance, giving us a moment to simply enjoy one another's company.

As my breath normalized once more I sighed softly. There was more on my mind than the filling of ranks within an otherwise complacent pack. I had grown lonely over these past months, each wolf close to me seeming to distance themselves in one way or another. Jericho had gone, and I wondered if my heart would ever return to me. Meryl's home was within Diveen, and so too was Taliesin's now. A pattern, it seemed, that any wolf I grew close to would leave the mountains in due course. Looking back to Haven, some part of me knew she would never leave, having stayed even during the unstable tenure's of Roman and Tithe. Though the tragic deaths of our parents and the events following had prevented us from being close when she was growing up, I found myself lucky to count her as a confidant now. Even so, the leader in me found it hard to admit these pains to her. "And what about you? Is Hollowpoint pulling his weight?" I grinned at her, my tone jocular.