[Jette]

~

The past week had easily been more eventful than countless replicas before it.

Getting rip-roaring drunk on fermented fruit had a sneaky tendency to muddle his memory, like a kid sticking their hand in a filthy pond and stirring up old sediment at the murky bottom, but Jette remembered this: waking up with a migraine at the river's final stop. rolling off the log, grumbling curse words, and nudging Acacia awake. realizing with a queer lack of surprise that they'd sailed out of Saboro entirely, totally unawares all the while, regretting it only for Nereid's sake, etching in some sloppy mental to-do list to go find him at earliest convenience. barely managing to establish all that before hell abruptly broke loose in the form of a shy boy he quite liked and a dying deadbeat father who owed him an eye.

He had not once been tempted to try and stop it from happening. When it was over, when interest had been collected and revenge taken, the wolfdog had coaxed Asher into joining he and his lady, for surely the poor lad knew only Saboro, no room left over for knowledge on survival of the untamed neutral grounds... but not before Asher put Kross to one final use. When Jette scavenged the scraps (he could have bullied the kid away, but he did have standards, and this sort of interference violated them), they'd tasted burnt, but not too bad. The fire had destroyed his body, but left the hot meat inside fairly untouched.

Now the boy was in Inaria. It was a good place for him, Jette knew, in a strangely objective way for someone who had gone to war against it. He'd probably like the trees, the air, the kind kings and queens. He'd be okay. Maybe he'd even be happy after a while. Nobody liked to talk about just how healing it could be to fucking slaughter your abuser. To take something that has harmed you and turn it into the benefit of a full stomach. To go from a catatonic, bleeding victim hiding in the brush to a server of one's own brand of justice. Jette was proud of him. He'd be okay.

Now... what of them?

"Luv," called the black beast to his mate, filmy pig's eyes roving around for the familiar gold form. It was a mild sort of day, soft rays of sun slipping through the old-growth canopy above his ghastly head. "Y'there?"

She was, of course. Maybe someone else was as well.

[Scindere]

She was scouting. As always. She felt like she was existing in some sort of in-between time, where things were new and exciting but boring and routine at the same time. She liked exploring new territories, but she was tired of searching for something that, ultimately, she didn't really care about. So Hircine was family. So what? She had a lot of family members. Most of them were assholes. She wasn't sure about Hircine, but statistically... Well, Oriana wanted to find him, and Scindere would rather have had a pointless mission than no mission at all. She wondered how long they were all going to keep pretending that this was a selfless quest to find a lost friend, though. It was becoming increasingly clear to her that they may not be going back at all - she wasn't sure how she felt about that. Mostly nothing. Saboro had raised her, but she did not feel that she needed to stay there forever. There were new adventures to be had, new people to meet, old family members to find (theoretically). Happily enough, today, of all her wanderings, was the first time she actually found something.

And "thing" was the correct term.

What a hideous creature, what a horrid beast; he smelled bad, and he was ugly. Only a fool would approach someone so distasteful...but it was those very unpleasant traits that lead to recognition. Scindere had never had a personal encounter with the monstrosity (fortunately), but she'd seen (and smelled) him at meetings and other similarly meaningless gatherings. She couldn't remember his name, and she wasn't sure what he was doing so far from home. Were his reasons the same as her own? That was to say, did he have no idea at all what he was doing out here or when he was going back? She watched him and his paradoxically beautiful companion from a distance, hidden in the bushes, cautious for once. But not for long.

When the creature called for his lost companion, Scindere sidled out from the bushes and walked straight toward the familiar one, as if it were only natural that she should be there. "Oh look, it's you, uh, hmmm," her voice trailed off into a mumble where his name should have been. So what if she didn't remember? She'd been through a lot recently, she couldn't be expected to keep track of everyone she'd ever known. "Aren't you far from home?" she trilled, powering on through whatever awkwardness might have come from obviously not knowing his name. She closed the gap between them, body flowing like water as she stepped closer to him. "Or are you on a secret mission too?" She winked and giggled softly. It was a bold move, but bold moves were what Scindere did - she didn't think this one would attack her. And if he did, she knew Oriana was nearby anyway (though she wasn't entirely sure her sister would risk her life to save her, but that was another matter entirely).

[Acacia]

Wow, being drunk was certainly an experience! Convincing Acacia to try the fermented fruit had not been difficult, given the girl's eternal enthusiasm and her even more consequential desire to please. She'd gotten drunk as hell and very promptly fell asleep along with the wolfdog. Imagine her surprise when they left Saboro via raft! What! That's just wild!

Acacia hadn't really understood what was happening with Asher, but Jette seemed to understand, and he thought it was alright. Apparently the wolf was some sort of very bad person, someone who had wronged Asher, and so Acacia didn't want to intervene. Unlike some distant relatives in far off lands, Acacia's notion of justice was flexible. She didn't know much about it, and she was inclined to trust people who were sure that they did. It seemed like the right thing to do to take care of the boy. But he'd been set on his way safely now, and what was left was just....Jette.

"Luv," He called from a bit away, past the tall grass. Acacia had lagged behind, to check the air for the scents of any other Saborans who might have somehow gotten lost out here. She knew a lot of people had left recently, maybe some of her friends had, too. Like Icarus or Indigo or Nate.  "Y'there?"

"Oh, I'm coming!" She said, dropping her nose from the air in disappointment. Trotting along to Jette's side, she let out a mild gasp when she saw the Saboran that Jette was talking to. She knew someone was around here! And Acacia vaguely recognized the face - someone more important than her, probably. Acacia gave a wag of the tail and looked to Jette to gauge his reaction before turning back to the girl. When Scindere winked, Acacia smiled in the way that people do when they don't get the joke, but want to follow along.

"Oh, we just accidentally got lost, actually." She replied politely. "My name's Acacia, by the way, it's really good to see another friendly face out here!"

[Oriana]

---

There was always that deep rooted aura of paranoia. Oriana didn’t for a second believe that just because she was Sabora that there wouldn’t be nosy trackers sent out after her during this time— Her only hope was they focused on the inside before the outside, but she wasn’t stupid to the concept of her absence being one of the first to be noticed. Her teeth grit some in the idea, knowing that regardless of their intentions their noses would be to the ground and their ears to the sky. It was better for her to do the same, as shoulder her traveling companions. (Was that all they were? No, but until the time came, Oriana wasn’t sure what to call them.)

(Packmates?)

Scindere had wandered off in her own direction some time ago, with a check-in with the others there had been a conclusion of anything new and important. The area was clean of signs of Hircine and thankfully, any Saborans— At least from Oriana’s side of the scouting. As the speckled queen followed Scindere’s trail, she felt a knot of uncertainty tighten in her chest. The closer she got the more muddled the scent had become, now mixed with others; ones that smelled a little too much like “home” for her to feel comfortable. The anxiety gnawed at the ankles of the Sabora as she tried to hear for calls of panic, screams, even demanding and threatening voices that she would imagine (and if she cared any longer, hoped, they would be like to that find traitorous weasels) but the sad reality was she was no longer on that side of the track anymore. She was as lost and as helpless as a puppy in the dark and among the same ones she woudl quickly call traitors.

Oriana continued to remind herself who betrayed who first.

As she inched closer the voices were far from mean, rather, more pleasant and with great force Oriana tried not to blow their cover and come off as more insecure than she needed. Instead, through mangled arms of trees and patches of foliage, inhaling and exhaling quietly before revealing herself to the other two, ever-same doe eyes of the young Queen landed on the dark dog and the golden girl immediately, even before she’d made eye contact with Scindere.

She smiled as she did, not attempting any intimidation here. Oriana would play their game as long as they didn’t recognize herself and Scin— they were guessed to be Saboran by their scent, although it had been faded and mixed with the wildlife before them. They weren’t hostile. Oriana felt little need to be, either. “Who have you found?” Purposely vetoing her sister’s name, although she couldn’t come up with a moniker on the spot. As her red-rimmed eyes scanned the two, her gaze landed longer on the black male, one who seemed vaguely familiar. One she knew for sure to be Saboran, scent-trail aside. The other with him was an unknown face to the Sabora, something she felt a bit ashamed of.

“Lost you say?” Oriana mimicked, smile still intact, as she moved to stand closer to Scindere now. “We’ve been looking for someone who may be lost, too.” From there she let her presence and words speak for themselves, eying the two to see if there was any change in their posture or expression to realize who she was. She can only hide so much.

---

[Jette]

The newcomer lamented his repulsive appearance; the wolfdog marveled at hers. It was a subtle sort of admiration if only in respect to his dear Acacia where in times previous to being a man spoken for he might have eyed Scindere lasciviously up and down. He had never met the chaotic princess, nor heard of her, but Jette was ever more perceptive than the glassy stare and unhinged mouth misleadingly suggested. He could see the intricate tattoos beneath her eyes, a red scrawl shorthand in Saboro for hey, I'm important. He could see how well-kept her coat was, how nourished the tissue, and such a lovely patterning! If she was not royalty, then surely someone in that rainforest had loved Scindere plenty, enough to see her always thriving in such a harsh environment.

"Jette," he supplied helpfully, smiling wet-lipped and full of teeth like swords sheathed crookedly in their casing. It wasn't that it didn't occur to him to offer a pseudonym, or that the stranger could mean trouble... but she was such a little woman! Not a scrap of a wolf so much as a fine cut of expensive material, but ah, enough of that. He with his powerful nose could detect no friends lying in wait if this was meant to be some kind of siren's ambush and knew with the kind of immediate ease that suggested experience that he could take her if she decided to be naughty. Scenting her in a friendly manner, the ex-spectre went on, seemingly unfazed at her odd forwardness. "Pretty far, lil lady! But we ain't got no secret mission to keep us busy while we figure out our way to go. Care to share the, eheh heh, the intrigue?"

Acacia trotted up, late to the punch in more ways than one, and wagged her tail, uncertain but not impolite. Jette drifted closer, enough that he could feel the heat emanating from her body, and smiled again, more sheepishly this time. "Ayuh, lost be a word fer it, tho I like turned around a lil bit better... Makes me seem less a right fool, y'know?"

When Oriana came next, following her open (yet often indecipherable) book of a sister, he recognized her almost immediately from an old excursion, and his thick lips pursed in faint surprise. Now, what peculiar sort of mission was this? What reason did a queen have to leave her throne when she had half a hundred goons at her disposal? Are we misbehaving ourselves, Sabora? It smelled fishy to Jette, like a conspiracy he did not yet follow, but he did not reveal his hand, nor she, hers.

"Found 'er one humble Jette, madame, an' his sweetie Acacia," he answered for Scindere, introducing them a second time to this new arrival. Of course she wouldn't know him. Nobody remembers one leaf in the forest. Determined to puzzle this out, he twitched his swooned-over ears and cocked his head to one side, dog-like and faux-innocent. "Hmm, who might yers be? We kin point yuh in the right direction mebbe."

[Scindere]

If she had been surprised by Jette's appearance, it was nothing compared to how she felt when a normal-looking female emerged and stood next to him. Scindere eyed the tail-wagging girl with poorly disguised pity - obviously the poor creature had suffered some brain damage, probably the first time she accidentally got close enough to Jette to smell his breath. She said they were lost, which wasn't surprising in the least, since the two of them made a rather pathetic and incapable seeming pair. It was even more of a confidence boost when Oriana arrived to support her - the contrast was so striking, wasn't it? Oriana, the lost but still noble Queen and Scindere, the ridiculously beautiful and charming rogue versus... a pile of dung and the fly that called it home.

Scindere conspicuously ignored Jette's question about their secret mission, seemingly deferring to Oriana about what details to share, though really she just liked to leave people hanging. "Lost, turned around...," she sighed dreamily, eyes turning up to the sky in a dramatic expression, "The only difference between the two is where you're trying to go." She wasn't sure that was necessarily true, but that was no reason not to make cryptic statements. She hadn't come here to be productive and add relevant input to the conversation. The unfortunate creature introduced himself, but his name was instantly swept from her mind by the use of the word sweetie. She smiled with all her teeth in an attempt to keep from cringing; she almost felt altruistic enough to try and save this poor Acacia from her captor. As interesting as that would likely be, she had other priorities right now and knew she could not give in to temptation.

"Hmm, who might yers be? We kin point yuh in the right direction mebbe."

She somehow felt that any direction pointed out by Jette would not be the correct one, but still, it couldn't hurt to ask. "We're looking for someone...who looks like us...," she said brightly, turning her body so that he could see the whole length of it from head to tail. "Spotty. Cute." Hopefully Oriana wouldn't mind her giving out this information, but if she did then she was being paranoid anyway. Scindere didn't think these two were a threat, and she also got the impression that they were not trying to go back from whence they came. In fact, that had to be addressed. Voice suddenly very direct, Scindere bluntly asked, "So are you really lost, or are you running away?"