native in passage [Ambrose]

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For a moment, all was peaceful and quiet. Maliah found herself taking a deep inhale of the breeze wafting off of the lake as she sat there, watching the waters of Drarynough ripple and dance before her eyes. The young Dire mix could scarcely remember feeling so content with her life before, so at peace with herself now that the voice in her head had sufficiently quieted itself in order to allow her a chance to live some semblance of a normal life, and it was something that she did not intend on forsaking so easily. Though she knew that she would have to rise and attend to any pack duties that required her attention sooner or later, knew that she would have to seek out her siblings or even Dione soon in order to further mend the bridges that had laid broken for so long, but at the moment she was simply content to sit and observe.

Besides, she had seen precious little of Dione- or, for that matter, any member of Vasilios- as of late, something which likely should have worried her but she instead paid little mind to. Vasilios was a fairly small and tight knit pack, after all, and Maliah had gone through periods before where she had not come into contact with another fellow pack member for the span of weeks at a time. And ever since her parents had disappeared for a second time and her siblings had grown even more distant- after Typhon had also vanished, after promising that he would be there to support her- Maliah had grown used to people leaving her behind, used to them not wanting to entertain her presence for any longer than what was necessary. If they chose not to interact with a wolf that was obviously not entirely mentally stable, the Dire mix couldn't say that she entirely blamed them. She had isolated herself for so long in fear of what her whisper could do to harm others, and she was only now beginning to come out of her shell and make amends for all that occurred.

Perhaps it was naive of her, to believe that everything would work out in the end, to not see the fading level of pack activity as the ominous sign that it likely was. But Maliah had never been through a pack dissolving before, had never had cause to fear her home suddenly collapsing into shambles. What reason did she have to worry, in that moment, when her life was suddenly peaceful for the first time in what seemed like eons?

It was only when soft footsteps sounded behind her that Maliah managed to tear herself away from her own thoughts, her head swiveling until she could properly view the source of the disturbance and identify the wolf that had suddenly come upon her moment of solitude. It was Ambrose, one of the Constables of the pack and a wolf who theoretically outranked her (though Maliah could never keep up with all the complex ranks of the pack even at the best of times, much to her dismay). While she did not know Ambrose's intentions for seeking her out that day, the Dire mix still stood after a moment, turning and dipping her head in a show of respect to the older male. "Ambrose," she responded in turn, only noticing the distressed aura that appeared to surround the male a moment after she had spoken.

Panic lanced through her for a moment at the thought of what could possibly be troubling such an otherwise stalwart wolf- was it a death within the pack? Had Dione or another high-ranking wolf disappeared? She had heard talk of Vorilye and a small group of other wolves splitting off into a separate pack after Dione had seemingly rejected his advances- was said group suddenly deciding to declare war upon Vasilios and its lands? Rather than dissolve into hysterics over such ideas as a part of her wanted oh so desperately to do, however, Maliah simply swallowed down the fear in order to address Ambrose directly, rationalizing that she wouldn't have any idea of what could potentially be causing her fellow pack member such distress unless she bothered to ask. "Is something wrong? You seem...troubled."