These caves had become her home, as certainly as Inferni had never been, as fake as Eterne had felt after the fact. The dark woman felt this in her bones, this comfortable feeling of belonging. It would have been so easy to miss, had she not been so acutely accustomed to its absence. Eris felt as if she had spent her life seeking this feeling, and now, finally finding it here in Anathema, the woman might have missed it, even. It was at once a relief and a dryly humorous realization -- what she had been seeking all along, she might have easily created for herself in either place. There was little doubt in the woman's mind that the presence of family here was what truly cemented her to the pack.

It was a bricolage of a family, true enough -- they had cobbled themselves together slowly, piece by piece -- the first two had been Eris herself and Larkspur, followed shortly by their children. Sirius was some strange part of it, too, distant as he seemed from Larkspur at times. Misery was certainly a piece of them, too -- she and Larkspur were close in a way far deeper than the distant blood between them might have suggested. There were other bits and pieces of it, too -- Larkspur and the children had a vast, extended family that Eris could hardly even number here in Anathema, and untold relatives outside of it.

The hybrid woman did not profess to know even a third of the dark wolf's whole family, nor even her own, in truth. Both spread in unimaginable and untraceable (at least to her) ways, and though Eris felt no particular connection to any individual, the power of these families certainly reverberated through her and these caves both. Whether she enjoyed her Lykoi heritage or not, she could not denounce their strength and the magic in that name, dead and soulless as it seemed to her. As little as she knew about her father and his family, there was still some mysticism in the Eternity name for her yet -- beneath some cold rock, there was certainly some piece of magic that she had not yet discovered.

Rising at this hour did not generally please Eris, but she had ceased complaining about it, at least to Sirius. Her complaints fell on indifferent ears; Sirius had taken the time to explain to her only once that early morning could provide for easy hunting, with many sleeping animals or drowsy animals just rousing to a state of wakefulness. After that, he had not bothered to acknowledge her complaints except for the occasional small joust at her sensitivity, which had eventually caused her to stop altogether. He had a way with her, too subtle for the sable-shaded Tuyul to notice yet still efficient in changing her behavior.

His familiar form was before her, patiently waiting by the side entrance to the caves. The snort and stamp of the nervous, yet-untamed horses caught her ears, and she stopped a few yards before them, wary of the creatures. She had been riding a few times in her life, and she had not found it particularly pleasurable -- added that she had known more than one stubborn and nasty mule during her time in Eterne, and it made for an anxious Eris around equines. Still too dim to accurately identify him, the hybrid narrowed her eyes and called his name uncertainly. “Sirius?”

The dark woman tolerated his attitude, having gotten used to his sometimes haughty nature. It was something she understood perfectly well -- after all, she herself understood the position of subordinates and dominant canines, and though she outranked him, he clearly was more skilled than she was in this hunting area. For that reason, she could do nothing but tolerate the worst of what he put her through. In any case, the hybrid woman trusted Sirius not to put her through anything terribly demeaning without good reason. She did not provide a verbal response, but did as was asked as her quietly -- this was the way slaves had behaved in Eterne, and though she did not feel slave-like, there was something keenly familiar in this that she could not shake. This feeling was gone quickly as they were outside and in the open, chilled air -- though it was April now, the cold of winter was certainly still upon them. The hybrid walked more quickly now, catching up pace with the male.

“What's that, sir?” she said, tacking the last word on with a grin. She would do as he asked, for she did not believe he had ever lead her astray -- after all, she was catching rabbits on her own now -- but he wasn't beyond a little friendly ribbing, or so she thought. She was curious to see what they would bring down, and the Tuyul was more open to learning these things than she thought possible. In Eterne, these tasks were beneath her. Now, there was an earnest desire to learn within Eris, something rising from the children she had carried from her belly and into this world. One of them was gone now, and the hybrid shoved the thought from her mind, the faded scent trail and the absent girl forcibly pushed away. She very nearly raised her arms and made an accompanying physical gesture, but stopped herself.

The less concentration she devoted to Wretch's disappearance, the better. It had been days, weeks maybe -- she could not accurately gauge the timespan -- and she had managed to draw her mind away from the pallid girl's absence. The day's mundane tasks lent themselves well to distraction, keeping the sable-shaded woman's mind occupied and away from endless, circular thoughts. She could not allow herself to be consumed; there were still two children alive and well and needing of her care. Though they were drawing closer to their sixth month with each passing day, marching toward adulthood and eventual old age, the hybrid woman did not doubt they still needed her.

A sidelong gaze in blazing chartreuse shifted toward Sirius as he spoke, but the woman said nothing, left to ponder his statement and the underlying amusement in it. Eris followed him closely, her pace as close to his as her relatively short legs would allow. Inquiring after their prey would be an exercise in futility; Siri would not share his plans with her, and he had made this abundantly clear, at least to Eris. She did not know him so well as to be able to predict his every move, but she was familiar enough with him to recognize that fierce streak of stubbornness rearing its head.

The canorous noise of water reached her ears after not too much longer walking, and her ever-so-slightly enlarged ears perked upwards to catch this sound, curiosity apparent in her face. The chill of the air was not lost on her, despite her thick and wolfish coat. Eterne had been hot, blazing hot, and the temperatures in that place did not dip nearly as low as they did here. Still, the hybrid's first Nova Scotian winter was not quite as harsh as one might have imagined. She was built for this cold climate, as was her thick, dark coat, and this had spared her a fair amount of chilled suffering. Still, she was not fully waterproof, and she looked from the stream and the running water to the tawny coyote, hesitating as he leapt onto the rocks decorating the stream's banks.

“Sure,” she said brightly, belying the dismay she felt at the possibility of being cold and wet. She clambered up the side of one of these boulders, standing half-hunched down on top of it and peering at Sirius with that same forced happiness, a crooked grin of sharp white slashed into her otherwise dark fur. “Gonna build a fire to defrost me, too?” she added sweetly, the slanted grin still plastered to her muzzle. There was no resistance in her, however, and she moved (with less grace than her partner) to the next rock, balancing precariously on its smooth surface before she inched to its very edge. Eris leaned over the edge, her yellow-green eyes focused on the shimmering surface of the water, though it was only a moment before her gaze was fixed upon Sirius once more, patiently waiting for his instruction.

The babble and bubble of the stream was never-ending, echoing its canorous sound out and over the world. Gurgles and splashes issued forth from the tumbling water, forever tumbling out of the earth in some secret place high in the mountains downward toward its eventual end, where it met with some larger stream or perhaps spilled directly into the ocean itself. There was little fear within Eris for the water, but there was little experience with it, either -- she had never sailed in her life, failing to realize that her trip northward from Eterne might have been a quarter of the journey it was had she sailed part of the way.

There was a puppyish wag of her tail at his crooned compliment, sarcastic as body language can possibly be, and then there was business -- he moved, drawing himself close to the edge, leaned so close to the water that the sable hybrid thought he might tumble right into the water. He remained, impossibly balanced on the stone, speaking softly to her. She craned her head to listen, her bright eyes still focused on his body and the way he leaned forward, thinking perhaps there was some new trick to be learned from it. Fins? So, they were fishing. She might have figured it out sooner, but sharp as she might have been with some subjects, Eris was not one with incredibly strong common sense. What else would they be getting out of the water? Frogs?

The hybrid laughed aloud when Sirius's head dove underneath the water, his jaws returning moments later completely empty. Chartreuse eyes flickered with continued amusement, though it would certainly disappear once she stuck her head into the cold water. The hybrid edged closer to the end of her rock, leaning down as close as she could to the water. Her yellow-green eyes squinted as she tried to see the fish beneath the water, but the movement of the water itself and the glare of sunlight off the moving surface of the stream was too much. After a few long minutes, she looked up at him, frowning. “I can't see anything,” she said rather carefully, hoping she did not appear to be whining.