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Nothing. The highlands were empty of anymore errant daughters, or there were no signs of them because they were... dead. Saga wasn't ready to accept that as an answer, so the only path left to her was to keep going. They couldn't be dead, they just couldn't. Even if they were, there would still be signs of them!

She had to keep looking. What kind of Mother was she if she just gave up, went home? One like her own.

There was a tunnel, ahead. Its entrance had a vague... pull about it. She thought she knew what it was from talk around Jakten, and while she wasn't sure where it could take them, maybe if she thought about the girls hard enough, it would deliver her to them. Saga would take anything at this point.
She'd wait for everyone to find her here, first. Hunt, fill their bellies. It'd been a long couple weeks of travel, but they deserved a good rest before pushing on into unknown waters. Past here... Saga had not seen much of Mythris, save the forest she'd lived in with Killian before the Saints.

Rest didn't find the silver Fox, though. The pale woman paced about aimlessly, telling herself she was hunting, but far too restless and unfocused to really say she was doing much more than pacing.

Saga waited for the others to find her in the gathering twilight, hoping they were having good luck in their endeavors. She didn't want to seem ungrateful; even some of the missing whelps had been recovered, but it didn't soothe her worries over Magnolia and Laurel any. In fact, she couldn't figure why there was not hide nor hair of her two most wild daughters. Could they really have gone so far on their own? Had the portals taken them far, far from home?

Saga jumped so violently her steps halted as a voice cuts not unkindly through the air.

Mh. Most certainly not hunting. Not even paying attention to her surroundings.

Yes, she warbled back, doing her best to stand up straight and not allow her forepaws to fidget over one another in her embarrassment. Well, no. Not really. But her pitiful problems were for her to deal with, not strangers. Still:

I'm simply waiting on my packmates to catch up. We're searching for my daughters, you see, but the highlands have offered nothing more to find.

The man was pale. Not terribly tall or brutish, but far from small like her. Impossibly pale blue eyes that nearly looked to be silver. Huh - hadn't Melanthe asked her to look out for someone grey with blue eyes????
She was not so stupid as to go asking about the ebony woman; if she was in any danger, Saga knew she had to protect her, keep her location hidden and her whelps safe!

I'm Saga, she extended politely, mostly hoping to get his name.

The stranger frowned, and while Saga was unsure if it was from judgement or worry, she didn't rightly care. He simply wished her luck, and this was well and good for her. She wasn't so blind to believe asking around for her daughters might not point them in the right direction, but it was more complicated than that. For one, she wasn't fond of the idea that other Fox's might be around - lurking family members she wasn't sure she trusted with even the knowledge of her whelps. Worse still, Joxer must still be lingering somewhere; where was beyond them all, but he would recognize the scent of Jakten --of Jaxxon-- on them, and his wrath towards his brother was no secret.

This man struck her neither as a Fox or someone who would bow to Joxer, but some were good pretenders! For her sake and Melanthe's, holding her tongue was safest.

But, of course, Melanthe was so kind as to give her a name to search for.

Saga smiled at the pale Strider, warm and knowing.

Sedat! she confirmed his name with a wagging tail, ears pressing forward in recognition. There was a laughing ring to her voice, not at his expense, but as if in disbelief. You are to be a Father soon yourself, no?

PleaseDontBiteMe.

Saga watched surprise bloom on his face like springtime growth expanding over the land the moment the snows had melted. Some small part of her knew such words could've gotten her into trouble, but she wondered if knowing too much was also another one of those Fox things, not a "most people" thing. The thought that she might've been an enemy didn't even seem to occur to Sedat. Perhaps the enemy Melanthe worried about was not canine in nature at all.

He did try to guard his features, though whether simply embarrassed or careful was up for debate.

'I fear I am losing hope.' Hold fast to your hope yet, Sedat; I know much. Saga smiled till her cheeks hurt. Melanthe asked me to keep an eye out for you in my travels, and if I found you, to tell you that: she's alive, the children are well -they had not yet been born when I left, but must've been by now-, and that if you desired to see them she would welcome you. Why she might not was a certain curiosity, to be sure, but the arguments or oddities of a couple weren't lost on Saga of all people.

......Surely, he spoke of Melanthe, no?

His soft, genuine indignancy left no room for doubt: Sedat cared for his family, no matter their situation or why Melanthe had given him an opening to not return. Whatever happened, whatever they felt, they were familiar and they wanted each other in some small way. Saga was keen to make sure they returned to one another!

'Where must I go to reunite with them?'

Saga turned to regard the land, looking at the line of pines upon the horizon below the distant peaks of mountains. There, she motioned. You see that mountain range, far in the distance? She could picture the route in her mind, the way they'd come down down down to the row to start their search. It hugs the sea. Go to it, first, however you may. It didn't matter where he entered the range, only that he did - she couldn't give him accurate directions around from where they were now. Follow it further south-west until the peaks become shrouded in fog; that is Mistveil, home of Jakten. The Fox beamed brighter, somehow. Jaxxon -my mate- and Nyra -my mentor- are the leaders there, and its a pack of warriors. That was putting it nicely, wasn't it? No, not entirely, not since Nyra came and lent sense to the violence, tapered it into something savage but somehow.... meaningful, even if Saga didn't agree with it and things like sacrifices to the gods. She woke there, and I found her - I've made sure she and the pups want for nothing even in my absence. If you tell whoever greets you at the borders that Saga has sent you to join her, there should be no troubles. Especially if he came already bearing the knowledge of their Einvald's names, and that of the woman out searching for her own babies -and who had been asked to search for this man, specifically. No, Saga couldnt imagine any problems in his arrival.

For a moment, she was saddened to wonder if they would then leave. Would she return home to her new friend gone, before she even got to lay eye on the pups Melanthe had so desperately wanted to keep safe? Still, Jakten was not for everyone and she knew that. If she herself hadn't fallen for Jaxxon in times past, before she had the choice to really leave.... would she still be here? Hard to guess.