It was a miracle at all that Harpy's Talon had survived this long.

Sheer will had gotten him through the ice age, the plague, living off of scraps.

He had grown skinny.

He had been looking for a proper challenge to kill him, a strong wolf, someone right.

He had found her, then, her scent at least.

The Eaglet who had fell all those years ago, the favored child he had seen broken on the rocks, the one he had torn the pup watcher to pieces for, for not watching her close enough to prevent such a tragedy.

He would see if she was worthy enough, he would see if the eaglet has earned her right to soar.

Harpy had watched the pack for days, hidden, laying in wait. To confirm that the scent belonged to the lost eaglet, to confirm it was her and not someone that smelled the same.

It was.

He saw her, as large as Golden, powerfully built as he knew she would become. Such wasted potential, to be in a pack that barely kept it's borders...

The commander showed himself, tail up, lightly wagging. For all intents and purposes, looking very much like the grandfather glad to see his granddaughter. Eaglet, I thought I had lost you, and here you stand grown

Another day, another patrol.

Her little family had shrunken down, Éabha had returned, Ksyusha too..but the others? Staying in Elysium, as far as she was aware. It hurt that they didn't want to stay in the pack they were born, but Elysium would have been their home if the plagues didn't hit...so....it was their right. They were grown now, anyway, free to choose where to go, what to be.

Fiadh hadn't thought it would hurt, she didn't think it would have hurt if Dimitri hadn't disappeared as well. She'd looked everywhere for them, but they had vanished. Together they would have weathered it, maybe even had more children to fill that little void, but...she had to move on. If they returned, they wouldn't want her to have been moping.

So she threw herself into the pack, giving Avon her undivided attention.

A familiar scent was on the wind, had been the last few times she's passed this part of the border, but she had written it off as wishful thinking!

Until her grandfather showed himself, looking scrawny...weak. Far weaker than he would have been by right, if he had been in a pack.

She stared at him, as if she couldn't believe her eye, until he spoke.

Tail wagging furiously, Fiadh pelted off, rushing him. GRAMPS!

Stopping just before bowling him over, sniffing him, licking at his face in her excitement like she was a puppy again.

He had expected a more...refined...greeting.

What he had gotten, was her bulk charging at him, bouncing around, tongue at his face like she was a pup and he had returned from an excursion, only stopping when he let out a warning growl.

What a waste

Haven't I told you, 'if you're going to greet me do it like a soldier'? You haven't forgotten your training, have you?

It was like he had flicked a switch in the woman's brain, Fiadh standing at attention, stiff legged and head up and looking forward. That's better. A pause, as he squinted his eyes. Why are you glowing?

'why are you glowing'

Fuck if I know gramps -- Commander --, this world's weird She relaxed only when he tilted his head just so, her tail wagging at such a speed it was a blur. Steller's Sea was here as well, but she's vanished. Fiadh spoke as if giving a report, though it was a struggle to remain that way. I go by Fiadh now, by the way

She watched him, waiting for his reaction, the tightening of his eyes made it clear that he was Displeased. I had to choose something, the pack I had appeared in wouldn't accept Eaglet as a name Fiadh was quick to defend herself, as she had with Steller, though with her grandfather it was....needed. This was the man that she had seen tear into Fledglings when they tried to keep the name they had in their old pack, the man who had ordered the pack to tear down soldiers bold enough to try their luck with their old name in private places.

Fiadh was strong, stronger than the man in front of her, there was a pack behind her.

And it was clear in his eyes that he knew this.

His teeth grit together as the woman before him spoke, one of his offspring had been here as well, why had it taken so long for him to find this place? He would have been younger, he could have started from scratch, he could have raised this Eaglet to her birthright. Now? Now, she was Fiadh, missing an eye, with the sagging belly that told of a birth who knows how long ago. A pack behind her, against one lone elderly man.

He was furious.

I would have named you Harpy's Screech was all he said in response to the slight, her naming herself. Too late to change it now then Then, as if his own switch was thrown, he seemed gentler. Like the grandfather in the quiet moments out of sight of the pack, here with stories of his youth. A mask, of course, but he was so good at those that it was almost impossible to notice. This pack of yours, would they take an old man in?

And just like that, Fiadh relaxed, the danger passed like a spring thaw.

Yeah! Oh man, I can't wait for you to meet the kids, C'mon. Have you eaten recently? Y'got any wounds? W've got healers an' caches, pack's a lil small but it's home. She chattered, as she led the old man into the territory. Ksyusha is off patrolling the other side of it so you'll have to meet her later, and Eabha's....somewhere