Reclaiming Pack

[Elyse]

"Nice to meet you Nimeda," Elyse said to the newcomer. There seemed to be a scent of confusion from Sierra, but that wasn't important now.

Elyse kept her mind clear. Panicking wouldn't help. Of course they couldn't send a message from the dream. But they couldn't save them here either unless they could drag Tristan and Thalia physically into the dream world. Sierra had said it earlier. They needed to know where they were. Then they needed to inform someone outside where here was.

"So we need to figure out where we are. This is a reflection of the physical world. We need to determine where they are here and where it translates to the real world. Then I wake up and get my friend going on a rescue. So - what do we know about here - middle of nowhere, but where is somewhere. Do we have landmarks we can use to determine that? Where did they disappear from? How did they get here? Anything else that might help us narrow down where they are."

Elyse had no information at all - just that Never had brought her here. She looked around. Ice and snow as far as the eye could see. It was a desert. A cold desert, but a desert nonetheless.

"This appears to be a polar desert - those are rare - only two that I know of - pretty much at the poles." she said. That narrowed it down quite a bit.

[Sierra]

Sierra laughed. "Knowing where they are from isn't going to help. I only found Tristan cause he called out. They disappeared from halfway across the world. There are no wolves here. There are no landmarks. They are in an old bunker of sorts. Much like here."

Sierra pointed towards Never. "Never is that way. That's where Tristan and Thalia are." She looked around trying to figure out where they where. "We need to find out where this is, where we are. And we can tell them what direction to look."

[Elyse]

That was enough to narrow it down considerably. ”Two polar deserts on the planet - only one of them with no wolves. We’re in Antarctica. We might not know exactly where yet, but that lowers the amount we have to search considerably.” she said.

Elyse looked in the direction that Sierra pointed. ”We can probably head to the bunker and then try to determine where it is from there. There are research facilities on the island - or we can get an idea of how far we are from the coastlines. Does that sound like it would work?”

[Sierra]

Sierra wished they had another pup or wolf with them, but Elyse didn't have Sting anymore -- he'd grown to his own wolf. She was grateful Never and Snow never thought to leave her. It would be lonely not having a wolf companion.

But it would be useful to send another with Tenzin. "Tenzin -- another friend, is out looking too, but I'd have to send Never to her to find where she is." It was sad that they couldn't talk to their brothers and sisters like they did the wolves, but then again there wren't likely to be that many of them in the same place either.

"I don't think there are a lot of structures here, we shouldn't need to find coasts. Just where there are people active. You can describe the buildings to him? Soar like an eagle in the dream and see what a satilite might see?"

[Elyse]

Elyse nodded. "Building descriptions should be helpful. I could also see if there is anything else. Flying in the dream is weird, but I can do it.

Doing things in the dream in general could be weird. Disappearing and reappearing somewhere else or tracking scents as others did it. It was an odd sensation. It was a good thing that Elyse wasn't scared of heights. She took a deep breath and then prepared. "I'll do some air recon and then report back to you guys before I wake up and talk to my friend. Then I'll come back and let you know how things went."

Elyse shifted to where Never was. Then she left the building. She didn't take to the sky right away, instead looking at where she was. Kneeling down she saw the ground wasn't dirt underneath the snow. "Black Sand..." she said, picking up some of it and letting it fall through her fingers back to the ground.

Then Elyse took the sky. To the north she could see a coast line. It moved east and west, and then moved to the south on the western side. She turned to face south. There was water there too, forming a strip of land. She moved across in the air, getting an idea of it. It wasn't on the Antartic mainland. It was an island - kind of shaped like a claw forming a natural harbor. As she continued, she found a research base located to the south of Tristan and Thalia's bunker. She landed to check it out. It was a research station. A flag on a wall on the interior looked familiar enough. Blue and white striped with a sun in the middle. Argentina. That meant the island was probably closer to South America as well. It would have to be enough. Sage should be able to find the rest of it.

Elyse shifted back to Nimeda and Sierra, telling her what she saw. "They're on an island shaped like a claw. To the south of their location is a research base with an Argentinian flag. The island has black sand. It should be enough for my friend to figure out where they are and a way to get a hold of the base or someone to extract them. I'm going to wake up and get this information to him, then I'll report back here."

Elyse did so. Sage had given her words to speak. She had never had to use them, and she thought if she had, it would be for herself. "Hey Wicked. I need help." she knew the words would get his attention right away and she knew he was paying attention, so she continued. "I have a friend who lost some friends in a storm. Their names are Tristan and Thalia. I was able to locate where they are in the dream. They're on an island with black sand in Antartica - shaped kind of like a claw with a natural harbor in the middle. They are located in a bunker on the northwestern part of the island. Almost directly south of them is a research base. Argentinian from the flag. Let me know if I need to get more. They're freezing and will die if they don't get help. Can you get a message or something to the base?"

[Sage]

It was the middle of the night. But he was stedily working -- though he was lying in bed with Aiden and actually alseep around his beau. That didn't mean he shut off -- not completely.

Elyse woke him and he was there almost instantly though he did have to rewind a little to catch the beginning but it wasn't much. He set an algorithm to run scans Antartica looking for settlements and things and when it found what he was looking for he sent Elyse the exact GPS coordinates.

I'll fax a report for their locations. Not sure what else I can do. Emergency broadcast too maybe. I'll make sure Thalia (and Tristan) are saved

Sage sat up in bed and rubbed his fingers through his hair, what the fuck was Thalia doing in Antartica. She was just at the lake. Her wallet said she was still there. What the fuck!

He did what he said he'd do for Elyse, but he went down stairs to his freezing cold server room and started analyzing data from where she had been, and where she was now. He had to figure it out. Nox would be a bit pissy if he found he'd lost a friend because something mystical or bullshitery happened and Sage didn't have an answer -- Not that Nox would be angry. Not really Sage always felt his friend only cared about what he could do for him, but Nox never asked for more than he could pay for. He could ask for so much more and Sage would give it to him. There was a time he thought Nox might join them but that time had passed.But they were friends -- good friends -- best friends even. Even if they never hung out -- though Sage expected that was cause of him. He sighed and started back on his research -- he wasn't doing it for Nox -- he was doing it for himself and Nox played along. Sage just liked to blame it on him. Self realization was new to Sage.

Emerency Beacon location. Send help immediately. With the message was GPS Coordinates on official looking paper for the facility. Hopefully that would be good enough to get them rescued. He'd monitor the situation.

[Sierra]

Elyse had told them what she'd found. And then she was off. There wasn't much to do except wait. Never went in search of Tenzin to sorta tell her what was going on. But there was no real way to tell her Elyse was going to tell her hacker friend about their location and get him to do stuff.

Hopefully Tenzin would return here and she could tell her then. But she could tell her in the real world. Never was just excited to be pivotal in all this. He loved being the center of everything.

Sierra sat down in the snow. It wasn't cold. It wasn't warm either -- it was a little disorienting being in the southern hemisphere with no cold. She oculd make it cold but why? why would anyone want to freeze in the dream.

"Nimeda, how come you and your other self don't know each other? I've never heard of such a thing?"

When Elsye returned she told them what she'd done and since it was all she could do she returned home. It was a matter of wait and see. Sierra would wait a while longer until Tristan returned. He'd be safe and warm or she'd tell him about their discovery. Either way she'd wait until she heard from Tristan -- or Tenzen woke her up -- which ever happened first.

[Thalia]

Sierra asked her how she’d known to use the dream in such a way, but Nimeda only shrugged pleasantly where she sat on the ground. It was like breathing or blinking or laughing; second nature. Though not something she should probably encourage in others – she’d been told that several times, and she was always more wary with one of the kin. Sierra had the wolves to keep her from wandering paths she shouldn’t even if she tried it though.

Soon after the conversation continued over her head, and Nimeda’s attention drifted. Tides of old memory still tugged. She didn’t really want to be here, not because of the company, but because of how easy it would be to lose herself again.

“No one’s ever asked me that before,” she said, the next time she was spoken to. Not in this lifespan anyway, at least so far as she could recall. She knew it was unusual, but she’d also never shown any interest in her Other until Noctua sought to find her in the waking world. The echo of his disappointment with whatever he’d found there still felt like bands of iron around her chest. Noctua’s chosen absence from her life since then yawned like an abyss, accepted but mourned deeply. It made her eyes glassy, reminded her that grief was not only something ancient. “You love him very much,” she said instead.

[Sierra]

Elyse didn't stay long before she flit off back to the real world. Sierra would wait for Tristan to contact her or Tenzin woke her in the real world.

She didn't answer the question. Maybe others never knew that she had another self they found out like Tristan -- found her in the dream and then in the real world -- or never at all. But now she knew of Thalia before and now she met the other dream self. And knew Thalia knew she didn't know. Otherwise it may have never occured to anyone else.

But her words next caught her off guard. "He's pack." But it was defensive and while not a lie it wasn't the whole truth. She had feelings for Tristan. She knew that. She'd decided to back off -- just be pack. Just be that and only that. Because of the woman standing before her. The fact that he'd been with her in the dream -- and that's all they had ever shared despite spending time in the real world -- in the same room sometimes even in the same bed. Neither of them were rich and saving money was important. And sometimes it was just for warmth -- it was practical. Sierra shrugged. "Doesn't matter if I did." she said offhanded.