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Saga was growing frantic, despite their measure of success. Time felt like it was closing in; Magnolia and Laurel were still missing, and while some part of her wanted to hope they'd made it home already, anxiety drove her ever onward as she continued the search. The coast, the Highlands, Saga was checking everywhere the girls might've holed up around where they'd last been.... To no avail. Perhaps, she told herself, it was time to search where they were less likely to be. Obviously, had they been in these moors, one of the search party would've picked up their scents as she had Otillie's. She would have picked up their scents.
Perhaps, she told herself, the mountains. Perhaps they'd gone to the spine instead of home. It was a shorter peak, but perhaps with inexperience they'd simply picked and walked. If they were not there... Saga told herself it was time to move on from the moors. The thought scared her; they'd already been gone so long, and eventually, she'd need to send someone back home to tell Jaxxon they weren't dead.

As she drew further from the group and came across a trail not entirely foreign, it was not that of her daughters.

It was that of her brother. Another littermate. Was Mythris intent to bring them to her? How far had she strayed from Snuh, would her sister yet be close enough to find her first, if Saga called now? She couldn't be sure. Muscles grew taut as they froze and remembered the ache left behind by a strike, lessons before dawn and after dusk, being the sibling constantly called forward to be the object of target practice. It wasn't Rurik's fault, not really. He couldn't help that she couldn't learn under such conditions, couldn't help what Mother forced, couldn't help that Saga was the unfortunate bait and dummy for her bloodline.
Just as Saga couldn't control the fear pulsing through her veins, stinking up the field. Suddenly it didn't matter how much training Nyra had lavished upon her, she was just a scared girl pitted against her littermates once again.

Saga stood stock-still, unsure if she should just... make her way back? Pretend nothing was wrong? Hope that her nonchalance didn't draw attention and she could just slip back to Snuh and the other more experienced fighters she'd brought along with her. She didn't have to deal with this - she was a woman grown, and she had nothing to prove to her Mother anymore. She didn't have time for foolish tussles.

Yet she knew her fear-scent was a beacon, to other Fox's lurking and who knew what predators besides. She was already asking to be found. To be questioned. Confronted.

For what? She wasn't so deluded that she thought her Mother was sending people out for her. Snuh said she was assumed dead, and even if she wasn't by all, then she knew without a shadow of a doubt she wouldnt be what Mother wasted resources on. Hell, too many doubted her reasoning to send people out looking for Peregryn, and he was useful. He was a firstborn.

Whether it was terror or reason, Saga remained rooted in place.

Waiting.

Back straight, head snaking low to the ground, tail stiff straight behind her, Saga wasn't sure how to approach the situation, but she wouldn't run. Her crimson gaze raked the moor, breaths coming short and quick, ears pinned hard.
She would wait. Come hell or high water, even if she had to call for their sister and fight it out, she would let events unfold. She would let Rurik come to her, if he so chose, and she would let him decide what this meeting would be.

She wasn't sure they'd ever really interacted away from Mother. Maybe... things could be different.

If ever there had been time to avoid this, Saga knew it was up the moment his dark, speckled form blotted into view. He was a shadow moving along in the pre-dawn dark, and she wondered if he knew how intimidating he looked. Perhaps she only thought that because she'd been on the receiving end of brutality -his and others- too many times to count.

And suddenly, as if neither of them had noticed, they were face to face.

'Saga.....you're alive.' It seemed nobody was sure, even Saga herself. Some part of her wanted to ask what had been found, what had been seen, or if Mother was simply happy to claim her 'likely dead'. More of her didn't want to know. One way or another, she was taken from home.... and it'd been the best thing ever to happen to her. Maybe that was the important part.

A gentle, short nod. Saga trembled atop rigid limbs, a fawn ready to flee, but a resolute firmness shone behind the fear. She had to see this through, one way or another, even if she had less assurance that Rurik wasn't here on someone elses bidding.

'I can't believe that I found you.' Had he been... searching? Why?

Synnove is here, too, she swallowed a lump in her throat, voice feeling small. She goes by Snuh now. Did he know that? She wasn't actually sure when their sister had dropped her birth name; before or after she'd fought her way free of Snow Peak and the Fox clan. Was he perhaps on the search for HER? Mother's pride had been wounded; maybe she sent others out in search of another wily Fox child in need of punishment.

Maybe he would just be more interested in a useful Fox.

He wasn't here for Snuh.
He was here for her. To see if she was still alive. He'd been sent out as so many others had been to look for Peregryn, but like apparently many others, he'd never returned. How many of their siblings, older and littermate alike, had the same change of mind once they were far from Laurel's dark influence? She'd assumed most of them dead, after so long. How many really were?

Saga knew the strength that took. She'd been the only Fox that ever went out to search and came back at all, even on the tail of failure.

As if summoned, Snuh's massive form came haring into view, eyes wild and stance protective. Saga felt a knot in her chest unravel if only a little, relief properly taking hold as she thought Snuh wont let anything bad happen. But it... didn't really seem like that was necessary. Rurik didn't seem to be any sort of danger - not that Fox's weren't a lying bunch of shits when it served them, but they were also unneededly dramatic. If he was here to start shit, Saga thought... he would've by now. Didn't have a reason to sit around and lie, get them to drop their guard when he could've had Saga between his teeth by the time Snuh had gotten there.

Tears welled in her eyes, too, as the intense moment shifted into a reunion.

A happy one, perhaps. Her muscles relaxed a little, though she didn't dare close the distance - in her defense, didn't consider it. She didn't know this littermate well enough to know if he'd bite her just for getting into his personal space like Corrina did.

What changed your mind, Rurik? Mother.... isn't easy to leave, not even by accident.