Broken Antler Fen Take the long way home

She woke up that morning with a need to go swimming.  So she left got up with a yawn and made her way to one of the fens and slipped into the refreshing water.  For a while she stayed in swimming around, but finally she knew it'd been a while and that while it was fun she should probably do something a little more productive now.

She slid out of the water, shaking her pelt which sent tons of water droplets flying into the air and making her normally fluffy coat go into ultra fluffy mode.  Then she slunk down at the edge of one of the deeper parts of the fen, her lively green eyes searching for a fish to cross her path.

Burke walked through the pack lands. Normally he would keep a trotting pace but with his hurting joints it was not the most convenient way of traveling. He kept a good pace though as the male didn't want to grow stiff. He thought of going for a swim but most of the waters were still frozen, until he came upon a fen that seemed opened by the water birds. His eyes caught a young female swimming. He curiously looked at her and how she shook out her coat.

Burke stepped closer towards her. He had not met this wolf yet, and was curious what her role was in Sebastian's pack. His pale eyes stayed on her as he walked closer. Curiously enough she used the Rochester way of fishing. Sebastian must have taught her that then. He let out a chuff in greeting. It was a good choice to fish as the cold made the fish lethargic. "You use the Rochester way of fishing," he commented.

She was so focused with fishing that she hadn't even noticed the older Sebastian look alike coming her way.  At the sound of a voice commenting on her fishing her head shot up to see who was speaking.

At first she thought he was her Father, Seb, but at a second glance she noticed that he looked older than her Father did.  Curious as to who this was she rose, sinking back on her haunches.

"Well I am Sebastian's daughter," she informed him, as an answer to the question of which he had presented to her.  "Who are you though?  You sure do look a whole lot like my Dad," she implied, her curious green gaze watching him intently.

Burke eyed over her. She didn't have the Rochester build. Burke also knew that the dots were a rather dominant thing to inherit. The two younger pups he saw had those dots too. Benjamin even had a darker version of it, curiously enough. Burke decided to go along with it. "Daughter, ey?," he questioned.

"I'm Burke, Sebastian's father. That would mean that I am your Grandfather," he spoke to there. "However, you are pretty old to be a pup from Sebastian," he pointed out. Because he could remember last year, at the end of winter Sebastian joined Black Feather for a brief moment, and she was about a year old. Sebastian didn't seem like the type that would leave his children behind.

He seemed quite the judge mental and she shifted uneasily.  She began to wonder why he was here though.  Afterall she thought that Seb hated his Father.  So what as he doing here now?  First thing first though she decided to answer his question.

"Well I am adopted," she told him with a shrug.  "He's the closest thing I have now to a Father."  She remarked, happy to prove who she really was to him.  Now she studied him curiously though.  Wondering why he was here.  "Y'know though, I'm kinda wondering what you're doing here because of umm..." She stopped herself there pretty sure that Burke got the point of what she was trying to ask him.

Ah! There it was. Adopted. His weakhearted son took an stranger's brood under his wing. Pathetic. Then again, there could be an alternative motive. If she had been really young she could be molded in to learning this pack's ways. She seemed to have at least some work ethic and fishing skills. Burke could approve of that. "I see. Well, I guess since Sebastian's spawn already named me Grandpa Butt I can be Grandpa Butt for you too," he then commented. "If you might feel the need for one that is."

He realized that such a thing almost sounded nice. It was only because he liked that she was willing to hunt, even while the water was freezing. "We never really saw eye to eye, no," he agreed. "But he is a sentimentalist and I do know he always wanted to have a father. I am getting old and ruling my own pack isn't something that goes well with my older bones. Too much work. So I decided to join his pack instead. Perhaps with this old age I am growing sentimental too," he responded.

Grandpa Butt... she had to hold back a laugh, but her eyes twinkled.  Still it wasn't to hard to imagine how easily something like that could've happened.  At his mention of becoming sentimental, she doubted it was true, but still didn't say anything on that matter.  He could believe what he wanted to believe.

"Alright," she replied, although still found herself a little confused why Sebastian would even want his Father here after telling her how terrible he was.  Maybe some things just didn't have an explanation.

"So... you say you had a pack before this.  What was it called?"  She asked, mostly out of pure curiousity.

Burke just nodded, though it seemed his words had amused her at least. Perhaps his reputation with the locals of this pack wasn't so good as he thought they were. Sebastian might have talked bad about him, and Burke couldn't really blame him for that. The female asked about his previous pack. Burke wondered if he should talk about Arthendal or Blackfeather. He decided that Arthendal was the safest bet. "I did. It was named Arthendal. It was a pack in the hinterlands, over the mountains south of the territory. It was a big piece of land between two rivers," he told her. It was also a territory like this where fish was abundant.

Arthendal.  It wasn't a pack she'd ever heard of, but she wasn't surprised if it was in the hinterlands.  She'd never been over there after all so it wasn't like there really was anyway that she could have known it as nothing had drawn a her towards the hinterlands.

"Sounds nice."  She responded, giving her fluffy coat a quick shake, which sent now just a few remaining droplets flying.  She was almost about to voice a sorry to Burke in case any droplets had landed on him... but then again maybe if he really had changed he wouldn't say anything.  She decided to put it to the test.  "Do you know how to fish?"  She asked him, while eyeing him to see any hints of discomfort e might show her if he had even gotten sprayed on at all.  "Cause if ya do it might be beneficial that we do some fishing right now.  Being so close to one of the dens and all."

Burke just gave a bit of a nod in agreement when she said that it sounded nice. That was all it was, a nice sound. At the time being it was tough on him. The girl shook out her coat and instantly his ears flattened and his face turned into more of a glare as splatters landed on his face. However the older man didn't say anything of it. He could have snapped at her but that wasn't something that would help his whole case he knew that. "Of course I can fish!," he pointed out and stepped closer towards the water. Now he had been splattered with it anyhow.

"Okay I will do some fishing with you," he then decided and slowly wadded into the water. He glanced down, trying to see if he could spy something already though he was pretty sure the fish needed to get accustomed to him at first. "How big are they generally? So I know what to expect," he asked her.

She was satisfied to see that he understood his place, despite his grumpy face.

"There's quite a few small ones," she responded, "but there are some. If ones too if you really look for 'em."  She finished, her eyes now beginning to scan the water for any signs of some unlucky passing fish.

Burke watched the younger female and then nodded. He glanced over the water too. His eyes scanning for any slivers of silver that might indicate that there were some fish around. He stood a little away from her so they wouldn't be in each other's waters.

Burke wanted to catch a big one so he would have a decent meal, but he doubted that they would come to the shallows he was standing now. His eyes were not really improving so he had a hard time seeing if there were fish.

Her eyes scanned the water, waiting for her chance.  Just then a shade of silver sparkled out of the corner of her eyes.  Excitement caused her heart to race as she watched it approach, her eyes locked onto her prey.  She waited till it was just a foot away, then in a flash smacked her paw onto the fish and quickly leaned forward grabbing it in her jaws and biting down, causing it to quickly go limp.

It wasn't the biggest of all fish, it was on the smaller side really, but it was still food, so it would work just fine.  Then then turned, placing her limp catch on the ground just a couple feet away before heading back over to the water's edge by Burke.

Burke watched as the female surged forward. The watched as she took a medium sized fish from the water. Perhaps a bit on the small which made it sightly more impressive. The target was smaller. Burke focussed on the water again but because the female walked out of the water most the fish were probably scared away.

The elder male sat down in the shallow water. "You can catch more of those?," he asked. He never thought that he would ever grow lazy but it would be nice if he could get a free meal out of this.

He seemed at least somewhat impressed by her skill, either that or he was calling it luck, but she was pretty sure it was the first.  Perhaps he had been a bad parent, but he didn't seem all too aweful now.

"Perhaps if another comes my way I will, don't see any right now though... if I am able to catch anymore it'll take a few minutes," she replied, her eyes once again scanning the water as she waited for another fish to come her way, so she could prey on it.

Burke nodded. "I don't expect you to take one from the water now. Your movement scared them away," he spoke, which seemed logical. The male inhaled softly. He hated that his vision was lacking right now. He wanted to be young again. He wondered where she originally came from. She was adopted by his son but he wondered where he found her. He would never adopt a child. But seeing this Odette now, and how skillful she was, she seemed useful.

"Can I have the fish then?," he curiously asked. He might as well try to get it. He was nice enough to ask instead of take it. He did mellow down over time.

He seemed he seemed to be warming up a little bit more to her now, and she wondered if the reason he'd been slightly rude in the first place was because he had been judging her as she was adopted, still it could have been anything and he seemed to be being a bit nicer to her now so that was great.

She nodded as he asked for her fish, "you can have it."  Odette replied, picking up the deceased fish and moving it over closer to Burke before setting it down.  Then her eyes turned back to the water scanning it for more fish.

Burke eagerly sank his teeth into the fish. He munched on it open-mouthed. The small fishbones breaking between his teeth. He hadn't had fish in a while. He was mostly in his own zone as he ate. The female was back to hunting. She had some work ethic, that was for certain. Sebastian raised her well, he had to admit that. Only he wondered how fierce she would be in protecting or fighting in general. "Did you ever do some fighting?"

No more fish would appear to her that day as she scanned the water, as Burke asked her if she'd ever done any fighting.  She cocked her head curiously thinking back.  She could never remember doing any, she'd always wanted to learn, but had never really gotten around to learning how to do it.

"No I don't believe I have," she replied with a shrug, turning away from the water's edge to now face Burke, "but I'd love to learn," she continued.  For if Burke offered to teach her of course she would end up saying yes.

Burke was pleased that she was willing to learn how the fight. He would shape Sebastian's daughter into something more worthy instead of only a fisherwoman. The male lifted his muzzle and then pushed himself to his feet. "First you must know where the softer parts of your body are," he pointed out. He left the end open so she could guess for herself.

Perhaps that was a bit too confusing so he cleared his throat. "Do you know those places?," he asked.

And so he was willing to teach.  She thought for a moment and ended up assuming that the soft spots on her body would probably be her throat and stomach.  She couldn't think of anything else really besides those two.

"My stomach and throat?"  She guessed, with a curious tilt of her head.  While she was pretty sure she had answered correctly, she still wasn't one hundred percent sure of her answer although she knew she shouldn't have to much doubt that she had indeed answered correctly.

Burke dipped his head. "Correct," he spoke to the other. "Your legs can also be valuable. If you injure them you might not be able to fight back but aren't as vital as those." Burke looked over the younger female. "Do you know how to protect those area's as well?," he asked. Maybe she already knew. Burke wasn't going to explain more than needed.

How to protect her vulnerable spots.  Well... for her neck she could dip her head and it'd be harder to reach, for her stomach she could try to keep level to the ground... but her legs?  How in the world could she effectively protect her legs?  In truth now that she thought about it, she had no idea, she was stumped.

"Well for my neck I can dip my head, for the stomach I believe I can protect it by just staying level to the ground... but I have no clue how I can protect my legs effectively.  How do I?"

Burke slowly nodded as the female was right once again. Did Sebastian teach her to fight after all? He had the feeling the female didn't know about anything. He slowly nodded in confirmation and then quirked up his lips. "Well, that is where sure footedness and footwork comes in. You need to do exercises where you train your footwork. Make them react lightning quick to an incoming attack. It is also where dodging comes in," he explained the female. He further trained the female until she was tired. Perhaps they would have another follow up session in the future. At least Burke liked it that he could still mentor some of the younger wolves.

- End -

Edited an ending!