Redhawk Caldera confused

There was a weird scent in the air, had been for a while. A scent that reminded him of mommy @Finley , but at the same time it didn't at all. It confused him to even think about it, but at the same time he wanted to find mommy, even if he didn't know why he so badly wanted to spend time with her now. It was daddy @Elwood who spent most time with mommy presently, and there was probably a reason for that.

But Eljay didn't remember this from before, hadn't been as influenced before as he was now. It felt like the weird scent was fading already and he hadn't seen mommy the whole time. Eljay'd been feeling so confused that he had decided to just stay out the way, perhaps because of feeling naturally inferior and therefore instinct boding him to stay away. But the pull was undeniable.

It didn't look like all of this was raging in his mind perhaps when he stood and stared at the water's edge at the caldera's lake, but on the inside there were more thoughts and feelings than he could place. Particularly when he wasn't sure what his parents wanted him to do — stay in the pack, or go — and when he felt useless and unnecessary.

ooc: snatching this one. Lovely to have a thread with you again!

The last few weeks had not been easy on Birk either with Finley suddenly appearing as the most attractive lady in the pack, against all the rational reasons his mind kept throwing in his way, one of the most obvious being that all in all he liked Raven a lot better. It was that smell, which made his mind foggy and his dreams weird. Good thing, however, was that with the return of his health, came the ability to hunt properly again. Therefore on days, when it got very insufferable, he just left the caldera and spent days searching for prey. 

He was returning from one such trip now, holding a piece of lower part of the deer-foot between his jaws, looking forward to the prospect of spending a well-deserved lazy afternoon, sunbathing and chewing. However, since it was an activity that could wait, Birk decided to stop, when he noticed a lonely figure sitting by the lake. When he came closer, he realized that this could be one of the Elwood and Finley's brood, since he looked so similar to the alpha pair.

"Hrmreyy!" he greeted the young wolf and came to sit next to him, realizing then that it would be a lot easier to speak, if he just put down the bone by his feet. "Now you look like one sad potato - care to tell, what's burdening your mind?"

yay! :D it's been too long!

Eljay was so lost in thoughts that he didn't even notice the other wolf's approach until he was pretty much there. He startled when he heard the other wolf and jumped a little in place. After straightening himself out he stared and blinked at the other while he tried to register what was being said to him.

Only a few seconds after the other had already stopped talking did he bring out — "Oh!" As if he suddenly understood what was being asked of him. "Uh, I, nothing, I guess — just, y'know, lost in thoughts." He smiled sheepishly, trying to appear perfectly normal though he knew that he must look like an idiot.

Birk had never cared for appearances and, even if the boy might have looked like an idiot to someone else (of the snobbish kind, definitely), then to him he seemed perfectly normal. The fact that he had got a friendly reply instead of a dead-pan silent treatment or a growl with several underlying meanings (his relatives weren't of the chatty kind), was enough to encourage him to continue the conversation. 

"Let me guess - you are... Jay...el? Right?" he asked, realizing that since his talk with Finley he had forgotten the name of her firstborn son. "If that is not correct - sorry, I am totally bad at names. I am Birk, by the way, and I won't mind, if you call me Brick or something."

Eljay's ears perked towards the other and he nodded as the name was requested. Well, he got the first bit right, at least. "Yeah, uhm, I mean, sorta... My name's Eljay. But Jay is good too. It's nice to meet you Birk." He smiled softly, not caring much if his name was said right or not. "I guess you met momm— uhm, my parents?" Which seemed to make sense, since they were the pack's leaders now. He wondered if Birk was feeling the same confused way towards mommy, too, but he was too afraid to ask because of how weird he felt about it all.

"Yup, both of them - great people," Birk nodded eagerly. He liked both Elwood and Finley and there had not been any reason to change that first, very good impression of the leaders. "And I believe that you are a great one too," he then added, hoping that being friendly and welcoming would help to break the ice even further. For some reason he sensed that Jay was not totally at ease with him and, since Birk had weirded out many wolves he had met, he attempted to act as normal as it was possible. 

"Would you like to have a lunch with me? I will have to stash this foot, but I know a great mousing spot. Or... if swamp-food is more for your taste, I know the best place in the area. What do you think?" he looked expectantly at the young man, while all of Birk's being was radiating "say yes, say yes, say yes" attitude.

Eljay nodded with a radiant smile, clearly agreeing with Birk when it came to his parents. His smile faded a little into a more bashful one when the compliment was turned on him, feeling it unjust since Birk barely even knew him. "Uhm, thanks," Eljay murmured awkwardly and then he was glad when Birk suggested they do something else, changing the subject.

To hear the bone referred to as a 'foot' felt a bit morbid, as if it had once been a wolf or anything resembling that. "Uh, sure," said Eljay with a nod. "I don't have preference, whatever you like best." Mousing or swamp would be fine for him, really.

"Mouse-food it is then," Birk made the choice for both of them and then retreated few steps to take a good joint-cracking/knuckle-popping stretch. Boy, did that feel good. Invigorated by this little piece of canine yoga, he turned around to scan the forest and, once the decision was made, where to go, he beckoned Eljay to follow. 

"Finley said that you are a caretaker," he looked at the boy. "Good with kids?"

Eljay nodded at Birk when the decision for mice was made, a choice that he was fine with. He watched his companion attentively from thereon out and as soon as he was beckoned, Eljay was already ready to go towards wherever Birk'd lead him. He easily followed and took mental notes so that he'd know to find this place again in case he'd ever want to polish up on his mouse hunting skills. He hadn't tried much on them yet, because they were so small and fast and he never seemed to catch any of them. It made him feel a little nervous now; what if he totally failed in front of this stranger?

He was distracted from those thoughts by Birk's questions though and nodded. "Uhm, sort of. I watch the pups so that everyone else can do other useful things for the pack." There was a hint to his tone that he wished he could be off doing other useful things too, but he didn't say it out loud. "I also want to practise to help with delivering pups, but Raven's been pretty busy so she hasn't been able to teach me super much about herbs that could be useful for that. I mean, uhm, I just want everyone to be safe, so I want to help better..." Aunt Fox had died even long after Eljay'd made his resolve to become a midwife, but as he was asked about his caretaking activities Eljay suddenly felt a strong urge again to learn more. He thought maybe he should ask mommy again if he could be there for her next birth — but what if she didn't want him to?

"I think that watching puppies is a very useful thing to do," Birk said, sensing that for some reason Eljay did not think that his job was just as good as the others, while it was not true. If there was no one, who would willingly want to take care of the kids, then someone else (like him, for example) would have to end up with the job that they did not particularly enjoy. Don't get Birk wrong - he liked kids, but he also liked the fact that they were not his responsibility 24/7.

"That sounds interesting..." he said in response to Eljay's aspirations to become a midwife. Truth to be told, Birk was a little puzzled over, what exactly could you learn about birth-giving, if you were not the one to give birth. And, when he thought a little more about it, he realized that there was an area (perhaps, there were more), where this rather shy boy of the alpha pair, was braver than him. "Do you have any advice of how to get through with the current bunch? Towhee, for example, is quite a character to say the least..." Birk chose, what he believed to be the grumpiest kid of the litter.

"Oh, um, thanks," Eljay murmured, clearly not sure how to deal with the compliment that he had been given, and he looked away. Glad to see the subject shift towards other things he continued, as Birk showed some form of interest in his aspirations, "It's kind of hard, uhm... But mommy let me be there last time when the pups were born, and Raven's been teaching me about what herbs could help for growing puppies." Or rather, for helping the pups grow — Eljay had a lot to learn still, but he was slowly getting there.

"Towhee can't hear anything," Eljay said with a serious expression on his face, as if he thought Birk didn't realise this yet; "That's why she tries to make gestures a lot and stuff. Uh, but I'm not very good with the signing, so I'm glad she started to sort of talk too." 'Sort of' because it was hard to hear what she was saying a lot of the time because she didn't know how to do the intonations as well. "But the biggest advice is to be patient," Eljay shared with a soft smile. That was how he tried to get through, anyway, with the past and present firebird bunch.

"Yeah... I have some patience stored away, but I can't guarantee that it won't run thin at some point," Birk said this more to himself than to Eljay. He did not mention that it was a good thing none of his siblings were here - their tolerance to the shenaningans of the young wolves was very low if not non-existant. 

"What about the rest - I think I have run into Titmouse? And what is the name of that kid, who always hangs out with Towhee?" Birk asked, remembering that there probably was another one could not remember right away and hoped that Eljay would fill in for him.

Eljay grinned awkwardly at Birk, not sure what a life without patience was like because he had so much of it himself. He didn't really think about it that much though, not considering that it may be a useful skill of some sort at all (instead, he considered himself slow).

"Oh, um, Titmouse, yes," Eljay said with a nod, then added in return to Birk's question, "Oh, yes, that's Fidg— uhm, Phox. That's Phox. They're pretty close. And then there's Orca."

"Towhee, Titmouse, Orca and Phox," Birk repeated the names, knowing very well that the next time he met one of the cubs, he would have a hard time telling them apart (except for Towhee, her scowl was hard to forget). 

"I heard that you have siblings too," he went one, recalling that, when he had last met Finley, she had mentioned them and she had been pissed off at one of them specifically. Too bad her (or his?) name had escaped him too. "What are they like?"

Eljay nodded as Birk repeated the names of the pups. Then as he spoke of Eljay's siblings, he smiled, though felt a pit in his stomach at the grim reminder that Lagan and Liffey were already better at everything than he, now. "Oh, yes! Lagan and Liffey," he said, hesitating a moment after as though he was going to say something more but then trailing off there, deciding to leave out Lucy. Mention of her seemed only to hurt mommy and he didn't want to do that; it was easier to just try and forget. "They're uhm, they're great," he said with a soft smile, not sure what else to say about them, or what Birk wanted to hear.

"Good to know," was Birk's respones to Eljay's not overly elaborate tale about his siblings. He had an inkling that the boy was uneasy talking about them, but he brushed it away as a stupid idea. After all, what could he say about his siblings? Not even a full sentence without getting rather rude. And he was pretty sure, that if they were asked the same question, they would not have high opinion of their useless vagabond brother either. 

"I mean, they must be better than mine," he continued with a hint of humor in his voice. "They have not tried to eat you in the dead of winter? Mine did."

Eljay's eyes nearly popped out of its sockets when Birk mentioned his siblings had tried to eat him once. "They did?!" he said incredulously with almost child-like innocence. He did think that Liffey and Lagan were pretty great, and he had enjoyed being a big brother, though nowadays he sometimes felt like he wasn't as necessary anymore because Lagan was at least equally good with the pups, but without all the panic attacks and stupidity.

"Are we almost there yet?" he asked Birk with a hesitant patience; he hadn't been that hungry, but now that they had been walking for a bit he realised he was growing hungry and was looking forward to the mouse-meal they spoke of earlier.

"Oooh yeah," Birk nodded, though it was clear from his expression and the sly twinkle in his eyes that, while the fact indeed was true, he had altered it just so it sounded more exciting and horrible than it had been. 

"Well, not far at all - in fact, we are here," he said in response to Eljay's next question and beckoned to a little clearing in the woods, which was covered in old leaves and green stalks of grass peeking out here and there. "Listen for the squeaking," he instructed, "and that story goes like this..."

ooc: you can fade out in your next post. Thank you for the thread!

The joke was lost on Eljay, who just seemed and felt horrified by the thought of someone's siblings trying to eat them. Did that happen?! He'd never been in so much hunger that he had even considered eating another wolf.

They were there then and he smiled as he glanced over the clearing. Then he got ready to spring into action, a concentrated smile on his face.