Moonspear and if i say to you tomorrow

Most of all, he was out on the hunt for a new good chewing stick because he had gnawed his last favorite to nothing but splinters, and he was bored of bones for a bit. He'd yet to find anything with just the right fit.. and set off prowling for a small meadow between some trees not too far from the rendezvous. Within it, he found a whole thick of tall, golden flowers—goldenrod, actually, but he didn't know this. Jarilo's sights were sent elsewhere, and he didn't register the flowers as anything he ought to care about; they weren't going to sate his craving to gnaw his teeth on something that'd resist.

He dove right in through the middle and went weaving for the depths of the little thicket, only to regret it pretty soon once he was all covered in yellow dust from the flowers.. and was swiftly realizing all the bees and other buzzing things around. Jarilo sneezed and tried to shake it off.. which was really just him stirring up more instead, and he wasn't finding any good leads for suitable new chew treasure in this big tangle of weeds he'd rustled his way to the heart of. With no better plan, he kept on going through. It'd have to have something on the other side, at least.

i love the imagery your post gives, haha <3

And on the other side was the unsuspecting father. Unsuspecting, at least, until he saw clouds of yellow exploding and it was pretty safe to assume that there was someone in there; judging by the height, a pup. He watched with an amused grin on his face as the blob came closer before he could identify it as his son. "Hey sport, catching flowerdust?" he called out towards his son who came in a straight line towards the end of the flower field (and his father).

aww <3

His commotion made it way worse before he could to where it would be better. Dusted by pollen and having stirred up every bug in the path, he squeezed his eyes shut and snapped at the nearest buzzes until he felt all the plantlife let him go. Before he could even sigh his relief, he started sneezing again when he realized his dad was here and asking him stuff. He didn't have it together enough to even give it a start. "I—" Sneeze. "Guess so—" Sneeze. "Wrong path—" A really big sneeze. "And lots of bees!!" he tipped his head back and complained. By then he was starting to recover so he gave a big, exaggerated shake to try to get some of the dust off himself. Well, whatever he hadn't shaken off by the sneezing already. There was still plenty as it fell from him and began to sprinkle around underfoot.

"It kinda wasn't what I meant to do though," he huffed, still feeling lingering itchiness in his eyes that he was trying to blink off. He'd accidentally caught a whole lot of flowerdust anyway, even without that being the plan.

It was hard not to laugh at Jarilo being covered in flowerdust and complaining about the position he was in. Charon chuckled as Jarilo complained about catching flowerdust and bees, unable to keep the smile off his face. "The bees use the flower for stuff." He thought for a moment, remembering that Thistle'd taught him these things. It was like unlocking a long-lost memory as he suddenly remembered going for honey with her. He'd loved the taste but it was difficult to gather. "Honey. They make honey, which is like.. bee-food, I guess." Charon actually wasn't too sure what bees ate and if it was honey or if they created it for some other purpose, but it made the most sense to him that they'd eat it because he had liked the taste.

"What did you mean to do then?" Charon asked his son as he looked out over the flowerfield at the pattern Jarilo'd created in it, while some bees busily zoomed round looking for the flowerfluff Jarilo'd left behind.

Now thanks to this information he was given, and the pollen, he blinked up at his father as he tried to wrap his head around this concept of the bees using the flowerdust. "They... make it? Like they make their food..?" Very weird. He didn't make any of his food, or at least didn't know how to make a tasty fat rabbit yet. But it did occur to him that before, Mama had made food for him and his sisters. Was she... ? He squinted some more. That was going too far.. "Where?" Where was honey? What even was honey, besides bee food? He didn't think he'd ever had some.

After another big sneeze shook him all over, Jarilo sniffled and sighed his answer. "Looking for a new good chewin' stick.. " With how empty-pawed he was on that, it didn't need said how that was going. The bees buzzing this way and that still caught his eye as something occurred to him: they seemed pretty bothered by him, had he messed it up? Or maybe he had helped them get the dust out...? 

"Yeah," Charon said, though he had no idea if anything he had just said was true — except for the fact that bees made honey, and honey was food. So he was pretty sure it was accurate, because why would they make food that they didn't eat? "They keep it in their den of sorts, a bee-den. If you want, we could go hunting for one." Charon assumed he didn't need to teach Jarilo that bees stung, so it was a dangerous expedition, but if his son was up for it, then so was he.

Charon chuckled as Jarilo said that he had been looking for a chewing stick. "There's easier places to look for those," (such as the actual forest, he thought to himself) he assessed, wondering why his son had chosen this flower field of all places.

He blinked through the confirmation, well into the concept of bee-dens, where they kept their honey, and presumably, the making of it. "What? Yes!" he answered with a stamp of a paw, like there should be any question of if he wanted to go see something he had never before. Of course he wanted to see one. He wanted to know where they were, what they looked like.. and whatever else. Surely, there was plenty more to know and he would figure that out as he went hopefully. "How do you do that..?" Looking around, he saw lots of bees.. but they didn't have normal scent trails that he could smell to follow them back to their dens. He didn't know where to even begin, so when in doubt, peering at his parent tended to help him out.

As for his sticks, he sighed again, trying not to feel too exasperated about how badly he'd derailed. "I know but I went in the woods, then out, then back again before finding here accidentally and still nothing that's just how I wanna.." he complained some more, half-rambling. "What're you doin' out here with these flowers?" he asked too, trying to emulate a fraction of the intensity of That Face that mama sent him when she aimed questions like that his way sometimes.

Jarilo seemed excited to go looking for a bee-den so they could see if they could find some honey. Hmm. Charon liked the idea, as he remembered how tasty it was even though it was so long ago he'd had some. So different from meat, and he wasn't too sure if it was really the flavour he liked or just the uniqueness and the knowledge you were stealing it from a bunch of dumb-ass bees. "Alright, off to bee-den-finding adventure we are!" Charon tried to think hard on Jarilo's next question — how did you find bee-dens with honey? He didn't remember. Eh well, he'd figure it out on the way.

Jarilo then went on a tangent about why he hadn't looked in the forest for a stick, which Charon largely ignored (well, he pretended to listen). Ignoring Jarilo's question because he wasn't actually listening, Charon said, "Uh-huh. That's nice, sport." He then gestured and started moving away, down the mountain and towards the woods, and said, "Come on, let's go rob some bees!"

Just like that, all of whatever else he'd been about to question fell to the wayside and their bee-den adventure was confirmed and happening right now. He didn't really get more in the way of answers to consider either, and instead, was reward with forward motion that he merrily bounded towards. That kept his thoughts moving that way, at least, so he didn't have time to trip himself up with other inquiries.

"Rob bees!!" he parroted with a holler of his own as he fell into step behind Charon. Much of the meaning of that was lost on him, since he figured it was some type of hunting, not pure thievery.. but that was stepping into a more complicated worldview than he had jumbling around in his head right now. Anyway, Jarilo had no idea what to expect, so was doing his very best to be obnoxiously ready. "What do bee-dens look like?" he asked, trotting along.

Jarilo seemed eager to rob bees, which made Charon feel proud of his son; his enthusiasm was infectuous. So far his only son had worked out pretty well. They set off on their adventure even though Charon had little idea where to look. They were near a flower field, so surely there must be a bee-den somewhere nearby, right?

At the question he looked thoughtful a moment, pausing though he kept glancing around as though expecting he might just happen to see one right that moment. "A bee-den," he began while he dug around in his brain to try and remember what they looked like, "Is greyish and round with a hole where the bees enter. And there'll be lots of bees." That's the one he remembered back in Stavanger Bay, anyway. He glanced around, watching the bees in the field and trying to gauge where they were headed.

A bee-den. He felt his ears fold back for a second as he hoped he might actually tell him more--which he did! Thankfully, because Jarilo had tried wracking his brain for a better answer, thinking maybe he had just napped through it, or forgot. But that didn't sound right. He would remember a bee-den if he, or his littermate sisters, had ever seen one. That was just the kind of nosy stuff he would more than merrily get involved with if he had ever caught wind of it, just like right here and now.

"Okay..." he replied just so Papa knew he was listening, and taking it in. Even if he still did not know how to go about this. Watching his father go about it was still his best guide, so quickly, he was trying to mimic him subtly and glanced around too--looking for something gray and round with lots of bees. "Does a bee-den have a smell to follow?" he asked. He had learned to go back to the den using mainly scent sometimes.. it would make sense if bees did the same, and even better if his nose could notice it too.

Jarilo was attentive and asked if there were any smells he could follow, to which Charon let out a thoughtful hum as he tried to pinpoint what bee-dens would smell like. He imagined that, "They smell sweet, like honey." Not that Jarilo knew what honey smelled like, but whatever. "Like the sweetest flowers you have ever smelled." Bees themselves didn't really smell like much, but they carried flower stuff along and made it into honey so it must smell like sweet flower stuff or sweet honey, surely.

Charon licked his lips as they continued, and he saw some bees gather in the distance. He gestured towards Jarilo to show him that the bees were there, and that maybe there'd be a bee-den too -- and then slowly crept across the ground towards the bees...

Honey came up again in the answer he got, so he nodded just a little. This was only making him more hopeful that they find some of this sweet bee feed so he could actually match it up to something real and tangible. Although he had only just learned about it a short while ago, the anticipation was still prickling all over--they had to be getting close, right??

He sniffed at the winds yet again, trying to conjure the best memory of the sweetest flowers he could know. He guessed not quite like the ones that made him all sneeze-y, or itchy in the eyes, or that just smelled sour. The ones that were, well, sweet--and pleasant, almost like he could eat them and not be too unhappy about it. He couldn't place it any other way, although he wasn't sure if he smelled any of that right here and now..

But when his father pointed out the bees, he was back on point with his ears up and eyes big. Now this was getting somewhere.. he crept after Charon with a slinky gait, but caught himself watching the bees more often than not as he tried to trace their paths through the skies and plants. He had to concentrate harder than he liked too and eventually saw them seeming to congregate around one certain tree and the greenery around it, so more questioning looks were shot at his father to see if he thought so too before they got too close. The pup imagined dens to be things.. really close to the ground, but he couldn't see anything there.. ? At least not yet.

They crept towards the gathering of bees and Jarilo seemed to find the spot where they were gathering quickly enough. He pointed out a particular tree and Charon nodded at his son as they continued closer. He, too, thought that a bee-den would be close to the ground; he'd only seen one once and it was really long ago so Charon first inspected the ground underneath the tree. "Hmm," he hummed thoughtfully as he came up empty-handed and his gaze followed the tree up until a spot where all the bees gathered. The bees around them peacefully drifted round, seeming not to mind the pair of wolves too much for now.

"Maybe bees den less close to the ground?" he wondered out loud and he looked through the tree's foliage to see if he could pinpoint any bee-dens between the flocks of bees.

He continued looking around and having Charon at his side doing much the same encouraged him on. Still, he wasn't finding anything because there was nothing obvious to find where he was looking. His pale-coated father suggested something else, that maybe bees denned elsewhere, and the boy gave a scrunch-face. "Maybe." he hummed, still consumed with looking all over with a vicious squint on. It vaguely occurred that he wasn't able to easily get to anything not on the ground. "I mean, I guess they can fly..." he reasoned, although he still had a difficult time thinking of dens off the ground personally since he could not take flight.

Flying just had to make that much easier--and speaking of which, he ducked away from a close-veering bee buzzing, which led him to sight of something else between the branches. "Is that a...?" he asked with a hopeful lilt as he squinted upwards now past the foliage at a something on a branch that looked a lot like bark, but not exactly. It was still obscured enough that he didn't get a good view of it, although it was enough to see that the bees were in that area too.

He glanced at his dad, half deathly curious and half a little worried.. because if it was one.. how were they getting anything from it??

They deduced that maybe bees denned less close to the ground and at the same time they scanned the trees for a bee-den somewhere. Come to think of it, the one he and Thistle'd found back when had not been close to the ground either, though less far up than the one that Jarilo then pointed out. That one had been more at eye-height for the wolves.

"Excellent!" Charon said with a grin. Now they just had to get there; or rather, see how to get it to him. "Now we have to get it down. Hmm... Try running into the tree real hard so you might get it to fall." Charon looked expectantly at his son then and waited for him to start with the given task.

More mixed feelings followed. His excitement for his success was dampened by the fact that.. well, it was up there. Charon suggested a way to get it down and Jarilo needed a second to just gape up at it, unimpressed by the new task of running into the tree.  "What? But how..?" he started to fuss then eyed the tree's trunk, and compared his own bulk. Odds were... well.. let's just say he didn't like them much, but he'd give it a shot? Although he had no good idea on how to go about this; he'd never thrown his weight around with anything bigger than Mama, really. A tree was pretty unshakable to a little reed like him.

He ran at the tree, channeling his momentum into his front paws for an unceremonious shove. When that didn't seem to do very much and he just ricocheted off it, he wheeled around to it to hit it with his swung hips. Not sure if he liked this approach much either, he looked up hopefully to see if he'd done any good with a face that said well?? The suspense was starting to get to him and this extra hurdle (paired with his lack of flight ability) was just annoying.

Charon didn't respond to Jarilo's complaints, simply waiting for him to do the task. He at first threw himself rump-first at the tree, which didn't seem to amount to much. Only when he threw his hips in too did the tree move at all, jiggling just a little bit, but the bee-den didn't go anywhere. Charon frowned and said, "Well, that was a good try, but it doesn't look like you managed." Maybe if they both ran into the tree it might work, though Charon didn't much feel like trying without any proof that it would work.

Then he came up with another idea; "What if you jump on my back and climb the tree? There's a low branch right there from where you could get to the branch that's got the bee-den." Charon then moved towards the tree and stood in front of it so that Jarilo would be able to jump on him and follow the path he explained, an expectant look on his face.

He frowned, and frustration definitely lingered thick when it wasn't quite enough.. and he realized how his hips smarted just a little bit from his attempts. But, there was no time to dwell on this now and he'd have all day tomorrow to lament about how sore he might be. Charon was quick to a new plan of attack with all new maneuvers that he had to steel himself for. Eyes big, he sprung forward with a nod that he couldn't pack any real assurance into. Instead, functioning on sheer power of dad told me so, he gathered up his momentum to springboard off his father's back up into the bee's nest tree.

Since obviously nothing could go wrong here, he sprang up and felt his hindpaws catch bark just right to give him a little leverage he hadn't expected to go quite so well. Adrenaline rushed and luck hadn't said otherwise, so he reached out and up this time. That brought him a little higher than planned but cost him balance, and eventually upward motion. In a last ditch effort, he reached out with his teeth to catch onto one of the bee-nest-holding branch's boughs. Thankfully it was a useful time to be good at biting and under the effects of gravity because he held fast as it bent with his weight, and simultaneously softened some of his fall.

He heard something snap and lost sight of the beehive in the tangle of his fall with some branch coming with him, so he had no idea if it was any good. When he hit the ground, he grumbled as he picked himself back up, looking to get air back in his lungs after the rush of all that. His bearings were coming back and he definitely still noticed the bees, who probably did not appreciate his ruckus much at all.

It seemed to go quite well overall (but maybe Charon was just an optimist) as Jarilo actually jumped off his back and got somewhere up on the tree. But he couldn't seem to find purchase and eventually toppled down. Charon heard branches crack and looked to see what was happening then. He saw that Jarilo managed to grab one of the branches close to the bee-den and heard the cracking as it came down with him.

The bee-den wiggled heavily as the place the branch cracked was halfway across it. It dangled dangerously a few swings, then looked as if it would stay up there. Bees buzzed angrily and it looked for a moment as if the bee-den would stay up there despite all of their efforts. For a few seconds that felt like minutes Charon just stared up at the thing while bees gathered around angrily to protect it...

... And then it finally fell. "Run!" Charon called out to Jarilo, who was next to just underneath it. The bees would probably get pissed off if the bee-den fell on his face or something. Charon wasn't sure how smart bees were, if they would know that Jarilo had wrecked their den, but he wasn't about to find out. They'd come back after running away to see how the bee-den turned out. Charon ran past Jarilo, nosing him swiftly on the way out, aiming to get a good distance away and not turning round until after the buzzing sounds stopped.

Everything kept escalating quickly as he took a moment to regain his breath. Nothing was waiting up for him, the buzzing was everything, he was sore, and his dad was urging him on. The second he remembered he still had legs, he was scrambling and rushing the hell out of there before it could get any messier. He gave a frantic yelp and didn't look back. This place was hot and they had to get out of here. They could always check back later, he supposed, but he was too caught up in leaving (and a healthy measure of what just happened???) to think about coming back yet.

But he knew they'd done something. He'd knocked the place around enough but did the mysterious honey still elude them? If it had, he hoped it was worth it. All he knew was that there was no going there now, not unless he wanted bees--which he was actively hauling ass to avoid right now. He'd not stop until Charon said, because that belief had done him well before...

After a moment of confusion that felt like eternity Jarilo finally got moving. It seemed a miracle that neither of them had gotten stung just yet, although Charon's experience was that bees weren't that aggressive... normally. He usually just saw them dotting from flower to flower all peaceful-like, but even the intensity and sound of their buzzing was different now. It was almost like there was a flock of wasps chasing him now rather than bees.

As they ran the bees set in the chase; from a distance it must look quite comical to see the pair of wolves running away followed by a cloud of angry bees.

It took the longest time for them to leave them alone. Charon's heart thrummed in his chest as he ran and finally the buzzing seemed to be gone. Not slowly, bee by bee, but all at once the cloud just seemed to disappear. He wondered if they'd returned to the bee-den. Charon slowed down, tongue lolling from mouth and sides heaving from the long run. "Phew... We made it. Let's carefully head back now to see if they've left the bee-den alone." There was no actual guarantee they would, but Charon hoped that they'd be able to access the honey now. He looked to see how his son was doing before starting to trail their path back, slower and more careful this time.

In a big rush, they made it out. Jarilo could barely believe it, but he'd never done anything like that before. The moments before had been such a blur and now here he was, having caught his breath while waiting, sore, itchy, and getting pretty tired now that everything had started to slow down. Curiosity would only be good for so much more energy.

He pulled himself together with a nod when Charon suggested they go back. Quietly, and a few strides back, he followed back to the bee den. "How will we know it's safe?" he asked, beginning to set his sights forward now that they were getting close again. He assumed his dad knew what they could expect..

At Jarilo's question Charon chuckled heartily. "We don't." An easy enough answer, but all they could do was hope that they were gone.. Charon doubted they'd stick around a broken bee den though, so he couldn't imagine that he would still be around.

"I don't see or hear any bees," Charon said as they reached the bee den's vicinity again, ears perked forward cautiously and curiously. He also didn't really remember how to get to the honey, but he hoped that it wouldn't be too hard. The scent would guide them.

As they reached the bee den Charon looked around to see no bees anywhere. He poked a paw at the bee den to try and open the thing up. Hopefully the honey wasn't far — he could already smell it.

We don't wasn't quite the answer he wanted, so he took a second to drift between doubt, worry, a dash of fear, then inevitably acceptance. Once that was settled, he was further encouraged by Charon's lead, which the boy let him have as they approached. Jarilo crept upon it with the lightest of steps and his ears down flat. "Me neither," he confirmed while still looking around, seeing none. Maybe it was safe. But he was still anxious about it, and anything that sounded remotely like angry buzzing would send him out of here asap.

It wasn't until after Charon poked at it and no bees immediately came after them that he went any closer to the fallen hive nose first. "What's inside??" he whispered before he tapped it with a paw of his own, and a grimace on like he was touching something alien. When nothing exploded out to eat them or otherwise, he repeated with a little more force. Enough to roll the nest over, he shrunk back protectively after he saw it move... but again.. no bees?? Only a fresh waft of that curiously sweet scent.