The Sunspire shoot me an email

Tytonidae had been hoping that her sister would return. Or that Pura would return. Or Saena. Or her mother. But none of them had returned... not even for a visit. It hurt to think that they had gone on and forgotten about her. Peregrine, her father, was the only one who had stuck by her side through the thick and the thin (sans her other friends, but nobody could even see them, so Tytonidae wasn't sure that they would count). Even Kisu had left the plateau. It felt odd, having all of her family up and leave her so suddenly, but Ty realized that she could reach out and contact them.

So her feet had taken her to the base of The Sunspire in search of her mother. This was where she lived, from what Osprey had said, and so Ty was here to find her. At almost six months old, Tytonidae had reached her full height. She still had a lot of filling out to do, but that would come in the next year or so. Lifting her chin to the mountain, she hollered for somebody to come and greet her.

*grabs*

Still nothing. No sign of Ferdie, no sign of the cougar, nothing. While the rest of the pack still seemed to be diligently on the lookout for the man, Summer had quietly pronounced him dead the night before, sitting at the based of the willow that dotted the edge of the Oasis. It had been a lonely funeral, and really not much of a funeral at all except for the meaning the young Ostrega had come up with as he took the willow branch and dropped it into the waters of the stream that danced past below the bows. No words were spoken, no howl shared, for he knew well that he may well have been the only one who was ready to let go. But that was his prerogative--letting go was second nature to the boy who was left behind.

So that day as Summer DeMonte-Ostrega wandered the borders, it was not for any sign of the former alpha that he was searching. No, his intent was only to mark them where needed and to make sure the only creatures to cross it were those of no consequence. When the call went out, he was surprised to find that he was fairly nearby to the source. Only a few minutes passed before he was approaching the caller with careful pawsteps, curiosity of the unexpectedness of finding one so young to be the one who owned the voice.

"Hello," Summer said gently, the usual cautioned persona he wore at approaching strangers dropped in response to her being one, young like he (though younger still), and two, she was a she. The soft spot he had for females who seemed troubled or possibly in some sort of turmoil or predicament where they seemed to need protection of the physical or emotional sort was not yet realized by Summer, but was a truth of his character nonetheless.

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Hawkeye did not come to greet her daughter. Instead, it was a male, perhaps around the same age as herself and Pura. Tytonidae looked him up and down, careful with her body language as she did so, and took a moment to collect information on him. “Hi,” she replied, pausing to remember why she had come here. “I am looking for my mother. Her name is Hawkeye. Do you know her?” Tytonidae did not bother with formalities. She was on a mission, and she fully expected this lad to help her out in one way or another. If he did not, she would ask him to call for somebody else. And if they did not know... well, she'd just keep getting everybody who lived here until Hawkeye (or somebody who knew her) showed up.

Waiting for his answer, Tytonidae licked her lips. She wondered if her mother had left here, too. She could not remember why her mother had left the plateau in the first place. Or anybody else, for that matter. Had either Saena or Pura said anything before they had left? Her sister seemed to be the only one who took a second to say goodbye, and it made Ty wonder if goodbyes were even necessary at all these days. Perhaps this was just the way things were.

If her words were too forward, it didn't phase Summer at all who had too little social graces himself to cast any judgement on hers. Her request did take him by surprise, however. Hawkeye was a newer wolf to their pack and seemed to have kept very much to herself since joining their ranks. Rumors of her reasons for being there had been whispered across the Spire. They apparently involved Ferdie, and some sort of budding relationship between the two of them. He did not know, however, that she had left her own children for him.

"I haven't met her personally, but she is here," Summer responded truthfully, his bright sunlight eyes searching her face for a reaction. He wanted to say more, but the words caught in his throat. He wasn't positive where it was she usually denned, though he knew of areas he had often caught her scent upon. All of them were within the territory borders, and he wasn't certain what the rules were on bringing in the children of pack members when they weren't a part of the Spire themselves.

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Ty paused, wondering what he meant by that. She looked beyond him, as if she expected Hawkeye to be standing just a few feet away. But the dark figure of her mother was nowhere to be found, and so Tytonidae looked back to the boy who stood before her. “Where?” she asked, her ear flicking to punctuate her question. “Can you get her for me?” The girl paused and huffed. She had not known it would be so difficult to see her own parental unit.

“Maybe… maybe somebody else can bring her here?” she asked. Things would have been so much easier if her mother could just come home and be a family again. And while Tytonidae had no reason to dislike Fox, considering she had come in late to the picture, she couldn't help but wonder if her mother had gone off to find a new husband. Wasn't that why everybody was running away? To find love?

Summer could sense the girl's frustration, and to him it was a sign merely for the degree of need she felt to see her mother. He could only assume it must be great, for he wasn't certain that Hawkeye had ever returned to see her children after she had left. He hadn't noticed her scent crossing out of the packlands or back in since she had joined. As he put more thought to it, a nerve he hadn't been aware of previously was struck harder and harder. His own mother had been taken by death. Why would a mother still alive choose to leave her children?

The young wolf stood quietly, thoughtful. He heard her suggestion to call for someone to bring her there to the borders, but Summer wasn't too hopeful that anyone would be near enough to hear--so many were out looking for signs of Ferdie still or searching the lands higher up the summit for the cougar. What he was considering was probably stupid, and not likely to be approved of by leadership... But he found himself very unwilling to deny this girl what she wanted.

"If anyone asks..." Summer told her softly as he closed the distance between them in a few strides of his long legs, "...you're looking to join our ranks." He paused near her, waiting to see what she would say. "And if anyone asks me later, after you've seen your mother... I'll tell them you decided against it," he finished. It was risky for him, but he saw no danger in it for her (but that could have been the remainder of his high). There were none among their ranks he felt that he couldn't trust, especially since the hybrid had disappeared. And if anyone did raise a voice against him... Unless it was Jace or Amekaze, Summer was prepared to learn just how tall he had grown.

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For a moment, Tytonidae was confused. Then she remembered all the tricks she and Osprey had gotten themselves into, and suddenly, she realized what he was doing. They were going to trick everybody into believing that she was here to join, when in reality, she was simply here to see her mother and be off back to the plateau. She did not understand exactly why he wanted to do this, rather than just bringing Hawkeye back here, but the thrill of tricking the others was too great, and so Ty simply nodded in understanding and agreement.

“What if we can’t find her?” she asked. It seemed like something that could happen, even if she did not want to believe it. What if they did find her and then her mother was angry for her trespassing? That wasn't a terribly good outcome either, but Ty kept her mouth shut for that one. She did not want to think that her mother would be angry with her, and yet her absence from the plateau certainly made it feel that way at times.

Tytonidae would follow the stranger boy's lead wherever he planned to take her.

The girl seemed to take to his suggestion, albeit slowly. Summer was a patient one, he simply stood wordlessly, studying the way her forehead creased and relaxed as her mind worked. When the question was posed, he pulled himself slowly out of his thoughts and looked at her sweet face, a smile easing it's way along his lips.

"We'll find her," he assured he, turning to lead her into the pack's inner regions, "There is an oasis further up the summit where we often come together. It's well placed so that our calls reach even the highest reaches of the Spire. From there, we'll be able to reach her wherever she may be the territory. Unless she has ventured out, she'll hear us, and she'll come." He couldn't see any reason for her not to. If a pack ate Jesus know called for him unexpectedly, he would be there most certainly to see what it was all about. Then again, if any pack mate were to call on the Ostrega, he would be there for them in an instant regardless.

"If a pack ate Jesus know called for him unexpectedly" Autocorrect? ;)

Tytonidae listened, following as he explained where they were going. She thought nothing of the possibility that he could be tricking her, rather than his packmates. Tytonidae was a trusting creature, and she had no reason to think that he might be doing something more heinous than he claimed. Realizing she had failed to give him her name, and figuring that his leaders would want to know that, she offered it up freely. “My name is Tytonidae,” she said. “What’s yours?”

If they were to run into his leaders, surely they would want to know her name. They would also probably want to know what her skills were, although she couldn't say that she had a whole lot in that department. She was her dad's apprentice as a gamekeeper, but she couldn't give that away without causing suspicion that she wasn't here to stay.

....>___<.... Nope, we're Jesus eaters here at the Spire :D

Yeah, the need for her name probably should have occurred to him, as did many other items he was completely overlooking. Where she'd come from, what her reasons for joining their pack were, what qualities she possessed that made him allow her to join without asking permission (besides "pretty face"), but that was one of the downfalls of his daily poppy breakfast--Important little bits of his mind went straight to sleep. Otherwise, he probably would have come up with a much better plan for granting the girl's wish to see her mother, and he also probably would have thought twice about trusting her so easily (well, no, that's not true.. "pretty face").

The young wolf kept a slightly swifter pace as he trotted through the trees that shrouded the base of his mountain, his desire to get her safely to the Oasis paramount in his mind. His senses worked together to pick their path. Any time he sensed that he was steering them to close to a recent trail, he veered away to make sure they avoided it. Such was his concentration that he hadn't even thought of exchanging names or other pleasantries. Of course he wanted to know it--he wanted to know everything she allowed him to--but those sentiments were far less important to him the task at hand, which was giving her what she'd asked for.

"I'm Summer," the Ostrega replied, giving her a sidelong glance. Curiosity took him, a curiosity of the sort that would do him little good knowing it if they ran into someone they didn't want to. "So.. Hawkeye is your mother?" he asked, hoping to lead her further into more of an explanation. Who was her father, when had she last seen her mother, had her mother said good bye, was she upset, what could he do to make her not be sad if she was? All questions unasked, but with answers that he hoped to eventually have.

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For a second, Tytonidae wondered if he meant he had been born in the summer. But she quickly picked up on the fact that it was his actual name. The two of them moved forward. Toward what, Tytonidae wasn't quite sure. She only hoped that her mother would be there. It had been months since she had last seen her, and it felt like a lifetime ago. Her ears pricked forward when Summer asked about Hawkeye.

“Yes,” Ty replied. “She used to live at the plateau, but then…” she paused her voice to furrow her brow. Ty still didn't quite understand what had happened. “I think she got sad. And then she and my dad, Peregrine, decided they didn’t want to be together any longer.” That was, of course, a simple version, and only from Ty's perspective. “Almost all of my family went away after that.” Thankfully, her father had stuck around. Little did she know that her rock would soon become a leaf on the wind.

His heart was beginning to pound with the effort it took his weakened mind to listen both to the young female's words and those of the world around him. Concern for all else was swiftly leaving him as he lead her along, desperation to reach their goal growing oddly stronger and stronger within his heart. He was mistaken if for a moment he thought that her words would pull him free from this trap of the mind, for they only served as fuel for his determination that while honorable, was swiftly spiraling into obsession.

Summer swallowed hard to calm himself, fully aware that these strange new emotions were completely due to the drug that ran through his veins. He knew of the dangers of continuing his self-medication, but he couldn't let go of all the good the plant had done for him. So, he tried to cope. And doing that meant replying in mind to the poor Plateau wolf's plight.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Summer replied steadily, outwardly showing not a thing in the world were wrong with him, "I know what that's like... to be left behind." He heaved a sigh as they broke free of the trees and entered into the wide clearing that was the Oasis. He slowed a bit, his hesitation due in part to the thoughtful look upon his face. "They do it because they have to," he said suddenly, "Though... I know it doesn't make it any easier." Summer turned eyes of bright sunlight to her sweet face, hoping that single look would express all of the jumbled emotions inside of him that he couldn't and wouldn't put into words.

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Ty shook her head. “Don’ be sorry,” she said, “It’s what they’re all supposed to do.” Tytonidae had become convinced of this the more of her family went away from where she lived. It was the only possible explanation in her tiny little pea-brain. While Ty missed the family that had left her, she certainly did not think they had done anything wrong. Sadness was not really an emotion she had encountered. It was more of a longing.

“Did jer family leave, too?” she asked, wonder if that was what he meant by knowing what it was like. Perhaps she could explain to him that it was just the way things were and there was no reason to get upset by it. She hoped that he wasn't sad.

Summer's eyes widened a bit in surprise at the girl's easy response to his statement. He knew how very hard many found it to let go when they lost someone close to them, and the many negative ways they could react. No one had ever actually agreed with him that it wasn't anything to be upset over. He gave her a curious look that was touched with wonder, but quickly let it pass as she posed a question to him.

"My mom died not long after I was born," the Ostrega found himself saying although he'd told very few in his lifetime, "I traveled with my father for a while so that he could teach me how to survive on my own and how to live as a pack wolf. I didn't find out until the day he left me that it was because he knew that he wouldn't be alive much longer."

The memory of Dhani leaving him at the base of the Sunspire played in his mind, the emotion that shook his voice, the sorrow and love, and the odd gleam of peace in his eyes as he spoke of leaving this world and returning to the side of his beloved. "He couldn't live without my mom," Summer added gently. Yes, the many years his father spent on the earth had taught him everything there was to know about survival in the wilderness, on your own or in a pack, but when he had met Summer's mother, he'd learned in an instant the one thing that he could not survive.

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Ty listened as Summer talked about his parents. It was oddly comforting to hear him talk about them, though she could not pinpoint why that was. Perhaps it was the way that he had accepted her ideas on what family was supposed to do: go away. In his case, the departures had not been voluntary, but Ty could see as she grew older that no decision was an easy one. Things really weren't just black and white. They were a million shades of every color of the rainbow. It was sad that Summer couldn't seek out his parents, even if he'd wanted to.

They traveled further and further, and Ty was beginning to wonder if they would ever reach the summit. "How much longer until we get there?" she asked softly, not wishing to sound impatient. She was eager to find Hawkeye and speak to her, if only for a little while.

Summer smiled slightly as the jade-eyed girl broke the quiet that had fallen between them with an eager note. "Not long now," he replied, gazing through the trees as they began to fade away into the windswept grasses of the Oasis. It was only a little while after they entered the wide clearing that the stream along which Summer followed opened up into the small lake beside their willow and meeting rock. He tasted the air with a few breaths and ran his nose along the rock's sides, searching for a scent that suggested the dark female had been there recently. After a moment, he looked back at Ty apologetically.

"It doesn't seem that she's been here recently," Summer told her with a small frown, "She may still be within earshot." Without waiting for a reply, the Ostrega tilted back his head and set out a call upon the wind requesting Hawkeye's presence at the rock. He knew if she were within Sunspire land she would be there in only a short while, unless she were high up in the peaks or deep within the series of caves that wound deep throughout the Eastern cliffs. He hoped quite fervently that wouldn't be the case, though, for the thought of disappointing his new "packmate" made his stomach twist with dismay.

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Since I've already referenced this thread (a lot) elsewhere, I'm going to wrap it up here.

They arrived, and Summer gave her the bad news. Her mother had not been here recently, which caused a soft whine to emanate from the girl's throat. When he called for Hawkeye, Tytonidae waited for something, anything in return. Instead, all she received was uneasy silence. After a few minutes had passed, Ty shook her head. "I don't think she's around," she said, defeat clear in her voice.

"I think I'm going to head back home." Tytonidae paused, glancing to the yellow-eyed Summer. "Want to show me the way back?" She was actually quite certain that she could find it on her own, but having Summer as an escort would help if she happened to run into anybody along the way.

You completely read my mind :)

A sigh fell from the boy's chest after they waited and Hawkeye did not appear. For a moment, he began to wonder if the woman was still amongst them. Perhaps she had left their ranks. After all, without Ferdie, there wasn't much still tying her to them. Maybe her daughter would return to the Plateau and find her mother waiting there for her. Though it would be a blow to his pack's ranks, Summer found himself hoping for Ty's sake that that would be the case.

A smile slipped across his muzzle as she asked him to walk her back and his heart thrummed slightly at the idea that maybe she actually enjoyed his company. "Of course," he replied, stepping back towards the trail that would lead them down the mountain and back to the borders. He paused for a second as a impulse struck him, but before he could debate whether or not to act, he had already reached out and pressed his nose gently and briefly against the soft fur at the base of her ear. He pulled back to give her another smile, hoping these tiny motions would comfort any dissappointment she likely was suffering from not getting to see her mother, then motioned for her to follow as they began the trek back.

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