Ooc: feel free to join in! :)
Nadie hummed to herself as she explored her pack's territory. She had decided to familiarize herself with it since she would be living here. It was a brush filled place with mountains standing tall. She was sniffing around at the moment,she had already found a number of caches but she hadn't touched them. It was hard to believe she was a Zeta already seeing as she had just joined,it was more rank than she had ever had in her life. After awhile she turned,following the scent of water to a small brook. She lapped some up as she pondered seeking out the members of the pack. She knew she had better introduce herself and headed towards the pack's core to do just that.
While the female lapped at the water, Eljay watched curiously from the underbrush. He was feeling a little anxious, though he couldn't quite place why. He had promised daddy that he was going to try to be braver, after all. Stupidly so, if Nightjar had been here he probably would've felt more forward to talk to the stranger girl, even though Nightjar didn't even really seemed to like him. But he was familiar, and while he was often a meanie, at least Eljay knew what to expect with him. With strangers he simply did not; as had been proven by the weird female that he'd met when he was chasing the squirrel, who had not only taken his squirrel but had also gone on a life-risking journey thereafter. He hadn't seen her anymore, and sort of hoped that it wasn't 'cause of her head injuries that she wasn't around anymore.
While he was thinking of the other stranger he had recently met, Eljay noticed that the girl was gone already. He looked around to try and find her, but didn't instantly see her again. Eljay came from his hiding spot and trotted towards where she'd been, inhaling her scent. He sniffed the air, his nose wiggling, and followed the trail that she left behind, speeding up his pace to catch up.
At last she showed up in the distance, and before Eljay knew it he was already right behind her. Though Eljay was the size of an adult now, he didn't look the part yet. In fact, he looked much like he had no idea what to do with all these limbs, looking as clumsy as he felt. "Uhm, hi. I'm Eljay." Eljay looked at her, and then looked away again. His body language was submissive, for he was used to being below everyone as a puppy, and he waited to see how she would respond, while he quietly hoped to himself that she wasn't about to take him on some wild goose chase he didn't want to be on.
Nadie hadn't missed the scent as it got closer but she kept at what she was doing until whoever it was decided to speak. She turned to find a male wolf close to her own size standing behind her. On closer inspection she realized he was an adolescent,not a completely grown wolf. Her eyes scanned him over,he was gangly and had wide;puppy like eyes. He had brown fur and green eyes. He also seemed rather anxious to her. She smiled friendly at him,hoping to calm him. She sat down in front of him and spoke softly so as not to spook him off,"Hi Eljay. I'm Nadie. I'm new here." She cocked her head at him,her ear flipping over as she waited for his response.
Eljay waited anxiously for her response, but luckily all she did was introduce herself. Eljay breathed a little sigh of relief that she didn't instantly try to drag him off on some weird adventure, and he answered: "I know." He hadn't met her before, after all, and since he had been born here Eljay knew that had to mean that she was new here. "Where'd you come from, Nadie?" he asked, because it was the first time he started to wonder about where non-pack wolves came from, really. Well, he supposed that they were born elsewhere and had moved here, just like daddy said that he had. It was such a strange thought, though; Eljay couldn't imagine leaving his parents at all. He wanted to stay in Redhawk Caldera's safe confines for ever.
She noticed that Eljay seemed calmer now,no stammering to his words or stuttering. She smiled as she remembered her pack. It hadn't been named,mostly loners who had left their pack just banding together for survival. Young males cast out as threats to reproduction,mothers who's mates had died leaving them with no one to help care for their pups,etc. "It was in the mountains, south of here I believe.I'm guessing you're not exactly new here though,"she chuckled. It was doubtful. He had that innocent puppy look to him. She bore him no ill will for it,he couldn't help his circumstances. She'd been scrapping for her life since the day her pack was obliterated. He had yet to know the reality of the real world,outside pack borders. Where murder and war and thievery took place.
Nadie said that he must not be very new here, and Eljay wondered if it was because he was looking like a nerd, as Nightjar would call him. Nerds were probably scaredy cats that didn't want to leave their home, and apparently others could tell by just looking at his face. Eljay shuffled his feet and said: "Is it that obvious?" He looked to the ground, feeling unsure of himself again suddenly. "I'm trying not to be such a dweebus, but it's really hard to be brave when everything's so scary." For some reason, things weren't scary to other wolves; Eljay always felt a little weird because he seemed to be the only wolf in the world that had so many problems with scary things. He really did want to be braver.
Nadie felt bad for making him uncomfortable. The first person she met she had made him feel bad about himself. Good going Nadie. Her ears dropped as she nudged him reassuringly,"I didn't mean anything bad by it. You look kinda young so I figured you were born here." It was likely,most packs wouldn't take in a pup unless they were accepting the parents as well.
It was really weird for Eljay to see that another wolf felt bad about themselves. He didn't remember that ever happening in his presence, at least not over something he said. Even his parents were usually just angry if he crossed a line, or consoling if they'd really crossed one of his. Never like this. "Oh, uhm, sorry," he mumbled, feeling really uncomfortable at the thought of having made someone else feel bad. "It's not really your fault, that's just how I am." He looked apologetic, hoping that she wouldn't feel bad anymore. It wasn't like she had made him feel like a scaredy cat dweebus; she'd only reminded him of the fact that he was.
"I was born here. My mommy and daddy are the Beta pair." Eljay looked curiously at Nadie, hoping that maybe she had already met one of them.
Awkwardness forgotten,she sprang up. "I know him! He let me in the pack!", she exclaimed excitedly. She smiled at Eljay,huh Elwood;Eljay. Similar names, similar looks now that she really was looking for it. "You look like him some,"she admitted cocking her head to the side comically.
She seemed overly excited when she found out that Elwood was Eljay's father, and in response Eljay's tail wagged in carefully contained excitement. He was very swung along by Nadie's up and down emotions, finding it hard not to get emotionally overstimulated by them in some way or other. For now, though, they were positive, so he felt better again too.
As Nadie said that he looked like daddy, Eljay smiled and said: "Thanks." Often he did not feel much like he did look like daddy but, he supposed, looks-wise they looked very alike. "Mommy and daddy called me Elwood Junior when I was born, but everyone calls me Eljay. I guess it's less confusing." He looked at his feet after he finished speaking, hoping that he wasn't boring Nadie with his stories about his youth and name.
She smiled at him,"That's cool." She wasn't sure what else to say but she liked Eljay and hoped they could be friends. He was cute with his stammering sometimes in that awkward way. Time would tell though if they became friends.
Though Nadie said that his name was cool, she gave little other input, and Eljay wondered if his story had been too long or boring. He shuffled his weight a little, looking unsure of himself while a silence stretched out between them and searched for more words. Eljay was beginning to feel more and more nervous, and it was showing in his demeanour which was growing more and more introverted, but he couldn't think of any cool subjects to talk about with his new friend.
She smiled at him kindly, seeing him begin to clam up again. "Do you have a trade?", she asked curiously. She could see when he was getting flustered and so figured it was up to her to keep their conversation going. Otherwise they would be left sitting in silence, she didn't blame him for his nervous demeanour. It endeared him to her, finding him funny with his worrying.
Eljay was grateful that Nadie asked him about something else, even if it was something he was uncomfortable about, too. At least the conversation got going again, and he felt a little less unsure of himself. "Uhm, I'm still deciding. I think daddy and uncle P want me to be a hunter, so, maybe..." He had given trades a lot of thought — much more than his hesitant words proved — but so far Eljay wasn't sure yet what trade suited him the best. Maybe Nadie had some input.
She smiled exuberantly,"I am a hunter as well. I would like to be a mercenary too." Her words were simple and short but at least she was responding. She wasn't sure what else to say to the jittery pup.
Nadie disclosed that she, too, was a hunter. He wondered if she had become a hunter because her parents wanted her to be one, too. Eljay shuffled his weight and asked, "So, uhm... How old were you when you first caught something?" He felt embarrassed that he still hadn't managed to. He almost had that day when the girl had taken the squirrel from right under his nose, the erratic one that he never saw again after. But with his ascension into adulthood rapidly approaching, Eljay felt kind of stupid that he had never really caught anything yet by himself.
"I'm not very good at it, so I dunno if I should, but I'm not very good at the other trades either, so, uhm..." Anyway — he decided to cut himself off before he just made more of a fool of himself, and then continued on a different area: "So are you good at fighting, if you wanna be a mercenary? You don't seem like a fighter." Mostly she didn't appear a fighter to Eljay because she was so nice, and somehow in Eljay's mind he imagined that anyone who was a mercenary also needed to be kind of mean, kind of. Never mind the fact that his own parents were mercenaries; he didn't think of that.
"Ten months,"she smiled proudly at her accomplishment. It had only been an elderly racoon but she had still killed the old thing, even on her own. She remembered her parents being as proud as if she had brought down a moose on her own. She smiled reassuringly,"Oh I'm sure you're good at something." She nudged him playfully as she spoke.
She didn't allow herself to get mad when he said he didn't think she was a good fighter. Her brothers had been against her becoming a warrior within the pack, said she was too fragile. She had turned out to be stronger than most of them. "Why? Because I'm a girl?",she asked not unkindly. Her ears went back some wondering if that was what he thought.
Eljay looked visibly relieved when Nadie said that she had hunted her first thing at ten months. Maybe there was hope for him after all, and he would catch something sooner or later. Eljay felt like he was bad at everything, and even being social seemed hard. He flinched a little as she nudged him, and then shot her an awkward smile, trying not to look weird. "Maybe I still gotta find my 'something'," he muttered, hoping that the 'something' he was good at actually existed and that he'd find it at some point.
When Nadie asked if he didn't think of her as a fighter because she was a girl, Eljay blinked, looking surprised. "No, why would that matter?" he asked with child-like innocence. His life was full of strong females, so Eljay hadn't even considered that. "I guess just 'cause you were so nice to me, so you seemed like you might be more of a caretaker. But I guess that you don't have to be mean to be a mercenary or a fighter." Eljay felt put on the spot and he smiled awkwardly, hoping that his clumsily picked words would convince her that he didn't mean it poorly. In fact, if anything, it was a compliment; he just thought she was really nice.
She smiled awkwardly,"Sorry. I just wondered if that's what you thought." She smiled at his compliment, she tried to be nice to everyone of she could. Sometimes that worked to her disadvantage, making her seem weak or perhaps too nice. Oft times though it worked well, making her opponents think she wasn't a force to contend with.
Eljay felt awkward when she apologised, because he was the one that should be saying he was sorry. "Oh, no, don't apologise, uhm..." He trailed off, not sure what else to say, and he smiled awkwardly at Nadie.
"Anyway, d'you wanna do something? We could go hunting, or something..." Eljay glanced at Nadie, hoping she'd say yes. Maybe she even had some ideas of things the two of them could do.
She nodded animatedly as she spoke,"Sure. What do you like to do for fun?" She was up for whatever he wanted to do. She wasn't sure what the gangly pup liked to do for fun but was certain it was a good idea.
Eljay felt put on the spot again when Nadie asked what sort of thing he liked doing for fun. Maybe he should have expected the question, but somehow he hadn't seen it coming. He felt his cheeks warm up while he tried to think of something, accompanied by a long, drawn out "uhmm..." He usually just did stuff like trying to learn to hunt, and sometimes he collected flowers, but those seemed like silly things to do all of a sudden and he felt too self-conscious to suggest them.
So even though he didn't at all feel like going near the frightening outdoors, he suggested: "We could uhm, patrol the borders." That seemed like a much more socially adept idea than doing something silly like flower-picking or practising chasing and hunting or playing games.
She expected something more frivolous from the shy boy seeing as he was still young. But she wouldn't mind patrolling either. She nodded,"Let's go!"
Eljay would've much rather preferred to have done something fun, but he wanted to seem responsible. It seemed that he was right, since Nadie excitedly agreed to his rather boring plan. Eljay followed and fel in step with Nadie as they started to make their way towards the borders. "Do you patrol a lot?" he asked while they walked, to fill the silence between them.
"Nope," she said popping the p comically. "I'm new here remember?",she reminded him playfully. Truthfully she only agreed because Eljay wanted to patrol. She would much rather be doing something fun like hunting or exploring. She wasn't much older than Eljay, only a teenager.
Somehow she seemed more mature though, most likely attributed to having to grow up fast on her own. "I only agreed because you wanted to. I thought you would want to do something like play a game or something."
It wasn't said in a spiteful way only honestly. She meant nothing bad by her words, she was polite to a fault. He could have suggested they go poke around the Alpha den, which she wasn't supposed to be around yet as she wasn't trusted, and she would have at least sat on the sidelines while he did so.