ooc: packmates are welcome to meet Osprey and the puppies are welcome to join too.
It was almost a week now, since the birth of her children and, if at first Osprey had rarely ever left them for longer than few minutes, then now she dared to stay out for a little longer and stretch her legs. She always stayed in the vicinity of the den and would any of the trio let out so much as a mewl, she would return right back to them.
Food was still sparse and, though Dante did his best to stay out and bring back, whatever he could find, Osprey had lost a considerable amount of weight in a matter of days. It was not that much clear, when she was in the darkness, curled protectively around her little wards, but there in the sunlight she was a rather pitiful sight to behold - ribs and hip bones and her coat hanging loose on the bones.
She also got tired easily, therefore after doing her business around the area, she settled down right on the doorstep of her home, closing her eyes and enjoying the sunlight a little.
She was set on keeping her word to Lasher that she was to be productive, that she would hold the ideals of her pack upright. She would weather this storm as a young witch only to be brought into the coven properly and really and truly grow for the first time in her young life. The things her mother had kept from her would no longer be secrets. She would come to understand all. Rowan licked her lips, the tiny little mouse dangling by it's tail as she brought it to the Beta's doorstep. She let out a soft chuff in greeting, not wanting to sneak up on the sunbathing mother.
"Ma'am? -" It was then that she realized she had not heard Osprey's name from her lips. She laid the mouse down for her, offering a bow of her head politely. She could feel them, the little pups living - thriving - just inside the whelping den. Though it seemed they should not, they were growing and for that, Rowan was glad.
Though Osprey had met the young lady before, coincidentally she had also not caught her name. Therefore, when the person in question came into the little clearing that spread next to the nest, the beta regarded the newcomer first with mild distrust and defensive manner and, only after she had recognized the face, did she ease up and yawned.
She looked down at the mouse, which seemed way too small to satisfy her hunger, but said nothing. After all, the gesture was that mattered and she dipped her muzzle politely, thanking for the gift. Then she picked it up and swallowed it whole. "I never got to hear your name," she said, after the tiny mouse had made it's train trip to her stomach. "My name is Osprey."
Rowan gave a soft smile as she watched her. She was not very good with most people, often coming off as cold and distant, but she was trying. Lasher had bid her to do so, and so she was. Osprey ate the the mouse and though she couldn't provide more for the young mother she did offer what she had. Rowan took a seat not too far off, tail curling around her long legs, tucked neatly against her paws.
"Rowan, ma'am." She said evenly. No fault in not catching it - she hadn't been loud anyways. "Rowan Mayfair." She said politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Osprey." She was curious of course about the puppies - thriving and growing, the world encouraging them to do so. "How is the family fairing?"
"It's my pleasure," Osprey dipped her muzzle politely in reply. So, the girl was of the Mayfair brood - a sister, a cousin? Too young to be an aunt or a parent, though you never knew with the wolf families. She would ask that later.
"They are good and well," she replied, keeping back the obvious fact that the three hungry critters were draining her more quickly than she was able to refill, what they had taken. It was a scary prospect, if the prey situation didn't improve in the near future. And the very idea of starving to death was so horrifying that she simply pushed it to the furthest corner of her mind, choosing to live one day at a time and hope for the best.
"I would invite you to come and see them, but they are asleep at the moment. And god knows, when they are going to be this peaceful in the near future," she said with a laugh. "So you are a relative of Lasher's?"
Rowan did smile then, although she was awkward and uncertain when it came to puppies. Her experience was only with the various cousins that gave their broods - prolific as their family was. She licked her lips, hearing that the children were well was good. "I wouldn't dream of rousing the little ones, then." She said with a small laugh. "A cousin, I am unsure of how distant. There seems to be a great split - a clan that went south, far south, and from them I eventually grew." She explained.
Rowan glanced back behind her, peering though she could not see towards the pups that lay behind. "Have you been here long?" She asked curiously - expecting it was at least long enough for her pups to be born, though it was hard to tell how long before then.
"Almost from the very beginning," Osprey replied, reminiscing the time she had joined the Blacktail deer plateau and, how she - the free spirit - had remained the only oldie now. And the change had happened only in a little over than a year!
"There was a different leader, entirely different people. I was here before Lasher and Dante - an they are two of the long-standing members here," she elaborated. "So - you are a witch, right? Or my poor ears heard what they wanted to hear?" she returned to the day, when she had met Rowan for the first time and bits and pieces of the conversation she had heard, before falling asleep.
To that Rowan offered a sweet smile, canting her head almost demurely. "In a way," She agreed. "Though my mother would not indulge in my follies; she disregarded my powers and so I have not trained. I imagine there are many much stronger than I am." Though Rowan was backed by many lines, the blood strong as possible.
"They have done well, it seems." She suggested with a smile. "I met Renoir, and Constantine - one of Lasher's brood." There were many more, it seemed, and she was slowly making the rounds to meet each one of them.
"I am honored to meet a true witch," Osprey said without any sarcasm (meaning every word) and dipping her head politely. It was one thing - playing and pretending to be a witch - entirely the other to meet such in person. She had heard that Lasher was teaching his two daughters the craft, but had never approached him and asked, what the true witch-craft was about. Not that she wasn't curious, rather... she didn't want to lose the image about the witchcraft that she had in her mind to reality, that may not be the same.
"I guess they have - over the years they have become the very heart of the pack," they - Blue Willow included - were the ones to keep the pack going, to make it's spirit the way it was.
There was a sudden shift in her emotions - where she had been nervous before to speak of such things, Osprey emboldened her, the pale woman lifting her head a notch as she settled in those feelings. Her grey eyes were full of warmth and her tail curled demurely around her limbs, a pleasure in her as the woman accepted her. "You flatter me," She responded in kind, watching the woman - and beyond her, feeling the children that worked so hard to keep alive.
"They have earned it - the pack shows their strengths." Rowan could feel it in the very essence of it's wolves; each was strong, of a similar mentality, and it felt more homely than the French Quarter ever had. Those wolves had prided themselves on their bloodline, calling it a superiority. "It is very different - and I am glad for that - than what I knew before."
In a matter of a month things would change drastically - beginning with her husband stepping down and then with Lasher passing away. Osprey and Aria would be left with all of the responsibilities. But she did not know that now and therefore live with the happy belief that this happy equilibrum as it was now, would continue forever.
"Where do you come from, if you don't mind telling?" Osprey ask, sensing a good story behind the reasons this girl had had to leave her pack.
The world's axis would shift so drastically. It was impossible to imagine the way things would go, and Rowan did not have the sight some of her clan did. She could feel in the most basic way that something large was going to happen but it was hard to tell what. She gave a small smile when Osprey asked about her home, taking more of a liking to the Beta. "It is far south of here, a place called French Quarter. It is my understanding that while most of our family stayed there, a small off shoot went North. I think that is where Lasher's line is from." She explained.
Her own tale wasn't as interesting, though she had the nagging feeling that things did not add up properly. Her mother, specifically, and the way she had been raised seemed....wrong. Rowan dearly loved Ellie. That was the truth. But everything seemed to be different than how the woman had brought her up. "Most of the pack is my family. It is larger than Donnelaith, built up many times over." Rowan did not say this with pride, though she was proud of her heritage - just outlaying it's differences. "I feel here may be easier to truly feel like family, to properly bond."
Whenever someone said a good thing about Donnelaith, it made Osprey's heart swell with pride. Though she had not always felt like at home here (due to her own bouts of emotional crisis, which tended to happen now and then), starting a family had changed things for her a great deal.
"I hope you do," she replied, meaning every word. "Learning the witchcraft aside, what else are you interested in? I, for example, am a story-weaver."
They spent the rest of the hour talking and then parted as better acquaintances and packmates.