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Full Version: the light is coming [festival]
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"@Olive!" Rannoch greeted, having felt immediate relief once their gazes had met. "It would be my honor," he replied, accepting both her bidding and the floweret that she held; he had never sported a flower before. Using Olive as an example, Rannoch took the bloom and indelicately nosed it into his chest fur until it stayed put—the result was not as beautiful as Olive's had been

"Ack!" Rannoch remarked, his ears falling as he realized what he had done, "Sorry!" He glanced in the direction of the maypole then, seeking asylum from his embarrassment; his excitement and nervousness had gotten the best of him and the flower. "Should we dance now?"
Rannoch greeted her kindly, which was something she had always loved about the man — through the best of times and the worst of time, he always treated her with respect. Even with the myriad of ups and down they had seen and weathered together, there was still genuine joy and excitement they felt upon seeing each other; a joy that didn’t seem to spoil, no matter what happened.  “It is so good to see you — I am so happy you are here,” her eyes closed into a squinty grin as she pranced up to him, offering the flower that he so willingly received. But here was something so funny about the way that Rannoch crushed the flower that, very quickly, dissolved Olive into a fit of laughter.

She tried her best to recover, lest she crush her own flower, but a tear or two still sprung to the corner of her eye.  
“Are you still with Sunspire?” she asked laughingly, immediately wanting to know everything about his life since they had last seem each other, almost a year ago.  “— and how are your children? Liffey?” she waited a moment to hear his answer, before taking up a willow’s branch in her mouth. “Do you know how it’s done?” she inquired through gritted teeth, though the druid thought it was quite obvious; grab a tendril, and dance around the pole. Some dancers, Olive knew, liked to follow, not to lead.
"No, we moved away from Sunspire," Rannoch informed Olive, doing his best to draw their attention away from the broken blossom. "It was too dangerous to keep going there—we nearly ran out of food by the time we found a new home." Olive and Seabreeze had been right to relocate their family but, he only wished they could have all stayed together. "We live to the east of the spire, in a territory called Lost Creek Hollow—it has become our sanctuary." He smiled; he was very fond of their new home. "Liffey and the children are wonderful. Although, one of our eldest, Wisteria, vanished without a trace," he frowned, "We looked all over for her, and couldn't find a trace of where she went. I miss her every day," he said; his family was thriving despite the misfortunes that the previous year had presented them with. "How is everything with you? Are your children well?" 

When asked about the maypole, Rannoch shook his head. "Can you show me?" he asked, eyeing the closest willow branch.
It was a weird feeling, knowing the Rannoch had also departed from Sunspire for the same reasons as she — well, one key difference being the small fact that Olive and Seabreeze had fallen in love and pledged harmony and safety to one another — and she felt that it helped absolve a small part of the guilt she felt regarding the entire situation. Did Sunspire collapse because she and her family had left? No, the problems that drove them from their happy home were not only theirs. It was an unfortunate reality that Rannoch’s family had to suffer the same, only for their fate to be the same. 

The good thing was, it seemed to work out for the both of them. They were where they were meant to be, after so much strife.
“Rannoch, that’s lovely,” she said about Lost Creek Hollow. She knew about the Hollow since they had been in attendance at the Yule Celebration, and because Terance would come to visit every so often, so perhaps the fact that Rannoch had moved from the Sunspire shouldn’t have surprised her. 

Olive bit the inside of her cheek, knowing exactly the woes of having a child disappear without a trace. In all her cases, her children has resurfaced with out harm… eventually. They never returned, but at least they were safe. Olive had come to expect this are a part of adolescence, of growing up.
“I am sorry to hear about your daughter — Eleuthera and Séamus have flown the coop as well. I would bet that she is also out exploring the world, and will return eventually. They always do.” She reached out a twiggy, pale arm to touch Rannoch’s own in solidarity. Parenting was the same, no matter where you lived or what species you were.

Anywho, time for fun! Olive grabbed the willows branch once more, readjusting it in her mouth so that she could clumsily spill out an explanation.
“Well, grab a branch and you go like this…” but demonstration was often the best way of learning, so the slight woman proceeded to leap and dance and twirl with abandon. She only stopped when she realized that she looked absolutely and totally silly doing it alone. Already breathless, she commented through gritted teeth “It’s better with two dancers.” and hoped that Rannoch might join in.
"I didn't think it would be this hard," Rannoch admitted, on the subject of parenthood. "It's so different once you become a parent, you know?" A rhetorical statement, of course. "I remember when I went off on my own as a child—and how that all lead up to me being whisked away by an older man, to a pack along the coastline." His lips drew a straight line, and he sighed. "I would never want my daughters to have to go through what I did." He paused then, his head bowing as she placed her paw on his shoulder. "I'm sorry to hear that Eleuthera and Séamus went away, too." Rannoch's voice was much quieter. 

But, yes! To the fun stuff—and from what he observed, it seemed fun. Without any hesitation, Rannoch accompanied Olive by grabbing the brank that hung closest to her. Then, without warning, the burly man began to prance forward. 

"Am I doing it right?!" Rannoch asked after a moment as he looked back to Olive.
Olive giggled, spitting out her willow’s branch to share a snarky response. Yes, this was a serious situation and, yes, it was clear that Rannoch was incredibly sad about the entire situation, but parties were supposed to make their attendants happier, not sadder, weren’t they? It was almost a certainty that Wisteria was fine, just out exploring the world as children should. “Whisked away by an older man?” she replied snarkily, with an eyebrows arched up high. She was not usually the funny type, but she and Rannoch had known each other for so long at this point that she figured he might grant her some leniency with her lame attempts at humor.“Rannoch, I did not know you swung that way!” 

The druid offered the man a twist of a smile, but ended up lifting a paw and offering her sympathies. It wasn’t easy to have a child leave before one was ready.
“They’ll be back one day, just like Wisteria will. Just wait and see.” she offered, but was delighted but his sudden burst and energy and dance forward. If it hadn’t been so authentic she might have laughed, but this was an attempt made from the heart so she called out, equally as enthusiastic “Yes! Try some fancy footwork…” and she picked back up her own branch, side-stepping into a peppy grapevine pattern of her own.
Rannoch chortled at Olive's witticism; he had never been able to find light in one of his life's darkest moments. He smiled, thankful for his friend. "I didn't either!" he returned easily, overtaken by the liveliness of the festivities, "I guess we both learned something today!" He chuckled heartily as he mused her retort, unable to contain himself. 

Once Rannoch was able to restrain his laughter, the mood of the conversation shifted. He nodded, more optimistic than he had been previously. "We will," Rannoch decided. In his wave of positivity, he was inspired to try the "fancy footwork" that Oliver encouraged. Rannoch obliged, feeling lighter than ever, as he alternated his steps rhythmically.
Thanks for the extra round! <3

Rannoch’s precise and somewhat stoic way of looking at things was funny. She saw him waft between seriousness and jocularity, as he had been doing the entire festival thus far, but the lighter side of things eventually won out. He smiled and laughed and agree, and suddenly, Olive had no desire more, at that moment, than the one to see the big burly man dance some more. Her visage brightened, hoping they could move on from the topic of missing children and focus on the task at hame: celebrating babies and fertility, and dancing with this tree and feeling its essence.

The druid deftly grasped a weeping willow’s tendril between her jaws, careful not to crush it with excess pressure. The pale woman felt the energy flow freely throughout her entire body, and with a final nod to prompt Rannoch, she began to frolic and dance more before eventually returning to her duties of hosting the festival.