@Epic
"No peeking!" Wraen nudged Epic's shoulder, while she was leading him towards a place, where she swearing on her grandmother's holy bones stated that she had found something particularly interesting. Technically Falls of the Hinterlands weren't that much of a secret spot and Epic had probably been there already, but she thought it would be both challenging and amusing to lead her friend "blind-folded" there. After all, if he had been accepted in Team Nuclear Awesomeness, he had to be up to for some peculiar challenges as well.
Once or twice she had got lost in thoughts and almost walked her friend into trees, but she had averted the possible mishaps early and hoped that Epic had not noticed the possible troubles-to-be. Luckily the last part of the way to the falls was a grassy field and, when she had led him almost to the edge of the water, she nudged his shoulder again, saying:
"Now you can look!"
Epic was sure he didn't like to walk around the world with his eyes closed. In any other situation he would have looked, if only to take a small snapshot of what he was heading for, but alas this was one of the heavy-on-his-heart challenges that belonged to the super-duper-secret club. And while his eyes were closed and he was following Rennie, he was stepping rather s.l.o.w.l.y to make sure he didn't fall flat-nose on the ground like with Maia and that jump that ended up like a big failure.
At the same time with each and every step that he took, he felt the lush green grass tickle underneath his feet or the crunch of disappearing snow now that winter was gone. He was attuned to all sorts of different senses and he (almost) saw the world in a different way. What a strange yet delighted feeling. Finally for what felt like eons, Rennie said that he could look. "Oh, geeh." It was his first reaction as his eyes had to adjust to the light and it took him a few seconds to see something. Then when the world began to color up around him, he saw lush, green grasses and crisp water. "Oh gosh, Rennie this place is so beautiful. And, and I think winter is slowly disappearing. Goodbye cold. Booya."
There was something very endearing about Epic's childish wonder and enthusiasm about everything and, when Wraen was with him, she felt younger than her three years that weighed on her shoulders. As if her friend was able to push a "reset" button on everything and make her see the world anew, as well as wish to revisit old places just to have a different point of view.
"Yup - it was high time too that Winter and her court picked up their belongings and left. She was particularly harsh this year," Wraen agreed, the frostbites on the soles of her feet and the bony and haggard frame of hers was a testament to that. "Made me often wonder, who she was trying to impress."
Epic didn't like the cold, not because it was actually frost-biting his butt but it made plenty of prey grow scarce. Even moreso he didn't like the feeling of being hungry, eating scraps that tasted like he was eating rotten dinosaur eggs or even worse. And there was something about his thin frame that would forever be a reminder of the hard times that he fought off. Now that spring rolled around the corner, he could go and jump around like a happy fawn; especially if Rennie would join him. It made him happy; happy to have warmer temperatures, happy to see his friend and to enjoy a time when food wouldn't become so scarce again.
"So glad Winter's cousin SPRING has arrived." Epic mumbled enthousiastically, still lingering on a particular previous thought. "Hey, I want to jump around like a FAWN or a RABBIT. Want to join me? Like celeberate spring has arrived?" It felt sort of silly, but at the same time: this could also be seen as a challenge of being part of the super-duper-secret-awesome-club that Maia introduced him to. He curiously waited for an answer while being entirely unsure of how she would respond this silly, boyish question.
It would be difficult to write a serious, poetic and lyric romance and have an Epic featuring as that Mr.Perfect love object. Every time the writer would get to a melancholic reflection like this "her eyes glistened like two pools of molten emeralds that one could drown in" or the dramatic culmination of "time seemed to slow down and they looked at each other with (insert drama here)", there would be a totally unexpected 180 degree deviation from the initial plan for sure.
He was a natural-born for comedy and Wraen liked him for that. One person aside her sister, who did not consider fooling around wrong and childish. Therefore - no wonder that she jumped on the idea both in literal and figurative sense. She bumped her forepaws against his shoulder, exclaimed "You are IT!" and then took off. Could he catch her?
They enjoyed each other's company for a long time and then returned home.