She spent the morning roving the borders with her father. As they finished their patrol and headed home for an early lunch, Wildfire couldn't decide if she was glad or disappointed that nothing had happened. It had really been rather dull and boring. She couldn't see why Nightjar or Raven wanted to be Wardens. Of course, she didn't make a single peep of complaint. It wasn't Wildfire's style, and she was glad to have spent some time with her dad, especially while he was awake.
Halfway home, they crossed paths with Fox, who told Wildfire to go ahead; they would be right behind her. The girl shot her parents a mistrustful look but did as she was told, trotting to the rendezvous site. She emerged in the clearing and made a beeline for one of the nearer caches. She pulled a whole rabbit out of it and began to eat ravenously. By the time she finished it ten minutes later, her parents hadn't appeared. Why was she somehow not surprised?
Wildfire rose and padded to the edge of the clearing, then moved forward into the scrub. She didn't intend to go far. She just wanted to maybe look around for some additions to her collection. She had been so focused on earning her Warrior stripes lately that she really hadn't done much collecting. Wildfire would always be a Naturalist first and foremost, so it was good to get back to nature.
Pantaleimon had not yet spent as much time with the young children as she wished; she'd been around, but had never really got one-on-ones with all of them. Recently she found Raven, and even though treading close to Fox and Peregrine's whereabouts made her feel kind of nervous (in both a good and bad way, but mostly a way that was a bit much to handle for Pan that day) she decided to see if she could find any of the other pups to spend some time with them. The parents would probably appreciate having some time off if Pan would occupy the kids, and they were also at an age where they were a lot less fragile so that Pan worried less about breaking them if she was one on one with them.
Just as she walked around, nearing the rendezvous site, Pantaleimon noticed one of the children stalk about in the brush. It was good to see her walk around as she did after the heartless assault that had taken place, Pantaleimon noted with a soft smile. When she thought of the assault, she thought of Reek, who had likely been in the same pack as this Junior wolf (Pan hadn't told Perry because last time she mentioned Reek at all, he'd got mad, but when he had mentioned Junior had likely been with her sister, Saena, Pan had remembered Reek'd told her his Alpha's name), and her stomach churned. She missed Reek, but it was unlikely they'd find their brotherly bond back with the way their packs were right now -- beside the fact that their packs were days of travel apart.
Deciding to let her thoughts rest for now, Pantaleimon stepped towards Wildfire and called out from a distance: "Uhm, hey, whatcha doing?" She wasn't very good at initiating conversations, and hoped that this one would be rolled into as smoothly as the one with Raven.
When someone called out to her, Wildfire lifted her head from where she was sniffing along the ground and quickly located the white figure a few dozen yards away. The pup's tail waved tentatively. She remembered looking for this very wolf a few days ago, though that hadn't gone according to plan. Surprisingly, much had changed since then. She was a real Warrior apprentice now. But her resolve to face her fears, particularly by socializing with less familiar wolves, had not changed. With that in mind, she turned to fully face Pantaleimon, then began to stride toward him on her ungainly, growing legs.
"Hi," she said, rolling to a step perhaps two yards from him. Wildfire bowed her head, her tail already limp behind her. She knew his name and he probably knew hers but just to be safe (and get formal introductions out of the way), she said, "You're Pantymoan, right? I'm Wildfire." Her parents sometimes referred to him as Pan, she knew, and they of course called her Wifi. But nicknames could wait for now.
Upon her approach, Pantaleimon was once more reminded how quick the pups grew; she was growing rapidly, and she would keep growing rapidly for the next few months, Pan knew. It was amazing to see how a tiny blob of puppy turned into a fully grown wolf, especially when you regularly saw said blob so that it seemed to cost so little time. Pan couldn't help but feel a smile tug at her lips when Wildfire asked her if she was 'pantymoan'.
"Yes, you're right, I'm Pantaleimon," said Pan with a smile. How well raised was little Wildfire, all properly introducing herself to Pan. Pantaleimon wondered if she should ask about Wildfire's neck injury and ask if she was alright, but she wasn't sure if it would be appropriate, considering they'd only just formally met and all. "I'm uhm, I'm glad to see you walking about again," Pan ended up saying, hoping that it wasn't over the boundaries of Wildfire's comfort zone to talk about her injury.
Pan corrected her pronunciation graciously and Wildfire smiled with only the slightest of sheepish twinges. "Can I call you Pan?" she asked. "You can call me Wifi," she added. Her name wasn't necessarily a mouthful like his but it wasn't just about making them easier to say. Swapping nicknames was sort of a friendly, even familial, gesture.
His remark about her injuries confused Wildfire for a moment. Then she realized Pan must have heard about the confrontation with the coyote. "It was just some little boo-boos on my neck," she reassured, still unaware that they were talking about two entirely different incidences and that, based on her response, he probably wouldn't even realize either. "I'm fine now. I'm even a Warrior apprentice!" she declared.
"Of course," Pantaleimon confirmed when Wildfire asked if she could call her Pan. It was a little strange for Pan to hang out with a female puppy; while Pan would teach them some of the things when the Sirens had less time, they would boss over her, being a Consort. It was weird getting proper respect from any kind of female, let alone a puppy, and Pantaleimon was still adjusting to this new world she had been launched into with Redhawk Caldera.
Pantaleimon nodded when Wildfire mentioned the boo-boos in her neck, glad that she was both feeling better and did not seem too phased by the whole incident. She was young, and hopefully this incident would not mark her too much for the rest of her life. Pan didn't know anything about any alternate incidents, so she was pretty sure that Wildfire was talking about Junior's assault on her.
Pan was amazed that Wildfire was already a warrior apprentice, despite her injuries. She was such an active little child. "Wow, that's... that's amazing!" Pantaleimon said with a soft smile. "I'm not very good at fighting, uhm... I'm more of a warden, I think, if I have to pick one of them. I - I'm only really good at hunting, really." Pantaleimon smiled awkwardly at Wildfire as she disclosed her little not-so-secret; Pantaleimon didn't think she was good at many other things beside hunting, but luckily being a skilled hunter tended to be enough for most packs to want to keep her around.
Pan seemed impressed, which made Wildfire's black tail wiggle. She realized that she hardly felt shy around him. It was probably because she was at least vicariously familiar with him, though it was mostly because she found him really easy to talk to and be around. There was simply nothing about him that intimidated her, especially up close and personal like this.
"You gonna become a Gamekeeper?" she asked when Pan mentioned hunting. Wildfire then pointed out, "That's not the only thing! You're really good at swimming." She paused, feeling just a tiny flicker of bashfulness before asking, "Maybe you can teach me to be as good as you? I like swimming a lot."
Pantaleimon nodded when Wildfire asked her if she was going to become a gamekeeper. She intended to, and was well on her way towards receiving the title, Pan was pretty sure. When Wildfire then pointed out she was good at swimming too, Pantaleimon smiled softly. "Everyone's good at swimming where I'm from," she explained, although it wasn't technically true (some were better than others; but Pantaleimon had always been somewhere in the middle, her large and broad body not as suited for fast swimming, but being able to do swim well regardless due to growing up at the oceanside with the Nereides' traditions).
Wildfire went on to say that she liked swimming, and Pantaleimon nodded. She'd teach the pups of her Queen -- and Perry -- anything they wanted. "Of course," she agreed. Maybe when Wildfire was older she could be taken to the oceanside and admire Mother Ocean, Pantaleimon thought to herself. While the Caldera's lake was large and good for swimming, it wasn't quite like the salty sensation of the ocean's water -- the one thing that Pan missed the most from her time with the Nereides. "I grew up at the ocean, that's why I know a lot about swimming. Uhm... You... know what the ocean is, right?" Mid-way through her sentence, Pantaleimon realised that Wildfire might not know yet (she wasn't sure if it had ever come up, or if it was custom to teach land-pups about the facets of the ocean), and she tilted her head in question while she looked at Wildfire.
Wildfire already felt relatively comfortable in Pan's presence, yet the moment he agreed to teach her to swim, they became fast friends. She smiled warmly at him, her black tail waving, though she shook her head lightly at his question. "No... wait!" She cocked her head, her amber eyes rolling thoughtfully to the side and her lips pursing. "Is the ocean like a really, really, really big lake?" Wildfire vaguely recalled her mother mentioning it during one of her bedtime stories.
When Pan presumably confirmed, her face split into an even broader smile, the tips of her white teeth showing. "Can we go there? And you can teach me how to be a good swimmer like you!" Her eyes glimmered with excitement. The child had yet to venture a single step beyond the caldera, though she had heard some tales from Aunt Finley, the Outrider, and she knew she wanted to see more of the world when she was old enough to venture away from home.
Pantaleimon smiled when Wildfire looked enthusiastic at learning to swim better and when she tried to figure out what the ocean was. When Wildfire suggested it was a really giant lake, Pantaleimon chuckled. She remembered that she had always considered lakes to be tiny, better-tasting oceans... she only now realised how much sense it made for land-born puppies to see things the other way around.
"That's right," Pantaleimon confirmed.
When Wildfire asked Pan if she could show the ocean and teach her to be a great swimmer, Pantaleimon considered it for a moment. Eventually she said, the hesitance clear in her voice because she did not want to pressure Fox or Peregrine, "Only if, uhm, if the quee-- uhm, if your m-mother's okay with it. If she thinks you're too young, we'll have to wait. The ocean's pretty far away." Fox still made Pan nervous for multiple reasons, and she didn't want to make any promises that she would be unable to keep for both their sakes.
Pan's hesitant reply did not surprise the puppy, nor dampen her enthusiasm. She nodded. "I know I pro'lly have to be older and bigger. But maybe if I practice swimming a lot, mom and dad will let us go," Wildfire said in a hopeful voice. Naturally, she wouldn't be opposed if one (or both) of them came along for the beach trip as well. In fact, the child would probably prefer it. She felt comfortable around Pan but would want a parent or other trusted adult to come along too so they weren't alone with one another.
She sort of wanted to ask if they could go for a swim now, yet she was still hesitant to go off alone with Pan and her parents were supposed to be joining her at the rendezvous site soon. "Can we go do a swimming lesson soon?" the pup queried. And since her parents weren't back just yet, she added, "And right now..." Wildfire paused thoughtfully, pressing her tongue against the inside of her cheek. "Do you wanna help me find some cool stuff for my collection?"
Pantaleimon nodded when Wildfire indicated she understood that she would have to be older and bigger to be allowed to go to the ocean. It was a good idea to start practising here, although Pan doubted that the problem with going to the ocean was actually to do with not swimming enough. The journey itself was probably more of an objection. Pan decided not to mention it, though; it was enough for her that Wildfire knew she would have to wait until she was older, even though she could already start swim practise here at the Caldera. It had plenty of water, and Pan was grateful for that, even though it didn't have the salty scent of the oceanside to remind her of home.
When Wildfire asked for swimming lessons, Pan nodded. "Whenever you want to," she promised. Pan would've been ready to give lessons now, but Wildfire seemed to have something else in mind when she mentioned looking for stuff for a collection. Pantaleimon remembered spending hours upon hours searching for the very best seashells and kelp to decorate her fur with. She felt a little naked here, with nothing to drape her fur with, but perhaps it was for the best. "Sure! I - I used to collect stuff when I was younger too. What sort of collection is it?"
Wildfire's lips pressed together thoughtfully when Pan inquired about the kind of collection she kept. "It's just... everything," she finally said, shrugging lightly. She smiled and explained, "I collect anything that's neat! I have sticks and rocks and bones and all kinds of things. I keep them in a badger den. I can show you." She waved her black tail. Of course, she wanted to find a few things to add first, then she would lead Pantaleimon to her stash. They might as well make the trip worth their while.
"I been mostly collecting cool rocks lately," Wildfire said. She had actually been so caught up in her Warrior training recently that she had only added a few things here and there, though those sparse objects had been stones of some sort. "I like the ones that are white and smooth... or purple with speckles! I also like bones. I have a almost whole snake skel'ton in the den," she shared with a toothy grin.
Now that Pan had an idea what she was looking for—interesting rocks or any kind of bones—Wildfire dropped her nose back to the ground and began combing. Her yellow eyes flicked upward to see if the adult was doing the same, then she really threw all of her attention into sifting across the landscape in the hopes of turning up something compelling.
Pantaleimon nodded when Wildfire explained she collected about everything and anything. When Wildfire suggested she could show the den she kept the stuff in, Pan nodded. "Sure! I'd love to see what you collected so far." Then Wildfire went on to explain she had a lot of special rocks and bones so far, which gave Pan a better indication on what to look for. After all, not everyone loved the same sort of stuff.
When Wildfire turned her attention to the lands, so did Pantaleimon. "I'm more used to searching for stuff along the shoreline," she admitted, "So uhm, I'm a little rusty on land." On the shoreline, the trick was to find the prettiest shells that were partially or completely hidden in the sands. Here, things were different, because there was just so... much of everything. Not just sand and treasure. Pan looked around, hoping to find something cool, and she put her nose to the ground, hoping that her nose could show her something nice. She picked up the scent of passing death, and figured she might find a half-rotten corpse. With some luck, it'd be the bones -- or almost bones -- of some animal or other, so Pan decided to follow that trail, as it was the best she had.
As Wildfire swept the earth with her nose, she wondered how the seashore might differ from here. What sorts of objects would litter a beach versus a landlocked place like the caldera? She almost asked, yet she struck the same scent trail as Pan. Walking a few yards behind him, the puppy didn't miss an inch of ground; she covered it all with her nose, her whiskers exploring the differences in texture and grade as she went along.
All of a sudden, her smudged muzzle bumped against something. She took it for a rock at first, but it smelled like spoiled meat. Crinkling her nose at the rancid odor, Wildfire reached out a paw to turn over the rock. It turned out to be a dead turtle, half-ripe from lying in the sun. Its head and limbs sprawled on the dirt as she righted the carcass.
"Look what I found," Wildfire said, lifting her head to locate Pan. "What is it? It's stuck inside a rock!" the puppy questioned wonderingly. "Is that why it died?"
Wildfire followed the same trail that Pantaleimon had found, and the two of them went along it for a while, the scent growing stronger. When Wildfire called out, Pan turned her head and trotted over to Wildfire, not far from her, the scent growing stronger all the while. Before she even reached it, the smell told Pan that it wasn't time to add this skeleton to anyone's collection just yet; it reeked terribly.
Pantaleimon identified it as a turtle quickly, and she didn't even consider that Wildfire might not know what it was until she literally asked. Pan watched the half-rotten thing and felt sorry for it for a moment. Looking back at Wildfire, she said, "It's called a turtle. It lives in a rock. But this one's... well, it died." Pan wasn't sure if turtles had skeletons at all. Not that she knew of, but then, she'd never seen a turtle as dead as this one was. Maybe the shell would make a nice trophy, but not with the smelly corpse still in it.
Pan explained that the rock was actually part of its body, then gave the creature a name: turtle. Wildfire blinked down at it, trying to wrap her head around the fact that it lived inside a rock. How strange! This meant that she had sort of combined her two preferences (rocks and bones) into one, didn't it? But there was no way the pup would store this find in her den; it would reek up the whole place!
"I'll come back for it later," she murmured, then moved on, putting her nose back to the ground. Hopefully she would find an actual rock or an actual skeleton and not some crazy mutant animal that was sort of both at once!
She struck gold a moment later, when the moist, leathery flesh of her nose bumped into something small and sharp protruding from a patch of earth. Wildfire dug her toes into the soil to reveal a naturally occurring and perfectly formed arrowhead. Of course, the pup didn't know of that name. To her, it was just a piece of rock that looked a lot like a fang.
"Hey, Pan, look!" she called softly, unable to raise her voice beyond a certain level. "I like rocks that look like teeth," she said, thinking of her favorite shard of quartzite stashed in the badger den.
When Wildfire said she'd return later for the turtle, Pantaleimon looked at it. They'd easily miss it if they'd return if they left it on the ground. Pan picked up the gross turtle with her teeth while she squinted her eyes -- it wasn't exactly her favourite hobby to touch yucky things -- and put it down on a nearby flat rock. "We'll leave it here to dry," she explained to Wildfire, "Then it - it'll rot quicker, and you'll know where to find it, on this rock." Otherwise stuff might grow over it, after all.
Wildfire called out when she'd found another thing, and Pan quickly rushed to Wildfire's side. The rock did look a lot like a fang. It reminded Pan the rocks she used to find by the beach, all smoothened by the ocean's wave. "That's nice," said Pan. "It does look a lot like a fang. Great find, Wildfire." Pan smiled softly at Wildfire and waited for her to pick it up, as well as to hear if Wildfire wanted to look for more or call it quits with the finds they'd had.
When Pan strode up to her, Wildfire offered a belated, "Thanks," regarding the turtle. She smiled at his praise about the rock and told him, "I have another one kinda like this, only it's purpley. It's my favorite rock of all. I found it with my Uncle Elwood." And though the idea hadn't occurred to her just yet, Wildfire would soon decide to offer it as a gift to her godparents' newborn offspring.
"Let's find at least one more thing, then we'll take them back to the badger den," the youth proposed. She plucked up the arrowhead in her teeth to carry it, then dropped her head to begin sniffing around again. If she found something, she would probably ask Pan to carry it for her, considering she already had a mouthful. But hopefully he would locate the next bit of treasure.
"Purple?" Pan repeated. "Can I see it when we bring this to your treasure stash?" Pantaleimon loved pretty things, and she wondered if Wildfire had ever considered finding a way to wear them. However, rocks were a lot harder to wear than seaweed and shells, which had sharp edges so that you could hang them in the seaweed. Pan considered if there were any in land plants that you could hang over your head so that it looked a bit like seaweed. If she'd bring actual seaweed, it would never last long enough until she was all the way over here. It'd be all dry and cracked by the time. Maybe moss would do. She'd have to try it sometime.
Wildfire began to search again, and Pantaleimon followed suit. Her previous find hadn't been very good -- just a dead turtle, which wasn't useful to bring along just yet -- and Pantaleimon hoped that she would find something better this time.
Pan sniffed the ground when she noticed something on the ground catching a ray of sunlight. She squinted her eyes to fight the reflecting light while she galopped towards it to inspect what it was. Once there, Pan saw that it was a rock with one shiny side. It looked a little like pearly seashells that Pan had seen by the seaside; when she moved her head, the shiny side of the stone turned into different colours. "Wildfire, look over here!" Pan called out to her companion. The stone was clunky and not very polished, and only one of its sides was pearly, but it still looked pretty cool.
"'Course!" was the child's only remark, the arrowhead rattling against her teeth. She would be more than happy to show Pan the quartzite, as well as everything else she kept in the badger den. Maybe she would even give him a gift to thank him for his contribution (if he made one) and for taking the time to hang out with her today. She was glad to get to know him better.
Wildfire didn't turn up anything, though it wasn't long before Pan called out to her, drawing her attention. She jogged over to him, eyes widening as the shiny stone caught her eye. "Oooh, what is it?" the pup asked, black tail stirring the air. "It's so cool, Pan," she declared after a few seconds of studying its shiny, almost iridescent surface.
Pantaleimon felt unnecessarily nervous when she called Wildfire over to her found treasure. She wanted Wildfire to like it disproportionally much, and felt kind of dumb for wanting a pup to like her so much. It wasn't just because it was Wildfire, either, or because she was one of Peregrine's kids: it was just that Pantaleimon wanted everyone she ever met to like her. It just didn't show as much normally, when it was in a more normal situation. Only now that she felt genuinely nervous over whether a kid would like the rock she found for it Pan realised how dumb her behaviour was. But it didn't change how she felt.
When Wildfire said that it was cool, Pantaleimon felt almost relieved, or at least unproportionally happy. "I'm glad you like it," she said with a small smile. "Shall I carry it?" Pantaleimon asked, considering Wildfire had her mouth full already. Assuming Wildfire would say yes to the offer, Pan picked up the stone and waited for Wildfire to lead the way back to her treasure hideout, so that they could leave the newfound treasures there.
"I don't like it, I love it," Wildfire said with a small but friendly smile, her speech accented by loud clicks as the arrowhead rolled around in her mouth. "Yes, please. I'll show you the badger den now. Follow me," the youngster added, swiveling and breaking into a trot. It was not far from here, just off the rendezvous site's main clearing, screened by some brush.
Soon, they arrived and Wildfire quickly stepped into the low, dark den to spit the drool-covered rock onto the ground. She then backpedaled, moving out of the way to allow Pan to make his own deposit. "You can look around," she told him in a small, proud voice. Her collection was her pride and joy as an aspiring Naturalist.
Pantaleimon took the stone in her mouth and followed Wildfire until they arrived at the badger den that functioned as treasure-keeping place. Now, Pantaleimon no longer just wanted to show Wildfire the ocean so that she could learn to swim, but also to collect the treasures of the ocean. If only Redhawk Caldera had a seasight: Pan imagined this life in combination with oceanside view and seaside treasures and she couldn't help but smile.
Pan waited for Wildfire to put her treasure down and then poked her head into the badger den to put the stone in. It was rather small and dark, and hard to look around. Pan decided instead to sniff and feel the treasure with her nose and paws. She didn't want to disarray the treasure, so she decided not to take anything out. Withdrawing her head from the badger den, Pan said, "Feels like quite the collection you've got."
Pantaleimon seemed impressed by her stacks of odds and ends. "Did you see the quartzite?" she asked, darting inside to locate it, then nose it into plain view just in case he had missed it. "Isn't it pretty?" She toed it next to the iridescent rock he had just delivered, then smiled softly. "Can I keep it?" Wildfire felt a bit bad for asking but she would really love to add his discovery to her collection if Pan didn't mind parting with the beautiful stone.
"I'll give you something in, um..." Oh, there was a word for it; she just couldn't remember it. Her brow furrowed in thought. "Esschange? Something like that." She shrugged, deciding the semantics didn't matter much. Wildfire dove back inside the den, sifting through her piles of treasure in an effort to locate the perfect gift for Pan to thank him for his time and his find.
"Here!" She withdrew from the den, dragging something beneath one tiny, red forepaw. When she lifted it, she revealed a small skull. It was a rabbit's. Magpie had given it to her, along with a few others. She could definitely spare one, though this one in particular was the best, in her opinion, because it was the largest and had the longest buck teeth. "It's a bunny skull," the Naturalist explained in case Pan didn't recognize it without the ears and all.