Stone Circle When we were young
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#1
All Welcome 
Chronologically occurs sometime before this thread but after this one.

Burr Saefyn, Explorer Extraordinaire, had been sent on an all important sleuthing mission. Not too long ago he had been hired to deduce the whereabouts of a kidnapped damsel in distress and had met with one of the pack's older wolves. The task he was set to today was more humble in nature but no less important to him: locating and returning Cyron's missing feather. Sometimes even Burr thought his brother's childishness was beyond silly, but he always entertained the boy's sweet nature, regardless. The fat tears that had leaked from his siblings' eyes while he described the missing toy had definitely helped.

So he set out in search of the feather in the mid-morning, reasoning that it was likely to be lost somewhere near the den site. Most likely, Rowana had got her paws on it and hid it. Their sister was impish at heart and undeniably the dominant force of the litter, so that was often the case. It varied whether she targeted Burr or Cyron, though recently it seemed like his brother got the brunt of her attitude. Burr could only conclude that it was due to their differences. Rowana was fierce and always wanting to get ahead and Cyron... well, he was still a sweet and bumbling thing compared to their sister.

Burr thought it most likely that she had the feather, but for all the right reasons, he wasn't willing to give her a reason to pick on him next, so instead of confronting her about it, he snuffled around in the bushes near the den, searching for the glossy sheen of a raven feather hidden in the branches.
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#2
Nikai was wandering around Easthollow when he noticed a youth somewhere near. He had heard that new wolves'd joined who came with young, but he hadn't met any of them yet so far. Nikai was bummed that he hadn't been the one to find them and guide them here, as it had been one of his scouting missions, but at least the threat of not having enough adult members to support the pups had gone with a slew of new wolves joining.

This seemed like a good opportunity to get to know this one, as he seemed to be alone, so Nikai approached with a friendly smile and neutral body language. When he reached the youth, he chuffed to announce his presence and asked, "Are you looking for something?" His voice soft and friendly.
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#3
The pungent odours of decaying leaves and wet dirt assaulted his senses soon after plunging his head into the bush, so he withdrew with a wriggle of his offended nose. That was when he noticed the approaching adult, an unfamiliar male wolf. His first childish instinct was a baffling urge to hide himself in the bushes and wait for Nikai to pass, but that was quickly overridden by his curiosity and present bold nature. His wide ears ventured in the older wolf's direction as he peered around the bush, and when he was addressed, he stepped out into plain view.

"Yeah!" squeaked Burr, who still sounded younger than he really was. That was Cyron's influence, no doubt. Their mother coddled them a little as well, truth be told. Burr had never wanted for anything in his life and could afford to spend his days locked in his imagination, where he did very little maturing. He had no reason to grow up yet. That would change soon enough.

Unlike his usual days pretending to be a most excellent explorer, Burr made no effort to sound mysterious or grown up in his response. This search wasn't as grave as the hunt for the missing damsel in distress. "Cyron lost his fedder," the boy explained, "an' I know Row'na has it bu' she's scary, so I'm gonna fin' him a be'er one an' pretend it's his!"
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#4
The boy responded in a friendly manner and Nikai looked around the pile of leaves to see if he could find anything of worth that the boy might be looking for. Soon he explained that he was looking for a feather his presumably-sibling'd lost. Another had hid it, and the boy said he would look for a better one and pretend it was his sibling's.

"Why don't you tell him it's a different feather, but you got it specially for him because he'd lost his old one and you know how much he likes feathers?" That seemed like a better plan to Nikai, as it didn't involve lying. He hoped that the boy would like the idea. "How 'bout I help you look for one? There's a little lake with some trees not far where I've seen a kingfisher once. They have real pretty feathers."
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#5
"But," Burr objected, "Cyron asked me to find his fedder!" Nikai was presenting Burr with an important life lesson—that lying was not the right way to solve any problem—but he didn't quite understand it. Cyron was sweet and understanding most of the time, and Burr had no doubt that his little brother wouldn't have a clue that the two feathers weren't one and the same. There was the tricky possibility that Rowana would ruin the entire lie, but he hadn't thought that far ahead just yet.

"Won' he be mad at me?" Burr went on, though he did fall into step with the older male when Nikai mentioned a kingfisher. "Wassat?" he couldn't help but to ask. He had heard the chortling cackle of kingfishers before and would recognize it if he heard it again, but he didn't realize that sound came from a particular species of bird that was also an excellent water hunter. He had never differentiated birds before, so he imagined instead a wolf who wore a crown of fish upon his head and hid in a cave by the lake to impart feathers on passersby.
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#6
Nikai couldn't help but chuckle when the pup said that he should find the specific feather he'd been asked to find. He further went on to ask if Cyron wouldn't be mad at him for finding a different feather. "He'll probably be pretty happy you care enough to find him a new feather. I know if I'd lost something and my brother would bring me a new thing that's just as good or maybe even better I'd be real grateful." This was a sweet kid, Nikai concluded, even though he was trying to trick his brother. He was definitely trying to help make his brother feel better.

As Burr asked what a kingfisher was, Nikai explained; "Their feathers are really bright, icy blue. It's a bird that is real fast, and it fishes in the water. It dives into the water and 'cause it's going so fast it will bolt right out again. Cool, huh?" Nikai hoped that the kingfisher would be around if they were to visit now. Nikai started towards the place where the kingfisher had been seen before as Burr followed, hoping they'd find at least a feather.
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#7
"Oh," Burr mused as Nikai explained that finding a nice new feather was probably even better than finding the old one. "Tha' makes sense!" He was the sort of fellow who would like a new gift more than an old one, but he didn't really know that about Cyron. In reality, Cyron was the type of sweetling who would probably be thrilled if Burr gave him something crappy like a rock or a dead leaf, but Burr thought much differently, and wanted to give only the best gifts. And it sounded like a kingfisher feather was, based on Nikai's description.

The bird itself was evidently quick as a whip and a master fisher. Burr recalled that wolves could be fishers and wondered if they learned from kingfishers how to be good at it. He pocketed that idea for now. "Cool!" repeated the youth with a sharp wag of his plumed tail over his hips. "It soun's real pretty."

As he fell into step with Nikai, Burr couldn't help but to ask, "so are you a fisher too?" How else would Nikai know about kingfishers and how they fished? It seemed like a reasonable explanation to him.
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#8
Nikai was glad he managed to enthuse the boy for the idea of the kingfisher feather. He really hoped they'd see the bird, too, because it was a magnificent sight and he would love to show the kid. He chuckled as he was asked if he was a fisher too and answered, "Not really. I've caught a fish once or twice, but I'm not all that good at it. I prefer land animals. What about you? Have you been hunting yet?" Nikai doubted that he had caught anything substantial yet but it would be good to know if he'd practised already.

Nikai realised then that he didn't even know what the child's name was yet so he offered his own first. "I'm Nikai, by the way. Valette's my mother." He assumed the pup would know who Valette was, so that would give him some kind of connection. "What's your name?"
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#9
Once or twice was a higher metric than Burr had ever reached, so even if Nikai denied that he was a fisher, the boy knew he had to have some skill in it. "No, no' yet," he answered. His parents hadn't taken him out to hunt and he hadn't found an opportunity on his own. His instincts were there and as he grew, so would they, but until then, Burr was at the mercy of whoever might want to give him a few pointers. Mawk and Illecebra both had the best intentions, but they both still saw their children as little babes, and no doubt didn't think the cubs were ready to learn something as gritty as hunting. Burr tended to agree, mostly because he wasn't physically inclined.

"When shoul' I start?" he wondered out loud as they came upon the lake's edge. The pup automatically cast his gaze skyward, but there weren't any birds flitting about at the moment, and his attention was soon drawn back to Nikai. His eyes widened perceptibly when his companion mentioned the Alpha female. "Oh... I'm Burr. She's really scary, she musta been a scary mom." He wondered if that meant Nikai was secretly scary as well, but he was reaching a point in his maturation where judging someone at face value wasn't the right thing to do. Nikai had been nothing but good and kind the entire time. Who his mother was surely didn't matter.
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#10
Nikai figured Burr might have been a bit young to already been out hunting so he nodded easily to accept the fact he hadn't yet. They continued the journey towards the lake and Burr asked when he should start. Nikai grinned and said, "You play with your siblings, right? That's sort of like starting to hunt too. Playing with sticks? That too. You should start trying real hunting when you feel you're ready. I could help you sometime, if you want." Sometimes pups just needed a nudge in the right direction. Nikai was no master hunter, but he enjoyed teaching others so he was sure he could help the pup, too.

As Burr said that Valette must've been a scary mom, Nikai laughed. "She's a really sweet mom, actually. But of course she's different as an Alpha."

Nikai glanced around, seeing no birds yet, and then instructed, "Now we must be quiet, or the kingfisher is going to hide out for sure. Maybe we'll see it if we're quiet. Let's skirt around the edge of the lake and see if we can find any blue feathers along the way." Nikai started slowly and quietly walking around the edge of the lake, his gaze flitting from the sky back to the ground with every step he took to keep a watch out for the bird and the feathers.
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#11
He supposed eventually he would learn to hunt, like every other wolf worth its merit. If Burr was anything, it was determined, although at present he had nowhere to channel that determination but his imagination. He got it from his mom, but he also got a good helping of patience from his dad. So while he was determined that someday he would be awesome at something, Burr was in no rush to get there and was content to lead a good life full of relaxation, hence his disinterest in hunting up until now.

But talking to Nikai about it sparked an urgent sensation in his chest that maybe he should care more, and when the older boy offered to help him, Burr bobbed his head as enthusiastically as he could and exclaimed, "Okay!" "Sometime" was a vague enough metric to placate the pup's lackadaisical side, and by the time he took Nikai up on the offer, he'd have a chance or two to practice. He didn't want to look like a total loser, after all!

He more or less ignored what Nikai said about Valette, if only because his experience coloured his perception of her, and focused instead on the kingfisher. He would have time to reflect on why wolves acted differently as Alpha than as a parent or a friend when he was older and better equipped to understand it. The kingfisher feather hunt was happening in the present and was more important. The greyscale youth trotted happily along in Nikai's wake, failing to keep as quiet as his elder companion, and kept his eyes peeled for any sign of blue along the shore. He was so focused on the ground that when the aforementioned bird suddenly zipped by overhead, he completely missed spotting it at first.
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#12
Nikai soon found out trying to keep quiet isn't much use when your companion's a lot noisier than you. However, at least Burr was keeping his mouth shut so Nikai hoped it'd be enough not to chase off the bird. He kept his gaze going up and down while he hoped they'd find a feather Burr could give to Cyron.

When the bird suddenly blew through the skies above them Nikai gasped. "Look!" he called out with hushed voice (so as not to scare it away) as the kingfisher dove towards the water like a blue bullet. The bird crashed into the water and a mere moment later it broke the water's surface again. Nikai couldn't tell for sure, but it looked like it was carrying a small fish in its beak when it came up again; though he hoped he was wrong and maybe it was only a twig, for if it wasn't successful it might try and dive again. Hopefully Burr had caught the spectacle.
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#13
Burr's eyes remained glued to the ground until the very moment that Nikai signaled him. The boy flung his gaze skyward, but just missed the bright blue flash of kingfisher in his line of sight. He did notice the splash though, and pinned his gaze firmly on that point in the water. He stood completely still as he watched ripples fan out across the lake's surface, and he nearly missed seeing the bird resurface. It happened some short distance away from the original point, but the splash drew his attention just in time.

"Woaaaaah!" exclaimed Burr as the bird darted past overhead, completely unaware of his body's motion as he began running toward the water's edge. When his front feet plunged into the shallows and the shock of cold water shot up his legs, he halted and blinked down, then quickly looked back to the sky. The bird was seemingly gone now, having disappeared in the blink of an eye to somewhere Burr hadn't seen, and his ears pulled down in disappointment. Still, "That was coooooo'!" he wildly shouted as he spun back around to locate Nikai.

And right there on the ground, just some feet behind Nikai and tangled up in a bush where they wouldn't have seen it coming the other way, was a blue feather. "Lookit!" said Burr as he raced toward it, kicking up water as he went.
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#14
Nikai waited in place and watched the rollercoaster of emotions that befell Burr. The anticipation of the rippling water, the excitement as the bird dove up from the water and then the disappointment as it was gone once more. But then the end verdict came: It was cool, which was really the biggest compliment anyone could get from a youth seeing something. The mission of finding a feather was lost on Nikai for a moment as he took in Burr's unbridled youthful excitement; he needed to be reminded of it by Burr himself as he suddenly called out something and ran out of the water.

Following Burr's gaze to a bush behind him, there it was; a bright blue feather on the ground. Nikai wondered if it had been there the whole time or if it had just been dropped, but upon closer inspection he guessed it had already been there since it looked like it'd gotten into a tangle with the bush. "Well done, Burr!" Nikai called out with an enthusiastic voice and his tail wagged as he walked up to the bush. He waited there, leaving the honours of plucking the feather to Burr.
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#15
The boy's curled tail beat happily behind him as he dive-bombed the bush, emerging moments later with the ruffled feather clenched between his incisors. Several leaves came away, stuck at odd angles into his fur, but he hardly even noticed them as he swung around to beam at Nikai. This was an adventure he wouldn't soon forget: the kindly freckled Nikai, the kingfisher's sleek form darting out of the water, and being able to bring Cyron this beautiful feather were all memories he would look on fondly in the future.

"Fankth," Burr slurred through the feather on his lips. "'M gowwa bing thith t' Currern," he painstakingly explained, and with his tail still wagging fiercely, the pup pounded away along the shore, eager to present this find (and his story about Nikai and the kingfisher) to his sibling.
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#16
Nikai's tail wagged to mirror Burr's, a happy smile on his face as the boy emerged, fur full of leaves and the prize -- the feather -- between his teeth. Nikai wasn't entirely sure what he was saying, but he could easily fill in the gaps and know that Burr was going to bring it to the Cyron he had mentioned before. "See ya 'round!" he called out with a smile and cast a last glance at the peaceful lake before turning away and making his way back to Valette to see if there was anything she needed.