Redhawk Caldera banjo serenade

For @Raven, since they need a -to-. No rush!

Slowly, things were falling into place. Peregrine had redeemed himself, Wildfire had become a warrior, and Redhawk Caldera was settling back into a somewhat normal routine. One little thing had been niggling Fox, though. Raven still seemed standoffish around her father, and Fox wanted to fix it. She was far from being a counselor, preferring more physical traits to mental ones, but she was a mother, and a mother wanted her children to feel safe and happy—especially around their father.

"Raven?" she asked, nibbling on the girl's quickly-growing shoulder, "Can you come help me with something?" From there, Fox would lead her away from her siblings and the other wolves gathered at the rendezvous site.

:D!  Is it OK if this is backdated to just before Tiger's death?

Raven was growing like a weed.  Already taller than her siblings, it was clear she was going to rival her father in height.  Her legs were getting long and gangly, her snout and tail were awkwardly long, and her ears were oversized for her narrow skull.  She was beginning to lose some of her cute puppy chubbiness as her body slimmed and leaned out.  Her coat was darkening more and more, so that most of the charcoal grey was now sleek, inky black.  Her eyes had nearly finished their full transition; only faint flecks of grey remained in their bright golden depths.

Sadness had reigned at the forefront of her emotions since Tiger's passing, and Raven was left feeling lost in the whirlwind of so much tragedy in such a short period of time.  At least right now, though, she was able to find a little peace of mind:  she had been lying in the grass and enjoying the warmth of the sun on her fur when her mother approached, touched her shoulder, and asked her to come help with something.  Ever the eager pleaser when it came to her mother, Raven hopped up, shook herself clean of debris, and followed.  She admired her mom to the point of nearly worship and wondered what it was she needed.

Hmmm... I don't think so, since it's after Wifi becomes a warrior (which is after Tiger's death). Sorry!

Raven followed obediently, something Fox was grateful for. Unlike Peregrine's first litter, these three seemed to not mind following their parents' requests. In fact, all three seemed to respect them a great deal. A smile tugged at the Alpha's lips, thinking about how perfect and wonderful Nightjar, Wildfire, and Raven were. She could not have asked for a better first litter, and she hoped that every subsequent one would be just as great. Then again, with these three as role models, Fox had a good feeling they'd be well off.

"You want to help me mark the borders?" she asked, though she was pretty sure of the answer. Fox planned only to go along the outer rim of the rendezvous site, but it would be good practice for her youngest. "Unless you’d rather learn about sparring today." Fox couldn't really picture Raven being a fierce, outgoing warrior like Wildfire was turning out to be (not to mention Nightjar), but she could see Raven being a calm, collected warden who kept a watchful eye on their borders.

No problem!  I edited my last post to reflect her current emotions a little better.  :D  While I'm thinking of it, I've decided that Raven will be working toward the Warden and Healer trades, particularly the latter.  I'll probably throw Naturalist in there somewhere too.

Mom gave her the choice of helping her do some marking or learning about sparring, and Raven chewed her lip for a moment before replying, "I guess marking?"  She really didn't feel much desire for physical conflict at the moment.  Grieving for Tiger, in addition to the other complicated feelings she had about recent events, had taken quite a bit out of her usual energy and zeal for things.  Her parents had talked a lot about trades and skills recently, so it didn't surprise Raven that Fox wanted to teach her something today.  She still didn't really understand the difference between the Warden and Warrior trades, which were the two trades that got mentioned the most, but she figured she would learn soon enough.  Obediently, she followed her mother without much further comment, awaiting the red she-wolf's direction.

Yay! All dees kids are gonna be awesome. ;)

Nodding with a smile, Fox made her way to the edge of the rendezvous site, checking back every few paces to make sure Raven wasn't far behind. Out of all the children, Raven was the most quiet by a long shot. "Marking is one of the primary duties of a warden," Fox explained, "We have to make sure all the other wolves know that Redhawk Caldera is our home." That wasn't to say that the warnings were never ignored (because they were), but it certainly let others know what they were getting themselves into. "It’s a warden’s job to make sure nothing bad ever gets to the heart of the packlands."

Fox stopped, squatted, and dribbled out a few drops of urine. "Make sure you don’t let it all go at once," she advised, "Otherwise, you won’t have any left for the rest of our little border." The Alpha had made that mistake before, though she'd learned to control her little pee pockets quite well over her lifespan. Once Raven had done a few squats, they could move on to other ways of marking the borders and learning how to greet the wolves who lingered there on occasion.

Raven nodded as her mom explained the job of a warden to her in brief.  "So...a warden makes sure nothing bad gets in," she commented after a moment, looking up at Mom to see if she was on the right track.  "And a worryer's job is to fix it if the bad thing does get in?"  The differences between the two trades were subtle; the two roles worked together and complimented one another, hence their similarities.  Explained in those terms, Raven got it.  

Following her mom's lead, she found a little patch of clover that she thought looked inviting, squatted, and relaxed her bladder.  It was hard for her to control it at her young age, so quite a bit escaped before she managed to stem the flow.  Who knew peeing could be such a challenge?

"Pretty much!" Fox replied. Raven was a sharp kid, so it was no surprise that she picked up on things so quickly. The little black girl squatted, releasing the floodgates with a torrent of "stay away from here" juice. Maybe it was a weird time to be a proud mom, but Fox had never been anywhere close to normal. She grinned, then gestured for Raven to follow her a few feet away to the nearest tree.

"Pissing isn’t the only way we can let others know that this is our home," Fox explained. "If we rub ourselves against a tree like this," she said, pushing her shoulder into the tree and sliding back and forth against it a few times, "our fur serves as a reminder that we watch the place." Strands of red fur now clung to the tree's bark, making it clear that somebody had been here. "You wanna try?" Fox asked, stepping away from the tree and giving Raven enough room to give it a go.

Raven felt her mother's approval as Fox grinned at her, and it made her immensely happy.  Despite all that had happened, she still wanted to make her parents and siblings happy and proud of her.  She followed her mother as the alpha moved on to her next lesson:  marking her territory by rubbing her body against a tree.  Raven watched attentively, and when Fox was finished with her demonstration, the pup could clearly see several bright red hairs stuck in the grooves of the bark, shining in the afternoon sunlight.  Fox asked her if she wanted to try, and of course, she nodded eagerly and moved forward to the same tree.  

Leaning against it, she pressed her right shoulder and side to the tree and took a few steps forward.  A few steps in reverse rubbed her fur against the grain, and a soft, squeaky groan of pleasure fell out of her mouth almost involuntarily.  She looked at her mom with a grin and said, "Feels good!"

Stepping back, she squinted and there, almost invisible against the dark color of the trunk, were a few small, fine black hairs.  She also noticed that both her mother's and her own scents were strong on the trunk too.  "This is our tree! she crowed proudly, her tail waving and her chest puffed up.

"Hell yeah it is!" Fox yelled. Nobody in this goddamn neighborhood was going to fuck with this tree, that much was true. Then again, it had kinda been their tree to begin with. At least Raven was getting the idea of marking, which was the goal of this little charade. The fireball grinned down at her darkest child, glad to see that she was enjoying their outing. Well, as much of an outing as it was, considering they hadn't really even left the rendezvous site.

Fox jogged a little further away, assuming that Raven would follow, and stood next to another tree. Her voice took on a more serious note then, wanting to get Rave's attention. "Hey Rave?" she half-asked. "You know that Dud did what he had to do, right? To save Wildfire." There had been no avoiding it. Junior had posed an immediate (and lethal) threat to the firebirds, and so she'd been cut down. If anything worse had happened to Wildfire, Fox did not know what she would have done. "You and your brother and sister are very important to me and Dud. We both love you so much, so we have to keep you all safe." If Fox had had the chance, she would have ripped Junior's head off herself. At least she'd gotten a nice meal out of it (gosh, I'm morbid today).

I love Fox <3

She was like a flower in the sunshine when her mother praised her, blossoming with radiant joy and pride.  It wasn't that she was deprived of attention or approval in any way, but she was unaccustomed to being the center of attention like this.  Normally, it was either Wifi or NJ in the spotlight.  They were bolder, more talkative, and more motivated to be involved and find their niche in the pack than she was.  It didn't bother Raven at all, though.  She'd always been more of a background-dweller and quiet observer, and the way things were suited her just fine.  But this was nice, really nice.  It felt special.

Mom trotted a short distance away and, of course, her faithful daughter followed.  When her mom faced her again, however, there was a noticeable difference.  Her voice was more serious now.  As Raven listened to her, a blank look slowly replaced the smiling jubilation on her face.  Though she'd talked through some of her feelings with Pantaleimon, she hadn't really dealt with any of it since then.  It was all still there, festering within her like a poisonous thorn, though the passage of time had allowed it to scar over a bit.

"Yeah, I know," she replied in a small voice, her amber eyes lingering somewhere around her mother's front feet.  She understood what the consequences would have been if Dud hadn't done what he did:  Wildfire wouldn't be here.  The thought was too much for her to even wrap her head around, and she suddenly remembered Aunt Flea weeping over Tiger's grave.  "I just..." she started, then trailed off.  She didn't know how to organize her thoughts in a way that made sense.  Plus, she didn't want to risk angering her mother.  "Did Dud love her like he loves us?  Was she important too?"

And Fox loves you!

Well, these were trickier questions. But perhaps it was worth explaining exactly who Junior was in relation to Raven. "Okay," Fox said, settling down and patting the ground next to her to invite Raven to do the same. "Time for a little impromptu history." Eventually, Fox planned to go into a broad overview of her (and Peregrine's) time before moving to Redhawk Caldera, but she could give Raven a condensed version right now. A teaser, if you will.

"Before he met me, Dud had another mate. They had some kids... four, if I recall correctly. Junior was one of them. At some point, Dud realized he and Junior's mom weren't getting along as well as he'd hoped, so they decided not to be mates any more. When I moved to Dud's old pack, nobody there was happy with it, including Junior. That's part of the reason we moved to Redhawk Caldera. Junior didn't like that very much, so she tried to hurt Wildfire in order to make Dud sad."

Fox braced herself for whatever questions Raven might have. It was a lot of information to take in all at once. Raven seemed to be thoughtful on the matter, for she fell quiet. Fox gave her all the time she needed, though she made sure Raven knew she'd always be here if she had questions.

Added on an ending since Raven is going into NPC status. :)