Stavanger Bay windmill, windmill for the land

I'm back!!!

The thing about silence, if you asked Ragna, was that it didn't exist.  It never had, and it never would.  There was an absence of sounds, wherein no creature stirred in the trees and no voice dared utter a word.  But if that fell for long enough (but the time one had to wait was always shorter than it seemed) one could hear the distant crash of the waves on the shore, the whisper of the wind in the trees, and a soft susurrus of the world turning.

On days such as this, when the air was thick and warm and the distant hills were hazy, Ragna didn't like to do much.  She liked to walk a little ways away from the (sometimes) noisy den and find peace in the thought that gods once walked in this same forest.  That she was treading in their paths, her paws small in comparison to great paws and hooves and feet.  And when she knew that she was absolutely alone, she would imagine that she, too, was one of the gods.  That she was great, and powerful, and adored.  Today, she found herself truly alone.  So she paced through the trees, practicing a confident march that spoke of power.  She held her head up, her chest puffed out, and imagined that her steps shook the earth and that the trees themselves bowed before her.

omg yay you're back! <3

Not only Jorunn had been taken by the bear, swept away by the ocean, but Atreyu, too, had not returned home. Considering past experience -- his dead parents and siblings -- Charon figured they were dead. He'd searched throughout Sequoia Coast, but had not found them, and now he had decided that they would thus never return. There was only a tiny piece of Charon that still held hope, but he did not allow himself to let it get too big. He needed to be realistic.

Besides, he had the other pups to think of. He needed to be a good big brother to the rest of them, and be strong, and move on.

Charon followed a path through the Bay's forest, on his way to the borders for a patrol, when he noticed Ragna nearby. Charon grinned at the sight of her and he trotted forward, towards her. "Hey Ragna!" he called out, and he found a smile falling over his face. "Are you practising to be an Alpha like your mother?" he wondered aloud as he watched her proud stature.

<3!

Naivete shielded her from the reality of her brother's disappearance.  Concepts so abstract were still, generally, too large for her to fully grasp.  Goodhood, power beyond measure?  Perhaps.  But the idea of forever, of gone?  No.  Jorunn was gone, yes, but he would be back, as sure as the sun would return in the morning and the moon in the evening.

And in the meantime, she had herself, and she had her family.  Company, while appreciated, was not necessary for her to enjoy herself.  Alone, she could hunt, and she could dream, and she could practice as she was now.

So engrossed was she in her attempts at strutting that she didn't even realize Charon was coming until he spoke.  She startled, turning to face him fully.  "Hi," she greeted in return.  Then she shook her head, aborted the action halfway, and lied.  "I am.  Or like you.  I do not need to be Alpha."  Her head fell in degrees, her posture slumping to its usual stature, and she felt more comfortable.

Charon could not suppress an amused grin when Ragna seemed startled by his approach. He wondered if he had been like that as a pup, since he had always been so engrossed in his own fantasy world too. Though he hadn't really ever pretended to be an Alpha. Being a dragonslayer was way cooler anyway.

It warmed Charon's heart that Ragna said that she wanted to be like her mother or like Charon. Of course, he fancied the option of being like himself way cooler than being like their mother. He was young and cool, and besides, he was a dragonslayer.

As Ragna relaxed, Charon's eyes glinted mischievously and he said: "Y'know what's even cooler than being an Alpha or a Beta?" He left a short space of time in case Ragna actually wanted to guess before telling: "Being a knight dragonhunter!" Being a dragonhunter on its own was pretty cool too, but the strength was in the double or triple titles. They could think of a good one for Ragna, Charon figured, if she actually was interested.

Charon's question caught her off guard. She frowned, wracking her brain to imagine anything that could be cooler than a leader. Was there another rank that she didn't know of? She thought that Alpha was as high as you could go, but maybe she was wrong! "Um," she said, because she wanted to guess. The problem was, she wanted to guess right. "An Alpha, but with... wings. Is that cooler?" She thought it was. Then one could fly, right over the ocean and into the sun! Or over the mountains, to whatever lay beyond.

That, certainly, had to be the coolest thing there was.

When she turned out to be wrong, but couldn't find it in herself to be disappointed. A knight! And a dragonhunter! Charon was right. That was cooler. "I would like to be a knight," she told him, with all the gravity she felt the situation necessitated. "Are you a... a knight dragonhunter?"

Charon applauded Ragna's initiative to come up with something, even if it wasn't quite a knight dragonhunter. He smiled encouragingly, figuring that it would be better to encourage what imagination she had rather than say it was not good enough.

After he disclosed what the real cooler-than-cool thing was, he enjoyed the excitement on her face. It was great that his siblings were all as imaginative as he had been, well, almost.

Upon Ragna's question, Charon nodded. "Yup! I'm a Sir Knight Dragonhunter! They call me Sir Knight Starchaser." Charon smirked and he went on to say: "Hey, you should have a knightly name too, if you wanna be a knight! We should think of one. And you know what else you need? A squire! I had a Lauren friend squire called Drake when I was younger, but he had to return to Lauren kingdom." He decided not to mention that he realised he was too old for dumb stuff like imaginary friends, because he wanted to encourage Ragna.

Charon smiled, and Ragna returned it gladly, though shyly.  She felt good about her answer, and was sure that, even if it was a different answer than what he was looking for, it was just as correct.  Answering had made her nervous, because what if she was wrong?  There were so many things that she did not know, but knowing this made her feel good.

At Charon's next statement, she smiled again, awed.  She had not realized that she was in the presence of a knight all this time.  "Sir Knight Starchaser," she said.  "Can I still call you Charon, too?"  Sir Knight Starchaser was a mouthful, and she didn't want things to change too quickly.  

"I do want to be a knight," Ragna said, barely hiding her eagerness.  Who knew it would be so easy!  Then her brow furrowed as she tried to think of a name.  That would be a good deal harder.  And she would need a squire!  It all seemed a little overwhelming, but she was determined to follow through.  "How do I pick a name?  And where do I find a squire?  Do I have to go to the Lauren kingdom to find one?"  She wasn't sure if she could do that yet.  She'd have to ask her mom.

Even though Sir Knight Starchaser was pretty much a cooler name than Charon, he didn't mind being called that. It was his name, after all, and he was no longer a kid who needed the constant confirmation that he was something he really wasn't, right? "I suppose you still could," he begrudgingly agreed upon, and then they turned back to the subject of giving Ragna a cool knight's name and finding her a squire.

"Well, I like looking at the stars, so that's where I got Starchaser," said the young Beta. "So you gotta think of something that's all about you." He was itching to think of a name for her, but didn't want to spoil the fun of thinking of a name, or risk picking one she didn't like overly much.

In regards to finding a squire... "It could be anyone. But it's gotta be a someone, so they should be your friend first, and your squire second." Charon briefly thought back to Drake. He fleetingly found himself wondering how Drake was doing, until he realised that Drake didn't exist and had never existed, and was thus doing nothing. In the end, whichever sort of creature -- or wolf, real or imaginary -- Ragna chose to be her squire was entirely up to her, so he decided not to steer her too much in the decisions, unless she explicitely asked.

Ragna shuffled in place, an outlet for her excitement.  She felt as though first-name privileges, although enjoyed before, were more satisfying when willingly given.  Besides!  Now she had two names to call him by, depending on the occasion.  She liked that quite a bit.  "I'll call you both," she declared, then grew shy. "If that's okay?" The world was full of silly rules for manners. Perhaps this was one of them?

"Um..." she hummed, eyes darting about the area in search of inspiration.  But inspiration didn't come easily to her, and now when she truly needed it, it seemed to fail her entirely. All about her, he had said. Charon had chosen his name for his passion, but she didn't have passion. She liked things, yes, but she could think of nothing she loved but her family. "Um," she said again, more sheepishly than the last time. She didn't like to ask for help, but it seemed her only choice. "Help?"

Ragna pursed her lips in thought, focusing extra hard on deciding what she wanted her squire to be.  She thought again of flight, and thought of all the creatures she knew that had wings.  Almost all of the things with wings that she knew of were small.  Dragonflies, sparrows, and the like.  But she was able to recall the hazy memory of a great eagle soaring overhead.  The decision was made.  "I want my squire to be an eagle," she said solemnly.  "Where do I find one of those?"

"Of ocurse," Charon said, even though he thought Starchaser and Charon were two totally different names, used in two totally different circumstances. Ragna was probably too young to understand all of that, anyway, so he let that matter rest for now.

She asked for help on the making up of a name. Charon shrugged and unhelpfully said: "It's your name, you think of something." While he'd grown milder over time, and he was more patient with the pups than anyone else, Charon was still a pretty impatient guy with little eye for tact and manners. "You'll think of something, I'm sure," he said, not putting too much weight in it. If not now, she could always come up with something later.

Ragna suggested an eagle, which seemed very typical of her. Charon thought to recognise a theme here. However, eagles were pretty hard to come by, and there were other, better options on the market. "How about a gryphon instead?" Who wanted a boring ole' eagle when you could have a gryphon, after all? Surely not Ragna. "A gryphon's got eagle wings, and claws on the back, 'cept it's got paws on the front, like us! So it's sorta like a wolf-eagle. How's that sound?" Surely they could find a lonely gryphon someplace. Maybe Ragna's gryphon friend would come into existence like Drake had: through a story first. "How 'bout I tell you a story about gryphons? You can help fill in the details." He would never be Osprey, but he could give it a damn good try.

Ragna nodded solemnly, as she felt the situation necessitated such treatment. "Sir Knight Starchaser," she repeated pensively, one last time. Charon proved to be little help with the issue of her name, and try though she might, she couldn't keep from pouting. But only a little bit! After all, she was still trying to prove her maturity. She really wanted to be a knight.

Still, she followed his instructions, thinking and thinking. She stuck her tongue out in concentration, and several ideas came to her, but she felt this was too important to rush. It was her name, after all, and names are forever. This would require more thought, and she didn't want to have to struggle with that in front of Charon. "I'm going tell you letter," she informed him. "I thought of one, but it's a secret. It's gonna be a surprise!" That was a lie, and already she felt bad about it, but it was better than looking stupid in front of Charon. He never had to know.

Charon suggested that she consider a griffon instead of an eagle. At first, Ragna felt indignant. She wanted an eagle, not a stupid griffon! Then she thought about it a bit more, and it did sound sort of cool. And eagles were very proud creatures, maybe one wouldn't want to be her squire. Maybe one would want her to be its squire. That wouldn't do at all.

"Okay. I like that," she said. She still was having trouble imagining the creature, but she mostly understood. Ragna was very excited to meet a griffon, and already wanted to know more. "A story! Um. Please."

Charon wasn't sure what to believe when Ragna said she would tell him later: if it was actually existant yet or if she was making it up. He kinda intended to use it for the story, but he supposed he could work around it. Charon considered asking Ragna about it again, but then held his cool just in time. Getting irritated wouldn't help the situation any, anyway.

"Alright, a story 'bout knights and gryphons," Charon said with a smile. "There was this young mysterious knight once, with a name so cool it couldn't be shared publicly yet..." Charon looked at Ragna and paused briefly before continuing. "... Who wanted to become friends with a gryphon. She decided to go to the gryphon kingdom all the way up in the skies. To get there the knight climbed aaaall the way up to Shield Maiden's Falls, until she could clamber onto some low-hanging clouds and off she went, up to the kingdom of gryphons."

Charon paused a moment, and remembered how Osprey had made him meet Drake the first time. He decided to continue a different way: "What d'you think the kingdom of gryphons looks like?"

And so the two of them moved forth, talking of this and that, and finding Ragna her very own gryphon squire in the progress. Eventually they returned on home, where Charon made sure Ragna curled up for a well-deserved nap.