Neverwinter Forest Growing Pains

Arrille was growing fast, and had been taught many things by his father. Such as how to speak. And rules, which one he was already going against. Do not go close to the border. Anything could be near, and at his age he was still rather vulnerable.

He trailed along the scent borders, daring to here and there step over it. At one point he went a couple feet over it, just to look at some flowers for butterflies or bees. 

@Maude

The pack was dying, in its own way. It seemed that everything Ondine touched faded away, draining until it was nothing but a withered corpse. Just like Saltwinter. Just like Kjalarr. She knew that staying in the pack would not be best for her, not as the pack's ranks slowly shrunk, intensifying the tensions between them. Ondine had the favor of the pack, however slight it was. She was no mere baby momma for Kjalarr — she was the leader of the pack now. The mere thought of it pushed Maude away to wander the blooming land, back towards the sea. 

She eventually came back, mostly because she finally thought of a plan, a final fuck you! to Ondine. She couldn't initiate it just yet; she wanted to wait and see. Until then, the pirate wandered back to the borders, clearly close to trespassing. Like the pup a ways in front of her, she was a rule breaker, not caring what borders meant.

Arrille found a little butterfly and stalked it, moving slowly around as he followed it. Away from the border. He tried pouncing every now and then with a hunter's determination. He planned to make sure this one ended up like the one Ondine had witnessed. And that's when he caught the scent of another wolf.

He stopped. Then, with a cheeky grin he lay low through grass, moving away from the flying insect to stalk the wolf he scented. He was not very subtle in doing so, and spotted them soon. His white fur didn't do him any favors.

She stopped suddenly, the movement of something in the distance attracting her eyes. After a bit of squinting, she identified the creature, recognizing the pale fur and a smile cracking across her face. Her tail wagged, not in greeting to the child, but in anticipation. Ahoy, lil' tyke! She declared, clearly seeing him in the grass.

Arrille's ears perked up at hearing a voice, one he wasn't familiar with. Since he had spent most of his life so far in or near the den, he did not know Maude. "Ahoy? And what's a tyke?" he asked back with a very confused look. Then he frowned. "And who are you?" The only wolf he was kind to was his mother and father. Everyone else, he normally kept manners to himself.

Maude's smile widens in an attempt to look disarming. Ahoy's another word fer hello, She says, closing the gap, her head dipping to meet the boy's eyes. An' yer a tyke! A lil' one, I mean, There weren't too many sea-faring wolves near here, which explained why Arrille was so unfamiliar with her terminology. A pity, seeing as both of his parents were of the sea, and it seemed right that he know of the sea and its many inhabitants. Me name's Maude. I used t'be part o' yer pack, but I left a while back. I saw when you were born, though!

His mouth formed a silent 'oh', then mouthed the greeting word to get it in his head. He did the same for the word 'tyke', though that word he wasn't too favorable of. "Well, I'm no 'tyke'. I am a prince" he said, pronouncing the last word.

He took a back step, surprised she was of this pack, or she said, once part of. "Why'd you leave?" he asked. Then he processed those last words. "Wait, you were there? So you know my mother, then. She never mentioned you."

She snickered at the boy's insistence at being called prince. Prince o' wot? She asked sardonically, looking around at the forest of Neverwinter. Was Ondine truly insistent on calling Arrille a prince? Was she that vain about herself? Mighty small kingdom ye've got 'ere, And increasingly smaller and smaller every day, she noticed. They were lucky to have survived the winter, but now that spring's plenty has returned, those with a brain left. As to those who remained...they could fend for themsevles. 

Maude's hind leg raised to scratch at her ear. I's only came 'ere cuz o' yer pa. Then yer mother took over an' well, I didn't like it so much. Same wit t'rest o' t'original Neverwinter wolves, She wasn't surprised to hear that she wasn't mentioned to Arrille, however, and merely shrugged. Ain't a shock t' 'ear,

Arrille glared at the other wolf. He was starting to dislike her, and took the comment on his princehood, as he called it, as an insult. "Prince of this pack." He tried to look grumpy, but being a pup he was smaller than the other wolf, so it wouldn't have done much. "It might be small, but at least I have something" he said, now wearing a sneer. He assumed she had no pack. He knew nothing of what was really going on in his own pack.

As it turned out, Maude did not like his mother. He growled lowly. No one disrespected his mother, she was his. "That is my mother you are talking about. I don't think she would like you here." He would do anything for his mother.

He hesitated for a moment. She had mentioned his father. "What do you want with my father?"

I guess, Maude had met princes before. True princes. Any backwater pack could claim that they were royalty, but even a pirate such as her knew what it meant to have true power. Ondine didn't have that, therefore she could not transfer it to her child. 

Whoops, She shrugged nonchalantly. Ondine could suck it honestly. She had no care for the usurper Ondine. The child she had little negative opinion of. It was clear that he respected his parents (something that she couldn't relate to, honestly), and had some pride for his position, but he was still a child. She couldn't antagonize him like she did to his mother.

Yer pa is a friend o' mine an' I wanted t'see 'im, That was hardly the truth, but it wasn't false either. She still didn't know how to categorize them, or their relationship. She wanted him, she wanted to be with him, but how? And for how long? She still wasn't sure. She could figure all that out later.

Arrille gave a little smug smirk at her reply from the response he got from Maude. He stood like a triumphant prince against her. She made a small word in a reply to what he said about his mother. The shrug was something he didn't fully understand just yet, so it passed right by him and he ignored it. It was something he would understand sometime later in his life, perhaps.

Although he did narrow his eyes slightly at Maude next. "My father? He never mentioned you either." And he had spent most of his life by his father's side. In some ways, the boy thought he looked like his father. "If he was your friend, he would have mentioned you." He couldn't even see how arrogant he was being at the time.

Maude snorted, smirking at a memory. I dunno if'n you know dis 'bout yer pa, but 'e ain't keen on talkin' much 'bout his past, savvy? It had taken a while to even get an inkling about Kjalarr's past. It was auspicious that she had met him visiting his late father, or else she would have never had known about it. No, he didn't talk about it casually like others did. But I mean, ye can ask him or somfin', She winced then, realizing that that might not be the best idea, since she didn't want the Viking coming after her, screaming damnation for abandoning him and the pack. Then again, he might not blame her...

One of Arrille's ears flicked, his snout scrunching up a little as if annoyed. What did she know? His father told him many things...didn't he? He was sure he did. "My father never keeps anything from me." He eyed the female closely, trying to glare right at her eyes to catch her in a stare-off. 

"I will" he growled. Although no doubt he would forget, as he would probably be caught off by something else like a butterfly ready for a smacking of his paws. "I'd go if I were you, before I call my mother!"

Maude snickered at the child-like naivety. Sure, She smirked, snaggle toothed. She still couldn't grasp how young Arrille was — with children she had always assumed they were small adults who just didn't know any better, not that they were mentally less developed entirely.

The threat from him was adorable, but she figured that it was high time to skedaddle. She had lingered here for too long with no results other than bullying a small child. With another casual, devil-may-care shrug, Maude trotted off, tail held smugly high. See ya! She called back to the child, heading off towards the sea.

Arrille watched Maude with careful eyes, noticing her smirk. So naive, thinking that his threat left any sort of mark on her. Truly, the realy reason to threaten her was he was scared she would pull something. She had been rather demanding to see his father, and inside Arrille's head he expected her to try and get past after his threat. But she did not, and turned away. She waited for her to disappear, then he too went back into the pack, deciding he would not mention this at all, not wanting him to think of the wolf who had just visited near their borders. As well as the fact that the young one had gone beyond the borders. And that would have been enough to get himself in trouble.