Emberwood and through it all, a dying wind of change blew

All welcome! Using this as a scout thread.

the boy had ventured further than he had before in his search for where kavik and liri had gone. he had lost all hopes of latching onto a scent of them. he had only thought that nearby pack would have been suitable homes for the two wolves. so, when he had received no word from the pack in the willows, he had ventured further and further until there was a great and powerful aroma on the wind. the woods where he found himself were not the home of claimed ground – it was beyond that.

the dark-hooded young warrior made his way through the thick woodland with a determined expression. he was likely to spend several nights outside of the pack, but he did not think that his mother or the others would mind much. illidan believed that he had important things to tend to, and he was not in the mood to listen to a lecture about how he had left his previous life behind.

Oh hi.

She had left Lost Creek Hollow and Terance behind and was headed back, though her intention to hit Moonspear first was still definitely a plan!  This time, by some miracle, she actually hit a straight mark towards her goal.  And, by some greater miracle, guess who was lurking right along that line?

Heck yes it was definitely fate.  Being very vague about whether her mood was feigned or actually happy (Because threads are ongoing), Maia spotted his familiar figure and instantly let out a loud whoop.  She'd never imagined to run into her prince all the way out here!! What the heck was he doing all the way over here anyway?

Had she known this was a scouting thread, she might have had the good grace to keep her useless distraction of an internal compass out of it.  But as it was, she was definitely too psyched to run into a familiar (and cute as heck) face to keep her mouth shut!

yessssssssssssss

an excited sound was issued and illidan turned his head sharply in the direction of it, eyes narrowed to search for whatever it might have been. this was when the young man saw the familiar figure of a girl he’d met on the beach. he was rather shocked to see someone that he knew out there. he stood with rigid limbs, like a deer in the headlights, for several long moments before he drew his head upward and cupped his ears toward her.
 
the movement of his limbs was easier than it had been after the fight. he still sported a nice thick scar on his shoulder, but it no longer cost him to move around. with that in mind, he loped toward her at a steady gait and answered back with an unsteady, “m-maia!”

She was thrilled.  There always seemed to be this serious sort of sadness behind him, and while it made her more wary than she was around some others, it didn't turn her off of enjoying seeing him again.  She galloped towards him at a run, ready to give him the enthusiastic greeting that this unexpected meeting deserved!  It came in the form of a skidding stop right in front of him, a happy wriggle, and a barrage of words.

Hey!!!!!  Oh my gosh, how are you?!  And what are you doing here?  She looked him over, and her eyes sharpened as she noticed the marks on his shoulder.  Woah!  What happened?  You got into a fight without me, didn't you!? Rude!  Also... ok this was a lot she should probably pause and let him answer something.  She was just EXCITED and that meant she wanted to TALK and... yeah.  Obviously there was more she wanted to say, but she clapped her mouth shut, grinning.  What the heckkkkk.

it didn't take long before the girl flooded him with words and questions that he could barely keep up with. he peered at her with an intent expression on his dark features. the sharp yellow of his gaze lingered on the shimmering silver of her own; they were like pools of mercury. there was a swaying of his tail at his hocks to show that he was just as pleased to see her there, though he did not show it in the same manner that she did.

when her questions had ceased, illidan did what he could to answer them. “i'm doing alright. remember the dragons we talked about? well... we had to fight them because they took one of our members,” he explained to her with a sage nod of his head. “you can join in next time,” illidan then promised with the softest curling of his dark lips. then, he fixed his sights on their surroundings with a curious expression. there was a moment of taking it in before he turned to the silver-cloaked girl and asked, ”do you live near here?”

If her words were extra bright, and her questions extra quick, it was doubtful he'd be able to tell.  She'd only met him once before, after all.  A good part of her enthusiasm wasn't a lie - she really was excited to see him.   Happy.  She was happy.

There was definitely an interesting story behind what he said, but he followed it up with a question for her back.  No, I was visiting my brother, she answered before turning the conversation back towards him.  They took someone, and you rescued them?  Hold on, you have to tell me that story!  Then she cut off, and backtracked.  I mean, if you want.

Sometimes it was hard to remember that stories that were fun to hear weren't always so fun to tell, and she didn't want to bring him down.

she said that she had been visiting her brother. illidan nodded his head and shuffled his feet somewhat awkwardly at this statement. he wasn't sure how far she'd had to travel to get to see her family, or what that relationship looked like. in fact, he was so turned off by speaking about his own familial relations that he thought it foolish to try to make small talk about her family. fortunately, maia had already moved on to her next query – a question about their attempt at rescuing rosalyn. the young ghost felt his cheeks grow hot with the thought of his reply.

“no... well – we.... we weren't successful at rescuing her,” he told her in a soft voice, lowering his skull and splaying his ears to the side. “but, we did have a huge battle! that's how this happened,” he tacked onto the end of it, motioning toward the gash in his shoulder with his muzzle. it had been an intense experience, and he didn't feel at all confident in his capability to retell it. even more than this, illidan did not feel pride for the fight. after all, they had failed to do the one thing they'd set out to do, hadn't they?

It was fortunate that he was trying to avoid the subject because she was too.  And while she still found his quiet to be super cute, right now she was looking for distraction, something his abbreviated answers weren't providing.  Especially because his answers indicated something sad, and on top of the sad she already had, it was entirely too much.

Time to change that.  Oh wow! It was an impressive scar, but suddenly, she knew what she wanted to do.  And so in a random switch, she blurted Do you want to hear a story?!  As soon as she realized how random it was, her ears fell back a bit with embarrassment.  It's, ah.  It's about when my big sister Sarah and I found a dragon.   But not the wolf stealing kind.  The treasure collecting kind.  He probably thought it was super childish, so she ended with a hesitancy that wasn't there when she started talking.  But telling a story, and having him contribute, was the only way she was going to be able to be somewhat normal.

the boy’s whole life was pretty sad. it wasn’t something that he openly shared with everyone. no, it was the kind of turmoil and dismay that hid itself deep in the confines of a person’s soul. without knowing how, illidan had built thick walls around the sadness in his life; only he was allowed to endure it. it was unlikely that he would share it with maia. she was so pleasant and upbeat that he often felt like he was a bummer, dragging her down from her sweet high.
 
still, the slate woman didn’t seem to miss a single beat. she didn’t ask any more questions about the battle that had taken place. instead, maia offered to give him a story of her and her sister. it seemed as though she had found her own way to battle against dragons. illidan smiled softly at her – a thin lipped expression on his narrow muzzle – and nodded his head in encouragement. “yeah! okay. i’ll bet you’re a good storyteller,” he confirmed verbally, and even ventured to guess. she just seemed like the type.

He jumped on it without judging, but Maia of course couldn't be sure he wasn't humoring her.  Still - it was an excuse, and the compliment was nice.  Normally she'd have talked it up, told him of course he was.  Today, she accepted it as some needed encouragement and jumped in on storytelling.

I come from a forest, oh wait no maybe this wasn't a good idea.  She always started from someplace real, because that was easiest, but starting here wasn't good.  She paused, faltering at the decision of how to continue, and then found an avenue. Whew.  But one day, my sister found me and said we had to go! We had to see what was on top of the nearby mountain!  There were no mountains around her home, but an upcoming visit to Charon had them in her mind.

She was the queen, and as one of her most trusted advisors, of course I would go and help.  When we got there, the air was full of smoke, and all of the forest animals were super terrified and all.  They wouldn't say what did it, they just pointed out a cave, like, halfway up the side.

My sister Sarah is a queen but she's also like a super cool warrior too.  And she did manage to convince one of the creatures, a bluejay, to tell us what was in the cave.  He said....

Here she glanced at him and paused, to see if he might toss something in.  Osprey had done this all the time in her stories and at this point it was almost a habit.  She felt a slight pang as she did, but as she told the tale, the words had started flowing easier.  Her breathing calmed, her mind calmed, and she felt pretty okay right now.

illidan listened to her story as it unraveled. he was intent to capture all of the details that she was sharing with him, clinging to every little word as though it had some great importance to it. he did not interrupt her or ask questions that would pause the flow of her tale. his ears remained attentive and his eyes were glued to her features with a serious but open expression. all of the little bits of the story were easy to keep track of. he wasn’t easily lost in anything that she had to say.
 
he thought of how he had met a sarah and shared a short conversation with her. he wondered if they were related but kept that part to himself. when maia stopped in a moment that felt like it was thick with anticipation, illidan could not help that he leaned toward her intently. his eyes were wide, and his mouth was set in a tight, thin line. “what? what did he say?” illidan asked her breathlessly.

Maia let her pause last until Illidan spoke, and he used it to urge the tale forward.  It was good to make sure whoever you were telling to was paying attention, especially if you were telling it to kids.  He didn't offer any suggestions, but she guessed it probably wasn't polite to assume he could anyway.  She'd always interrupted stories to try and throw something of her own in there.  Maybe she was rude?  Anyway!

That it was an old, super powerful wizard, and that he would ask you a question and either grant you a wish or curse you depending on the answer.  She sighed.  Sarah and I were disappointed.  Wizards are interesting and all, but usually not super nice and kinda boring.  They don't like helping strangers always.  But we figured a wish might be useful so we said okay, why not go see what the question was?  We weren't scared of a silly curse, two big strong warriors like us.

We climbed up to the cave, which was a hard climb to make.  The rocks were super shifty and the slope was super steep, but we also were great at climbing, so eventually we made it. Travel scenes were always the hardest part for her, they could be so boring!  As we got closer to the cave, we could hear someone singing.  It was a pretty song but super weird and kinda creepy, and even though we weren't scared, it did make our fur prickle a bit.  They were singing to themselves and we couldn't understand any of the words.  The tune was kinda like this.

She hummed out a few bars, with a bit of a minor lilt, because she knew that would make it sound spookier.  

We peeked in the cave, and guess what kind of creature the Wizard was?

he didn’t think she was rude at all. it just so happened that she might have selected the worst partner for interactive storytelling. he wasn’t very good at coming up with fanciful answers to tales of magic and dragons. he had experienced dragons for himself, and there was nothing magical about them. he thought them to be vile and wicked creatures – wolves with scales and viciousness in their eyes. still, he imagined that maia was talking about a completely different kind of dragon than what he had experienced for himself.
 
she went on with her story and he listened just as intently as he had before. she was doing a fine job with it. for all the talking, she had certain swept him up in the details of what she was saying. he had never really met someone who was quite so good at forming words. when she hummed the tune for the song, his ears twitched forward and the whiskers along his muzzle seemed to shudder. illidan scooted a few inches closer to her. his sharp yellow gaze was linked to her pale eyes.
 
“was he… was he a dragon all along?” the wildling inquired when she asked him a probing question. anxiety kicked in shortly after. illidan hoped that he had kept up with her story well enough to be making those kinds of guesses.

The best part of being a storyteller was that you got to decide when the other person was right.  She'd considered throwing a twist in, but he looked so enthusiastically invested that she nodded emphatically, noting then how much closer he'd inched.  Hghfhfbdjssj he was cute.

Yeah! We couldn't believe it.  He was a dragon and a wizard!  Apparently dragons sing their magic, and he was working up a really good curse for the valley.  We couldn't have that, since it was our job to protect it!  So we had to stop him.  The details on how they knew it was a curse and all that she'd have to work out in a future telling.  Every story was always a work in progress!

Sarah and I fought together really well, because we did it all the time.  She dodged and I hit, I dodged and she hit, with magic flying everywhere.  We never did get to find out what the question was, but we defeated him! And no curses.

But everyone still died.  That little unwelcome thought hit her like a brick at the end of the telling, though during she'd begun to almost be able to forget.  Instantly she tried to shut it down, but she didn't recover smoothly enough to cover the hitch in her voice.  See? Super good at dragon fighting.

his features cracked into a careful smile when she confirmed that he had been right about the dragon. having guessed that, he was still completely immersed in the details of her story. he listened as she told him about how the dragon had been working on a curse for the valley and how maia and sarah had been forced to stop him from succeeding. he wondered if the drageda wolves had been planning something similar and if they had avoided a chaotic ending.
 
“wow that’s really amazing,” illidan remarked to her when she had finished. “maybe i should have you teach me so i can fight them too.” it only made sense that if she was so skilled in the art of defeating dangerous dragons, she ought to share that capability with her good friend illidan. besides, he was the one who lived beneath an entire pack of them.

He wanted her to teach him.  How was he so nice?  Despite everything these last couple of days had brought, she managed an honest to goodness smile at that.  It wasn't as big as her fake ones earlier, but it was real so better.  I bet I could do that.  I can teach you how they act and how to recognize them too, because their magic can sometimes let them change their looks.  Some of them just want to get away from being judged as mean and selfish straight off though, so you only want to fight the bad ones.   

She was back in story mode but it was a lesson that could apply in real life too.  That was why she enjoyed her stories where the good fought the bad, but she wanted to learn a few more where it wasn't so black and white.

Does that mean I can come visit? She asked, trying to be casual but definitely hopeful.  Let her get back and take care of all this, then come back when she didn't feel like she had a giant weight crushing her.

there was something to be said for her willingness – for the brightness that she seemed to bring to every one of their conversations. illidan was grateful for it. whether or not he spoke those thoughts was a completely different matter. he had never really come across another individual who was quite like maia. the smile that spread across her features caused his heart to flutter wildly, and he pointed his gaze to the ground. his cheeks burned red; were it not for the dark coat that colored his face, he would have looked like a beet.

“you know you're welcome to come visit any time. i'd be able to show you all the best places by the ocean,” he encouraged her with a quick wag of his tail. it seemed odd to him that she would ask something like that. then again, he had never formally invited her to come to his home, had he? maia would have been welcome in their fold any time, even as just a visitor.

She did not want to leave, at all.  It felt like here, right now, the other stuff wasn't real anymore and she could just sit here and ignore it and be happy.  But she couldn't, and she needed to take news back.  News that was both great and horrendous at the same time.

Okay, great! Later this season.  For now, I think I gotta go. She gave a nod, then a final smile.  See ya around, prince.  Jokingly, but also because she liked the way the term suited him.  He seemed like a prince, all serious and regal and maybe a little sad, but also super nice and super great.

illidan did not want her to leave either. he did not want to tell her, though. she seemed as though she had pertinent things to take care of, and he was not interested in standing in the way of that. so, when she bid him farewell, the young ghost bowed to her in a playful gesture to the nickname she'd offered. he watched while she turned away and disappeared into the wilderness. it was not until she was out of sight that he set himself back on his course and continued to look for where kavik had wandered off to.