Blacktail Deer Plateau at ease with the sunrise she's wearing

This thread takes place directly after beguiling.

Although he was never really sure where to look for @Dawn on any given day, the rendezvous was usually his best bet since she'd injured herself. She got better every day, but the father still held out hope that, one of these days, she'd realize that a little rest wouldn't kill her, and he'd find her where she was actually meant to be - in one place.

He thought of giving Catori some kind of warning about his daughter - that she was scary, and sometimes mean, but a good girl, at heart. But he liked Catori, and he loved Dawn, and he trusted that they'd reach some kind of understanding, if he could deal with them. "Baby?" he chuffed, casting his gaze around. He shot the @Spiritwalker a sheepish look. "She might be out."

 

Catori didn't hope that Dawn was off somewhere. In fact, given that she was recovering, she hoped that Dawn was right where she should have been taking it easy. Catori could only imagine if she'd been the one who was laid out like that she'd be tired of staying in one spot and she'd be tired of getting fussed over. Dawn was probably absolutely over being constantly fussed over and with Catori conveniently distracting Grayday maybe she'd gotten off on her own for a bit. "We can wait," Catori didn't mind after all. Maybe she'd ask Grayday about Dawn's mother - but then, she wasn't sure she wanted the 'ex wife' conversation. Why bring it up now? That could be for later, maybe, if she felt truly bold. Or curious. 

"Unless this is just a ploy and you're hoping I get lost when I'm not looking." She offered with a little smile, looking up at Grayday. She was fighting her own nerves, using her favorite thing to overcome the potential awkwardness - humor was her biggest defense mechanism when it came to herself. She tended to save the tooth and nail act for other folks after all. 

I realized while at work that this thread might need a bit of exposition on Grayday's behalf, in order for things to go a bit more smoothly.

Suddenly, Grayday was glad that Dawn didn't pop out of the woodwork. He didn't want to hide anything from her, and that meant being open about how he thought Catori was incredibly hot - perhaps not in those words, though. And, subsequently, that meant being open with Catori, because Dawn was likely going to ask some pointed questions, being a pointed sort of girl in general.

"Of course not," said Grayday, giving her nose a fond lick. "But I guess I should tell you before Dawn lets it slip - there's definitely a curse going on. On mothers, we think. See... mothers tend to die or leave or go missing, lately, so this conversation might involve me assuring her that you're not pregnant, or something like that."

He paused, mulling over the images invoked by that train of thought.

"Anyway. That's probably something we should talk about, too. But later."

She had slipped away as soon as the rendezvous site had cleared out of notable wolves; mainly, those who would stop her from leaving. Ambling north, she picked up a trot as she slipped from the territory, spending the better half of an hour wandering the crags and bluffs, climbing higher than she ought to have. She was horribly sore by the end of it, and her forepaw throbbed and seemed an odd colour, but surely a little soreness was worth escaping the pack for a little while. 

Her hope of slipping back to the rendezvous unnoticed is dashed when she notices her father standing alongside a woman she doesn't know, talking, and - and offering a gesture that seems dangerously close to affectionate. Abandoning her silent entrance (there's hardly any point in doing so when she'd be noticed, anyway) she strode into the rendezvous with a lobe canted curiously and gaze hawkish. She was quick to relax her stiffening muscles, knowing that the was most definitely overthinking the minute gesture, and tried for a smile instead. "hello" she said simply, standing a little stiffly as to disguise her horrid soreness.

 


Catori sobered considerably when Grayday mentioned the somewhat curse that had lingered in his pack and life. Of course she'd wondered what was going on - knowing he had children but no mate, and that the younger set was different than the older set. It was a great deal to consider but she wasn't going to pry because that was rude and she didn't exactly want to go down the road of what had hurt him before. Not right then. Selfish as she was, she wanted things to be pleasant among them. She reached up to playfully poke his snout, trying to make it as easy as she could between them and not let him know just how much the simple lick made her heart stammer. Calm down girl. 

"I am no mother, and, I have no plans on going anywhere." Especially if she did whelp - someone would have to drag her off from her family. She wouldn't willingly leave them. Certainly that wasn't what had happened here, was it? "Later, than." She agreed with a breathy sigh, turning for a moment to watch the wind sweep through the grass. She completely didn't jump when Dawn approached, tail wagging as she tried to play off the moment of surprise. And she prided herself on being aware of things. How embarrassing! 

"Hello!" She offered it sincerely, warmly, a smile on her face as she looked to the younger female. "We haven't gotten the chance to meet properly, I'm Catori. Only been around for the past couple weeks." She wanted to be as forthcoming as possible, and, she'd still been scoping out the area so it made sense that she might not have run into the girl on her own. Plus that sounded better than 'I might be making moves on your dad?' so Catori was definitely going to lead with that. 

He might've been a little nervous, under different circumstances. However, as soon as Dawn appeared, Graydad took over, and the male narrowed his eyes at his daughter - who had clearly been up and about when she was supposed to be resting. He opened his mouth to comment on this, but quickly decided that it would be better to bring the topic up when they were alone; he didn't want to embarrass Dawn in front of Catori. He knew how she felt about being seen as weak.

"Did you have a nice walk?" he groused, forgoing the scolding he'd had in mind. He left Cat's side and approached his daughter with a wagging tail, attempting to disguise his worried inspection as a simple greeting - and not realizing that he'd miserably failed. "I was just telling Cat about what a good hunter you are. I couldn't believe the two of you hadn't met yet." (This was not actually true; Grayday was of the opinion that Dawn did her best not to meet anyone. Hopefully, forcing her to interact with the hunting party would break her of this terrible and unnatural habit.)

Having finished his impromtu inspection of Dawn's injuries, he moved to stand between the two women, not quite sure if he wanted to stand at either's side when they first met.

Luckily, her father didn't scold her in front of the woman, but the way he asked about her walk made her think a future discussion might be in store. Choosing to place this unfortunate fact in the back of her mind, for now, she canted an ear towards the woman curiously. She seemed a little - Dawn didn't know just how to label the woman. Before she could answer the woman, her father spoke, and she glanced curiously at her. "I'm Dawn - well, you know that. Are you a hunter too, then?" The woman could offer her a hunting partner, or a mentor, even.  Her initial stoicness lightened, and she regarded the woman a little thoughtfully, now. Perhaps this was why her father had brought her himself to see her, and not for the reason that had flashed through her mind when she had seen the two share that brief moment.

"Mostly waterways," She admitted quickly, offering Dawn a bright smile. "I grew up on the coast so the tides, the rivers, all that is sort of my thing." Not that she could find the exact same situation here but it wasn't so far away that she couldn't go down and find some crabs or clams when the need overtook her. "I've admittedly been kinda aloof around the plateau, been trying to scout out the area some more since I've spent most of my time hugging the coastline." Catori offered as an explanation for why they hadn't met already - that and she tended to occupy her time in other ways, most of which involved Grayday despite her feeble attempts to offset that time she spent with him. She looked over at the male, offering him a quick grin, before focusing on Dawn again. "What's your favorite thing to hunt down?" It seemed everyone had something different, and Catori could only imagine that most of the landlocked children would prefer the deer or even turkey - which wasn't bad at all. 

Dawn and Catori quickly got to talking, one a bit more enthusiastic than the other. Grayday noticed nothing amiss, since his daughter was always a bit aloof. Catori could handle it, though. He knew she could. And Dawn would like the pale woman - who wouldn't?

Their voices faded to the background, and Grayday simply gaze from one to another, a look of complete adoration on his face. This was already going better than he'd thought it would.

The woman was bright and amicable, and Dawn warmed to her rapidly.  "waterways - do you think you could teach me?" Fishing was most definitely not her strong suit, and she'd never much considered hunting in water when the land had been so giving. But, she supposed, with winter coming, it would be nice to know how to hunt both in water and on land. "turkeys are fun. hunting mountain goats, too, though I've only ever tried that once." And it had hardly gone well, but it'd been fun to try and out-mountain the mountain goat all the same. "what do you hunt on the coast? besides fish."  She'd never really given it much thought, but surely coat-dwelling creatures hunted more than just fish.

 

Catori wanted to nudge Grayday - he looked so doofy and it was adorable, even if he didn't realize the blatant look on his face. She definitely did. No doubt Dawn did too. Should she tease him right in front of his daughter? Or should she pretend things weren't as obvious as they were? "Definitely! Just let me know when you wanna go out - we could bring back a few." Catori was entirely open to the idea of teaching others. "I taught Sunny some not too long ago," Cat admitted, and couldn't actually remember if she'd said anything to Grayday about it. "Along the coast there's all sorts of things - shellfish, like crabs and sometimes lobsters but they're harder to get to. Mussels and clams are interesting too. Some folks hunt down the seals and otters but I don't." It tended to be very fatty meat on the seals which appealed to others but then there was her not exactly religious beliefs.