Blacktail Deer Plateau Ready to go on an adventure

@Burr

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Pema was on the search for Burr that morning. He had spent quite a bit of time now within their pack, healing from his injury and she thought it would be good to give him another check up. It would be almost completely healed by now she thought, maybe even well enough for him to travel home. 

She still wasn't sure what his life was like at home, how close he was to his family. But she assumed that someone there was really missing him and waiting for his return. She couldn't remember if they managed to send word that he was with them. She hoped so, not wanting anyone to be in a frantic chaos not knowing where their kid was when infact they were being taken care of well.

But she didn't want to rush his recover, so it would be up to him whether or not they would leave soon and when.

With a loud groan, the Saefyn stretched out across the snow, limbs and back popping as a huge yawn split his jaws apart. The morning was calm, quiet, and a little on the warm side, and he was feeling exceptionally lazy. Since coming to Morningside, he had done his best to absorb some of what Pema and Easy were doing on a regular basis, hoping he could bring that information back home to Easthollow and apply it there. He was a poor student, however, and hadn't learned much of anything.

He also hadn't contributed much of anything to the pack, which made him feel bad, but there was nothing to be done about it. In due time he would find a way to repay them. Smacking his lips together, he pushed himself up to his feet, gave his stiff healing ankle a few flexes, and set off from his sleeping place. He didn't get far at all before running into Pema, whose exotic southern looks to this day made the young man's breath catch in his throat.

Grinning warmly, the boy waved his plumed tail in greeting and called out, "good morning, Pema!"

Soon enough she stumbled upon just the young man she was looking for and he greeted her pleasantly. She looked down at him and smile, returing his tail wag. "Good morning Burr." she said before looking him over subtly. When he walked over to her he didn't seem to be favoring his other ankle at all, and he didn't appear to be limping that much if at all. 

"Your ankle is looking pretty good. How is it feeling?" she asked, wanted to get a feel of how he felt about it. 

He closed the distance between them in a handful of slow steps, then stood tall, wagging his tail jovially. She was right in her assessment—he felt better than he had in a while, both physically and mentally, and it likely showed in his bright amber eyes and sunny disposition. Privately, he wasn't looking forward to having to go home, but there was nothing to be done about that. He'd chosen to simply not think about it, and that helped.

"Feels pretty good," he said, pressing it down flat on the ground and leaning into it. "A little stiff but not so sore anymore." He smiled down at his ankle, then redirected gaze and smile alike up to the healer. "I wanted to thank you, for fixing it up so well. I never would have got such good care elsewhere, I'm sure of it."

She watched as he displayed the strength within his leg, proving that he would be ready to travel if they decided to bring him home anytime soon. 

She smiled at his compliment. It was good to her that she was doing a good job, especially from those she was caring for and treating. "Well you're very welcome. You were a great patient." she responded back with a friendly tail wag. 

She liked having Burr around and loved to see him playing with the other young cubs. But the time had come to think about his return home. Getting strait to the point she asked, "Are you feeling well enough to return home to Easthallow?" 

A bashful grin stole across his face and he ducked his head sheepishly. She was being too nice, surely. Burr liked to think he was agreeable enough, but the truth was that for at least the first few weeks, he had been a right pain in the ass. Things got easier after that when he befriended Easy, and in the end, Burr would say he rather liked Morningside, even if he wasn't too familiar with them. Pema was so matronly it felt like a home, and he would miss his merle friend dearly. There was no one back home like them.

Which brought them to their next point: "oh, uh, I guess so." He had no complaints about his ankle anymore and no other reason not to go home. Mawk was waiting for him there. But he hesitated, and at length, asked, "Pema... Did I ever tell you why I was out there in the first place?"

He brought up the topic of how they came to find Burr in the first place and Pema was intreged. "No I don't believe you have. I think we just assumed you got lost and then injured. Is that not what happened?" she asked curious to know why. Hoping that it wasn't something too terrible.

"Not really," he admitted, gesturing for her to walk with him. He needed to exercise his ankle anyway, and he wasn't sure he wanted anyone to overhear. It wasn't that he didn't trust others, but he knew there were several wolves who formerly called Easthollow home here, Sunny among them. He would hate to make any of them think poorly (of him or the pack) based on something they overheard.

"My brother went missing," he started. To this day he still didn't know where Cyron was, or if he was alive. Burr held on to the thin hope that he was, but it was a thread that frayed more and more with each passing day. "My parents went to try to find him, but they were gone for a really long time. Like... months. They left me and my sister at home, and never came back to check on us."

"Rowana went missing one day too, and my mom and dad were still gone, so I went out to try to find her. I went too far and got lost, ended up in the mountains, and that's how I hurt myself." His voice trailed off at the end, leaving the implication that he hadn't found his sibling hanging on silence. He cleared his throat, then finished with, "They're back there now. Mom and dad. Dad came to visit here... mom didn't. But I'm not sure how to forgive them. For being gone so long that Rowana disappeared too. For not coming back to see us at all."

She walked along with him when he gestured to do so, becoming more curious as he explain that what he had thought wasn't the full truth. As he went on to talk about his parents, she surprisingly didn't see the story from Burr's side, but rather from his parents side. She didn't know them, but she knew that if any of Day's kids went missing she would be one of the first ones to go off and try to find them. They were missing a son and went to go find them.

But as she spoke and she heard the conflicting tone in her voice she began to see where they would leave the others. Him and his sister who were left without parents for that time. Let to care for one another. She would have thought Burr's act of shivelry to be brave, but knew where that had led him. 

His parents were at one point missing three of their children, though now it sounded as though Burr was the only one apart from them now. They knew where he now, since his father came to visit. And it would seem that they learned from their mistakes seeing as how one of the parents stayed behind. 

"I'm sure they didn't mean to leave you and your sister behind. They were just trying to find your brother, like when you were trying to find your sister. But I can understand how that time without them must have been hard for you. Did you get a chance to talk to your father about this when he came to visit?" she asked, wondering if these were feeling pent up within Burr, or something he was trying to cope with.

Pema was only being logical, of course, but Burr felt his mental heels dig into the ground in spite of that. He didn't want to blame his parents for Rowana's disappearance. Even he knew that she had chosen to up and leave of her own accord. He knew deep down that it wasn't Mawk's or Illecebra's fault that Rowana's free spirit had flown the nest and not found its way back. Nevertheless, a part of him hurt deeply that they had been gone for so long as Cyron's behalf, and a part of him wondered if they would have spent so long looking for him, had Morningside not gone to inform Easthollow of his whereabouts.

So he fell silent with a quiet, "yeah," that left much of his feelings unsaid and plodded on in tense silence until Pema asked about Mawk. "No," he answered honestly. "I was glad to see him, and I don't even know how to talk to them about it."

Talking wasn't the answer to everything, but on many occasions Pema found herself thinking about how things might be different for others if they found the courage to talk to who ever it was they were having an issue with. Burr was still pretty young, and the fact that his issue had to deal with his parents made things a bit more complicated. He more then likely didn't want to make them upset, and he cared for them. But the heart has a strange way at being angry due to love towards those we love. Something hard to explain and comprehend, for young and old wolves alike. 

"It can be hard. But I'm sure however you bring it up, they will still care about you afterwards. They propably feel really bad about it. Might be too embarrased to say anything." she commented. Seeing if that would make Burr feel less self contious about it. 

"I'm not worried about that," he clarified, but didn't feel too much like continuing on the subject. Burr was looking for validation of his feelings more than anything, and Pema wasn't necessarily giving in to that childish want. He wasn't prone to immaturity nor intense anger, but Burr was prone to being mildly morose when things didn't go his way, so he fell silent. Easy would have agreed with him, he was sure of it.

"We'll be going back soon, then?" he sought to confirm, mostly so he could make preparations. There was almost nothing he looked forward to back home—he didn't have any friends left in Easthollow, and he didn't know how to feel about his parents, and there were more wolves that he felt negatively toward there than anything else—but he was looking forward to at least moving along with his life.

She wasn't sure what else to say. It would have been easy to simply take his side in this matter, but Pema though young, was mature enough to think of both sides rather then make quick judgements. At least for most situations, sometimes it was obvious who the bad guy was from either side of the story. But in any case the conversation switched back to his return home as he asked when they would be leaving. It wasn't as though the date was set in stone or was even a clear thought until she asked him today. "Yeah, realativly. Once you are ready to go we can head out." she said.

Well, now was his chance to speak up about how he felt. Easthollow was a nice place, with wolves that were probably nice to each other as adults, but all he could remember was Murdock snapping at him for no reason, and how Sunny wasn't there anymore. His siblings were gone, as far as he was aware. He thought that maybe Nikai was still around, and that would help some, but he didn't think it was enough. But the chance came and went and Burr stayed silent, missing out on any opportunity to tell her that he wanted to stay in Morningside instead.

"I guess I'm ready whenever," he said, and managed to sound remarkably okay with it even though a part of him on the inside was defeated by his own inability to say what he was thinking.