The Sunspire I want to dance in the graveyards

She lay there for what may have been hours or days, and her only want was to disappear, to melt into the ground and let everyone forget she'd been here.  The stingers in her face and mouth, not having been removed, swelled and burned, to the point where it was a miracle she could still breathe.  She wasn't allergic as Wraen had been, but she'd been stung more than any being should be, and her body rejected it.  

Now that the panic had worn off, she simply felt numb.  Never in her life had she been this isolated... even wandering alone, there had been the promise of a future life with her siblings, or the prospect of going home and living with her parents once more.  Now she could do neither.  Here they would hate her, and she couldn't show her face to her parents again after what she assumed she had done.  

A terrible idea came on her then, one that previously had never had a cause to enter her young thoughts.  It was an idea that grew into a concept, and as she lay there, it provided a sick sort of balm to her thoughts.  For now, she was frozen, unable to leave the hiding place.  But soon she knew she would sneak away, avoiding them.

And when she did, maybe it would be better for everyone if she just vanished.

Wraen was hardly aware of the scare she had given to Maia that day and the turmoil of self-reproach she was now in. Maybe someone had mentioned this to her in passing, but she had difficult time remembering things in clear details, since the moment that piece of the beehive had fallen on the ground. The rest of the experience was lined up in dream-like sequences and she could hardly tell, which ones she had dreamt about and which ones had really happened.

Though still rather weak, Wraen had grown bored of lying and sleeping all the time, therefore she got to her feet and went to find a drink first and then raid a secret cache she had instilled for just a case, when something bad would happen to her. And incidentally right next to the place, where the rotten remnants of a wild-cat were burried, she also found her younger sibling. With a big trouble in the making and general lack of interest in the whole leading and responsibility business, meeting someone with whom she could simply chill was a very welcome change.

"Maia?" she called to the sleeping wolf.

She hadn't budged from her hiding place, and had finally managed to fall asleep, curled in on herself, when Wraen interrupted.  At first she didn't budge... she didn't want to talk to anyone right now, certain as she was they all blamed her.  She'd worked out this entire scenario in her head and, because of it, it was absolute truth.

Then the voice registered, and she turned blearily towards, her eyes widening with the shock of it.  "Wraen?"  That wasn't possible.  The certainty of what had happened was so set in her mind that she hadn't even considered another option.

Maia seemed more surprised to see Wraen than she had expected and made her wonder, whether she looked as bad as she had felt the past few days. She turned her head to glance at her sides, back and tail, then all four feet and bit of her chest. Apart from the weight loss and some dried up blood aroud her hind-quarters from the bouts of bloody diarrhea two days earlier, she looked the same as always. 

"You look like you have seen a ghost," she finally said. "In that case it would be the first someone has ever witnessed in a broad daylight," she mused and chuckled. "Are you alright?"

Maia felt herself begin to shake as the exhaustion and emotion of the last few days began to catch up, and her voice reflected this as she responded. She couldn't believe it, not only was her sister here, she was cracking jokes as if nothing had happened.  Had she actually died here?  Were they both dead?  No, if she was dead, she wouldn't feel so awful.

"You died." She said, her voice small, and her ears pulled back to pin against her skill with shame.  "Becauth o me.  Tho I ran."  Her tongue, while not a danger anymore, was still a little swollen, and it likely cut the devastation of her tone with a little unintended humor.  She closed her eyes and took a shaky breath, but when she opened them..... Wraen was still in fact there.

"I did?" Wraen arched an eyebrow, since the gravity of the whole situation had totally escaped her. All she remembered was waking up and feeling very, very bad and weak. End of story. Come to think of it now... there were some dark spots in her memory of that day. 

"Well, there are hardly any, who can speak from experience - I mean - from being-dead experience," she said with a light-hearted laugh. "I assure you that I feel pretty much alive and such. I can even touch you," she said and lifted one forepaw to wave in front of Maia's muzzle to prove the point. "Why do you speak so funny?"

She wasn't dead.  She was here, and it wasn't a fever dream this time because Maia definitely wasn't sick, she didn't think.  Bad as she might feel after days of wallowing and barely creeping out of her hiding spot.

She scrabbled out now, fighting legs that were mostly asleep and cramped from way too long being curled, to stand in front of Wraen shakily.  "They were thtinging uth, an you fell, an I thought.....". Her breathing became more ragged as she recounted it, as if just telling the story she was right back there.  "Thith wa the wortht ever," she finished, and it ended almost in a wail as she took the last bounding step towards her sister and shoved her face into her fur.

It took her a little while to compose herself, whether or not Wraen remained still to let her stay there.  But after she did, her ears twisted back again self-consciously.  "My mouth," She said, her tongue still feeling raw and alien.  The stings would heal, but not for a few more days, and she hated the way talking felt at the moment.

Had it really been that bad? Wraen was confused, because not a single idea about dying had occurred to her, when the situation with the bees had taken place. Then a more dreadful thought came to her mind - what if this was the thing about dying? You did not know, you did not notice, you simply drifted in the nothingness!

Though she felt the deepest sympathy to Maia, Wraen found it impossible to suppress the spell of chuckles. Because she sounded so funny and her looks so did not match with her voice. "Sorry, sis, but you are hilarious," she said. "And you are fine otherwise? No other side effects?"

Wraen just laughed, and Maia's face fell a bit, though she tried to play it off. It really had been awful, these past few days, but Wraen didn't seem to understand.  Maybe she was being ridiculous then.  Obviously at the time she'd overreacted.... Terance was probably super mad at her for bolting instead of staying to help.

"Yeah," she replied, kinda a lie but not in a physical sense at least.  She didn't want to talk much about what had gone on before Wraen showed up, and aside from her mouth, the swelling was going down, and any nausea or pain she might have felt was gone too.  She opened her mouth to say more, then shut it, her tail tucking self-consciously.  "I'm thorry," she finally said, making it a sorta blanket statement for the whole ordeal.

The fact that Wraen was acting as an insensitive jerk at the moment would occur to her later, because - being fresh out of the disease herself - her storage of empathy and imagination were not fully accessible to her. Therefore she missed entirely the fact that Maia's mood was hardly fit for such morbid jokes. 

"Gone and forgotten," she replied with a smile, took a step closer to Maia and gave her an affectionate kiss on the temple. "Now - how about we go and do something useful? Though I am far from my top perfect shape for hunting, I have been meaning to do a little scouting around a lake - there are usually a lot of waterfowl there and, which could mean a lot of nests and a lot more eggs. Want to come with me?"

C'mon Maia, pull yourself together, she thought as Wraen forgave her, the gesture about sending her into another round of relieved hysterics.  Ok.  She had this.

And, at that moment, her stomach gave an audible growl.  She hadn't eaten in a few days, and had barely drank much either.  She giggled a little sheepishly at the noise and the release of tension.  "A lake thou- Yeah." She nodded eagerly.  She hadn't wanted company, but she didn't want to be alone either, and if anyone was gonna get her mind off things it was Wraen.

Something was still on her mind though, and after a moment she brought it up for conversation.  "D'you... D'you think Rannoch'th mad? At me.... f'r runnin?" Her words were somewhat stilted and chosen carefully, but she looked at Wraen somewhat earnestly.  She hadn't exactly put her best foot forward here.

For a moment there Wraen thought that Maia was questioning Rannoch's mental health and odd look in her sister's direction. A brief wonder, whether their alpha had ever given a reason to doubt his sanity, and an "eureka, you idiot" moment, when she realized that there were two parts of the question and you had to analyze it as a whole, not separately. 

"Running? Running from what?" she was confused now - there had been some clashes with hostile people trespassing before and sadly she had missed them all. Was there any more that she did not know about?

Maia was confused for a good solid moment before she realized Wraen hadn't at all followed what she said... likely because her earlier statements had been unintelligible.  "Uhhh, when everythin happened.  I didn' stay n help, I panicked."  She looked away.  "I haven' met him yet."  Aside from that one time, that is.  And it definitely wasn't the first impression she would have hoped, though at the time, running away had seemed the only possible thing to do.  Why was she such a spaz?

Wraen might know if he was the type of wolf to hold that against someone, and if he was, well... at least she'd be ready!  Maybe if she groveled hard enough he'd let it slide.

Wraen did not know, what to tell Maia in regards of what Rannoch would or would not say or think. She was more concerned about the fact that her misadventure with the bees had given such a scare to all parties involved. And that it had looked way worse on the outside, while the culprit had been blisfully unconscious. 

"Well, in my opinion, it hardly matters now - it's all history now and I am fine," she said. "And, if you worry about, what Rannoch is going to think about you, I advise you to seek him out yourself and talk about it. Face that fear with a head held high and be done with it."

She sighed.  "You're right."  Ok, that was it.  She was done dwelling on it.  Dwelling was stupid and uncomfortable and she couldn't do anything about it now anyway, right? She was too cool to be freaking out, and besides - her sis was ok, and that was all that mattered!

"Hope there'th a ton of eggth," she said, with feeling, happily changing the subject.  She was suddenly starving, and any kind of food sounded like the best she'd ever eaten.

"Judging from the number of the birds there - I suppose so," Wraen said, mapping the possible nest sites around the lake in her head and thus choosing the spots they should visit. "And I have been training to catch birds as well - for a wolf my size," she looked at her sibling, who - though younger - was taller than Wraen already, "they are the best."

Chatting about this and that they passed Sunspire's borders, went accross the meadow and arrived at the lake. After a brief pause, spent deciding, where to go now, she led her sister to the left, where the reeds were thicker. There was also a small island located not too far from the coast - a distance a wolf could swim with ease - and where - Wraen had her suspicions - could be another nesting area. 

"Now, Maia," she stopped and spoke to her sister, "egg-hunting is not a dangerous business, as long as you are careful. See those smaller birds - the ones with the gray-brown pattern?" she pointed out to the groups of mallards that were abundant everywhere. "Those are most likely to flee, if you go in their direction. Not particularly smart either and catchable, if you try."

"However - see those white long-necked big birds over there," she beckoned to four swans that were swimming in the distance. "They might look fragile, but these guys can get really nasty. And I don't mean nip in the butt, but if they hit you with their wings on your head - they can kill you. So, if you see one coming your way, hissing and glaring at you maliciously - retreat," and that was about it. The other dwellers were loudly screeching sea-gulls and their relatives and some smaller fowl, she did not know by name. 

"I suggest we first inspect the reeds thoroughly and then we could try and swim over to that island as well. There must be more nests there," with this Wraen left Maia to her own devices and went straight to work.

She listened carefully as Wraen detailed the dangers and strategy of bird hunting to her, nodding mutely but looking with way interest at the swans over.  She'd never seen their like, but they were gorgeous, and so big!!!  Surely it couldn't hurt to.....

Uh, no Maia.  Nope.  Last time you did something dumb that someone told you not to, it did not go well, so check yourself.  Internally doing so, she sighed after Wraen left, casting one last lingering look at the swans before moving in the opposite direction of her sister to nose through the reeds.

After a good stretch of time, she was still coming up empty.... apparently no birds had made nests this part of the pond!  She had another area to maybe check, where a few more of the ducks seemed to be congregating.  But first she glanced over, wondering if maybe the more experienced Wraen was doing better.

Wraen was not doing much better than Maia. She had found traces of nests and feathers, but someone else had raided them before her. Therefore aside from some ducks and other unnamed waterfowl she managed to scare out from the reeds, she showed up empty-pawed as well.

"Nothing?" she asked her sister, after she had fought her way out from the thickly overgrown bank and was approaching Maia. "Are you good at swimming?" was the next question, because she had not quite given up the hope of having more luck on the little island.

Nope, Wraen was empty too.  Durn birds, this was happening whether they liked it or not.  She was gettin hangry.

"I think, yeah."  She was pretty good probably.  She'd not done much of it, of course... water wasn't one of her favorite things.  But once or twice, and she hadn't drowned, so she'd be fine.  "Do we go quiet?"  She wasn't sure if it mattered if they were going for just the eggs, but if they wanted the ducks it might be good to try and go stealth.

Maia's question brought a smile to Wraen's lips, because she imagined, what would it be like to swim and holler at the same time. Hilarious - yes, dangerous and stupid - even moreso. 

"Well, I don't think that we will have much freedom of movement on the island. It looks pretty overgrown from here," she turned to eye their destination with a critical eye. Reeds, bushes, tall grass - birds had an advantage there.

"I say, we focus on eggs this time and watch out from angry and feathered assailants," she replied, "so, we should not bother much about being particularly quiet there, but I don't advise on talking, while swimming. Water getting in the mouth and nostrils and coughing mid-swim is a dangerous thing."

With this cleared, she got into the water and began to swim quickly towards the island. It was a little cold for her liking, but the things you do to get the prizes you want. Upon arrival, she sought out the best spot to get out and up on the bank and from there, she watched and waited for Maia.

She wasn't wrong, so Maia agreed and mutely followed, excited to get these eggs! Heck yes, dinner!

She ended up huffing pretty hard by halfway through, her stung mouth not quite as effective at getting air and the exercise definitely not helping.  But she made it in time, pulling herself on shore alongside her older sister and heaving a heavy "whew" as she tried to catch her breath. 

"No problem," she said breathlessly, smiling and then looking about.  There was a nice spot of reeds a few feet away, and she lowered her head, moving to investigate and check them out.

Getting through the reeds and densely growing bushes was harder than Wraen had initially anticipated. For every three step progress she had, she got stuck at least once, had to fight and claw her way through twice and turn around to find a new passage - thrice. She was beginning to become frustrated with the whole situation and had some very dark thoughts about stupid birds that were more trouble than good, when all of a sudden a green frog in an attempt to escape leapt right on Wraen's face.

"Shit!" she barked, shaking her head and thus the offending amphibian away. She followed it with an annoyed look, until it disappeared in the water with a quiet "plonk". Few minutes later, however, the hunter had some luck and she stumbled upon a nest, where there were at least five, white medium-sized eggs assembled neatly. The fate - on the other hand - had decided to make this supposedly easy gathering a bit spicier. Because there, on the edge of the nest a snake was curled up. And if there was one animal that Wraen despised, feared and hated, it was these legless lizards. 

"Maia - could you come here for a moment?" she called out to her younger sister. Perhaps, she had more guts and more knowledge on the reptile before her.

rolled better for this thank goodness, 15

She found nothing on an initial perusal, but was optimistic.  Somewhere in these reeds was dinner, she was sure of it!

Until Wraen called her... then her focus immediately shifted, and she bounded over as well as she could, her weight causing her some effort in navigating as well.  She was tiring.

"Yeah?" She asked breathlessly when she got over, but then caught sight of the snake.  Not being one of her own fears, the only immediate thought she had was zomg, finally food, so she snapped forward like lightning.

Luckily for her, she knew well enough to snatch it behind the head, and with a crack the thing was limp in her jaws.  She chewed with an emphatic "mmmmmmm!", then looked at Wraen, as if realizing again she was here.  "Oh... di you wan tha?"  The words partially muffled by the snake still hanging from her jaws.

Wraen preferred to see snakes dead than alive. But even the dead ones were off-putting, therefore she chose not to see any at all. Maia - on the other hand - seemed to have no qualms about the scaly reptiles. A moment later she was on the spot and without even asking, what was wrong and why, attacked the little creature masterfully, killed it with one bite and turned to look at Wraen. 

"No, thank you," she replied, taking a step back and turning her head to the side, not wanting to look at the dead animal any longer. "But we got eggs," she told in a happier note, walking over to the nest and taking one of the white, round objects out. "Dig in," she told Maia, settling down to eat.

Good thread - we can fade it out in the next posts and have a new thread? I love these too.

Wraen didn't seem to have much interest in the dead serpent, but that just meant more snack for her.  She made quick work of it, bones and all, and then came around to the other side of the nest, nosing one of the outside ones and picking it up to eat.

She tucked in then with a satisfied rumble, her good spirits brought back almost completely by finally gettin some food in her belly!  Once they were done, she might try for a duck before leaving the island, something to grab for later.  For now, it was enough sharing a meal with her amazing big sis.

sounds good!!! Me too <333