Sun Mote Copse Boombastic

@Penn 

One witner afternoon we found Wraen down at the muddy banks of the river, working on something diligently. Small piles of earth, greyish-brown foliage and grass were scattered around the area, while the Sovereign was elbow deep inside a freshly dug hole. A smell of dusty, damp fur and old meat wafted around, though due to the earlier cycles of freezing and thawing, it was not nearly as potent as it would have been in a warm summer day, for example.

Wraen would have missed the spot as well, had she not been checking other caches earlier in the day. Her olfactory centre in the brain was like a Google search. Once you had the similar keywords typed for few times, it tended to offer similar search results the next time around. Since no reserves during winter-time were fresh, it is clear, why she had been drawn to this spot and had managed to pinpoint it's exact location. 

The prize, when she finally got to it and had pulled it out in the open to examine, was less rewarding. It was - in fact - only an old deer hide, more fur and tough skin than anything useful. Wraen sniffed through her finding and tried to decide, what to do with it.

After his (secret) tangles with the wolverine and the deer, Penn had tried to keep it low key for a bit. The first encounter had left him sore, the second had left him sore and maimed.

The third encounter had just left him tired, though it had been no less dangerous than the others, this encounter being the questioning from his mother as to why he had a big ass cut on his ass. He'd done okay at dodging her, though mostly that was due to Finley just letting it go. She knew better than anyone what it meant to show up bruised and bloodied and not wanting to tell your parents the cause. Penn, of course, attributed her dismissal to his own illustrious powers of charm and deceit. Fin knew how that worked too.

In any event, the Blackthorn was just about over it. He didn't like sitting around, doing nothing. It was boring and there was nothing worse than being bored, in his opinion. So, he was out and about again that day, trying to get himself back into some sort of trouble or other AKA, trying to find something fun to do.

His chocolate eyes brightened when he came across Wraen, who was usually good for some fun (though of a rather tamer sort than he'd been getting up to lately). Grinning, Penn ducked into a hunter's crouch and began to stalk quietly forward, intending to leap out and surprise her. He was reminded as he crept along of when he'd been a kid and she'd been a dragon, and as he came nearer and spotted the hide at her paws, he decided that's exactly the game they were playing.

Penn paused only briefly when he came near enough to make his attempt. He had never been patient--which was exactly why he had always failed at being a knight--so he spent only a few seconds lining himself up before he sprang from his hiding spot and tried to nab the hide out from under her nose.

There always comes a day, when a student bests it's master, and such day had arrived for Wraen. Still high on the adrenalin from the intense digging and excitement, she paid no attention to her surroundings. So it was no wonder, that, while Penn's sneaking up on her was not very professionally carried out, she noticed the trouble she was in only, when it had happened already. 

Penn swept her off her feet quite literally and, while she rearranged her limbs and tried to understand, what was going on, had already fetched the old hide away from her. But the Wraen had had many playfights over toys in her life, so you would not imagine her taking this unforeseen assault lying down. No such thing! Once up on her feet she went after the thief, snapping at his ankles (if he was running) and doing everything possible to retrieve her toy.

It was equially surprising to both of them when Penn managed to snatch the deer hide right out from under Wraen's nose. He had absolutely known that he was capable of pulling off such a feat, but that had been his overly inflated ego talking. All things considered, he would've expected Wraen to suddenly whip around and tackle him to the ground at the last second. She always had bested him in these matches before. But he had always been much younger, and much smaller before. So maybe this did make sense?

Not one to overthink his victories, Penn sprang away with a victorious croon. He ought to have carried on running, but instead, he paused briefly to look over his shoulder to try and catch a glimpse of Wraen's face. It lost him his lead, but damn was it worth it. He grinned as he took off, not minding the feel of Wraen's teeth at his ankles. At least, not until he discovered just how stupid it was for him to have not been paying attention to where he was going and he slammed his face right into the trunk of a tree and collapsed.

Penn was no longer a fat, awkward puppy and had all the vigour and ambitions of a young wolf. Wraen knew that she was going to regret her wasting energy like this later, but now she took it as a practice in chasing criminals. It would not be pointless running around, when a true thief had to be caught, pinned down and his or hers coat thinned considerably.

But providence put a tree in Penn's way, there was a - wham! - and a moment later Wraen had caught up with him. She fought hard against the urge to laugh (but she would be in hysterics, when alone), whisked the deer-hide away from the boy and only then returned, sniffed him over and pulled gently at one of his ears, in an attempt to wake him up. "Hey, you okay?" she asked.

If Penn blacked out at all, it was brief enough that he didn't even notice. He took a moment to gain his bearings before rolling onto his stomach and giving his head a shake--something he was quick to regret. His eyes watered and his ears were ringing from the force of his impact, and he blinked around in a fog. He leaned forward until his nose was inches from Wraen's before he seemed to recognize who she was. His face split into a grin, but he winced from that as well.

"Uhhh.. Yeah," he said unconvincingly as he shut his eyes, "Just uhhhhhh... Man, I don't recommend doing that. That's kinda a thing that... sucks..." His speech was slurred slightly and his stomach rolled. He wasn't sure exactly what it was he'd done to be in that position, but he was certain he was not interested in doing it again. "What hit me?" he asked after a moment, blinking bleerily at the tree trunk that stood at his back about an inch from his face.

Luckily Penn was neiter dead, nor unconscious for very long. He proved that Blackthorns had very thick skulls and Wraen sent a mental "thank you" to any gods that were looking after this family and this chap in particular. From what she had seen, those celestial beings had had their hands full from the day one. 

"Well, I daresay that this tree," she tapped it with her forepaw, "was super-rude and stepped in your way in the last second. He has a very bad sense of humour, was impudent enough to even laugh at you, while you were out." Wraen had difficult time holding back laughter, but she could be patient for a little while longer, until she heard the boy's response to this nonesense.

Penn tried to follow her explanation, but found it difficult to keep his mind focused enough to get it all. Still, he grinned after giving the tree a good, long frown. "I hate it when trees do shit like that," he said, "I thought they only ever did it to Fenn, though."

He blinked slowly, feeling a bit swoon-y still as he smiled. "She runs into trees because she's blind," he giggled--a very not-so-Penn sound, "It's silly. She'll love that I ran into a tree. I should tell her." His concussed brain didn't let him consider that he probably shouldn't be rambling about a girl in front of Wraen. This was excellent teasing material, and he was offering it up on a silver platter without hesitation.

"I totally agree with you. They are bastards," Wraen nodded and sounded so serious that you would believe she meant every word. The notion about Fenn's trouble with trees getting in her way, made Sovereign smile. It was a very nice way to put it, sincere even and with a spark of originality that she had not expected from Penn. He was a smart chap without realizing it and she was not going to tell him this to boast around. Otherwise people would start talking that she had favourites in the ranks.

"Should you?" she arched an eyebrow. "I mean, would not that somehow smirch your reputation about being bold, beautiful and flawless?" Wraen teased him.

Penn snorted a little as he laughed. Very handsomely, though. Wraen was certainly on the right track in speaking to his vanity. He was definitely quite vain. But, in his absolute belief that he could do no wrong, there was a loophole to be exploited. And exploit it, he did. "I am, of course, all of those things," he proclaimed with a charming smile, "But, since I am flawless, that means everything I do is without flaw. Including things like running into trees when they jump out in front of me." 

He smiled dazedly off into the distance then, his mind swimming with... Well, mostly colors and shapes. His nausea was going down, as was the head ache. He actually was starting to feel quite sleepy, but he had things to do. Things like.... Um... Something about Fenn. Silly blind Fenn. He should hang out with her more.

"When you put it like this - you did run into that tree quite flawlessly," Wraen agreed with Penn's take on things and though she thought it was highly amusing and silly, she had to admit that this was another way of "positive thinking". Make a flaw into a virtue. 

"Okay, dude," she got up to her feet and returned to her deer-hide. "You can flawlessly muse about other things - I will go and take this somewhere safe," she beckoned to the treasure, picked it up, shot a meaningful glance in Penn's direction and began to trot off. Not too fast. On purpose.

Penn beamed at Wraen's compliment. He had done that rather flawlessly, hadn't he? He didn't really remember it much, but it was very safe to assume he'd totally nailed it. If only Fenn had been there to see it...

Mourning the fact that she hadn't been (not that she would've seen anything anyway, what with the blindness and all), Penn frowned as he began to blink slowly again at Wraen. He looked down at what she referred to and spotted a deer hide. A flicker of recognition burned in his mind for an instant, and then it was gone.

"Cool pelt," he commented as he pulled himself up onto all fours and began to follow, "Whatcha gonna do with it?" He was a little wobbly, but he managed to not fall over. Not yet, anyway.

Wraen had not yet established, how clever Penn actually was. When he was being genuinely silly or sly. It is a well-known fact that with a full mouth no one can answer, therefore, if the boy's inquiry was a smart plan to get her drop the precious treasure, she did not fall for it. Instead she shrugged and continued onwards, until they came to the place, where Penn had spent his super-early and awesome childhood, dropped the hide and sat promptly on it. 

"To answer your earlier question - I am going to figure out, how to make this hide fly," she told him seriously. "There are at least few occasions in history, when this has happened. But if you have better suggestions - I am all ears."

Damn he was tired. Penn was very tempted to just lie down and go to sleep without saying a word to Wraen, but she was alpha and something instinctual drove him to continue following her. He wondered as they walked if they might come across Fenn. That'd be pretty cool. He could tell her about how he ran into a tree.

He didn't notice when Wraen had stopped walking until he was about three feet from walking right into her. He backpedaled a few steps before plopping onto his bottom, blinking at her as she explained herself. "Uhh..." Penn pondered for a moment before shrugging, "Nah, flying hides sounds like a good plan to me. I mean, I don't get it, but yeah sure--let's see it then." He smiled his dope-y smile for her.

At this stage of early adulthood, Wraen would have expected Penn to take some of her words with a grain of salt. Instead he ate them from her paw, swallowed them whole and did not seem the least bit suspicious that she had been messing with him. Had he really hit his head that hard? Wraen scratched behind her ear, but this action though pleasant did not give her desired answers. Except - Blackthorns were all crazy, some more than others.

"So - first thing we need to test is the pelt's flying qualities," she went on, just as serious and pragmatic-like as earlier. "We will have to throw it off somewhere high to see, how well it flies. Know such a place?" she asked him.

Even if Penn didn't have a concussion, he likely still would've been interested to see just what Wraen had in store with the pelt. He didn't really believe she could make pelts fly, but he wasn't going to discount the theory completely just yet. Odd, magical things just seemed to happen around Wraen. He hadn't forgotten the thing that had fallen from the sky that they'd drowned together. A teensy part of him even still believed in dragons, though that was more because he wanted them to be real than because he really thought they were.

"In the Copse? Eh," Penn answered with a shrug that made him wince--darn head ache, where had that come from? "We mostly have lumpy terrain. Not exactly even, but not that big of a difference as far as elevation goes. Not unless you want to go further in towards the mountainside. We could probably find some higher ledges that-a-ways." He shrugged, unable to find any hope for the situation even though his suggestion had been a perfectly reasonable one. His circuits weren't really firing together just yet.

Wraen was not too sure, if Penn was in any way fit to go anywhere near a place, which could mean a long fall to the ground. She knew him too well to suggest this out loud, therefore she went with a smooth lie instead: "I am afraid I can't go that far today. I promissed to meet my sister later in the day. Would not want to disappoint her."

And since she felt a little sorry for the flawless tree-crasher and was a bit generous because of that, she suggested: "Maybe you can find a good place to hide the hide and we can take it to test it in the mountains next time?" Wraen knew that, if Penn got hold of the treasure, it was very likely she would never see it again.

Penn peered thoughtfully between the trees at a spot in the distance where the ground suddenly lifted up towards the peaks that lined the Eastern edge of the territory. He was trying to picture himself and Wraen using the hide to fly, though it was difficult (and not just because his head was pounding). He thought maybe they could each grab a side and then leap, then they could glide off maybe. But how to gain any elevation? Birds had to flap their wings to go higher. How were they supposed to flap?

He blinked a few times as he attempted to pay attention to Wraen's question. He mostly failed, but a grin cracked across his lips anyway as he repeated, "Hide the hide," and then began to laugh. And that was about the extent of his contribution to that piece of the conversation.

Penn was too distracted to notice the very obvious invitation to steal the hide, which beat the whole purpose of the game Wraen had intended to play. She furrowed her brow, regarded him thoughtfully and rather than saying - "okay, man, let's get you somewhere, where you can sleep this off" - she decided to test something before. 

"So... what do you say, if we dig a hole, stash this pelt in it and then skin you alive?" she listed all these things in quick succession, keeping a straight face and serious voice, all the while keenly watching Penn's expression.

He was still chuckling as Wraen attempted to speak to him again. He blinked slowly at her, grinning a grin that didn't falter at her words. He considered her suggestion for a beat before he shrugged and nodded his head. It sounded alright enough to him, and she was the alpha after all.

"Alright, but you gotta promise to make my hide fly too," he answered quite seriously, "I mean, it's only fair, right?"

"We will make it fly, alright," Wraen murmured to herself and groaned. Not only had Penn crashed in a tree flawlessly, he had also lost some vital screws during a collision. A normal person with their clock ticking would have loudly objected against the stupid suggestion or at least yelled a "WHAT?!!!" Finley's son did not and Wraen hoped that the guy would get better after a proper sleep.

"Giddy up, tree hugger," the Sovereign nudged his shoulder. "Let's get you to your mom." Blackthorns were crazy and there was only one person in Firebirds equipped to deal with extra craziness that came with aftermaths of concussions.

Penn grinned, pleased that she'd accepted the arrangement in spite of the fact that she didn't look particularly pleased about it. He was okay with this seeing as he didn't really believe Wraen would skin him. She was far kinder than that, which was lucky becaussse he had a feeling Fenn wouldn't like him skinless. She wouldn't be able to see what he looked like skinless, but it was still probably a repellant condition.

Wraen's nudge to his shoulder pulled him free of this train of thought. He looked up at her and smirked at her suggestion. He didn't protest--he did like his mom after all. Maybe she'd let him sleep, or reassure him that he'd be handsome even without skin. "I prefer to call her mother, but okay," Penn commented as he stood and allowed himself to be ushered off.

Penn did not object and let himself be taken to Finley. Wraen had taken the pelt with her and after the boy had been handed safely over, she left the treasure as a token of good will and comaraderie and a get-well-present in one take. She made a mental note to check up on the boy later that day and in the days that would follow as well.