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For @Osprey!

How many days had it been since Fox had been officially inducted into the plateau? She could not remember, and she supposed it did not matter. She was well on her way to meeting her new comrades, and the yearling felt good about her efforts. The small, young Beta was ambitious and driven, nobody could deny her that. Thus far, her days had been spent patrolling and mingling with her pack-mates. It had been a rocky start, and everybody had their suspicions, but she was happy to make an attempt to soothe their worries. Not that Fox had a knack for it, exactly, but she knew it was what needed to be done.

Today, she was busy locating and marking the pack's caches. She would find one, scratch the dirt next to it, and sniff to make sure her mark had been made. Once that was complete, she would seek out the next one. Having just made her mark on the latest one, she sniffed the ground next to it, ensuring that other creatures would be deterred by the thick scent of wolves and would find food elsewhere. It wasn't foolproof, of course, and Fox had already found two caches that had been dug up and eaten by other creatures. Coyotes, perhaps, or even bears.

A lot had changed, while Osprey had been away - few of the wolves she had known had remained with the pack and Peregrine's new status was a little confusing for her. She had nothing against that - free love for all, yet she would have very much preferred if he had stuck to one sex, not both. She also found it strange to be among so many people here, because she had spent the last several weeks in solitude, enjoying her freedom and looking for answers, to questions that had not given her rest in the plateau. Even after some days spent in the pack, she still felt very much like a trespasser and had understood that this had to change.

Osprey had put the early morning hours in good use, spending her time, hunting small game and now that the sun was going higher, she felt it was the right moment to return to her den and have a good nap. Her path, however, crossed that of another's. She recognized the firey red pelt immediately and knew that this was Peregrine's new love. Fox - wasn't it? She wavered a little, trying to decide, whether she should go and say hello or leave introductions for another time, but then simply shrugged her doubts away and approached the small she-wolf. "Hey!" she called to her from afar. "You are Fox, right?"

I may have already said this, but it's good to see you back! :)

Fox whirled around when somebody greeted her. It took her a moment to register who it was, although she honestly couldn't say that she remembered the wolf's exact relationship to Peregrine. Family, definitely... but beyond that, Fox was at a loss. The guy had so much of it, she wondered how he managed to keep up. So far, Peregrine was Fox's only family, and that was only through their mateship. He seemed to have an unlimited number of relatives, and they all resided right here in the plateau.

“I am,” Fox replied, her tone even. “I don’t think we’ve formally met.” The young leader recalled the other being at the meeting/hunt, but beyond that, she did not think they had seen one another except in passing. Fox remained neutral for now, allowing her new acquaintance to set the tone of their first meeting. It seemed as though everybody had an opinion on Fox's relationship to Peregrine and her ascension into leadership at the plateau.

ooc: it's nice to hear that. I am happy too. :)

Fox was quick to reply, therefore Osprey didn't have much time to examine her brother's mate properly and form the first impressions. Prolonged staring after a direct question would be considered rude, therefore she returned the she-wolf's neutral greeting by politely averting her gaze, licking her lips few times and wagging the tip of her tail a little.

"Probably not," she said and added, "I am Osprey - Peregrine's sister." Right now it seemed most inconvenient that her brother had named his daughter after her, but her choice of alternative name - Yerpso - didn't sound serious enough and from the look of Fox it didn't seem that the newly appointed beta had much sense of humor.

A wash of recognition came over the young leader when Osprey relayed who she was. She even had the coloration of the bird... which made her wonder if Perry's family and her own weren't totally unrelated after all, considering their naming conventions. Although it seemed obvious that they were far enough removed that their children would not come out deformed. And they did plan to have as many as possible, of course. “Osprey, yes!” Fox said, wagging her tail, “You’re the one whom Osprey is named after.” An obvious observation, but one nonetheless.

“But you were… gone, weren't you?” Fox asked, trying to scrape together the details of who was who and what was when. She was terrible at remembering the specifics, and considering how large Perry's local family seemed to be, she wondered how he kept track of such things. Then again, Fox had always known (and would always know) her own family.

"Indeed, I was," Osprey agreed, but didn't delve in details any deeper. It was a very personal and complicated matter and strangers wouldn't understand or care anyway. Her journey had turned out different than she had planned, but fulfilling nonetheless. Fox felt a little uncertain, when she stated the question and Osprey smiled, because she knew that there were so many branches and leaves in her family tree that it was easy to get lost. Even she didn't know all of her relatives.

"Peregrine insisted, even though I didn't want him to name his daughter after me," she moved on to the other subject. "I mean - I am still pretty much alive and the name puts sort of a pressure on the kid," she mused.

When Osprey didn't explain further, Fox didn't pry. She wasn't the type to do so, if only because she didn't like others to do it to her. Besides, there was no reason for Fox to be suspicious. Everybody had their reasons for coming and going, and it wasn't her place to ask. Besides, Osprey seemed more interested in talking about the naming of Perry's daughter. Fox canted her head to one side. She wasn't well-versed in how others were named. It was tradition where she was from to be named after what you looked like. Even though Peregrine and his family were named after birds, she hadn't seen a single one who actually looked like what they were named.

“Pressure?” asked Fox. She wondered what sort of pressure it would put on little the younger Osprey. Maybe the older Osprey had done something truly magnificent that would make the younger Osprey feel like she would have to out-do her aunt. In any case, Fox was curious.

"Exactly," Osprey nodded and then elaborated on the matter that had been the point of her attention not so long ago. "Names should be chosen carefully and, if I had a great aunt named, Chip, for instance, and I named my child after her I sort of expect it to be just as great as my aunt has been. Without regard for the fact that the kid might be totally different and deserving of a better suited name."

She had an opinion about this matter, because Osprey herself was named after her uncle - Osprey Sr., who had been dearly loved by her mother March Owl. She had heard a lot about him and for a while she had thought it was necessary to live up to his legacy. And it had taken her time to realize that she was not Osprey Sr., nor she would ever be.

“But a name is just a word…” she mumble-mused. To Fox, names meant very little. Perhaps it was because she rarely remembered them unless the wolf was truly memorable. They were just convenient labels plastered to children to make sure you could get their attention in a crowd. It seemed like Perry's family took naming way too seriously for her preferences. Fox wondered what it would be like when they named their children. She was, of course, expecting to name them after their appearance. It was the only way she knew. But perhaps Perry would want to keep the family names going.

Fox licked her lips, thinking that it was just one of those "different strokes for different folks" situations. “Anyway, you and Perry grew up together, yeah?” she asked. Peregrine hadn't told her his whole life story, but Fox had never asked, either. He couldn't have been that old. Peregrine knew pretty much her whole life story, but that was only because the first year had been rather dull, and she had met him shortly after turning a year old.

"I don't agree with that," Osprey stated bluntly. "Name defines, who you are and what kind of traits your parents wish you to have," this, however, was a fact she had come up with herself. To be true - she had never asked March Owl or Aether, how they had come up with the names for their children, yet she couldn't imagine them choosing a random name just for the sake of it.

It did not seem that Fox wanted to linger on the subject, yet it was still a mystery, why would she put so little importance in names. "Yes, we did - along with plethora of siblings," she smiled. "And you - do you have siblings?"

Fox had already known of Peregrine's brother Atticus, and now she knew of Osprey. She wondered how many other siblings he had. “Yep,” Fox replied, “Two older than me, two my age, and probably some more born earlier this year that I haven’t met.” Fox had no doubt that her parents would be busy making another litter of babies this year, as they always did. The children tended to leave the nest when they reached a year old, just as Fox had done. She figured Osprey and her brothers had done the same, though she was curious as to why they had all chosen the same place to settle.

“So what’s the most embarrassing story about Peregrine you have?” Fox asked with a wicked grin. It was always amusing to tease him, and having yet another torment in her back pocket would be amusing.

Only four? The surprise about Fox's low number of family members crossed Osprey's expression briefly, but there was no judgement or air of superiority in that. She was simply so used being surrounded by ten to fifteen family members of various ages at different times, that it simply hadn't occurred to her yet that there could be smaller families too. March Owl's and Aether's shared achievement was not a rule of thumb elsewhere.

"Embarrassing? No... he is all perfect - daisies, rainbows and unicorns," Osprey said in an overly solemn voice, which strongly indicated that she wasn't speaking the truth. "You know that I can't speak about Perry's hidden skeletons, even though you could... so to say... ask about the penguin incident," she grinned knowingly.

Fox's litter had only been her parents' second, so they still had plenty of time to pop out babies left and right for the next five to eight years. Of course, the young leader imagined that she would have plenty of her own children, as well. She wondered if her smaller form meant that she would naturally have fewer children. Or maybe they would just be small like herself. Peregrine was a large, hulking creature who towered over her, and it only just occurred to her that their children could easily follow suit. Or perhaps they would land somewhere in the middle. In any case, Fox wanted a thousand of them.

The yearling chuckled when Osprey explained that Peregrine didn't have a single embarrassing story in his repertoire. So when Osprey revealed (in so many words) that there was a story involving a penguin—a word foreign to the spitfire—she snapped back a, “So I heard there was something about a penguin…” she said casually, the expression on her face quite telling to her thoughts on the matter. “Do tell!”

ooc: hasn't got anything back from Kat - I will move on then.

"Can't tell you about that - my lips are sealed," Osprey said, looking apologetic, but not entirely. " I have given an unbreakable oath as a kid," she went on explaining, "there will be consequences, if I reveal secrets." Her expression told that this was a childish thing, yet she was going to stick to that. "But you can always ask - after all... you are his mate... you have rights to know and I am sure you know, which fingers to pinch," she finished with a wink.

"But I can share some embarrassing moments from my life, if you promise to share yours in return," she offered.

"Aw," Fox groaned, saddened that she would get to hear no penguin story. At least, not today. She would most certainly dig at Peregrine for details sooner or later. There was nothing better than digging up old cobwebs... especially embarrassing ones! Still, she wondered what sort of terrible things Perry would do to Osprey if she spilled the beans. Maybe he would hunt her down and tickle her until she peed herself. Now that would be some serious payback.

"That might be fun!" Fox agreed when Osprey invited her to exchange some embarrassing stories. Fox certainly had plenty of them which originated from when she was a child. Siblings had that effect.

ooc: I think this is a good place to fade this thread out. We can have a new one, if you wish.

"Give me a moment," Osprey asked Fox, while she tried to recall events suitable to tell for the occasion. She had found a common wave with Perry's new mate quite quickly and she did seem like a very decent girl, yet Osprey was not that quick to trust her already. Experience told that it took time to make true friends.

"So... this happened, when I and Perry were little babies," she began. "Little, round and fluffy, more rolling around than actually walking," she smiled thinking about them as kids and how many years had passed since that time. "I don't remember this, but my mum told that I once had a bad spell of hiccups for many days. Not just any kind of hiccups - big ones, that make you jump. The rest of the litter were amused and had followed me around, just to burst in giggles every time I hiccupped."

She smiled and then said: '"Your turn."

Fox chuckled when Osprey recounted the tale of hiccups and giggles. But it was nothing compared to Fox's story. "Well, this one time..." Fox began, pausing for dramatic effect and looking around to make sure nobody else was within earshot, "I thought I was going to fart, but instead I pooped all over my sister, Dove. She was born white, but I swear she was a little more brown for the rest of her life after that. Smelled awful, too!" Fox grinned at this, finding that she was surprisingly proud of trusting her fart that day.

Perhaps there was not much that could embarrass the young Alpha after all. "You'd better believe she never tried to call me names after that, though. All I'd have to do was point my butt at her and give her the stink eye and I could win any conversation I wanted to." Fox had only been a few months old at the time, and somehow she'd managed to use that against Dove every chance she got.

The girl chuckled, continuing their conversation of amusing farting and pooping and hiccuping stories for a little while more before parting ways.