Blacktail Deer Plateau They used to sing about the birds and the bees

Peregrine had kept busy with his family—finding a rendezvous site was paramount as of late—but he hadn't by any means forgotten about his sister's situation or condition. Today, he tore himself away from the caldera to check up on her. The trek was long but not unpleasant and, toward the middle of the afternoon, he drew up beneath the plateau. He lingered in its shadow, unwilling to come close, then sent up a howl requesting either @Osprey or someone who could update him on his sister's status.

Anyone's welcome! :)

Reconnecting with people again was not an easy task to do, but Osprey was making her steps diligently, because she knew that this was the right way to go, if she wanted to move on. It had got easier a bit over the last two days, there were still moments, when she would freeze, her breath catching in her throat, the feeling of fear and sorrow creeping up her limbs, and then... just as fast as it had got hold of her, it would let go too and she would be able to go on with her daily deeds.

With the help of Blue willow's herbs the pain and swelling in her joints had all but gone away. She was able to move around more easily, limping occasionally only. Healthwise she was far from fine, but she was getting on fine. There was no pressure from the rest of the pack and now... hiding her weakness and vulnerability didn't seem that important at all. She could only take pride in the fact that she was tough enough to go on and not feel bad for being useless.

Peregrine's howl was a welcome surprise and made her forget the deer leg she had been chewing on for the last hour. She got to her feet, ready to rush to meet and greet him, but then took a moment to cast a glance at the food item that was lying on the forest floor. It didn't seem wise to leave it there, so she leaned down, picked it up and went to the borders with it in her jaws.

The sight of her brother made her heart both leap in joy and ache knowing, what she was about to tell him in mere moments. She closed the distance between them, put the leg down and went over to nuzzle his fur and offer one sloppy, stinky and bloody, but albeit loving lick accross his face. Her way of saying - I am glad to see you!

It was Osprey herself that came, looking haggard still but noticeably slimmer. Peregrine's ears drew back as he wondered about the fate of her pups. The fact that she was free to come at his call meant... well, he wouldn't conjecture about it. He was sure his sister would inform him of their ultimate fate. In the meantime, he was just happy to see her still chugging along.

"You brought me a snack," he joked, though Peregrine didn't intend to partake in the plateau's meat. "How are you?" was his first question, after he nuzzled her and took half a step back to look into her ever familiar (but still slightly gaunter than usual) face.

"Don't even think about it," Osprey growled playfully at him, placing one of her forepaws on the leg and drawing it closer to her. Not that she thought Peregrine would have made all this way here just to have a bite of her meagre meal. She envied him for his overall healthy and fit appearance. Compared to him she was a sad case of a thrown out ragdoll.

When asked about, how she was doing, Osprey didn't have to look far for the right words. "I... I am ok. Most of the time," she told him with a sad little smile appearing in her lips. She studied his face for a bit, before continuing. She knew that it was not just her he had come to visit. He wanted to know, what had happened with... the four. "There were four of them - two sandy colored boys and a pair just like us. A gray boy and a black girl," she paused, drawing in a deep breath and looking away from her brother for a moment, then she met his gaze again with a quick apologetic smile. "They never drew in their first breath, never let out a single sound."

Osprey seemed to be in good spirits, which surprised him a little, especially when she delivered the news about her litter's fate. Peregrine's heart seized for a moment. He wasn't sure what he'd hoped would happen with his sister's pups. He supposed this was the best possible outcome, in a way, a sort of mercy. Yet it was still an enormous tragedy. For a few moments, he couldn't speak, simply letting the gravity of the situation wash over him. He felt particularly breathless over the fact that two of them had resembled Osprey and himself.

Rather than offer words of condolence, Peregrine eventually unfroze his limbs and gently swept his sister into a wolfish hug. He held onto her for a moment, pressing his nose against her temple and breathing quietly into her ear. He then released her and drew back. He wanted to say something. He wasn't sure what, until the simple words, "I'm here for you, Oss," tumbled from his black lips.

The first days had been quite awful, but beneficial in a way, because tears had taken away a great deal of the pent up emotions, suffering and grief. Quoting author John Green - that was the thing about pain. It demanded to be felt. After that things returned to normal more or less. Therefore, when she spoke about her children, she felt more sorry for Peregrine about gaining this upsetting knowledge of their fate than for herself.

She shared a moment of silence with him, then sighed and smiled: "They are with mom and dad now. I believe that they are well taken care of." To be honest, Osprey had no idea, where the souls went after death - ascended to the stars, lived underground, reincarnated etc. - and she would not care to find this out either, for she had found that one illusion that comforted her. That there was a place, beyond an invisible veil, where March Owl could look after those little lives, until the day her daughter would be able to meet them again.

"So... how are things in Caldera? How is your brood doing?" she asked him, in hopes of hearing something happier. Dwelling on the current subject was not neccessary.

Like Osprey, Peregrine didn't know what happened after death. For a long time, he had been pragmatic about it, assuming that life simply ceased and nothing was left of the late individual. But ever since running into Pied here in Teekon Wilds and hearing her stories, he had been a little more open-minded about it. He still didn't hold any conclusive beliefs. He'd never been the spiritual sort, though he also didn't begrudge those who were. He found comfort in his sister's observation that her stillborn pups were with their parents.

She wanted to know about his own brood. Peregrine's teeth sawed gently against his lip as he wondered whether his answer might make Osprey sad. But she had asked, so he replied, "They're doing awesome. We're going to move them to a rendezvous site soon, so I've been scouring the caldera for the perfect spot. I think I might have found it. It's this scenic clearing overlooking Lake Rodney just beyond the caldera. You'll definitely have to come see it for yourself sometime, as well as catch up with them. They're talking a bit and can definitely understand a lot... they would love a story from their fairy godmother."

The fact that Peregrine was telling her, how great his children were doing, did not upset Osprey. Maybe because part of her had never dared to dream or hope that hers would be granted such a happy future. Maybe their stay on the Earth had been so short that she had not got time to really know them. It was true that there was a place in her heart that craved to love and take care of someone and it hurt knowing that these emotions were spare, that there was no one to give them to, but other than that... she was ok. She was glad to know that her brother was doing well, that he was happy and cheerful.

"My... have they grown up so quickly. They were teeny tiny babies just..." here she stopped briefly, as if having recalled something, then shook it off and went on," just weeks ago." Despite her best efforts, her promise to herself to be there more for these kids than she had been to Perry's last litter, she had failed again. Life had got in her way and time didn't wait on those, who had fallen and were lagging behind. "I am sorry that I can't promise you to come and visit them anytime soon. I am not fit to go anywhere at the moment," she smiled at him sadly. "How are the rest - Fox, other pack members?"

It was disappointing that Osprey wouldn't be able to visit soon, though he understood. "They are growing fast but they're still young. It'll be a long while yet before they're too old for stories," Peregrine quipped. "Fox is well. She's been able to get out more now, so she's been catching up with everyone. I don't want to impose on that, so I'm hoping to find a rendezvous site soon so she won't have to be bothered with helping to look. She'll be as excited as the puppies to get out of the den. It seemed so big not so long ago..."

He chuckled, the noise slowly fading before he asked, "And here? How is everyone?" He knew this might be a loaded question. Surely Osprey's condition had stirred some drama, even if the pups hadn't ended up surviving. He was morbidly curious, though he wouldn't ask outright. The fact that Osprey was still a part of the pack spoke volumes.

"Yeah... I wonder, who of you got that fat..." Osprey humoured casting a pointed glance at Perry's overall state and chuckling, glad that Fox was not around to hear this, because her - being a girl - could find this comment as offensive and rude. "Is Wildfire's voice just as mighty as I remember?" that one time she had seen the kids right after their births, this girl was the only one she distinctly remembered. There had been a black cub too, but she was not going to tell her brother that she could not remember for the world the name of the rest of his brood.

"It's alright, I guess," she shrugged, keeping back the information that Dante had been hurt in a fight with Koda. Even though he was her brother, they did belong to different packs, which also meant that there were some secrets even siblings could not share. "I figured that they must like me a great deal to keep me here, while some capable folk have left. Can't decide, whether my situation was one of the things to aid their actions," even if it was, she did not feel guilty. Saena, Koda and others had made their choices.

"You do know that Saena left, don't you?"

"Funnily enough, she's now the quiet, bashful one," Peregrine said. He'd almost forgotten how obnoxiously noisy their middle child had been. "They're all really even-tempered and smart. They all get along too, which is something I couldn't have said about the last batch." His daughters had ended up close but, as youngsters, the dynamic between Osprey Jr. and Saena had been a difficult one.

The conversation moved forward. Peregrine didn't quite understand her comment, though he understood the part about their pardon. It really was sort of unbelievable, though he was glad for his sister. When she mentioned Saena, he bit his lower lip absently and bobbed his head. He had actually seen his youngest, palest daughter just the other day, shortly before busying himself with looking for a suitable rendezvous site.

"She came to see me, actually. We've run into each other a couple of times. I know she was having trouble with Koda and that she was interested in being an Alpha. At first, it seemed she wanted to step up here, then it became clear that it wouldn't or couldn't happen." He paused. "I think she'll be a good leader, and I hope the best for her. You two weren't close, were you?" He couldn't recollect where he'd gathered that information, though he was pretty sure he was right about that part.

After receiving her reply about that, Peregrine wanted to know, "Did Pura go with her? Or is he still here? I know I'm a little late but I was hoping to see him and wish him a happy birthday."

"We had our moments, but we bid each other farewells on good terms," had Osprey been in a more unbalanced emotional state, she would have gone in great details about the level of their relationship. But what was in the past, was left in the past. It was not important either, since the girl was since gone and probably was a lot happier to be out in the world that was full of opportunities rather than feeling trapped and undervalued within the ranks.

"I haven't seen Pura around for a while," she said thoughtfully, knowing well that she was not exactly the right person to ask about the wayward boy's whereabouts. She had "blacked out" for several days after giving the birth. "But I would not be surprised, if he had gone with Saena. They have always been close," she didn't reveal her brother, what Saena's thoughts of the matter had been at the time she had asked the very same question.

"So - they are all grown up and gone now," Osprey said, "funny to think of all the things that have happened just in a matter of a year. The plateau has changed completely.... and so have we."

Peregrine bobbed his head thoughtfully as Osprey offered up the information she possessed on the matter, which wasn't much. He scarcely held that against her; she had other things on her mind. It did seem reasonable that Pura might have shadowed Saena. Perhaps he was even the Alpha male beside her. That would be a somewhat strange dynamic, though not entirely unheard of.

"It feels like so much longer than one year," he agreed. "How uneventful our life was when we lived with the Falcons, at least in comparison." His lips twitched into a wistful smile. "I've changed more in the past year than I have in the entire rest of my life, that's for damn sure. I went from a mid-ranking bachelor without any particular ambitions to, well... this." He motioned at himself.

"I like that we've gone through so much but that we're still close," he added after a beat of quiet contemplation. Of course, their relationship was not the same as it had been back in the day. They'd even had their fair share of misunderstandings since then, not to mention the physical distance. But, somehow, they triumphed over space and time. "You're the one wolf who's been there for me the entire time, since I was no more than some... tiny molecule or whatever."

"Well, as far as I am concerned, I am still a mid-ranking non-ambitious... spinster?" Osprey joked and laughed sincerely at her statement, which was not that far from truth. She did not entirely agree that her brother had not desired to climb higher in the ranks one day, for a long time she had had a feeling that out of them two, he had a stronger drive to do great things. And being pushed out of his comfort zone, had helped him a great deal to develop in the person he was now. Whether she had undergone the same change, she could not tell. She felt very much the same.

"Yeah... you know in the beginning I was not happy that our relationship here was not the same as it had been at the Flightless falcons. Yet... though it's different, it is better. More grown-up, mature," she sideglanced at Peregrine and smiled. "Want to go for a walk?" she suggested, raising to her feet and stretching, "I have not been out of the plateau for a while and wanderer in me feels quite unsatisfied."

"Wow, that sounds so negative," Peregrine replied, though he shared his sister's laugh. "You're the best mid-ranking, unambitious spinster ever!" he quipped with a wink. There was no shame in being in the middle of the pack, nor in avoiding the power and responsibility that came with leadership. And he would never define Osprey as a spinster. Just because she chose not to tie herself down to a family didn't make her worth any less. He had long since come to accept and support her choices to go a less traditional, more free spirited route.

She invited him on a walk and Peregrine bobbed his head. "I'd love to." He motioned for her to lead the way, then fell into step beside her, like her larger, blacker shadow. "It took some adjustment, didn't it? But we're doing better than ever, like you said. We'll always make it work." He reached out to nuzzle against Osprey's silvered ear.

"Thank you, I feel flattered," Osprey said, averting her gaze and pretending to blush. But to be true - she was glad that Peregrine, who had chosen a more traditional family model, had said this. That he was not judging her because she had no mate and... no children, even though time was not waiting and next year she would be five years old already.

"It really did," she nodded in agreement, taking a path that led them away from the plateau. She doubted that, if anyone caught her here talking with her brother, they would make a fuss, but for very selfish reasons she wanted to keep him all to herself this time. "We will. I like to think that we will outlive all the packs, mates, lovers and whatever else there is in this world. Just think - us all old and not very sane, but making fun of everyone, pretending to be just a wee bit more weird than we really were," she smiled.


ooc: we can continue this thread or - we can fade this one out and have a newer one, where Osprey comes for a visit in Caldera? 

If she comes to the caldera now, Fox might eat her face... possibly literally. (My bad.) So it's up to you! :)

While Peregrine liked the idea of growing old with his sister, he didn't necessarily fancy the idea of outliving Fox. That would be tragic. It was highly unlikely too, considering she was years younger than him. But he was happy to play along, of course.

"I don't see how that description really differs from how we are today," he quipped, eyes sparkling as he kept his pace slow to accommodate his recently unwell sibling.

ooc: I PMed Fox's player. Let's see, what happens. :) Until then - let's go on with this.



"Today we are two very grown up and serious adults. We are boring," Osprey said falling silent for a while, appearing to be very deep in thoughts. Then she stopped abruptly, gave a sly glance at Peregrine, lunged at him, hitting him with her forepaws and then retreated quickly, going down in a play bow, tail wagging. "So - do you still have the spunk in you?" she teased him. "Or you are an old, creaky... boring-butt?" she came up with a nick-name, but in the back of her mind she realized that MO would probably be disappointed in her offspring's lack of creativity, when it came to swearwords.

You get post #2200!

Peregrine made a clucking sound. Now, he didn't agree with that at all. He certainly wasn't boring and Osprey was sincerely one of the most interesting wolves he'd ever known, biases aside. Before he could playfully protest her, she lunged at him, tagging him like a kitten. He paused and cocked his head at her, lips peeling into a smile when she taunted him.

"Probably a little bit of both, if I'm honest," he drawled in reply before baring his teeth, growling and then returning Osprey's attack with one of his own. All in good fun, of course.

ooc: Awesome! If I ever reach 2000 posts with Osprey then we must throw a party. :D

"Well that works - butt consists of a pair after a..." Osprey teased, but didn't get a chance to finish, because Peregrine managed to knock her over, so she ended up on her back with him standing over her. Having never been good at playfights, she didn't feel disappointed by the outcome of the events the least, thought in the beginning she tried to regain her posture, but then decided to remain lying, while trying to crane her head so that she would be able to reach the loose skin on his neck with her teeth.

I'm sure you'll get there!

I'm tempted to drag this thread out as long as possible, since I went and ruined RHC's relations with just about everybody. The good ol' days!

The instant Peregrine knocked Osprey off her feet, he remembered her recent trauma and yelled, "Shit!" Whether or not the litter had survived, birth was no easy feat. He knew she was still recovering. "Are you okay?" he asked in the tone that only concerned older brothers possessed. He loomed over her, dark brow knitted as he stared into her silvered face.

That's when she darted up, not unlike a hungry osprey chick ready to snatch a scrap of meat from its mother's beak. Unprepared for this, Peregrine was caught in the trap of her jaws, though he figured he deserved as much for being a thoughtless ass.

Falling over had not been painful - a bit uncomfortable though, but something she could endure for the sake of having fun. Osprey didn't know, if Peregrine had noticed this, but he tended to blame himself a bit too much. Therefore she would have been a lot more upset, if he had stopped playing out of worry for her well-being, than if she had actually been hurt. However, his moment of confusion was her advantage, she grabbed the loose skin on his neck and clinged to it like a bulldog, all the while growling loudly, then she released it and turned her muzzle to aim for the nearest foreleg. A little nip on those feet would not hurt.

She pulled on the loose flesh and fur of his neck, dragging his face closer to the ground. Peregrine didn't put up a fight, though he wiggled just a bit to make it more interesting for her. Then Osprey released him, only to fling her fangs at his foreleg. He squealed like a little girl and pranced like a downright twinkle-toes.

"I thought you outgrew your ankle-biting stage!" he growled playfully, batting at her muzzle as gently as a kitten swiping at a butterfly.

ooc: I have got caught up in RL, therefore I would like to cut down the number of threads I have at the moment. Maybe you can fade this out in your next post? Thank you!

"No one is ever old for ankle-biting," Osprey growled at him, made an attempt to grab one of the nearest paws firmly between her teeth. Whether she succeeded or not is up to Kat, but after a moment she seemed to have changed her mind about remaining lying on the ground and squirmed out and away from Peregrine and got up to her feet. After a quick shake of her coat, she bowed playfully again, casting a challenging glance at her brother and then dashing away as fast as her feet could carry her. She was far from her best performance and he would be able to catch up with her with ease, but the point was not to outrun him, but just have fun.

Will do! *waves byebye* :')

When Osprey's teeth grabbed at his paw again, Peregrine sighed and resigned himself to his fate. "You've got me. You've got me in teeth-cuffs," he quipped. No sooner had he spoken than his sister set him free, then righted herself. He didn't have to wait long to see what she might do next; she took off at a sprint, clearly daring him to give chase.

"You know I can never catch you, Silver Bullet!" he crowed after her retreating back. Nonetheless, he would give it his best shot.