Come to me if you want to learn

Set before Meldresi's Return. @Ayana

Burke had moved through the forest to check the damage of the storm. It wasn't bad enough for them to move. Burke was pretty attached to the dark forest so he was very willing to leave it behind. Plus if Meldresi would return she would not come home to a pack but to empty lands. No, he wouldn't want that. Burke tried to focus on his new plan instead of Meldresi being away. He was pleased with Cyn's progress and after rewarding her with a private lesson Burke decided that today it was Ayana's turn. 

He stood in the middle of Red Grove. The red bushes were usually the resting place for all the ravens and crows but after the storm they had yet to return to this place. Now it was somewhat a clearing. There were lesser trees around the red bushes but still there were some trees. He howled for Ayana to come to him. Today he would give her a special training. Talk her through how to get inside another pack and maybe give her a lesson in reading body language, watch for the signs of distrust.

Thanks for the thread! x

The sun was shining on her golden coat. It was a nice summer day and she was lying on a stone, heated up by the morning sun. The few clouds made sure that the wolf wasn't too hot. Life was easy sometimes. It was like the storm never happened and the animals never disappeared. It was like she wasn't hungry and had clammy paws from the still wet, muddy ground. In her dreams, she wasn't alone, not misunderstood, not disliked. She was accepted, she was the Queen. Everyone loved her, everyone wanted to be like her, have her life, her friends, her family. Her eyes were closed and she was half asleep when a howl disturbed her.

Burke.

Ayana stood up and streched a little. What could it be this time? Did the dark king need some more advice? She smiled and howled back to inform him that she was on her way. After daking a deep breath and preparing mentally for her meeting with Burke - Ayana still wasn't too good at social interactions - she started to trot in the direction where the howl came from. After a while of trotting, she decided to run to meet Burke faster. She had never been to this area before. Red bushes covered the ground, making it look like blood being spilled all over the area. However, there weren't many trees and sunlight was shining trough the usually thick treetops.
Then Ayana saw Burke, the dark King was alone, he was expecting her.
She came up to him and greeted him with a smile. "Hello, Burke.", she said with a calm voice, waiting for him to inform her about his matter.

Welcome! We totally needed one! :D I think this thread will take place before the one at the hot springs. Do you agree? 

Burke sat down while he waited since he wasn't sure how long it would take. He went over the training he wanted to do with Ayana. First some talking and see if she was still interested. After that he could maybe introduce her to the mission he had in mind for her and after that he could give her a personal lesson about body language and how to read it, maybe just tell her about it. He hoped it wouldn't be an information overload for her. The male thought of her as smart enough for that. 

Burke watched her arrive. It was clear on her face and how she carried herself that she had not been here before. Ha, body language. A wolf was always in need of that skill. "Never seen this clearing before?," he spoke, tipping one lighter dotted eyebrow. The large male got to his feet and returned the greeting with a friendly nudge of his nose against her shoulder. The male then took a few steps back. "I wanted to know if you are still interested in becoming a spy and if you wanted another lesson."

Of course!

It was good seeing Burke again, Ayana felt rather bad when she didn't get any training since her first meeting with him concerning becoming a spy. She wanted to do something herself, but did not really know how. Now was her opportunity to shine, and she never missed to do that.
Never seen this clearing before? Ayana clenched her eyes. How did he know? Burke was powerful, but he couldn't read minds, could he? She smiled. Did she look so lost that Burke could read it from her face? "Interesting investigation.", Ayana said while smiling at the King.

He then asked her about her interest in becoming a spy. Your chance to leave. She rolled her eyes at herself. How could someone be annoyed of oneself? Sometimes she just hated her mind.
"Do I not seem interested?", Ayana replied teasingly. She knew that Burke knew about how much she wanted this, though she would never admit that. She hated letting people in completely, it was too dangerous, she had to keep to herself to hide the truth.
"And yes, I would very much appreciate another lesson."

Burke chuckled lowly when she spoke about his interesting investigation skills. "Such a thing means reading facial expressions," he pointed out. "One you will hopefully learn too as a spy. It is great to gather information." Burke watched her for a moment and then smiled lightly. "I just didn't want to assume and force you into something. Maybe with that fierce smile you want to be an assassin or something," he pointed out. It could be after all. He was just making sure that he still had two ambitious  apprentices that wanted to become a spy. 

Burke nodded courtly once she said that she wanted another lesson. Good. "Well we can start having you read some facial expressions," he spoke. He might be a good start to read but he might take her to spy on a fellow pack member to see what she was feeling. Maybe Lusa would be a good subject to study. She was probably feeling a lot of emotions. Or maybe Misty too, she could be a good candidate. But first he wanted to explain her something. "But first. I hope you are up to date with our new Dark Brotherhood joining policies. You need to follow five lessons and afterwards make a kill. Though for your fifth and last lesson you will have to be send on an actual spying mission. Well I already got one in mind for you. But that is for later, do yo know what the other four lessons are?"

Ayana bit her tongue when Burke talked about killing someone. She could never do that, could she? It would bring back her past, which she tried to forget for months now and killing a wolf would definitely not help her to move on. But there was no other way and genuinely she did not want to be that wolf that was too soft to kill. It wasn't the killing that made her anxious, it was siimply her past. But maybe this would open a whole new chapter for her...
She tried her best to not show Burke her feelings about killing. Instead, she tried to remember if she knew about the lessons she had to take. Did Meldresi inform her about that? Probably not, why would she? The Queen was long gone and before her absence, Ayana and Meldresi never really got to talk much. Also, Ayana never seemed very interested in the Dark Brotherhood, nor did she look like a dark sister. This was another thing that worried her: Her coat. She did not really look dark after all.

"Well, I think I know that you'll teach me about scents, so hiding my pack scent and wind and stuff. And I guess another part is body language. Definitely need some training in that!", Ayana said smilingly. Her lack of social interaction skills was obvious.
When Burke talked about the final mission he had in mind for her, Ayana's heart started racing. She was extremely excited to go and spy on someone or something even? Whatever he had planned for her, she would do it. No matter what it took.

Ayana was ready for her lesson, but she first wanted to ask Burke about her concern. "Burke ... I know that I don't necessarily look like a dark sister.", she looked down onto her golden paws. "I don't know if this .. makes it harder to join?"

Burke nodded as she spoke about wanting to learn about body language. He had not seen her turmoil about not wanting to kill. Burke was about to start the training when Ayana said something that amused him greatly. He even had to laugh for a moment. "We do not discriminate on coat color, Ayana," he laughed softly. "You can be golden, white, hell you can even be pink or fur-less. I don't care as long as you do your missions right," he explained. She shouldn't worry about that. Being a dark brother didn't mean you had to have a dark coat. At least not to know knowledge. He showed off shoulder with the red paw print. "We use a red paw print to recognize a bother or sister," he explained. 

Burke then stood before her squinting her eyes at her and looking at her suspiciously. He kept that look to see how she reacted to him staring and if she could understand what he was trying to say with his body language. He made himself bigger to tell her that he was the boss, and he kept his eyes on her with a suspicious glance, slowly his head went lower as if he was intending on attacking. Such a stance was usually displayed once a spy was caught, or highly suspected of being a spy. If one was caught then it was usually with more teeth.

Ayana could feel the blood rushing to her face when Burke laughed at her. She knew it wasn't meant to be mean, but she did feel a bit awkward thinking about her silly question. Yeah, stupid. I could have told you that dark brotherhood has nothing to do with coat. Seriously tho? She grumbled a little. "Glad to hear that. Then I guess it's on me to prove myself to you!", the golden wolf said. She looked at the red paw print on Burke's shoulder and imagined herself with one. The idea of being part of some kind of secret clan excited her and maybe this was her destiny? Well, time would bring the answer. She looked up into the sky for a moment and smiled. Right now she felt at home. And it felt good.

Then, all out of sudden, the mood changed around her. Burke changed. He stared down onto her, standing tall infront of her with his eyes squinted. What the ...
Then Ayana got it. He mentioned that he wanted to teach her about body language, didn't he?
Well, time to play, Ayana.

She took a second to properly investigate Burke's behaviour. It was like the look her mother gave her when she was a puppy and did something bad but blamed her brother for it. Suspicion? Mixed with a little bit of anger, probably. Apparently Ayana had some something wrong, maybe something behind that wolf's back. Genius. Of course! She knew what was going on now and decided to play it off cool. Her improvising skills had their time to shine now.

"Listen, Burke. I can explain.", she said, making herself taller to look him in the eyes, keeping her tail down to show her submissiveness while standing up for herself at the same time. She did not want to make him angry, but she needed to explain that what he was suspecting was a lie. "I know what you think. But this is not what it seems like. You know how loyal I am. I'd never do this to you."
Ayana tried her best in convincing Burke of her innocence. She wanted to be a spy and she would be one. She had the feeling.

Look at us roleplaying wolves who are roleplaying :P

Burke kept himself in his role and bared his teeth. It was vital that Ayana would take on a submissive stance and not fight back. Only when it was a hopeless case she could fight back in self defense but that was another story. "You don't need to explain anything it is more than clear to me," he growled to her. They were such good actors, look at them. If another wolf would walk past they would probably question what was happening. Burke made a fake attack to chase her off since that was what most alpha's did. Ayana had to act truly innocent to convince the other. 

The male made himself a bit bigger. "Why were you in that place you shouldn't be?," he called out. "And this is not the first time!," he added more threatening. If she would find a good excuse Burke would back off and compliment her. If not.. well... 

On mobile sorry if short!

Wolfception!!

Ayana concentrated on Burke's body language. She tried to investigate every move his muscles made, every blink of his eyes, how he raised his eyebrows and tail. He showed his teeth, a clear sign of anger. He wanted her to leave. Then he attacked her, which Ayana had been preparing for. She knew that the second before attacking, many wolves tended to move their eyebrows a tiny bit, it was nothing obvious, but when focussing on that, it was clearly visible.

She took a few steps and lowered her tail bewteen her hind legs. She lowered her hole body closer to the ground and looked up to him with puppy eyes. "I have nowhere to go. I've been a lone wolf for a long time now, my old pack doesn't exist anymore. I need your help. And of course I will make sure that this is beneficial for both parties.", Ayana said, smiling at him. Her female charme was definitely useful right now. She didn't want to flirt or anything, but she could make good use of her gender for once. He just had to feel sorry for her. But she remembered how Burke reacted when Ayana joined Blackfeather. While Meldresi felt sorry for her and accepted her to take care of her, Burke simply left and let his lover decide. He wouldn't have just let her join the pack like this. She knew that, so she had to make Burke want her in his pack right now.

"If you offer me help and shelter, I will be loyal to your pack. I will obey to your rules and fight for the pack, no matter what. I am a counselor, I can take great care of the members and I am a really great defender, too. You will benefit from me, I'm giving you my word. So please, let me join your pack.", she said, hoping desperately that Burke would accept her, otherwise that would hurt her a lot. This was a lot of pressure for her, maybe too much, it was hard to stay in her submissive role for so long, but Ayana made sure to let Burke know about her respect and honour.

Haha definitely! Roleplayception.

Burke watched her talk and get herself out of the situation he put her. It was good that she didn't fight back, she was also confident that she was of use to the pack. Which was always a good point if someone needed more convincing. Burke backed off after her words and then nodded. "Good," he praised. "Though one thing. I would not like you to be seen in the pack you are going to infiltrate. It has to be more natural, what I just showed was worse case scenario," he explained. 

Burke sat down, relaxing more and looking over her. "Always watch the face, it betrays the most next to the tail and tensity of the muscles," he explained. "I like your balance between innocent and confident. It is good. Keep it that way. You must know your skills and promote them." The large male glanced over her once more. "Yes yes. So you had the scent masking, and now the body language. Did you have your training on wind?," he asked. Because if she had she only needed one more quest because he could dispatch her into the pack he wanted her. It was a small test, but an important one. After that she might be ready for her first mission.

Ayana nodded when Burke explained his words about the roleplay. So was she going to live in another pack and spy on them? Was she good enough to do that and prove her loyalty to Blackfeather? Ayana smiled; it would be a great honour if Burke trusted her so much.
Then Burke talked about the trainings and asked her about the wind lesson. She had not yet gotten training in this, but she wanted to ask another wolf to do so. Maybe the new female, Nemesis, could help her with that?
Then Burke talked about how important observing the face was, and how he liked her acting. Ayana chuckled a little. Yes, acting was definitely one of her strenghts, she had to do it every second of her life, if she wasn't busy manipulating others. The dark side in her would help her become a spy, apparently.
"I did not get around to train on winds yet, but I would like to ask another wolf, maybe Nemesis if she can help me out with that. Would that be okay?", Ayana asked. She did not want Burke to get mad because she asked another wolf for a lesson. Or was Burke the only one that could give her those spy lessons?

Ayana had thousands of questions in her mind that she wanted to ask Burke concerning body language. The topic was very interesting to her, she needed to know what her conversation partner was thinking and find out his or hers weakness and then attack that weak point. Yes, she loved the evil side of her. She couldn't deny that it was simply a part of her, without it she wasn't whole, she felt like the suppression couldn't go on for much longer. She simply needed to let out the dark monster in her - her past.
The golden wolf turned to Burke: "So, if you want to find out the real meaning behind someone's words, what do you do? Are there any tips and tricks you have for me, like what it means when they make a lot of pauses in their speech or...?"

Burke turned to her before plopping down in a sitting position. "You can come to me for that, usually the head of the branch, Me, would do that teaching to make it official. But, if you can bring me a carcass of a bigger prey animal, where you have made the kill then I will see that as successfully working with the wind," he spoke. "You can ask someone to help you. But you will have to make the kill. I will let you bite the prey's neck again to see if the mark made by your teeth," he spoke in all seriousness.

Burke stayed seated where he was. Since he was very much open to the fact if the girl had questions. It meant that she was truly interested in what she was learning. He wondered how well she would do it on her mission. He hoped it worked because he wanted to know more about his son and how their pack worked. He was going to inform her about the ins and outs before that mission. Though he had already given her quite some information already. He was confident that she should at least get inside. After that they would deal with other details. It was a long term mission. 

"You trick wolves in what you want to know. There are many speech tricks, but the best one is ... listening. Listen to what they are saying, truly listen. Which you can with your counselor skill. Wolves can say a number of things that can mean something else. For example; Did you hurt yourself? Are you okay? Be careful!. It might be obvious but that wolf cares about that someone, maybe even loves the other. If you listen you find out more. Be a friend, show that you care. I mean you even shared about your brother," he pointed out, smiling. He wasn't going to do anything with that information but it was a perfect example to make Ayana realize what she did, in a good way. "It isn't bad. I won't tell anyone but see? See. Wolves trust their pack mates so if you become a loyal one they will tell you anything." Burke then thought about her other question. "If they speak with a lot of pauses in their speech I would be suspicious because they need to think what they are saying."

Ayana listened closely to Burke's words. She did not have a problem with killing prey, she did not really think of those animals as equal members of nature. They were fod and she was the one that needed food to survive, so it was okay to kill them. This was simply how nature works and no matter what her past might have been, killing a deer would not make any difference.
The golden wolf wasn't sure yet if she wanted an official lesson with Burke or to accomplish that on her own. Although she liked training with Burke - and it would make the whole thing a lot more official and legit - she fancied doing things on her own, she loved success and this would definitely be beneficial for herself. She needed a while to think about that, probably.

Then Burke answered all of her questions. She was thankful for his wise words and listened to them as if it was deciding over her life. She felt like this 'job' could help her move on, simply seeing new wolves and focussing on one big thing. It was like a new life goal, but this time it was one she could actually achieve.

Ayana smiled and the blood was rushing in her head when Buke talked about Ayana telling him about her brother. She felt weird about it. She trusted Burke, but hearing the words "brother" out of his mouth made Ayana get goosebumps. "What facial expressions give me the hint that the wolf I'm talking to trusts me? Or believes me, at least? And what facial expression will they make when they don't trust me?", the female asked the alpha wolf. She was so interested in that, she almost forgot that Burke probably had something in mind for them to do. "And... if you have anything in mind then please teach me. I'd love to learn from you. I'm taking this very serious!", Ayana said, trying to seem as interested as she could. Burke sat down and she decided to sit down next to him. Ayana still tried to please Burke, he had something about him that made her feel like she needed to be her best to be accepted.

Burke is also very pleased with currently Ayana, So next time she will get 5 extra points for being so motivated! :D

Burke had to think about that for a moment, because it was different with each wolf how they showed trust. He couldn't really explain how their faces looked, but it was a good question. "I think it is different for every one to be honest," Burke explained. "You will notice, of course in the beginning you won't feel like you belong there but slowly you will start to get the flow of the pack. Which is why I suggest no contact for a month or so. Stay on the pack's lands like you have now and help out as much as you can. After that it seems logical to start to wonder after the border. Did I tell you, you mission might be a long term one?," he ended up telling. 

Burke nodded. "I know you are serious, which is why you get the long term one," he explained. Only two more, and she could be ready to go. Burke was genuinely excited to have a test run on his master plan. He liked it a lot. Bet Meldresi would be impressed too. Burke hummed softly. Bet that annoying fly of his son wouldn't see that coming huh? Oh yes. So perfect. Burke's ego might have risen even further with his perfect idea. If only his mate would return then his life would be even more perfect. "I think soon you will be ready for your first Quest. If you pass that test, you will be scent on a mission. I believe, that if you get into his pack, get accepted, you can consider yourself a Dark Sister, if you killed a wolf that is. But I am sure in between you can kill a mindless loner. After being in this pack it is your actual mission as a Dark Sister. Your ritual and paw print can take place after you are done, though as a fully operating spy you might not get the red paw print since it can be suspicious. We will talk about it after, but you will have all the other perks of being a dark sister."

Haha aw <3 | "Oh yes. So perfect." Lmao I had to laugh so much when reading that :D

Ayana felt all warm inside, like the day her mother took her to meet her baby brother. This was the one and only time she had experienced this feeling and now it was back. After two years of coldness her heart felt like it was beating again. She was happy, which was something she never thought she would say again. Happiness. Ayana closed her eyes for a second and smiled. A dark sister, huh? Perfect. Everything was working out right now. She had a friend, she had enemies, she had a pack, something like a family. Now all she needed was a wolf to share that happiness with. Someone she could fully trust and rely on. Someone that liked her for who she was and someone that would understand her dark secret. The female opened her eyes. Yes, honey. Dreams are awesome, but they are called dreams for a reason. Dreams are not reality.Stay focussed now. You want this, and I'd rather have you spy on a pack than fall in love. Her mind was right for now. Dreams had to stay dreams and reality was more important now.

She listened to Burke's words and nodded slowly. So it was all up to the wolf, really? Shame. She expected there to be an obvious hint but she had to figure this out herself.
Ayana bit her tongue when Burke said her mission was a long-term one. Now that she felt at home she had to leave? For months? Serves you right, though. You wanted this. I told you it's not good for you. Although I never expected you to feel at home here, either. Ayana looked at Burke. He was all excited and so was she, although her excitement was held down by the [i[]long-term[/i]-mission. She liked her pack. She had Lusa. And Burke was there.

At the other hand she was pleased to leave. She needed some time off to think about the things that happened recently. And she wanted to be alone for a while aswell. After all a long term mission did not sound too bad. Plus, she would be a Dark Sister and part of a even bigger, closer, secret family. She loved the idea of being part of something dark, full of wolves with dark secrets just like her.

Burke thinks very highly of himself haha. xD Last post from me :3 This was a lot of fun

Burke took in Ayana's silence. She probably needed to mentally digest everything he just told her. It was a lot to take in, she just settled in Black Feather and now he was telling her about a mission. For him it was more about the mission. It wasn't like he wanted her out of the pack, the mission was what was important. He was certain that Ayana would do a good job. At least he hoped she would. Burke was itching to have the test run of his plan. 

"I will howl for your quest soon enough. I will brief it to you before it starts. That is all you need to know," he explained and then have her a nod in greeting. He would have to check on other things now. Nemesis still needed her first training and he would need to check on the caches how empty they were. After that he should probably go down in Mephala's web and pray to Sithis that Meldresi would safely return to him. 

Burke casually walked out of the clearing with the red bushes, vanishing between the shadows even though he was just a charcoal grey in coloring. It almost seemed like a magic trick how Meldresi and him worked with he shadows. Being long enough in Black Feather you just learned to work with them.

I loved this! <3

Ayana breathed in the cold air. She was haf sad, half excited to leave Blackfeather so soon. But she could come back, couldn't she? Burke informed her about the next steps and Ayana nodded. She was so thankful for his training, he really seemed to care about her and the mission and Ayana would surely try her best to succeed. "Thank you, Burke. For everything.", Ayana said and the grey wolf left. Soon he had fully disappeared behind the bushes and blended in with the shadows. Ayana was alone.

She looked around the forest and smiled. This was her home, she could feel it. And when she went on her mission, she would definitely miss the dark woods. Sometimes it was like the trees spoke to her and listened to her thoughts. They accepted her for who she was and they did not care about her past. Here she was herself. Here was her home. And she would do everything for this pack, even if that meant leaving home.

- Ayana exits -