Redhawk Caldera Spring Candy

One morning we found Birk sitting at the lakeside and with a curious expression he was observing the muddy ground. Now and then a contemplative and muffled "hmmm" or "ahaa" would emit from his closed jaws, as if the object of his interest was just as complex as a tricky mathematic equation that had more than one way of reaching a definite answer.

On closer inspection, however, one would find out that this "object" was in fact a living thing - a small amphibian with brownish-green speckled skin and small, bead-like eyes. When Birk had first caught sight of it, the little creature had been digging it's way out of the mud, therefore convincing the man from the North, who had never seen anything like it before, that they - in fact - grew from the Earth. 

By this point, however, the frog had freed itself from the muddy embrace of the ground and was lazily hopping and crawling towards the lake. With mouth agape and tail wagging excitedly, Birk jumped to his feet and took a step backwards, woofing at the tiny thing to see, what would it do next.

Towhee had learned her lesson about leaving the rendezvous site without supervision. She stuck to the rules for several days before the itch to break them grew again. It wasn't that she was trying to disobey, there was simply something calling to her from beyond the clearing's fringes. She pestered each of the adults until one (Raven) agreed to take her on a quick loop around the lake. Although disappointed that they wouldn't be patrolling the borders, Towhee was simply happy to get out and about and happily drifted along at her elder sister's hip as Raven led the way toward the territory's namesake.

On the way there, they bumped into Birk. "Hi Birk!" Raven called to him before giving Towhee a pointed look. "He's not an outsider, Towhee," the caregiver sternly reminded the youth, whose lip had already begun to curl. In no hurry to displease her elders, the pup schooled her expression and coolly eyed the Gamma before a flicker of movement beyond him caught her attention. Her eyes widened at the sight of the frog and she immediately wished @Phox was there to see the neat little amphibian.

Birk was so amused by the little critter, that he play-bowed and with his head resting on the ground he barked at it again. It did not seem to affect the cold-blooded creature in the least. Not a single muscle twitched in it's face and it did not even grace the wolf with a glance. This did not deter the white wolf though - he moved so that he was directly in the frog's way and waited for it's next move. 

A familiar voice called out to him at that moment and he looked up to see Raven and her little, grumpy sibling standing nearby and observing him. "Hey!" he greeted both. "Having a stroll, I see?" he continued, feeling a little awkward about stating such an obvious fact. "And the little one is happy as always to see me," he said and regarded Towhee with a crooked grin.

Sarcasm was pretty much lost on Towhee, so when Birk's mouth movements caught her eye and she read his lips, her face scrunched in confusion. Choosing to ignore his nonsensical statement as a whole, she zeroed in on the unwanted pet name. -I'm a big girl,- she declared insistently. By now, she understood that not everyone could follow her signing, so she did pause to wonder if he'd gotten any of that. One of her teeth dug into her lip as she shot Raven a pensive, somewhat self-conscious glance.

"I," she tried saying out loud, "am a big girl." To Birk, it may have sounded very slow, strange and garbled. Towhee couldn't know. But her sister flashed her a surprised and pleased smile, then nodded and wagged her tail in encouragement. This heartened the pup and she fought against the grin threatening to bloom across her face. She glanced pointedly away from Birk, not wanting him to see it, then took about thirty seconds to school her expression back into cool blankness before turning back to him.

"My name is Towhee," she said slowly, making her name sign as she introduced herself. They'd met before but the pup honestly couldn't remember his name, mostly because she had classed him as an outsider then. But Raven's insistence to the contrary had begun to get through to her. "What is yours?" Hopefully she was pronouncing things well enough that he could understand.

"Geez, sorry for the mistake," Birk replied to the statement and really meant it. Though he had very little experience with children (aside from being one at a certain point of his life), he did know that it was important to treat them as... fellow sentinent beings. And not like aliens.

"Good to know, big girl Towhee," he returned. "My name is Birk," he introduced himself too, speaking a little slowly so that the girl could catch up. Frankly speaking, he had no idea, how fast she could read from lips, therefore he shot a questioning glance at Raven to find out, if that was the right pace or whether he needed to do any adjustments.

The apology came across as sincere, based largely on Birk's expression. She bobbed her head in acknowledgement, then tipped it when he reintroduced himself. It was always more difficult reading a stranger's lips (vs. a family member's) but he spoke slowly and she caught every word.

"Birk," she parroted back to make sure she was pronouncing it correctly. Towhee saw him glance at Raven so she chuffed lightly to draw his attention back to her. They didn't need her older sister to translate. "Your fog is escaping," she added randomly, unaware of her slight mispronunciation as she pointed a black toe at the retreating frog.

Birk had a little "Yayyy!" moment, when Towhee seemed to have got every word he had said and, when he received an answer that was not hostile. Frankly speaking, he would not have cared, if the kid had decided to hate him, but it was always way better, if you knew that somehow you had got through with a tough nut. Even if the achievement could be comparable to peeking through a half-closed door. 

"Oh," Birk spun around to see that, while he had wasted time exchanging pleasantries, the frog on the other hand had put every second into use and was now sitting right in front of the water-line. The white wolf made an advance at it, but the amphibian was quicker - with a jump in got in the water and swam away, moving a lot faster in the water than on the solid ground. 

"Well... there will always be another one," he said to himself and turned to see, what and if the girl had anything to add to the matter.

Birk didn't seem too concerned as the frog neared the water and then promptly vanished. Towhee stared at the widening ripples for a moment, then turned back to her pack mate in case he had anything to say. She'd missed his comment and stared at his motionless face for a moment before inwardly shrugging.

Folding herself into a seated position, Towhee tried not to look too interested as she asked, "Why do you live here?" She didn't know how she knew but she did know that Birk wasn't actually family. With that said, Raven and the others had drilled it into her head that he was a Redhawk. But what made him one?

"Why do I live here, hmm..." Birk sat down and appeared to be deep in thoughts for a moment or two. Initially his reasons to join the pack had been purely selfish - he had needed help to get better. Now he had and it was his turn to repay the debt, which was reason number one. Number two - well, while he was free to leave at any moment, he did not really feel the urge to do so. He had seen plenty of the world at this point in his life and had no desire to make any wanders that would take him too far away from caldera. He liked it here. So... perhaps the right answer was...

"This is my home," he told her plain and simple. "Why do you live here?"

His answer didn't sit well with her, though Towhee couldn't exactly put a finger on why, seeing as it was technically true. She scowled for a moment, though her expression quickly resumed its blankness a beat later. She regarded him thoughtfully, trying to think of something else to ask him when she realized he had asked her a question.

She shot him a look that clearly said, "Duh." But just in case, she replied verbally as well, saying, "I was born here." She paused. She was dead certain he hadn't been born here—it simply didn't add up—but Towhee was still young enough that there was a niggling doubt about the details. "You weren't. Were you?"

Now this was getting interesting... Birk felt amused by the fact that he had managed to confuse Ms Grumpy with his question. Who would have thought that a discussion with a... know he measured her with his gaze to decide, how old the girl was... half-a-yearling could get exciting. 

"How do you know? That you were born here and not somewhere else?" he asked curiously.

He met her question with a question of his own, which momentarily stumped the girl. Furrowing her brow at him, she eventually replied, "Uncle Elwood, Aunt Finley and Raven told me." And the Alphas' word was law; everyone knew that. "They even showed me the den," she continued, blinking off in that general direction for a beat before redirecting her gaze back to Birk. "My mom died when she gave birth to me and my brothers and sisters. And a couple of them died too."

She didn't really know any of the gory details, she just knew that this had been explained to her a handful of times. "Where's your parents and family?" Towhee pressed, unaware that she had shoehorned her own way into an actual conversation with someone outside of her beloved innermost circle.

"People can tell you all kinds of things," Birk replied. "Not all of them are necessarily true." Not that he was doubting the credibility of Finley's, Elwood's and Raven's words. He just wanted to crack that solid wall the kid had built around her, the truths she held very fast to. 

"Sorry to hear that," he said in a little disinterested manner. He had seen plenty of corpses in his life, in order to feel nothing but indifference towards the dead. When life left them, they were nothing but empty shells. 

"Far, far away. I don't need them anymore."

She made no comment when he reminded her that her loved ones might not be telling the truth, though she prickled a little. She didn't even really know why—Towhee was still a little young to directly understand his implication that her aunt, uncle and sister may be liars—but she sensed something bad in his wording. This was the moment when she realized what she was doing and took a sudden step backward as if to remind both of them that they were not friends.

Despite herself, Birk still had his hooks in her with the conversation. "You need us instead?" she asked in what might have been an incredulous tone if Towhee employed such things. Her voice was flat, as always, though there was a shrewd, curious light glimmering in her brassy eyes. Before he could reply, she tacked on another question: "Are they dead?"

Yes and no - was Birk's internal reply to the next question. He had long since recovered from the frostbites and infection - the one true reason he had joined the group in the first place. Now he was keeping his promise to repay his debt to the pack, which had turned out to be easier than he had anticipated. When you liked the people - it was no problem at all. But if asked to be honest - did he need them - he would most likely tell "no". He would be good on his own too. But Raven did not have to know that and Towhee - even less. 

Therefore he smiled and told: "I do." As for the next question... well, he had no way of knowing and frankly speaking: "I don't care."

Her nose scrunched a little at his careless reply. Even though she had never met her parents and didn't remember anything at all about Oriole or Stoat, she didn't not care about them. They were still her loved ones and she always treasured the stories told about them. How could Birk stand there and act like his family simply didn't matter at all? It didn't jive well with the youngster whose family was the center of her life.

"You're weird," she declared baldly. She felt a little defensive about his entire attitude. "They're not around anymore and I don't 'need' them but my parents and brother and sister—they matter." Towhee snorted as if challenging him to refute this.

"I don't deny that I am," Birk said with a crooked grin and looked away from the girl. Time would pass and she would too realize that of all the relations one had, only few were worth keeping around and caring for. In his case - there were hardly any. 

"Good for you," he shrugged, then got to his feet and stretched. "It was nice talking to you," he said politely, "but now I have to go. Prey won't catch itself." With this he went around the two, offered one parting smile at Raven and left. 

ooc: thank you for the thread!

He grinned crookedly her and Towhee just quirked her brow, put off but a little mystified too. He was a strange one, that was for sure. She glanced over at Raven, her expression saying, "See? This is why I don't mingle with outsiders." When she turned to face Birk again, he was announcing his imminent departure and then walking away. Towhee said and did nothing, her eyes following him until he strode from view.

"Come on," her elder sister said to her, "we have a walk to take, remember?" She motioned for Towhee to follow and the youth did, falling into stride at her sibling's hip as they wound around the caldera. She was bothered a little while longer by Birk's strange take on families, though soon she forgot all about him, especially when the medic decided it would be fun to shove Towhee in the water and then make a run for it back to the rendezvous site, the playfully indignant pup hot on her heels.