Big Salmon Lake it seems to me

He smiled softly at Wraen, his tail wagging a beat or two. He could ever so briefly forget about his predicament. Eljay thought it scary to meet new wolves, but at least the one he had met so far was nice, and turned out to be some sort of family. He supposed that they were probably cousins, considering Uncle P was uncle of both of them.

Her question pulled him from his safe zone back into the fray, though. He frowned and said, "I dunno..." Glancing towards the east he sighed. "Probably somewhere there." He wasn't even sure why, but at least there were more flatlands there, and Eljay didn't feel safe going up a mountain.

"That seems to be as good direction as any," Wraen agreed, casting her eyes over the vast plains Eljay had beckoned to. For a moment she considered offering her companionship in the young man's journey, but she held back. A day or two ago she had caught a whiff of saltwater, which - according to her mother's instructions - meant that there was an ocean nearby. That was something she had to see and therefore her path would lead North. 

"What was your trade in your old pack?" she asked, curious about the trades and talents her relative might possess.

Eljay nodded slowly, not really sure if it was as good a direction as any... But it was a direction, at least. She asked for his trades and Eljay shared, "I'm mostly a pupsitter. And, uhm, I know a few things about being a — a wolf that helps deliver pups. I sort of helped mommy through one of her pregnancies and Raven helped me gather herbs that help with all that sort of stuff, too." He wasn't sure why he told her in detail about that other interest of his. Maybe it was weird he was so interested, he thought.

"I'm also a hunter, but I'm not super good at that." He sighed softly; it would've been a nice skill to have, out here in the wilds.

"Wow - that is truly impressing," Wraen, who aside from being a puppy-sitter for her younger siblings for a short period of time, knew next to nothing about aiding an expecting mother through pregnancy and birth. Osprey had seemed to fare quite well on her own and had hardly ever complained. Maybe at the end, when the collective weight of the little buggers had been a little too much for her to bear. 

"I looked after my younger sisters and brother too - I think it is one of the best jobs in the world," she shared her thoughts. "And regarding hunting - it is more about practice than a talent. One can't excel in all disciplines of life, but can be fairly good at many. So - if you have survived this far - you will get there."

"Oh, it's — not really, I mean, Raven's a lot better at it. I hope I'll be able to learn more from other wolves I meet." He collected from Wraen's reply that she didn't know much about it, but then, he hadn't expected her to. His interests were pretty weird for a young wolf, he thought, looking at other wolves around him.

Eljay pulled a bit of a face when Wraen said that he must be good enough at hunting because he had survived so far. "Well, I've been in a pack so far..." he murmured. It was, in his view, the only reason he had survived so far. On his own, he wasn't too sure how he'd do. He'd just have to, well, try.

"Hey, don't be harsh on yourself," Wraen winked and bumped her hip lightly against his, though she had a feeling that no matter the encouragements Eljay was prone to thinking lowly of himself and his skills. Lack of self-confidence was a terrible thing, especially, when a person had a lot more to him. 

"Can you tell more about Peregrine and my/your cousins? I have never met any of them, but my mom told me that there are plenty."

Eljay smiled awkwardly at Wraen, not feeling like he was being hard on himself all that much, but he didn't say any more about it. Insatead he just said with a dreamy sigh, "Some day I hope I'll be really good at making puppies..." Then realising how he said it Eljay became flustered and tried to recover what he could. "I mean, helping make them — I mean, you know, helping uhm, putting them on the world — you know what I mean..." He felt his cheeks burning and it was evident he was feeling embarrassed, despite his quite positive company.

Quickly latching onto the subject of her cousins, Eljay quickly began, "Oh, uhm, yeah, there's loads. Which ones do you want to hear about? There's a bunch this year, uhm, and many in previous years too. There's Nightjar, and Wiffle — I mean, Wildfire. Wildfire's her real name — and Raven, they're a bit older than me. And then there's Peter, uhm..." He stopped for a moment while he thought of Peter and found himself confused what'd happened to the boy. He was gone but it didn't feel like he was the kind of wolf who'd just leave. Recollecting himself Eljay went on, "And Whip, and Gannet, and uh, Ferret, they're a bit younger than me." Eljay took a breath, getting ready to continue naming relatives if she wouldn't interupt.

ooc: I think that these two complete each other very nicely. :) There is a potential for a great friendship.

When Eljay admitted that one day he would like to make puppies, Wraen's curious and interested expression turned into one of surprise. For a moment there she thought that this was some sort of vague and awkward marriage proposal, until the young man explained, what he had meant by it. All blushing and embarrassed and such. She chuckled and felt relieved. "I get, what you mean," she replied and was happy for the change in the subject. 

"I understand that he has been one busy, busy uncle," Wrean said. Osprey had met two - the first litter, and then around the time the second had been born, she had been unable to visit. "Start with the older ones, perhaps?"

agreed! ^_^

Eljay blinked when Wraen asked for him to start with the oldest ones, as he thought he'd mentioned all of them already. At first he was blinking and looking confused, but then it was as though a light bulb had popped up above his head and he started to smile, realising that she meant maybe he should tell something about them and start slower.

"Okay, uh, the ones oldest are Nightjar, Wildfire and Raven." Eljay forgot to mention the oldest-oldest ones; he didn't even know, or if he'd ever been told didn't remember, about the ones before Redhawk Caldera. "Nightjar's, uhm, he's very honest, and... pretty strong, and uh, I dunno, he's pretty good at a lot of things." He smiled somewhat awkwardly, thinking back to all the times that Nightjar'd called him a loser, nerd or dweeb. "Wildfire's super sweet and nice, she was my puppysitter when I was little. But she lives in, uh... another pack, far away." He had no idea where. "And Raven's really nice too — she's really good with herbs and stuff! And she loves to teach others. Raven's probably..." He paused a moment, as if he was mentally ticking off that he wasn't hurting anyone with saying this; "... The nicest person ever that I know."

"It sounds like I could get along with Raven," Wraen said, after she had memorized all of the names and vague descriptions. It was very unlikely that she would ever run into any of them, but you never knew. "And that Nightjar guy sounds a bit like my sister Sarah. She is a superb hunter, very intelligent and a true leader material," she did not envy her sibling for her skills, but wished that they could have got along better, while there had still been a chance to mend things. 

"So - what about Whip, Gannet, Ferret and... Peter?" she asked, thinking that the last name was sort of an odd one out. It was neither a bird, nor a mammal. "What are they like?"

Eljay smiled as Wraen seemed to relate to her own experience whether she'd get along with her cousins. He wondered if Sarah would think of him as a nerd or a dweeb or a loser too, like Nightjar did, but Eljay decided to pay it little mind for now. It wasn't like he'd likely ever meet Sarah, anyway.

Wraen quickly went on to ask him about the rest of the lot and he looked thoughtful as he thought of Peter. It was hard for him to remember what had happened, his death still shrouded in fog and to Eljay it seemed like he must have left at some point, but why and when..? He didn't seem the type to leave. Well, anyway; "Whip and Gannet are boys, they're really nice and thoughtful," he said, speaking from what he could remember. Whip had been gone so long he remembered little about the boy, only that he had loved spending time with him when they were tiny. "And Ferret, uhm... He was always really aggressive and one time he attacked Uncle P, so he was cast from the pack." Eljay frowned, feeling sad that it had had to come to that. He'd always felt he must've failed somehow as a puppysitter.

"Peter is..." He frowned again, feeling confused and like he didn't want to talk about it. "... Really sweet and caring." He looked like he didn't remember it very well or like something was wrong, but Eljay couldn't remember what had happened with Peter and why he wasn't there. He found his mind trying to trick him into thinking Peter was safe and sound in the Caldera even now, but he knew that wasn't the case because he hadn't seen Peter in forever.

"They all sound great," Wraen commented after Eljay was done telling her who was who in her uncle's branch of the family. "Except for Ferret, but it is probably good that he was cast out," she had got in brawls with her siblings during childhood, but none of the ever had been violent or caused serious injury to any of them. "There is a black sheep in every family, I guess."

While talking they had arrived to the edge of the forest and Wraen stopped to sniff the air first and then put her nose to the ground, in order to get an idea, what could this place offer to them. "Nothing yet," she said after a while. "I sugest that we head deeper in the forest."

ooc: maybe you can fade out in your next post and we can have a new thread, if Eljay happens to be in the vicinity of Moonspear?

Eljay's ears perked forward as Wraen stopped to sniff the air. He'd totally forgotten they were looking for food and nodded, then followed her with a sheepish smile while he went back into full hunting mode, trying to find a trail they could hunt.