Blacktail Deer Plateau out of my mind

Dawn found that listening to Pema did help, and her talk with her father had eased her reluctance to rest. Her dislocated toes had healed rapidly, and she found that walking was an activity she could now complete with very little discomfort. Of course, one toe, bruised and battered looking, was a little worse of than the others, and too much movement would have it burn uncomfortably. She observed it now, dangling her paw in the stream before her to numb the burning, then examining it closely. Pema had been a great help, and her mind turned to ways to thank her when her injuries no longer hindered her. 

Allowing her paw to dangle in the stream before her, Dawn stretched out on her stomach and experimented with a few deep breaths. The ache was still there, of course, but faded; however, the odd breath would send a jolt of pain down her rib cage. She shifted, sighing, scenting half a dozen prey-scents and of half a mind to abandon her father's and Pema's advice and see just how well she could hold up.

craving a drink from the clear stream, aditya began to shuffle that way when he noticed a familiar presence at its bank. smiling, he broke into a slow trot--the action pained him a little, but it got better day by day--and settled down near dawn with a low chuff of greeting. she had one paw submerged in the water and was stretched out on her belly, breathing slowly.

"are you feeling okay?" he asked her, giving her a friendly look. she looked a little worse for wear, more battered than the time they had first met, and he wondered what had happened to knock the warrior princess down.

he poked his nose into the water and began to lap up water. it was clear and cold, and he was careful not to take in too much of the icy stuff too quickly, lest he get an ache in his stomach. after taking a few mouthfuls, he licked his lips and fell silent waiting for her response.

Her gaze flitted towards the footfalls that reached her roving ears, and she quickly recognized the form of Aditya. A grin sparks to her muzzle, and she is glad to see the male to an extent that confuses her. His question is met with a rueful grin, and she says lightly, "Turns out you're a trendsetter, with your whole falling off cliffs business." She said by way of an answer, brow furrowing a moment later. "Well, technically, I didn't quite fall, but jumped. And it was more of a steep incline than a cliff, really." She elaborated, exclaiming afterwards with an impish grin "I did score a rabbit, though." It had been a tasty rabbit; she had insisted on at least trying it after she had gone through all that trouble for it. Mangled, and a little filthy, but truly quite tasty.

though he winced through her story, he gave a bark of delighted praise at its conclusion. "a-ha! so it was worth it, in the end. . .sort of." aditya gave her a goofy grin and rolled onto his back, looking up at the sky, which was a cloudless pale autumn blue.

he began to softly hum an old tune he had learned from a man who claimed to be his uncle. as he spoke the same language as his mother had, aditya had taken him at face value, but you never did know. could have just as well been his father, or one of his mother's old lovers. he had largely forgotten the man, but remembered the song, one of many vishal had taught him.

"main shayar to nahin,
magar ae haseen,
jab se dekha maine tujhko
mujhko shayari ho gayi. . ."

it was a gentle waltz, and his quiet tenor carried gently across the stream, borne on the soft afternoon breeze. he had so often found himself alone with just his thoughts and voice, and ended up singing his way through his travels up and down the coast.

he rolled onto his side, regarding dawn curiously. as young as she was--grayday couldn't have been more than a year or so older than himself--she carried herself well, like a seasoned adult. and she had been happy to see him approach, which was really more than half the early battle.

"sorry," he apologized for his warbling, which had come without his consciously willing it. "i've spent a lot of my life alone. i'm not used to having friends around all the time to see all my craziness in action."

She rolled onto her side, swirling her numb paw through the water and watching the interplay of light and shadow and movement, remarking fondly, "It was a delicious rabbit" Her gaze flitted back to Aditya as he rolled onto his back, moments later a vibrant tenor falling from her muzzle. She rolled back onto her stomach, ears pricked and gaze interested.

Singing was a rarity, she had rarely used song except in her howls, certainly never sang like this. The words were foreign, and she was quickly reminded of the language that he had let slip when he had first joined. She was silent, entranced, and a beat after he finished, she murmured "That was beautiful." Louder, muzzle canting to the side, she questioned, "that language; what is it?" 

At his words, she chuffed in amusement. "That was hardly crazy. It was...well, I don't know, really. I've not heard anything like it before."  She admitted. She had quite heard anything like it, but she would not label it crazy. She understood what he meant, however, after a particularly long journey from home, it felt certainly alien to be among the pack again.

sorry for the crappy post x( feeling meh with writing today but wanted to respond

feeling sheepish, he replied, "you know, i don't know what it's called. it was my mother's tongue, the one i grew up with for the first few months of my life. my uncle taught me the song." he laughed. "i didn't know it was a foreign language until i was out on my own and realized that everyone else was speaking a different language, your language."

aditya smiled at dawn. "so you're grayday's daughter. does this mean you'll get to boss me around whenever you take over from him?"

she had beautiful eyes, bronze and gold. they were very direct, as well. he found himself mesmerized as he stared back at her.

She listened attentively, a single lobe canted towards him. She had begun to enjoy meeting new packmates; and had come to term with the fact that the majority of the ranks were fluid, giving to coming and going. Still, she enjoyed meeting them now, and especially one as interesting and good-looking as Aditya. "your name; does it have a meaning in your mother's tongue?" she wondered, curious. Dawn merely meant what it daybreak, and was curious is Aditya had any significance. 

His next words brought a smile to her muzzle, along with an odd twang of emotion she kept well hidden. She had never considered that she might take over from her father one day; she hoped that that day would be a long ways away. She had hoped to lead alongside him, but to take his place seemed different. Nevertheless, she continued without pause, furrowing her brows in mock conceitedness. "well, of course. I'll need someone to catch my meals for me, won't I?" she couldn't hold out the charade for long before a grin ruined it, and she admitted, " It'll be a long time before that ever happens; I've still got a lot to learn." Her gaze flickered to his, catching his burnished gold gaze as he stared at her own. She paused a second, faltering, to find him looking back at her, suddenly floundering. Her gaze shifted to the stream again and tried to shake off how awkwardness had struck her quite suddenly.

he smiled. "aditya. she once told me that it was another name for the sun." frowning slightly, he added, so as to illustrate further, "the sun personified. like a god, of sorts." he broke into a grin again. "but you don't have to bow down to me or anything like that. actually, both our names have to do with the sun. that's interesting!"

aditya saw her rip her gaze away from his, seemingly in embarrassment. he resisted the urge to cringe at his own forward behavior. he knew well he could be a bit. . .well, intense. and he sought to remedy that. his mother had been dramatic, though, and the friends he had made had given him a flair for intensity and theatre.

"you're doing well already, though we've got to get you healed up first," he replied, nodding at her paw. "then you can lead us into any hunt or battle you set your mind to. you know i'll follow you down the path of glory." he stirred the surface of the water with one of his own paws, enjoying the way it swirled out in little ripples growing calmer as they retreated. it was a very clear stream; you could see down to the bottom, the small gray rocks and tiny fish flitting about.

"usha," he said suddenly, looking back up at her. "that's your name in my tongue. maybe that's what i'll call you, for fun. though i think your given name is even prettier," he added, giving her a sweet look.

As he explained the meaning of his name, the girl canted her muzzle thoughtfully. "it suits you, I think. not that it hurt my eyes to look at you, or anything. the opposite, actually." Her brow furrowed, unsure of the sentence that she had just formed, and decided to move on rapidly. "My brother's called Sunny, too; I guess my mother had a theme going."  She had moved past any emotional reaction to her mother's name rather quickly; she supposed that had something to do with her mother up and leaving so early in her life. She didn't even remember the woman, honestly, except for a hint of a scent and a looming shadow. 

Dawn offered him a smile, glad at his faith in her.  "glory might take a while. i'll go for the path of being a little less hungry, for now." She smiled, giving a little shake of her shoulders, reminiscent of her puppy days when excitement had her quivering with joy. It was some other emotion that had this effect, but she couldn't put a name too it. His sudden word startled her out of her thoughts, and Dawn canted a lobe towards him. " usha. I like it" Her words were true, she liked the flow of the word on her tongue, the strangeness of it. "I've always thought it was pretty - well, ordinary."  She fumbled, not sure how to respond to the compliment.

his golden eyes creased into slits with his smile at her words. not that it hurts my eyes to look at you. well, and if it truly were the opposite, then he welcomed her looking at him for as long as she pleased. forever could suffice.

she mentioned her mother, her face impassive. adi had noticed the lack of a matriarch, a female counterpart to grayday. he wondered briefly where she had gone. it was not a question he would bring up to dawn, though. he knew well the wounds left behind from mothers who chose to vanish. but still. . .he wondered.

"ordinary, yes. quite simple. but the simple, ordinary things are usually the most beautiful," he pointed out, giving her a kind look. he pointed his nose toward the horizon. "we've all seen sunrises, right? they're gorgeous. all those colors. and they're profound--a rebirth. every day."

he canted his head to one side, gazing directly at her. seized by a sudden impulse, he asked, "what do you want from life?" in case this short query was too intense by itself, adi added, "i mean, you're being groomed to lead. that's quite clear. but what do you want? who do you want to be?"

She took the words more or less at face value, but there was a feeling in her gut that they may be more than that. She pointedly ignored this feeling, as she felt it may make things a great deal more complicated.  "a little ironic, seeing as I'm grey." Her smile, however, expressed her gladness. Even though she considered beauty low on the list of her priorities, comments about it hardly hurt, especially coming from Aditya. And yet this thought stirred the feeling in her gut, and she banished it temporarily until she could reflect a little more on what, exactly, it meant. 

Aditya's next question surprised her, and she took it seriously, brow furrowing in thought. "I- never thought of it bluntly, like that. But I- I've wanted to lead since I was young. I want to be someone to count on, someone who'd never leave." The latter was inspired by first her mother's disappearance, and then later Khoe's. She had seen what that had done to her father, to her siblings, and promised never to do the same. Her gaze found Aditya's, and it's hawkishness had softened."My mother did that, up and left. And after her, Khoe. I'll never be like them." Her words became a little hard near the end, though she lapsed into thoughtfulness once more.
 "Sometimes, though, I don't know what I really want besides that. Is it okay, do you think? Not to know just yet?"  Motherhood was one of the things that she had thought of, and one of the things that largely repelled her. Her father wanted a family, that much was obvious, but look how fractured and splintered her's had become.

he felt a pang at her tale. he had noticed the absence of a matriarch in the morningside pack, but had said nothing of it, presuming grayday's mate--or mates, in this instance--was simply dead. to have left was unforgivable.

"i. . .i'm sorry, dawn," he responded, for once at a momentary loss for words. "no mother should leave their children." he paused for a moment, not knowing if he should continue. to open up old wounds was never a good idea, but he thought he must, in this scenario.

"my mother left me, too," aditya said, eyes closing in remembrance of that warm spring morning, the air heavy with the songs of birds and buzzing of insects. "i woke up one day and she was missing from the den. i never saw her again. if she was dead. . .i never found her body." he opened his eyes, looking at dawn. "i was weaned, old enough to care for myself. but that didn't make it any less painful."

and dawn, too, spoke of the uncertainty that had plagued him for so long. to not know your identity, your exact role, in the world was not a crime--far from it--but it was something to be bothered by. nevertheless, he pressed his muzzle against her shoulder in sympathy.

"dawn, i am older than you by more than a few seasons, and i still don't know what i want," he murmured, grinning against her pelt. he pulled back and gave her a kind look. "you know that you want to be a leader, someone to depend upon. that, i think, is enough."

He confided in her that his mother, too, had left, and she sighed. Was it those of her gender, or was it mothers who always seemed to leave? Would the simple promise to never do as they had, keep her rooted, or was there something about being a mother that seemed to lead them all astray? She lowered her head to her paws, though the look she offered him was one of understanding. She didn't need to say anything, for it was obvious she knew what he felt. 

His reassuring touch was not one she shrugged off, but rather returned with a light touch to his shoulder. Normally the girl would have rejected the sympathy, but with Aditya she felt the same amount of trust she did with her father and now too, her siblings, that trust which allowed her to speak openly and act freely. She smiled thoughtfully at his last words, content now to sit in silence and enjoy the last vestiges of the moment shared, before hauling herself back up and getting back to the rendezvous before her father threw a fit.