Heron Lake Plateau Waking young and feeling old

@Fire

With her health on an upswing and the pack now full of both adults and pups, Niamh took to the borders as she had before, reinforcing it and keeping watch for visitors and strangers, noting the scents of prey that had crossed one way or another and the paths of others, too, who crossed or also patrolled. Any other wolves who came to their borders would surely note that they were well reinforced, and any sane wolf would respect and avoid those boundaries.

But as she’d learned recently, not all wolves were sane.

Still somewhat hardened by the experience, patrolling became a fixation of hers, but she found that being proactive helped her dispell the feeling that something bad would happen again. So in the rising mist of morning she made her way along, stopping here and there to sniff at a scent, or adding one of her own.

There had been a number of wolves she'd been avoiding (namely, all of them) and Niamh had been at the top of the list.  At least for now it had seemed as if everything had blown over, and Ceara wasn't going to be the first one to break the silence.

Except maybe she was?  She patrolled almost religiously and today was no different and it wasn't until she had made herself really obvious that she noticed Niamh.  She skidded to a halt, paused, and blurted out a uh, hey.

When Niamh saw Ceara walking toward her in the distance, she didn't change her route. As far as she could tell, things were cool- the distance between them had been good, since all the stress of hunting Screech down had changed Niamh into a much less patient and understanding creature- until he'd been dealt with. Now that he was out of the way, she didn't see any reason for things to be off, so a small, wry smile flitted across her features when the concentrated she-wolf balked at the sight of the tan one. She bobbed her head in greeting. 

"Hey," She said, feeling appreciative of the fact that Ceara too was being proactive and guarding the borders just as she was. "How grows your garden?" She asked. She'd learned, since, what it was that Ceara had been digging that day- it was the plant equivalent of what Niamh had been trying to do with crabs and magpies. Farming...Though hopefully, Ceara was having more luck with growing plants than Niamh was of keeping prey alive but caged.

Oh, sweet.  So things were cool.  She thought about playing around and asking her if they were just going to pretend everything was fine, but upon second thought that seemed like a very bad idea.  Hey.  It's doing great.  I have a second one started, too.  If you want, I could show you sometime?  It didn't make up for whatever distance had grown between them, but she did hope that it was enough of an olive branch to make things a little less awkward, at least on her end (because we all know Ceara was 1000% oblivious to how Niamh felt).

And hey, maybe they could bond over it.  She'd heard of that really cool thing that Niamh had done with those crabs, and she wondered if maybe one day the pair could get some ducks to imprint on them...

Ceara was clearly doing her best for the pack, while Niamh had been off with Towhee tracking down Screech. She now had two gardens on the go, which was a pretty good plan. Plants didn’t interest Niamh terribly- though she had been mildly intrigued by the whole apple ordeal. But it was still handy for Ceara to be farming herbs for medicinal use.

”Sure,” She said, ”Though I don’t know much about plants. My brother was kind of interested- used to eat random things. Got kinda sick from mushrooms once,” She reflected, with a half smile. ”I wouldn’t recommend growing them.”

She made a bewildered face.  Mushrooms?  Who would ever grow those?  She hadn't heard of them having a medicinal purpose, but some of the boys back in the Foundation had... well... 'sick' was a word for it, she guessed.  Yuck, haha, yeah I don't think mushrooms are anything I'm interested in.  She raised her nose to the air and scented.  You've been busy.  Other than workin' hard, what've you been up to?

It had been more of a joke than anything- but still, she was relieved, a little, to find that Ceara had no interest in dallying with something like that. She recalled how messed up her brother had been- and it had frightened Niamh to see him like that. Had it been a decent experience, she too might have tried them- but given how spooked he'd been, seeing things she couldn't see, she had lost any interest in messing with something she didn't understand. From what she could tell, though, the apples hadn't exactly harmed Screech...And there had been a brief period of time she'd considered finding them- simply to make herself feel differently about how everything had been going. Now on the upswing, only a lingering curiosity remained, rather than a depressed need. 

Ceara seemed to sniff the air around her, and she wondered if perhaps Colt's scent lingered on her pelt...Maybe that was what she was hinting at, and it made Niamh blush. She hadn't even told Towhee about Colt, though she wasn't sure she really wanted to tell her friend, simply due to the tension that had, at one point, existed between them. She shrugged. "Patrolling. I tried to catch some birds, pull their feathers out and keep them in a pit Elwood and I dug, but I ate them yesterday, so that's down to nil again. Going to try and catch some more, though, to maybe help teach the pups to hunt." She said. "I know it sounds weird, but...Eh. I kind of want to have fresh food around. Not that I'm too picky, but it's so much better than something that's been dead and buried for a couple days."

Thus far, she hadn't even noticed Colt's smell on her and even if she had she likely wouldn't have thought much of it — Ceara herself smelled like a lot of other wolves, sometimes strongly, so until someone came straight out and told her they were an item or she saw it herself (or there were any other probably obvious sign) she would remain........ blessedly oblivious.  

Because maybe Ceara really had meant it when she'd called Niamh pretty, but maybe it didn't matter now.  

You know, you're absolutely right.  Although with so many mouths to feed they often didn't have a choice, she always preferred fresh food when she could scrounge it up.  The kids're all somethin', right?  So much personality, and they're as big as my paw.  She rolled her shoulders.  Well, I can help you bring some down if you'd like.

So Ceara was actually pretty nice. And super helpful. And was growing gardens, and apparently also spending time with the pups- when she wasn't also guarding the pack's borders. Niamh should have been more appreciative of someone who took their role as seriously as she did herself- but something inside her twinged when Ceara mentioned the pups- and again when she offered to help. She didn't allow it to show, but something in her mind twitched when Ceara's overly helpful nature began to grind against her own ego and pride. Here she was thinking she was an exemplary member of the pack...When Ceara was clearly doing every single thing she could to be the same. 

They were almost too similar, when it came to work ethic. And Niamh was too immature to make the best of the situation and team up with Ceara. Instead, she felt a competitive streak flare up in her. Still, she had to play nice; god forbid she and Ceara got in another fight. She posed a real threat, now, as she'd clearly made herself 1000% useful to the pack. 

"Eh, sure. Sometime, probably- I mostly want smaller birds, something easier for the pups to handle. Like a robin, or a magpie, or something like that." She said, knowing full well that those small kinda of birds were extremely difficult to catch. Unlike ducks or grouse, they lived mostly in trees, where they were out of reach. She'd lucked out with the fledgeling magpie, and had managed to snatch one of its parents when it'd swooped at her. She didn't want Ceara's help- but she couldn't say it, she had to play nice. But maybe if she gave Ceara a nearly impossible task, it'd slow her down a bit. "If you ever want a hand in your garden, let me know- I usually live in dens, 'cause I like it underground, so I'm a great digger." She offered with a smile.

She wasn't oblivious to the rift between them, although at this point she was still uncertain if it was real or imagined.  Still, Niamh didn't want her help now, she didn't want to go team up and take down some birds, so... Yeah, sure.  Um.  So are you wanting to do somethin' with me, or are we gonna stand around and chat.  Not that I mind that.  I just.. wanna know what the plan is.

She shuffled her feet.  She wanted Ceara to catch songbirds alive?  Something about it felt off, but if Niamh could do it, right?  There had been that time stray had rolled a natural 20 and Ceara had felled two birds in one swoop, but birds of that variety were just so small (and fragile).

She had a feeling something come up- but she was relieved that this second time Ceara asked her what they were going to do, it wasn't spoken with the same spite it had been the last time. Truth be told, she'd been content to talk to Ceara, rather than go hunting- but she also had not finished her patrol. She gestured along the borders. "Wanna cruise a patrol with me?" She asked. "I don't like to quit something once I've started," She said, almost apologetically. Secretly, though, she wanted to keep her bird-caging to herself. 

"Tegan and I caught a coyote trespassing not too long ago...Damn thing crossed over fresh markings too." She said. "Just doesn't seem like life's willing to give us a break," she commented, staring out into the wilderness, as though waiting for another trespasser to appear.

Ugh, she said, nose wrinkled at the thought of a coyote so brazenly risking its life for.. what?  An attempt at the cache?  The children?  Damn straight I'd be willing to patrol.  Can't believe it, sometimes, you know?  The audacity.  She cleared her throat.

I really don't want to bring everything up again, but I'm sorry for how everything went down and I'm ... glad you're willing to put it behind us.  Now she'd gone and made things awkward.

Yeh, so she was a bit of a goody two shoes. Of course she was outraged by the fact a coyote had come into their lands- as far as Niamh could tell, Ceara wanted everybody to like her, and think that she was just the bee's knees. Niamh thought she saw through it all- but instead, she missed the mark entirely. What she didn't realize was that Ceara was just trying to do her job, just like Niamh was. Still, she was able to hide her jealousy and ire- and truth be told, she was surprised when she finally, finally got an apology from Ceara. 

That was all she'd wanted, some time ago- but she hadn't exactly expected it to ever happen. Part of her still disliked Ceara incredibly just because she was so keen and hardworking. But she softened slightly, now that she got her apology. She shook her head. "Nah. I was being a twat." She admitted. "I'm sorry too." She said- and she was sorry. It didn't make her like Ceara much more, but at least they could apologize for being asshats. "That;s just one of a bunch of things I want to forget," she confessed, obviously referencing the entire Screech debacle. She shook her head again. "But whatever. Let's go patrol," She said, not really wanting to go into any more detail about Screech, and began to move along the borders.

She offered a short, tight nod and kept her gaze fixed on her feet afterwards.  She still didn't know exactly what had transpired between Screech and Niamh, and she didn't know exactly how the whole tracking-him-down-and-murdering-him thing happened either... but she figured it would be something Niamh would have to work through, despite never having been through such hardships herself.  

She moved in tandem with Niamh and together they patrolled in silence for a moment.  So uh, we both seem to work pretty hard... is there anything you do to relax?  She knew the garden was what she used to take out her frustrations, but what did Niamh do?

Niamh would have been happy with the silence. She would tolerate the company fine, if she didn't have to answer tonnes of questions, but as it was, she'd obviously be denied that. When she was asked what else she liked to do, Niamh frowned- since she'd joined the pack, she really hadn't continued doing what had normally pleased her- now, it seemed, she had replaced those fruitless hobbies with ones that actually helped the pack out, such as patrolling and hunting. She knew those wouldn't suffice as answers, though, so she rolled a shoulder in thought, loosening the muscle a bit. 

"Uhm...I like swimming," She confessed. On the hottest days, she'd almost always go for a swim, sometimes both before and after a patrol. "There's a willow tree, near the lake, that has a wide, almost horizontal bough," She said, "An' it's only like...Three feet off the ground. So I sometimes just go for a swim, then jump up there and lay down to dry." She admitted. Fiadh had found her there once- and had given her some sour amount of scrutiny for being up in a tree- but she didn't exactly care what Fiadh had thought about her. "You?" She asked, figuring it was only polite to return the question.

Though Niamh and Ceara had plenty to talk about, the tension was still more or less palpable between the two. Conversation was mostly a polite back-and-forth, without much real socialization, until eventually they would part and go their separate ways.