Blackfeather Woods We're listenin to "Fast Car"

A crow winged past overhead, drawing Anansi's attention up into the trees. They were startling creatures; when he was newly acquainted with the woods, their sudden appearances would frighten him. Now he was used to them and saw them as messengers of the daedra. Where a crow went, you could be sure to find something interesting.

Adjusting the opalescent stone in his mouth with a deft flick of his tongue, the boy broke into a trot and weaved through the woods, eyes on the trees. By now he was familiar with his home and surefooted enough that he could trust his body to carry him without worrying about a misstep. Alas, no amount of self-assurance could lend wings to Anansi's paws; the crow quickly outpaced him and disappeared into the canopy, leaving the pup faltering in its wake.

The dark dots above his eyes drew down in frustration, but then shot up as he caught sight of something promising: a glossy black feather drifting slowly down to the ground. He hastened to it and began trying to pick it up, all without letting go of his precious stone, a gift from ena that he held dear and was loathe to put down anywhere but Wolfskull.

Rowan was spending time, calling the crows to him.
Well, he was making his own sounds and they were attracted to the food, not him. Yet. He associated his Mother's words of feeding for food, so he was merely applying the concept. By making the soft chirping noise, they would understand it was him and he wanted them here and he'd take them to food.

He recognised their alarm call and lifted his head as the sentinal called out, causing some to fly up. He didn't know if the ones who stayed to feed on the regurgitated food were stupid or brave.
Even so, he should be wary. What if it were the beastie? He stood, defiant by the murder, searching for the danger.
There, a glimpse. Not big enough to be the silvered one, but he wondered if it were the rude girl. If so, she could suck it because she'd see his crows here. Maybe they'd even come if he called them.

"Who's there!?" He called out, staring at the glimpses of paleness through the trees. 

The feather eluded Anansi's grasp, much to the boy's frustration. He continued attempting to scoop it up with his bottom lip, one ear swiveling as a voice called out who's there? No one important, he thought. That voice didn't belong to ena or Sobek or Sakhmet, so whoever it was could wait a few minutes for an answer. They could wait forever, though Anansi, but he wasn't one to be so rude.

He gave up on the feather when it caused him to sneeze and his stone nearly rocketed out of his muzzle. Too close. He would rather forego a hundred crow feathers than lose his precious moonstone. Rolling the wet rock out of his mouth, Anansi gloved it carefully with one of his oversized paws, then squinted through the trees until he caught a glimpse of tawny through the trees. Not any of the Melonii children.

No one, Anansi called back.

The figure danced and Rowan couldn't exactly see what he was doing. Probably trying to catch something which made him move closer, wanting to see what it was.
He watched the boy put something in his paw, suspicion arising more as to who this kid was.
Ah, he was at Maegi's talk. He kept really close to her; and gave him a dirty look when he gave one to Scylla. Related, perhaps.

"Obviously someone." He quipped, prowling around the pale boy.
"What's in yer paw?" His brows furrowed as he tried to see what he had. He wouldn't take it, probably. He found his own cool things.

[b]No one,[/q] Anansi repeated. Someone can be no one. Anansi thought so, anyway, but didn't have the words or vocabulary to explain it to Rowan. One simply had to have no personality of their own in order to be no one, which was more difficult than it sounded. But he didn't know how to explain it, not in words that he knew or words he could say without stumbling over his youthful tongue, so he simply reiterated and hoped the tawny boy would take his word for it.

When the boy asked what was in his paw, Anansi flexed his toes conspicuously against the stone beneath them and said, nothing. Since it was a gift from ena, he wasn't willing to share it. Perhaps he would show it if Rowan warmed him up to the notion, but for the moment, he didn't know the other boy and didn't want to risk losing his precious stone.

He thought about the boy's deduction for a bit. He supposed he could be right, but surely everything was something. Everyone had a name of some sort, right? 
He watched the other for a few moments before tentatively nodding in agreement.

Rowan didn't believe him, he was hiding something. But he didn't care enough to find out. The others here were always mean and Hela threw him into a ravine for gods sake, he wasn't about to get too curious about the boy's secret.
He shifted nervously before sitting down, unsure on what to do.

Ah, the habitual awkwardness of two youths with nothing much to say to one another. Anansi often remained silent, practicing words and phrases only when he was alone so that he would sound more fluent when speaking with others, so when Rowan fell silent, he did, too. He shuffled the paw that wasn't carefully concealing his stone over the leaf litter, fidgeting uncomfortably, and snuck a peek at the other cub. When Rowan sat, Anansi did, too.

After what was likely a painfully long silence, provided Rowan didn't break it himself, Anansi made his first attempt at conversing with someone that wasn't ena or his siblings. He posed a question, knowing at least that this was how conversation began. He picked a question that seemed interesting to him, something he thought they might have in common, though it would probably sound very silly to anyone who wasn't a very young wolf pup like Anansi: d'you eat stuff?

He was about to mosey off again when the boy spoke. He didn't notice he'd revealed the stone a bit. It wasn't like he stared like some creep at him.
Though he was aware he was being copied. 

His gaze switched back to the boy and nodded with a grin.
"Yeah, I like rabbits." He liked chewing on their paws. They were tough but then they cracked and tasted good. 
"What 'bout you?"

Why, exactly, was Anansi taking the time to try to engage with Rowan when he so often remained silent with others? His private opinion of the greater-than and lesser-than dynamics of the Melonii versus non-Melonii cubs was at war with his child's need to naturally seek companionship in others. The other Melonii pups were foolhardy and rough, so why not Rowan, who seemed a little more refined despite no blood-born greatness? None of this showed on his face, for it wasn't quite disdain that guided his opinions, just simple matter-of-fact. If anything, he appeared to be truly interested in the other cub.

I dunno, he replied, carefully selecting only words he was confident he could say with clarity. It wouldn't do to stumble over his tongue and make an idiot of himself. That was something he did in private, speaking quietly to himself or his siblings in the shadows of Wolfskull until he could say the words flawlessly. Ena brings wet food to us. Did it come from rabbit, or deer, or mouse? Anansi was too young still to tell the difference. He hadn't tasted the flesh of animals in its true form, only the regurgitated mess that came after an adult had consumed it. What's rabbit like?

So Maegi still fed him. Anansi was younger so it sorta made sense.
He smiled though, remembering what Moonshadow does for him. To keep him safe and happy in the woods.

The other asked what rabbit was like, so Rowan obliged.
"Kinda soft and like the opposite of dirt." He didn't know how else to describe it but seemed good enough. Like the anti-dirt. "When you eat real food it's easy to eat rabbit." Probably why Rowan liked it. It didn't time too much time or effort to consume.

His ear flicked, feeling inappropriate as he'd not introduced himself. It was only polite as Moonshadow had taught him.
"I'm Rowan."
Maybe his confession would tease one from the pale boy.

Anansi couldn't say whether or not he understood what the anti-dirt was, but it sounded good to him. Soft and easy to eat. That was true of all the food ena brought them currently, but from the sounds of it, that would change one day. He'd have to keep rabbit in mind. Working too hard to eat his food didn't appeal to him.

I'm Anansi, he replied. That was pretty much the end of his conversational skills. The ashen boy shuffled his feet on the ground and glanced around, and that was when he noticed the crows lurking nearby, feeding on something. He tilted his head, large ears flopping comically, and fixed one of the larger crows with a curious eye. They were just hanging around despite the two wolves milling nearby, young though both he and Rowan may be. Very unlike the other crows he'd seen.

How do you do that? he wondered, straightening his head to refocus his gaze on Rowan.

Anansi. Rowan thought it a strange name, but surely the world would be too dull if there wasn't some strangeness within it. He smiled softly, storing away the name and the face and wondered if he could then excuse himself for his birds now he knew he wouldn't get attacked.

But he was surprised when interest was taken to his birds. 
He looked to them, watching them watching him. 
He looked back to Anansi, grinning. "I feed 'em and they come to me." 
He stood, tilting his head to invite the boy to come with him to take a closer look. 

I feed 'em and they come to me, said Rowan, while Anansi watched the crows closely. It was the first he had ever heard of manipulation, though he wouldn't know it by that name for some time to come. Earn the trust of another—in this case, another creature—by offering something they liked. In return, they might do something for you. For Rowan, the crows might serve as scouts or sentinels or whatever other designs the older pup had for them.

Anansi tucked this concept safely away into his mind for later consideration.

Cool, said Anansi, returning his attention to Rowan as the other beckoned him closer. He fell into step with the Fledgling. Do they like rabbit? he asked. Anansi didn't have any plans to try to befriend the crows, himself, but it was useful information to have if ever he needed to get a crow's attention.