Hideaway Strath Starfire

It was eleven days now, since the earthquake had happened and an ensuing rockslide had blocked Asterism Grove away from the rest of the hinterlands. Elfie's world was a chaos, but no one seemed to mind him much, what with Towhee being found underneath the rubble, heavily injured, and everyone else being just as clueless about, what was to be done as everyone else. He had lingered in the background, watching these stranger wolves doing something, but he never mustered up the courage to join.

We learn many things about ourselves, when we are put in a different environment, and for Elfie shyness was an unexpected discovery. He did not know, how to approach or talk to strangers that weren't even his age. Left to his own devices he did not know, how to be useful or resourceful. Two weeks inside the pack and he did not even know many rules. Therefore he lived on, what he could find or catch himself, and spent a lot of time thinking about his home at the copse. How vastly different he felt from that bold and fearless boy, who had told his father about leaving.

Towhee dreamed of @Wildfire. Really, it was less like a dream and more like a flashback to their run-in two years prior.

"I'm not going back in that cave. I'm—I need to be in the open," she heard her sister's voice echo, which was incredibly strange, seeing as she couldn't hear.

And instead of saying, "How come?" like she had back then, Towhee found herself trembling from head to foot as she agreed, "Me neither."

She woke with a grunt, blinking in the light of another new, bleak day. The dream lingered in her mind as she pushed herself to her feet, dragging herself a few yards away to relieve herself before going through a series of careful stretches. She was healing, though there was still a long road to full recovery.

Towhee licked her dry lips and suppressed a shudder as she kept turning the dream over in her head. It had been horrible being trapped beneath the onslaught of stones, hurt and practically suffocating. She could certainly relate to her late sister's avoidance of closed spaces, though to this day, Towhee didn't know the reason behind Wildfire's own fears.

She began to walk, slowly. There were no borders to patrol and the black humor of the situation wasn't lost on her. They had never been safer... or more isolated. Being cut off from the world was sort of nice in some small ways, though mostly it was kind of a nightmare. No wild animal likes being trapped.

She would go to the blocked pass today and see if she could climb. She knew it would be precarious at best, a suicide mission at worst. Towhee didn't want to find herself buried alive again. But there was no way to go around it or through it and it didn't make sense to dig underneath it either. The only way was up and over.

As she shuffled in that direction, she found herself crossing paths with none other than Wildfire's son. "Hey," Towhee greeted in her usual gruff manner, not bothering to sign as it made one of her forelegs ache terribly, even though it wasn't broken. She figured it was sprained or maybe she'd pinched a nerve. "Want to come be my spotter?"

Elfie had not expected to see Towhee up and going, when he had been convinced that they had uncovered a wolf barely alive from the rocks. Her weakeness had all to clearly reminded him, what it could mean in terms of life expectancy, therefore he had avoided seeing her as well. He felt he should, but he did not wish to see another person dying. Two were enough for a lifetime. 

But here she was - stiff and bruised and walking funny - but lively. "Hi, Towhee," Elfie greeted her timidly and approached, keeping his tail in a low submissive wag. "What is a spotter?" he asked, glad to be useful, but not too sure, what was required of him.

He looked exactly how she imagined everyone trapped in the grove felt: downtrodden as all hell. Towhee wished she could manage a smile for him, if only to put him at ease, but she just couldn't. Their situation was dire and she couldn't waste her energy on plastered-on smiles.

"I'm going to see if I can climb the rocks at the pass," she explained patiently, "and you'll stay below, at ground level, but watch my back." Even as she said it, something occurred to her and she added, "If you see that I'm in any kind of danger, you get to throw a rock at my head. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Okay, so she was able to manage a smile, albeit a very thin and wry one.

Elfie listened to Towhee's suggestion and his expression changed from interested to a are-you-mad? one. He did not understand the humour about throwing a rock at his aunt, because, how could you possible toss a rock upwards? And what sort of danger could he see from below, if there could be rocks falling from above?

"Maybe I could climb?" he suggested, because - no offence, aunt - but he was in a better shape at the moment.

Her smile vanished quickly as she flatly told him, "No." Before he could argue, she drew in a breath and explained, "You're too young and this is too dangerous." Although Towhee couldn't hear own tone, it brooked no argument.

She turned and resumed her slow, shuffling walk toward the strath's proverbial front door, hoping that Elfie was coming too. Even if he didn't, she was hellbent on trying this climb. It would be dangerous, an undeniable risk, but what choice did she (or any of them) have?

Elfie had expected for Towhee to pull this "I am older and wiser" card on him, but she had turned away and was shuffling towards the blocked pathway before he could voice his argument. "HEY!" he called and, when she did not turn (because he had yet to get used to the fact, what "deaf" meant, and that his aunt could not see his voice, if she was not looking directly at him), caught up with her and got in her way. "You are injured and you will die, if you fall. I think, we are even," he told her.

She felt him catch up and walk beside her and felt heartened by his presence, even if she could practically taste his protest. Towhee could've simply ignored him. Instead, she planted her feet, stopped and looked into his face as he spoke so she would catch every word.

"We're not even, I'm your aunt and your Alpha," she replied bluntly, though her face wasn't as hard as her voice. He knew he hadn't been speaking to equality, yet Towhee would play dirty if it meant keeping him out of harm's way. "You're right: I'm taking a risk. But I'm already hurt. You aren't. You can still hunt, among other things. Your able body is more critical than my broke ass. Understood?"

Elfie furrowed his brow, there was truth in Towhee's words, but that did not necessarily mean it was right. "If alpha wants to do a stupid thing, someone has to prevent them from doing it," he replied to her rock-solid I-am-an-adult-rational arguments. "I have seen two close people die long and painfully this year, spare me the trouble of seeing a death of another one," he added, his expression serious. He was not pleading, he was demanding.

Just as she didn't have the energy to force a false smile for him, Towhee didn't really feel up to posturing either. She did lift her lip and growl lightly in warning. She was his superior and, though he was her nephew and her patience extended accordingly, she still had her limits.

"I'm not going to die, Elfie. Worst case scenario: I break another bone and call it quits. This is where you come in. If you spot me properly, I have nothing to worry about. Them's the breaks, kid, take it or leave it."

"What if something falls on your head from above?" Elfie was still not convinced that, what Towhee was planning to do was as safe as she made it look like. "I can't be up there and see, what's coming," he argued. Even if it was just another broken bone (how could she go so lightly about this - what if that was an important bone? A spine bone????) to her, still he did not wish to have full responsibility of her well-being. "There has to be a another way, aunt," he told her. "You don't have anything to worry about, but I... we... if you fall will have," he added, but he had a feeling that Towhee would not listen anyway.

Still Elfie pressed the matter and Towhee sagged inwardly. She didn't have the time or energy for this, either. Rather than refute her nephew's latest point, Towhee simply shook her head and continued on toward the impasse, remaining closed off and silent.

When they got there, she didn't immediately attempt to climb. Instead, she padded along the foot of the rock pile, feeling suddenly more ill at ease. Her limbs began to shake even as she skulked in the shadow of the blockage. Her chest tightened and she had to stop to catch her breath and try to collect herself.

Finally, she sought out Elfie again. "You win," she nearly gasped. It was more like her trauma had won but she didn't think he'd care about the particulars. "You climb and I'll spot you."

There was no getting better of Towhee. Elfie accepted his defeat and followed her obediently, looking around for any adult figure that might dissuade the leader from pursuing the suicidal mission. No one came to rescue, so the boy sat down and watched his aunt walk along the wall of rocks and other debris, thinking about her next move. The nephew on the other hand, let his gaze travel all the way up to the top of the pile, wondering, how far would Towhee get, before falling to her certain death. 

But, when she addressed him next, there was a complete change in her demeanor. Was she afraid? Elfie tilted his head to the side, listening to, what she told him and searching for signs that might explain her change of heart. "Alright," he nodded, not the least bit afraid, though the probability of breaking his neck was just as high as it was for his aunt. "How does the spotting work exactly?" he wanted to clarify.

If he found her change of heart perplexing, he gave no indication. He readily agreed and Towhee paused to ascertain Elfie, somehow reassured by his cool, confident demeanor. She still misliked the idea of sending her nephew into a dangerous situation and would have strongly preferred to go herself, but that just wasn't in the cards at the moment. And she could easily call for someone else, but who? Towhee couldn't fathom picking anyone else to put at risk either.

He wanted to know how the spotting would work and the Kilonova bobbed her head, happy to explain. "You'll start to climb, very carefully, and I'll watch your back. I'll also keep an eye out for any other dangers, like if I see anything precarious above you or anything like that. It's not ideal..." But what choice did they have, really? They could sit on their tails and wait to die or go stir crazy, or they could take a risk to feel out an escape.

Elfie's next question was, what would Towhee do, if she truly saw something precarious above his head, but he decided that he had burdened his aunt long enough. She might get grumpy and change her mind. Even worse - consider him a weakling. He had ached for a job to do for a whole week and he did not fear risk. 

"Wish me luck," he told her, went past and measured the whole area of the rock-slide, looking for the best area to start climbing. It was steeper and more uneven than he would have wished, but 1000 mile journeys have begun on worse grounds than these. He jumped up on the nearest boulder and without looking down, made his slow and challenging progress upwards.

Watching Elfie ascend turned out to be even more stressful than Towhee had anticipated. She licked her lips nervously, eyes trained on his back, refusing to allow anything to ruffle her focus. Any time Elfie made a misstep or paused or anything, her entire body went rigid with stress.

And then nature threw a wrench into the whole situation. A frigidly cold drop of rain splattered on the bridge of Towhee's muzzle. She'd barely blinked when she shouted, "Elfie! Get down from there, now!" The going was already much too treacherous and the rain would only make it a death trap for the youngster.

So far things had gone unexpectedy well. With every successful step Elfie's self-confidence increased and thus he moved faster and made bolder decisions. One close call came, when making a particularly difficult ascent by a jump, the surface gave way beneath his hind paws just as they had left it. He slammed in the boulder above and began to slid backwards and only by scrambling frantically upwards, did he avoid falling down right away. 

The boy sat down and with his head tilted back, examined the next possible route. He thought he saw the tip of the hill of debris right there (when in fact his perspective was faulty and the intended destination was still far off), but there the conformation of earth and rocks was almost vertical. Thus hindering him from going any further. Just as he was to tell this to his aunt, she called. And for the first time, since taking the job, he looked down.

Instead of telling Towhee playfully, of how very small she was down there, the boy stared in horror on, how long way away the ground was. He froze, then shuffled backwards, until his back was firmly pressed against the wall behind him. "I don't know how, Towhee!" he yelled back, tremble in his voice giving away the fright he had.

He looked down at her and even from far below him, Towhee could see the suddenly stricken look on his face. When he exclaimed that he didn't know how, she ground her teeth together to bite back the impatience, mostly borne out of fear for Elfie. Obviously, neither one of them had anticipated that he might not do well with heights.

"Just," she began, only to find herself at a loss. Her orange eyes combed the rock pile, specifically the area directly below him. "Put your left paw on that rock there," she shouted, pointing her muzzle.

Elfie's heart was thrumming in his ribcage and he began to pant, to get more air, because it began to feel as if walls were closing on him. He closed his eyes, heard Towhee's instructions, but did not see, which rock she had been pointing at. When he finally dared to peek around, he did not see any ready solutions to his situation. All the rocks seemed the same.

Fear is a powerful tool. And though the boy was scared to move, he also realized that he could not possibly stay on his perch forever. No one would come to get him down. It was all in his paws now. Again he thought of Bronco and for a moment saw him standing there next to Towhee and sniggering at his cousin's cowardice. That did not make much easier, but that did give him a little spark of anger to prove the other boy wrong.

He got to his feet, shook his coat, cast a quick glance around, and decided that the more he thought about a route, the more afraid he would get, and therefore did the stupidest thing possible - he leaped. The fall was brief and with a thud he landed on all four feet, tucked beneath him to absorb the shock. The sense of the crush went through his whole body, it did not feel very pleasant, but he had done the otherwise impossible. This was all that mattered.

Towhee could only watch with concern and incredulity as Elfie flung himself down the sheer rock wall like a sack of russet potatoes. She gasped aloud, darting to the patch of ground directly beneath him, not really sure what she planned to do—catch him?

She had miscalculated her nephew's trajectory. He landed, catlike, a few meters beyond her position. Towhee winced, certain all of his legs must have broken, not to mention the rest of his body. Heart thudding in tempo with the increasing rainfall, she went to him, crouching, breathing hard as she muttered his name.

The impact with the ground had made Elfie a little dizzy and his brain needed a little time to reassemble the locomotor system. Surprisingly he had landed so well save for the confusion and unpleasant sense through his body, no bones were broken, no muscles were torn. Therefore he was able to lift himself off the ground carefully, moved each of his four limbs and finished the test run with a good whole-body shake. 

"I am fine," he told Towhee and grinned. Now that the worst was over, he could see humour in the situation. This was a Blackthorn-worthy adventure to tell everybody about.

She gently prodded him, scarcely breathing as she performed her assessment. But Elfie was already rising onto all fours again, none the worse for wear. "I am fine," he insisted. Towhee's brow wrinkled and she took a step back to give him one last once over. Unbelievably, none of his legs were broken and he didn't even appear to have a scratch on him.

Towhee finally let out a ragged breath, shaking her head as she said, "You are some lucky, kiddo." Goddamn, she tacked on in her head, which still shook back and forth. She'd always heard kids were resilient but they were evidently made out of rubber too.

"Come on, let's get out of this before it gets worse," the Kilonova said, sweeping a foreleg to indicate the rainfall. She gave Elfie a nudge, then began loping in the direction of the rendezvous site, all the while trying not to dwell on the failed effort or her nephew's near death experience.

The said nephew had no idea that his desperate and reckless jump had been associated with any danger to his life or well-being. As he ran to catch up with Towhee (she moved surprisingly fast for an injured wolf), all he felt was exhilaration for a stunt well-performed. For a moment there life had regained all the colours and he had been able to forget the dire situation they were in. Sometimes you need to do something unexpected to realize that you can achieve the extraordinary.