Whitebark Stream cold winter air

AW but aimed @Kora

Daylily had settled into Whitebark Stream over the last few days and was happy that she had found Dawn so quickly after wandering into Teekon. Her previous concerns over whether she’d be good enough for this developing pack were thrust from her mind as she wandered the territory, occasionally refreshing the borders or trying to dig small mammals out of their hibernation holes to be added to the caches. She breathed the cold winter air and wagged her tail excitedly at the prospect of seeing what this place looked like in the spring. For now, she would enjoy the snow and the raw beauty of the bare trees, the way the sun glinted off the frozen stream. Even with the Lord and Lady asleep, the earth was beautiful. The sun, while not hot enough to chase away the winter’s chill, still shone brightly; and the earth, even covered in white as it was, still brought a smile to Day’s face.

Foredating this to... let's say 1/22?

 

Kora had just recently arrived at the place she now called home. She'd been working on settling in and getting herself accompanied to the land when she saw what she assumed was a packmate. Running her lavender gaze over the thin wolf before deciding to approach. Announcing herself to the wolf she let out a simple greeting, "Kia ora!" she called. Kora wondered if she spoke her native tongue. In case though, "Hello!" she corrected as she got closer. 

When she had finally hobbled close enough, Kora dipped her head in respect and looked into the woman's orange stare. Kora wasn't necessarily the extrovert it sometimes seemed, she just wanted to start on the right foot with all her packmates. "My name is Kora. I am new to the pack." the lady stated; informative. "Who are you?" she inquired with a grin, keeping her friendly aura.

’Kia ora!’ called a voice.

Scrunching her eyebrows, Daylily turned in the direction of the strange words and saw a female wolf coming toward her. “I—I’m sorry?” she asked.

’Hello!’ said the woman.

“Oh!” Day replied, feeling relieved. Her tail wagged behind her. She smiled as the woman introduced herself, sitting down to get comfortable in case this ended up being a long conversation. “I am Daylily of Oakstead,” she said, once the woman was done saying her piece. “I am also new to Whitebark Stream, although not as new as you.” She giggled, but then her ears fell back along her skull in embarrassment. To try and make herself feel better, she pushed ahead with the conversation. “Did Dawn invite you here?”

Kora watched as the woman sat down, Kora followed in suit. Even with her awkward sitting situation, Kora managed to listen to the woman's introduction. Daylily. That was a beautiful name! She watched the woman as they both began to laugh at her remark but soon the woman looked nervous or embarrassed about something.

But then, without missing but a beat, the girl continued her conversation. So, Kora shook off the girl's reaction, obviously she wanted to try and move on. "Yes. Dawn was out hunting when I met her." the lady said, think back to just two days before. "And now I am here," she added. Though the information was quite self-explanatory, she was right in front of the girl, but Kora shook that off too. Attempting to make the conversation less awkward she asked a question of her own "I haven't heard of Oakstead before. Where is it?"

Day nodded as Kora explained how she had met Dawn. It seemed their leader was busy trying to fill the caches herself. It was good to know that the leader of Whitebark Stream was not idle.

Kora wanted to know of Oakstead. Daylily smiled delightedly, happy to talk about the home of her birth. “Oakstead lies far north of here in a land called Alaska. It has existed for many generations, long before I was ever born. Oakstead is a sanctuary pack; anyone is welcome so long as they are kind and willing to work hard. We have many traditions there, and some choose to follow the eight holy days in the Wheel of the Year.” Aware that she was rambling, she cut herself short. “But—not everyone wants to hear of such things. Where did you come from, before you came here?”

Kora was happy to see the woman didn't get upset about her question, but instead extremely excited. Smiling and nodding, the lady listened to Daylily's story. She seemed to stop herself abruptly and doubt Kora's interest but since she didn't mind Kora decided to comment. "I found it really interesting actually!" she said with a smile. 

"I came from an island called Aitutaki. The first thing I said to you... "Kia ora" is 'hello' in my native language. The island, Aitutaki, is beautiful and is full of luscious land and warm beaches. The pack I was born into was very welcoming to any newcomers such as my parents. We weren't technically a sanctuary but we tried to help where we could." the lady explained. Her grin still beaming on her muzzle when she finished her 'story'. 

Daylily was enraptured by Kora’s description of her island home. Oakstead had been a big forest with a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees, far away from the ocean. The idea of living on an island was fascinating. “That all sounds so lovely,” she breathed, her eyes wide with wonder. She remembered, then, her conversation with Dawn when they’d first met, how Dawn had never heard of Ostara or the Wheel of the Year, or the Lord and Lady.

Curiously, she asked Kora, “Did your island pack have any traditions or religious teachings that it followed? Before now, I had never left Oakstead, so I was surprised to learn that others outside of it don’t follow the same path that my home pack does.” Now that she knew that others followed different paths, she was quite curious as to what other traditions or religions existed.

Kora watched as the woman's eyes filled with awe throughout her story and Kora couldn't help but giggle a bit at the sight. "It was. I'm glad you found enjoyment in it!" she teased slightly at the lady's fascination. But she couldn't say much, she always found other heritages and different cultures amazing as well.

"Religious teachings? No, not really. Traditions? A few." Kora stated after letting the woman finish. "We had one tradition. That before one or two wolves would go out somewhere alone, the pack would wish them farewell by placing a flower behind their ear," she informed, letting a beat of silence pass for Daylily to process before continuing. "Another tradition we called Ta moko. Which translates to autograph, but it was more of a signature. See, if you take certain berries or fruits and crush them, it becomes a kind of paint. Which we would dip our paws in and put a special mark or marks on our faces. Most were simple on average days. But if you saw us on days of Moutere o te motu which are 'island nights'... we would look like rainbows!" the lady laughed at this, remembering how ridiculously hard they tried to look good but still ended up looking like a pack of skittles had melted on them.

"Oh, and island nights are specials nights we had each month. Where the packs would get together with our messy rainbow faces and eat a large meal, sing, laugh and be together as we were intended to be. Sometimes dancing, but let us just say I didn't get very involved with the active part too much! It was amazing, but the preparation left us all with barely any sleep. If any at all with the excitement!" Kora mused, glad to talk of her old pack. "What were your traditions Daylily?" the woman questioned. The woman had mentioned it but hadn't really gone into detail much. When she was done speaking her smile was still present on her muzzle, far from fading. 

Daylily listened with rapt attention as Kora went into detail about her pack’s own traditions. “Oh!” she breathed. “A flower behind the ear? How lovely!” She giggled at Kora’s next words, imagining wolves covered in berry juice. “That sounds like something that the pups at Oakstead would do! Cover themselves in berry juice. It sounds fun!” The description of “island nights” also sounded achingly familiar to festivals that would be held in Day’s own home. She sighed longingly as she thought of home, though she did not regret her decision to leave it. “Yes,” she said, “setting up for big festivals can be exhausting.” She would know from her own experiences helping the adults set out food and decorations for holy days.

“My traditions?” she asked, and thought hard about what she might say. “We have many, related to our eight holy days that follow the seasons. Telling you about all eight would take far too long.” She thought some more. “Well, it is almost Imbolc now, which is one of our holy days, so maybe I’ll tell you about that one? Imbolc takes place in winter, being the second holy day that falls on that season. But it is not really a celebration of winter itself. Imbolc is a time to prepare for the coming spring. It is a fertility festival. We plant seeds if the weather is permitting; in a place like this, it would be too cold to do so on Imbolc because there would still be snowfall.” She looked around the woods to indicate the snow on the bare tree branches and on the ground. “We clean out our dens, getting rid of old bedding, we check our caches. Imbolc is also a time of renewal; mates may renew their vows to each other, those who are religious may rededicate themselves to their gods. We may try to patch up relationships that have had some problems. Overall, it is a time of cleansing, and healing, and a time to bless our space and rid it of any negative energy.” 

Daylily finished speaking, aware that she had probably bombarded Kora with too much information. “Forgive me for going on and on,” she said, bowing her head. “Please ask if you need clarification on anything.”

The woman listened with great interest at the lady's words. Maybe the girl could teach her of the eight holy days in the future. Imbolc sounded quite enjoyable, to everyone but the youth. The children from any pack she had met would most likely find that extremely boring and such. Nodding at some points, beaming at others the woman listened with the best intent. 

"No need to apologize!" Kora assured when Daylily finished. "Other cultures are all so intricate and captivating! It's wonderful to learn about others!" she mused. "And surprisingly my slow mind has followed your information!"  the woman responded with a chuckle, taking a jab at herself. "Maybe in celebration of Imbolc we could try and clean up the territory a bit. Not only to help get this place in better shape and help out Dawn, but also to commemorate your tradition!" the lady proposed. If she said yes, they would have to set up a few things. If the answer was no, Kora would go on to help wherever else she could. Possibly do it anyway, just to clean.

Daylily felt she would cry at Kora’s suggestion. A wolf who had not grown up in Oakstead, someone who did not follow the Wheel of the Year, was asking if she could help celebrate Imbolc with her. Day stared at her for a moment, her eyes shining, and sniffled. “I—I don’t know what to say,” she breathed. “Of course we can do something like that, if—if you want to. You are very kind to ask to celebrate Imbolc with me.” She beamed at Kora with a huge, genuine smile. “It’s a little early to be celebrating Imbolc; the actual day won’t occur for about another week, but… there’s no harm in celebrating early!” Daylily looked around, wondering where the cleaning should begin. “Perhaps we could go to the stream and look for anything that’s fallen onto the ice. If we move them off the ice, the water will flow easier when the thaw comes.” She looked at Kora inquisitively to see what her response would be to this.

At the lady's lack of words, Kora cracked a (larger) grin. Kora found all the joy she needed in making others happy. It was quite the relief when Day didn't mind her lacking knowledge of the holiday, considering she knew nothing but the concept. The stream sounded like a smart place to start, so she nodded and exclaimed "Great!" as she swung herself up with as much grace as one could have only using three legs. 

"But we have to be careful and not let the ice break too much!" she said in her usual sing-song tone. Falling through the ice could happen to the best wolves, even ones living in the snow all the time. And that was one of the last things on Kora's to-do list, falling down a mountain close behind. Stopping a few paces away, Kora turned back to see if the lively woman was still as eager to come.

Daylily nodded along when Kora expressed her agreement to this plan. But the moment she mentioned having to be careful of the ice, Day could have kicked herself for being so stupid! “That’s right!” she exclaimed. Had she hands she would have smacked her forehead with the palm of one. “Perhaps we… shouldn’t try and clear the stream,” she said, her voice full of worry. “I don’t want either one of us to fall through the ice and… and drown.” She gulped at that last word, feeling as though she had just brought bad luck by speaking aloud. “M-Maybe we should choose… a different activity?” She looked at Kora pleadingly. With the idea of drowning at the front of her brain, there was no way she’d go near the stream now. Desperate for another plan, she cast her mind about until she landed on something. “Maybe we could go look for a good spot to plant a garden? I was thinking of starting one once the weather warmed up.”

At the lady's worry, Kora shook her head. "I'm sorry for causing you so much stress!" she apologized blatantly allowing her sincere eyes to meet Daylily's. Seeing the fright in the woman's gaze made her immediately regret ever mentioning it instead of just disagreeing. Her own eyes filling with pools of sorrow, Kora took a deep breath and counted to ten almost silently as the woman searched frantically for another chore. 

"kotahi, rua, toru, wha, rima, ono, whitu, waru, iwa, tekau" she murmured her countings under her breath, translating in her mind. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. The woman thought before opening her eyes to a new request. A garden? Kora had to admit, she wasn't the best at gardening, but she had learned some of the basics of planting native Aitutaki plants at home. How different could it be? So, the woman agreed with a nod and an enthusiastic "I think that's a wonderful idea!" 

Should we start another thread for the garden or continue here? Up to you! <3

Daylily shook her head at Kora and took a deep breath. “No, it’s… it’s all right,” she assured her new friend. “I just don’t know how I didn’t think of the dangers before.” She was relieved when Kora agreed to go search for a place to start a garden. “There must be a clearing somewhere in the trees, right?” she asked. “That would be a good place for one. Maybe we can go look for a clearing?” She turned and headed farther into the trees, inviting Kora along with a swish of her tail and a glance over her shoulder.

[End?]