Sun Mote Copse thread.exe

backdated to the 19th

After meeting up with Towhee, Eljay immediately went to find @Maia to relay the scout news to her. He put on his agenda to look for Niamh afterwards, just to make sure that he knew how her pregnancy was coming along, after Towhee and Wraen had told him about it. Though a little frustrated that she had not approached him herself -- as a midwife, he should know about these things, and he'd checked on her last year too even despite everything that was going on in his life -- he guessed she must've just been too busy with the pregnancy to remember, or something. It was probably nothing, even though Eljay could not help but wonder if Niamh disliked him, too.

He pushed the thought away and focused on the task, then, continuing his search for Maia in the pack's territories. Hopefully she was in.

Maia was indeed in!  She'd woken that morning to immediately have a huge, satisfying scratch on a nearby tree.  Spring was coming and with it her thick coat was starting to grow a little overbearing in places.  After that was through, she made her way towards the stream.

Before she hit it, she spotted Eljay, seemingly looking for something or someone.

Eljay, hey!  Uh, need help?  She asked cheerfully, cocking her head at him a little.

It didn't take long for him to find her; or rather, for her to find him. Oh, hey, Eljay said with a soft smile. Yeah, I mean -- I was looking for you, actually. So there wasn't a whole lot of helping or finding left to do. Towhee told me you're a scout, something he should have really known anyway, considering she had helped him and Weejay search for Elfie and all that, and anyway, she suggested that you could help with visiting other packs to ask them about Elfie..? He hadn't meant to end that on a question, but all of this scout business was so foreign to Eljay he wasn't sure if any of what he said was even making sense to Maia at all.

She had to admit she was a little excited when he said he was looking for her... those eyes! But when he said he needed a scout, she stamped that right down and nodded.  She so rarely got asked to do actual jobs!!

I am definitely a scout!! Mostly I go around and swap stories and all, but I could definitely ask for Elfie.  She paused, doing a mental calculation of the packs she knew nearby.  Moonspear... oh boy.  That one would be interesting, she might save it.  There were a couple others she remembered passing by, and maybe she could even stop by Terance or Ibis!

No problem!! Umm, what's Elfie look like? Just in case.  She didn't recall if she'd ever met him.  If she had, it had been when he was very small, right before she left.

Eljay smiled at Maia when she said that she would definitely be alright to ask around for Elfie in nearby packs. He knew nothing of the outside world, so he was grateful that someone else wanted to help him with this. She seemed to be eager right away, which gave him hope she'd actually get to it. That's great! he said with a smile. When she asked what Elfie looked like, Eljay quickly elaborated: Oh, right -- He looks -- He thought of Wildfire's red coat and swallowed thickly through a few seconds of silence. -- His coat is red, like... Like Wiffle's. Eljay's smile twitched as his pain was visible on his face. He quickly moved on to the non-Wildfire denomenators: His underside's white and he's got a few freckles on his cheeks, sorta like mine. Oh, and the Blackthorn stripe -- also like me. Except red. Eljay grimaced -- he intended to smile but it got lost somewhere on the way -- as he described his lost son who looked a lot like a mixture between himself and his deceased mate.

He knew he should move on, but... it wasn't easy. It'd never been easy. She was the only one he had ever loved like that, and letting her go was the hardest thing he'd ever had to do; and was still doing.

Her ears fell back a bit as he seemed to get a little upset over Wildfire.  It was strange... she hadn't thought much about the deceased former sovereign, and wondered if she should feel guilty about that.  It felt like ages had passed since then, and so much had happened between finding her family and coming back here.  Sometimes it felt like a different pack now with Wraen in charge.

She didn't really know what to say to that, so just waited a little awkwardly until he finished.  'Sorry for your dead mate' again seemed callous, and besides, he probably didn't want sympathy.  Probably the best thing she could do was find Elfie, yeah?  Okay.

Those freckles would be hard not to recognize, she said, smiling and pointing out one of the things that was probably most characteristic.  She liked them.  Easy peasy!  I'll start.... hmmmm.  Maybe south?  She didn't know if there were any packs that way, but she'd check.  Then she could cut east, then north, and finally west.  Towhee was in good with Hydra, right?  so probably there wasn't even anyone there or they'd have heard about it.

When Maia said that she would be able to recognise the freckles, Eljay nodded gratefully. Thanks. She then said it would be easy enough and that she would start somewhere south and such. Eljay thought of what Wraen had said about him joining. He shifted his weight between his two front paws and then, after a short pause, gently suggested, Wraen said that maybe I should come with, to... He thought what she meant to say was 'get away from all of the painful memories', but he couldn't say it. I mean -- 'cause I don't get out much, I guess, I dunno. I don't know how to... About navigation and stuff, though. I'm not very good at finding my way, so maybe I'd just get in the way, so if you don't want to, that's totally fine too. Eljay smiled apologetically, hoping that he'd left enough space for her to decline if she realised that he would, indeed, just be in the way a lot.

She was already mentally calculating where she'd go and how she'd do this, so his soft tones were lost for a second.  She snapped in on 'don't get out much', but as she was able to figure out from context what he was talking about, she visibly grew more enthusiastic about the trip.  She loved her job, traveling around, but she had never been fond of solo travel.  Ever since Wraen became more wrapped into the pack's running, it had become a necessity, so she adjusted.  She just... didn't like it much, at all.

YEAH!  That'd be awesome!  I'm okay at the navigation stuff, but traveling alone gets really boring.  It'd be so great to have company!  She hadn't thought he'd be interested, so it hadn't occurred to her to ask.  Especially because, if it was her, she'd have been the one asking him to come along vs asking him to do it and permission to come with.  Just another aspect of Eljay that Maia found endearing but also confusing.

Where all have you traveled? She asked suddenly, curious to hear about some of the places he'd been.  Not getting out much meant he did get out sometimes, and that meant the possibility of a new place or two!

Maia seemed pretty excited about the thought of him joining her, and Eljay smiled, grateful that she wouldn't see him as a strain as much as he expected. That's great, Eljay said, a little awkwardly because the response was so much more positive than what he had expected. Maia's enthusiasm was pretty infectuous, even though it didn't look much like it was on the outside of Eljay. He was starting to less look up to going along now, especially knowing that Maia was good at navigating.

As she asked where he had traveled, Eljay's ears fell back and he looked a little caught out. Oh, uh.. He couldn't really remember where he'd been, really. I grew up at Redhawk Caldera, and I didn't really leave much, I guess. I went to the lake outside of the Caldera once... ... And he'd seen someone die there... I left home when I was two, I think. I saw some plains and mountains and the ocean then. I joined a pack called Drageda for a while, but when they went to war with this other pack I was supposed to stay back but I -- The Caldera wolves were there too and I was afraid that mom would get hurt, so I followed them and went back to the Caldera. That was pretty much the only time he'd been outside of a Blackthorny home. Then we moved the Caldera to the Plateau, and then I moved here when Wiffle started the pack. Like I said, I... Don't really leave the territory much. It's pretty dangerous outside. That was his experience in life. He didn't understand why other wolves didn't seem to see the dangers, including some of the wolves that he held dearest.

Oh, right!!  She'd forgotten that they started there.  When I first came here, my dad and mom told me to find the Caldera.  I did at one point, but I guess since Terance and Wraen weren't there I didn't stick around.  It was weird to think he'd probably been there at the time! Unless he was in Drageda then?

That's super cool though! Well, not the war part.  Her ears slipped back a little.  But the, yknow, rest of it.  It's pretty rough sometimes traveling, but not when the company is good.  She thought back to her most recent trip, when food had been scarce.  And when it isn't winter.  Wow was she glad not to have to deal with that this time!

Really? Eljay asked when Maia said that she had found the Caldera at first. He was surprised to find out about it. Kinda funny to think they could've met a lot earlier. Maia went on to say that his story was super cool, even though it was mostly painful to Eljay.

Maia said that it was pretty rough travelling sometimes, and he nodded. It was pretty rough, he said, thinking to the time he had spent just outside Drageda, slowly starving because he had always been more of a large prey hunter, a group hunter, so he could not take care of himself very well. It took a while before the Drageda wolves wanted to accept me. I probably wouldn't've gotten in without Wiffle's help. And I didn't know how to get back to the Caldera, or I might have. Honestly, he should never have left, but it was easy to be a smart man in hindsight.

You must've seen a lot of places, he said, leaving it open whether she wanted to tell or not.

Oh, yeah.  She hadn't known how long Eljay knew Wildfire, or really what their history was.  It must have been romantic, joining a strange pack together, then leaving and maybe running away together.  It turned Eljay into quite the dashing suitor, chasing love across pack boundaries, and was also completely and totally inaccurate.  Maia had no clue, but it didn't stop her mind from spinning up false stories.

Hm? Oh, right.  Yeah, tons.  She switched over, thinking about the places she'd been.  My brother and sister live a little south of here, that's where I was.  They... had to move, from where we grew up.  But they didn't go too far.  There was the first noticeable hesitation, but she blew past it.  I've been there to see them, and over to the coast, and way up north too.  It would be neat to go further.  Her enthusiasm for travel was clear in the way she talked and the look on her face speaking about it.  It's the absolute best way to make stories, exploring new places and meeting new characters.

Maia seemed distracted for a moment, though Eljay didn't know what was going on in her head. Anyway, she quickly reocvered as his question hit home and confirmed that she had indeed seem tons of places. Eljay couldn't deny that there was some part of him that thought that was pretty exciting. He did have his mother's blood in him, after all. But another part of him was just terrified of exploring, too. That sounds like a lot, he said as Maia explained where she'd been to visit her brother and sister. He knew he had family all sortsa places, like Gannet who he'd met at Redhawk Caldera last year when he was looking there for the stone for Wiffle, and Raven and Liffey...

... But he would never dare go visit any of them, if he even knew where they were at. Home was a much safer place to stay, and maybe he'd meet up with his left family some day if they returned here. Seemed odds of meeting them were biggest if he just stayed put, and besides, otherwise he would just get lost instead of finding them anyway.

I like stories, but I'm not very good at telling them anyway. I guess that's for the best, since I'm not good at exploring either. Eljay smiled, not seeming downtrodden about these facts but simply stating them as facts. It wouldn't be of much use if he was really good at storytelling considering he didn't like travel at all.

maybe we can finish this and have a new one soon? :)

Eljay was down on himself in a way that Maia was not.  She had that voice inside that told her she was awful at stories, awful at travel, awful at pretty much everything.  But she tended to bury that voice under an avalanche of outward positivity.  

She could relate, a bit, though.  No one just starts out good at anything, she answered, as though it were the most obvious and normal thing.  You just have to find what you like and do it!  You're bad at travel, maybe, but you're great at other stuff.  And if you want, I could totally give you some storytelling pointers.  It's super easy once you know where to start!

She watched eagerly, hoping he'd take her up on it!! If so, she'd stick around, launching into some of how she came up with characters and built worlds around them.  

im good to fade this here !!!!! <3 we should def have another, I need to push her back home here soon!

yes!! tag me when Maia gets back to the Copse :D

Maia just seemed to be so incredibly possible, it was pretty daunting to Eljay. She went on to say that nobody started out good at everything and that he was good at things, too. Eljay wasn't sure which things, as he felt they were very far and few between compared to most other wolves he knew, but he didn't ask. He just nodded as Maia went on about storytelling -- it was clearly one of her passions -- and then suggested she could give him pointers.

I... guess I could use some pointers, he said and he smiled awkwardly at Maia, who then launched into a lot of story-telling stuff of which maybe a little bit stuck around, but most of it was just Eljay trying to keep up with Maia's vibrant pacing of what she was telling.

soon! I think I wanted to send her one more direction maybe :D

Launch into a tirade she did, but it wasn't entirely a passive lesson.  Where she could, Maia would encourage Eljay to contribute, prodding his creativity by allowing him to provide her with simple details without needing to pull the entirety of a story.  Stories were long, daunting things for someone with little experience - first a word, then a sentence, and wasn't that all a story was?  Just a lot of words and sentences.

And as much as she loved telling stories, Maia found she enjoyed teaching just as much!  She wondered if this was how Wraen felt every time Maia came to her for advice... and it warmed her.  Maybe she should offer more of this sort of thing too - on the off chance she might inspire the type of love in someone else she and her sister had found within spinning tales.