Redhawk Caldera It's a good day in the sun

most tags are for reference! Lmk if anything needs changed

When @Teya found the strange pup on their borders, Maia had worried where she might have come from (and how her parents might be feeling), but she'd immediately agreed that the right thing to do was take her in until they could find her family. Maybe they would even come and find her here. Without any trace of anyone to look after her, the pup needed a home. She and @Eljay might as well keep her alongside their own, for now. It wasn't anything new to her.

@Shenanigans was the only word she seemed to want to say, initially, and she insisted that it was her name. Maia thought she should have a better one, personally, but kept her opinion to herself for now. Maybe her parents really had named her that. Was it Maia's place to choose differently, if the pup liked it? Still, it was too awkward a name for Maia to use fully - so she compromised, settling on calling the girl Shena.

Were you a part of a pack? One with a name? Maia asked as she watched Shenanigans joining in with whatever game her kids had running. She wasn't optimistic about getting much of an answer - she might even be ignored completely in favor of the game. But she had to try any avenue she could. Somewhere out there was a set of parents who were experiencing one of the worst things a parent could go through. Maia could hardly imagine it.

Sometimes, late at night, Shenanigans thought of her parents and brother, and found herself missing them desperately. On rare occasions, she even cried herself to sleep. She dreamed of them nearly every night, though she never quite remembered them the next day.

And during daylight hours, there was so much to see and do in her new home, they rarely crossed her mind. When they did, they began to blur, fade and fray at the edges. She could no longer recall the color of @Waxwing’s eyes or remember whether @Aditya or @Tytonidae was the larger of the two…

“Were you part of a pack? One with a name?” Shenanigans looked up from the game and grinned at Maia, bounding over to her. She absolutely adored the mild-mannered she-wolf and her mate, not to mention their gaggle of super fun kids! She rubbed up against the woman’s leg, then took a seat, beaming up at her.

No! she replied cheerily, which was true enough, even if she didn’t really understand the question. Is a pack a bunch’a wolves? Shenigans guessed, raising a paw to smush thoughtfully at her own cheek before repeating, Nope! Hopefully Maia followed that.

Maia smiled at her as she clarified, and it made her feel more sure of the answer that she'd asked the question. So her parents hadn't been a part of a group. Internally, she felt a bit of her hope fall away though. She'd been hoping for a different response, one that would give them a direction at least to begin looking. It seemed they might have to wait for her parents to find her instead.

It is. This here is a pack, with our family and Teya's and a few other wonderful wolves. I'm sure you'll meet them soon. The pack had shrunk, however, so that their families really were the majority of it. It was strange to think that now she was a part of something like that.

It's called Brecheliant. It's named after a magical forest from stories. Did Shena like that sort of thing? Their family was heavy with stories, something that Diantha had always seemed to resent (though not the only thing, for certain). Maia felt a pang, recalling her. She hoped she had found the happiness elsewhere that she couldn't find with them.

Maia explained that this very group of wolves was a pack, giving its name. Shenanigans rested her foot back on the ground, eyes wide. Of course, she wanted to hear all about this magical forest, and any other stories Maia wanted to tell her!

But first: Break… elephant? she tried, shaking her head at how wrong that sounded. Break… feely… ant? No, that wasn’t quite right either.

Rather than feel discouraged about this, her eyes glowed as she looked pleadingly at Maia to help her sound out the word… just like Tytonidae had done with “shenanigans.” That memory flitted through the back of her mind, fond and warm, but didn’t quite achieve conscious acknowledgement as she waited.

Shena was an easy pup to love and Maia, plainly, already adored her. It was almost unbearably adorable the way she tried to sound out the word and then clearly needed help saying it correctly.

Brek-ell-ee-ahnt. Maia sounded it out slowly and drew out the syllables so that she could hear how the sounds went. It was an old forest, full of kings and knights and magic. It still was a name that suited the fen far more, and despite the Caldera now housing the pack, she separated the two in her mind in a way she hadn't there. The fen held the forest Brecheliant, the Caldera held the pack.

Brecheliant! she crowed triumphantly, the name coming out mostly right this time.

She already knew about nights—when the daylight grew dim, then dark, and everybody went to sleep—and magic, of course, so she asked, What’s a old? An’ a forest? An’ a kings?

She did well the second time around!! If that was anything to go by, she was a fast learner... and Maia wondered, for the thousandth time, how frightened her parents must be. Imagine, missing things like this? Actually, she needed to imagine a little less, or she was going to get randomly emotional here.

Luckily the questions were an adorable distraction. Well, an 'old forest' is one kind of like we have next door. But the trees are wayyyy bigger they say, and ancient, and fairies live among them. That's how the trees get to be so old and still are so healthy. Was it faeries or something else, actually? There were so many stories of enchanted forests that honestly, it probably didn't matter.

And a king is a wolf who leads all the other wolves in the forest. He was supposedly very strong and very wise. Which makes sense, if so many listened to him. One of Maia's favorite things about children this age was that she never knew where a story, or a conversation, was going to go. This was definitely no exception.

A thousand more questions sprung up in her young mind as Maia explained each of the terms in turn. Shenanigans meant to ask them all, though by the time the she-wolf finished, she could only think of one thing to say.

I wanna be king!!! She began to wriggle on the spot. I wanna be king of wolves and forests and fairies! she added, demonstrating that she’d at least absorbed most of what Maia had said.

The Raven hadn’t actually described a fairy but hell if the precococious child didn’t point and scream, Fairy! when a sparrow winged past overhead.

A noble aim! Maia declared, grinning. Maybe it wasn't smart to encourage a power complex so young, but Maia didn't buy into that kind of thing. It was all pure fun.

Your majesty! We have to follow it if we want an adventure! There was no real way they'd be able to actually track a sparrow through the trees, but Maia jumped forward encouragingly anyway. Come on!

Maia played along with her bid for royalty, telling Shenanigans they ought to follow the “fairy” in order to find an adventure. She didn’t need to be told twice! Eyes widening, she immediately scrambled to follow their winged guide.

It was only a matter of seconds before the child—whose head was craned upward to keep an eye on the bird—tripped. She went down hard, scraping her chin and biting her tongue in the process. Shenanigans let out a surprised oof!

But she only laughed at her own silliness, pushing back onto her feet. She promptly gazed upward, trying to find the “fairy” again. She didn’t see it, though rather than pout, Shenanigans just turned her bright eyes to Maia, sure the woman would know where to find it.

Maia absolutely lost track of the bird as well when the pup fell. She was distracted by making sure she wasn't hurt, but she bit back the question as soon as Shenanigans hopped back to her feet. She seemed fairly enthusiastic about continuing and did not seem bothered!

Oh. Oh! She was looking at her to lead. If she were a fairy, where would she live? It was such a harder game to play here. It was times like these she missed the fen the most. The forests of the caldera didn't hold the same magic and the dragons she and Wraen had created were nowhere to be found.

This way! She decided abruptly to wing it. With a gesture she began to lead the charge in a path that would take them to the caldera's slopes. If they didn't find a suitable hollow on the way then she could make the story about a crevice or cave within the stone.

Of course Maia knew the way! Shenanigans grinned and bounded after the woman, huffing and puffing a little as the ground sloped upward beneath their feet. She felt something drip on her foot but paid it no need, at least until she stumbled again.

She didn’t faceplant this time, though it was a close call. She stopped and let out a noisy exhale as she caught her breath. Only now did Shenanigans notice there was something dripping from her chin. She reached up to touch it with a single toe, which came away red and sticky.

Shenanigans had seemed fine, so Maia didn't think to worry about it at first. A few rounds with kids had taught her that the bigger deal you made it, the bigger deal you encouraged it to become to them too. Sometimes her early reactions had seemed to scare her children more than the actual event did.

But it didn't take too long for her to catch wind of the blood. She noticed it fully at about the same time the pup did.

Oh, c'mere sweetheart. Let me take a look at that. She was pausing the adventure here and reclined down so that she'd be at eye level with her to get a good look. Kings and faeries could wait a moment.

It wasn’t much blood, yet it was still a bit of a shock to see the bright red substance on her own paw. She blinked at the sight, then up at Maia as the woman swept in to assess.

She helpfully tipped up her chin while reassuring, It on’y hurts a little bit.

Actually, now that she was paying attention to it, it did sting quite a bit. Her tongue was throbbing a bit too. Shenanigans steadied herself with a breath, eyes gone slightly shimmery.

Rather than burst into tears, Shenanigans sniffed and made light of it, saying, I think a fairy bitsed me! She paused, then whispered conspiratorially, Do fairies bite?

She was being brave about it but Maia knew it probably stung more than she was letting on. She gave it a few gentle licks to help clean it and hopefully soothe it, but she'd have to ask Eljay or Bridget to take a look at it later. It wasn't deep enough to keep bleeding for long, she didn't think! But it still might be good to treat it with something.

Not unless you bite first. But they do like to play pranks, and sometimes they don't understand that those pranks hurt. I think they'd apologize if they did. Maia nuzzled between her ears affectionately. I wonder if they tripped you and expected you had wings of your own to fly with. The last thing she wanted was for Shenanigans to be afraid of the woods or the "fairies". Scary stories were only fun when you weren't pretending they were real.

The way Maia mothered her stirred something inside Shenanigans. She squeezed her eyes closed and saw a face swim into focus in her mind’s eye. It was darker than Maia’s, though just as feminine and sweet. This woman’s eyes were green. Her voice was different too, soft in the little girl’s memories.

She opened her own eyes, now shining. There was a very brief wobble to her lip. But the image receded and Shenanigans focused on Maia’s words. Stories were meant as a pleasant distraction in many circumstances, an escape from reality, and and that’s just the effect Maia’s tale about fairy pranks had on Shenanigans.

Blinking the wetness out of her eyes, she smiled a bit tremulously as she said, I wish I had wings. That reminded her of something and she added, scuffed face brightening, Chicky-D an’ me sawed a weirt birby the other day, do y’think it was a fairy? It made a funny noise, like this!

Shenanigans forgot all about her busted chin as she did her best impression of a cicada. She had to laugh at herself, because it was a pretty poor imitation. But maybe Maia would recognize it anyway? It would make sense if it had been a fairy trying to play a prank on the girls!

If Maia noticed the shine of tears she easily attributed them to the fall more than anything else. She cleaned the scrape as gently as she could, then gave her cheek and ears a few good swipes, and a nuzzle, for good measure.

Maybe! Fairies can be a lot of things! But they always have wings. It's hard not to once you've had them. Maia smiled at her announcement. It reminded her of Wraen, how they'd sometimes talked about the powers they'd wanted. Maia had always jokingly said she didn't need wings when she had dragons to ride.

Those are like the butterflies, though! They don't start with wings, but they leave their shells with them once summer comes. Ani wouldn't have been there with them to see the shells, but Maia would show her if she saw any. Most were likely knocked down by now.

Another time, Shenanigans might have had a thousand questions about butterflies and their metamorphoses. But Maia’s comment about butterflies only getting wings later in life and the mention of fairies never losing them somehow combined in the child’s head, resulting in quite the exciting and imaginative cocktail.

When do I get wings?! I want some now! Shenanigans said, the exclamation punctuated with a sudden, squeaky yawn to which she paid zero attention.

Maia smiled and inwardly sighed. She should have seen that question coming! It was more with laughter than with frustration though; it was an adorable wish to have.

When you find someone with magic willing to trade you a wish. Just be careful, since there's usually a price. Maia replied, ruffling the fur of her forehead one more time before looking behind them.

We'll have to find your fairy friend another day, I think! It's nearly time for dinner, and Eljay should be back by now. They usually gathered up for the meal, and Maia assumed tonight that the pup would join them. She defaulted to whoever she was with at the moment most nights, it seemed.

Maia answered whimsically and Shenanigans could only coo in delight at the notion of locating someone with magic powers to grant her a wish. Her mouth opened to ask the woman if they could seek out such a person now but then there was a mention of suppertime. Shenanigans’s mouth slammed shut as her stomach growled as if on cue.

She laughed when Maia ruffled her fur, then bobbed her head eagerly. As she bounced on her heels, prepared to follow the she-wolf toward whatever meal the Blackthorn family would share, she abruptly remembered something.

Hey, guess what! I flied before! the child yelled gleefully, the memory of her flight dimmer even than her recollections of her birth parents. Maybe I have wings and they’re jus’ invincible!

Maia might chalk it up to a vivid imagination or perhaps a dream. Shenanigans, meanwhile, suddenly made a whooshing sound and zoomed ahead, eager to fly straight to the dinner table.

Oh, hmm... that wasn't something she really wanted any of her children actually believing. Imagine if she tried to test it!

Maybe you just got a wish and didn't know it. Maia answered, searching for a way to explain it without completely killing her joy. Sometimes, if we don't ask or expect them, wishes can come as surprises too.

Surprise wish was better than invisible wings, and hopefully she'd covered herself with 'not asking or expecting' so Ani wouldn't take up cliff diving. Maia resolved to keep an extra careful eye on her though - just in case.