Blacktail Deer Plateau we have a map of the piano

AW but tagging @Tytonidae. :)

Although she was settling back into the plateau, Junior found she missed her father despite everything. She even caught herself looking for him a time or two, only for the realization to strike her: he didn't live on the plateau anymore. Each time, it was as fresh and startling as a slap to the face. Peregrine had left the plateau. Who would have ever thought?

Maybe, she begrudgingly concluded, I'll go visit him when I'm ready to go on another trip. Because the young Outrider knew it was only a matter of time before she grew restless and ventured beyond the territory. Hell, she was even pondering whether she should swap trades, making Outrider her primary and Warrior her secondary. She still loved fighting, yet nothing scratched the itch quite like wandering and scouting.

She knew she could also pursue a third trade and it was sorely tempting to resume training as a Warden, if only because it gave Junior an excuse to spend time with Dante. Her crush on him had not faded with time and space, she'd found, and the fact that he was an Alpha male actually made him even more appealing. Did that make her like Fox? The thought made Junior's lip curl.

Her face was twisted into this ugly expression when she came around a bend in the deer trail she was walking and bumped directly into someone's faded black buttocks.

Lol that intro.

Tytonidae had been following the scent of a badger. Well, she didn't know it was a badger. She just knew it smelled like something she didn't run across often, so she'd started following the fresh trail. She had stopped momentarily to try and figure out which way it had gone when somebody (so rudely!) crashed into her from behind. "Oof!" she yelped when Junior made contact, and Ty spun around to face her sister.

Her expression was shock, at first, although she'd known Junior was back (though she couldn't remember how she knew this). "Osprey!" she squealed, wriggling her whole body over to her sister. She had never grown accustomed to calling her sister anything else, even though they had an aunt with the same name.

A familiar voice cried, "Oof!" even as Junior sneezed and backed up a few steps. "Sorry, Ty," she said casually, then remembered she hadn't seen her sister in weeks. "Ty! Hey!" she shouted happily even as her sister screamed, "Osprey!" Eventually, she would have to correct her but right then she was too busy wiggling just as much as her slightly more faded litter mate.

"It's good to be back here," she said after a moment, eyes glowing as she touched her nose to Tytonidae's cheek. "I never should've left. What have you been up to?"

“Ummm...” Ty thought out loud, trying to remember how she had spent her days. She was sure it couldn't have been nearly as exciting as whatever Osprey had been up to. “I think I’m gonna try and be a gamekeeper,” she said, “so I’ve been tracking things down. And Dad and I ate some funny mushrooms that made the world weird.” As if the world wasn't already weird enough. “I tried to find Mom, but she wasn’t where I thought she was.” Summer had tried to help, but to no avail. At the very least, Ty hoped their mother got the message she'd left with her friend.

“I thought… I thought it was going to be the same with you.” And Saena, for that matter. Her friends and family seemed to come and go as they pleased. “But I’m glad you and Saena are back!” Somehow, it made her father's departure that much easier.

Tytonidae reported that she was now a Gamekeeper-in-training. "Ooh, that's cool, Ty," Junior replied genuinely. "And that... sounds like fun," she added with a light laugh, quirking her brow at the mention of the strange mushrooms. Her face fell into a stoic line when Ty mentioned their mother. "So she isn't at that... Sunspire place or whatever? Well, shit, I'm glad both of our parents are total flakes," she groused.

She didn't want to focus on the negative right now, though, not with her recent positive streak. "I'm glad you're glad we're back," the younger sister responded with a bit of a cheesy grin. "I might come and go 'cause I love exploring but I think this will always be my home base. Anyway, though, is there anything I can do to help you with your trade?"

“I think she is still there,” Ty replied. “Summer even helped me look for her and everything. He sneaked me in.” The Sunspire juvenile had told her to lie if anybody came asking, which was thrilling in itself. And he'd had the prettiest yellow eyes... But time to return to reality, Ty. The mention of their parents being flakes caused Ty to bite her lip. It felt like she was the odd one out when it came to their parents. She did not think she could ever be angry or upset with them.

When Osprey asked about how she could help with gamekeeping, Tytonidae paused to consider. She then remembered what she'd been doing before Osprey had so rudely run into her rump. “Oh!” she said, gesturing for Junior to follow, “I was tracking down this creature. Smells real funny, but I don’t know what it is.” It was, of course, a badger. And said badger would not be happy to see wolves, no doubt.

"I'll help you track, if you don't mind company," Junior said, motioning for Ty to take the lead. As she fell into step with her sister, she said, "So... who's Summer? It's a boy? It sounds like a girl's name to me. But then you and me have boys' names, I think, so it works." She crinkled her nose and laughed.

Of course, Junior had no idea that it was the same wolf who was indirectly responsible for her departure from Ankyra Sound, which had eventually led her back here. Should the two girls ever meet up with him at the same time, it would make for an interesting encounter.

Ty picked up where she had left off, nose to the ground as she attempted to determine which way the beast had gone. The trail led in two directions, so she chose one at random and began following it, Osprey beside her. Her ears perked up when her sister asked about Summer. “Yeah,” she replied, “He was really nice.” Had she already mentioned that part? Tytonidae could not remember.

“I think I might go back and try to find Mom again. And even if she’s not around again, I can see if Summer wants to hang out or something.” Maybe The Sunspire could become her second home, kind of how Stavanger Bay was Osprey's second home. Tytonidae could not remember exactly why this was, considering she had never realized that Osprey had actually left the first time around.

Junior did not join her sister in sniffing, letting Tytonidae track while she tagged along as company and moral support. She listened with interest as her sibling described him. Though she used vague language, Junior sensed that her sister was fond of this Summer. Her lips twitched. She would have to meet him (unaware that she already had).

"Can I go with you if you go? It'll be an excuse to get out of the house. I guess it would be cool to catch up with mom." She shrugged. Aside from the odd adventure, she hadn't really spent much quality time with Hawkeye. The woman had been a lackluster presence in her life as far back as she could remember, save for those occasional bright spots. "And I can meet Summer. Do you have a crush on him?"

“Sure,” Ty responded, a bit distractedly. She was quite focused on the task at hand, although she did leave one ear pointed backward to listen as Osprey spoke. But it was her sister's question about Summer that caused her to stop and stare blankly at the world ahead of her. “I—I don’t…” Tytonidae trailed off. Did she? The thought hadn't even crossed her mind.

“I don’t think so,” she finally decided, “I only met him once.” Shaking her head to rid herself of the rather confusing thoughts, she continued to track down the creature. It took a sharp turn and then ended at an opening in the ground. “Shucks,” she muttered, “looks like it went into that hole.” Ty stuck her nose into it, but jerked back just as quickly when she felt a sharp claw on her nose. She yelped in pain, and licked blood from the fresh cut on her nose.

“Let’s… not try and eat that thing.”

Junior couldn't tell if it was uncertainty or embarrassment that gave her sister pause. "So?" she countered lightly to Ty's protest. "Haven't you heard of love at first sight? Either way..." She trailed off, her attention drifting ahead as her sister approached a hole only to thrust her nose into and retreat just as immediately, angry red marks on the tip of her muzzle.

The young Osprey quickly moved forward to check out the cuts. "Ouch," she said in commiseration, then tried to clean them to the best of her ability. "Sorry if that stings," she apologized, taking a step back, "but if Aunt Willow taught me anything, it's to keep cuts clean. What the hell's in there anyway...?" Junior gave the hole the hairy eyeball, her hackles prickling.

Tytonidae didn't think she believed in love at first sight. Was she supposed to? Did Osprey believe in such things? What about Saena? The two of them seemed much closer than Ty and Osprey used to be, and that thought made her a little bit sad. Maybe it was because they had both been on adventures, so they had everything in the world to talk about. Ty, on the other hand, had only been so far as a week away, and she had known that she would be back.

Her sister stepped forward to clean her nose, and Ty sneezed when she did so, though she didn't protest. Osprey's hackles rose as she looked at the claw-creature's den, and Ty backed away from it further. “I don’t know,” Ty admitted, “but I’ll know to stay away from it, now.” She was fairly certain that knowing what creatures were good for eating was part of her job as a hunter and tracker. “Why don’t we try and find some burrieds?” Ty suggested, “They’re really sweet, but a be—I mean, a friend told me they were good to eat.”

Although a Warrior by nature, Junior didn't disagree with her sister's sage assessment. She nodded in agreement, then paused and quirked a brow. Burieds? She opened her mouth to correct Ty, then clapped it shut again. Junior didn't want to hurt her sibling's feelings needlessly.

"I'm down," she said simply. "There's a lot of different kinds, I'm pretty sure... what type do you like to eat?"

Get ready for... INDIGESTION! *dance music*

“The red kind,” Ty replied, tail swinging between her hocks as she moved on from the badger's lair. Of course, she didn't realize that she had just described half of the world's berries in one fell swoop, but how could she know? A short distance away, she spotted a bush with some berries on it and began to pluck them off and much them. They tasted different, in some way, but still sweet. Ty just assumed it was how a rabbit could taste different. What she did not realize was that these were gut cherries and they would be shitting themselves as soon as the berries hit their stomachs.

Between mouthfuls, she egged Osprey on. “They’re good!” she said, pointing her nose toward the bush. “Eat some!” Tytonidae yanked another few off with her front teeth, then moved them to her molars where she could feel them pop in her mouth, releasing the sweet flavor.

Junior snorted at Ty's generic answer, then gamely followed her sister as she led the way toward a bush rife with round red berries. The darker girl sniffed at them a bit dubiously, then watched as Tytonidae began gobbling them without a second's hesitation. With juice dribbling over her lips and teeth, she coaxed Junior to partake as well.

"Okay, okay," she answered with mock exasperation, peeling her lips back and plucking a single berry off the bush. Her tongue deftly scooted it toward the back of her mouth with the intent to chew it with her molars, yet she accidentally swallowed it instead. The piece of fruit immediately became lodged in her throat.

"Ty," she gasped, her neck going rigid. "I'm choking."

So wrapped-up in her own berry-gobbling adventures, Ty nearly forgot that her sister was there at all. But when she noticed strange movements and the rasping voice, the dusty girl panicked. “What do I do?!” she asked, freezing up all at once. She wasn't a healer, like Blue Willow. Could a healer even do anything about this? Tytonidae had choked on meat from time to time, but she had always just coughed it up. Were these choke berries? Had she just killed her sister?

“Cough!” Ty demanded of her sister, panic evident in her tone. “Cough it up!” Instead of doing anything helpful, Ty anxiously moved around her sister, whining and looking at her with concern.

Her sister's panicking did little to help Junior. Her wide, watery eyes locked on Ty's face as she struggled to breathe. She lifted a paw and motioned rather crazily, indicating that Tytonidae should give her a good thump on the back. At the same time, she tried to follow her sibling's desperate advice.

She forced herself to cough. In the process, she sucked in a deep breath and the berries dislodged from her throat, only to take a tumble further down the wrong pipe. That didn't feel good at all, though at least Junior could breathe again.

"Dear god, that was not fun," she panted. "No more berries for me," she added indignantly. Fortunately, she'd saved herself from an immediate bout of diarrhea, though Junior wouldn't entirely escape discomfort; soon she would be suffering from a pretty gnarly bellyache.

As her sister coughed up (down?) the berry pit, Tytonidae felt her panic subside, and she shook her coat to indicate as much. Her heart was still pitter-pattering in her chest, but at least Osprey would survive. Once the shock wore off, Ty gingerly stepped toward her darker sibling and licked her neck. “Yeah,” she said, eyes wide with worry, “I don’t think you should eat burieds anymore.”

“Wanna go get some meat food?” she asked, “Unless the choking made it hurt too much.” If Osprey wasn't up for it, Ty could always go get something and bring it back for her.

The still wide-eyed Tytonidae agreed, then proposed they go find some meat to eat. "You might have to chew it up for me and barf it out like the adults used to do when we were being weaned," she quipped in a raspy voice. "But, yeah, I'm down for that." She motioned for her sister to lead the way, fighting the urge to swallow repeatedly, as it was rather painful.