Blacktail Deer Plateau The day is set

@Kaihra

Sun Spark struggled to his old paw. He turned his head and looked around blinking yellow eyes as he fought to stay upright. His body hurt, his back, his legs everything. There was no denying he was no longer a spring chicken. He shifted and began to walk the plateau, working the ever present kinks out of his muscles and legs.

He shook his black pelt and muttered stories under his breath there were so many he could tell, he was hoping he had not forgotten any in his age and that blue remembered them all. It was up to his daughter now to share the stories that he had shared with her once upon a time, long time ago.

Kaihra tapped the top of her cache with her nose and patted down the last of the dirt she had pushed into place over the prey buried beneath. The failure of the pack hunt several moons ago had made her uneasy, and the Theta had taken to filling the caches around the territory to soothe her growing fears. In a few moons winter would arrive, and though the pack still had many hunts before the cold set in, Kaihra wouldn't take any chances.

The Theta backed away from the bush under which she'd dug the cache and shook her fur free of plant life that clung to her coat. As she stood to leave, a soft murmuring caught her attention and she cupped her ears in the direction of the voice. She didn't take long to recognize the masculine voice and she craned her neck to see above the tall bushes that blocked her view of the Plateau. Her eyes locked on a burly dark figure not far from where she stood and she lowered her head in a moment of hesitant silence.

She'd been itching to speak with Sun Spark ever since she'd met him a moon ago, but now that she had the chance, she felt a strange aversion rise in her gut. Her mother had never allowed storytellers into their pack, so to call one a packmate now felt scandalous to her. She didn't know whether or not Sun Spark had seen her when she'd peered over the bush, and, at the memory of her mother, she considered turning back. But she could still hear his gentle murmurings on the late August air, and Kaihra pushed her way around the bush and past her dread until she could score a clear path toward the elderly man. He moved with creaking slowness, and Kaihra thought he looked older than he had during their first visit.

"Sun Spark." Kaihra dipped her head and tried to ignore the uncertainty she felt in approaching him. "It is good to see you again."

Sun Spark continued on at a slow amble. He had watched as the pack began to feverishly get ready for winter. Packing away food and plants in his daughters case. He wondered what he could do to help them before he passed from this world into the next. As he continued his slow shuffle, his ears were constantly swiveling from one way to the next, listening to all the sounds that were every present.

The squirrels yelling in the trees at one another as they gathered nuts to put in their homes. The birds that twittered and sang, their wings brushing gently against the nests they had and the plants. Soon they would all migrate south, happily set for the warmth of the lower lands. As he walked he happened to hear footfalls and he stopped moving to turn golden eyes towards the wolf that followed him. It was the femme Kaihra.

She had seemed uneasy before at meeting him, but he had just put it in the back of his mind as new wolf jitters. He gave her a small smile Hello dere Miss Kaihra! It is good ta see youse again ta.

Kaihra diverted her eyes from his golden gaze as Sun Spark turned to face her, half out of respect and half out of fear he would notice the uncertainty that lingered in their depths. She tried to let her tail flow freely behind her as he graced her with a smile and a welcome to match. Letting her limbs loosen with her final steps, the Theta slowed to a stop beside the elder man and tilted her head until she could see his face. He was formidable, even in his waning days, and his size left her feeling dwarfed by his side.

She felt a shiver course her spine as she remembered his tales of warriorhood in his youth, but rebuked her thoughts and fixed her mind on Sun Spark in the present here and now. Being taught against small talk, Kaihra found herself at a loss of where to start. She'd gathered the courage to approach the elder male, who seemed to receive her well, but how did one continue after that? She knew little of casual conversation: to seek acquaintance with packmates was a new thing to her, a trait Fox had faulted her on many suns before. "Do you mind if I walk with you?" That seemed to her a good start.

He watched as she averted her gaze quickly and he wondered at it. She was of higher rank than him, he was the lowest on the totem pole here. He knew this and he didn't mind, he was dying, he couldn't contribute very much anymore. He was no small wolf, he knew this and the she wolf beside him she wasn't very large, she was petite, but sturdy.

Sun Spark chuckled and gave her a small smile I don' mind atall chile. I was tryin' ta find somethin' i coul' do ta 'elp. I'm feelin' purty useless. What are you doin' out 'ere chile? Jus' enjoyin' da day?

Sorry for the late reply! School, school, school D:

The warmth in his welcome reassured her, but she pursed her lips at his accompanying words. They did not bide with his mellow tone, and their unspoken weight rendered her silent. Every duty she could think of was likely one Sun Spark had already considered and discarded, and she felt a stab of frustration at her inability to help the elder male and a pierce of pity for Sun Spark's predicament.

"I've been hunting." She felt a prickle of guilt as she wondered if Sun Spark could do even that. "Storing up." Her brows knit as she remembered the failure of their recent hunt. Summer still lingered on the air, but soon the leaves would fall and the wind would chill and the snow would cover the ground. Every sun that passed, every hunt the pack returned empty pawed, marked them one step short of Winter's advance. "Once we bring down a larger animal, you could help us cache it like you did the bear."

Sun Spark had wracked his brain, trying so very hard to think of something he could do to contribute. If there had been baby pups he could have entertained them, but these ones were much older, and had other things on their mind. Once upon a time he could of hunted and helped make caches, but his old burns wouldn't let him anymore. He had taken to trying to find the right herbs to cache for his daughter, but that was hard too. Especially given that the cool weather was fast coming and most herbs were dying.

Sun Spark chuckled dat I coul' do chile, dat I coul' do. He listened to her, he did not feel bad that she was hunting. He was proud of her for contributing, even if he had no right ot be proud of her, he was regardless. She was a good girl, doing her best to make the pack thrive. Yir a good gal, Kaihra a good gal.

The warmth she felt as Sun Spark accepted her suggestion quickly dissolved at his words of praise, and she shifted on her paws. Good? She felt herself anything but. It had taken her far too long to fall into the groove of pack life, and she had wasted two months trying to gain her footing as a useful member amongst the Plateau wolves. There was nothing she could do to make up for the time she had lost but to work hard now - and that was what she intended to do. No. If there was a word to describe her, she would not have chosen good. "I am just doing my duty." she replied with a reserved dip of her head.

She took liberty to change the course of conversation at that moment, not wanting to linger on what her paws had and had not accomplished and the feelings that came with it. Instead she turned her focus on Sun Spark and the questions that had bothered her since first meeting him. She hesitated for a moment before speaking up. "You are fortunate to have found your daughter here," she began. The thought of her own failed attempts to find her parents came to mind and a faint frown tugged at her mouth. "How did you manage to find her in a world so wide?"

Sun Spark chuckled at the girls veiled words, well den chile, you do yir duty well. She shuffled her feet and he briefly wondered at it, what had happened to make a young woman so self conscious. There was no need for anyone to feel unworthy not if they did their best to help those around them.

Sun Spark listened and then he smiled It was no' easy dat is fir sure. I would ask others' remember my daughter an' made a life from bein' travelin' story tellers an' healers so she stopped at other packs on her way, as I did. An' I knew her smell well, it was not long after her that i followed her, it jus' took me longer cause i'm old and i wanted to say goodbye to other's before her.

Sun Spark's tale made Kaihra wonder. His dedication to his daughter shone forthright, and though his path to find Blue Willow had not been direct, she had always been his pressing goal. The dark woman felt a stab in her heart. She looked at Sun Spark and felt her thoughts fall to her parents again. She did not know if they had survived the overthrow of their pack, but if they had, were they looking for her now? She quieted the thought, not willingly to reflect upon the fantasy. "And you found her, in the end."

But his final words struck her - the goal of this final journey had been to say goodbye. She remembered his words back when they'd shared the bear, that he had wanted to die around family. Kaihra could see the age in his bones, and imagined Sun Spark could feel the world's wear with every passing day. The world had not dealt gently with him, but if he was at all worried to die, he did not let it show. Kaihra had dealt much with tragedy, but very little with death, and to be so close to someone on its brink filled her with questions she did not know how to ask. She struggled for a moment, then heard her voice carry quietly on the wind. "Do you feel ready to go?" She eyed him with a hesitant glance and wondered if she had stepped too far.

Sun Spark smiled and nodded Dat I did chile, but I was determined. He had walked sometimes for days to get here, before his time ran out, or worse her scent got lost. He had followed countless trails only to have to turn back and start all over again. He had not been confused, just momentarily lost. The packs along the way had been helpful, and he was glad to have known that his daughter did her best to uphold all he taught her. There had been none that spoke ill of her on his journey.

Sun Spark was old, it was there in the lines on his face, in the creases beneath his eyes, and in the silver fur that now lined his dusky black. He had been gifted with a large body, that was not failing him as the age wore heavy on his brow. The scars that riddled his pelt, he could no longer remember all of them, most but not all. It was time for him to go and he knew it. He chuckled softly not at all put out with her question. yes Child I am very ready ta go. I miss my wife, I miss my parents, and I 'ave been gifted wif many years. Dese many years 'ave come to a end. The way I see it, i 'ave been lucky enuff sho enuff ta live dis long 'ere. So now it is marrily a mattah of jus' takin' a good long sleep an' not wakin' up. This would be proven false in the days to come and he would die awake, not asleep. But none the less he was still ready for it. He had made his peace long ago.

Sun Spark met her question with that same soft laugh he met her every question, and she felt taken aback by his response. She had never thought of death as a means of reuniting with those passed before her, but Sun Spark's words made her think that he did. In fact, she found his view of death entirely gentle. That was something wholly different. The elder looked upon his life and saw every day as a gift. For Kaihra, every day was a simple matter of pressing forward, of finding those things that would prevent her survival and overcoming them so she could win one more day on the earth. She didn't know what came after - she only knew what came here and now, and to think beyond that did not come as a calm thought.

"I don't understand." Her brows knit together as she voiced her frustration, aimed primarily at her own inability to grasp his reasoning. "You speak of death so calmly. Doesn't it scare you at all?" Her voice held a twinge of desperation, and she looked at the elder with an intense uncertainty dancing in her golden eyes.

Sun Spark had made his peace long ago. Long before he was every known as Sun Spark, but rather as Daemon. He had made his peace then. He had too, the amount of fighting and bloodshed they did, you had to be ready to die, before you died and it could be at any time.

Sun smiled ah and there was the million dollar question, the one she had been wanting to ask all along. It used ta chile. Long time ago, befo I made my peace. He tilted his head and sat down as he thought of how to answer her. Long befo'e I came 'ere chile, even befo'e I was wit' ma wife. I was known as Daemon, I was a wil' chile, born for nothin' more dan ta fight an' die, alongside ma brot'ers. I learned quick dat I was goin' to die, an' dat I coul' die any day. So I made ma peace, i figured da amoun' of blood shed I saw ain't nothin' worse dan dat. So no i'm not scared, not much scares me ta be 'onest not much at all. Does it scare you chile? Jus' you t'ink of it as the next big adventure an' it won't be so bad.

Kaihra's brow remained knit and her mouth hard pressed to a frown. She posed a harsh contrast to Sun Spark's gentle smile and his ever more gentle voice that remained steady even in the talk of death, an uncertain reality that lingered so close to him. But the peace he had made with death gave reason for his lack of fear and his lack of aversion to discussing it now.

The dark woman had always lived knowing that one day, she would die. None could avoid the grave, and if one believed they could, they'd soon find out their mistake. But instead of making peace with death's hard truth, as Sun Spark had after realizing the battlefield would only bring him to that end, she'd made it her enemy, and now she feared it and willingly let death's cold sting hold her back. Sun Spark's final question to her made her eyes sting and she turned away, unwilling to let her vulnerability show further to the elder male - though she felt a yearning stir to confide in him. "I don't know - " but then she paused in a hesitant silence. In a moment of clarity she understood that Sun Spark wouldn't hurt her, and though her mind felt muddled, she turned to face him again. "Yes." Her voice fell soft on the wind and she looked at her paws. "It terrifies me." She bit her lip before continuing, "You've spent the last years of your life travelling - you've always lived an adventure. You aren't afraid of the unexpected, but I am. If I think of death as an adventure - it terrifies me even more."

Sun Spark listened to her and thought about her predicament. Ah so she wasn't an adventurous soul, too bad really. Adventures were so exciting and fun. The new beginnings you found, the new ways you learned. Adventures were just amazing at least he thought so. And the things you found out, the knowledge you gained, it was just amazing. It was not a mistake that the old male had some serious wander lust.

Sun chewed on his lips and Den he spoke W'at if you were ta t'ink of it as a well deserved nap chile? Would dat help? He supposed you could think of it like that, you would fall asleep and just not wake up. It didn't always work that way, but if it helped to ease her fears, he was all for it.

Shall we wrap this up? (:

Deep down, Kaihra didn't know if she could ever overcome her fear like Sun Spark had done. There was too much uncertainty in death, too much finality. Death was the end she never wanted to reach, and the idea that all her acts to avoid it would one day prove futile frustrated her.

When Sun Spark suggested her to think of death as a well-deserved sleep, she came close to resisting him again. Her stubbornness refused to accept the suggestion, and her mind searched for a rebuttal against it. But as she looked toward the elder, she stopped dead in her thoughts. Sun Spark was looking for a way to help her, and suddenly a prickling guilt churned in the dark woman's gut. She glanced at the ground. A moment passed. Then, she nudged Sun Spark's shoulder in a gesture of gratitude, despite the struggle in her mind. "That... does sound a bit better, I suppose. Thank you." She gave him a weak smile, but the conversation left her feeling unsettled and she turned away. The elder had given her much to think about, and despite the discomfort, she could hear the wisdom in Sun Spark's words. Though his physical strength drained with the passing days, his mind still stood strong within him. She turned her head to face him again, an idea lighting her thoughts. "You know, Sun Spark... you may not be able to run or hunt anymore, " the dark woman paused, searching carefully for her words, "but your wisdom still makes you valuable to our pack."

[size=x-small]Okay will do :D Last post for me[/size]

Sun Spark did not expect her to come around to his way of thinking in a day. Usually, truth be told you had to have a brush with death to accept it fully. He hoped above all else that she never had to have that, and maybe she could overcome her own thoughts herself. It was a hard pill to swallow, the thought of death. He chuckled, but then caught himself choked up and he blinked fast. It was very nice of her to reassure him so well and he was thoroughly moved by it. D'ank ya Chile. I appreciate dat more dan you know. he grew quiet and looked about him.

He shifted and nudged her shoulder gently I'm probably keepin' you from somet'ing chile. An' if dis ole man doesn' see you again. Please jest T'ink on me and smile chile. He gave her a small smile and shifted his old bones and waited patiently for her goodbye or her to continue the conversation.

Thanks for the thread! Sun Spark was a great character <3

Kaihra had not expected her words to move Sun Spark so greatly, and she bowed her head, partially out of the awkwardness she felt in responding to his sudden sentiment. Though she knew she would never know just how much her words meant to the elder, she had meant every one. Sun Spark grew quiet, and Kaihra fell silent, too.

She found the stillness broken when Sun Spark nudged her shoulder, and Kaihra felt a strange nostalgia at his gentle touch. Her brow furrowed before she could push the sensation away, but stopped her memories from reaching further and looked toward Sun Spark again. The child in her wanted to stay and talk and listen as if this meeting would be their last, but the reasoning adult that had long replaced that voice reminded her again of all the work that still needed to be done in the face of the coming winter. She felt her heart sink at the voice that won. "I... should get back to hunting." She said simply, hiding her reluctance to stay. She knew very well this could be the last she saw of Sun Spark, and he knew it, too. She studied him a moment longer, desperate to commit the gentle man to memory. "Thank you." was all she mustered before she dipped her head and took her graceless leave. What more could be said evaded Kaihra, but she knew that when she thought of Sun Spark, she would smile on him - if only from within.