Stone Circle Old bones don't lie

Gunnar wasn't a fool. He knew very well that the egos of both @Bonario and @Tauris wouldn't let them be without at least one fight. But to say he wasn't disappointed at the lack of restraint in both was to lie.

So he moved through the pack grounds a little on edge and yet also calm as he always was. He could only guide. It was up to them to take his words or stomp all over his words and what he believed in. But to be young was to sometimes make mistakes until you learned.

His stomach rolled angrily and he settled quietly to his rear haunches. His age making parts of his body that normally wouldn't have sag. His muscles even had begun to lose their lasticity. But for a male his age he was doing alright.

tags mostly ref but you can certainly hop in if you please

Mostly, he'd been trying to learn his way around. Trying to understand what went where, and the names of places that were slowly becoming familiar. It was not all bad. Things were uncomfortably quiet, and tame for the most part, as he'd gathered. Room was left for him to relax then, and adjust, spare for his insistence on trying to put himself out in the hunting fields. It'd been his new favorite place. Where he could decipher herd patterns.

So, when he came into view of Gunnar, that had been his trail, a fastened paced walk before he nearly passed him up. Squinting at his figure, his paws slowed down before his gaze hardened, only to next be averting themselves and slightly softening. He found himself unable to muster words, but he expected so of the Alpha. Of the one who went by Fadir. As far as he knew, he had nothing to be feeling any bit of guilt over around the man. Maybe a lick of respect that naturally came out.

The youth Bonnie was sparse and quiet. But Gunnar noticed his want to be in the hunting lands. This spoke highly of him to the elder. Were it for selfish reason, he could work with that. The boy just seemed to need guidance, not cruelty. Much like Tauris who also needed guidance and teh bitterness that was coloring both their spirits lately was leaving the old man feeling bereft and sad. There would come a day when he would have to dole out punishment to both and it made him ill. Though perhaps he would seek Taktuq's council, she had been a young woman like Tauris and he had been a hot blooded young man. So he could understand of course.

Gunnar lifted his head and looked over the youth. Hunting down the herds are you again, Bonnie?

Gunnar shifted and tilted his ears forward. The boy was watching, being respectful. What can you tell me of them, herd stalker?

He had noticed.

Bonario hadn't expected it.


Opening his eyes up some, he blinked and looked down at his paws momentarily. Twitching his right ear back towards his head, it turned in a slight circle to naturally point off towards the fields, then lazily motioning back up to, who he had been mentally calling. the Alpha. "They sit west often. Leaning north. In the direct blow where the salt scent travels from, their scent sits in it."

When given something to focus on, to really talk about and ground himself with, his entire body started to lean towards it; towards the field, with his nose up and his eyes settling in on it, as if he could pierce through the trees and watch the deer right in front of him. 

"I think there's always at least two deer parcels. I can't tell if the others I'm seeing are separate or not. I haven't been close enough to pick their scent differently, if they're different at all." His nose had been hard at work, holding scents up in his nostrils and gripping them there, trying to figure out just how these herds work. He figured Gunnar perhaps, or probably, knew these things already, but Bonnie had been trying to figure it out on his own.

Room for error is there!

Gunnar wasn't the type to bring attention to himself. But he was an extremely observant wolf and he had been keeping a close eye on both Bonario and Tauris. Anxious at their dynamic and not wanting to bring pain to his pack mates and lands. And thus far yes they seemed to bunt heads, but the boy was doing his best to acclimate himself with the pack lands and learn of herd patterns. Where Tauris kept the borders safe. They both did well. If only they could see past their past transgressions.

Gunnar listened calmly not saying anything at first other than filling in some of the blanks.

That would be the sea. Ever been to the ocean Bonnie? There are many forests that dot the surrounding area, including a rather large one that is probably where they rest at night.

they are probably separate, but may have family ties. I believe, though i could be mistaken that most stags leave the herds to start their own. What would you say to a pack hunt soon? We need to bolster our pack caches especially with pups coming.

Taktuq, Inkeri, and possibly one or two others would have pups this year.

An.. Ocean? "No," he defensively said at the question of the ocean, whipping his head away and huffing into his own shoulder. His lip tightened up. Him? Not knowing what an ocean was? Something about not knowing what he was talking about made him WILDLY uncomfortable, but there was that pull of wonder. Squinting his eyes, he sniffed his nose and softened his tone up. "What's that?" He didn't know what it was. So, it was probably something dumb and weird!

Pups? He'd not known that. Who was pregnant? Oh, god, this wasn't one of those weird pound cults, was it? His ears started to shift around, airplaning one down at a time in thought. Who could be pregnant? He'd need to deal with grubby babies? Bonnie didn't know if he liked babies, and suddenly he wasn't keen on finding that out, but from the inevitable sound of it, he was going to.

Wait, no.

That made sense.

Gunnar was an old ball of mashed up farts, of course there were some babies bouncing around somewhere. How else was he going to live on? For all Bonnie knew, he fathered half the females here. He figured he'd have smelled it, but maybe his nose was running foul. That and whatever affairs were sitting around, He didn't care to dive into the packs sappy romantic sloppy bedroom life.

Slow nods proceeded to evolve into one big firm one, coupled with a 'hm'. He could hunt. He was good at that. Bonnie did offer his help around, so he would. 

Gunnar made a soft sound of soothing and then shook his head.

No need to get defensive about it Bonnie. There are many things i've not seen even as old as I am. If you don't know something and you wish to know you seek it out. Or if you don't really care one way or the other that is fine also. Not everyone likes the ocean, not everyone has seen it.

Gunnar gave a soft sigh. The ocean used to be where I lived, or at least near it. It was where I was raised. IT is a large expanse of water, bigger than even a lake, but it tastes of salt and smells of salt. And it is both beautiful and monstrous in it's size, in it's pull. You can swim in it, but there are fish in it bigger than you or I and the tides of it, the pull of the ocean water, can drown you if you are unsafe. It is lonely and yet beautiful.

Gunnar gave a soft chuckle. Taktuq and I and Inkeri and Turmeric are expecting pups. As old as I am this will be the first pups sired by me that i know of at least. I preferred my own solitude for quite some time, before I came back here.

That was a lot of babies.

More babies than he knew if he could handle. The idea of little grubby gremlins a sixth his size trying to rip out his claws was enough to make his bones crawl. Huffing to himself at Gunnar's call out of his response, he immediately pinned his ears back once he was done. "I'm not defensive!" Him? Defensive? Never! He wasn't defensive, everyone else just deserved his claws up their-

Twitch, twitch, went his nose, and he shot two glances between the ground and Gunnar. Then, he shook his head slowly with his speech. "I-I know what the ocean is." He had no idea what an ocean was. For some reason, he felt a pit in his gut that echoed some words about Gunnar not believing him. So, he stared for a second, as if questioning if maybe Gunnar's face would change. With a lightening voice. "But whatever that is sounds nice." A big body of water. with that same smell that continued to come at his nose from the time he'd been here. It was vague, far away even, but he was still able to catch whiffs of it. For days now, he'd wondered what it was. Now Gunnar gave him a..name to put to it.

An Ocean.

Bonnie doubted he'd ever live long enough to see it. But maybe now he could dream of it.

Twitching his ear, his head tilted. "You're this old and you've never had pups before?" That he knew of, yes, but intentionally none? That shocked Bonnie. Why not? And what other reason was there to live, if not for a legacy? Was that not every wolfs reasoning for birth? "Not any ever? Why not? Why would you choose to not have pups?" He'd almost been gently asking himself that, but he did to Gunnar as well. A true, genuine question because it had stumped him in his tracks. Even gramps once...once... He'd never asked before, had he?

It was a lot of babies, but you never knew how many would be born. Each wolf could have 4 or each one could have 1. It was one of those things that came to chance, nothing more.

Gunnar chuckled. I have told you before I believe that I dislike lies.

Gunnar shifted and lifted a paw. The ocean is about 3 to 5 days walking distance that way. It's quite beautiful. I was born there many years ago.

He thought of his mother then and his father. His siblings who he hadn't seen. They were all probably gone now. Every single one.

Quite a few different reasons. My real father left my siblings and I when my mother was pregnant. I feared I would be the same way. Then as I got older I was taking care of my mom and then Ash Paw after she was born, my uncles daughter. I was a longer most of my life. You don't meet many wolves as a loner.

Bonnie feared he'd never understand that; though, maybe he didn't want to fear it. Maybe he wished to despise it. How could someone so aged, so experienced, with a title as mighty as an alpha, one who called himself Fadir, choose a path away from children when he could have? Choose a path away from a mate and immediate leadership? The more he said, the more he listened, yet the more he couldn't understand. That was the only purpose any wolf had. The more he fought and bit through flesh and bone guarding his memory and beliefs.

"And you now?"

With no elaboration, he asked.

Gunnar chuckled l. Well I realized i was letting a fear from childhood rule me. Thus far I have proven myself more my father's son than the son of a man who knocked my mother up.

Gunnar shifted. And I am glad to have these children that will come. I hope Bonnie that if something should happen to me. You'll help the pack care for them.