Ravensblood Forest i asked the coppers on our payroll

Couldn’t hurt, right? :)

Olive had never needed to outlast a famine, but she had heard stories and they terrified her.  Entire landscapes were completely devoid of life, both flora and fauna. Wolves whose bodies wasted away while their spirits still fought for life. Creatures that forsook their instinctive diets in favor of whatever presented itself to them [there was something especially ghastly about a mouse picking at a petrified carcass or a wolf, scraping its fangs against the bark of a tree, tonguing at its sap]. At Arturo’s behest, Olive’s mind projected a vivid picture of a faminous wild… but the slides of the movie were carefully selected to reflect her understanding of the world in which they lived. If the rains failed, then the grasses withered. If the grasses withered, neither small nor large prey could thrive. If prey could not thrive, all life suffered. The forces of nature were so intimately connected, so deeply linked that one could not help but affect the other.

It was the work of some larger being who's view of the world was a akin to a righteous chess player, all too pleased to move one chess piece askew and watch the entire board unravel. The gods did not favor, nor did they punish. Instead, the universe simply righted our mortal wrongs in ways that may seem macabre to untrained eyes. Ecce Homo - behold the man!

Olive’s tail swung low between her hocks, comforted by the thought that the pendulum of life did not only serve to knock others down [as Arturo’s story concluded]. The phoenix rose from the ashes and so did Arturo, with a new pack and new ally. It sounded not unlike the heroic tales of her childhood. And now that pack had given her this beautiful den - is that what she should call it? - that stood before her. It was akin to the shelters that her family sought out night after night during their travels: strong, solid, advantageous and protected on several sides.  Olive felt her heart start to swell, as the location spoke her her deeply and she knew she could live no where else. Arturo seemed to agree.

“For that, I am even happier to hear.” Olive warbled, again, she turned on her heels to survey the grotto. It was overgrown with weeds from . The vegetation was staunchly newer than that which surrounded it, leading her to believe it had been inhabited before. Olive wondered what experiences and emotions from her predecessors were instilled within the confines of the rock. 

“I suppose I should set to cleaning the place out, eh? Though I am accustomed to sleeping among the dirt and vegetation, I now have high expectations for myself.” The fae puffed her chest out in jest and shot Arturo a jocular grin, hoping to elicit a laugh from Ceannasach.