Ravensblood Forest Homecoming Hunter

Hmm so, it seems that I should keep a tighter leash on Olive’s timeline! I edited my first post so it reflects the correct timing :)

The woman was no hunter; not by a long shot. But she nurtured a wayfarer soul and in her travels she [many times] ambled alongside herds, her small and lithesome body keeping score with their perpetual wanderings, for days and weeks until their paths no longer tantamount.  Olive knew and understood the ways of the elk and other hoofed creatures, as they were one in the same [though she was remiss to harm one with this knowledge]. So alike were they that Olive sometimes wondered if an ungulate’s blood ran through her veins. This made the corpse that much more offensive, but this was neither the time nor the place for such issue. “Those animals wouldn’t have stayed put; not during winter…” her suggestion was hushed, a small utterance that only served to support Dakarai and hopefully, somehow mollify his young assailant. Chusi was a grown, but a young woman nonetheless with all the emotional incapabilities that such an age allotted her. Olive recognized that Chusi’s jejune frustrations were not born from the technicalities of Dakarai’s crusade, but another darker matter that plagued them all. 

The red herring’s sobriquet fell from Chusi’s lips with a sour distaste; vitriol to which Dakarai responded to in kind. Olive’s own words were dismissed as he pronounced his displeasure of being kept in the dark about Furiosa’s slaying. Olive was partially to blame for this, as she seemed to have sought reclusion rather than her kindred spirit. Even if she had stayed put, Olive wasn’t certain if Comlachs were allowed to know. But, if the news were to be kept secret from Comlachs… should the woman have told Dakarai anyways, out of respect for their love? Had there been any right option for her to pursue?

To Olive, it was all lines drawn in the sand; it was so confusing and, when compounded with her grief for the white woman, sent her scurrying deeper into solitude in order to process. Olive was a self-confessed novice in the dynamics of a pack; thrust into a family with so, so many rules. It was a true difficulty for Olive to abide by decrees of another [even when they were from the tongue of the regal Ceannasach himself] and it was even more difficult for her to see what they gained from closing themselves off from the world and stifling the flow of existence. And, so, the ashen sylph had not listened to the rules. She, in fact, had left the territory several times since the murder and had even planned a longer exploratory mission to the southern badlands. Retribution had yet to fall upon Olive for her secretive actions, although she was now reconsidering her upcoming southern mission. If leaving Ravensblood Forest truly put her family in danger, then she would not do it.

Olive felt to blame for Dakarai’s  outburst and feelings of guilt — when he mentioned feelings of unimportance, Olive’s heart withered. She so wanted to soothe his every hurt and take away his every pain, but in this moment she had caused more. Dakarai surprised her by turning to her, trembling almost imperceptibly at her side. Olive leaned into his touch, marveling at the two different wolves she saw within one: the brute who chastised with hackles raised and the man who nestled against her neck and breathed gratitude at her safety. He was too good for this world and she wore his love like an amulet, heavy and proud against her chest… even if she felt she did not completely deserve it right then. “Our bickering solves nothing. We are alive; we have food to keep our bellies full…. Let us not lose ourselves in our caution." Why should they belabor actions already done, and secret already spoiled? "If we are to learn anything from Furiosa in her death, it should be to enjoy the preciousness of life while we have it - not spend our time arguing over inconsequential matters.” Olive said to no wolf in particular, hoping that she could take heed of her own suggestions.  She gestured to the slain elk at their feet, making known that this bounty was the aforementioned preciousness of life.