Sun Mote Copse Don't like where I'm at, 34 was bad, so I just turn to 35

Eljay was surprised that someone like Maia could ever feel like she wasn't as good at things as her siblings. She was good at so many things, and Eljay'd generally grown up around very confident wolves who didn't struggle as much as he did with anything, so it was hard for him to imagine that anyone could have those feelings that didn't also show them. Oh, wow, really? he said, wide-eyed and blinking, clearly surprised about that. But you seem so confident! It was a total eye-opener for Eljay, who always thought he was the only wolf in the world who ever felt less-than-confident just because everyone else never appeared insecure at all.

As for the rest of the story, Eljay nodded as Maia encouraged him to tell more of it. Yeah, it wasn't really the pack for uh, for me, I guess, he said with an awkward grin. I think they wouldn't have let me in if Wiffle hadn't been there. He briefly looked at the ground as he thought of Wiffle and how different what they had was at the time. I mostly helped take care of the children there. I lived there for -- uh -- Months, I guess, maybe half a year? Then at one point, we... There was a war where Drageda and Redhawk Caldera worked together to fight wolves from uh.. He tried to think of the pack. He just remembered the dark forest. Black forest? Dark woods? Black woods? But there was more. Black.. somethingsomething woods. I was supposed to be in charge of taking care of the children, but I got so worried thinking about... It was a bit embarrassing maybe, and he felt a twinge of sadness as he thought of her and realised she was dead once more, .. my mom, um, my mother, so I... I kinda went over there to look for her, and I ended up finding her but they were in the middle of a big fight and I think I endangered everyone and got pretty hurt. Eljay felt his cheeks flush as he admitted to this, feeling pretty gosh dang embarrassed about it.

I ah.. They let me recover back at the Caldera, and then I sorta just never left. I did intend to return, I.. I did, but instead I just totally left them hanging. I never even visited them, since I had no clue how to get there and home in the first place. The first time he'd found it by sheer coincidence, and then on the way back he'd just followed the warriors' scents down to Blackfeather Woods. He wasn't proud at all of leaving them hanging like that, but he was still very happy to have moved back to the Caldera.