Redhawk Caldera All that wasted time

The gamekeeper felt useless with no prey to hunt. He spent a good portion of his day circling the flatlands of Redhawk Caldera, searching for any trail that would lead him to success. But alas, there was none, and he was beginning to wonder if he would need to venture away from his home in order to hunt. He had no idea what the wilds were like beyond the borders -- had the plantlife out there been decimated by the locusts as well?

It had been quite some time since Elwood had stepped foot outside of the caldera, which only added another layer to his concern. Had @Finley not been pregnant, he would have asked her to accompany him in a heartbeat. But her hormone-induced state made him hesitate. Still, he couldn't pull himself away from the outskirts that day, and he tipped his head back to call for his wife.

Days only ever seemed to inch by when Finley was desperate for them to race. The state of the world was desparate and frightening, especially for a woman in the early throes of pregnancy. Though she constantly hoped for time to flick by in a blink, she was not at all convinced that the future would bring green lands and abundant prey back to her home. She tried to; Quite desperately she clung to the idea that in just a few short weeks, everything would be back to normal. She would be well-fed and in top form when she gave birth to the healthiest, happiest little cubs the Wilds had ever seen. It was a comforting thought in those moments when her pregnancy brain allowed her to believe it would happen.

But those moments were rare. And this moment was not one of them.

Fortunately, Finley was nothing if not a good actress. She did her best to keep her concerns from her mate and especially her son, knowing the latter needed no encouragement to darken his outlook. When the call rang out, the Blackthorn winced slightly for it meant it was time to put her happy face back on and to reach out for that ideal she didn't believe in. She swallowed her gorge as it rose at the start of her charade, then took off at a steady lope to answer Elwood's call.

Her smile was planted firmly upon her muzzle as she came to him, but she relaxed it a bit when she realized Eljay was not there. With Elwood at least, she didn't have to pretend so hard. Both of her men could likely tell when she was faking it anyway, but only with her son did she feel the need to try to hard anyway. She greeted her mate with a nudge to his chin and an obnoxious swipe of her tongue over his eye. The gesture made her grin, but it was a brief flash of joy before the gloom began to creep back in.

As convincing as Finley's fake smile was, Elwood could still see its hollowness. He had become awfully accustomed to that expression during the long and troubling days after her accident at Moonspear. She greeted him with genuine affection, licking him right on the eye in a manner that could only be called Finley-esque. He clamped his eyelids shut, wrinkling his nose. "Oh, crap, now you've gone and done it -- I can't see out of that eye anymore," he teased in a rare moment of playfulness. "You're the only leader left with two working eyes," he added; he probably would've earned a punch from Fox had she heard that comment.

Reopening his eye, he gave a wave of his tail before gently trailing his nose down her shoulder to her subtly rounded stomach. "How are you feeling?" he asked, stepping back to look at her. It was a loaded question and he knew it -- he didn't just mean her physical state, but her mental and emotional condition as well.

Finley could tell he saw through her ruse almost immediately upon sighting her, but the playful affection managed to work as a decent distraction for a moment. She laughed at his comment that now she would be the only leader able to see out of both eyes. "Good thing that porcupine didn't have better aim or we'd all be out of commission," she replied, surprising even herself that she managed to non-chalantly mention "the incident". Had she ever done that before? She couldn't remember, but she latched onto his next question in order to sidestep it regardless.

"I'm okay," Fin replied automatically when prompted. She paused after it was said, gazing at her mate for a beat before giving a sigh and adding, "As okay as I can be, anyway." They both knew the circumstances were not in their favor and no doubt it was weighing heavily on both of their minds. It seemed like they were doomed to never get the timing right on this parenthood thing. But last time it had worked out okay - maybe it really would this time.

Probably not.

"Eljay approached me about helping, like you said he talked to you about," she commented conversationally, remembering the incident, "I thought at first he was saying he wanted to help.. uh... get the puppies inside of me, instead of outside me." She cringed when she said it, wondering if he would pick up on her meaning, "I don't think he understood why it freaked me out. But I was thinking... do you think he knows about that stuff? I've never talked to him about it - have you?" For some reason, she felt awkward having this conversation even though her companion was the one she had all the sex with. It wasn't weird talking about the two of them doing it, but something about the fact that Eljay was included in this topic was totally freaking her out.

"I'm okay," Finley replied, and Elwood bobbed his head. He knew that it wasn't the case -- and she even said so herself in the next breath -- but he also knew that he would have responded the same way had the question been asked of him. Of course, he wasn't the one who was pregnant, but he was equally concerned for the welfare of their children and the future of their entire pack. It would be impossible to be more than "okay" in the face of the looming famine.

Rather than press her further on that topic, he settled onto his haunches, ears pricking as she began to talk about Eljay. Elwood was glad to hear that their son was following through with his intentions to help care for his mother during pregnancy, but his eyes widened when Finley explained what had apparently been a hilarious yet horrifying misunderstanding. He choked out a laugh, picturing Finley's expression while she tried to set Eljay straight, but then she asked a question that caused him to tilt his head thoughtfully.

"I...no, I've never talked to him about any of that," he said, realization slowly dawning on him. "...but he's almost a year old. And that's a dad's responsibility, right? Can't we make Peregrine do it?" he continued. He was only half-kidding, although Eljay would likely be afraid to ever have sex if Peregrine had that talk with him.

Fin felt a little guilty when Elwood admitted that he hadn't had the talk with their son either. He was almost a year old, as her mate pointed out. A year was plenty old enough to know these things (for wolves, anyway). Hell, he should've known when he entered the adult ranks, shouldn't he? Fin couldn't remember for the life of her when her parents had had the talk with her. She was pretty sure they hadn't actually - what she knew, she'd learned from the jokes of her older siblings and actual practice. No one had ever told her.  So did they really need to sit Eljay down and explain it?

Her sub-conscious laughed derisively at her for that thought. It's Eljay. Of course they would need to have the talk.

Elwood's comment distracted her and she snorted with laughter. "Better him than Fox," Fin retorted with a grin. Her BFF was excellent at many things, but she couldn't imagine the straight-forward, blunt-as-hell alpha being the one to break the news to her son that one day, he'd want to stick his peepee in ladies. Eljay needed patience and a bit of delicacy - both things her friend was lacking in almost entirely.

"I guess we could talk to him together?" Fin offered slowly, but immediately her tune changed as the thought popped into her head, "Nope. No, I can't. This is all you." She'd barely dipped her toes into those waters and about lost her shit. Fin just couldn't handle the idea of telling her little boy about sex. Especially when she suspected it would absolutely terrify him...

Elwood gave Finley's comment a moment of consideration, then nodded. "True," he agreed. Both of the Alphas were very open with their sexuality, and there was no way Eljay would be prepared for their delivery of "the talk." Which meant that it was up to Eljay's parents to do it.

Or, apparently, Elwood would be tackling the task alone. "Oh, come on, we can do it together..." he protested, but he knew his words would fall on deaf ears. He could tell by Finley's expression that she had made up her mind. Besides, she had already had a close call of her own -- that mix-up was the whole reason that they were having this discussion in the first place.

"Fine, I'll talk to him about it...sometime..." It wasn't something that Elwood would rush to do, but when the time was right, he would address it with his son. Shifting his gaze back out to the land beyond the borders, he changed the subject. "I was thinking about doing some hunting out there," he said, glancing back at Finley to gauge her reaction.

Fin shook her head in response to his whining. She might've felt guilty to have blatantly refused his plea for her help in breaking the news to Eljay that his dick was there for more than show, but she was Finley, and so she didn't. A smile slipped across her muzzle when Elwood caved after receiving no further convincing from her. He was such a good boy. She leaned forward to kiss his cheek gratefully. "Thank you, Twig," she said, adding playfully but sincerely, "You're such a good papa."

The beta turned her head to follow Elwood's gaze as he looked away, a frown lengthening across her muzzle at the sight that greeted them. It had been nice to forget for a moment that they were sitting in an empty boneyard, but the present came rushing quickly back now that the distraction had ended. "I would love to be eating things," Fin replied wistfully. She hadn't seen anything in days except for a bird or two, which had done nothing but piss her off because of how easily they could just fly on away from all of this crap. She sighed.

"You found any leads?" she asked curiously. She suspected if he had, then he'd been tracking instead of discussing their son's sexual awakening with her. But, one never knew.

She thanked him and he rolled his eyes, though he couldn't stop the corners of his lips from twitching upward when she used his nickname. It was hard to believe that Twig and Frog were going to be parents for the second time; so much had happened since their carefree afternoons spent by the creek.

His smile faded at her comment; it was no secret that all of their bellies were empty, but Finley probably had it worse than her packmates. He shook his head. "No leads here, so I might go see what I can find elsewhere," he said, then paused thoughtfully. "Maybe I can convince Jay to come with me," he added. He knew that the chances of that were slim, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. And if the boy didn't want to accompany him, he would do it alone.

"I probably won't go far, though," he continued, thinking aloud. He smirked. "If you weren't all knocked up, I'd have you be my guide."

Elwood admitted to not having any sort of trail to go off of yet and Fin's hopes sank slightly. They didn't exactly have far to go, so there wasn't too much of a shift in her attitude. She was intrigued by his idea to try and take Eljay with him. It would be good for him to be sure, but would he do it? She thought on this as Elwood continued. "And whose fault might that be?" she quipped when he teased her about being "knocked up", but her smirk faded into a wistful sigh, "I do wish I could go. I miss it sometimes." She cast another glance out across the terrain that stretched before them. It had been a long time since she'd been outside of the Caldera. When she'd been a member of the Plateau, it had been rare for her to be seen within the packlands at all. That was a long time ago, and it almost seemed like that had been a completely different wolf from the one that stood now beside the beta male.

"You should see if you can take Eljay with you," Fin said after a moment, "It'd be good for him, though I'm not sure if you'll be able to get him to leave my side. I'm surprised he's not here now actually..." She glanced around as if expecting him to appear, but was unperturbed when he didn't.

Oh my god, moving is so exhausting! Please excuse this crap post. :D

Elwood turned an ear towards Finley, contemplating her words. He had never been a huge fan of her traveling -- especially after she got hurt -- but he knew that it was part of her nature, and something that he would never be able to change. She seemed to like the idea of trying to convinced Eljay to go with his father, and Elwood smiled.

"I'll try to convince him, but don't hold your breath," he teased. He cast a glance around, as though expecting the boy to appear out of thin air. "He's probably around here somewhere," he added somewhat truthfully.

only if you excuse this one!

Fin smirked slightly at Elwood's comment, though it did somewhat bother her that they expected something like this of their son. For a moment, it felt wrong to anticipate that he would be too scared to go. They should expect better, and hope that perhaps he would surprise them. It was unlikely to be certain, but weren't they supposed to have faith in him as his parents? Or was it better that they knew what to expect of him and accept it anyway?

Fin would put that down on her list of mysteries of parenthood. It was just as unlikely that she'd ever solve that one, just like all the others. She looked back at her mate with a sigh. "Well, I'll let you go find him," Fin said, pulling herself onto all fours, "Maybe he'll go with you if you tell him you have extremely important things to do discuss with him. Like what it is you did to get me pregnant." A grin flashed on her muzzle.

My last post!

The father grimaced, though he couldn't help but chuckle. "I'm not looking forward to that conversation," he said with a groan. He was only half-kidding, but he would take some time to figure out just what he needed to say before addressing it with Eljay. Surely the youth would have questions, and he wanted to be prepared.

He turned to pad away from Finley, planning to scout around the base of the caldera in search of prey while he considered the upcoming conversation. "I'll call you if I have any questions," he teased, pivoting back to press his snout gently against her cheek. Then, with a fleeting grin, he trotted towards the perimeter of the mountain; hopefully, his search would take a looong time and he could put off the "birds and the bees" talk for a little while.

Finley grinned at her mate as he bid her farewell and set off along the mountain's edge. She watched him for a while until he disappeared around a bend, at which point her eyes drifted out across the barren plains again. Her stomach growled angrily in hunger, causing Fin to swallow empty air. Weariness fell upon her, and so she too turned away to return to the rendezvous site to rest. If she could not feed her unborn children, the least she could do was try to keep them comfortable.