Big Salmon Lake it seems to me

Wraen, who had never had to look for words at home, who had been the most outgoing and social soul within the ranks, now found it difficult to gather courage and approach any of the nearby packs. She still had not figured out, what to do with her life general and therefore was not sure, if joining and blending into a new group was something she really craved.

Now and then she thought about Terance and where her brother might be - had he crossed the very same lands Wraen was now or were he in an entirely different part of the world. Once, when the longing for his companionship was very strong, she thought she had caught a whiff of his scent in the air - faint, but unmistakeably his. Yet it was gone within seconds, when the winds changed, and his sister was left wondering, whether she had imagined this or there was a very tiny possibility that he was around here somewhere. 

The past few days had been quite exhausting and Wraen decided to stop and rest nearby a lake. She drank some water and then settled down in the warm sand.

He'd stayed by the lake for a bit, because it was a big area that he could oversee. When new wolves'd enter he could see it and choose to either seek companionship or walk away. Eljay still didn't really know what he was doing, but he was growing hungry and that was what drove him towards the lake. He wasn't that good at a lot of hunting, but he was good at fishing, at least, because all it took was patience and a lot of practise. He'd often gone fishing at the Caldera when he was hungry and felt unsure of what to do.

The two year old walked up to the water, focussed on his task, and stepped into the shallows. He walked in up to his stomach and then waited for the fish to gather so that he could get one, completely oblivious to the other wolf that was quite nearby in his focus on his task.

Wraen had closed her eyes and was beginning to doze off, when a movement not too far from her made her alert. It was a young wolf with a gray coat and lovely freckles all over his cheeks. He looked a tad bit older than the girl and otherwise seemed to be a good fellow and not a dangerous one.

"Are you fishing for mermaids there?" Wraen asked after she had got up to his feet and had drawn closer to the man, who was standing in the water and observing it's surface intently. "Or are you looking into the future?"

Eljay stared at the water with a focussed expression on his face, hoping that the fish would gather soon because he was beginning to get pretty hungry. He licked his lips as he watched the first fish gather, but it wasn't very big or nice looking. And anyway, it was better to wait for more so that the odds of success were bigger.

So focused on the task at hand was Eljay (it also helped to keep him from panicking about the newness of the places outside of Redhawk Caldera) that he hadn't noticed the other wolf at all. When she spoke he jumped up, eyes wide in terror and hackles raised, ears pressed back, tail tucked. He landed again which sent some water drops splashing on his back and head while he looked at her wide-eyed.

Realising that she didn't look very scary, Eljay felt the urge to apologise. But then he thought of what Anne had said — what if this was someone who wanted to mess with him? He just kept staring at her like a deer in headlights, waiting to find out if she was friend or foe.

Wraen had not realized, how focused the other one had been, until he reacted to her greeting and inquiry in the strangest of ways. He looked scared - she picked up the vibe for a moment and took a step backwards, averted her gaze and drew her ears back. To make the other more at ease with her presence and to manifest her peaceful nature, she sat down, yawned and shook her head. 

With this little ritual done, she dared to peek at the young fellow and ask: "You look as if you saw a bogey-man. Fear not - I don't belong to the underground folk and I do not even remotely like stealing and eating other people's feet." She finished the sentence with a light wag of her tail to emphasize that she was joking.

Eljay just kept staring at her and blinking as she responded to his fear. He might've thought it remotely funny... if he was someone else. If he was more his mother or his siblings. But now he just felt awkward and he just stared and blinked excessively at her for a good while longer until eventually he bumbled out a, "... Sorry..." that sounded awkwardly tossed up in the air rather than part of an actual mini-one-word-sentence. He looked away sheepishly after that and subconsciously licked his lips, feeling rather foolish.

"I... Should I.. leave?" he asked sheepishly, feeling out of place and like he should stop bothering the girl who was obviously much funnier than he.

"For what?" Wraen asked and furrowed her brow, not quite getting what was there to apologize for. The other guy still seemed very upset with something and it made her almost feel that she should have been the bogey-man. At least there would be reason for his fear. Not for a moment did she consider that her out-going nature would become a problem.

"If you want to - do so," she shrugged, but her tone implied that she would be quite sad to see him go. "I mean, you are on your own, I am on my own and... well - we have something common at least," she added, making another attempt to spark the conversation.

"I..." he faltered, trying to remember in his panic what he was supposed to be sorry about. "For being — weird." He smiled sheepishly, clearly forcing the smile on his face to try and not let it show how very panicked he was and how very completely and utterly awkward he felt.

She remained calm all the way, which made him feel even more ridiculous because clearly there was no need to be panicked at all and yet, here he was... She tried so very hard even after that, when she said he should only leave if he wanted to, but that he didn't have to. Thinking about it, Eljay had no clue what he wanted. Except for going home and snuggling with mommy. But he couldn't do that.

"I'm... I'm confused. Sorry. I don't — There's — I don't know what I want." He frowned thoughtfully, feeling more and more like fleeing away because he was making such a fool of himself.

"Oooh... that is a problem," Wraen nodded, relating to the young wolf's lack of purpose in his life to her own issues with the same matter. She liked the guy a little bit more and she only wished that he was not so panicked in her presence. 

"And that makes a two - I have no idea, what to do with my life either," she smiled warmly at him, then took notice of, where the guy was standing and took a step back. "You might want to get out of water - wet butt is never pleasant to run around with."

Eljay remained in the water a bit longer when she suggested he get out, staring at the water as if he wasn't too sure whether to head her words or not. Then he realised suddenly what she had said and he immediately followed up on her suggestion, quickly moving out of the water and shaking his fur (at a polite distance enough away).

"Don't, uhm... Don't you have a home, either..?" he asked in relation to her lack of purpose. "I don't know where anything is and I just... I don't know where to go or what I'm even doing." He glanced at the water, still hungry and wishing he'd be able to catch some fish, though the hunger was slowly passing now that he had bigger issues to focus on again.

"Well... technically speaking, I still have one, but I could not stay there," Wraen explained, wondering, what had driven this guy away from his home. Not judging or anything but unlike her romantic issues he did not strike like a character from a dramatic chick-lit novel. There was something fairy-tale like about him - unusual. 

"Reasons two and three make three and four things in common - I think we have a very good score so far," she was still smiling, as she explained this. "And as for the last one - let's make it simple - you are having a conversation with me and doing quite great," she added this one more as a joke to lighten up the mood. 

"Where were you kicked out from?"

She kept on talking and Eljay tried his best to keep up, but it was difficult because he felt anxious and she was going really fast. "Why couldn't you stay?" he started, but before he knew it she already went on to talk about him and asked him where he was kicked out from. Well, technically he wasn't kicked out of anything, but... he also couldn't stay.

"I... Redhawk Caldera." Which was his home, which every fibre of him screamed to return to right this instant — but he couldn't. He had to get better first, had to somehow become a good wolf who'd do well at things. Eljay felt the task was altogether impossible, but he had to at least try... or die trying.

"Am I going too fast for you? Sorry," Wraen apologized, once she realized that she had been dominating the conversation along with the word ration that had been shared between her and the young wolf being approximately 50:1. 

"What a coincidence - I have an uncle that lives there. Do you know Peregrine?" she asked. Osprey had made sure that both of her kids knew the two packs they could seek home at, if they happened to arrive to Teekon Wilds. 

"As for your question earlier - boring romantic stuff, never mind that now," she smiled, although one could sense that this was a sensitive topic.

Eljay frowned in confusion when she said that she had an uncle Peregrine at Redhawk Caldera. Had there been another that he didn't know about? Or did they share an uncle? But if so, then how did that work? Somehow, to Eljay, there were little other options than for her to have to be his sister which she clearly wasn't, so he didn't really understand. He had never met any of Peregrine's other family after all.

But it almost had to be the same Peregrine, and so Eljay said, without consciously realising he was using the nickname, "Uncle P died..." His expression fell, a sadness to his face. He heard that she said that she had left her pack because of boring romantic things, but he barely registered it at all as he waited to see how she'd respond to this clearly very sad news. If he was her uncle too, then surely she'd be as crushed as he'd been...

The news about her only relative's death here surprised Wraen, but did not affect her as deeply as the young wolf in front of her. Osprey had told her that she and Peregrine had been very close during the first two years of their lives, but after that life had got in the way and they had taken separate paths. The warmth and cordiality was still between them, when they had met, but otherwise they had grown apart. As for Wraen - the uncle she had never met was just another name in the story-book. Therefore all she could say was: "Mom will be sad to hear that."

During that awkward moment of silence that followed with her trying to figure out, how to continue the conversation without further upsetting the shy man in front of her, she realized that mom would probably never find out. Unless Wraen decided to return and this was out of question. 

"But I take you were pretty close, weren't you?" she asked quietly.

He was curious about her relations to Uncle P, but Eljay felt he should move away from Redhawk Caldera, not desperately stick to it, now. He must move on, he knew, and he shouldn't keep getting stuck in the past. He just couldn't afford to. So he didn't ask any more, and let the awkward silence sit between them while he tried to think of something to say.

At her question, he nodded, still trying to think of something, some way to move past the subject. He wanted to not keep being stuck in the past, he wanted to become someone else, someone better... But Eljay hadn't a clue how to move the conversation, too polite to simply start talking about something else.

"So, uhm..." he murmured, but he hadn't a clue how to continue.

"...you are hungry, right?" Wraen caught the offered bait and took the fishing pole along, glad that the shy boy had decided to break the awkward silence, that had been making her uneasy too. 

"Because I am and - I know girls don't usually do that - but I invite you for  a lunch-date," she got to her feet, now bubbling with enthusiasm. She loved hunting and it would be even more fun to have someone with her. "What do you say?" she asked with an expectant expression that wordlessly conveyed the desired answer "say yes, say yes, say yes".

Ears perked forward as she asked him if he was hungry, and he nodded silently. Then she asked him along on... a lunch-date? Eljay wasn't sure what it was, but he guessed it had something to do with food and so he didn't take long to answer. Well, sort of. "You have food?" he asked in surprise, almost like she had just said that she had a gold bar stashed somewhere that she was going to give to him. He forgot to say 'yes' in the process, just staring at her with incredulous and hungry eyes.

"Not at the moment, but I assure you that we will get some!" Wraen happily grabbed the little finger Eljay had given her and was ready to take him whole too. She got to her feet, lifted her muzzle, sniffed the air here and there, seemed to get a whiff of something and announced to the young man: "Tallyho! A hunting we will go!"

He was a little disappointed when she mentioned not having actual food right now, but at least hunting together would be easier than hunting alone in regards to getting some food in his stomach. He nodded in a more sullen confirmation to contrast her enthusiastic bouncing off, and obediently followed when she started the lead.

There were some people with whom you can travel in a very comfortable silence without the need of having a verbal exchange. With others however the quiet atmosphere is so heavy and thick you could cut it with a knife. Unfortunately Wraen's companion belonged to the second group and it was very, very difficult for the bubbly little diva to bear the other's wordless presence. 

"Did I introduce myself? I am Wraen Redleaf-DiSarinno. What about you - what name do you run by?"

---

He silently followed, aware there was some tension brewing though he wasn't too sure what he could do about it. She introduced herself and he realised only then that they hadn't introduced themselves yet, neither of them. "Oh! I'm Eljay," he said swiftly. "Uh, Blackthorn." He smiled awkwardly at her and then continued to follow as they made their way to find something to eat.

"Eljay - it is the utmost pleasure to meet you!" Wraen replied, feeling happy once again for her ability to lure the shy boy into talking with her again. Funny it was that she assumed him being younger than her, even though the opposite was true. 

"You said that Peregrine was your uncle too - right?" she continued, when a connection clicked in her mind. "Do you know how? Perhaps we are related on some level?" Wraen loved mysteries and she hoped that the information Eljay would provide her would lead her onto something.

He smiled shyly when she greeted him happily, but frowned thoughtfully when she asked how Uncle P was his uncle. Eljay shook his head after a moment of thought, admitting, "Uh, I dunno. He's just... always been there at Redhawk Caldera, and he was daddy's best friend pretty much — well, except for mommy, of course." Eljay looked at Wraen and then analysed out loud, "We do look kinda alike." They were both grey, at least. It made sense to Eljay that they might be related on some level considering their looks and their common uncle.

Though Eljay was not sure, how had Uncle Peregrine been related to him, and Wraen would most likely never find out either, the thought of them being from the same branch of the family made her happy. How cool was it to meet a relative by chance so far away from home?

She stopped then to regard the boy thoroughly, but after half a minute Wraen decided that searching for similarities was silly. After all - you could choose, who belonged to your family, right? "In that case, we are no longer strangers and will never be such. I have always wanted to meet my cousins and here you are," she smiled at him. 

"So, where do you plan to go from here?" she asked after the moment of revelations was over and they had resumed their trek to the forest. Wraen had entirely forgotten the beginning of their conversation, where her companion had stated that he had absolutely no idea, where to go and what to do.