Dragoncrest Cliffs dance break! i wish i had some glow sticks

@Eljay

Furi has spent a few nights in Hougeda because of the cold temperatures but she feels guilty with the other wolves out there, unable to come inside because they are still untrustworthy to those that have a say. If she could change one thing, it would be that. They all deserved for shared warmth and they are a pack now, right? But she’s known the wolves for a while now and she’s the reason they’re here—Rose and Arrille, at least—but by default the others are young too and wishes she can do more for them.
 
As a fox crosses her path up ahead, noting her at the same time, she takes off after it. The sudden launch of the fox puts a greater distance than she’d like between them and before she knows it, the distance is too great to close. Furi slows to a stop, sides heaving for new breath as hot air billows in front of her face. This time, the fox gets away from her but it doesn’t put too much of a damper on things as she dusts herself off and keeps going, searching for the next best thing.

It felt like winter had suddenly come and smacked him in the face this year around. Perhaps because he had been so busy with Redhawk Caldera and by the time he had returned from it, winter was more than on its way. A lot had occupied Eljay and he had to admit that Drageda still did not feel like home as much as the Caldera did. During his visit there everything about him had screamed and begged for him to stay but he knew he could not. He had made the decision to leave, he had hurt his parents and other wolves with that and he couldn't just turn all of that around as if nothing had ever happened.

Had Eljay not been so lost in thought he might've noticed that a fox was headed his way; as things were, both he and the fox were surprised when they nearly bumped into each other. Eljay had been walking slowly but the fox, running at full speed, had skidded to a sudden halt right in front of him, eyes wide with fear, before it turned sideways and slipped off. Eljay turned his head to look at it, blinking in surprise while he processed what had just happened. Then, as he stepped forward to continue his journey, he found the reason that the fox had been running; a young girl with an interesting, unique coat pattern who appeared to be searching, or hunting maybe. "Hiya," Eljay called out softly to her to catch her attention, hoping she was up for a chat or something else.

enter interesting coat part two, strutting quite contently by with a ball of moss in her jaws. she had missed the fox scene in it's entirety, though it's scent had meandered past her at one point during the day. portia was planning on showing this moss to dalia before dragging her along to where she'd gathered it, intent on showing her some proper gathering techniques... along with whatever wisdom she could think of sharing with her favored child. along the way, she spotted eljay and furi, who she remembered fondly-- feeling a bit sorry for her still from the whole flea incident.

being who she was, the speckled fisa made a quick stop, dropping the moss and smiling sweetly at them both. "seems everyone's out stretching their legs today." she offered as her greeting, noting the girls heavy breathing and eljay's... well eljay seemed normal as ever to her.

The fox is long gone but not her company. After a moment, another wolf shows up and offers a greeting. She’s seen him before but only with the other wolves of Drageda but never one on one. He’d been gone for several weeks, if she remembered correctly, and she has already settled with the wolves she’s known since she first got here. He isn’t one of them.
 
Furi doesn’t turn him away, but she still takes a few more seconds to catch her breath. She does offer him a smile in the meantime but it is only a beat later that Portia shows up. The girl smiles at her, wags her tail, and turns a little to greet her. She’s had minimal interaction with the healer but she helped with the fleas, at least and she is eternally grateful.
 
“Hey,” she says, still a little winded, but hopefully they won’t notice her grand failure at hunting today.

There seemed to be many young wolves in Drageda, though Eljay didn't mind; he liked it, in fact, as it made him feel like he could maybe make a difference. With winter on its way most of them were growing into the adult ranks and his forte was more with the tiny ones (the ones that didn't notice how weird he was yet, he thought to himself) but it was still good to meet another one of the youths. Before she could react another approached and Eljay turned to look at the other wolf with the interesting coat. He felt a bit boring in their presence, and tried to remember her name. They hadn't met one on one but had spent time travelling together. It seemed so long ago now, though, and any memories he had of the trip were washed away by the homesickness he had experienced when back at Redhawk Caldera.

"I'm Eljay," he introduced to the girl in particular, though shot a quick glance to the other wolf too, hoping that she may introduce herself to both of them, not knowing they already knew each other. He opened his mouth to ask something more -- maybe about the fox, maybe about her life or how long she had been in Drageda -- but then closed it again as he couldn't find the words to eloquently phrase a sentence.

portia was-- as far as she was concerned, already acquainted with both of these wolves. so she assumed that eljay introducing himself was probably for furi. she waited for furi's response before glancing between the two.

"are you up to anything interesting today?" she asked, ears pricked. her moss gathering was of course interesting to her, but she figured it was less than exciting to the rest of the world-- so she wouldn't bring that up herself.

Eljay introduces himself and she nods, glancing away while at the same time introducing herself, “Furi.”

Her attention falls on Portia after a beat and she shrugs an indifferent shoulder. “I was hunting, but it got away,” she explains and shuffles her feet a little. She doesn’t like to admit she hadn’t successful but at least it makes her look like she’s doing something. In lieu of the war looming over their head, she knows she’ll be in Drageda by herself no sooner than before.

Unfortunately for Eljay, the girl didn't introduce herself. He kept wondering what her name was again. Something with a P? Furi introduced herself and he said with a friendly smile, "Nice to meet you." Then he looked at the girl as she asked if they were up to anything interesting, to which Furi responded that she'd been hunting. "Oh!" he said as things clicked into place with the fox and all, though he didn't elaborate further.

"I was —" He hadn't really been doing much, except missing home. "Uh, patrolling, I mean — I just finished patrolling." Which was sort of true, as he'd trailed along the borders, but he hadn't really been paying attention or marking much, so still felt kind of guilty for telling a half-lie, sort of, depending on perspective. "What about you..?" he then asked the girl, figuring both the failed-hunting-girl and he wanted to get off their track of the story and onto hers.

grand assumption they follow after her?

"what were you hunting?" she asked curiously, suddenly in the mood for one thicc hare... though she wasn't sure how thicc they'd be in this season. "where'd it go? we can see if we come across it again," she then added, and to whatever furi would respond, portia would head in that direction, expecting the two to follow her. "walk and talk!" she chirped. 

poor eljay, he'd absolutely set himself up for a boring story about absolutely nothing he cared about-- probably, anyway, but portia hardly cared if she bored others. she had things to say, god damn it! "oh! well, hun, i just found this crazy large patch of moss and i did a bit of collecting--" she motioned to the ball at her feet "--such a stroke of good luck, i was running low actually. and this moss is particularly spongey!" she shared with a wave of her tail.

She’s never more painfully aware of how much she spends with just a few wolves within Drageda than when she’s with the older members. She’s obviously more comfortable around the wolves closer to her age, and Etoille, but he’s not here right now. Portia is nice, at least, and Eljay… well, she doesn’t have a lot of thought on him when their interactions have been limited to the one or two meetings with the rest of the pack. But Portia doesn’t seem to regard how awkward she (both of them, but she’s oblivious to it) and continues on.

“It was a fox,” she says, glancing over her shoulder as as Portia begins to move them, and then addresses what Eljay had to say. The fox is probably long gone by now, anyway, being too smart to linger when it’s life is in danger.

The friendly lady suggested that they could go and look for the fox. "I saw it — I mean, it was headed around a corner and almost ran into me, but I didn't realise 'til it was too late." He had tried to not make it seem like he was incompetent, but it was pretty hard to tell the story around that angle. "Anyway, uhm, we can go look for it now." He smiled awkwardly and followed the friendly lady as she lead the way, then began telling a story about... moss.

"Moss?" he asked, blinking. "Is that for, uh... Is — Are you a medic?" He guessed that that was what the moss would be for, anyway. Why else would she be gathering moss? Eljay knew only a little bit about that sort of thing, but he was happy to find out that she was a medic. "Do you know anything about uhm... about delivering puppies? I was studying that in my old pack — I mean, I want to help with that, uhm, with herbs and just, helping in the delivery, if that makes sense." Eljay smiled awkwardly, though he hoped that the friendly lady had some tips for him while they would look for the fox (though he knew they should probably be quiet if they actually wanted to find the fox).

going to go ahead and fade this out, sorry i suck ):

"well sure! let's go then," portia replied, and picked up the ball of moss, setting off with furi and eljay behind her. 

"oh of course, medic and botanist, know all about herbs and healing and all that," she shared easily, her ears pricked, "i'm technically a midwife too, so i'll gladly help you out, hun." oh good!! portia love love loved teaching and sharing and talking. this was a good opportunity too, though furi likely wouldn't think so because as portia began to talk to eljay, their chances of not scaring that fox off became less and less. but the trio walked away, through the territory with no particular direction, listening as portia talked about all sorts of medicinal stuff. 

by the time they departed, the fox was probably long gone, and though eljay had hopefully learned something new... he likely still didn't know portia's name.