The Sunspire everything from joy to pain (easter activity!)

hey all! to all you who celebrate, happy easter! regardless, i thought a fun little egg hunt would do our toons some good<3 just write your wolf finding an egg!! no rounds... no obligation to join... but try to limit it to one post a day just so everyone gets a chance to participate (: @Rannoch @Liffey @Wraen @Nara @Treason @Olive @Cassiopeia @Blondine @Ember @Goldy @Arrakis

the previous day terance and @Seabreeze had come across a ridiculous amount of bird eggs. neither of the two were knowledgable on bird specifics so... who knows what kind of birds they were, but there were four nests nestled into one of the cliffs and all four had four eggs in them. terance made some joke about how it was a sign that he and seabreeze would be having four pups-- seabreeze expressed an awkward but excited comment before playfully nudging him. terance awkwardly backtracked but also tried not to make it seem like he meant he didn't want four kids because what if she did want four? and terance didn't really care. and then he made a suggestion. 

an egg hunt! 

there were roughly 16 wolves in the pack, so maybe this could turn into some sort of game! the pair had a quick snack of one and a half egg each, leaving 13 eggs for the rest of the pack... since himself and seabreeze wouldn't be participating. and after that, they moved to eldershade grove and hid all 13 eggs-- strategically, but not impossible to find. 

the next morning, terance howled for the rest of the pack. seabreeze was down with some morning sickness-- so he didn't make her come, and promised to visit afterwards to tell her how it went. any left overs he could bring to her too...

when the wolves that gathered did gather, he announced their reason for gathering!

"i've hidden 13 eggs in the grove-- one for each member of the pack-- if you find an egg bring it back to me! and we can all gather and eat together..." he paused, looking and gauging their reactions for a brief moment before letting out a bright yip and exclaiming, "ready, BREAK!" 

 

As per usual, Nara was napping on a rock, when Terance called. Still dazed from her sleep and mistakingly thinking that Sunspire was under attack, she jumped up hastily, slipped, fell off and embraced the ground with great dedication. She should really stop napping on rocks.

Nara quickly shook off the dust and sprinted towards Eldershade Grove. She almost careered into another packmate before she realized that everything was fine. Even better, Terance announced that there was going to be an egg hunt! Although Nara hated birds, their eggs, she found, were harmless and quite tasty.

When Terance called the start, she took off in a hurry. If I was an egg, where would I be, she thought. Well, in a tree, of course. Looking up, she trotted between the trees. Her head moving from side to side, hoping to spot an egg-shaped object somewhere up there. After a while, Nara saw one in a tree hollow, just low enough for her to grab it. She placed the egg gingerly between her teeth and after she was sure that it would not break, she ran back to the gathering point.

Hunting eggs? Really? While Wraen was all for having fun at the right time, but now it was difficult. Ever since Terance had dropped his grand news on her, then finding out that another pregnant female had been permitted among the ranks and that Rannoch and Liffey would sure as hell fulfill their desire of having family of their own. So wrapped in their little, happy and fuzzy worlds they were, that she did not have a heart to interfere and bring them back to the very grim reality that was awaiting them down the lane. 

Therefore she came to the little gathering, acknowledged both Terance and Seabreeze with a curt nod and went on to find her egg. By using her nose to follow the scent trail one of the pair had left behind, she soon found her treat. However picking it up and bringing it back as she had been told, was not easy. Her canines broke through the thin shell and there was nothing else left to do than just to swallow, whatever was in her mouth and clean up the mess on the ground.

Then she left the "egg hunting arena" and went to sit a little distance away from it, observing the others at work.

"This sounds like fun, Terance," Rannoch praised once his friend was done addressing the gathered wolves. The group dispersed quickly, driven by competition, and soon Rannoch followed. 

Following his nose, Rannoch weaved through the territory as he sought one of the hidden eggs. Although the premise of the game was peculiar, and one that he had never heard of before, Rannoch appreciated his friend's originality; the pack needed an engaging activity like this to get their minds off of the recent events. 

In time, Rannoch found his prize in front of a cluster of evergreens; the egg laid next to a lookalike stone, and it had almost gone unnoticed. Upon realizing that he had stroke gold, Rannoch retrieved the treasure gently in his jowls and turned so that he could return to where the pack had met.

Upon arriving in the clearing, Rannoch realized that Wraen and Nara had beaten him; although he hadn't been the first to complete the task, Rannoch was satisfied with how he had done. Knowing that the others would return soon to feast, Rannoch made himself comfortable by sitting and placing the egg in front of him.

Well, I'll be damned, Blondine thought to herself as the summoning howl echoed through. It was odd to hear someone other than Xan call for her, but she figured that so long as she was to be a part of this pack, she ought to act the part. The arena didn't prove to be quite as filled as she had hoped for, but there were one or two new faces that she figured might do her some good, if remembered. 

Blondine was lucky to catch the butt-end of Terance's instruction, which she took as seriously as any. Back at home, things like this were common, so she didn't need to hear the whole of his explanation, anywho. It didn't take long for her to find her egg, either; after a few moments of determined sniff-and-check, Blondine found herself face to face with a perfectly round egg, marked only by a little crack near its top. 

Found one! she exclaimed with a proud giggle. After taking her egg up gently between her jaws, Blondine trotted back to the arena to see what would happen next.

The smile on her muzzle felt as though someone had painted it on her. It wasn't real, much as she longed for it to be. Terance was brilliant and joyful as he shared the rules for this game of his. And of course he was - he would soon be a father. Parenthood was enough to make anyone smile like that. She could've been smiling like that if she were soon to be a parent. But she wasn't. He was. He and his... his what? Were they even mates? Had they committed to each other at all, or were they simply tied together now by their foolish moment of weakness to lust?

Liffey's false smile tightened as he called for them to go. It was a relief to turn away and dart off to begin her solitary hunt. Her smile dropped and was replaced by the forlorn frown that she so often wore when she was alone. She wanted to be happy for him. She wanted to be happy for Olive too. But she wasn't. She was bitterly jealous, angry at their foolishness, and anxious now for what this would mean for her own litter.

She had waited. She had worked so hard and suffered for so long to get here, to a place where she could be happy and where Rannoch's children would be safe. This was supposed to be their time, but now it was shared. She knew it was selfish and horrible of her to feel so bitter. But being aware of those truths did not stop her heart from grieving, nor her instincts from raging against the idea of a subordinate birthing a litter. That was her right as alpha. All of this was wrong.

Liffey took a deep breath as she trotted across the terrain. Her heart wasn't in this game very much, and so she wasn't trying too hard to actually succeed. It seemed that luck was on her side though, for when she found the egg sitting in a pile of similarly sized rocks, it had nothing to do with any effort she'd actually put into it. She was actually disappointed when she found it so quickly, but gingerly plucked it out of the pile and trotted dutifully back to the gathering nonetheless. 
Nara, Wraen and Rannoch were there already, and she again didn't much care. She stepped to her mate's side and dropped her egg neatly beside his. She turned then to plant a kiss upon his nose before settling in at his side to await the coming feast, the smile once again painted upon her face.

When Treason heard the call, she appeared on the scene soon after, but not at a hurried pace.  It hadn't sounded like an emergency call, so she assumed it would be a pack meeting or the like.  However, it turned out it was a game?  Was she understanding that right?  Ok, that wasn't what she was expecting at all, and probably more than a little confusion showed on her face.  Maybe it would be a game better played if there were pups in the pack.  As a yearling, she thought herself above that sort of thing.  Perhaps they should have a sparring competition instead!  Yes, that would be far more interesting, wouldn't it?

Once they were dismissed, she did her best to catch Terance's eye before shaking her head and taking her leave back towards the territory edges.  If everyone else was going to be playing, she was going to make sure nothing bad happened while they did so.  It wasn't a particularly altruistic move on her part, more that she was just a scrooge and this wasn't her kind of fun.

wolves came and went and found and settled. it was a very straightforward thing and those who participated were greatly appreciated by the packs beta. wraen kind of participated... kinda didn't... which kinda sucked. he noticed her above everyone else, and especially after their most recent conversation terance was just sort of down. he thought this might help, her personality was so perky and funloving-- but apparently not. 

he was out of ideas.

regardless, once everyone gathered back they all had their little feast and chatted before going their separate ways. terance didn't bother marking the activity as a failure but... well he certainly wouldn't be trying anything like it ever again.