Sunbeam Lair There's the eternity I was looking for

Phoenix wasn't aware of how long he lingered in the quiet of Sunbeam Lair, but he knew that he wasn't yet tired of it, despite mostly sleeping in its warm atmosphere. Winter breezes were stretching long into spring, but this didn't seem to bother him here. He felt happily encased by the hideaway; safe, secluded, and most importantly: well fed. There were enough things to explore here as well that boredom didn't become him, and loneliness was kept at bay through his activity here.

He knew he didn't want to stay -- but he could recuperate here without much fanfare, and it was all the yearling needed for now. With burnished ears twitching every now and again, Phoenix lazed in a slim patch of heatless sunlight, his eyes closed and his other senses lulling as a nap loomed threateningly on the edges of his consciousness.

@Wraen

Wraen was returning to Sunspire after a few days worth of exploring in the taiga and the valley. Though the winter was hesitant to leave just as much as on the other side of the mountain range, she was going home with some hope for the future. Despite the grim prospects of having too many mouths to feed, they had options. And not just a few, but many, if they played out their cards well. 

She had never heard the quote about "never tickling a sleeping dragon" and therefore, whenever she saw a person lying down and appearing quite motionless, she had the natural instinct of approaching and make sure that they were alive. It was no different now, when she was drawn out from the world of daydreams by the sight of a dozing wolf in the vicinity. Carefully she made her way over to him, stopped at a safe distance and asked: "Is all well with you?"

Having grown up in a pack where there was always someone looming nearby, Phoenix was never really surprised by the sudden appearance of another wolf—even when it was a complete stranger and he was caught totally off-guard. His eyes widened, honing in on the voice that had reached out to him, but other than a slight shift of his muzzle to look at her properly, he didn't seem very startled. It didn't serve as a great lesson to the she-wolf who would so openly bother a resting predator.

His fat tail began to thump on the ground, and he yawned to wake himself up more, eyes alighting her mocha-grey features as he studied her. She seemed harmless, he thought, so he didn't bother to rise. "I'm fine," he sniffed casually, shifting on his elbow slightly as he shrugged. "Just taking a break. Awful nice of you to check up on me, though. Who are you?"

No one had ever harmed Wraen - no matter, how grumpy the disposition of the stranger had been - therefore it did not occur to her in the slightest that she could be in any danger. She was happy to see the other move, get up and reply - she was no healer, but even she could see that he was doing alright and Death was not in the vicinity. Unless, of course there was a rockslide or something. 

"Just a friendly scout," she replied and smiled at him. "It's part of my job to check, if people are not dying on premises, where it is considered impolite and therefore forbidden to do so."

Phoenix didn't mind the improper introduction. It didn't honestly matter to him whether or not a wolf even had a name, as long as they were good company. "On premises?" he echoed questioningly. "I didn't know this hovel was part of a claim." Though he made no move to evacuate the "premises," the boy was (rightfully) on edge now. He seemed to ready himself for action without an ounce of aggression, and he looked at the scout expectantly, waiting for her to confirm that one of them had made a mistake of some sort. He certainly wouldn't fight to stay in a place he had no intention for occupying for longer than the rest of the day, but he wasn't about to let himself be hassled either over a mistake.

Wraen loved clever word plays and those, who knew her well did not take them too seriously and occasionally joined in the joke. And then there were the rest of people, who met her for the first time, listened to her nonesense with a mouth agape and tried to apologize and excuse themselves, or simply replied with all the "ah"s and "hmm"s in the appropriate places. Smile and wave philosophy - that is. 

"Well, now you know," she said with a smile. "And there are not many rules around - just this one - do not die here. You can always be sneaky and go around the rule and do that, when I am not looking. But in that case you would be bound to these rocks to haunt them forever like dozens of other ghosts. And - frankly speaking - there is a bit of an overpopulation of them at this point. Therefore the rule."

Phoenix was quick to catch on to the scout's playfulness. Her decree sounded serious enough, despite the ridiculousness of its reasoning and her beaming delivery, so he decided to go along with it. Had she not seemed so committed, he might've scoffed and resumed napping; but as things were, he found her presence to be quite brightening. "I'll do my best to follow the rule," he vowed in a solemn voice. "But I can't say I'm not tempted. This is an awfully nice place to call it quits," he added with a grave nod, peering around them thoughtfully.

The man got the joke and played along - the fact that he not only possessed wit, but also a sense of humor - got him easily in Wraen's good books. This meant that in his company she could be herself as much as she would like and not have to restrain herself in fears of accidentally offending the other party. 

"I have to agree - it is an awfully nice place," she nodded in agreement. "I am horribly sorry for being impolite - I am Wretched Wraen? And who may I have the frightful pleasure to have the horribly interesting company with?"

Wretched Wraen, as she had so delightfully introduced, drew from Phoenix a curious cant of his red-brushed head as he considered the name. It was an unfitting moniker, even if she spoke of macabre things. There was a light around her that no one could deny, let alone mistake for something wretched. He decided not to make a commentary on this— it was just a game of words after all— and just go along with it. "I'm Phoenix, presently untitled," he smirked, tail thumping a little on the ground. "So, Wretch," he went on, pointedly choosing to shorten the wrong part of her given name; "what were you up to before arriving to crush my dreams of a decent grave?"

Thank you for your patience!

"Me - scared some suicidal fellows away from the cliffs," Wraen explained nonchalantly. "I mean, suicide is selfish enough, but - come on - the mess they would make here!" She beckoned to the foot of the mountain range in the direction of, where she had initially come from. "Brains and blood splattered everywhere, broken bones and teeth. And - they make everything even worse, when their bladder and intestines let go. Ugh... there are not too many folks that can clean up the mess here. I directed them to a more inhabitted area. It's a long way off, perhaps, they rethink their actions."

"Then, of course, all the folks that want to poison the water by drowning themselves there - the selfish fools - people will have to drink from, where their bloated corpse will be rotting away," she winced and shivered at the very thought of it. "But enough about me - what useful stuff have you done today?"

She was an animated sort, and Phoenix found himself laughing at some of her exclamations, even if it was completely morbid. "Awfully nice of you to talk down jumpers and scour for waterlogged corpses. I think you're my new hero," he chorused, his muzzle wrinkling with mirth. "Today was probably my most useful day, actually." This set-up was most obviously meant to rapture her, and he peeked from the corner of his eye to make sure he had her attention. "I culled the rabbit population (they're taking over around here, and we can't have that), and I made sure the creeks wouldn't overflow by taking on some of its burden. I also saw this poor patch of browning grass here and thought I'd give it a nice little reprieve from the sun by laying on top of it."

He beamed with false enthusiasm, waiting appropriately for Wraen's false praise on the matter.

"Quite useful activities - I don't understand then, where did lying and dying in a grave came in?" Wraen picked up the thread and, as she asked the last question, she arched her eyebrows. 

"So - Phoenix - business aside," she sat down, if she had not already done so, and prepared for a bit of more in depth conversation with less nonesense interwoven. "What really brings you here and where do you hail from?"

"Oh, I was only going to commit the ultimate act of selflessness and use my own body to feed the earth," Phoenix shrugged, then pressed his forelegs outward and lifted his rump into a long stretch. He stood briefly to shake what numbness lingered in his limbs from lying there so long, before rolling back on his haunches to mimic her seat. "I'm originally from quite a distance away but right now I'm running with the wolves by the Creek, not too far from here -- pack's only recently settled there," he spoke freely, having never learned the art of subterfuge. "Didn't come here for much, but I've seemed to have found a lot."

His tail gave a happy wiggle. "What about you -- really, Wraen?"

Here, have this sweater

Impressive. :)

Vague, vague, vague and Wraen's thirst for information was not satisfied, but she had to remind herself again that, though they had found a common ground by exchanging witty remarks and word plays, they were merely strangers that had met on chance and would likely not see each other again. 

"My tale is pretty much the same, except I run with the wolves from the mountain," she replied and beckoned to the mountain range on their left. "So, are the rumours true - can creek wolves talk to fish and they have got scales instead of fur?" she phrased her question in such an innocently curious manner, that one would believe that she was very serious.

His eyes turned on the Sunspire as she motioned towards it, and Phoenix admired the peak as he had from afar many times before. It was quite a wonder now to know someone from the very mountain that had served as his compass rose when navigating these valleys and ranges. The yearling grinned, "definitely," and he swooped his gaze upon the playful Wretch with a mischievous glint in his eye. "I've got gills too -- check me out," he offered, lifting up his foreleg and motioning to his armpit as indication of where she should search. His tail wagged as he maintained a totally relaxed, totally not-gonna-do-anything posture, though he surely intended to try and scare her with a sudden flinch and added turkey-noises when she got close enough to take a sniff.

"Yeah, right..." Wraen regarded Phoenix with a sly grin and remained, where she was. He was an amusing stranger - no doubt - but she also had a degree of wariness about him as well. Therefore she would keep her distance for an easy escape, in case things suddenly became foul. 

"Aren't gills supposed to be on the side of your neck? Just below the jawline?" she asked, having seen some fish herself and not recalling that any of them had had gills under the level of the first pair of fins.

She conversed with the guy for a while longer and then they parted on mutually good terms.