Stavanger Bay sleep makes waves

Junior's discontent was now, more or less, public knowledge among her foster family. She'd been too busy getting upset at every turn lately to convey any helpful information to them and so she remained firmly planted in the bay for the time-being. While Ragnar and Thistle presumably readied for the inevitable—a breakthrough in the mystery that would lead to Osprey's return to her home, if such was possible—they continued to care for the young girl as one of their own.

She woke to find herself snuggled between the pale Alpha male and his agouti mate. Junior sleepily pushed herself upright and gazed at her foster parents for a moment. She then sighed, tiptoed around Ragnar's prone form and slipped outside into the darkness. Moonlight guided her in the direction of the sea and she soon found herself seated on a small, sandy hillock, sea grass tickling her bottom as she peered disconsolately over the dark breakers.

Most of the weeks at Stavanger Bay were spend in solitude upon territory ground -- he had little to no interest to step into the drama of Wheeling Gull Isle. He had little interest in petty drama at all, maybe politics just wasn't something that interested him, despite his eagerness to learn new things and to explore. So far the Iota had mapped most of the bay-lands in-depth while remembering the nooks and the crannies. But the task at hand left him with little time to socialize. He enjoyed the silence just this once, perhaps he needed it.

Mees was on his route to one of his favourite spots when ran into Osprey. His bright, ember eyes grew brighter as he was certain he recognized the girl from a meeting on neutral grounds; the day she snuck away. But what the heck was she doing here? "Hey spunky." Mees called out loud while wondering if she'd recognize their previous meeting when he called her spunky. "So, you on an adventure again?" This time, however, it did not appear that Blue Willow -- or one of her 'watch buddies' was anywhere close by. But then again, he didn't know her loss of memory history; perhaps he should have been paying more attention at history. D'oh.

Edit on 8/2: It looks like Mees has been removed, so I'm going to conclude and archive this, since it's pretty plot-centric...

Osprey did not expect company, so when a masculine voice called out to her, she started badly. Her wide, mismatched eyes tried to pluck out features in the darkness as the figure approached. His question didn't make much sense to her, nor did his familiarity, until he came close enough that she could see the details of his face. Those eyes. Junior gasped lightly, mentally scrambling for a name.

"Mees!" she hissed after a few beats, utterly surprised to see him here. She bounced to her feet, feeling strangely reassured by the first familiar face in the bay. "What're you...?" she began to ask him when knowledge struck her like a bolt of lightning. Appropriately, her heart began to thunder in her chest. They'd met just beyond the plateau. Aunt Willow had been there.

Loudly enough to make his ears bleed, Junior screeched, "YOU KNOW WHERE I LIVE!" Her voice was likely still ringing in his ears when she breathlessly added, "Can you help me? I need to find my way back! You remember how to get there, right? Right?"

When Mees assured her that he could help, Osprey calmed down slightly, though she continued to pant excitedly. Only when he began to give her some clues to figure out the route home did she suddenly realize what this meant. She could leave Stavangar Bay and go home at any time.

By the time their conversation wrapped and Mees excused himself to go to bed, Junior was no longer quite as enthused. In fact, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with this information yet. She felt savagely torn between the family she knew and loved back at the plateau and the family that had rescued her and taken her in out of the kindness of their hearts.

Mind spinning at a thousand miles an hour, she remained on the beach until the wee hours of the morning, then eventually made her way back to Ragnar's and Thistle's den. She held the information Mees had given her close to her heart but had already decided she would keep it to herself for now.