Sun Mote Copse sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions

the boy had been lost for a short while, and his stomach had started to sound like some haunting ghoul – moaning and begging for anything to sate the hunger that existed there. as good as he had become at chasing stars, deku had found that his ability to hunt and fend for himself had not been developed well enough to sustain him. if the young boy spent much more of his time out there, he would surely have found himself swept away by the vicious wilderness.
 
as the two-toned pup wandered through the various terrain, he had started to feel very lost. all that he wanted was to hear the voice of his mother calling him back to their home. while it may not have been very long, deku knew that he needed to find someone who could help him before it was too late.
 
this was when he found himself at the edge of a claim. the scent of it was familiar. he was forced to recollect the memory of a young grey and white female who had come to visit him in the woods. she had brought joy with her. she had made him feel like he was not alone, and deku had been grateful for her. in a half-hearted voice, the young starchaser drew his head back and called out to anyone who might hear him. then, he waited.

With Colt still recovering and the number of working adults smaller than the number of kids that needed to be looked after, Wraen had learned to be a woman of many trades. Guarding and patrolling were not her favourite past times, but once a day she walked along the borders to leave marks and gather information on, who had trespassed or walked by. 

In part she did it also to make sure that Kiwi did not return to finish, what she had intended. In the state she had left her it was highly unlikely, but if the girl had been mad enough to come all the way here and injure Colt, one could expect other crazy things from her too. Therefore, when she caught scent of a living wolfish being, there was a fleeting moment of dread.

It was replaced by worry, when the little visitor finally came in sight. A boy, odd-coloured and clearly underfed, lurking on the Firebirds' doorstep. "What are you doing here?" she asked kindly, closing the distance between them and giving him an inquisitive look. "Did you get lost?" this was more of a statement of the obvious than a question.

deku hummed softly to himself while he waited. the young boy wondered if he had been loud enough to even draw the attention of anyone in the pack. the longer he sat there, the more his self-doubt had started to gnaw away at his insides. in the minutes that ticked by, the boy had started to fidget with the earth at his paws. he had stopped trying to peer into the trees, realizing that it had only made him feel worrisome and fearful that he was making a mistake.
 
when the voice of a stranger sounded in the crisp summer air, deku turned sharply toward her and lowered himself to the ground. her voice was soft enough that he didn’t feel entirely like he was in trouble. his silver gaze danced along the dirt for a moment before he looked up to her and smiled tentatively. “hi… i think i went too far and got lost,” the young boy admitted in a quaking voice.
 
“i don’t know how to hunt but if you will accept me in your pack, i will sing you a song!” that was how those things worked, wasn’t it? he was supposed to offer them a set of skills and they would determine if he was acceptable for their ranks.

"You poor thing," Wraen said in a friendly tone, wondering, how long had he been on his own, and shuddered at the thought of, what could have happened, if he had not ended up here. But drowned in the nearby bog, for example. Luck had accomapnied this little soul and she would make sure that it continued to do so. 

"You would be the first," she smiled, slightly amused and moved by the kid's readiness to be useful to the pack. "Alright - you can stay here until you are fit for travel and we find out, where your parents are and your home is. There must be people worrying for you," she told the boy. 

"I can't carry you, so you will have to walk. You can stay in my den, while I fetch something to eat for you," she beckoned the little fellow to follow her.

when the kindly woman stated that he would have been the first to sing for his chance at entrance into their pack, deku wondered whether or not he had made a wise decision by approaching the borders of the firebirds. when he thought back to his meeting with weejay, he had imagined that the rest of her pack would have been very similar to her. she had really enjoyed her plants and flowers. there was a chance that he had happened upon a pack of healers and florists. there were certainly worse places he could be.
 
“my mama is minori and my brother is orochi!” the young boy exclaimed with an eager bounce in his step. wraen had properly expressed how important it was that he provide details. the starchaser could not think of how much more he should say, or if there was information that he wished to provide that would prove very useless to the woman. he followed her obediently, doing what he could to be respectful. minori had not raised a savage child – deku knew his manners.
 
touched at the idea that she would offer her own den to him, young deku could not help the smile that spread along his features. his silver gaze glittered as he looked up to her. the boy was starstruck by her kindness.

"Minori and Orochi - interesting names, but I don't know anyone personally, who runs by them," Wraen remarked more to herself than to the boy. She was pretty sure that none of the sister packs had people having names of this exotic kind. Plus, with them being traditionalists and sticking to their own family circle, it was highly unlikely that they would allow an unrelated wolf to live and breed within their ranks. Which left Shadewood keep as a likely option or he was a part of a group of loners that were travelling through. She did not believe that a puppy could survive the long time it took to travel from such places as Moonspear or Kaistleoki - their "nearest" neighbours.

"Does your pack have a name?" she asked the next obvious question. That would be the first thing Colt would want to find out, when she visited him to relay the news. "And with me being Wraen, what is your name?" she introduced herself.

the woman stated that she did not know his mother or brother personally. he wondered if he had given her the right details. when she did not ask him for more, the young starchaser followed at her rear and watched her paws as he was led to her den. in spite of his thin state and loudly complaining stomach, deku seemed pleased with the company he had found. every so often, his glittering silver gaze would search her features, trying to memorize the things that he found interesting about her. as childish as it might have been, the boy trusted her to keep him safe. she had not given him a reason to doubt, after all.
 
the silver female asked him if his pack had a name. deku’s features scrunched humorously into a thoughtful expression. he was sure that it did, but he did not believe it had ever been spoken to him. “i don’t think i know the name of the pack…” he whispered to her, afraid that she would be frustrated with his lack of knowledge. “but my name is megumi. you can call me deku! it’s shorter and i like it better,” the child told her with a smile that seemed to light up his entire face. it was the best way for him to explain that he had a nickname most people used.
 
“your name is pretty. does it mean something?” the query was soft, almost as though the question was forbidden.

Now they were in a pickle. The kid had no idea, what the name of his "roof" was, and Wraen wearily imagined the long journey it would take her to walk to the Keep or any other packs further away. She liked to travel on her own terms and, when it felt like it, now, however, was not a good moment to do so. But she decided to deal with it tomorrow or, whenever her absence would not make any difference to the kids playing around here.

"Wraen is a tiny and chattery bird. They are all around here," she explained. "I was born during a famine, I was the smallest and most fragile and therefore the choice of my name. My burly siblings, on the other hand, had rock solid names and - hence - they are neither chatty, nor... fluttery. Yeah, that's about right," she chuckled.

"How did you get lost? Maybe there is something particular you remembar about your home?" she asked him, deciding to fish for more details again.

<33 i'm terribly sorry for the wait on this. my real life has been chaotic as can be! i'll be much more prompt moving forward and i appreciate your patience very very much.

as challenging as his position was, deku did not seem to be all that worried. he was grateful that he had found someone as kind as wraen to help him. she was gentle in her words; the young boy did not believe that he could have run into anyone better! she even answered his question about her name, explaining that she was called that after the small birds that would chirp in the woods. this information was pleasing to him and he showed it in the sweet smile that spread along his features, causing his eyes to shimmer like the moon.
 
wraen went on to try to be helpful in locating his home. deku understood the importance of this, so he listened to her questions with an intent expression. his dark ears were drawn upward, and his eyes were glued to the sweet apple green of her own. “i should have paid better attention…” the child admitted softly, glancing over his shoulder at where he had come from. “i remember there was water and it was really hard to go across it because i don’t know how to swim, so i had to find a place that was small enough that i could splash through it!”
 
deku beamed up at her and padded his paws with great effort to show her how he had done it. it had taken him a long time to find a place where he had not sunk up to his chest in frigid river water. he wondered if this information would help her.

"Not much help, but I will see, what Colt has to say about this. He might know," Wraen mused out loud and by then they had arrived. She first checked out the scent trails left by other pack members, then stood listening intently, where the ruckus of other kids happened (and it was far enough for them not to be disturbed), and then rummaged through her small "larder" and pulled out fairly fresh (by scavenger standarts) remnants of rabbit for Deku to work on.

"I will leave you here for the time being and inform the Sovereign - that's, what we call the leader here - about your arrival and stay. I will return shortly - you have nothing to be afraid off," she explained, smiled at the boy in an encouraging manner and left. She got delayed though discussion with Colt being the least time-consuming matter, distracting Elfie from accompanying her had been more difficult. But eventually - an hour or so later - she was back to the little surprise package again.

"How are you doing?" she asked him, lying down at a polite distance and giving a sigh of a person, who has had a bit of a run and now is glad that all matters have been settled.

she mentioned someone named colt – an individual that deku was not familiar with – but he smiled all the same and watched her with wide eyes as she prepared to leave. without needing to ask, wraen kindly returned to him with a snack before she departed. she stated that he would be safe, and the young starchaser believed her with all of his heart. something in the warmth of her gaze spoke to him and he did not believe that she would lead him astray.
 
so, deku sat and picked at the rabbit that she had left for him. he managed to clean off the remnants of meat that had clung to the bones just before the green-eyed woman returned. when deku caught wind of her scent, he jumped to his paws and scampered to where she was approaching from. she asked how he was and he smiled softly up to her, grateful for the kindness that she was showing him.
 
“i feel much better. thank you for the rabbit!” deku responded, careful not to forget his manners. “did you find out anything?” the child then inquired with a curious tilt of his head.

"No, not at the moment. Our leader has been a bit under the weather lately, but come tomorrow we will definitely think of something," Wraen promissed the boy, feeling a bit of selfishly sorry, because he was a fellow, who was easy to like and therefore would be hard to return. 

"But you have nothing to worry about. You can stay as long as we find your parents or - even better - if your parents find you," she smiled at him reassuringly. "What about that song you promissed?" she asked him. "I am no musician myself, but I do enjoy others performing. My niece Ibis was very fond of singing as well," whether she was now, Wraen had no clue. The last meeting between them had not been pleasant and she had not seen the girl since.

deku felt quite bad for being bothersome when their leader wasn’t feeling well. his eyes fluttered softly and he lowered his head apologetically. “please, i don’t want to be bothersome to you or your leader,” the small boy commented to wraen. she was so lovely to him and he did not wish to become a burden so soon. though his life had not been long, the starchaser wanted only to bring good things to those around him.
 
wraen did not seem too swayed, though. she even encouraged the song that he had offered at the beginning of their conversation. deku’s dejected expression shifted drastically to reflect a broad smile and a glittering from the depths of his silver gaze. “okay! this is one my momma would sing,” deku told her proudly. with a nervous grunt to try and clear his throat, deku looked up to wraen and sang a soft song in his mother’s native tongue: Japanese.

The language was foreign and had a melodic sound to it, Wraen tried to discern separate words, but could not. It was an unusual song and therefore she could not immediately tell, if it was to her taste or not. But even if Deku had sung the most ribald verse written in the history, she would still have smiled and admired his effort and skill. 

"What is it about?" she asked, when the boy had finished, always curious about the story behind the music.

she asked him what it was about. deku beamed at her and wagged his tail furiously enough that it swayed his entire back end. he had been concerned that she would not have enjoyed his singing or that she would have found the song to be boring because she didn’t understand it. wraen was supportive, though, and deku felt flushed with relief.
 
“it’s about watching the first snow fall with someone you love,” deku told her in a quiet voice. then, the child peered up at her with glittering eyes and waited to see if she would have other questions about the melody. though he was happy to have found such pleasant company, the song had caused the boy to miss his mother considerably.

"Romantics, eh? Those authors," Wraen mused and smiled. Every time she felt as if she had seen it all in the world, it still had things to surprise her with. Therefore she had accepted the fact of her own lack of knowledge and was open to everything new. To think that this boy had generations of ancestors that spoke in a different tongue and had a culture of singing, was amazing. Truly.

"I like music, but I am the worst singer in the world myself," she finally said, wondering, if she had stated it to him earlier or not. "I have met some wolves which preferred poetry to story-telling. It is kind of thinking, yet there is no melody and the music is in the words," this was a statement that contradicted itself, but she had no better way of explaining it.

"What would you like to hear a story about?" she asked. "A deal is a deal and I owe you one."

She talked with the boy for the next half an hour and then let him have his rest.