Verdant Basin wake up, it's a prison break!

@Elijah

She knew it had to be done.

Not just for herself, but for her friend. Wren wasn't selfish - as much as she thought she was and kept telling herself. She knew, deep down, they wouldn't accept either of them. There was a subtle fear of rejection. That this High Elk bullshit would be a waiting game until spring. Then they'd both get kicked.

There was just no fucking point to sit on their asses, build relationships with the other members, only to be cast out. Wrong colors. Wrong religion. Didn't matter. So she crept into Elijah's den around the middle of the night, poking and prodding the man until he got up.

Telling him she was going for a walk and wanted to know if he wanted to go with. Simple, just in case the others asked. She hated it. She wanted to say something to Celnes, but was also afraid they'd be forced to stay. Instinct took over. It was fight the others or flee.

And she decided to flee.

"Hurry up" she says, ahead of Elijah at the Basin now. Wren glances over her should to see if he was still moving. "it's just ahead." Then they could talk.

Groggily he woke up, slowly, with a nice yawn to show off that inky maw of his in the blackness of night. A light stretch to wake up his limbs and joints - and as Wren asked for a walk, he finally followed along in a light trot. Slowly waking up in the process as they wandered away from the King's woods and into something... well, somewhere new.

Hurry up?

Another yawn to wake up his brain with a rush of oxygen, a light shake his head to focus... Are we hunting? It seemed like a good idea, though perhaps would have been better if he was more awake to hunt anything. But it would put them on good terms with most of the pack members if they were food providers!

Such a good idea!

"No" came her simple reply at first. She turned away from him briefly, biting her lip. Wondering how to say what she had to say. How do you tell someone they were going to be an outcast? It was her fault Elijah had been there in the first place. Her fault that she told him. He walked into the lion's den.

He came out by the skin of his arse. "We're leaving" Wren went on, her voice determined to be strong "leaving Kingslend" she added, looking back to the ivory man. There was a flash of apology in her eyes. "you went through all that to join, and I'm sorry, but I can't let you stay."

Sucking in breath, she laughs lightly. "I can't even stay."

Okay, now he was waking up. Her words were shocking enough to wire him up, eyes opening wide and alert. Leaving? He parrotted on a whim as if it would help him understand what was going on. Wait, why couldn't she stay too? None of this made sense.

He stopped walking, something didn't make sense, none of it did! He looked back to where they came from, then back to Wren. Her apologetic eyes burrowing deep into his chest - he could barely look at her and those big blues. Is it something I said? Something I did? He sat down hard onto the ground, snow puffing out from around his ass. 

I'm sorry Wren, I can go, you can go back. No need for us both to be refugees. He didn't want to take her away from her home either, what kind of friend would he be if he did?

"You didn't do anything wrong!"

She takes a step forward as he sits. The guy looks so damn miserable, apologizing. The brunette didn't like it at all. She wasn't going to let Elijah feel bad for her decision, but it was clear she had to drive the point across. "Didn't you see the way they looked at you?"

Like some of them wanted to kill him. Drive him out. Make him miserable. Wren only wished she could thank the young wolf who stood up for Elijah at the meeting, coercing the others to accept him. But even then, Ravinger was an unknown. He could have stopped them from leaving too.

"Elijah, they hated you" Wren pressed, scowling in disgust "because your fur wasn't brown. Cause it wasn't blessed by their stupid High Elk" Because white was disgusting to them. Any sort of white. Even a small bit. "I wasn't going to let you stay and be an outcast. I wasn't going to let them berate and abuse you."

Celnes and Ravinger aside, the others were open with their disapproval. "I was stupid. I joined them because I wanted to rush into something - anything - else. I wanted to forget I was abandoned. I let them talk me into it. I started to believe it too" she goes on, dipping her head "but Kingslend is a cult. I'd rather be a refugee than a cultist."

Ears folding back at her outburst, he sure felt like he did something wrong. Well, yeah, but I'm new-er. At least that's what he thought. But if she found it strange, maybe Wren wasn't treated that way at the start.

The brunette continued, it brought a small frown to the man's face. Saddened by the news. They hate him for his fur colour? Such a thing didn't seem possible, it seemed so silly - sure he stuck out like a sore thumb in the sea of earthen shades, a white shining beacon among them, but was that really enough to hate him for something he had no control over?

Is that really what they think? His shoulders slumped a little, eyes cast down to the ground, to his feet, to her feet. Won't they hate us more if we leave like this? Can't I show them that I am good with some hard work? It would only solidify their hatred in the pair if they left, that much he was certain of.

She frowns. "Some could accept you if you put in hard work" it was true, and maybe it was selfish of her to drag him away without giving an effort "but most of them won't" Wren thought on the woman who had openly snarled at him "you'd never be accepted fully."

But that was the same as anywhere. Her own shoulders slumped. "They said if you had kids in the pack, they'd be accepted. But what if they were pure white like you? Would you sacrifice them to the High Elk? Would you sacrifice yourself just to be accepted?" She glances away.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Elijah. You don't need to change yourself in any way to be accepted" she bites back a sigh "but if you want to go back, go. I'm still leaving Kingslend."

The truth hurt, and it showed on his face. For such a brute like himself, he was far more tender than he appeared to be. According to her, there was nothing he could do to be fully accepted, and it was out of his control. Now, with his mere presence, he was uprooting both their lives and making a run for it. Even if Wren made sure to say that it wasn't his fault, that knowing this aspect of the King's pack would make her turn on them eventually... he felt guilt. 

I could never sacrifice children. Especially not my own. It felt bitter to say, he hated it all. How could they even think of such a price to pay, just for something so trivial like his coat colour? How could they even think of doing such a thing to someone so young like children... just because they looked like him in any way. 

Raising his eyes to meet Wren's once more. I'm coming. He wouldn't leave her to run all by herself, not after all she did. How could he face the pack?

"Good" she said to him now. The truth did indeed hurt, and she hated that he had gone through that without knowing it. She hated that she had to tell him, but it was for his own good. Repent and rejoice her ass. There was nothing to repent. His only sin had been following her.

So perhaps she was the sinner in this situation, or even the devil leading to temptation...

"Then come on. We can't stand here all day" she turns away from him again, trying to escort him out of danger as quick as possible. When Kingslend had an inkling of what they had done, they'd no longer be welcomed. They could go to the Saints, for that was the only pack Wren knew...

But that'd make its own set of problems. They could go... "Let's go to the coast" she decides. Maybe if she travels further than that, she'd meet up with Wraen again. She could seek shelter with their group, but where did that leave Elijah? What if he felt he didn't want to bother with her anymore?

She decides to shove that aside for now.

Her confidence was infectious, his tail thudded against the ground a couple of times as she invited him to join her on the walk away from here. Far from here preferably. As much as he didn't want to upset the wolves of Kingsled who were gracious enough to offer him a chance among them... he had more faith in Wren's truth on the matter. The scarred man smiled at her invitation and how she walked away, quickly finding himself on his feet once more and happily going wherever she would be off to next. 

Maybe in a way, they saved each other from Kingslend, perhaps he had saved her from spending too much time with a pack who would change her into a woman she would have hated now, or future grief. For now, he was just glad to have a companion and no longer travelling alone in this huge ass world of theirs.