Firestone Hot Springs You Can Take a Break

@Tytonidae sorry if this sucks I'm trying to get this done before I have to go to class in a bit. Also gonna tag @Fox cos IDK if you saw this yet or not, Rem.

This was the farthest Akita had been from the Sunspire since arriving, and she wondered briefly why she had chosen this place to go to -- not that she really cared in the end. She had simply chosen a direction and wandered until she was tired. Now it was mid-afternoon and she was sitting in this steam-filled setting, which looked almost mysterious, since one could not see much in front of their face except more steam. Akita would have to remember this spot in case she needed to do any rituals for the Goddess. Perhaps a healing ritual to help Jace...

She shrugged at that thought, which reminded her that she had never gotten around to binding his leg. Oh well. She'd do it when she returned, since she'd spent quite some time the past few days gathering enough sweet grass to do the trick, and storing it near the oasis at the Sunspire to keep it moist enough to use. She studied one of the hot springs and wondered if it would be a good place for a soak during the winter. Of course, in the winter, getting out would be awful because then you'd be soaking wet and freezing. No. She decided she'd stay dry this winter...

Thanks for starting! And d'oh on my part for not realizing you'd tag Ty's account. :P

After her long trip to the southeast, which had taken at least a week and a half, Tytonidae made the gradual return to her home. She had not found any answers, which was what she had been looking for, but she had gotten a taste for adventure, and that had sparked a plethora of other feelings within the young girl. Maybe this was why Junior had moved on to other things. But it didn't really explain it. At least not in a way that Ty understood. Would her father and two couslings move on to other things as well? Maybe they were supposed to stay, and she was supposed to leave. It was all so difficult.

When Tytonidae approached a creamy-colored wolf, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously for a moment, trying to decipher whether or not this wolf was like Uncle Atticus. After a few deliberate movements from the stranger, Ty decided that this one was not like Atticus. She was lucid in a way that he was not, and she was not trapped inside her head. Delicately, Ty tiptoed toward the stranger, green eyes downward as she approached. “Hi,” she said quietly, “Do you know where the steam comes from?”

Akita looked around for the source of the questions being asked. She had not heard, nor seen anyone approach, and so was caught off guard, though she was not afraid. Anyone wanting to hurt her in this mist could have done so already and been away before she even knew what had happened. And besides, the voice sounded young. Finally, she turned around completely, and there was the girl, looking downward at nothing in particular, it seemed.

Akita smiled. "Hello," she replied in kind. "And yes, I think I do know where the steam comes from." She didn't miss a beat. "We are sitting, it seems, in the middle of a group of hot springs. Hot springs are areas in the world where water from deep down, probably heated from the planet's core of fire, comes to the surface. When water gets really hot, it gives off steam, as a way of releasing some of its heat. Do you understand?"

Akita was most often in lala land, but sometimes she had moments of time in which she was grounded, and this was one of those times, it seemed. She enjoyed teaching others, after all.

Instead of brushing her off, like another adult stranger might have done, the lady wolf began to explain in minute detail how the steam came to be. As soon as the stranger had started speaking, Ty had plopped down with eyes wide and ears attentive to the story. It sounded like something one of her friends would have said, and the girl soaked it up like a sponge.

“What’s a planet score?” she asked, having misinterpreted the words. “I don’t see any fire.” Tytonidae was skeptical, but she could be easily convinced. “Whatcha mean by deep down? Where does the water come from?” If the female had hoped this would be a quick conversation, she was in for a world of disappointment.

Lol I love Ty. I'm also going to try and be not scientific about this because I'm not sure wolves would actually understand why the core of the world is so hot and stuff. And Akita is about as crazy as she is so... yeah. Lol.

"The planet's... core," Akita corrected the young wolf, speaking slower so that she'd understand. In all honesty, she was quite content to sit and talk to the pup all day. She liked pups. There was something inherently innocent and good about them that made Akita feel happy when she was around them. But she was always happy, so perhaps elated would be a better word.

"The fire and water from inside the world, deep in its center, come from the Gods and the Goddesses of the world. Do you know about the Gods and Goddesses? They are everywhere, even if you can't see them. They do things like make the seasons change and turn night into day. And they watch over all creatures on Earth. There are Gods and Goddesses even inside the Earth, in its center, whose sole purpose is to make sure the world's fire never burns out. If it burnt out, we would all freeze to death. The Gods control the fire, but the Goddesses control the water. The Goddesses push the Earth's water up to the surface, sometimes in the form of these hot springs. And you can tell that this water must come from somewhere very close to the Earth's core because it's so hot when it comes to the surface."

Akita paused here. She didn't want to overwhelm the pup with too much information at once. She would speak of more things if the girl asked, though.

Ty ate up the story like it was the most delicious deer liver she had ever tasted. "That's..." she said, whimsically, "That's beautiful." Tytonidae felt overcome with emotion, and suddenly felt like she had so much more understanding of the world. The stranger had explained that the gods could not be seen, but Tytonidae knew that she often saw things that others could not. Maybe her friends were the gods and goddesses that the nameless wolf was telling her about.

"My name's Tytonidae... Redleaf-DiSarinno." Ty remembered that her father had taught her what the extra words meant. "Do you think that there's anybody in the whole wide wild who could see the gods and goddesses?" she asked. Ty did not want to be so presumptuous, but she couldn't help but wonder if she would be able to see them. She knew she was different than everybody else.

Akita had no answer for her. Feeling dejected, Tytonidae just as quickly excused herself and went about her way.