Emberwood bits n pianos

They'd discussed it (behind the scenes, on Discord) and didn't plan to stop traveling anytime soon. But Caracal liked his family well enough and figured they would be remiss not to hang out at their new digs for a few days. He couldn't imagine @Killdeer would disagree, so the boys trailed the other Redhawks to Emberwood at a slight lag.

"Tell me if you change your mind about staying," Caracal said to the younger boy, poking him in the chest and then leaving him for a bit in case he wanted to chill with his mom and dad. In the meantime, he wanted to explore the edges of the woods his elder siblings had chosen.

As he passed his thousandth aspen, Caracal found his mind wandering to Towhee. Did anyone know where their mom had ended up these days? Maybe he would ask around while he was here, supposing he bumped into anybody.

Now that he knew the forest was edged with softwood trees, it made the pack's border ridiculously easy to find and mark. Anything within the band of evergreen was theirs, anything outside of it was neutral. They were still a small band of wolves, and it took little time for nature to mask the scents they left behind, but he put a good amount of his own time into trying to mark the borders again before the scent faded with the falling snow. 

A dark figure caught his attention in the distance and surprised him. He uttered a soft 'boof' as he lifted his head to stare through the trees. He squinted, and sniffed the breeze before he shouted. 

"OH HEY, COCK-HOLE!" The kid had called himself that exactly once, that Bronco knew of- but he was never going to let him live that down.

The shout made him jump, wide eyes scanning his surroundings until he caught a glimpse of golden brown fur through the trees. Although Caracal didn't know him very well, he recognized Killer's dad (and his own brother-in-law) fairly quickly. And then the words registered and he threw his head back with a laugh.

"That's my name, don't wear it out," he called back, galloping closer to Bronco with a playful huff. "If you're looking for Killer, I just deserted him back that way," Caracal added, gesturing somewhere behind him.

Speaking of looking for people... "Hey, I was wondering: do you guys know where my mom ended up?"

What a kid- and he definitely came by his sense of humour honestly. The slender, ginger kid bounded over and was greeted warmly. He considered shouldering or checking him just to see how spry he was on his feet, but got distracted when Killdeer was mentioned. "Oh?" He asked, but was reassured his son wasn't too far behind. "Yeah, that varmint's always been a slowpoke," He kidded. 

He didn't wince or flinch, but his stomach did a funny thing when Towhee was mentioned. "No, actually. I haven't seen her since we left, but she's probably with Moonglow?" He suggested. He felt bad, not knowing where she was or how she was doing- but he couldn't guilt himself forever. This move was good for them. "You lookin' for her, or still on the move?"

Yes, Caracal replied cheekily to the question, though his expression grew slightly more ponderous as he added, Moonglow…? He’d definitely heard that name before, though he couldn’t quite place it. Well, it must be the name of a pack, though what made Bronco think Towhee had gone there, he wondered? Where’s that, d’you know?

Once that was (or wasn’t) established, Caracal pocketed the information and wondered, Do you guys plan on staying here? ‘Cause I do wanna find my mom but I don’t plan on stopping. Traveling, I mean. Killer doesn’t either, I don’t think, but it’d be cool if we could have a home base to come back to every once in a while, y’know…? He smiled winsomely at his brother-in-law.

He nodded. Momentarily, though, his brow furrowed. This generation didn't know where Moonglow was? That surprised him, but then again, he'd lived there and the Redhawks, at that point, had been very tied to both Moonglow and Firefly Glen. Those associations, he supposed, were left with the generation older than him.

"Uhm," He said, looking over his shoulder to the mountain range. Their former home and Moonglow were both past those mountains. "If you follow those mountains West- toward where the sun sets- it'll take you to the coast. Travel South down the coast until you pass the mountains, then go back inland. Moonglow should be in a sort of...Spiky ring of rocky hills that surround a lake." He said. "Once you're south of this mountain range though, that might put you within earshot of them though, so you could probably always just howl and-I mean, not your Mom, obviously, but someone will hear you and guide you." He hoped that was simple enough. Regardless- he was old enough now to figure it out. He just had to wind his way around the mountains, right? 

Of course, Bronco had no idea that Moonglow was wintering with another pack. And that that pack was nowhere near where Moonglow had been. 

"'C'mon. I'll show you around, and we'll find you somethin' to eat." He said with a gesture of his muzzle. "Yeah, we kinda like it here, so far. We'll stay here, I imagine, at least the rest of the Winter. Fennec, Figment and Blueberry are here," He said. "There's lots here to hunt, so we won't be short on food." He wondered if he might be able to entice Caracal to stay- if he could tempt Caracal, maybe he might also be able to tempt Killdeer to stay with them. He missed his boy.

Bronco insisted on a tour, followed by some eats. Hells yeah, he murmured agreeably, then wondered, What the hell’s a Blueberry? Caracal assumed it was a person but, well, he was feeling a little facetious. The name was actually vaguely familiar, kind of like the mention of Moonglow.

Obeying the gesture, Caracal fell into step with the older male, wondering what might be on the menu today. What’s good? I’m not half bad at hunting small game, he shared conversationally. Didn’t really have a choice, otherwise me and Killer would be skeletons by now. They’d both leaned out a bit anyhow, not that he’d been paying much attention.

When Bronco had been a yearling, he too had been off with another oack, but came home whenever he needed creature comforts and a snack out of the pantry. It was the natural process of life. Get fed as a youngster, then learn how to find food for yourself, and then live for some time visiting the parents often and raiding their fridge, pantry, cupboards, etc. 

So if nothing else, the kids at least had a place to go for a meal, and Bronco wanted to make sure that the forest was not only a place to find something to eat, but a place that had the good stuff. Whatever the wolf equivalent was of Kool-aid, chocolate milk and Rainbow Chips Ahoy cookies.

He chuckled. He forgot that Caracal hadn't been around much when the other kids had shown up. "Blueberry is a wolf. She came with Mou and Maegi, with her sister Vesper, but they weren't around real long. She's about your age, I think." He said, trying to measure Caracal up a bit. He was possibly a bit older, but Bronco found it hard to guess.

"We actually have turkeys here," He said. "The usual stuff- some elk, deer, rabbits, muskrats- but turkeys are both delicious and pretty easy to catch," He said. "The biggest kind of bird I've seen, but also, kind of the dumbest." He remarked.

Bronco offered a few more names, two of them vaguely familiar. The third, however, he knew quite well. Vesper! he said in an aha! sort of way. Then he realized Bronco hadn’t mentioned her whereabouts. Wait, she isn’t here? Where is she? Maybe she was with Mou and Maegi, whoever they were and wherever they were…

The (not quite a) yearling licked his chops when Bronco mentioned turkeys, never mind Caracal had never seen one before. According to his brother-in-law, they were a kind of bird. That made him dubious—birds were fast and, of course, flighty—but his would-be partner said they were among the dumbest of their kind.

He opened his mouth to tell Bronco he was down to hunt some turkeys when another question entirely popped out. Have you ever heard of a beefalo?