Neverwinter Forest are you sisyphus or are you tantalus?

his direction feels aimless because it is. he feels like a lonely planet, left adrift without anything to gravitate to, rotate around. there is only the next day, the next meal, the next hour, the next minute. distrust and anger still nest in his chest, too close to his heart for comfort. without purpose.

still, he tries to center himself with the sun on his back, though it is chased behind large clouds as they drift across the sky lazily.

blocked even more by the shade of the evergreens as he moves towards the heart of neverwinter forest.

The days passed and her homesickness became unbearable. Treepie didn’t want to stay at the caldera, despite the family there, but she couldn’t go home either. It didn’t really exist anymore. She wandered aimlessly, listlessly. Wyvern winged along, an ever-present shadow.

Should I go find anaa? she said to the bird when the foliage grew thick and forced the nighthawk to ground herself—on the wolf’s back. It would be nice to see her, even if I didn’t stay with her. But what, she continued sadly, if she doesn’t want to see me? She never came back. Maybe she’s happier, having left everything and everyone behind…

Part of her knew there was no merit to such a thought, yet Tiuttuk was in a dark place. When her surroundings came to match the gloom in her mind, she halted suddenly and looked around, yellow eyes bright in the dim of the deep woods. She had no idea where she was.

Before she could decide whether that mattered, the soft crunch of footfalls nearby caught her attention. Holding her breath, Pie squinted through the pine-scented shadows, ears twisting as she tried to pinpoint the origin of the sound.

a soft start wrenches ezra abruptly from the wallowing angry bee's nest of thoughts as he realizes that he's not alone. of course, he wasn't. it was egotistical alone to think he'd be the only wolf meandering through neverwinter forest when the wilds was so populated. still, it appears to shock him all the same.

steps do not pause though he considers for a brief moment that perhaps he should pause, turn around, head back ... but he doesn't heed it.

hello? calls ezra into the trees, feeling a little bit silly, embarrassment settling uncomfortably in the heat of his cheeks.

Soon after, a voice drifted through the trees. Treepie jerked her head toward it and felt Wyvern shift her weight on her shoulder blades. The bird clicked her beak as Tiuttuk strode forward. Although she wouldn’t say she was particularly in the mood for company, she wouldn’t mind the distraction.

She saw something bright ahead and hastened toward it. It turned out to be a marking on an otherwise drab pelt that blended in well with the dreary shadows of this place. Pie’s yellow gaze tracked over the stranger as she maneuvered to his anterior, allowing them to face one another.

Wyvern made a low hissing noise, which Pie ignored as she said, Greetings. A beat passed and she added, Are you wandering around too? Or do you live around here?

i don't live here — ezra responds quickly, picking that as his first answer despite that a question had come before the one he chose to respond to first. it's brusque, not because he means to be rude but because it felt important to say it. he only realizes in the aftermath that it could come across as rude and his ears flutter to rest at half-mast atop his skull, expression a mixture of sheepish and apologetic.

i'm just ...wandering. he explains, though never actually apologizing for his rapid-fire response. wandering without purpose, not quite sure where to go and not quite sure what he wanted to do. stuck between chiding himself on being mad at solharr for doing the exact same thing ezra had done to his father and brother, whilst also trying to justify his own feelings.

a rock and a hard place.

i'm ezra. he offers.

His hasty response piqued her curiosity. He sounded defensive, though Tiuttuk didn’t take it personally. Perhaps the sight of her—especially with a bird of prey perched on her shoulder—unsettled him. Neither one of them was intruding on the other’s territory, which was the important thing.

I’m Treepie, she replied to his introduction, and this is Wyvern. She paused, considering her next words before asking, Where do you live, if anywhere?

She might not have tacked on those last two words before, though they were the direct result of—and hint toward—her own uncertain status. Tiuttuk still felt ties binding her to Moonspear, though she knew that she’d ceased to live there the day she, Alaric and Tikaani had departed for the caldera. And though she’d tried to open herself to the possibility of finding a new home there, well…

Pie licked her lips and shifted her weight, quietly assessing him as she awaited his reply. Ezra looked to be around her own age, which reminded her of her conversation with Quail. “I always thought wolves traveled together, but whenever I see you young ones, you’re alone. Why is that?” Hopefully he was a disperser, not unwillingly displaced like her.