Jade Fern Grove checkmate

For @Jorunn before Bazi, Swift and Allure go missing.

His children were exploring somewhere – Swift absolutely loathed it here, Whittier was content as long as there was food and attention, Allure seemed to only be intent on keeping with her family.. and Pasha had taken a liking to patrolling the borders.
 
Jorunn, however, was as quiet as ever, and the dark agouti male sought the boy out, his features stoical as he kept his worries at bay. The silver and sandy youth had not shared much about himself.. nor had he seemed to settle amongst his pack mates. Scimitar had almost wondered at times if the boy felt lost amongst Scimitar’s own brood of four – and had even debated the fact of having the youth fall directly under Kaskara and Kieran’s careful watch.
 
But he couldn’t. He had found the boy.. and it was up to him to find comfort with those he should consider family by now. So with his nose drifting closer to the ground, Scimitar prowled forward, seeking out the youth for this reason alone.

Awkward post is awkward, lol. >_<

Jorunn had kept to himself though none of his adopted personality traits — borne from the horror and trauma of what he had endured so young — were traits that he'd had previous. Obedient? Forget about it. Quiet? Surely not the same Jorunn?  Having been forced to grow up quicker than nature typically intended, surviving on his own, unprepared until Scimitar had found him. He owed Scimitar and Bazi his life ...and he was hesitant to get on Bazi's bad side since her casual (and secret) threat about giving him to the bear. There was a lot on Jorunn's mind — the bear he'd glimpsed when he joined Bazi on her rounds last and on working towards the warden apprenticeship. Playing had ceased to be something he had an interest in, in the wake of being swept away from his once family, as had his desire to get into trouble. Trouble tended to find him anyway but he was sure to avoid it as much as his five month old self could manage and purely for his own sake.

To run into Scimitar was as much of a surprise to Jorunn as it wasn't a surprise. It was silly to think that he'd never run into the man who had become an adopted father to him even if Jorunn did not outwardly express this view to him. They took care of him, just like his birth parents had ...and the more time spent away the less Jorunn remembered of them. Or more specifically his mother. His biological father had died shortly after he was born — that much the young Lodbrok remembered, at least. “Hey,” Jorunn greeted Scimitar as he slowed to a halt, always unsure of how to greet the older male: if he should use his name or...something else. Or neither. Usually, he opted for neither. Jorunn's eyes took in the monochrome (to him) colored male, shifting his weight once, feeling the spread of grass, dirt and rocks between his toes for a second before his attention refocused upon Scimitar.

The boy seemed so withdrawn, even still after months had passed since his arrival to the pack. The agouti wolf was uncertain how to broach the topic -- if to offer an adventure outside their new lands and see if anything familiar struck him.. to see if they could find his real family.

But another part of him balked at the idea. Jorunn was one of them now, and none had seemed to bother to seek him out.. so why would he wish to return the boy to a home that had been so irresponsible?

Scimitar's ears flickered forward at the quiet greeting, and a small smile faintly pressed to his lips. "How are you settling?" He knew very well how his own children felt about the move and their new home.. but not yet his adopted child.

Some of Jorunn's quietness and antisocial behavior was in part Bazi's creation with her threat of returning him to the bear ever present in the forefront of the young pre-teen's mind, but also of his own manufacturing. He wanted to be good for Scimitar and Bazi — he didn't want to be a bad kid and loud and bossy and ignore everything the adults told him like he was before the bear incident. It wasn't a lack of comfort around them anymore; but because he wanted to repay them for saving his life and for taking him in. So he did what he thought was what they wanted: helped out (attempted to at any rate), and focused his time and energy on training and on earning trades. To claim that his near death experience hadn't changed him would be a lie. It had changed him into someone who wouldn't be recognizable to his birth pack. Into someone who really wasn't Jorunn Lodbrok son of Ragnar. He really didn't know who he was; having entered that stage of finding himself a little earlier than nature had likely intended him too.

“Good,” Jorunn responded to his adopted father's question, fixating his eyes upon the Grove's patriarch. “I really like it here,” He offered sincerely a few seconds afterwards. He did like it there; though in truth he was happy as long as he was with them and not all by himself. Despite how much Jorunn enjoyed his independence he was still just a child and still desired the comfort of knowing that he had a pack and ..and a family to belong to even if he was adopted. For a small measure of time the young boy had gotten a taste of the cruelty of the real world and had came face to face with the real meaning of the word alone. 

Jorunn had made the connection that technically he'd been with Scimitar and Bazi longer than he'd been with his biological family, which probably explained why he couldn't remember much about them anymore. “I don't think I ever thanked you for taking me in,” Jorunn spoke, wanting Scimitar to know that he appreciated it and that if he hadn't it was extremely likely that Jorunn would have died out there, too young to hunt and fend for himself. In many ways, this made Scimitar a hero to Jorunn. “So, thank you.” Because the last thing Jorunn wanted was for his hero adoptive father to think that he was ungrateful.

Jorunn, after whatever it was he had faced during his time before Jade Fern Grove had taken him in, was the most quiet of the children. The boy was reserved – and even polite, as he thanked the male for taking him in. Scimitar canted his muzzle downward in silent gratitude to the words, but he made no comment upon the matter. Jorunn was as good as their own, and if he had been on speaking terms with Bazi, he might have even suggested they give the boy their name.
 
“I’m glad you’re settling,” he offered, his own tone more quiet than usual. With his eyes drifting from the youth to study the rich foliage about them, he withheld a soft sigh, missing the air of Nova Peak. But despite being upturned, the family was beginning to settle well, and he knew he had to ensure all of their children became accustom to the changes. “Do you plan to work toward an apprenticeship of some kind?”
 
It was time the puppies training intensified.

Scimitar was silent following Jorunn offering a thank you for taking him in. Perhaps Scimitar wouldn't have turned him away, but Jorunn was old enough now to understand that Scimitar didn't have to take him in. He could have easily turned him away and left him to die. Especially since Jorunn had been too young to really care for himself. Ears of platinum silver thrust forth atop Jorunn's skull when Scimitar posed his inquiry, before the boy smiled widely at his adopted father. “Yep,” Jorunn responded with an eagerness that betrayed his excitement. “I'm going for Warden, I've been running patrols and marking the borders and stuff,” He took a breath, and offered a slightly sheepish grin then. “I know there is more to being a warden than just that, though,” He shared, because he didn't want Scimitar to think him uneducated in what the Warden did. “but they've been quiet, at least when I'm running the paces. I can't wait to intercept someone at the borders.” He was itching for live action, in truth. He wanted to test his theories, to see if he had the charisma it took to keep a situation in his control, even if he knew it was more than likely that an adult would scoff at him and try to use his youth and inexperience against him. He didn't care. He knew what to do if the situation began to go awry. 

“I know I can choose two more but,” He took a deep breath and let it out. “I haven't picked them yet. I think...maybe Outrider might be cool,” but as for the third he didn't have any semblance of an idea for.

Jorunn seemed eager to move forward with his life – and with the understanding that the silver boy was very much their family now, the cinnamon wolf was content to let the subject of him finding the youth go to the wayside. Jorunn was as much theirs as his other four.
 
The borders of the Grove were distinct now – but the land itself was still fairly new to the wolves, and being explored. Nodding in quiet acceptance to Jorunn’s words, his eyes gleamed as they cast down upon the youth, knowing he would grow to excel at whatever he did work for. “Keep at the borders – they won’t stay quiet once others catch on that we’re here,” he warned lightly, recalling how busy Swiftcurrent Creek had been. There had been no quiet there for the family.
 
His ears flicked at the mention of Outrider, and he gave a nod. “Bazi was the lead outrider before she had the kids – now she sticks closer to home. Your aunt Kaskara also scouts quite frequently.. perhaps she can take you with her sometime?”