Deepwood Weald Where's North?

Itsy could not believe it. She went out for a midnight flight..and ended up somewhere far from home. Or close. She didn't recognize anything nearby, but she hadn't explored everything nearby either. Normally, she would have a great sense of direction. But the cold numbed her brain. Her wings felt heavy. Her eyelids began drooping over her eyes. Before she knew it, she was plummeting into a semi-controlled landing, clumsily landing on a perch.

The trees shivered in the winter air, longing for the sunlight of morning to take them over once again. A slight breeze whisked through the branches, stirring the many scents of the forest towards the resting body of a sturdy brute. Bastien lapped at the cold water before him, ears lifted slightly to filter out the sounds of the night. Ever cautious he wasn't in a familiar location and every noise meant safety. If there was anything the loner knew it was that silence was the sound one only heard before death.

He could hear a small, four legged creature darting around the brush to his left. If he had not just had his game he would be all over it. The water stiffly trickled from the small stream, hugging the frosty rocks as it ran. Every so often an owl hooted and with a heavy flap of its wings would ascend into the night sky.

Once he had had his fill of water, Bastien lifted his muzzle and sat on his haunch, slowly anchoring himself down for the night near the stump of a dead tree. With a quick stretch he lay down, licking the top of his right paw. The sounds of the night would sooth him to sleep...

He lifted his head, ears perking up at an odd sound of distressed flapping. A change in the usual sounds of the darkness brought his eyes to a small bird thumping tired legs onto a branch. Bastien cocked his head and stared curiously. With a small scoff he crossed his legs in front of him and lay his under chin down.

"Never knew flying was so taxing. You guys make it seem so easy..." he laughed in a playful voice.

Her landing was..less that pleasant. As it turned out, the branch had been made with a splintered branch. And that made it less than comfortable for her talons. She voiced a tiny squeak from the sudden prickle. Lifting a talon up to inspect it, she found none had in-bedded themselves in her foot. Of course, with only one foot perched on the branch, she had less of a foothold when someone decided to surprise her with their voice.

The wren fell back, hanging from the branch like a bat. And being upside down was not the way for a bird. Blood rushed into her head, making her feel dizzy. Before she had a chance to, she let go and fluttered down to a branch across on a downwards angle.

Once she had a good grip, she cast a glare down. "Do you know how rude it is to disturb someone when they are trying to-" she stopped herself, seeing it was a wolf. Why wouldn't the animal be a wolf? Always disturbing her at the wrong times. She hoped it was a friendly one, like Steady. Not one that wanted to eat her.

"Well, when you are lost and a long way from home, that tends to happen...Of course, someone with no wings couldn't understand that."

Bastien furrowed his brows and lifted his head. His eyes tracked the small bird as it made its way clumsily to a better balanced position. 

"Do you know it is rude to disturb someone when they are trying to... catch some rest?"

Bastien kept his voice cocky but playful.  A standard reply coming from him--filled with sarcasm and playful jest. He listened to the wren's explanation of her...disoriented fluttering. The wolf was actually rather fond of the winged creatures of the forest. They saw what he would never see. In a way he respected them...which didn't hold him back with the taunting.

"You're very perceptive. I am indeed without wings. But with or without wings we are all travelers in this mystery of a world." His voice warmed with a truth that spoke to him. He was a traveler at heart. The true soul of a loaner, a wandering, a sight-seer, a dreamer.

It wasn't often he had a chance to speak to a winged creature. Most fled without question. His guess was the fangs.

"Where exactly are your little wings taking you?" He paused sat up to his haunches. "Or are you too afraid that I might accidentally swallow you whole while yawning to have small talk?" He opened his mouth wide and snapped down as an obvious poke at the relation between hunter and prey. It was a well known truth. Small talk was hard to come by when everyone seemed to be at another's throat.

She narrowed her glare. One thing she hated was when someone finished her sentence, or corrected it. Especially when in a taunting and playful way. Even though she never planned to finish the line in the first place. "Yes, my rest. A well-earned rest." This wolf certainly was not like anyone she'd met in these wilds. He seemed very..sarcastic. Then she recalled the first wolf she ever met in the Teekon Wilds. How could she ever forget him. Especially after he tried to eat her.

This wolf, oddly enough, wasn't getting as much on her nerves as most wolves would. What he said, it reminded her of someone. Then she realized it. Herself. Spoken like a true adventurer. "So, you like to travel, do you?" she asked, her gaze lightening as well as her voice to a more friendly tone.

"Well, I've lost my way from home. And now...I don't know where to go" she answered honestly. Now she really liked this wolf. Not only had he made no threats toward her, but he also pointed out how she could be afraid. And part of her was. Yet now, the fear dissolved. But not all of it. She knew how sly wolves could be, some almost as sly as foxes.

Bastien was slightly taken aback by the wren's defensive response. After all it was she that had disturbed his rest, not the other way around. He shrugged it off, standing to his four legs. He eyed the small bird and kept his envy to himself. No one need know he had it.

"I ... get around," he responded with a rather half-assed answer. She could take it as she wanted. He shook the fallen snow from his pelt, sending it flying in all directions. The wren still stood seemingly stiff. No trust could be made in a day, obviously, but it rather offended him. "Don't worry your downy, pipsqueak. I've already had to pick a hallowed bone out of my teeth tonight." He eyed her. "Besides I'd waste more energy plucking you than I would get from the little you have on you." It was an obvious insult to her size.

"But how devastating it must be for a young little bird to have lost her way home." 

He plopped back down, a rise of snow flew up from the ground like dust from the plains on a dry season. He lay on his side and eyes her through his right eye. "You're no traveler." He scoffed, laying his head down on a paw. "You're no traveler if you find comfort in the word home. The stars are a wanderer's home. As long as I can see the sky I don't need nothin' else."

It was a philosophy Bastien kept to himself. It was the life of a loner; it was the life he lived and loved. Nothing to hold him down and order him around. He could eat, sleep, hunt, or shit when and where he wanted. "I'll tell you where to go. Pick a direction." He paused and let out an exaggerated sigh. "...and keep going."

This felt like the longest post I've ever made. And it felt good

She raised an eye-ridge down to the wolf, who was yet to be named to her. She was fine with the answer. In fact, she probably would have given the same one. In fact, no one had ever actually asked her that question. At least, not that she could think of. And with his remark after, it made her feel glad he wouldn't want to eat her. But the part of her brain that took everything as offensive to her size, no matter what it was, activated.

"Well, I certainly do have some meat on me. At least, from what one wolf once told me" she huffed. "But thanks. It makes me feel better that you wouldn't eat me." The remark after, however, set her off. "Little?! Did you just call me little?!" She continued going on and on, until all it could be understood as is a broken record of shrieking.

She had to say that his words were very wise. There was certainly truth in them. Every now and then, she'd settle down. For only a few weeks, before it either got destroyed, she lost her way, or just got bored of it. She looked to the sky. With her love of flying, she understood. For her, the skies the limits. And those limits make up her home.

"I.." she paused. She had nothing to say. For all her life, she had been doing that. So in truth, was she really lost? Ever? She had never thought of it like that. "You know, you are much wiser that any owl I've met. All you need is a pair of wings, a beak and some large eyes, and your set to be a great advice giver" she joked. It had been so long since she made a joke like that.

I can lower my word count for you. My usual word count is actually around 500-700, but I can freely lower it.

Bastien gave a generally hearty laugh. He could hear the squeaks from the wren that blurred together into murmurs in his ears. She was visibly pouting at the mention of her size. In a way the brute felt bad, but he couldn't help but laugh it off. 

"As if size ever mattered. You'll see more of the world than I could ever dream of, and go farther than my legs could ever take me." He spoke with a longing voice and looked to her through his slate blue eyes. "Don't doubt yourself. The stars have it made for you."

Bastien nodded with a small laugh and shrugged off the wren's warming comment. He would take the wings, but the beak he could do without.

"Bastien. I'm from the northwest of Teekon."

Itsy gawked in disbelief. It sounded as if the wolf was envious of her. Could it be true? No, it couldn't. But the way the wolf spoke, it was so convincing. Sure, he complimented her with truth. She could see many things others could not. The exact reason she's always asked to do something instead of being eaten right away.

"Are you...jealous?" She couldn't stop herself from spurting into laughter. First, it started like small little pffts, then slowly grew until the laughing was too much for her body and she ended up lying on the branch, her legs kicking around.

After she regained herself, and after the wolf gave his name, she spoke hers. "Itsy. Just Itsy. Nothing else after."

Bastien's eyes narrowed at the wren, and his voice held a subtle threat.

"I can still eat you." He made his threat short and sweet and to the point. Jealous he was, but he still had his dignity as predator. 

He paused to hold back a chuckle.

"Itsy...?" Another pause. "You can't be serious."

He questioned to himself, They must have known when they named her....they must have. As much as he wished to make a remark, the brute kept quiet on the matter.

"Well...Itsy..." an unintentional pause remained, "If home isn't where you'll be headed, which direction are you planning to go now?"

He looked around him. The sky was still cloudy, but the snow had stopped falling for now.

Itsy wanted to make some witty remark to his threat. But she kept it to herself, no matter how large the urge to do so was. Instead, she rolled her eyes, moving across the branch in a proud-like manner. She always was such a show off, and it was also meant as a taunt.

She looked at him questionably. "What's so wrong with Itsy?" she asked. There was nothing wrong with it. At least, nothing she could think of.

The question he asked made her think long and hard. She doubted she would be returning to her home, being lost like this. And it would not be the last time she does this. That's when an idea appeared. Her solution. And she had been doing it for most of her life.

"Pick a direction, and go that way" she murmured. The one piece of advice she ever needed. She gazed to the sky once more. Her home. There was only way to go. Forward. "I'll go forward."

The brute thought it better to drop the discussion on the name, as it had obviously gone way over Itsy's head.

Bastien scoffed. "Don't seem so confused and lost when you already know the answer to your problem." As taunting as it may have sounded, the brute meant it to be more personally uplifting...in a round-about way. He hid it with his tone a voice. He wasn't keen on looking like the nice guy, but deep down he was a peace keeper.

His jaws opened wide and with a small whine he yawned, shaking his head as he exhaled the air.

"Forward, huh?" He smirked slightly to her response. "That's the only good answer I've gotten from you tonight. That's right. Forward is the only direction."

He looked up at the bird through the corner of his eye. "Perhaps you'll make a traveler... some day"

Itsy cocked her head to the side. She mildly understood the meaning to what Bastien said. He must have been an owl in some past life. Must have been. She was distracted from her thoughts when he let out a small yawn mixed with a whine. Was she tiring him with her chit-chat?

Well, it was time. No better time like the present, in her books. She spread her wings, making ready. This was it. She would go onward, leaving everything behind. Not the first time, and surely not the last. But she couldn't leave without a sense of gratitude.

"Thank you...owl-wolf" she joked. What a great nickname. "If we ever meet again, I will hope to return the favor." With that, she launched off the branch, taking to the air.

Feel free to make one last post. If not, I'll archive.