Larksong Grotto Old packs and new

@Ditty

Lunar hummed along to herself as she trotted through the more wooded area in the center of the pack land. It was a lovely day in her opinion, the sun was warm on her fur but the wind was cool enough not to overheat. 

She was out on a mission, two really. Become familiar with the new territory and find herbs. She stopped to pick some, hold in the bundle in her mouth as she walked, her tail swinging to the jaunty tune she hummed. 

Spying some wild hops she sat down her bundle to pick some and add them to the growing pile she planned to store away for the coming winter. Just as she was bending to pick some she heard something in the woods. Turning, she called out,"Hello? Someone there?"

Though the territory had seemed — and sounded — 'rocky' at first, it was actually starting to grow on Ditty. It wasn't as rocky as he had imagined and he wanted to make the best of this opportunity, anyway. Ditty wasn't yet sure if he'd stay here forever, but he was going to try his very hardest at being the best wolf he could be to Larksong Grotto as long as he was here, anyway. Who knew this could be the perfect home he'd been looking for?

While he tracked through some trees, Ditty suddenly heard someone's voice. His coyotelike head snapped in the direction of the sound and Ditty climbed up a hill and exited the woods. "Hello!" he greeted cheerfully. "I'm Ditty Roux-Abhren!" She smelled like Tavi and Reek too, so doubtlessly she was already a part of this pack, too.

Her ears tipped forward as she heard the male come clambering over the hill and through the woods. He came calling his name which proved to be quite a mouthful. Having misheard him she greeted him with the wrong name, "Hello, Ditto. I'm Lunar Eclipse. I go by Luna though, that's quite a mouthful."

Her tail wagged happily as she neared him, sniffing him the way most canines greeted each other. He was close to her size and had different features than most wolves, she guessed he had a mixed heritage. He had vivid orange and white fur and striking blue eyes. After moving back she sat, getting ready to familiarize herself with her packmate.

"No, it's Ditty," he clarified, "You know, like, a song. A ditty." Somehow this wasn't as common knowledge as he thought it to be when he'd once asked his mother for the meaning beyond his name.

Ditty shook the woodland debris off his fur and when the girl sniffed him, he jabbed his nose right into her neck to inhale her scent, rather than cautiously approaching. Personal space wasn't really Ditty's thing, and it didn't even occur to him that he might be intrusive with his move. "Nice to meet you, Luna!" he enthusiastically said into her fur before he withdrew again, tail whirling, and took a step back to actually admire how pretty this Luna wolf looked.

His nose poking into her neck had been a tad too touchy for the shy female but she made no indication of it, too polite even when uncomfortable. He was friendly as it was, meaning no harm in the move.

She had gotten his name wrong it seemed, had she been able to she would have blushed a shade of red. "I'm sorry, I thought you said Ditto. Well it's nice to meet you Ditty. Your parents like music?" She sent him a wolfish grin, finding his name quite odd. Must be music fanatics.

Ditty didn't notice at all that the girl had been uncomfortable under his touch and so he just smiled brightly at her. She looked so pretty, Ditty thought, but he didn't say anything just yet since they were still talking about his name, and if there was one thing that could beat Ditty's lack for personal boundaries, it was his vanity. "Sort of. It's like a running tradition in my family!" He shut his mouth before he'd mention his mother's name, mostly because he thought talking about his mother wouldn't be very suave right now.

"You're really beautiful!" he said instead, a compliment that he wasn't easy to give (considering he thought himself among the most gifted in the beauty department). "So did you also just happen to arrive here when Reek and Tavi started their pack?"

She blinked in surprise, what was with males giving her compliments now a days? "Uhh thanks," she managed to stutter out self consciously as she shifted, clearing her throat. 

"I'm actually from their old pack. I just followed here," she corrected, more comfortable with this subject than her looks. Her thoughts took a turn to those she had left behind, glancing down at the herbs sadly. She would miss her healing lessons with Spring and Esaro.

She was uncomfortable, clearly, but Ditty just thought that she was shy. He wondered if she got compliments, like, all the time — but if she was so shy about it, that probably meant not. Maybe he just needed to give her more compliments until she would stop being shy.

Yet the subject shifted to her arrival in the pack, and Ditty felt kind of proud that he was marked as first joiner and highest in rank besides Reek and Tavi despite Luna being someone from the old pack. "Oh!" he said, "That's kind of neat. I ran into Reek when things just started up. Number one joiner, I was!" His voice indicated that he was kind of proud of this fact. "So you didn't agree with them getting kicked out, then? Closer to Reek than the previous Alpha female?" Ditty wanted all the juicy details, and he hoped she would give them to him.

She nodded, happy for him. He probably had a high rank. She held no ill feelings towards him for it even if she had come from the same pack with them, it didn't guarantee a high ranking position for her. 

"It's not that I didn't agree, I understand why she did it. If Tavi has pups it will endanger her owns chances of survival. I was just loyal to Reek. I didn't even speak with Saena personally until I left, if that tells you anything," she explained in detail.

Ditty found himself growing super curious after this Saena lady; she sure was a tough cookie, it sounded like! But then, who could blame her for doing what she did? Well, her loss was Ditty's gain, 'cause it had provided him with a home where he was easily one of the higher ranking members simply for the fact that he was one of the start-ups.

"Oh, right, that makes sense," he said with a nod. "So what sort of things do you like to do for fun?"

She pondered it for a moment. She hadn't stopped to have fun in a long time, it had always just been one thing after another. Leaving home, joining Phoneix Maplewood, gathering together to chase off the band of forming pack members, the drama surrounding the affair between Reek and Tavi, leaving Phoenix Maplewood, joining Larksong Grotto. What did she like to do for fun? Hell, she didn't know anymore.

She gave a small shrug,"Probably hunting." It was what she usually did in her free time, hunting prey for the pack's cache. "What about you?"

While she looked blank-faced, Ditty stared at her hard and long, but could make little of it. He understood why immediately when she answered at long last with a crummy reply such as 'hunting'. Probably hunting, which was possibly even worse. "Hunting? Seriously? What rock do you live under! Come on, the world's full of fun!" Maybe he could teach her. She seemed to be a stick in the mud right now, perhaps, but Ditty saw a polishable rock that just looked a lil' moss-covered at the moment.

"Well, lots of stuff! Like swimming, collecting treasures, meeting others — I love meeting others! — and uh, puppies are really neat too but we don't have any right now so it's hard to play with them, or trying to climb trees — I once almost managed to get up to the first big branch! — or digging...." Ditty looked at Luna to see if she was impressed with any of his options yet. Aw man, why did he remind himself of how amazing puppies were? He really wanted some puppies now, but somehow, stealing some didn't seem like a good idea (or did it?).

She jerked at his sudden exclamation, ears pinning to her head in surprise. She was annoyed after his words registered but she fought not to show it. What did he know? Her life hadn't been easy, she didn't ever get a chance to learn how to have fun. Her childhood had been basically non-existent, she had been treated as an adult since she could leave the den.

His options did sound fun though, she had to admit. She had never gone swimming before and what on earth was 'treasure'? She didn't think she could climb trees but digging didn't seem particularly fun, just necessary. "I've never been swimming, is it hard? And what's treasure?" She shared her thoughts with him, head cocking to the side in thought.

After a short moment of flabbergastedness she asked if swimming was fun. Ditty would've answered with an overexcited 'Is it!', except he was distracted by her next question — what is treasure. What is treasure?! What is treasure? Was this girl for real? Did she never do anything fun in her life so far, ever, really?

"Whaaaaat!" Ditty said in outrageousness and surprise and a bit of amusement, too. "You don't know what treasure is? It's cool shiny stuff you can collect! Oh my god, we're going to find some right now!" And Ditty dashed off, assuming she would follow.

She probably should have been used to his outbursts by now but she was not. She flinched at his loud exclaim as he was rather close to her sensitive ears. 

Seeing him hurry along as they we're apparently going to hunt for treasure. She got up and scurried along behind him, short legs working overtime to keep up with him.

Ditty was blissfully unaware of the poor impression that he left on the girl, thinking himself quite the dashing gentleman for taking her off to find treasure. "Okay, so what you have to know about treasure is that it's shiny, most of the time, but the most important thing about treasure is that it's rare! That means it doesn't happen often, rare. So uh, like, a pristine skull or piece of bone or cool shiny rocks or, you know, anything that looks like it's rare."

He looked at her sidelong to see if she understood while he looked around to see if he could find any treasure yet.

She thought she understood the gist of it, she remembered owning a rose colored quartz when she was girl. She had found it along ruins of a boulder that had been smashed amongst a thunderstorm. It had been stolen by some other wolf who had found it attractive as soon as it was discovered she had it. 

Her eyes scanned the rocky ground, searching for anything that was unique. Her nose was low, ears pricked to listen to Ditty's words. Tail wagging she spoke up playfully. "I bet I can find something first!"

"Ha, you're on!" Ditty said, and he started to gallop away even faster in hopes of finding the shiny treasures as the first one. Ditty searched the frays of the path that he followed as it winded back towards and through the forested area. Sometimes these paths had rocks or skulls laying about, and he hoped to find something soon.

feel free to have luna find something neat first :3

She hurried as fast as her short white legs could carry her, determined to find something now that she had made such a claim. She was nervous she would not find anything and would look silly, though she would probably just play it off.

As she scurried about, head down as she searched, the sun glinted off a particular stone causing her to stop. She moved closer to the stone, studying it and wondering if it qualified. 

It had a shiny copper colored bottom and a white top, as white as her fur. It was crisscrossed with thin branching green lines that reminded her of veins. Whatever it was she thought it was beautiful. 

In the human world it would have been called agate, an ancient form of stone that had been around for quite a while. But to Luna it was just a pretty rock. Scooping it up she carried it back to Ditty, setting it down for him to examine. "Does this count?"

For some reason today was not Ditty's lucky day when it came to treasure hunting. He searched everywhere along the trees' foots, but all he found were some random stones that weren't particularly special or pretty at all, a weird sort of wire that looked rusty and like it'd been in the ground for a really long time, and, most special of all his items, a funny-looking feather with a blue shiny glint to it. Ditty decided that the feather was most worth it and he took it between his teeth carefully to show it to Luna.

Just as he wanted to head her way again Luna was in front of him already with a prize of her own. A much shinier one than his, too. Feeling bested, Ditty put down his feather and studied the stone that Luna had provided. "Darn, that looks really good," said Ditty. No one could know who had found their prize first, but everyone could see that her shiny stone was more special than his whoseit feather. "Alright, you win!" Ditty was loathe to admit, but he was a sportsman and so he could do nothing but admit his defeat with flair.

Her body wriggled happily at his praise, her tail thumping the back of her legs in her childish excitement. She thanked him softly,"I like your feather." The stone was pretty though, her outing making her decide to look for more treasure in the near future. She would like to decorate her den with her findings and was happy Ditty had introduced her to the hobby.

"Now you have to start a hideout where you can collect your treasure," Ditty told her matter-of-factly, as though there was no other choice but this. If she wanted he would help her find such a place, but ultimately a hideout was a very personal thing and so he decided not to push this choice too much. The only fact was that she needed one; which one and where was up to her.

want to fade this? :)

yeah, I'll archive

She nodded seriously, "I will, Ditty." She scooped up the stone, waving goodbye at him with her tail before hurrying home to find a secret spot in her den to hide it.