Blacktail Deer Plateau Singing In the Cave

@Engel

It was late at night, a time when Pema was usually asleep snuggling up to the pups. But tonight, she had quietly slipped away and made her way to The Door. A place Pema felt that not many of the pack knew about, but in her absence during her scouting trip she wouldn’t be surprised if one of the more curious members had stumbled upon it.
 
She pushed aside the veins that disguised the entrance to The Door, to reveal the moonlit cave. The pond in the middle reflected the night sky and illuminated the walls. Dull green moss covered the floor, not yet touched by the cold and snow. Pema made her way to the waters edge and laid down in front of it. She began to hum and thought of poetic lines for the things that raced through her mind. The sound lightly echoing out of The Door.

Engel tried getting to sleep, rolling back and forth. But just as he had laid down and closed his eyes, he heard something. It was almost beckoning him, curiosity to know what the sound was. He had to know what was making it. So he got up, grumbling to himself.

However, as he got closer he found it was someone...humming. He raised a brow as he prepared to go through the vines, and as he did he heard it much clearer. It stopped grumbling, and was quite taken by curiosity to see whom was making the sound. He peeked around to see what seemed to be a lone female, someone of the Morningside pack. Engel backed around. 

Then, his little charmer switch flipped. With a rather smug look, he went straight down, sat next to her also looking at the water. "The only times I've heard someone humming at night, it's either cause they are sad and alone, got a lot on their mind...or thinking about someone." He looked down at her, wondering what her reasoning was. "Or maybe you are hiding a talent...but why would you do that?"

At first she didn't see him creeping his head around the corner, she had been focused on the water infront of him that reflected the night sky. But when he decided to come into the open she heard rusting and looked up to see a male approaching her before sitting at her side. She stopped her humming the moment she saw him. He smelled of the pack, which is why she didn't right out run away when he came into view. He seemed familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger one it. She had been there when he was accepted into the pack, but that seemed like so long ago and right before she left, not giving her enough time to properly introduce herself or get to know him.

She gave a smile and light chuckle to his last comment. The scenery definatly helped calm her nerves. It was rather peiceful here at night. The sound of the wind dancing through the cave. "Can the answer to that question be all of the above?" she answered playfully, feeling all of those things to come extent. 

Engel chuckled lightly. Guess he could accept that as an answer, so he shrugged. "I guess you could...so, if it's all of the above, why don't you tell me what's on your mind, and in return I keep you company, and maybe you can even share your talent. Fixes all three of the above" he said with a smirk. He laid down, the tips of his paws dipping into the surface of the water.

She was a bit hesitant to share what was on her mind, seeing as how she didn't know him too well. But this would be a good ice breaker, a bonding experience. She didn't have to go into too much detail if she didn't want to. "Alright sure. Well... I think most of what I have been thinking about is all the change that happened when I was gone. Day is married now, Lavender was attacked and we have new members, along with other things, it's alot to take in." She would become acustom to all this change soon, but with it only been a few days since her return, she was seeing and hearing new things still. 

Engel was surprised by the first fact, most surprised. And a little heartbroken, but he knew he would get over that quickly. "Day isn't single anymore? Well, that's good for him." He couldn't help the little touch of jealousy. He had found Day to be rather, well cute. That was the only way he could think of that. Then again, he found almost everyone 'cute'.

 "Who's this 'Lavender'? Sounds like they had a bad day." Maybe one day, he could see how he could cheer this Lavender up. Perhaps by a chat...that was if they still needed to be cheered up.

Pema was shocked to hear that Engel didn't know what Pema was talking about. It seemed as though he knew less about what was going on while he was here then Pema did when she was gone. It seemed so shocking that Pema thought he might just be pretending to be ablivisous to make her feel better, which it did. But incase he was being sincere, "Yeah. Him and Catori are together now. I didn't think they had been that close and then I come back and they're together." 

Pema had had somewhat of a crush on Day in the past, but she learned rather quickly that her feelings were not recipricated. Though it was sad to learn she thought she took it well, but she couldn't lie to herself and think that him being married to Catori now wasn't bugging her a bit. But eventually she would get over it, seeing the two interact and seeing the bond the two shared.

"Lavender. She is one of Day's kids. I take care of them alot, I like to think I'm kind of like thier mom." she explained.

Engel raised a brow. He had only met Grayday once, and never met this 'Catori', so he diefinitely had no idea. "Well, sometimes things go that way. Doesn't look like anything, then poof, you have a pair."

"You do? That reminds me of someone I once knew..." he said, murmuring the last bit. He hadn't thought of her in a long time. Then something else came to mind. "Say, you mentioned you 'came back'. You wouldn't have happened to have been going around with Aditya, would you?" He had spoken with the male, and thought back to the offer he had been given.

He described it almost perfectly, poof and everything was different. He then asked if she had been out with Adi. She assumed he was talking about the trip they had been on. "Ya. Adi, Dawn and I went to the other packs in the area in search of some mentors for me. I'm trying to improve my medic skill." she explained. 

Engel thought on what Adi had said. "Well, he offered if I would like to go out from the borders sometime...maybe you'd want to come with us?" He hadn't meant it, but he put on a rather flirty accent. He waited for a response from Pema, but he didn't wait too long. As he normally did, when he extended an offer. "If you want, that is. Won't make you, but I'm sure it could help take your mind off things."

She listened to his offer with a small smirk at the way he sounded when he asked. She didn't register it as flirting, but none the less she didn't play into it too much. "You might be right about that." she said when he said it might help her keep her mind of things. "But I should really stay and fix up Lav and Burr before anything else. Maybe another time." she finished.

"Oh! But if you are heading out of the border and end up heading east. There's a pack that way named Easthollow. It's where Burr if from. It would be nice to let them know that he is safe with us. I wouldn't want anyone to worry over the loss of such a young boy."  she said thinking about Burr and his family.

Engel didn't take the response to heart, but he did keep in mind her promise, or at leat thought of it as a promise. "Neither would I, a mother without their child would be very worried. Trust me, I've seen it first hand." He remembered that time clearly, how he and his first mate had lost one of their first children to a cougar. "I'll be sure to, if I head out that way" he said, assuring Pema that he would inform them.

"Thanks" she said sincerly, taking note of his kindness. 

"What about you?" she asked. "Do you have any hidden talents? Didn't you say you were a bard or something?" she asked, remembering the first day he had arrived at Morningside, with that other wolf that never seemed to work out. They had talked enough about her, it was time to figure out who Engel was.

Engel smiled, he had multiple reasons for doing so. One, was how distraught his first mate had been. The other, well he liked to impress. "It's no problem...lost one of my children for a while, and my mate was distraught." By the look he had now, he missed her. Sometimes he thought about her. Most of the time, he forgot about her.

"Yes. Poems, rhyming. Mostly about forbidden romances and such." He couldn't think of any that Pema might like off the top of his head.

"For a while?" she asked. "Does that mean you found them again?" she asked hopefully, not wanting any wolf's child to go missing. She might have asked him more about his mate, but it wasn't as though he was young with little time on his hands. If he did have children they could be 4 times Pema's age by now. 

She would have asked about his poetry but decided to wait until the tone of their conversation turned to one that saw less somber. 

Engel felt something catch in his throat. A sob, maybe. "We...We did...And a mountain lion." That was the first time he actually fought something. The first time he had actually ever killed, with the hep of pack members. He had forgotten that child's name. "My mate cried for a months...She was always so emotional" he said a bit lightheartedly. Something he loved about her, but also something that annoyed him, how emotional she could get. 

"Eyes of almond brown, fur as white as snow. A doting mother, with a heart of gold. Eyes filled with love, for all children. As protective as a layer of ice, yet as warm as the radiant sun. Wherever she is, may she find love once more." It wasn't his best, but that ws all that could come to mind. He didn't realize it, but he was getting teary eyed. "I...I need to go" he said as he suddenly stood up. "I'm sorry, but I need to...I have to go." He turned away, he had to go somewhere, away from his thoughts.

Pema had hoped for a happy ending, but the every opposite happened. She felt bad for asking and felt a bit guilty when Engel began to tear up. It wasn't often that she saw emotion form other males. She didn't know Engel that well but she suspected that he wasn't often so emotional, and she assumed that it was an especially hard thing for him to talk about. Hearing the vicious way their pup was lost made Pema shutter. She didn't have any children of her own, but with the time she spent with Day's kids she couldn't imagine how it must feel for ones own pups. 

She listened quitely to his poem picturing the female that he discribed. She seemed warm and with is imaginative discription she felt as though she might have known this female. But thier was no chance of that. She wanted to tell him she was sorry, but he rushed off. She stood up as he did but stopped herself from following allowing him to greave or feel sarrow on his own.