Haunted Wood Stuck in her daydreams

Awinita hadn't seemed to have much luck in finding a permanent home. The island pack hadn't been the one for her and while The Caldera had seemed to be quite nice when Titmouse had introduced her, her returning time was way way off with the war going on. The news of the war had even her on edge, walking around the area made her wary.

She wandered in the opposite direction of the Caldera, her current plan to try to go somewhere she hadn't been before and seek safety and shelter for the winter at least.

This was a land of opportunity. Of what exactly, Wirt had yet to determine, but he had felt its potential since he had first laid foot and song here. Scents and curiosities teemed from North to South, and stretched as far as the land carried from East to West. What of the tales he could discover here, the histories he would unearth? Sure, the future lay veiled before him, but he rushed into the fog with unbridled expectation.

A hum touched his lips as he carried forward through the shaded woods, fears and worries a distant thing. At the sign of another his trot, long and confident, only brightened. “Fair weather, ma’am!” he called, and sought to redirect his path to converge with hers, eager to break his solitude just as eager as he often was to retain it. She seemed a pale and pure thing - but he noticed a sense of unease about her, and he tipped his ears toward her. “Something amiss?” He had never been reserved in his approach to strangers, neither on the road nor in the safety of the Spires. He trusted his ability to read wolves well enough, along with his good sense to part company before anything escalated too far, to really take time to let those cares hinder him.

Suddenly there was another, calling out a cheery greeting about the weather. The voice itself seemed friendly enough and she turned to face the male it came from "Yeah, not too chilly today really." She replied and slowed her walk as she noticed him trying to catch up to her. She offered him a slow wag of her tail and crouched ever so slightly to show that she was absolutely no threat to him.

His next question surprised her a bit and she hesitated before responding "Well...there's a lot really. There's a war between packs around here and I've been a loner for most of the year. Luckily I've been alright with hunting so far" she said giving him the same straightforward and honest way of speaking that he had given her.

She seemed a bit reluctant at first - understandable, given he was a stranger - yet he found his brow lifting with a moment's surprise at the depth she was willing to share. He hadn't really known what he'd expected - perhaps a vague deferral of the question, as seemed to come naturally to a good many these days. Her answer proved so much more useful, though, than the avoidance of things uncomfortable - regardless how grim the conversation turned.

"That is quite the burden. I myself have been alone for the same length, and this winter hasn't been the kindest." He quirked his mouth in the twist of a grin, yet his thoughts turned to the darker thread she wove for him to follow. Where did she fit into the war, considering she ran alone? "The wolves in these warring packs you mention, are they your family or your friends who will be fighting?" Wirt had never had to face that himself, and he couldn't imagine what comfort he could offer if the woman confirmed this true, but he would wait for her answer and figure that out then.

Nodding her head in agreement to his statement about the winter, she found herself relaxing fully in posture. This guy seemed nice and didn't seem like he was going to hurt her at all. Returning his grin with a smile of her own she blinked at the next question. "Oh um..no. Redhawk Caldera and some other pack is at war. I don't honestly have any friends or family around these parts, but I had an acquaintance at Redhawk..." She drifted off her smile fading as she remembered the way that Titmouse had reacted to seeing her at the borders. She was still confused and hurt by it, she still thought she had done something wrong to the boy.



"What about you? Do you know anyone? What's your plan?" She asked curiously, her tail swaying slowly behind her in a relaxed fashion as she fixed her rosebud eyes on his face.

Unfamiliar as he was with the locals here, the names she gave meant nothing to Wirt, but he eased at the knowledge that none of the woman's family were in trouble, nor anywhere near the conflict that brewed. Yet he noticed the way her demeanour shifted when she mentioned her acquaintance, and her use of past tense. He wondered if casualties had already sprung, and if perhaps that was in part the reason she was still on her own.

He answered her first, still smiling softly, though his eyes lit with the concern of his thoughts. "Ah, I know none but stars and sun, and the leaves which dance on the wind. But I have met many kind faces along the way.” His grey eyes glinted, for she numbered among them. “There once was a time I lived with a plan, but I have since learned I am better without. As long as today brings strength for tomorrow, I am content.” Yet regardless his thoughts, he wouldn’t let her off. “But you, you were moving when I found you. To a brighter place? Or just away from the war?”

The way he spoke was poetic and she found herself hanging onto every word he said even though it wasn't very important. He was kind and eloquent, he reminded her of the childhood friend she had left behind in her parents pack. Before she could slip into memories she lifted her gaze once more and met his eyes, answering his question with ease. "Away from the war for sure, but...for now wherever the wind takes me. I do wish to find a pack someday or at least a group to travel with so we can hunt and stay warm together but... we'll see what happens. For now I simply take it day by day" she said with a relaxed smile.

"Are you a team player, or more of a loner for life?" She asked curiously. She read him as the type to get along well with others but she also sensed wanderlust within him. Maybe she was wrong though she never really put much faith into her readings of character.

Ah, so she was his kind of company! Wirt let his approval translate through a slow wave of his tail, a better indicator than any that her answer pleased him well. Hunting together, staying warm, it was all very important - but if the Eternal had different plans for you, Wirt believed that one had to be willing to leave it all in pursuit of that path which was not always easier, but was always better in the end.

"Oh, a loner's life is not for me," he chuckled, and shook his head as he said the words, a double confirmation. "I'm never truly alone, nor have I ever been. If not the company I keep along the way, then I find rest knowing my God is with me. The Eternal Father, He is like one to me. He provides, keeps watch." He did not worry to her reaction. He was sure it would be one he had likely received before, but not knowing which was the wonder of it. "But I would be more than willing to settle, if the opportunity is right. I have always been a family man."

His response to her question was interesting, he spoke of religion. Her family hadn't been very religious but they did have certain beliefs. This eternal father was new to her though and she was intrigued. "Eternal father? Is he... someone that guides your ways?" She asked curiously, trying to breach the topic in a sensitive and thoughtful way.

"My family doesn't name our God but he or she is the one who gives us intuition and leads us toward the right path. Like...for example: if you are choosing between two paths, a forest path and a open field, and one just..feels more right then the other, that is the path our God is leading us to" she explained to her best ability.

He quirked his lips at her reception, delighted at her curiosity. His faith was one he was glad to share with those who were genuinely interested to listen. Wirt pitched his ears to grasp her words and his smile brightened.

"He does much more than guide our ways. He is the one who created all things - the One who created us. Even now He holds all of life in His hands, and directs the course of the world to His perfect will." The god she spoke of shared His character, and Wirt wondered to the connection - if perhaps her family worshiped his God, too, but knew Him far less than he and his kin. He wouldn't draw assumptions, and he, too, tried to approach the topic with the same sensitivity that she had extended to him. "What else does your family teach on your god? Ours, too, is a giver of wisdom and a shepherding guide down the proper path, if we indeed listen to His voice."

She listens intently to his telling of his God and muses silently. The creator of life was another similarity to her own god but the difference was that her god didn't control the world so much as influence it. "Our God did create us but with creation God gave us the free will to do as we wish and grow as we wish. Our God does influence us, It whispers to us in our instincts and intuition. Our God's teaching is that everyone is inherently good, there is no such thing as evil. By whispering to us through instinct and dreams, our God guides us but also gives options. I do know that our God is specifically alive in everything this world holds, the wind is God's breath, the rain is God's tears. Prey is God's gift to us so we may survive"  she spoke with ease, one hundred percent certainty in her mother's teachings. She didn't know of the naivety of not believing in evil, she had never once met a wolf who proved themselves to be bad. Even when she had been scarred by the wolves of blackfeather it was because she had done wrong and they defended their territory.

She realized she had been babbling and so she stopped there, looking at him to gauge his reaction.

He listened and digested her theology with a careful ear. In some regards, the woman believed in one who sounded much like the God Wirt submitted to, yet there were matters that perplexed him, and alarmed him. He tried to let those rest, and first sought to provide clarity on a matter he himself had not communicated well.

"Ah - we too believe the Father makes us free agents, with the ability to choose. The choices we make are ours, and the consequences, ours to bear. Yet He works His will through our deliberate decisions, even those which are against Him." He smiled with a sideways grin. "How that works is a mystery I still don't understand. But one thing I know: there is a good God over us - benevolent, and powerful - that even when the world seems its darkest, we can trust He is working for good."

Yet the naivety of evil - it stirred him to unrest, and Wirt turned his head to glance at the ground, silent. He bit his lip. He had never encountered such a belief before, and the danger of it was too much for him not to speak on. "You know I mean you no offence," he began, before he paused and turned his head again. How would he approach this? He lifted a careful gaze to the girl. "Do you truly believe that all wolves are inherently good? That there is no such thing as evil?"

Awinita liked the sound of his God and despite the contradiction of two beliefs of two separate gods she was happy in this discussion. It was always interesting to hear what others believed in. He began to connect the similarities their Gods had with one another and then talked about some more. 

He paused and then asked a question that she answered with no hesitation "yes. No offense taken. I believe that at our core and despite everything everyone is good. We can do bad things but that doesn't make us evil" she said calmly and with a smile on her maw. She thought for a moment and then asked "Why do you ask? Do you not believe the same?" She asked curiously.