Blacktail Deer Plateau Tired are your splendid soldiers

From his perch at the edge of the pond, Burr quietly watched a blue jay flitting from branch to branch, dusting snow off with deft sweeps of its wings and tail. Watching birds had become something of a catharsis for him in the days when he was mostly immobilized, and even now that he had better range of motion in his ankle, he stopped to watch them now and again. Part of him wished that he could shed his skin and simply become a bird, and live in that same carefree manner, but most of him just appreciated the tranquil beauty of a bird dancing in the trees.

After several long beats the jay flew out of sight, and with a wide yawn, Burr hauled himself to his feet. He pressed his healing ankle gingerly to the ground, gradually adding weight until he felt discomfort, then lifted it and gave it several flicks and rotations as he'd been instructed to. It was still stiff and sore when it bent to its fullest, but for the most part, it supported him. He was grateful to have had such good care for the duration of his stay that it wouldn't likely become a permanent injury.

He plodded slowly away from the edge of the pond, ears and eyes peeled for any sign of @Pema or @Easy, the two wolves most instrumental in his recovery. It was high time he showed his gratitude properly.

He's looking for Pema or Easy, but this is really open to anyone!

I hope this is alright?

Sunny had been more active as of late. He patrolled a few times a day and tried to hunt whenever he could sniff out prey that was small enough to catch single pawed. Today he had brought down a badger he found wandering around, the nasty creature had fought back but sunny was bigger and surprisingly quicker than the smaller predator so he killed the badger quickly. He was half carrying half dragging it back past the pond pausing as he spotted a young boy standing near the edge looking around.


Sunny quickly dropped the badger and postured, his tail going up and lips curling as he stiff leggedly walked forward thinking Burr was an intruder until he was closer and could really smell him. It was then that he recognized the boy and his scent and grinned, tail dropping and wagging in a friendly way. "Burr Saefyn, explorer extrordinaire." He greeted in a goofy way, his eyes glimmering with the slightest hint of a tease. It didn't occur to him that Burr might not remember exactly who Sunny was since the game they had spent hours playing had been quite a long time ago, and only one day. Yet they had been in Easthollow together so maybe he would remember. That brought a jolt of surprise to Sunny, Burr was from Easthollow why wasn't he with Illecebra and Mawk? "Why'd you leave Easthollow?" He asked curiously.

He wasn't expecting the sudden arrival of someone new, and he certainly wasn't expecting the defensive behaviour that immediately followed them seeing one another. Burr's body hunched back on itself and his ears pressed down, but his tail, normally curled, was ramrod and level with his back and gave a few quick lashes in response to what he felt was an unwarranted threat display.

His confusion mounted when Sunny's posture morphed into a friendly and welcoming one. Burr's ears and tail popped up in response, the latter curling around to its usual resting position. "Uh," he mouthed awkwardly, frowning. It wasn't until the black-backed male mentioned his home pack that Burr remembered him at all; he'd been so young back then, and Sunny had changed almost as much as Burr had grown.

"Oh, hey," he said with a sheepish smile. "I messed up my foot. Dawn and Pema and Aditya brought me back here and I've been here ever since. Uh... I'm really sorry, I don't remember your name."

Burr explained the foot injury and Sunny nodded sympathetically "There seems to be a lot of that going around this winter" he said and lifted his own permanently twisted paw. He looked down at the badger and then back to Burr "You hungry? I just caught this one fresh" he offered. He was a bit hungry but he'd rather share it with someone than try to eat it himself.

Burr asked his name and Sunny smiled, not bothered by the fact that his name wasn't recalled. "Sunny. I'm Dawn's sister." He said with pride. Some people would be jealous or feel like they're living in their more successful sibling's shadow but Sunny was actually proud to call Dawn his sister

He shook his head, but his eyes remained on the felled badger for several moments. Burr had seen a creature not unlike it before, but much smaller, with a stripe from head to tail, whereas the badger's markings seemed to end at the base of its skull. The boy regarded it for a time, glancing up only when Sunny introduced himself properly.

"Oh, that's cool, I didn't know you were related. Good to know your name at last," answered Burr with a bright grin. Come to think of it, he couldn't remember giving Sunny his name either. No doubt the older boy had heard it through the grapevine or something. "What is that thing, anyway?" he couldn't help but to ask, gesturing to the badger.

Sunny shrugged as Burr shook his head, but noticed him staring at the fallen creature. After a moment Burr looked back at him with a grin that sunny found himself returning with ease. The conversation turned back to the badger though and Sunny smiled "It's a badger. I don't know much else except that they're also predators, but they can be prey to us. They have a lot of meat on them but they're a pain in the ass to take down, they have claws on them like you wouldn't believe" he said and turned the badger over, nudging a paw out and stepping on it so the claws splayed out.

As his companion kicked the animal's paw out and displayed the claws—monstrously long things made for digging, but Burr wasn't aware of a badger's lifestyle and assumed they were for rending flesh—he stooped closer to sniff at its broad snout. There was something bear-like about it, a wide head and small squat ears with those huge forepaws. Burr assumed it was a relative.

"Scary," he murmured, pulling back to look over the rest of the animal. "They fight back pretty bad?" He didn't think he was going to willingly come up against a badger anytime soon, but it was good knowledge to have nonetheless.

Sunny watched as Burr examined the badger, his ears flicking for a moment. As the younger boy stepped back and asked a question, Sunny tilted his head to the side. "I mean...nothing wants to die. Even a doe can put up a nasty fight" he said slowly but then he remembered how quickly the badger had whirled around despite it's squat stature. "But yeah... despite being short and squat it's pretty quick. Quite a nasty temper too, killing it with a few quick effecient bites is probably best." He said with a grimace. "This one almost nailed my face." He grumbled.

Everything Sunny said served to solidify Burr's belief that this was just a smaller version of a bear. He stashed the details of its appearance into his memory and made a mental note to avoid them if he found one in living flesh. His gaze roved over the spade-like paws and nails again before drifting back up to Sunny. "You need to take it anywhere? I'll walk with you if you like."

After a pause to allow his companion to lead the way, if there even was a way to go, Burr asked, "how come you left Easthollow?" He had a lot of thoughts on Easthollow, but presently he was interested in Sunny's reasons, and whether any of them lined up with his inner feelings on it.

Sunny nodded and grabbed the badger again, beginning to carry it toward the nearest cache. When Burr asked why he left Easthollow he paused before sighing. "I was born there. My dad tried to take me and Dawn away to start Morningside but I missed them, my friends so I went back. Dawn showed up a few months ago telling me that Dauntless, Easy, Lavender and my dad were distraught because their mom left and I was needed back here." He spotted the cache up ahead and moved quickly to it, dropping the badger.


"So I came back and I've been here ever since. I do still miss Easthollow. Valette,Keoni, and Nikai especially, but this is where my family is and I've realized that family is important. They'd do anything for me and I'd do anything for them." He said and then gave Burr a lopsided grin. "Besides...Morningside isn't bad. Easthollow isn't either, Valette is a good alpha and everyone looks out for each other. Do you miss your family?" He asked. He had definitely missed his father and even Dawn but their relationship had been so messed up he hadn't ever really bothered to make any contact with them.

It was a heartwarming story. Burr wondered if one day, he would have young siblings that would compel him back to help care for them. For some reason he doubted it. He didn't even know if his mother was in Easthollow. Only Mawk had come to visit him, which struck Burr as odd in hindsight. He couldn't know that his mother had been attacked and stayed away from the pack of her own will without his father's even realizing it. Either way, after losing all of their kids in one way or another, he didn't expect them to have more anytime soon.

He didn't realize he was thinking it, but his subconscious rippled at how irresponsible that would be.

"I guess so," he said slowly, flicking his ears as if to ward off some shameful feeling that crept along his spine. "I mean, yeah, I do. But I haven't seen my brother or my mom in so long, I don't even really remember what they look like." A few months might as well have been years in the life of a canine, and Burr had been a lot younger and a lot smaller when Cyron disappeared and his parents soon after. He missed them all, but he wasn't sure the extent of that, especially as conflicted as he was over how to feel about them.

Sunny didn't notice the flick of Burr's ears, instead looking up a twig snapping in the distance while also listening to the boy's words. He felt a twinge of some weird negative emotion but shoved it aside. Everyone in his family was kind and he loved them except his mother. His mother's memories were few and blurry but what he did remember left him so confused and tormented that he wished he could forget. He remembered her appearance, it wasn't hard to remember. Black fur and beautiful deep blue eyes. But he wanted those blue eyes out of his mind, he wanted to forget that when he had been a boy, it had always been Amber or Krypton or Adeline watching him and Dawn and that even after his mother abandoned them all his dad still hadn't been around. Those memories were things he didn't need. 


Forcing his way back out of the sudden darkness that had filled his mind he gave a slow nod "that's...understandable. you don't need memories of appearance to miss someone though" or to hate them... the thought made a flash of sadness cross his vision before he was once more bright. "It could be a memory of a scent, or a story passed down from another family member. Family is family Burr....even if they mess up or you mess up, you're still family and that means blood." He wasn't sure if there was something going on between Burr and his family but the way he spoke about not even remembering his mother's appearance was odd. If he hadn't seen his mother since coming here to heal that must have meant she hadn't visited him, which in his opinion (he had low opinion of mother's anyway) wasn't a good motherly thing to do. "Sorry for that... getting all big brother advice type on you. I should probably head back to the dens and see if anyone needs something." He said looking fairly awkward now.

Things got really deep really fast and, as Sunny expected, they got awkward fast, too. He hadn't meant to elicit some sort of sagely advice from the Morningsider, nor did he think he needed any. Burr loved his family deeply, and knew there were mess ups on all sides, and didn't feel he needed to be told that. But it was rather more complicated than that—had Mawk and Illecebra been there then maybe Rowana wouldn't have wandered off—and he lapsed into troubled silence until Sunny excused himself to go check on the pack.

"All right," he said softly, mustering a smile for the older wolf before parting ways. In the end, Sunny wasn't wrong, but the feelings were still so fresh that Burr hadn't had time to process them, let alone make any mature decisions about them. In a matter of weeks he would be old enough to join the adult ranks of Easthollow, but he didn't feel ready for that, nor did he want to. He didn't like the pack, and he didn't know how to feel about going home now that he felt strange about his parents' long absence.

He wasn't ready to really talk about it or hear reason on it—mostly he wanted someone to see it from his end and offer support—so he went on his way, quiet for the remainder of the day.

The awkwardness was palpable and Sunny released a silent sigh, shuffling his paws and watching Burr walk away. He stared down at the cache and grabbed a small meal for himself before turning and walking away, trying to ignore the sense that he'd fucked up that conversation royally and probably ruined any chance of friendship with Burr in the future. 

aaaah poor awkward sunny. Thank you for this!