Firefly Glen If I lose myself tonight, it'll be by your side
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#26
When Wraen temporarily departed, Tambourine's eyes followed her. Hate to see you go, love to watch you leave, ran through his mind. It was something Corbin had frequently said to Molly (the mated pair he'd traveled with for a while). He felt a little crude for thinking it, though he didn't have much time to dwell on it before she returned with snacks in tow.

"Oh?" he said curiously as she set down the partial hindquarters of a beaver. "Don't think I've ever snacked on beaver tail before," Tambourine mused before bending down to give it a try. It was cold, tough and leathery. He did have to chew for quite a while before swallowing, though it was flavorful once he got past the strange texture. "Not bad," he reported with a lopsided grin before remembering to say, "Thanks."

He sampled a few more bites, then glanced at Wraen and said mid-chew, "So you want to know about my travels. Should I start at the beginning or do you just want the highlights?"
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#27
"The choice is yours," Wraen replied. Since she knew nothing about the fellow, aside from the fact that his name was Tam and he had a good appetite. She picked up the beaver's foot, lied down, put it between her paws and began gnawing on it, ready to listen, whenever her companion was ready to begin.
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#28
She left it up to him. Tambourine considered a moment, then said, "There's a whole lot of nothin' much in there, so I'll give you the highlight reel." He licked his lips free of beaver grease, then began, "I did try to find my way home after that bear chased me, but it wasn't long before I realized I was hopelessly lost. I was pretty bummed—and scared too—so I just sort of meandered aimlessly for a bit, hoping to find"—he paused—"someone."

After pausing for effect, he said, "The first wolf I came across was this really grizzled old guy called Spoons. We ran into each other hunting the same gopher. I caught it, but I shared it with him, and he asked me to come back to his pack with him. It was led by a blind wolf, Yildun, and his mate, Koontz. I wasn't ready to commit to another pack yet—it felt like giving up on going home—so I declined their offer to join and kept going."
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#29
Spoons? What self-respecting wolf was called like that? Wraen furrowed her brow, then chuckled. Though she sometimes wished she had skipped the tradition of naming your offspring after birds, even her name was way better than Spoons. What would a guy look like?

With her mind mulling over the origin of the unusual name, she missed part of, what Tam had said, and connected back to him, when mentioned about his lack of desire to join a pack. Had she listened more carefully - name Koontz - would have rung a bell, because Osprey had mentioned one of the many aunts and uncles her children had in the world. 

"Oh... right," she nodded. "And what do you plan to do now?"
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#30
He prepared to start the next chapter when Wraen posed a question that waylaid him. Tambourine's mouth opened, closed and opened again. "Well," he replied thoughtfully, "I was going to track down Marauder's Keep and see if I can find my family. But..." He gazed at her directly, getting lost in her soft apple green eyes a moment before blinking loudly and resuming his train of thought. "I really haven't thought it through, to be honest."

There was a pause before he eventually queried, "Wanna hear some more?"
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#31
"I could accompany you to the Marauder's keep," Wraen offered, having never heard about this location before and being still interested in the scout trade to depart even tomorrow. "I have no idea, where it is located - but you can show me the way or... I can help you find one, if you have forgotten."

She let Tam mull over this idea and, when he had given his verdict, in regards to his earlier question replied: "Do tell more!"
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#32
Her offer surprised him so much that he simply beamed at her, tail tapping the snowy ground. He didn't know the way and he would prefer to locate it first, then perhaps show her. He was just about to say as much when Wraen urged him to continue. It immediately flipped the proverbial railroad switch in his head, the train suddenly guided onto a whole other track, so that Tambourine didn't even verbalize a reply.

"Not too long after I left, I ran into two brothers who were traveling together. They were called Marlin and Mackerel. They'd come down from a coastal pack further north. They were really cool dudes. I got along a bit better with Mack, though. This kinda pissed Marl off and he eventually told me to 'eff off,' if you know what I mean. I didn't want to get between brothers, so I took off," Tambourine explained with a shrug and a bit of a wistful sigh.
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#33
The names in Tam's story got better as he progressed and, when Wraen had to chuckle again this time at the mention of a wolf named after a fish, she began to wonder, if the one, who spun the yarns, did not alter the truth just a little. To make it appear more colorful than it than it had been in the real life. She used to add some sugars and spices and decorations to her own adventures from time to time. 

"That smells like incest," Wraen mused, because - though she loved her siblings very much, she did mind them having close friends. "Not to imply that they were - but that kind of jealously is not healthy."
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#34
"Incest?" he echoed, not sure what it meant. Assuming Wraen explained, he wrinkled his nose and laughed. They had been a few years older than him, weathered by their windswept home and hardened from the long road of their lives. They had sworn to him they would never settle down anywhere, never take mates, never bring pups into the world. They had declared themselves eternal bachelors and—before Marlin had told him to scram, anyway—they had encouraged him to adopt the same lifestyle.

"They really made a life of wandering sound appealing, y'know, like a nomad? So even after they gave me the boot, I kinda got it in my head that I should do that too: travel, see the world. At the same time, I kept an eye out for my loved ones, just in case there were any answers out there." But to this day, Tambourine hadn't found a single clue. "I saw forests and mountains and rivers... my favorite was this canyon to the south. It was warm and dry there. That's where I met Corbin and Molly."
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#35
"I have been a nomad for the most part of my childhood," Wraen replied, recalling the long months spent on the road, until her parents found the perfect place to settle down. It had been interesting to see the world, but at the same time she had been very happy to bind herself to one area as well. Make a home of her own out of it.

"What is a canyon?" she asked, realizing that this kind of word was not in her vocabulary.
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#36
"Oh?" he said, curious about her own travels. He wanted to hear more, though that wasn't part of their bargain. If not today, he hoped they could reconvene in the future so he could hear more about her nomadic childhood.

In the meantime, she wanted to know about canyons. "It's like a big crack in the ground, big enough to explore. There were rock walls with these cool swirls in them. Molly said a river had cut the canyon out of the earth a long time ago and she called the lines in the rocks, um..." Tambourine paused, tongue pressed into his cheek and one eye squinted as he tried to call up the proper term. "Strats or something like that? She was into stuff like that. She was what I think you'd call a naturalist."

He paused again, then resumed his tale. "Corbin actually hated me at first, because he thought I'd steal Molly from him. I did hit it off with her but it was totally plant-tonic, you know? He eventually came around and the three of us were inseparable for a long time."
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#37
"Plank-tonic? In that case it was a very miniscule chance indeed that you would steal her away from Corbin," Wraen purposefully played with the word, knowing full well, what Tam had meant and how the term was really spelled. The description of a canyon, however, was nice, but a little hard for her to imagine. Maybe - if she ever set out in the world again, she would see it for herself.

"I have observed though that in your stories you have a way to make guys jealous," she pointed out, the coincidence that two males in a row had taken dislike for the Tam, who seemed quite innocent and likeable to her, was a very interesting one. "Why do you think it is - good looks, charming personality? Trade secrets?"
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#38
She pointed out something to him that Tambourine had never really considered, at least consciously. He was struck dumb momentarily as he pondered Wraen's question. He had always assumed it had less to do with him than with the other wolves' insecurities (quite the astute observation for the likes of Tambourine), though perhaps there was something about him that threatened others somehow. Nah, he concluded after a moment. It was just so... preposterous.

"I don't have any of those things," he said a little self-consciously, thinking of his crooked ear, missing toes and frequent brain farts, "so I dunno. Anyway," he continued in the very next breath, "I—" But before he could continue, a great big yawn stole over him, forcing his jaws open wide, curling his pink tongue and causing a not unpleasant shudder to wrack his entire body.
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#39
"You should give yourself more credit," Wraen returned, because in her opinion Tam had not spent much time looking at himself in the mirror. True - he was not the most dazzling man she had ever met - but he had an aura of a person, who was very easy to like. He had an inner shine that balanced out and even outweighed the any physical defects he had. He was lovely and it was no surprise to her that some people would feel threatened by his close vicinity of their's love interests. 

"Feeling sleepy?" she stated the obvious. "You can have a nap and I can watch over, while you do."
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#40
He really hadn't noticed the post-snack sleepiness creeping up on him until Wraen asked. "Yeah," Tambourine said with a nod, a doughy smile overtaking his features when she offered to watch over him while he napped. "Okay. I'd like that. Although..." His heart thumped a little faster. "I'd like it even better if you napped with me?" He grinned crookedly at her.

Whatever her answer to that, Tambourine unceremoniously flopped down in the snow and fidgeted about until he was totally comfortable. He then let loose a very long, contented sigh. He had a fully belly, a cozy shelter and great company. He couldn't be entirely sure where life would take him when he woke up again, yet Tambourine knew he had it good in this moment and savored it even as he let his eyelids drift shut.
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#41
"You remember, what I told you about the bears - one of us has to be awake," Wraen replied, though it was now unlikely that any of those four legged clawed beasts were roaming around, and even less possible that it would come to look for them here. She watched him get comfortable and fall asleep, and kept a careful watch, until he woke up again.