The Sunspire And while I'm alive

These last few weeks had put Maia through the wringer, and the last few days were a hard reality check for the previously fairly naive youth.  She hadn't realized the depths her mood could go, and what she had contemplated (thankfully interrupted by Wraen) frightened her.  She told no one about it, instead choosing to forget, but it had her in a bit of an off mood all the same.

Add to that her pretty obvious speech impairment, and Maia was avidly avoiding everyone in the spire, even her siblings.  Luckily for her, none of them knew her, so this behavior wouldn't raise any red flags despite being completely out of the norm.  

Staying on the outskirts, she put herself into hunting, catching all the critters she could and trying to improve those skills instead.  She'd been pretty good at catching small bits back home, and currently had a bird hanging from her mouth as she walked.  She'd stashed some away already - this was lunch.

Coelho had set out that moring with the grand idea to prove to Wraen she wasn't a coyote  -- and what was more  uncoyotelike than restoring the cache? She was full of great resolve, but her mission was largely unsuccessful -- she returned along the borders with only the form of a juvenile rabbit in her jaws. It wasn't much, but maybe it would be enough to appease the icy beta. 

Coelho hadnt noticed she was traveling a shared trajectory to another wolf until she saw a flash of pewter between the ferns. Drawing to a stop, she tentatively extended her muzzle out to test the air: the female was distinctly Sunspire, but something about her stormy demeanor prevented Coelho from showering her with her usual sunniness. Unsure, but surely within plain sight of the bird-carrying wolf, Coelhos ears dropped back as her tail waved insecurely behind her.

At first, when she noticed the other, Maia ignored them.  She didn't much want to talk, and her brooding was 100% a full time job right now, no interruptions plz.

Then she noticed how awkward the other looked, and immediately she felt a tug of remorse poke through her churlishness.  Yeah she didn't feel much like talking, but she didn't want to be a complete jerk to her new packmates either.

"Hey," She said, her tail giving a gentle wag.  Then she remember why she didn't want to talk in the first place... likely this wolf would laugh at her too.  Shoot.  So that was all she said, the word muffled by the bird that she kept clamped in her jaws.  Good excuse not to chat, eh?

Coelho was already second-guessing her approach -- but the softening of the stormbound wolf's features, followed by the gruff and muffled utterance that could only be assumed as some form of greeting caused her doubt to dissipate. Her tail wriggled intensely behind her, and she stepped towards the female slowly with her head held very low and her ears submissively flat.

"Hi!" She chirped, looking up at Maia for only a split second before averting her eyes. "I'm Coelho."

She was.... tiny! And honestly adorable, a fact that succeeded in turning aside some of her dour mood. The self-consciousness was still there, but she couldn't not respond now.

"I'm Maia," she replied, lifting her head a bit as she became more sociable.  "Uh, I'm new here."  It would be short sentences for her for the next week or so.  "You look like... a wolf back home."  Helena was small like her, and had a similar chipper vein to her conversation.  It was comfortingly familiar, honestly, and made her like this girl all the more.

Coelho had kept her eyes fastiduously to the ground, still half-expecting that the pretty steel-bitten girl would react much the same way Wraen did. To her absolute surprise (and overzealous delight) Maia conferred that Coelho looked like a wolf back home. A wolf! Not a coyote!

Maybe a normal wolf would have responded to such a statement with a polite "oh?" -- but Coelho wasn't a normal wolf to begin with, and could only respond with an immeasurable smile.

Coelho's tail beat furiously around her flanks and she pounced delightedly in place before wriggling submissively forward to place a few excited licks on the female's chin (if it was permitted). She hadn't noticed the inflammation on Maia's muzzle until that point, and she drew back with a worried frown. "I'm new too!" She confided, feeling confident she had already made a new best friend. "What happened? Did the bird do that to you?"

That seemed to thrill the other wolf to an odd degree, but Maia loved a friendly greeting, so she accepted it happily, returned it a bit, and her own mood lifted more.  Another newcomer! That was cool!

"Nah, it wath a hive."  She said, the was slipping out before she could catch that it would sound off.  She was getting better at talking without those sounds but sometimes you couldn't avoid it.  "Wraen and I were tryin to get honey, but it didn' go well."  Fortunately it hadn't ended worse, but the memory took a bit of the wind out of her sails again. "Doeth it look awful?"  She hadn't seen, could only judge by feel.  But she felt suddenly self-conscious at the thought of it.

thank u for waiting you are the best <3

It appeared it was not a bird that had assaulted Maia's graceful features, but rather, a hive. Coelho's smile wrinkled into a frown; she'd much rather deal with a bird than a hive - hives had dozens of very angry kamikaze individuals, and she really hated bees. She imagined Maia might share her sentiments, particularly given the misshappen appearance of her muzzle (which Coelho really found no fault in, having thought Maia exceedingly pretty at first glance.)

Coelho gave a slight tilt of her muzzle, the frown working into a new smile. "Nah, it's not awful." Her tail stirred behind her as she dropped her muzzle and cheekily interjected "You didn't try knocking first, did you?" Terrible joke, but she couldn't help it -- and her features split into a wide grin thereafter.

Oh good, at least she didn't look like a complete monstrosity.  Her teenage vanity slightly appeased, she breathed with relief, then giggled a bit at Coelho's suggestion.  "Next time," she said, though she knew there wouldn't be one.  This had scared her off of honey for good... scared straight, completely.

"Though hiveth don't really have doorth do they? I gueth knockin on the tree?"  She mused aloud, too caught up in the natural puzzle of the concept to even notice her self-consciousness.

Coelho had never tasted the delicious ambrosia that was honey; she knew the reason one might seek a hive, but didn't understand the delicacy tied into it. Perhaps if she had known how delicious that golden syrup was, she might have nodded eagerly at the suggested 'next time'. As it was, she remained oblivious to the possibility there would not be a next time, and also oblivious to how sad a life was without honey in it.

She tilted her head as Maia pondered the nature of hives and their doorsteps - certainly, they probably didn't have welcome-mats for curious interlopers like them, and somehow, Coelho doubted they'd be the type of neighborly fellows to invite one over for tea. She shrugged; she supposed knocking on the tree was the best way to upset and wake the hive, but she wasn't going to say anything contrary. "Who knows," She rolled her shoulders, a beaming grin still on her muzzle -- "all I know is they don't like unexpected visitors dropping in. Did you guys at least get some honey? I've never had it.. not a fan of bugs that fly and sting at the same time.."

"No," she said, then was more than eager suddenly to change the subject.  Planning wasn't a strong suit of hers, and that plan had gone down in flames even more than usual.

Talking more would lend more to her obvious speech impediment, though, and even a subject change couldn't hide that.  So instead she took the same route that she'd taken with Rannoch, using the natural lull to gain herself an out.  "I gotta thee a healer. For herbs."  She took a few steps, and gave an apologetic shrug.  Talk again sometime? When she didn't wanna shove her head in a hole and die?

Coelho wasn't intrepid enough to catch that Maia hadn't wanted to talk much more of honey, and bees. In reality, who could have blamed her? Coelho wouldn't have faulted the steel-bitten girl for it, especially given the evidence of stings that still flared across her muzzle. Her ears swept forward as she dissected Maia's lisping speech: a healer. She nodded, and offered a chipper "okay, good luck!" before she turned away with a wagging tail. She decided she might look into this honey business, and get Maia the very honey she had originally set out for.

Without getting stung, of course.