Firefly Ravine waiting on the world to change

The rise had appealed to her desire for punishment, but it simply wasn't sustainable in the long run. There wasn't enough prey, and she was pretty sure she'd gotten a sun burn on her crown and down along her spine. Her nose, too, was cracked and peeling. As much as she wanted to play the martyr, it didn't made sense to hang out in that wasteland any longer. Besides, Aditya had found her there, and she didn't wholly trust that he wouldn't tell her family where she'd gone.

The ravine seemed safer. The wind couldn't blow her scent very far, and in the evening she was treated to her own private show. It was not the first beautiful thing she'd seen since learning her father had died, but it was the first time she'd stopped and allowed it to sweep her past her sorrows. I will be happy again, she thought to herself. I won't feel this way forever.

She stood still in the tall grasses in a little clearing surrounded by shivering aspens. Blackberry brambles edged the stream that ran past her, twinkling as the fireflies that roosted there talked quietly amongest themselves. She wondered what they were saying, and allowed that fantasy to carry her to a better, more fanciful state of mind.

tegan had dropped off lil bat, who he decided was pretty cool, absolutely the best of all the children he'd ever met, including his baby sibs. she was younger than him, duh, but only by a few months. tegan decided next year she'd probably be really cool to hang out with-- and he could always make fun of her for being younger than him. it was a good game plan-- he kept it in mind and headed back around the mountain to sunspire.

but-- wait-- holy fuck-- noooo way!! bitch no way!!

tegan spotted her weird spotty pelt from a distance, automatically recognizing her. easy was so easy to recognize. she was huge, for one, and he'd never seen another wolf with such spotty patterns. "yo!" he called out, trotting over, "easy peasy lemon squeezy-- just can't get enough of dat ass, can you?" he was referring to the ravine, of course-- the earths buttcrack. a different one, though, than the first one that they used to meet at. 

"what's up, b? long time no see," he filled in smoothly, tail waving as he came to a stop a short distance away from her. tegan was still... well, listen to him, so immature. but he'd begun kind of to look like a teenager and less like a puppy. lankily shaped, maybe, but he was at least fully grown. he wondered if she noticed.

Her head whipped around at the sound of his voice. It was familiar to her, but for some reason she expected it to be one of her estranged siblings rather than Tegan. What was he doing here? Her heart thumped strangely when she considered that he might be in the area to visit her, but she quickly discounted the theory, on account of it making her feel funny.

"Tegan," she said dumbly, shocked by his sudden arrival. She did noticed that he'd done some growing up. "You look - " ( Abort, abort!) " ... different," she finished, offering a weak grin and a wag of her tail. He looked handsome, although maybe not in the same way as Aditya. Blackbear still didn't know quite how to classify the older wolf. She was beginning to think the same problem might arise with Tegan. "What are you doing all the way over here?" she added, hoping to move the conversation along.

"maybe i came for you," tegan said as smoothly as he could swing it, taking a few sweeping steps towards her. boy he was good-- i mean don't say you wouldn't just fuck him right here right now cause you totally would. admit it you totally would. 

but his charm was revamped as he clarified, "i was coming to visit sunspire-- got a little lost, honestly." this was a little something tegan liked to call oh yeah i'm so into you-- now you're swooning over how great i am so i'm gonna hit you with a SIKE BITCH I LIED I'M NOT THAT INTO YOU BUT LOOK NOW YOU'RE TOTALLY INTO ME HAHAHAHAHA. if this worked tegan would make mental note of it and use it again on other broads. "what about you? where are you headed?"

Briefly, a look of horror flashed across Blackbear's face. She'd all but forgotten about their promises to meet up whenever they could, assuming that - since Tegan had moved all the way across the next mountain range - it was now off the table. Had he been coming back all this time? How long had she been gone, anyway?

But he corrected himself, and she let out a sharp breath - one part sigh of relief and two parts offended huff. Tegan hadn't changed too much, it seemed. Blackbear found herself less willing to overlook his faults than she'd been in the past, but she was still happy to see him.

"I don't know the sunspire," she admitted, looking toward the mountain range as if the correct peak would be labeled for her. "And I'm not going anywhere, really. Just wherever my paws take me."

the skanky little blackthorn male drank in her reaction, glad there had even been one. and then, tegan stared, for once in his life appearing genuinely shocked. "you left morningside?" he asked her, his ears satellite dishes cupping forwards, "but-- why?" she surely couldn't have expected tegan not to ask...

Somehow, she really hadn't. The question caught Blackbear by surprise, and the truth was almost shocked out of her for this reason alone. Likely, her expression of wretched guilt and deep spiritual pain would not be missed by the other yearling, but she kept her answer as short and detatched as she possibly could.

"My dad died while I was gone, so I don't really have a place there anymore," she explained, with only the tinest tremor in her voice. "So I've been... exploring."

Yeah, that was a good word for it. It sounded a lot better than wandering or moping and much less fatalistic than telling people she was trying to find herself. "What's at Sunspire?" she asked, hoping to change the subject back to something less painful.

oh. oof. tegan couldn't bare to think of ol' mommerz dying. the thought actually made him wanna like, i dunno, whack himself in the gut. "oh, dude... i'm sorry," was all his dumbass could think to say, but at least it wasn't sarcastic. 

and then easy changed the subject, thank god, and tegan tried to lighten up. "some lady named seabreeze, she said i could visit whenever but... honestly i might just go back home," he said, nose twitching. scouting was hard.

"No need to be sorry," said Blackbear, who really thought that no one should be sorrier than she was. Tegan hadn't done anything wrong in her eyes, so the sentiment didn't really make sense to her. But that was fine. She got it - he felt awkward and wished it hadn't happened. Even if it was only so that he wouldn't have to be having the conversation. She could fix that, too, though.

Since she'd never heard of Seabreeze and it didn't seem like Tegan cared much about her anyway, Blackbear didn't know how worthwhile it would be to ask after her. Nothing seemed to matter as much these days, but she decided that politeness needed to stick around. "How come? You've already come all this way," she pointed out.

tegan shrugged. "dunno," he admitted, ears pricked back up, "i kinda already fulfilled my trip, in a way, and i've killed a lot of time, i should head back before someone worries about me." someone meaning finley, who after hearing about easy's dad tegan was really fuckin upset about. he missed him mom. fuck. no one repeat that.

"i got to see you, for one," he said with a smile, trying not to skew it as something sexual since that seemed inappropriate, tegan did genuinely care about easy as a friend, "and i saved a pup from drageda-- well, not from drageda, she lived in drageda, got lost, i picked her up and brought her back. a family friend, actually." bat, who know knew a new word! nice job, tegan. he wondered if easy would think that was heroic.

Blackbear offered an indulgent smile as he commented on their reunion. There was something about Tegan that grated on her, at little, but she definitely still cared about him. He was just too-- too much. Too happy. Maybe that would be a good thing, one day, but today it just made it harder to cope.

"That's good of you," she said in regards to the pup. She'd heard of Drageda and felt a little bad she hadn't been able to deliver Eljay's message. Hopefully Tegan had done so - she wasn't about to bring it up. "Well, I might be heading your way sometime soon," she said, hoping to escape this encounter before she broke down. "My grand tour of the wilderness will probably pass by the plateau at some point. But, um. I should probably get going." Soon, because like, the tightness in her chest was already making it hard to talk.

haha yeah it was! tegan rocked, ask anyone. but easy seemed kind of intent on leaving, tegan got it, places to be people to see. he was just glad he got to see her, glad she was okay. he was sure they'd run into each other again, and, oh! she claimed they would. 

tegan nodded, tail wagging a bit. "right, dope, just call for me and we can catch up again," he told her, and then shrugged, "i'll see you around, good luck, b." and with a quick nudge to the shoulder, tegan padded past her and back towards whatever direction he was headed in.

"I'll do that," Blackbear promised. "Bye, Tegan!"

She was both sad and relieved to see her old friend go. Part of her wanted to call out to him, but she didn't want anyone to witness her grief. Instead, she retreated a bit further into the brush and found a good place to take a quick nap. Maybe she would feel less awful when she woke up. If not, there was always crying to fall back on.