The Sunspire Made of plastic and elastic

@Maia 

Time flied, when Wraen was busy, and one evening, while checking the newly instilled caches, she caught the scent of autumn in the air. It was combined of many smells, some of them she had names, for example, fallen leaves, moist earth, water and cold, and some were in such small quantities and plentiful that she did not bother to analyze them in detail. All of them together created this particular sense that summer was at it's end and a new season would begin shortly.

Being closer to the exact mountain area than the lowlands she usually pereferred, Wraen decided on a whim to climb higher and have a good view over the valley. The mist was already rising and with the setting sun in the background it would soon not be possible to discern the forests, meadows and other noteworthy landmarks down below. And she managed to get to that perfect spot just in the right time - last rays of sunlight were painting everything golden and here and there inbetween the various shades of green in the valley, she caught glimpse of red and yellow.

Despite Seabreeze and co leaving, Maia was still hungry as heck.  It didn't help that they'd failed the last hunt, though at least this time it wasn't her fault.  She hadn't exactly helped? But she thought she was maybe getting better, because she hadn't ended up with a kick to the head since the moose.

"Ughhh, I'm bored." She complained to the rock sitting in front of her, but because it was a rock, it didn't have much to say.  She should go hunting, but she didn't feel like chasing anything right this moment.  Besides, she probably wouldn't find anything anyway.

Ok, that was gloomy.  It was too pretty a day to be gloomy.  Maybe a walk?  Maia sighed, pushing herself to her feet and stepping off in the direction of up the mountain.  It was pretty late, too late to go very far, but maybe she'd at least run into someone.

She was in for a stroke of luck, actually, because she didn't only run into someone - she ran into her sister!  "Wraen!!!"  She hadn't been around as much it seemed like lately, though they did still share a space whenever she was.  Probably busy with important leadering.  Or actually hunting.  Maia wasn't slacking so much as having a hard time with motivation when every day came up empty on small prey.  "Whatcha doin sis?". It looked to Maia like relaxing, which sounded like exactly the thing to be doing this evening.

Wraen had been away so often that she had missed the fact of Maia being hungry - something she would rebuke herself later (for few minutes) and then strike out to fix it (as much time as it would take). And nowadays it was not often that they would spend time together doing nothing, if dropping dead-tired and sleeping for 12 or more hours counted. 

Therefore first hearing the familiar footsteps and then turning to see her sister was a welcome change. "Hey, valkyrie," she got up to greet her in a very sincere manner, reserved only to the closest relatives and best friends. "Just enjoying the sight. Autumn is coming," she explained and aside from that there was very little else to add. And since she knew that Maia - on the other hand - would always have something to tell, she asked: "And how are you doing?"

Seeing her siblings always had a way of brightening her up, even when she wasn't in the most cheerful of moods. That might change if she ever got on the wrong side with them, but how could that ever be possible? 

"Peachy keen, Norma Jean."  She replied with a big smile.  "How d'you know?"  Maia tried to look where she was looking, but didn't quite succeed in catching the shifting tones.  

"I am definitely not ready for winter.  But I guess fall is pretty ok."  She sighed a little, as if already imagining the snow and all.  She didn't hate the cold... but she hadn't been super old last time it came, and everyone always said how much more work living in the winter was.  No thanks, she was workin well hard enough now!

"You do not have to be much of a weatherwatcher to sense that," Wraen smiled. "It's the smell, the cold, the shorter daylight hours and the changing of colors," she beckoned to the trees. "Summer is more uniform green and Autumn is it's lavishly colored sister. Or one can assume that they are one and the same thing, just changing pelts every few months," she explained. 

"We were discussing about leaving Sunspire," Wraen said, in response to Maia saying that she was not ready for winter. "And heading down East to look for more suitable lands that would make the cold season easier for us to bear," she told the news. "And we might need some people ready for scouting. Would you be interested, if I were to go?"

"Oh," she said, genuinely surprised.  She guessed she had noticed those things, now that she thought about it, but she hadn't been observant enough to put any meaning behind it.  The leaves she felt like she would have noticed, but Sunspire didn't seem to have a ton changing yet.  "That means less heat! I'm definitely down for that."  She bent down, stretching.

But Wraen's next statement had her back upright like a shot, beaming.  "I am so in!  I mean, I've been exploring a little, but exploring with you would be so cool!"  Besides, maybe there'd be more to eat on a trip like that.  Pickings here were slim.  "When would you go!?"

Maia's genuine excitement was contagious and Wraen looked at her sister with laughter behind her eyes. "Well, there is a pack meeting in the making and - perhaps - after that. When it cools down a little more and it is comfortable to scout," she explained, though she realized that she would not be able to spare too much time for it. She was in charge of group hunts after all. 

"But I will snatch you up, when I go. Won't forget about that," she added for a good measure. "Have you made many friends among packmates?" she asked then, curious to know, how her happy-go-lucky sibling stood with the rest of the gang.

She was stoked at the prospect.  She hadn't put down many roots here save her siblings, and places weren't really what held her affection anyway.  It hadn't been leaving home that had been hard, it had been leaving her mom and dad and siblings behind.  Even Cass.

"Better not," she said with a grin, before thinking about her question.  "Treason's.... nice? And Coelho is awesome.  And I've spent a little time around another girl... Cass something.  OH! And Hyacinth definitely.."  She remembered the third's name was the same name as her sister, but not entirely.  "So yeah, kinda."  Not as well as she had hoped, but it was a harder adjustment than she wanted to admit, not knowing anyone.  She wasn't unhappy though - when she wanted to talk, generally someone was around to talk to, and that's what was most important right?

Wraen could use many words to describe Treason and "nice" would not even make "top 20". The guardian was cool, scary, an aura that demanded respect, tough as nails. But "nice"... no. Then again she did not know the she-wolf that well and maybe Terance, Rannoch and even Maia, who had had more to do with her, would have a different story to tell.

Anyway... "Let's go and eat something," Wraen suggested, getting to her feet and having a feeling that meal would be something Maia would not turn down. "I recovered yet another cache I had made earlier and thought that it is better to empty now than forget about it existence later."

You can fade out in your next post.

Ohhhh heck yes she was all over that! Talking helped to distract her from how hungry she was, but as soon as Wraen brought up food, she remembered with a vengeance.  "Sis, you are my favorite.  Yes please!" 

She'd follow after, sharing a little more time before Wraen had to jet off to other duties and Maia went and tried to find herself something productive to do.