Sun Mote Copse Garden of the Hesperides

@Sequoia 

After Wildfire had finished the introductory tour in the Sun Mote Copse and Wraen had left Maia with the task of finding the best sleeping spot for the coming night, she moved on to the next important thing. Finding Sequoia. Almost two months had passed, since she had met the yearling, who had never dared to leave home, and the wanderer, who had just left the safety of her home with no clear prospects of future. And - look - where the fate had brought both of them.

Naturally, Wraen was curious as to, what had motivated the young girl to come here, but she was looking forward to her company even more. And in a while she caught sight of her friend's signature piebald coat and called out to her: "Hey!"

She had heard from Wildfire that Wraen was here, and Sequoia figured they would run into each other soon enough. She wasn't exactly sure why she had clung to Wraen so quickly that day, nor why everything she had said seemed to resonate so well with her now. She was happy when she heard the familiar voice call out, and Sequoia spun around and bounded toward her friend. They were friends, right? Sure, they had only met once, but that meeting had been a meaningful one to the young wolf, and she hoped that Wraen felt the same way.

Wraen! Wildfire said you were here! she said, wagging her tail with delight.

"She said the same about you here," Wraen met Sequoia half-way and after exchanging the sniffs and certain steps that belonged to the greeting dance, gave her a good head-to-toes look to get an overall impression. "You look really well off. I would even say that you have grown, since I last met you, but my pride does not let me admit that someone is taller than me," she grinned.

"How have you been? How did you come to this corner of the Earth in the first place?" Wraen's curiousity was very obvious, she was dying for information.

Wraen hadn't forgotten her, which was a mild fear that Sequoia only now realized was one she'd had. The piebald girl's eyes were bright as her friend spoke, observing that she'd grown (cue a bashful smile) and asking how she'd gotten here. Sequoia tried to recall exactly when she'd met Wraen in relation to all the other events that had gone on in her life. If she flubbed a bit here and there it wouldn't make much of a difference.

I've been well! she replied, I went back to Drageda after we parted ways, and I stayed there a while, but when Wildfire and Kiwi said they were leaving, I knew I couldn't stay behind. Kiwi's, like, my best friend. I don't think my dad was very happy about it, and Kiwi's brother is furious, but like you said, it's not right to be mad at those who leave. It wasn't like Sequoia had done it to hurt them. She had done it because she wanted to see the big wide world. If she had stayed with Drageda, she doubted she'd have the big fancy "honoree" title that she had now.

What about you? Why'd you pick here out of all the other packs?

"A fateful meeting with Wildfire. Honestly - I tried to raid her cache, she caught me red-handed, but rather than eating my face and telling me to bugger off, we began talking," Wraen recounted the events that had led her to joining Firebirds. "She is very easy to like and I had a feeling that the home she was building here was one that I could fit in as well. So, I persuaded my sister Maia to come here and the rest is history," she finished. So far she had not regretted her decision. She felt well among the people, who had gathered here, which - she realized - she had not felt either at Moonspear or Sunspire. Perhaps, this really was It. In terms of a permanent home people fall in love with.

"And I knew that this was the place for me, when I heard that you are part of the group as well," she added with an amiable smile. "I recall that, when we met each other last, we had quite a lengthy discussion, didn't we? Unfortunately I do not recall, where we left off."

Sequoia had heard the story from Wildfire already, but she listened intently anyway. The stories lined up exactly (though that wasn't surprising), and Seq grinned. She was so glad that Wildfire and Wraen had met and gotten along well enough that now they were both in the same pack with her. It had been a wild ride the past few months, but Sequoia was incredibly happy about all of it. Things seemed to be falling into place really, really well.

Hearing that her own presence had played a hand in Wraen's decision warmed her heart even more. I don't really remember, either, Sequoia admitted sheepishly. That seemed like a lifetime ago. Considering Seq hadn't even hit one whole year alive, it kind of was a lifetime ago in her head.

"That makes two of us," Wraen chuckled and, when her player had finally skimmed through the three-page long description of their last meeting, something finally came back to her toon's memory as well. "I vaguely remember telling you about sea-side packs and sirens particularly," she guessed with a furrowed brow. "The creatures that can charm poor people with their songs and lure them in the sea to drown?" she went on, looking expectantly at Sequioa, hoping for her aid. "But did I tell you about one hero, whose music was even better than that off the vile creatures?" she asked.

Sequoia did recall the sirens. They were terribly spooky and scary in her mind, and she had told Camilla about them back when she lived with the Redhawks. It was strange to think that wasn't even that long ago. Camilla had assured her that her people had never done such a thing, and that was enough to put Sequoia's mind at ease. She wondered how the mousey girl was getting along, and she made a mental note to make the trek back over to the Redhawks at some point and check in on her.

A hero? Sequoia asked, making it clear in two words that she hadn't heard of such a thing. What kind of hero could fight such scary creatures?

"By name Orpheus - he had a divine skill in music. When he sang, even gods stopped and listened in awe," Wraen explained, happy that there was yet another story she could share with Sequoia and thus keep the conversation going. That one, very long conversation aside they still did not know each other too well. 

"He was enlisted along other heroes to fulfill various quests and on their way they were about to pass the mystical island, where sirens lived. The hereos knew, what could happen, if they let their songs lure them - they would be dragged underwater and drown, their souls would perish and never find way to the underworld," she told. "This was, where Orpheus stepped up and told them not to worry. He instructed them to follow his lead. He went ahead and began to sing the most beautiful song in the world that silenced the sweet voices of sirens. The men passed the islands unharmed that way," she finished. 

"Do you know, how to sing?" she asked in a spur of the moment.

Just as it was during their first meeting, Sequoia was enamored with Wraen's tales. She took them at face-value and really did believe that they were true (or at least rooted in truth). The honoree thought it strange that somebody could sing an even better song than the sirens themselves, but it was a clever trick to bypass their allure. Wraen then asked if Sequoia knew how to sing, and the girl shrugged lightly. I've never really tried, she admitted.

Can you teach me a song? she asked. Not one that will lure wolves to me to kill them, though. I don't want to do that. Sequoia was a gentle soul, and she couldn't imagine harming anybody else intentionally.

"No," Wraen shook her head, bursting out in cheerful laughter, that bubbled up from the depths of her throat, tinkled and chimed, when let outside in the world. "Of all the talents the God graced me with at birth, ability to sing was not among them," she explained, finding Sequoia's false assumption that she had musical abilities endearing. 

"But I enjoy listening to those, who can," she added, though in her life it had been one, maybe two people. And a half, if you count Ibis, though she had never found out, whether the girl had pursued music later in life after showing an early promise in the field.

When Wraen had asked her if she knew how to sing, Sequoia had (erroneously) thought that Wraen was going to teach her how. And boy did she feel a bit stupid when that wasn't the case. An awkward smile pulled at the corners of her mouth, but she held it together for the most part. She thought Wraen would have had a pretty singing voice if she'd known how... but maybe she was dead wrong about that, too.

Well, it sounds like that's my next mission: find somebody who can teach both of us how to sing. Sequoia wondered if anybody within the Firebirds ranks had that ability. If not, she might have to look outside the pack.

"I did not realize that you were musically inclined," Wraen replied, feeling regret that she was unable to teach this to Sequoia. She was a giver by nature and always wanted to help. And felt slightly disappointed, when she could not. "But I have no one to recommend either," she added.

Then she remembered a story she had come up with last summer, while playing with Ibis, but due to the kid being tired and having a very short attention span, she had never had a chance to finish. "Have you ever heard nightingale sing? She is the master singer and improviser among birds. No two songs are alike and on lovely summer evenings she can go on for a very long time," she said.

"I once came up with a tale of, how this happened, would you like to hear it?"

It wasn't that Sequoia felt like she had to find somebody who could sing, but the whole idea of it sounded nice, so she figured "why not?" She gave Wraen a little shrug in response. When Wraen went on to explain something of a nightingale, Seq cocked her head to one side, her attention certainly captured. She nodded eagerly to the question, always ready to drink up any and all information she could gather.

"A long time ago, when the Great Spirit had created the birds, he assembled them all and gave them their colours and particular songs. All was going well, but, when it was nightingale's turn - and she was the last one - the only colour the Spirit had left was brown and grey, but there was no music left," Wraen told. In the original version the preface had been a lot longer and the puppy had fallen asleep before she had got to the best parts.

"Feeling bad for the little modest bird, he decided to give her a gift to learn songs and with this the nightingale set out in the world to find a song that she would like the best," Wraen paused here for a bit, doing a mental count of the bird species she knew and recognized by their voices. "Since it was evening already, she first visited the owls, listened to their various hoots, screeches, cries and mumblings and after a few tries herself, had mastered their craft. Yet... it did not feel enough.

So - early next morning the nightingale set off and met a band of little sparrows in the bush. They were not very friendly in the beginning, being rowdy little birds, but soon they were quarreling among themselves and forgot all about the little musician in the making. The nightingale spent the better part of her day in their company, memorised their songs, tried them herself. Yet... it still did not feel enough.

So - nightingale wasted no time and during this day and the next she encountered many little songbirds - little wrens, crafty and creative finches, colourful orioles, robins, blackbirds. She learned the mumbling song of the pigeons and the cawing of crows and ravens. She chattered away with swallows. She even spent a brief time with the sea-birds, only to realize that their songs were hardly songs at all. Despite all of this extensive search... none of the songs felt right to claim as her own.

Eventually tired from the journey, the nightingale settled down in a tree, hid her head under her wing and slept. And when she woke, she suddenly knew, what to do. Rather than sticking to one particular song, she improvised and used all the tunes and sounds she had learned. For this reason the nightingale is known to be the grand master of music among birds. Because no two songs are alike," she finished. 

References:
Variety of owl hoots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UFNa-dD2Po
Birdsong for beginners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8-dOm7-WEI
More birdsongs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5gZNCm05-U

Tacking on a quick ending here since this thread is getting a bit older. <3
Feel free to reply once more or just archive it as-is!

Sequoia listened as Wraen told the story. It would take her some time to digest it all, but it would certainly give her something to mull over for the next several days (or perhaps even weeks). She did wonder where Wraen heard a story like this, but she didn't inquire for now. Maybe next time they spoke she could dive in a little deeper.

A call from Wildfire caused Seq's ears to flick backward, and she shot her friend an apologetic look. I should go see what she needs, she said. I'm so excited to have you here! And Sequoia meant it. Having yet another friend in their ranks was an awesome benefit to living here.