Barrow Fields You don't have to worry

Illidan had been nice enough to let her stay a while but she definitely didn't feel okay eating their food.  Like... okay.  She loved food, and she loved free food even more.  But she wasn't dumb enough to take it from a place she was visiting, especially when she wanted to be allowed to visit again.  Totally an awesome house guest, definitely five stars would-host-again.

Unfortunately that meant she had to find her own food.  She could hunt but this coastal place didn't have the best pickings, not like the forests she'd been spoiled to live in most of her life.

She'd managed to spot a skinny bird though, and was sneaking up on it currently.  Her stomach rumbled and she swallowed, but too late..... the bird took off. She jumped for it and missed, then sat down with a plaintive 'whmpffff' and stared after it as it disappeared.  Darn it!  

@Cadeau

Cadeau wasn't really sure what to make of herself here, she took to wandering as usual but there wasn't really a goal in mind for her day. Usually she took her alone time studying plant life, she was very interested in learning their effects in her goal to be a healer but right now the flower weren't interesting her. Cadeau walked passed a tall yellow flower without really giving it a look, the wolf in her was looking to do something else this evening. It felt strange letting her instincts control her but she recalled Illidan telling her at the start of their journey she needed more faith in them if she wanted to survive. 

The smell of wild life, code for food, intrigued her senses and Cadeau began to follow a trail of anything that at leart scented easy enough to bring down in a solo hunt. She was tired of being so dependent upon her traveling partner and annoyed at the fact things like hunting were taking so long to come back to her... in the distance it seemed someone else was having a similar situation. 

The bird flew away into the sky, leaving behind a hungry wolfess in its wake. Cadeau cast a look behind her shoulder, unsure if she should approach. It wasn't that Cadeau was unfriendly but she worried about imposing in this girl's hunt. Clearly this spot seemed to be taken and Cadeau wasnt interested in going toe to toe with anyone over a meal ticket.

Though... werent two heads better than one? And besides, she was lonesome and meeting other wolves was part of her mission anyhow. Cadeau shrugged as if to say 'to Hell with it', and approached the stranger.

Cadeau smiled, "Hey there... um having trouble fly fishing?" Get it? Because birds fly and they were by the sea...

Maia sighed dejectedly as dinner took off without her.  Food was way easier to get with a pack, that was for sure.  Even if you didn't have luck, chances were someone else had, and sharing was caring really.  She was about to get up and try to find something else when someone said something from behind her.

Wha-  It took her a minute for her brain to catch up to her ears, but when it did, she couldn't help it.  She laughed, a big, hearty chuckle.  Oh, oh my gosh.  Yes!  Mood officially brightened.  She turned and set her eyes on one of the brightest, oddest colored wolves she'd ever seen.  You, you are funny!  But uh, yeah.  No luck.  She shrugged, a little sheepish now.  Obviously the other individual had seen her messup.

Cadeau's eyes couldn't help but widen in surprise at the loud hearty chuckle the stranger did, she hadn't thought it was that funny but she was happy her joke landed its mark at least. Sides, she liked compliments. "Glad somebody thinks so," Cadeau said with a grin, glad to see the stranger was so friendly. 

"Nothing wrong with that, I'm sure if we keep our noses peeled we can find something to eat," Cadeau barked, trotting closer to the stranger to give her a curious sniff in typical canine noseyness. "Sides, that bird looked awfully skinny. You deserve more meat than that," she added, narrowing her eyes and looking around thoughtfully. Cadeau absently climbed to stand on a nearby rock to try getting some higher ground for her eyesight .

Yeah she thought so! Maia loved a good pun.  Her family hadn't really done a lot of jokes, though at least Wraen shared a good portion of her sense of humor.  Way more than her own littermates seemed to at least.

Maia's ears pricked at the 'we', but of course, she wasn't going to turn down help.  We it was!  You can say that again!  They don't make them fat here like they do back home, either that or all the good ones are hiding.  She peered around, then huffed.  Are you from Rusalka too?  I'm not, I'm just visiting, but it's a neat place.  She kept her eyes opened also, ready to quiet down if she spotted another bird or rabbit or something worth eating.  But she liked to talk, and weird silence tended to make her feel a little oogh.

Cadeau looked down at the girl from where she stood on her rocky perch only a few feet off the ground. She cocked her head at the mention of 'home', a place she had no idea about. The packs were all pretty much nameless for her until she met one or Illidan informed her. 

She shook her head at her question, stepping down from the rock when she saw nothing of interest around the general area. "I dont have a pack, I'm just a drifter," Cadeau told her. "I'm traveling with a friend to meet some clans though to live in," she added. Cadeau decided not to go into any personal information about herself. It was always hard dodging questions when you were an outsider. "I'm Cadeau, what wolf pack are you from?"

Oh.  She didn't sound bummed about it, but Maia tended to have a hard time believing anyone wandering alone was really all that happy.  She'd had a pretty miserable time at it until she found her siblings.  That's... cool.  At least she had a friend but, that friend wasn't here now.  They must have been off doing something else.

Clans was a weird word to use for pack.  Clans as in packs, or like, something different? She asked, wanting to clarify.  If they were something else then she kinda wanted to hear about them; she was familiar with the word obviously because stories had all sorts of terms like that, but she'd never met a pack that referred to themselves as such.  I'm from the Firebirds.  We're pretty cool and super chill; Wildfire, our big boss, lets us travel pretty much whenever we want so long as we help out.  She smiled at the thought of the red woman as 'big boss'.  She was super nice, way nicer than her daughter.

Cadeau remembered her father using the word occasionally and the dogs had primarily alternated between the two terms fairly often, she hadn't ever really thought clan could sound weird to a wolf. Of course it was only recently she ever met wolves and talked to them on a daily basis sometimes. The old paranoia over wolves was slipping away the more she traveled and got to know them.

"The um... 'pack' I came from liked to say clan sometimes," Cadeau said after a moment, it was just a little white lie but in a way there was some truth doused in there. "Firebirds, huh?" The name meant nothing to her though she bookmarked it in her head for future reference. "Maybe I'll visit there next if my partner is up to it," Cadeau mused, cocking her head as she wondered if Illidan knew about this wolf pack. "Big boss? Don't you wolves call them alphas?" Her question pretty much was blurted out and sounded like the most un-wolf-like thing to say, causing the halfling to feel awkward, there goes her stupid dog words and talk slipping into conversation as usual.

Where's your partner now? Maia asked, looking around.  If she was going to agree to a visit she should probably meet them, though likely if they were with this girl they were alright.  She was a weird one though.  Clans and now 'you wolves' as if she wasn't one herself.  Maia wasn't sure what to make of it.  We wolves do sometimes yeah, but she likes to go by Sovereign.  Maia answered with a slight questioning tilt of her head.

She wasn't one to pry super a lot, but c'mon, that was odd.

"He is hanging around here somewhere," Cadeau said, glancing about as if to emphasize the point of the statement. If she were visiting this place did that mean maybe she knew Illidan too as a result in Rusalka by extension? "His names Illidan, I'm not from the pack but he is." She tipped her head in a curious fashion, Cadeau didn't know much at all about her friend's social life so it was very possible. He was a private person, not that she minded. Well. Private about anything not pertaining to him at least, Cadeau thought with a inward smirk as she recalled her first meeting with the boy, he'd asked all the questions possible and ruined his way through her lying. "He's been escorting me around the forest because well... I'm from outside it so it's all weird and new to me. I really owe him one." 

That word sounded so weird to Cadeau having never heard of it before but she tried playing it cool like it wasn't strangely sounding to her ears. "Sovereign huh? That's certainly a different way to say it," Cadeau mused.

She supposed she probably should have expected.  It wasn't like he wasn't a prince, and super nice and all.  Maia looked at Cadeau with fresh eyes after though;  petite, big eyes, striking red fur.  

She fought to swallow the sudden feeling of jealousy that sprang up in her gut like a bad piece of fish.  Yeah?  Do you guys, like, travel together a lot? She asked, trying to stay nonchalant.  She didn't care, right, because she lived with the Firebirds and she had Charon who liked her and he was a king.  So take that.

And I'm not from this forest either.  My family is... was... from like way south.  But it isn't that different here.  She was a little confused why Cadeau would need help.  Maia had never seen a dog before, let alone a wolf dog, and to her the other was just a very distinctive looking wolf.

Cadeau shrugged her shoulders at the question, sensing something kind of weird. She didn't delve into it as it wasn't her business and neither did she want to dig into it. "Since the end of winter just about," Cadeau said, looking at the girl. "Illidan was hurt, I was lost and he offered to help place me somewhere." She could still remember it being strange he wanted to help her at all. Cadeau still felt undeserving of his help, there was a lot they didn't know of each other as is. "So... I guess we've been traveling a lot now." Time flies fast it seems.

Cadeau didn't really want to explain her story any further than the lies she made in order to avoid such an occurrence. It'd been painful enough telling Illidan and she wasn't ready to trade it off as free information just yet. "It was really far from here, there was a big culture shock for me when I came to this neck of the woods," the halfling decided to say instead, nodding her head.

It was even worse than she thought.  Not only did they travel together, but they supported each other.  She'd nursed him back to health.  Omg.  Her hopes shattered into a million pieces and she was heartbroken.  Maia crushed fast and fell hard, and every single time it was the same.  Heartbroken over Epic leaving, she'd come here.  Now, heartbroken over Illidan having someone (yay assumptions) she was wondering if she should probably leave.

Luckily for Cadeau, Maia was now definitely not worried about her weirdness anymore.  And luckily for Maia, heartbreak tended to come out as just more veiling cheerfulness.

That's super cool!! It's so great to have someone to travel with! I go around with my sister sometimes, but this trip was by myself, to see Illidan too! I should probably get home soon though before my pack misses me.  Have a ton of super important stuff to do.  Mhmm.  Um, what packs or clans have you visited though?

She didn't want to be completely rude and jet off before she had a nice conversation.  She wasn't a complete spaz after all.

Cadeau just gave a slow single blink at how fast those words came out, she didn't really seem to want to hang around anymore and she was utterly confused. Werent they going to hunt? The yearling was questioning her social skills, was it something she said? Everything seemed okay until she mentioned Illidan. She could only guess the girl knew Illidan too, did she feel threatened by her? Was that it?

Yeah, sure, like anyone would give me the time of daylight. Especially him. Cadeau inwardly cringed with ears burning warm at the thought, before turning her attention back to the wolf. Besides, it was general bad business practice to get involved with someone you were traveling with, heaven forbid the awkwardness, it left an uncomfortable knot in her stomach. Cadeau didn't feel anything... right? She wasn't going to pick at it because she wanted the awkward tense air cleared with some air freshener. "Um... bye I guess?" Cadeau dumbly said in response, a bit dejected. 

"I met one called Shadewood and Diaspora," she said though she doubted the girl really wanted to know, Cadeau didnt want to keep her here if it meant her presence was bothering her.

Nooo, not like right now right now.  Just soon.  She had definitely forgotten that they were supposed to be hunting in the conversation, and that she was hungry.  But she now had a weird interest in finding out what she could about this girl before she bounced.  Kinda the whole 'okay so she's cooler than me I gotta know her and maybe be friends' thing.  Oh man.

But she was definitely going home before Illidan got the chance to blow her off.  She didn't want to, like, insert herself here or anything.

Shadewood is right by us, she said, and conveniently that was another nail in the coffin.  He was that close and didn't even visit.  Never mind that any rational person would realize he didn't know that was where she lived.  I don't know them though.  I just know Moonspear.  And Charon.  Who... maybe she'd visit sooner than later.

Cadeau didn't really understand why her heart felt like it was going to go into a week long depression after this conversation wrapped up but suddenly she was feeling pretty uncomfortable and flighty. She only wanted to say hello and make a friend, why did it have to get so weird so fast? She shuffled her weight to get comfortable and sat down.

"Alright, if you're sure. I don't want to hold you up," Cadeau said with a waned smile, she wanted to talk to her but at the same time she could tell the halfling was bringing discomfort upon her shoulders. Cadeau couldn't deny her own conflicting feelings she didn't really realize until this very moment. Ouch.

Cadeau guessed Firebirds wouldn't be a good idea in the future, dismay over a visit potentially hurting the female. "I heard about a pack called Moonspear but I haven't met them yet."

No! Unless you want me to, but it's a long way.  So there wasn't much sense in setting off right that moment.  Just probably in the morning.

They are pretty great.  My sister and brother were members for a while but they left, and after I met their leader.  He's super nice.  Maia knew that Wraen had a differing opinion, but she always liked to give her own version when she spoke.  Charon had always been nothing but great to her.

They live on the biggest mountain if you ever do go that way, and you can tell Charon you know Maia.  He said the mountain touches the moon; someday I want to climb it.  She smiled as she said that, waving her tail emphatically.  It was something to look forward to for sure!

Cadeau hoped there was a way to salvage the previous more comfortable mood because what was going on previously wasn't flying with her nerves. She also didnt want these awkward thoughts in her head now that she let them loose, Cadeau took a deep breath. "By the way... I never got your name," Cadeau said in a curious tone, she had given the wolf her name but hadn't gotten anything back.

"I'll have to keep that in mind if I come across them, what's their leader's name?" she asked with her head tipping to the side.

It seemed she beat her to her own questions and Cadeau blinked as she took it all in. So the leader was called Charon and the girl here was named Maia. "Sounds like a beautiful place," she mused. "I haven't really been on mountains, I've seen them in the distance but never climbed one, maybe I'll have to add it to the list of things I need to do before I die." Cadeau offered a smile.

Maia had answered the questions in a roundabout way, so assumption is she probably ignored it (or talked over it?).  Either way, she nodded in agreement at the last point.  We went up a little ways, and he showed me around some.  The views are amaaaazing.  Remembering made her almost miss the Sunspire.  I lived on another mountain for a while, and it was neat too.  But it's a lot of work, sometimes, climbing up and down and getting around.  Especially for someone Maia's size.  Her ears twitched at that thought, but she kept it to herself.

I wouldn't do it alone your first time. But she probably wouldn't, would she?  They can be kinda tricky, and you can definitely get stuck sometimes! Or slip.  Maia smiled at that, remembering her and Wraen's day playing on the giants' playground.

Cadeau's world was once small and confined to just the small town she'd been born in, only knowing fenced in yards and houses that took more spaces than the trees. This entire wilderness was still a culture shock to her and from what Maia told her of the mountains view Cadeau could believe it would be beautiful. It made her think back to that butterfly flying high into the air... just what did the world look like from so high up? Climbing probably was difficult but Cadeau felt she walked enough miles her legs must have strengthened enough to handle such a hike one day, or so she hoped.

She nodded her head to show her she was taking her advice to heart. "I'll bookmark that for the future if I ever go anywhere like that," Cadeau woofed in reply. Cadeau had nearly been run over on the freeway escaping her attackers the night she'd been driven out from her home by angry dogs, the idea of slipping didn't really scare her after living through a car trying to plow you down. "If I told you the stuff I've survived before you would never believe me," she said with a sardonic smirk. "Getting stuck on some giant tall rock doesn't sound nearly as frightening now."

Maia wasn't sure how she felt about that statement.  On one hand, it made her a little competitive again.  She'd been through some stuff too, and living on a mountain was dangerous, no matter what this girl thought she could handle.  But on the other hand - that sounded like a story.  And Maia loved stories.

I'm a storyteller.  It's my job to believe crazy stories. She responded, lifting her head and smiling.  Whenever anyone wants to tell them.  Usually I make up my own, but hearing them gives me ideas.

She didn't want to come out and ask directly, but she waited.  Hopefully she'd give her a taste.

A storyteller? Cadeau hadn't thought that was a possible career choice out here in the wilderness but it was a intriguing development regardless, the halfling looking thoughtful. She had enjoyed listening to stories in her youth, she wondered how a pack kept record of all these stories and passed them around, the purposes and uses...

The overly thoughtful scholar in her was over thinking it again, so she shook herself out to clear the clutter. Maia made it pretty crystal clear she wanted to hear one of these daring stories of hers, Cadeau knew it wouldn't be fair leaving the girl hanging after revealing such a thing but...

That could involve some very personal backstory stuff Cadeau was not looking forward to sharing with a stranger, even if Maia was very nice thus far. However... nobody said she couldn't lie and exaggerate right?

"There I was... outnumbered by a pack of wolves outside the Teekon. They didn't want me on their territory so they began to chase me," Cadeau began with a dramatic flair, waving a forepaw as if it would sprinkle more weight into her story. "They chased me to a..." What could replace freeway? Hmm... "... to a gorge! It was deep as it was wide and full of loud roaring monsters that had shiny coats and big black paws. I was trapped, in a rock in a hard place." Cadeau took in a deep breath, straightening up. "I jumped into the gorge and with only my quick thinking evaded the worst parts of the stampeding monsters. One struck me here," the halfling brandished her shoulder where a bruise once was from when the car struck her on the highway.

"But I got out alive, else I wouldn't even be telling this story," she concluded.

You know that thing girls do, where they pick apart things because they don't like competition?  Yeah, well, against her better judgement, Maia was doing just that internally.  The angel on her shoulder was apparently taking the day off, but she knew she had to walk carefully because she still at the end of the day couldn't turn aside a chance at a friend.

But oh jeeze.  When she had requested a story, she hadn't expected one told in a similar manner to how she told them.  Because storytelling was a thing that she did.  Cadeau didn't get to be good at that too.  Except, well... she was.  Her tale was exciting, and she told it enthusiastically, and Maia had never heard anything about shiny monsters before in her life.  

That is a really good story, she responded honestly, and her smile remained cheerful and friendly even if inwardly she was feeling a bit deflated.  Those monsters sound intense.  Are they everywhere, or do they live in a certain place? Kinda like dragons and old magical caverns, or mermaids and still lagoons?  That wasn't to say her monsters weren't real.  After all, Maia still one hundred percent held the hope that dragons were real.  Yeah, she kinda had a favorite theme here.

"Yeah... story," Cadeau trailed off with a kind of ironic smile, herself alone knowing the true details. She wasn't sure she ever really wanted to make it public but fabricating a white lie was a good start to getting the traumatic event off her mind, right? At the mention of 'dragons', Cadeau tipped her head to the side in puzzlement. Dragon? Mermaid? What was a dragon? What was a mermaid, even? She'd never heard those words before and Cadeau blinked in confusion. "The monsters usually stay confined to canyons and gorges, they like being in a straight single file line." Cadeau then paused before asking. "What's a 'dragon' and 'mermaid' anyhow?" She said the words slowly and strangely, like they felt heavy and weird on her tongue.

That sounded even stranger.  Confined monsters.  Maybe that was why they were so mean, then, because they were stuck going in a line.

You don't know what a dragon is?! She was flabbergasted at that revelation.  Dragons are giant scaley creature with big claws and teeth and scales that can fly and breathe fire.  Some are mean and some are nice, but most are super wise and old.  It was the most abridged vision she'd ever given but she'd need a proper story to let her know more.

And a mermaid is a water creature, half girl, half fish.  They can swim super well and usually sing super pretty.  She didn't like them as much but they were in some interesting tales.  Sirens were even better, because they used their voices to lure innocent wolves to their doom, which was like super metal.  

But if shed never heard of a mermaid, probably she'd never heard of that either.