Hushed Willows somebody's got to tell the tale

backdated a few days

he traveled around in a daze, stupefied, unwilling to dwell much on what had transpired. it was a nightmare, that must be it. but each morning, he woke, the roar of the bear still echoing in his ears. . .and ariel and lily were still dead, and aliac missing, gone with only a trail of blood left behind. a living nightmare.

a more superstitious man would worry over each and every fault and flaw that may have led to this utter destruction, but cortez knew fate had no hand nor paw in it. bears, particularly mother bears, were particularly irascible. who knew what had spurred the gal on to commit such acts against the wolves of elysium? nothing they could have done would have stopped her.

'twas not fate, but luck—awful luck. it was the way of the world. you lived, and then you died, and no wolf knew the hour of their death, nor the cause, until it was upon them.

cortez drifted glassy-eyed through the trees, heading to the den @Olive shared with her wives. everyone grieved, but he feared for his sister the most, apart from the children. the shakti was resilient, sure, but she was also sensitive and loving, and had just lost her lover and a couple of good friends. he could only imagine how much she reeled from these blows; he'd scarcely seen her since the incident.

in his mouth was a carefully wrapped bundle of chamomile. he didn't know much about plants, but he did know that it was soothing to those in shock. perhaps it would help his sister. he set it down outside the den and gave her a gentle chuff, waiting to see if she'd emerge.

if/when you have time <3

I hope you dont mind a single post from me, just so I can put Sundance in the background.   <3

Sundance couldn't understand why one of his parents did not return home. Having been sheltered from the mayhem involving a creature that brought such grief to Elysium, he failed to grasp why everyone seemed so distant. An unexplained sorrow hung over his family, one that pained him to witness, but that he found to be contagious nonetheless.

The happiness was drained from them. His mother no longer gathered the pups to venture beyond their densite to experience the delights within their territory. Nobody wanted to play anymore; he was not to know his brothers had seen things with their young eyes that Sundance had been fortunate to avoid, things that may torment them forever.

The arrival of a visitor was a welcome distraction from the sadness, and he scampered from the burrow to greet his uncle with enthusiastic yips and a cheerfully wagging tail. He delivered excited kisses to Cortez' forelimbs and weaved his little body between them, eager to be greeted. Whenever he was acknowledged, Sundance would content himself nearby with sniffing plants and nosing after a large bee as it worked its way between the flowers.

@Sundance -- actually, since Olive is on PPC, if you want to thread this out uncle/nephew style we can! otherwise, I can fade it out <3

it wasn't his sister but sundance that greeted him now, chirping and looking generally joyous. the sight was more than welcome, given the darkness that had settled over the willows recently; cortez embraced him with a small, gentle sound of greeting, his pale eyes following the child as he went over to observe a honeybee and its flowers.

have i told you the tale of the peony and the bee? the shakti asked, taking a step or two toward sundance before settling back on his haunches again, head cocked. there was a smile on his face that, were it sharper, might be described as mischievous. right now, it bordered more on playful.

all the while, he waited for olive to make an appearance. but he waited for a response from his nephew before calling again.

I'm good to continue.  :)

He did not reach out to touch the bee, instead settled himself each time it stopped to investigate a flower so he could quietly observe its work. Sundance loved nature; even at his tender age, he yearned to preserve it just so he could see it all grow as he did. The world beyond his family's den was indeed a wonderful place, as Olive had taught him from the moment he could venture outside on his own.

His uncle was swift to draw the boy's attention toward him again, however, with the suggestion of an new story. Sundance's ears pricked atop his head, which turned to look upon Cortez' smiling features, before he scrambled toward him enthusiastically to take position of eager listener directly at his paws.

to his delight, sundance was game for the tale, and came rushing forward. cortez chuckled a little at the enthusiasm and then settled further, onto his belly, bringing him at eye level with the pale boy. it was always good to look your listeners right in the face; he thought it dragged them right into the story with the person telling it. interactivity, and all that.

a long time ago, there was a peony—that's a pretty pink flower—and a bee. but this was no ordinary peony. you see, this peony produced pollen tastier than any pollen ever tasted before. the bees loved it.

and the bee, well. . .this particular bee's soul had been born into a new body year after year. it never went away. because that's what happens—even when our bodies die, our souls don't. they just go into a different body. he believed it, wholeheartedly, and it struck him then that he was dealing with a child who'd recently lost a parent. would he be happy for this wisdom or find it distressing?

cortez hoped fervently for the former.

year after year, different body after different body, the bee went to visit the peony to eat up its pollen. he'd eat the pollen and grow nice and fat, and then return to his hive to make honey. and he'd help the peony grow, too. they needed each other. they couldn't get by if either of them went away.

he did his best to do the rest of the story justice, and then olive emerged. with a kind glance toward his nephew, they departed and spoke for a while—but things weren't as grim as they had been before, thanks to sundance's curious young mind.