Cricket Creek Bog so peace be with every place that you had

"and this one, and this one -- and -- ooooo!" weejay bent down, dropping her clutch of flowers as she attempted to pluck a buttery-yellow buttercup from its green hold. "this one!" she announced, forgetting about the tumble of flowers beneath her as she looked at her newest catch.

it was wildly bright, unusually big for a buttercup -- the way it gleamed, almost oilly in its sheen, caught her eye. delightedly, weejay exclaimed with a wild whoop and swung the flower around in her jaws, her stubby tail wagging behind her as she bounded around the flower-cairn with joy.

obviously, because rannoch had taken aengus to the borders of the pack and taught him how they had intended to mark their claim, this meant that the young boy could come and go as he pleased, right? sure. right… at least, that was what he had convinced himself when he’d slipped away from his family’s den and stepped into the sunlight. he had followed the same course that had led him to the edge of the glade before, only this time the little bull passed right through it. his heart raced for a moment before he forgot all about whatever rules his parents might have set for him. aengus was a wild man now! there was no stopping him.
 
the plump child roamed freely until he had found himself in a murky territory with smells that he had never dreamed of before. the fiery orange of his gaze seemed to dance with excitement as he plunged into the area, not even daring to look back. it was in this territory that the young frostfur latched his sights on another shape – roughly his same age – who was entranced by a flower.
 
“hey! what are you doing out here? are you exploring too?” aengus called to the other pup, his tail flagging behind him like a helicopter’s rotor.

"you're my new favorite!" weejay confided in the buttercup, flouncing atop her bundle of flowers. she held the buttercup's brimming petals delicately in her paws, and was gazing upon it with wild fondness when she was startled by a boy's voice.

instinctively, weejay seized. ever so slowly, the girl turned her head around -- expecting a tormentor in the form of one of her many packmates. instead it was a boy roughly her age, dark of complexion with eyes that put the buttercup's brightness to shame. getting over her initial alarm, weejay blinked at the boy while a smile slowly unfurled across her features. "hi!" she chirped, her tail beating over the patch of flowers carelessly. "i'm getting flowers." weejay announced, not even for a second realizing she might be ridiculed for something as pansy as collecting flowers.

rather bashfully, weejay stood and tentatively pushed the buttercup towards aengus. "you can have this one! it's my favorite -- look how shiny its petals are!"

aengus was excited for several reasons. the first being that if there was another bitch out there who was roughly the same age as he was, then that must have meant that it was totally allowed and definitely fine. that, or her parents had some really fucking flexible rules. she was prancing around a flower, so she was probably a hippie. back to the point, though! the second reason that he was so jazzed was because she was a god damn girl. now, aengus considered himself quite the ladies man, but he hadn’t really gotten the chance to test his powers of persuasion out on someone his own age. the possibilities were endless.
 
the silver stranger spun around to him and explained that she was collecting flowers. aengus already thought she was dope. he met her smile with one of his own – one that seemed to stretch his already round features out and create crinkles near his eyes. it was like the wolf version of having dimples or something.
 
within a moment’s notice, the silver pup had brought him a stunning specimen of a flower and said that he could take it. hot damn he barely had to say anything. “that’s a super pretty flower. you’re really good at this! maybe we can find one that looks like your eyes,” aengus immediately tumbled into the idea of going on an excursion to find flowers with this girl. his dad should have been proud.

weejay paused as she realized suddenly, she was vulnerable. he could make fun of her for liking flowers, or worse, mock her for attempting to give him a flower! her features withered away with worry, but it was all for naught, as aengus' smile was infectious and soon she was beaming too.

she practically burst with adoring pride as he complimented her flower. it was pretty! she thought so too, and felt validated by aengus' endorsement. wait, had he just complimented her eyes?

weejay froze, for the compliment meant far more to her than most would realize. she had her mother's eyes -- suddenly she was at loss for words, and just nodded dumbly at the suggestion to look for more.

she didn't stick around: the bundle of flowers was forgotten as she darted off towards a patch of waving wildfires some ten meters away.

aengus wondered if he had stunned the shit out of this girl because she seemed to wilt a bit before returning his smile. sure, he was like one of the most handsome guys out there and he was still only a child, but she didn’t have to go and lose her grin because of that! all was well when she seemed to recover from her moment of fear. maybe she wasn’t used to talking to strangers, or she hadn’t gotten out of her hippie habitat in a long time. no matter, aengus was there to shine some light on socialization for her.
 
in seconds, the two children were tumbling through the bog in search of flowers that would match the young girl’s simmering orange eyes. aengus’ tongue lolled lazily from the side of his mouth as he plodded forward, much slower than the girl, and sniffed at the earth. his silver companion seemed to already know what she was looking for, so he teetered after her on large paws before finally catching a glimpse at the wildfire-colored flowers that grew there.
 
“you did it! you’re like a flower expert or something… that was so fast,” aengus panted to her happily. “maybe we can find flowers that would be like… us but if we had been flowers instead of wolves, you know? like i’ll find a flower that would be you and you can find one that would be me! then we’ll know what kinda flower we’d be,” he suggested, knowing nothing of flowers or what it would mean if they found out what kind of flower they would be if they weren’t wolves. truthfully, aengus had been missing ashlar since their move and it was relieving to him to have found someone who was so willing to go on crazy adventures. even if they had only just met a few seconds ago.

the patch weejay had bolted off to had been glacier asters; they were vibrant purple amid the dusty green, and had thin stalks with proud royal purple. weejay stood over them and beamed, her tail wagging behind her as aengus pulled up alongside her.

it had been fast, but weejay had already known their whereabouts, having found them before the buttercup. her head tilted as aengus spoke, suggesting they find their flower selves. an adult would have scoffed at the idea, but weejay fucking LOVED IT. her eyes positively lit up like little firecrackers. "OH!" she yelped, so excited she couldn't help but start getting into gear. "we can put them here!" she nimbly picked up a stem of purple aster and brought it over to her flower pile.

she turned around thereafter, gave aengus an encouraging smile, and said "i'm on it!!"

aengus might have been colorblind. that was yet to be identified, because he was sure that he saw orange in the flowers at her paws. either way, she had already plucked one and had jetted back to her stock of other foliage on the ground. aengus turned to follow her movements with a jovial expression on his rotund face. then, he swung his burly form around and plodded after her on heavy feet. his frame seemed to sway with each step that he took.
 
the girl was game for his plan. this sparked a newfound energy inside of him. his tail flagged at his rear as he watched her come to life at the idea of finding each other as flowers. when she turned away, he began to set out on his search for what kind of flower his newfound friend was going to be. his nose was pressed to the earth because he thought he’d like to find something that didn’t smell too bad, since his silver friend smelled just like the flowers she clutched in her mouth.
 
the boy roamed around several large trees before the burning fire of orange caught his eye and he was pulled toward it. somehow, the silly child could not quite get off the orange flower kick. as he tumbled in the direction of the patch of fire poppies, he felt like he had struck gold. they were a gentle orange color that seemed to smile up at him. aengus smiled, proud as punch at the find, but more so because these flowers seemed extra special to him. their petals were shriveled and crinkled in appearance, as though they were intentionally wilted to begin with.
 
the boy was careful to scoop them up at the stalks and yank them from their hold. he turned back to where he had left the girl and began to race toward her. he hoped that she would like his find.

sharing the grin of thieves, the two puppies parted ways briefly. weejay was trigger-frantic as she searched among the loam. there were pale oconees, which she loved for their white heads and dark red leaves -- but they didn't remind her of aengus. she clipped a few, brought them to flower rubble, and then darted back off to her search.

after about ten minutes, one could hear a loud "WAOWE!" weejay had found a maple sapling, with its normal bright summer-green leaves turned a dark and ill-omened red. she motioned for aengus to come over -- "look!" and then uncaringly, chewed off a thick branch and brought the infested bough to her pile. "it's cool! but that's not your flower."

aaaaand she was off again.

this time she went further from the murky, wet soil -- there were bracken ferns, pinecones, and all manner of forest flowers.. but weejay was looking for a specific flower that came to mind -- the indian paintbrush. in her minds' eye, the violent flare of orange-red was perfect for aengus, and since the flower was often robust and towering over its peers, she thought it would suit him just fine.

finally, there was a patch of them between tall yellow desert grass; weejay bounded towards one, ripped it from the ground root and all, and started galloping back to aengus. "hmmehey!" she hollered, slowing to a wide-eyed walk as she saw what was in aengus' clutch.

they were the most goddamn exotic flower she had ever seen. they put the buttercup to shame, with their broad crimpled petals -- the way the sunlight gleamed off of their disrupted surface like sunfire: "oh!!!" weejay gasped, dropping the indian paintbrush in surprise. "where'd you get those!?"

aengus made sure that even though the orange flowers were a little wilted looking, that they had friends who were just as wilted looking. he didn’t want the girl to think that he imagined she was a wilted flower. the little bull might have been missing a few brain cells, but he knew how to treat a lady. they were perfect for the girl that he knew almost nothing about. it was like a childhood romance, except the kids in this story were distantly related – awkward!
 
when he’d found his way back to the flower pile, aengus glanced down to see if the quick silver flower-hunter had found anything that would have matched him. his eyes rested on the diseased looking leaf, and his expression seemed to fall. good news dad, i found a girl in the woods! but she thinks i’m ugly as sin. look at the flower she said reminded her of me. he could imagine the conversation going down with his father and then becoming the laughing stock of the den because he knew that his sister wouldn’t let something like that die.
 
the silver girl was racing back with a completely different specimen in her mouth, though. aengus liked the look of that one a lot more. before he could get the best look at it, the silver girl dropped her bundle in surprise and gasped. aengus blinked daftly before realizing that he was still clutching the orange bundle in his mouth. the young bull placed them on the ground and nudged them toward her.
 
“found ‘em in the trees way in there,” he gestured with his muzzle in the direction of the rare find. “i brought a bunch of ‘em because i didn’t want you to think i thought you were like a wilted flower or something but they’re all that way! i think it makes them look pretty,” he babbled off to the girl, trying to defend his reason of choice.

weejay hadn't thought them wilted at all: even at first, when she saw they were all the same, she knew there was no cause for alarm or worry. sometimes flowers wilted when they were too hot or overwatered; but these flowers -- they were crumpled in a way that seemed natural.

she hadn't forgotten what she had gotten aengus; "these are indian paintbrush!" weejay announced proudly, offering aengus a long stem barbed with wildly red petals. "they're tall and they grow strong. plus their flowers are close to your eye color and i think they are really pretty --" suddenly weejay was aware she was -- what was she? what was that feeling ? -- she blushed and looked away uncertainly, toeing the dirt with scarlet rimmed cheeks.

the silver girl was quick to recover and offer a name of the fiery reddish flower that she had brought for him. aengus bent his head to sniff at them delicately and smiled up at her. the description was something he liked a lot. they sounded like the perfect flower for a frostfur. it was amazing how she had found one like it in the amount of time that they had taken. the young boy almost felt bad for having brought her something so sub-par. he didn’t even know the name of the crumpled-looking poppies that he had brought for her.
 
“they’re perfect!” aengus barked happily to her. his tail seemed to wag so hard behind him that he had started to swing himself around in reverse circles. “i’m aengus frostfur. what’s your name?” the boy then offered to her. it was a little late in the way of typical formalities. none of that mattered, it seemed.

aengus' approval was all weejay needed. the smile that had been tentative before unfurled into full bloom, even reaching the soft chestnut of her gaze. "yay!" she exclaimed, genuinely joyed he liked them. for a second there, she had been worried the indian paintbrush wouldn't pass muster.

moving onto the wilted flowers aengus brought her -- she had never seen them before. she frowned with concentration as she studied them. their petals were unusual and foreign to her, but their stem resembled some of the other plants she had seen before. "these are so cool!" weejay practically bellowed once her inspection was complete, glancing at her new friend with glee. "i'm whisky jack redhawk-blackthorn!" it was quite a mouthful, so weejay unnecessarily added: "you can call me weejay."

her name was like a tornado that tumbled from her mouth. aengus would not have been able to settle on what to call her if it hadn’t been for the girl suggesting a nickname shortly after spilling the entire length of her moniker. weejay, he tasted the sound of her name in his head. he liked the sound of that and thought that it was suiting of her. he didn’t know if a weejay was a real thing, but if it was, she was the spitting image of it.
 
“you can call me gus, if you want!” aengus told her, bowing down playfully and flagging his tail up into the air. “i have a middle name too you could use! it’s cypress. that used to be my dad’s brother’s name. does your name come from anything?” he then prattled on, tossing a question to the end of his statement. he was curious to know how she had managed to get so many names if she was only as old as he was.

it seemed to be a redhawk (or blackthorn -- they were so interlapping and inter-related it was hard to keep track) custom to have enormously long names, so weejay hadn't realized how strange the jumbled moniker seemed until aengus spoke. her ears fell, but were back up a second later as she parroted a breathless "gus!" after aengus.

shifting on the flowers, weejay thought long and hard about her name. did she have a middle name? she didn't remember, but maybe she did! maybe jack was the middle name, and whisky the first? but that didn't make sense, on account of the fact she distinctly remembered it was tradition to be named after an animal on one side of her family. "it's a bird!" weejay answered helpfully, looking at the impossibly tall firs above them as if expecting one to appear any minute (spoiler: one did not).

"cypress is a tree!" weejay blurted out a second later, realizing she had forgotten to mention that a few seconds before. "what's aengus from?"

something seemed strangely familiar that her name was also the name of a bird. he followed her gaze up into the trees and breathed out a sigh, hoping that one would appear. when she spoke again to mention that aengus’ middle name was the name of a tree, he looked to her with blinking orange eyes and a dazed smile. “are there any around here?” he asked her, glancing around the area where they conversed. it wasn’t really a pretty place to have met her, but they seemed to be making the best of it.
 
“i dunno where aengus came from, but my brother and sisters have weird names too! my one sister is called sionnach, and my brother is tiarnach,” he explained to her. his brow creased as he tried to remember the name of his other sister, but he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around her at all. she was quiet, compared to the others, and she had kept to herself. “i think they’re all just really weird noises and they want us to believe they’re actually names,” aengus confided to weejay in a whisper. get your conspiracy theory fill for the day, little miss.

weejay followed aengus' gaze to the trees around them: there was evergreen and fir, blue spruce and sitka -- but she did not see any cypress. she frowned, for she didnt know if they liked wetter habitats. "hmmmm." weejay hummed, squinting as she scanned the foliage. maple, oak, yew -- no cypress.

"i don't see any. it's like one of those," she pointed at the deciduous trees. "but they grow tall and thin like a weird stick." weejay giggled - she didn't think aengus looked like a tall, thin, or weird stick. "i like those names." she affirmed absently, realizing they sounded way more exotic than the names she knew. "my brother's name is elfie! it stands for elwood junior." somehow, that didn't seem as cool as aengus/tiarnach/sionnach, though... but weejay didn't know that it was because it was a familiar word that had been bled of its exoticness for her.

aengus wasn’t sure how strongly he felt about being named after a tall, weird stick. he supposed that if his uncle was named after the same type of tree, it must not have been all that bad. still, the young bull preferred to be related with something much sturdier.
 
talk of sticks and trees aside, weejay commented that she liked the sounds of his family’s names. aengus smiled at her, realizing that he’d never really had someone to talk to who was so open and pleasant about the things he shared. ashlar had been the closest thing, but ash was a bro and they did bro things together. aengus had never had someone like weejay around. “your brother’s name is cute. what does he look like? is he silver like you?” aengus complimented and then followed it up with several questions in a speedy follow-up.

it came on so sudden, this open blossoming friendship with a perfect stranger, that weejay wasn't even aware how open and vulnerable she was being. it simply felt good to talk to someone, without any sort of adult or judgment -- maybe this was the type of growth weejay needed all along to become healthy and independent.

aengus had complimented elfie's name, and weejay nodded, for she liked it too -- but for different reasons. she loved her brother, the undying, adoring way a sister would always steadfastedly believe in their sibling -- and that, in weejay's eyes, would never change.

"nope, i'm the only one like this," she shook her head and then paused -- well, wait.. "well. my daddy and i look a lot alike. elfie's like the wrinkly flower's color.." she had almost said elfie has my mommy's fur, but had quickly corrected herself. "do you look like everyone in your family? what are your sisters like? do you like them? what about your parents? and where do you live?? is it near by?" so much for aengus and rapid-fire questions -- weejay was sprouting them off like nobody's business.

she was closest to her father, she claimed. then, she stated that her brother was closer to the flower that aengus had found for her. he glanced toward the fiery orange blossom and thought that it seemed pretty close to what sia’s face mask and tail tip were colored in. just when he thought to ask further questions, weejay seemed to be inspired by her own flurry of queries. aengus’ ears were cupped forward so that he could keep track of each one as it passed through her lips.
 
“um, my family looks more like you actually! i’m the darkest one out of my siblings, but my dad says that i kinda look like his brother. sionnach is really stinky! she’s real smart though and she can be fun when she isn’t trying to pick on you,” he described his red-dipped sibling as kindly as he could manage. his lumpy sister was really just something you had to meet in person to believe. “my other sister is really quiet and kinda likes to keep to herself,” but what the hell is her name?! then he wondered what she wanted to know about his parents and what they were like.
 
“my mom is real nice and very protective. my dad is big! he’s really big! but he’s like a soft and fluffy bear who doesn’t want to hurt anything. he can tell good stories too. you should come over sometime and listen,” aengus suggested with a wildly thrumming tail. the young bull then gestured through the trees in the direction of the glade. “we aren’t far! right in those trees over there.”

as aengus rattled off the qualities of his family, weejay tried to picture them in her mind. he was the darkest, it seemed -- with a family mostly like her. she imagined his sisters giving him hell for something, then his parents: a mountain of a man with soft fur, and for some reason she imagined liffey as this sweet and softspoken darling that doted on all her children equally (sionnach would beg to differ).

it brought a warm smile to her lips, for weejay's imagination had filled her heart with something akin to nostalgic love; she missed her mother terribly.. but imagining aengus' mother somehow made some of the hurt drift away.

the fact they were close by caused weejay's excitement to build; that meant they could play together, all the time! and explore, and catch bugs, and look at flowers! she was already scheming their next adventure, but she was almost too shy to ask. "oh!! i live over there --" she pointed to a glade an equidistant amount away; it was perfect, they were practically neighbors. "can i visit sometime?" she knew she had just been invited, but her tone was hopeful -- she would like to listen to the big soft man's stories very much.

weejay pointed to where her home was, and aengus felt his heart soar with delight. they were so close to each other. he was almost sure that the woods were even connected at some point. the trees all seemed to bleed into each other out there. this would be a great positive point when he was giving his parents a sales pitch about how his new friend needed to come over and visit. there was really no way that they could deny him, especially if he threw away his pride and gave them the most heart wrenching pair of beggar’s eyes that he possessed.
 
“yeah! you can come visit any time! do you think i could come over to where you live too? maybe i could meet your brother, and you can meet my family too,” aengus offered her. she had seemed interested in the frostfur clan, and he was sure that she would have found some great joy in listening to his dad’s pleasant voice as he told stories. even if aengus didn’t believe in all that fantasy stuff, or he thought some of his dad’s lines were super cheesy… well, he still enjoyed that he had parents who would share those things with them.

the whole "packs are territorial" thing was kind of lost on weejay, partially because her pack life was so interconnected; it seemed like everywhere was just a big extension of her family, and she included the frosthawks in that bunch. inviting aengus to her doorstep without so much as a bat of an eye did not seem like a bad idea to weejay, so she nodded furiously. "yes!! that would be epic." she practiced the slang she had overheard, beaming that it came out so easily.

"you will like elfie," weejay assured him, giving aengus a wise nod of confidence. after all, what was not to like about elfie? he was her favorite wolf, eljay aside -- and surely, since she and aengus were budding friends, elfie would like aengus too.

“yeah,” he chuckled softly, looking at the girl across from him with batting eyes filled with wonder before he repeated the foreign word that she had used, almost daftly, “epic…” the premise of their meetings seemed so exciting to him, the young boy could almost not wait for them to start. he wanted to invite her over immediately so that he could show her the glade. there were places there that even he had not explored yet and he would have loved the help.
 
weejay went on to say that he would really like her brother. aengus grinned at her – a toothy expression that crinkled his muzzle. “you might like my sister sia, but she’s kinda sassy,” he warned her. “you’ll definitely like my mom, though!” aengus then tacked on. he wanted to give her reasons to show up, not to run away.

aengus' expression crinkled; not as bad as the flowers, though. weejay's tail stirred in response. she didn't remember ever smiling this much - what was that feeling she kept feeling? it was like excitement, except it thrummed around her stomach kind of like a little angry bee.

"i like sassy!" weejay declared, which was only kind of true. she liked harmless sassy -- but mean sassy, like bitey pox, was definitely not her favorite. now she really wanted to meet aengus' family, if only to measure them up against him. "are there lots of cool places to explore?" she half-queried, suddenly realizing something very important: "are there any cool flowers?!"