Northstar Vale Some birds mate for life
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All Welcome 
all welcome, but aiming for wolves who haven't shared a word with gracious! also please don't feel the need to match the length of my post (it's cruddy and late so excuse my bad writing)

She found herself alone in the Vale again. While others were surely around and their scents lingered in her nose, none came into the view of her sight. She wondered where the others could be, perhaps they ventured off on their own to explore this new land they called home. Gracious hadn't seen Andraste since the claiming, she wondered how the white whisp was holding up during this whole process. It must be stressful considering she was the ring leader of this new family.

The mist rolled in and wrapped itself around each individual tree that wasn't displaced by the shakes of the earth. The ground beneath her was hardly visible, though as she moved along, the mist curled against her body and almost made way for her to move and see where her paws landed. She paused for a moment and looked around. She found herself under forested area that lacked the morning grey light. It was darker, but perhaps a nicer setting for comfort. The birds above her head chirped to each other, fluttering above and talking about their daily trips around the world.

Gracious sat in the soil and grass and stared up at a bird's nest. She spotted 2 birds, who busied themselves with bringing materials to fix their nest while pecking each other's faces ever so lovingly as they took turns to leave and come back with more sticks and fur and whatnot. It looked like a lovely way to function with another being, as if they were on the same wavelength. Gracious wondered if she would find a love life like that.
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Fate continued to string its way through Séamus' life.  He had found his sister, found a home — though he did not know it, one of his mothers had started out here, too.  He thought of them often, but the cloud of grief that had plagued him weeks before had lifted, and Sam was starting to come back around.

He was ashamed to realize that he'd introduced himself to nobody in the fledgling pack, so he made it a point to put himself out there.  As he moved through the Vale he caught sight of someone who for a moment, could've been his mother (no no, Sam, not again) but he shook his head and scrunched his face until the image left him.  When his head was clearer he watched her watch the birds, which acted so like his mothers — maybe they were.  Maybe it was Olive and Seabreeze, still together, happy again.

He smiled at the thought of it and walked quietly towards his packmate so not to scare the birds away, and called out a soft, Hey.  If he knew that this woman had touched his mother's life for the better he might've addressed her with more reverence, but for now she was a packmate and a potential friend.
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Her bird watching must have caught the attention of another, the soft "hey" caused Gracious to take her gaze away from the tree top and cast it to the soft colored wolf in front of her. He didn't look familiar, not one bit. She was unaware that she held some feeling of familiarly to him, however. 

She kindly dipped her head at him and offered a gentle "Hello". He looked curious as to what she was doing, or perhaps he was in a stroll and simply bumped into her. Whatever the cause for their interaction, she was grateful. "Birds are simple animals," she started off, "They search for a mate, build a nest together, make their children, and repeat the process all over again" she shot her gaze up to the lovebirds atop the branches once more. "Could you imagine us wolves like that? How simpler life could be?" She offered a soft chuckle at the thought, it was both a gift and a curse that wolves were intelligent and social, perhaps more than the birds were in Gracious' mind. "I'm Gracious, you are..?" she asked warmly with an inviting tone.
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He looked back up at the birds as Gracious began to talk about their lives; how they found love, procreated, repeated the cycle.  My moms were like that, he mentioned casually, thinking nothing of it.  They'd had children before him, and if they'd had any luck in the year after he'd left, they had children after him, too.  He was too young to understand exactly what Gracious meant.  His experience with the subject had been his mother's experiences, and nothing had ever been hard for them.  Are wolves not?

Despite how thankful Seabreeze had been for Gracious' care, she'd never mentioned it to her children.  They'd been so young!  His packmate's name rang no bells.  Séamus, he said, sprawling out where he'd sat.  Gracious is a nice name.
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The talk of his mothers made Gracious become a bit curious. Did he happen to have more than one mother? He must've, considering he added in an s with mother. She wondered what it was like with no father figure. Gracious's father wasn't much of a figure in her life, but perhaps it was different for everyone. She knew of a few wolves who were close with their fathers more than the mothers.

When there was a question about the nature of birds compared to wolves, Gracious could only giggle a little. She believed that the two species were quite different from each other. "Well, I'd like to think we are a little more complex than birds," Gracious started off gently, "We think more, weigh out our options, try to see the consequences of our actions."

She glanced around the land before the two of them, catching a few other animals in her sight before returning them to the young man in front of her.   "Birds don't lie to each other, they won't snitch or cheat the same way wolves will and can sometimes," (oh, perhaps she was too dark); Gracious tried to take a lighter take, "but in a way, we are similar. We look after each other, we look for the best for our families."

Gracious smiled lightly. Would he agree with her, add something else? He looked smart enough to understand what Gracious was saying.
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He supposed she was right.  She had to be, didn't she?  He had never seen a bird choose between one thing or another, or learn from its mistakes.  He cocked his head to the side as his ears swiveled.  She went on to elaborate that they don't snitch or cheat, I don't do tho —  or lie.   

Oh, he was a liar now wasn't he!  He'd went and told Ibis that their mothers were just gone, not what he'd truly found.  But in a way, we are similar. We look after each other, we look for the best for our families.  Confusion twisted over his face.  That's what he'd done, wasn't it?  Say, he began tentatively, D'you ever think lying could be a good thing?
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He seemed to understand her quite well, though the looks of confusion on his face told Gracious to turn down her metaphors between wolves and birds. Perhaps it was an overload of information for someone to think in such a short amount of time. Yet, his careful question to her made her toss him a curious gaze. What could he have done to make him want an answer? Probably just curiosity, she had no right to assume what he did or didn't do.

"When you think about it," she started off, "lying can be both good and bad. It just depends how we and others look at things." She never liked the idea of lying to others, she wanted to live a truthful and noble life. However, Gracious understood when specific circumstances arose and the need to go around the truth was necessary. She lived long enough to know that part, at least. "Sometimes we lie because we have to, if we need to protect ourselves from danger. Sometimes we lie because we want to protect others. There are many reasons why we do things some don't like," she paused for a moment, "sometimes we lie to protect others emotionally. We get afraid of telling others the truth and fear their reaction."

"Lying can be good. But sometimes, we need to tell the truth. It may hurt for a little bit, but sometimes it is easier to tell the truth and be done with it, rather than fear the lie may slip and be discovered by someone." 
Whew, that was a mouthful. She closed her mouth, and tentatively watched for his reaction. What could he say to that? She hoped she struck him correctly and didn't upset him.
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Sam, unlike his mother-by-marriage, was easy to deal with.  His tail swept quietly next to his feet while he reflected on what Gracious said, and as he wrestled with it he realized that perhaps he had done the right thing after all.  Perhaps he was still a good boy.  

There was still time for Ibis to learn the truth, and it could still come from him.  When they were both ready.  That makes sense, he says, a gentle if not slow smile coming to the corners of his lips.  Is there something between?  Something more complex than a bird, but not as much as wolves?
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Something in between, now that was something that Gracious never really put thought into. Everything was complex in its own way, yet other things were completely simplistic, from leaves falling off trees when the seasons changed to when the stars fell from the night sky. She had to think for a moment before answering the boy.

"Maybe that's something you can find out for me," she suggested warmly, "all animals are different from each other, who knows, maybe there's an animal more complex than us." Bears could be intelligent, perhaps even the deer wolves chased and the coyotes wolves fought with. "You just might be surprised with what you'll find."
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