Blacktail Deer Plateau Warm winds of summer's wreckage

Title's from a Henry Rollins quote: "We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost." :)

It would be a few weeks yet before autumn made its way into the wilds, yet Peregrine could taste its crisp flavor in the air as he strode through the woods this September day. The late afternoon sunlight slanted through the trees like ethereal rods of gold, causing him to squint as he passed from sunlight into shadow, from shadow into sunlight. He did not walk in any particular direction, nor for any particular purpose. The Alpha male simply strolled through his kingdom, musing over this and that and keeping an eye out for any opportunity, be it socializing, hunting or something perhaps more unexpected.

I think Ty is one of my favorite toons I've ever played. :B

To say that Tytonidae struggled was an understatement. She did not always know right from wrong, she did not understand why others made the choices that they did, and she constantly looked for somebody else to simply tell her the "correct" answers to all of life's questions. When nobody was able to provide those answers, she looked to her friends, which only she could see and hear. Thankfully, there was also Atticus. At least others could see him, even if they weren't able to hear him. It was his idea to send her on a journey, and it was there that she had stumbled across a few colorful individuals.

She had arrived home the evening prior, learning that Dante was to be a new leader and that her sister had not returned. Nor had her mother. And Atticus was still the same. Nobody else could hear him. Tytonidae had brought her uncle a raven she had found in the forest, and she'd presented it to him with a happy wag of her tail. He thanked her, and she fed it to him, knowing that it was hard for him to be trapped in his head. Ty had slept by his side, and she awoke to a chill in the air.

Figuring it would be wise to seek out her father, Tytonidae did just that. Head down and ears forward, she followed his scent until she saw him sauntering up ahead. Barking to gain his attention, she loped toward him and came up beside him, giving his chin a lick. "Hi, Dad!" she chirped, happy as could be.

Happy to hear that! :)

Peregrine turned at the sound of the bark, eyes expectant. They softened as Tytonidae raced up to him and lapped at his chin. He kissed her cheeks in turn. Although some would call her spacey or scatterbrained, perhaps even a touch loony, the Alpha male was incredibly fond of his charcoal daughter. Her cheery demeanor was particularly welcome on this September afternoon, when it seemed like Junior's presence was fading with the season, her memory chasing summer's ghost into oblivion...

"Hey, Ty, what are you up to?" he questioned. "Wanna join your old man on a walk?"

“Oh, yes!” she replied gleefully, “I would like that very much.” Tytonidae came up beside him to keep pace, always happy to have some good one-on-one with her pops. “I just got back from my journey,” she reported, “I went way, way, way south.” At least, it had felt that way. Tytonidae had never been away from home for more than a few hours, so leaving for a few nights had felt like an eternity. She wondered how far away Junior was now. Or her mother.

“Oh, and I met a bear the other day. I got to eat berries with her.” Tytonidae said this with all the casualness of somebody who was talking about the weather. She knew that nobody believed such stories, but she couldn't help but tell them anyway. On the other hand, her father had met her friends before. Maybe he could meet her bear friend, too!

I think Ty's the firstborn but I'm not actually sure... /random

He smiled at his child's exuberance, then gestured for her to walk beside him as he ventured down a familiar deer trail. He looked sideways, surprised at the news of her trip, if only because she'd never expressed an interest in wandering. Maybe she would become an Outrider, like her sister? Peregrine's brow furrowed. He just hoped Ty wouldn't follow in her footsteps otherwise.

When Tytonidae mentioned a bear, Peregrine paused mentally, trying to decide whether he thought this was a true story or one of his daughter's many imaginary friends. If she was real... he shuddered gently. "Oh? Tell me about her. What's her name?" Even as he asked, he suddenly wondered if she'd really made the aforementioned trip, for that matter. Sometimes it was hard to tell between facts and fictions with his firstborn.

At the end of this month, Osprey & Ty will be juvies. :o

Unlike her father's new mate, Tytonidae had an excellent memory. It was how she kept the names of all her friends neatly organized in her brain. "Sheila," she replied without missing a beat. "She big! No... that's not the right word. What's a word for bigger than big?" she asked, hoping Peregrine would come up with a better adjective. Her father was big, but Sheila was decidedly much, much bigger. Tytonidae wondered how many Peregrines it would take to make a Sheila. Was that kind of thing even possible?

"She showed me how to eat plants. But they didn't taste like regular plants. I think she called them burieds." They had been sweet and tart and so strange compared to what Tytonidae was used to. Her usual meals were savory, warm, and bloody. Eating plants seemed absurdly ill-fitted for a wolf. She couldn't understand why anybody who could get meat would want to eat plants.

Indeed! :D

Now let's celebrate by tripping on some 'shrooms with old daddy-o...

Although the mental image procured by his daughter's description sent another shudder down Peregrine's spine, he tried to play along. "Uh... huge? Enormous? Ginormous? Colossal, maybe?" He looked down at her, wondering if any of those fit the bill.

Even as Ty mentioned berries, the two of them walked past a tree and found themselves face-to-face with a patch of banded mottlegill. If not for their current topic of conversation, eating these strange plants never would have crossed Peregrine's mind. But the mushrooms looked quite appetizing, actually.

Turning to his smaller sidekick, he asked, "Did Sheila say anything about mushrooms? Wanna give 'em a taste?"

Ah, yes, just what Tytonidae needs. More hallucinations!

“Colossal...” Ty repeated dreamily, liking the way that particular one sounded. Sheila had been a true giant, though. Ty wondered if she was the kind of giant who could knock down a tree like Mother had talked about when she was younger. She could not recall if those had been wolf giants or another kind of giants. In fact, she was fairly certain her mother hadn't specified.

“No,” replied Ty, sniffing the mushrooms once before abruptly chomping down on two at once and swallowing them. She barely even tasted them. “The burieds were sweeter,” she reported.

Will she even notice a difference lulz?

He didn't have to ask twice. Peregrine laughed as Tytonidae immediately devoured a pair of mushrooms. He took a step forward and helped himself, plucking one out of the ground and throwing his head back to swallow it dramatically. When it disappeared down the hatch, he grinned at his daughter and licked his lips.

"Kinda meaty, really. Hmmm." He clipped off the cap of another with his teeth and, as he chewed, he asked, "Did you know it's a Gamekeeper's job — well, one of them — to look into alternative food sources? Based on how poorly we've been doing in the recent pack hunts, this is a task I need to take more seriously. You could be my helper if you liked, my apprentice."

I've never personally done mushrooms, but a friend told me they make everything more vibrant and interesting. :)

Tytonidae listened to her father as he spoke of his duty as a gamekeeper. The young Redleaf had never given much thought as to what her place would be in the plateau. She was not sure how somebody like herself could help contribute to the pack, even if she did think that she would be able to. Perhaps she would follow in Perry's footsteps and take on the responsibility of feeding the pack. But when she thought of it like that, it only made the task sound far more daunting than it actually was.

“I think… I think I could do that,” she replied, blinking and giving her father a smile. If it meant spending more time with him while he showed her the ropes, that really didn't seem all that bad. And if he was there to help, it would mean that all the responsibility wouldn't be on her shoulders alone.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tytonidae spotted a rather pretty-looking leaf, and began to slowly pad toward it. It had the most intricate patterns she had ever seen. Or perhaps she had simply never noticed them before. “Dad… do you see this leaf? I mean, do you really see it?” she asked.

I'm pretty sure I stole the following line from Futurama.

She said she'd like that and it warmed his heart, though Peregrine wasn't oblivious to the anxiety in her stammered reply. "Don't worry. You can just try it on for size. If it doesn't fit, no big deal," he said, shrugging nonchalantly to show her that there was no pressure. Peregrine would love to see one of his kids take after him, yet more than anything, he just wanted them to find their niches.

Tytonidae suddenly became distracted by a leaf, which was not at all out of character for her. Chuckling, Peregrine padded after her and stared at the leaf in question. Much to his surprise, it was vividly colored and patterned. He blinked and even ducked his head to scrub at his eyes. When he looked again, the leaf seemed, if anything, even more colorful and intricate. Peregrine bent down until his nose was touching it. He was transfixed.

"Huh," he said after a very long moment of staring, drawing back slightly. He then started as if stung by a bee, blinking loudly at his young daughter. "Is it just me or did everything just taste purple for a second?"

Well, that was good. Tytonidae wondered what it would be like to hunt for the pack. It seemed like a worthwhile thing to do. Maybe it would help others understand her (although she still didn't see why they could not see her friends). When he asked about the world tasting purple, Ty licked her lips. The sensation caused her to shudder, but she could not pinpoint why this was. "Weird. Weird. Weird. Weird." Her words sounded more strange by the minute.

"HEY!" she barked, "Get off of there!" One of her many friends was clinging to her father's leg, and she did not like it one bit. "Leave him alone!" Was it... was it biting him?! Tytonidae's lip curled back in a viscious snarl, trying to scare away the ungodly creature that clung to Perry's back leg.

Tytonidae's muttered repetition of weird basically summed up this situation. Peregrine began to bob his head in agreement... and never stopped. At least, he didn't stop impersonating a bobble head until his daughter suddenly started screaming. What was really strange was that some of her words sounded incredibly distant, while others were so loud, they made Peregrine's ears wilt.

"Stop... stop yelling, Eadinotyt," he murmured, unaware that he'd somehow said her name perfectly backward, just like Osprey Sr. and namesake liked to do. Finally, her actual words registered with him and he screamed girlishly, "Get it off me, get it off me, get it off me!" and began prancing, unsure of what was on him exactly but hoping to shake it off.

Hope you don't mind me fading this! It's getting rusty. :o

When her father began dancing around, the little friend who had been clinging to his leg suddenly darted in the other direction, and Ty took after it, the world wooshing around her so quickly she could barely focus on her feet beneath her. In no time, she was far, far away from her father and the mushrooms.

In time, she would settle down and fall into a fitful, restless sleep. But not after talking to plants of all sorts, making faces at a puddle, and whispering magical spells to a flower.

Instead of helping him, Tytonidae raced off into the woods, leaving Peregrine blinking after her. "Heeeeey... noooow..." he protested almost drunkenly. He stood there, staring at the spot where she'd been standing just five seconds ago, for a solid five minutes.

Then something caught his eye and Peregrine turned to stare at a very intricate pattern carved into the tree closest to him instead. He sidled toward it slowly, stopping only when his nose touched the rough bark. He stood there and stared for nearly an hour before slowly dropping to the ground to sleep off the rest of his high.