Gyrfalcon's Keep do small things in a great way

Merlin had not left Sappique ever since he had joined the ranks. Though his day-to-day life was not very exciting, routine kept him busy. He hunted, he filled caches, he scavenged the piles of rubbish that the ocean brought to shore, he did his guardian duties and mingled with other pack mates just enough to feel as if he had fulfilled his socializing duty, but for the most part he kept on his own. There were days, when his mind was filled with thoughts and ideas, it buzzed inside there like a beehave and then there were times, when all was calm, quiet and serene like a lake in a lazy summer's eve. And during one of those brainstorming moments, he had come up with an idea to find and bring a gift for Erzulie.

Njord had been is inspiration - he had brought a pearl to a girl he liked - and he could have done it too, but then - were there anything of the sea that could still surprise her? No. After all he was more of a forest wolf and he wanted the gift to be original and special. That spoke of him and no one else.  Therefore he had decided to leave the known borders and venture outside. The coastline westwards from his home consisted mostly of plains and cliffs. Barren, snow-clad areas with nothing but wind running free and howling loudly. So, he took a trek off course and sought shelter under the first solid tree-line he found. There it was more peaceful and not that cold. And there he began to sniff around and search. 

Gift he did not find right away, but a meal - definitely. He caught a hare by surprise and not wishing to waste a good meal, he settled down to eat it right away. The hare-hide was soft to touch, he wondered idly, whether he could preserve it in any way, and after dismissing this idea he continued to chew, while his gaze wandered through the landscape around him.

Since relocating to Ouroboros Spine to stay with Moonglow for some time, Bronco felt a bit of weight slip from his shoulders, allowing him to relax for a bit. It seemed like it had been months since he had been able to take some time t think for himself, without having to keep others in mind as well. But that didn't mean he had nothing to think about- instead, he found himself quietly wandering toward the ocean in hopes that a little daytrip might help him make up his mind about what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He knew others counted on him- and that there were others that expected things of him- but was there any room left, at the end of the day, for him to do what he wanted to do?

He felt himself wishing that he could simply go to Brecheliant so that he could talk to Wraen and see what she thought about it. Part of him did consider simply going there, and apologizing, and then asking for her advise- but he worried that that might come across as taking advantage of her wisdom without having ever had anything to offer in return. He didn't figure that he deserved having her as a sage confidante, not after how he'd treated her. 

So he went toward the ocean and ended up wandering a bit further than he'd intended to go, but he figured that he'd be able to make it back, still, before anyone really needed or missed him. He'd begun to snuffle along the shoreline to get his fill of all the wonderful smells the area had to offer- but he froze when he came across one that felt both fresh and old at the same time. The wolf who had walked this way had come here not long ago- but this wolf had also left his life a long time ago. He followed the scent, taking note of the fact that the wolf had made a kill- and when he saw the yellow-ochre pelted male in the distance, he stopped in his tracks, and called out in disbelief. 

"Elfie?"

The works of Merlin's memory were like a rope. It was woven on one end and unravels and frays at the other. He was able to make new memories and experiences, but at the cost of losing the old and distant ones. It was a gradual process - first they lost colour and details, then they lost sound and sense of them ever being real and then only facts remained. Like now - yes, he could tell that he had been part of a bachelor pack at some point during his life, but that was the extent of the story. Or... he recalled having a girl friend at some point, but she did not have a name or a face and there were days, when he believed that it was all imagined. 

And now too... in response to his old name he turned his head reflectively to catch a glimpse of a man with a scarred face, roughly his age, looking at him, as if he knew him, but Merlin did not know the guy and instantly assumed that he had been mistaken for someone else. "It's Merlin, actually," he told him, getting to his feet and taking some tentative steps forward to have a better look. "Can I help you... ?" he did not have the name of the other.

That avatar is GORGEOUS.

Elfie didn't appear to recognize him- as Bronco would've expected a scowl or something along those lines, but...Nothing. No smile, no defensive gestures, nothing; just neutral acceptance, as though Bronco was a stranger to him. Because of that, Bronco doubted himself too a bit, but as he came closer, he couldn't imagine this being someone else. The hue of his fur, the light freckling of his cheeks, and the shade of his eyes- while his face shape had changed, and while he now possessed the body of an adult, there was little to be mistaken about his identity. 

-But he spoke a name that wasn't familiar to him. "Merlin?" Bronco said, clearly taken aback by being corrected. "I'm like...99% sure you're...Jeez, I could swear, you look exactly like this guy...His name's Elfie Blackthorn," At least, he thought that that was the surname Elfie had had. He was one of Eljay and Wildfire's kids, so there was a possibility that his surname had been whatever Wildfire's had been- but she'd passed away so long ago that he couldn't be sure. He squinted slightly. There was no way this guy could be a different wolf. His tail waved, more in amusement than anything. It was delightful, how impossibly similar this guy looked. "Oh come on, you're totally pullin' my tail, Elfie." He said, and he grinned slightly. "Don't worry, like...I'm not gonna pummel you into the ground again," He said, though there was some part of him that had never forgiven Elfie for pulling up the flowers that had been on his father's grave. "Remember? Does the name 'Bronco' ring a bell?" He asked, hoping that something cued a memory.

Lieu is a sorceress! :)

The man clearly needed help, even if he did not voice it out loud, but Merlin remained patient and listened in polite silence, while Bronco told him all about a guy he had mistaken him for "Elfie Blackthorn" and when he mentioned pummeling, the young man froze momentarily and then took a step backwards. Those, who knew Bronco well, would have got the metaphor, to him the other guy was imposing and scars on is face and body spoke for themselves. He had been in crap before and he had made it out alive. Better not mess with a fellow like this. 

And then the speech was over and it was Merlin's turn to say something. "No, it does not," he shook his head in denial and there was this very honest look of confusion that told he was not lying. "Do you... were you one of the... bachelor pack?" he suggested, looking back at a time in fairly recent past that he could still recall somewhat. Because in that case a mug like this would make sense.

Bronco snorted. How could his name not ring a bell? He continued to stare, albeit a bit rudely, at the male, telling himself over and over again that there was no way that this wasn't Elfie. What rattled him was the fact that he really didn't think this guy was lying about not recognizing him, and this suspicion was firmed up even more when he asked Bronco about some bachelor pack. This body of this wolf was without a doubt, Elfie- but whatever was going on inside his brain...Well, it seemed that that was Merlin. 

"No," He said. "I was in Firebirds, we both were, when we were kids. But nobody's seen you since that landslide in Asterism Grove." He said. "Least, I haven't, and I'm pretty sure nobody knew where you went. Your Dad...I think Eljay thinks you're dead," He said.

Firebirds. Landslide. Asterism Grove. Father. Dead.

A lot of confusing words, that Merlin was supposed to know. A story that he was supposed to fit in. And that intese stare of the other that was borderline rude now made the boy even more uncomfortable, he took another step back and turned his gaze away, but it helped very little with the fact that he was finding himself in a sticky situation. For a moment he thought about Njord and that his friend was too far away to come to a rescue. Because he was very tempted to tell this guy to shut up and eff off, but he would never pick up a fight with a guy that was not his size or in his league. Bronco did not fit the criteria. 

"Uh... my father runs with the bachelors and my mother... she lives in the mountains," he told him. It felt about right. The origins story that his mind had cooked up and at his age no one really cared about the names and places. He did not know, how he had come among the pack of those rogues, which would probably mean that he was born among them. As for a mother... Hadn't he met her recently? Red-haired, striking resemblance? He furrowed his brow. Yeah... that had to be. "Last I checked my...dad knows that I am fine and well. I haven't seen my mom in a while, though..." he continued to spin the tale, a reality he had built for himself to have at least some sort of solid foundations and frame to his existence.

No signs of recognition. Zero. Not a flinch, not a blink, not a twitch of his lips at any of the words that he'd thought might trigger some sort of response. Oh. Bronco's ears turned back, and he felt his cheeks flush warm. Even though his brain told him that this was Elfie, he had absolutely no reason to think the guy was lying. He even spoke about his real parents with such conviction that Bronco began to feel like an idiot for trying so hard to convince him that he was actually another wolf. 

"Oh..." He said, and grinned sheepishly, his tail waving gently at his hocks. Yeah, he probably looked like a complete idiot how, trying to tell this guy that he was someone else. "I'm so sorry about all this, then- but so you know there's this guy, Elfie, who looks exactly like you," He said with a dry laugh that caught in his throat a bit. The memories he had of Elfie were still a bit sore- and their reunion likely would have been civil at best but...Now he had to try and start over with this-

"And...What did you say your name was again?"

He'd already forgotten it. He'd refused to believe that this could be anyone other than Elfie, so the name he had been given escaped him.

It seemed that Bronco finally believed him and backed off, which gave Merlin a little more confidence than he had felt previously. If he had been that convincing, it had to be truth... the thing he had told. He no longer felt the pressure to leave right away, he sat down instead and allowed himself to observe the other young man curiously. Asked his name again, he did not hestitate to provide it: "Merlin. From Sappique. It's a coastal pack over there."  He beckoned in an indistinct direction behind his shoulder.

"Who scarred your mug, Bronco?" he felt he had earned a question of his own too.

Sapphique...There was something familiar about that name- but it definitely wasn't the name of the pack that Meerkat's friend had belonged to. He tried to sift through his memories, and found Alyx's face came to mind. "Oh!" He said. "I think my little sister...Last year, I think, when there was all that rain- she got lost, and a couple of youngsters from your pack found her and kept her safe until she was brought back to us," He said. 

In response to Merlin's question, at first, all he got was a confused stare. "Scars?" He asked, before his facade broke, and he chuckled. "Oh, these," He said, tipping his head up as though to gesture, which was nearly impossible to do when he meant to gesture toward the scars that parted the fur on his face and head. "Uhm, the ones on my jaw and lips are from a badger, the ones on my muzzle are from a wolf who was attacking my friend and the ear that's missing, and all the scratches on the top of my head are from a trespassing cougar." He said. "It's been quite a year, I guess," He said with a humble shrug.

Merlin did not remember a lot of things, but he was fairly sure that he was not with Sappique wolves at that time. But he did not want to add fuel to already existing confusion about, who he was and where he belonged, therefore he nodded and did not say anything else. He figured that, if the sister had been found in the end, then all had come to a good end. No need to stir up more dirt than necessary.

Bronco's story about the map of scars that criscrossed his face and body was more exciting - Merlin leaned even a little forward to have a better look at each that the other young man listed. It was as if he was a walking proof of all the brave deeds he had done in his life. Fought a wolf, fought a badger, fought a mountain lion, fought a - had he said anything about a bear, or had his imagination simply added that name to the list by default? Even if this guy had not met a bear so far, Merlin felt sure that with that much experience, Bronco would walk away victorious and with a batch of new scars to tell stories about.

"It does sound like that," he replied, trying to remember, what his year had been like. Surely not as "quite" as Bronco's had been, because last he checked there weren't any scars on his ugly mug. He had almost drowned, but that was not a feat he should be boasting about. What else... he had almost been beaten by a girl. Coon Assbite was a fearsome lass, that's was for sure and even Bronco would find a challenge in her, but then... he had a feeling that the wolf, who had chomped on this guy's muzzle, hadn't been a girl. 

"Where are you from?" he asked next, because he had learned that this was the next logical thing you inquired, when meeting a stranger.

Sun Mote Copse, Bronco answered. Not that he expected Merlin to know where that was, but if he wasn't from around here, it wouldn't have made much difference what it had been called. He shrugged. He hadn't spoken much about his birthplace, considering the fact that it meant remembering how painful his earliest memories had been, and he'd moved and switched packs several times since then, making him feel a bit adrift. But what Merlin had mentioned earlier sounded interesting enough. 

So this bachelor pack you mentioned- He said, in an attempt to flip the topic over to the guy whose features still tripped him up a bit. Was it literally just a buncha dudes? He asked.

When asked about the bachelor pack, Merlin had to pause and think hard about it. As with all old memories this one had faded to a single fact that he had been in one and then had come a day, when he no longer had. But the word "bachelor" entailed in itself the very essence of what that pack had been. A bunch of dudes. And judging from his lack of understanding on, how female physiology works (that the had found out only recently under the patient tutelage of Erzulie), there probably hadn't been any girls there either. Though... there had been a girl once. Then? No... maybe he had imagined her.

"Yeah, a bunch of dudes. Kind of rough and... raw," he shrugged, summing up his whole experience there in as few words as possible. In fact, more recent memories about guys he had met aftewards had helped to fill in the blanks. He had - after all - liked Njord from the get-go, because he reminded him of his former pack. And then... the berry-guy - big and tough - there had been one like that too. Or that pissed off dude. He had known from previous experience to keep his distance. Or else... "I like it better, where I am now. More peaceful," he shared about his current pack. "It's run by two queens - Erzulie and Rosalyn. You know them?" he asked.

It was a bit odd to see Merlin stop and reflect on his experience with the group before answering. Some part of him still believed that this was Elfie- and that maybe he was making things up so that he could get away with living whatever new life it was that he had found. He tried not to put too much stock in that idea, as it was little more than a conspiracy. There was definitely a chance that this guy wasn't Elfie at all; after all, it had been so long since he'd seen his former packmate that it was quite possible he'd matured to look very little like this at all. Still...The nagging suspicion existed, though he tried not to let it get in the way. 

"Sounds like it," He said. He couldn't imagine living with just a bunch of males; he expected things probably went of the rails more than a few times with regards to who was the top dog. Merlin didn't look as though he'd been roughed up a tonne, though; if anything, Bronco likely looked more like a wolf who'd lived in a bachelor pack growing up, settling disputes with physical fights. But when Merlin mentioned two names, belonging to the leaders of the pack he was in now, his ears pricked. 

"So you're at...what's it called...It was Rusalka, a while back," He said, trying to conjure the name of the pack. He had little personal experience with that band of wolves, aside from the stories he'd heard from his mother which he figured were best left unmentioned given the amount of tension that had existed between his mother and those two women. "But yeah- I haven't met them in person- but they found my little sister and took care of her when she went missing during the flood last year," He said with a soft smile.

"Don't know anything about Rusalka, but sounds like something they would do," Merlin replied for the sake of saying something, because he had no idea, who the girl had been or whether she was still with them. Frankly speaking, save for Erzulie, Rosalyn and Haunt, he did not know any other women there by name. Were there any? That led to the next logical thing - surely there were more dudes than just Njord and yet he had not sought any of them out specifically to make acquaintance. It was a bit comforting to know that they had not done it either and therefore neither of the groups had missed much. 

"What is your home like?" had he told him this already? Firebirds? Or had there been another name that had come and gone through his ears?

They spoke with each other for a while after that and then left, never to see each other again.