Broken Antler Fen The Cat King of Havana

Thread title by a book by Tom Crosshill that I am reading.

Lele had woken up to the unmistakeable sense of autumn in the air. She drew in the scent of earth, grass and falling leaves, then got to her feet to shake out the droplets of dew from her coat. It was still early, the sun had just only crept above the horizon and mist hung above the meadow she had spent the night in and among the trees of a nearby forest. All signs predicted another warm summer day, but years of travelling had taught her to observe little changes and get ready early.

Up until this year upcoming months of winter had never particularly bothered her - she had never been truly alone and though provision of food had proven to be difficult at times, the little group that had consisted of Larkspur and her father (Harps for a while too) had somehow managed to scrape by. Simple and easy. Now, however, she realized that as a lone wolf there was very little chance of her succeeding to the next spring. And at a certain age you no longer look forward to an unpredictable future and life in hunger and struggle. You want something semi-reliable. 

This pack at the very outskirts of the map would not have drawn any particular interest of hers, had it not been for the familiar scent of a female she had met few weeks ago. Maia her name had been. And she had seemed decent and nice. Which all things considered was better than going around and trying to pry your way in a place you know no one at all. So she came. And she called. And she waited patiently for anyone to come and greet her.

unfortunately it was not maia who roamed the borders that day, but teya. 
the girl had fallen into a bit of a slump, and as a result as not as tidy or well-groomed as her usual self when she came upon the stranger.
grey with soft eyes. teya was drawn to the injury, and flicked coolwater eyes along its edges with interest. "i teya. this brecheliant." was there familiarity there? she felt as though she must know this wolf and that face — somehow.
guiltily she thought of ibis, and ibis' children. and not for any reason she understood.

Maia did not come to greet Lele, but she had not truly expected that in a pack of many chances of meeting the same one were high. She regarded the younger-looking female carefully, then turned her gaze politely away. 

"Name's Lele," she adjusted her manner of speech to the curt one of Teya's. "I am here looking for shelter 'till spring," she explained her reasons of being here. "Met Maia a while ago - is she still here too?" 

the other seemed to match her words, which relaxed the young raven somewhat. "yes," teya affirmed, more put at ease by the mention of maia.
"just till spring?" she inquired now, returning to the business at hand. "what skills you bring to brecheliant?" 
teya hoped very much that eljay would be proud of how she had learned to to question joiners.

"Winters are harsh months - it's hard to predict, what will happen," Lele replied and shrugged. In fact, you could not give any reassurances about the next day of your life. Even the next hour, if we want to be dramatic. 

"I am a decent hunter and traveller. I know, how to read lands, meadows and forests," she told. "I have been nomad all my life and, having survived this long, is a proof that my words are true."

"What is that you need?" she asked the girl before her.

teya supposed that was true. she did not sense flippancy in the strangely familiar wolf, and so listened on to the list of skills. it was a good list, and one that raised the other in the raven's esteem. she felt odd without eljay, and fought the urge to look back along her shoulder as if the auspex might appear.
'hunters, always," she answered directly. "have you fish often before?"
stretching out their meeting with a last question, though truly teya had all the information she needed.

"Water is my second nature," Lele told and for the first time in the course of this conversation the reserved and polite mask broke and gave way to a genuine smile. As if someone had lit light behind the sad brown eyes. It stayed there for a second and then melted away and there she was again - quiet and a little awkward. 

Not for the first time in her life she wished she possessed this ability to feel like a fish in water, when it came to talking with people. But she was not the kind. And the only comfort in this particular situation was that Teya did not seem to be that kind of person either and therefore did not expect the same from Lele.

there was no reason to refuse lele entry. and there was more to encourage teya forward than the list of attributes: the way that this woman reminded her of —
"eljay is auspex here. you will meet him. he and wife maia have many baby. busy with them."
the glow that had entered the other's eyes inspired teya's own warmth. "you hunt with me now?"

Lele furrowed her brow, when Teya explained that a man not present at the moment was an "Auspex" - if it meant an alpha, it was an unsual term. She hoped that because she had not asked too many questions about the pack in general, she had not ignorantly involved herself in a some sort of religious sect. Those guys also seemed fairly decent in the beginning, showing their true colours afterwards.

"Sure," she agreed and let her new packmate take lead. "Have you been here long? Last time me and my parents crossed this valley, this area was not inhabited," she asked, though there was no way of her telling, whether this was the exact same valley she had seen or completely another. When you have travelled a lot, landscapes start to look like each other.

"since early winter," teya answered softly. there had been more of them then. wraen had been alive. ibis had been alive. she drew a breath that tried not to shake and pressed on. the tell-tale leap of fish caught her ear, and she turned their path.
"so not long, but not short time." she meant it as a joke, though the smile did not quite reach her eyes. "so you are traveller? that is how you learn land?"

"I am," Lele nodded, finding Teya's choice of words to describe her way of life very precise. "I used to say that the world is my home, but more recently it feels a little too big for that," she added in wordiness that was not very characteristic to her. Especially, when communicating with newly acquired acquaintances. 

"Smaller seems easier to embrace and love," this was new, even if it had been true for a long time. "You are a sibling of Maia or Eljay?" she asked.

a shake of her head. "only a friend." teya wanted to gush that babies had come to the home of maia and her husband eljay. but that was for them to share, once it was shown that ukulele was inside brecheliant.
"the world too huge," she agreed. "the fen is not too small, but not so large. easier to think here."
she poked around, lazily searching for her favoured fishing-grounds. "why you choose brecheliant, lele?"

"Why not?" Lele responded with a question of her own and shrugged. She really did not have anything to add - maybe it was expected for her to compliment the hosts and the excellent choice of lands, lie that Brecheliant's name was known far beyond its borders, that an unnamed former packmate had spoken of it highly, etc. - but she did not feel like lying. Or exaggerating her practical reasons of being here. Like in any job interview - the blunt honest reason, why you are there is, because you need money to survive. Everything else you say to convince others to have you is pleasant nonesense for the ears.

"I met Maia a while ago. Even if there is just one friendly face in the crowd, a pack cannot be bad," she told.

teya appreciated lele's directness. the other woman did not try to lie or butter the raven. it had the ironic effect of endearing the new eun liath to the leader at once. that, and her companion's willingness to fish. "maia good person. very bubbly. very nice."
she felt it was odd not to explain why it had been she and not maia to arrive, but again, that was the business of she and eljay. "do you know stars?" teya asked, as much to fill the silence as to question about a shy interest of her own.
"oh, uh, do you have question? about brecheliant?" she needed to keep up with the leadership portion of this as well.

Teya managed to sum up everything there was to know about Maia in few well-chosen words. Lele would have added "sad and insecure" too, but it was not her place to voice observations about one of the leaders. 

"Stars? No," she shook her head, finding the inquiry a tad bit weird. "Seen plenty of them, can't say I have cared for them much," she shrugged. They were just as useful to her as grains of sand to her. They were there and probably had their reasons to be there, but if Lele could not eat it or it did not help her in any particular way, she had no interest. 

"Whate else is there that I should know?" she asked the simplest thing that came to her mind

not stars, as it were. teya nodded her understanding. "always interested in stars. but never learn."
"moose come into fen. huge. sometimes i not expect them! they live here. leave us alone if we do the same." she remembered the wondrous horror she had experienced upon seeing one of the beasts!
splashing ahead announced that teya and lele had come upon a pool of trout. the raven waded at once into the water's edge, setting her sharp gaze on the amphibious creatures.

I will wrap this up, but we have to have a new one!!!

Moose. Noted. Lele nodded and feeling glad that the conversation had come to a natural end and that there was something practical to do, followed Teya in the water. There she walked carefully over the river-bed, checking, how stable and slippery it was. Once she felt comfortable enough, her eyes focussed on the fish that inhabited this realm. The hunt was on.