Greatwater Lake she is dash

Hunger drove Junior in search of prey, a pursuit which led her to the shore of Greatwater Lake. After seeing the lake near Redhawk Caldera, this one no longer seemed that impressive. Still, she stuck close to its bank, sifting through the diverse scents she found there. Many belonged to large game, like deer and elk, and even if the herds hadn't already moved on from the lake, she didn't have a chance chasing prey that big. She needed to think small.

Stomach rumbling, the juvenile eventually grew exasperated and sat, staring at the water. That was when she noticed several small fish flitting around the shallows. Without even thinking, she splashed into the water, knifing it with her black muzzle. By some stroke of extreme fortunate, she managed to snatch a small sunfish. She gobbled it down in a single gulp, then stood there, eyes ravenously scanning the water for more scaled prey.

Ein had heard the rumors surrounding Junior, about the woman pack from Gunnar who had found it necessary to interrupt Ein's anti-social sulking with jabber Ein parted ways from his mother's mini-me holding with him a knowledge, that though he felt guiltier about it now he could have really cared less about, at first. Junior was like a sister to him and of course Ein cared about her but he hadn't seen the huge deal about her going off on her own to do her own thing. If anything, what Gunnar had shared of Junior's story it had left to inspire Ein himself. There was a slight difference between Junior and himself that Ein hadn't entirely factored into his equation when he had begun to hatch the idea of approaching Thistle about getting permission to leave the nest, so to speak. Junior was older than him and it was likely, on the rare occurrence that Thistle did let him go, that he would actually be accepted by another pack until he hit the age of at least six months; unless he fibbed about his age a wee bit. It felt devious, that thought, and yet it didn't make him feel guilty enough to entirely cancel it out as a viable option.

A creature of similar ebony coloring to himself caught his attention as Ein, once more, spent the day outside of Stavanger Bay's borders pushing all the boundaries he'd been set by Ragnar and Thistle. Just because he was anti social didn't mean that he was afraid of the world. He recognized the mass as Junior quick enough and let out a chuff to alert her to his presence if his scent hadn't already given it away. “Hey!” He called to her. “Junior!” She looked different from the last time he'd seen her though Ein couldn't exactly put his paw on what was different. To be fair, he probably looked different, too but his own appearance and changes had no actual bearing on him besides that it was awkward and that he couldn't will it to stop.

Lightning didn't strike twice and, at length, Junior retreated from the cold waters and sat on the shore again, licking the moisture from her legs and belly. She was in a rather peculiar position — one hind leg hiked into the air as she ran her tongue over the soaked fur on her underside — when someone approached. She dropped the leg and sat up straight, blinking in surprise as an unfamiliar black wolf ran closer, calling her name.

"Ein?" she said when he came near enough for her to recognize him, though truthfully he looked so different that her tone wasn't entirely certain. "What are you doing here?" They were quite far from the bay. Junior wondered if he was an aspiring Outrider — she liked that idea — or if he was a runaway. She frowned as she considered the latter option. If that was the case, she would tell her foster brother to learn from her mistakes and go straight back home.

Ein slowed and snickered slightly to himself as he caught her in the process of licking her underside, her leg high up in the air. “Yeah,” He responded a bit awkwardly when she asked him if he was who she thought he was. Despite being the eldest of his litter he was the only one who hadn't yet chosen a name for himself. He had, at one point, considered Eirikr as a serious option but it didn't feel right for him; and then there was the whole part where he had yet to tell his parents that he didn't want to be a Viking. He hadn't actually gotten the courage he knew he was going to need to actually admit that to anyone. “Hey have you always been a girl?” He asked her straight faced and then hesitated realizing that the question hadn't, exactly, been what most might consider normal. In his defense, though, when his parents had rescued Junior he hadn't actually been aware of gender, or that there was an actual difference between 'boys' and 'girls'.

“Just exploring, I guess.” It was true enough. He had yet to approach Thistle about leaving, though it was something he wanted to do before Ragnar returned from his trip to the Spine pack. Mostly because Ein was making a painful point to avoid his father. “I don't spend a whole lot of time in the Bay anymore.” He admitted to her sheepishly.

His question was so unexpected that Junior stared at him a moment, then burst into laugher. "Uh, yeah," she answered, then knit her brow and looked at him quizzically. "Why do you ask...? You're born one or the other, you know, and unless I'm missing something, you can't just have a sex change."

He mentioned exploring, which earned a smile from Junior, though a storm began brewing on her brow when he admitted he didn't spend much time in the bay. "Why?" she demanded. "Don't be an idiot, Ein. Go home," Junior told him bluntly. "I thought I could make it on my own and, yeah, it's fun for a while... until you start starving to death. Kids our age can't make it on our own. That's why I'm going home. You should do the same. Go back home before the door closes behind you."

Junior's laughter made him feel even more awkward than he had before and the anti social pre-teen just stood there staring at her with a slight cringe on his face. “Well last time I saw you I really didn't know the difference between gender, you know?” It wasn't something Ein had actively thought about it. He didn't exactly think about it with any sort of consistency now until he met other wolves. Her demand was surprising, given that he knew she'd done something similar herself. Ein was slightly taken aback but he drew in a breath and scuffed the dirt under his paws, imperial green eyes focused down upon his oversized feet. He peeked up at her quickly when she told him not to be an idiot and to go home. “I want to give it a try,” Ein mumbled right before she began to explain why she wanted him to go home. In Ein's defense he hadn't actually gotten around to asking if he was allowed, and he wasn't going to run away and run the risk of scaring his parents.

“I don't even know that my mother is going to let me go. I haven't asked yet,” His face felt hot and he was glad that wolves did not have the ability to blush or he probably would have been beet red. “I'm not going to just run away.” He muttered feeling rather shamefaced. “I don't...I don't fit in with them. I don't want to be a Viking.” He admitted to her, knowing that she would probably tell him that it wasn't a good enough reason to want to leave before he was “ready” — or rather when he could take care of himself.

Junior's lips pursed and she heard him out, despite her passionate feelings on the subject. She wanted her foster brother to learn from her mistakes. Do as I say, not as I do, she thought to herself.

"So you're going to ask? What do you think Thistle will say? And what do you mean, you don't fit in with them?" She tilted her head, eyeing him shrewdly. She thought she'd known what she wanted to be when she'd left home too. And she'd been wrong. "You don't have to be a Viking to live there. I should know; I was never one and yet Ragnar and Thistle treated me well."

“Yeah, I'm going to at least ask,” Even if Thistle told him no well at least Ein could say that he tried. He couldn't imagine just sneaking off like some hooded vigilante in the middle of the night, despite that Ein wasn't sure if push came to shove if he would be able to sneak out despite that he'd been told no. He'd rather not to be placed in a situation like that and he didn't consider it as a viable option currently. “Pff,” Ein let out a loud noise. “She'll probably tell me no but I have to try.” Granted, he had nothing to prove that he could actually accomplish it and Junior herself had already said that she couldn't do it on her own and she was older than him. Her shrewd assessment of him caused him to give her a flat look. Sure, that was easy for her to say. Being a Viking wasn't a condition for life at Stavanger Bay for wolves that weren't related to a Viking. Ein was Ragnar's son and he wasn't so dense as to not realize that he wasn't expected to be a Viking. Ragnar had said it to them many times that it was something that he expected out of them. How was Ein supposed to face that? “Exactly you were never a viking. My father expects it out of my siblings and I. How am I supposed to tell him that I don't want to be what he thinks I was born as?” Ein wasn't even sure that he was making any sort of sense. In reality, he probably sounded like a whiny child — which may or may not have been what he was at that moment. He only wanted, though, to attempt to make understand Junior that choosing not to be a Viking wasn't a possibility for him while he lived under his father's reign still.

"You have to talk to him about it," Junior replied flatly. "When you ask Thistle, do you plan to ask him too? Or are you going to do it behind his back? Because — well, just don't do that, Ein. The circumstances were different but I recently screwed up my relationship with my father. Trust me, it sucks balls. Don't make the same mistake I did. I know Ragnar's kind of hardcore but you're his son. If it's important to you, he'll listen. He's a big boy, he understands that life and the people in it don't always go according to plan."

Ein cringed slightly at Junior's words though it was mostly at the consideration of actually going to Ragnar and admitting it to his face. The last thing Ein wanted was to see the disappointment in his father's face. “No, he's off on some Outrider trip,” Ein's shoulders sagged slightly hating that Junior was effectively making him feel guilty for planning to do all of this behind Ragnar's back despite that Ein felt that it was better that way. Failing was not something that Ein took well at all and as it was, failing to be the kind of son that Ragnar wanted wasn't exactly on Ein's top list of things he wanted to do in his life. “What if he doesn't listen, Junior? Even if he does listen I know he's going to be disappointed in me because I'm not the son that he wanted. Not the son he always told Gunnar and me that he wanted,” Ein took a brief pause to draw in a breath. “I mean Gunnar feels like he's second best because he's the second son but in reality he's the one that deserves to be recognized. He's the perfect son, not me.” Clearly, their positions needed to be discussed by the brothers themselves, preferably sometime before Ein left the Bay. “I guess I'm a coward because I don't want to live in my father's constant disappointment.” It was true that it might not actually go that way but Ein knew Ragnar fairly well and was at least ninety nine point nine percent sure that how he imagined it was how that meeting was going to go.

Ein countered her and Junior thought she understood, though all she could see was a puppy about to make some of the same mistakes she had and she wanted to reach out and help him before there was no turning back.

"You can't live to please others, Ein. It's better to be hated for who you are than loved for who you're not. You have to be true to yourself. Your dad might be upset at first but he'll come around. Parents are supposed to love you unconditionally." She shifted a little moodily. "You're not a coward, Ein. It's always hard to confront people, knowing what you're about to say might not go over well. But you just gotta do it. Going behind his back will just blow up in your face. Trust me."

She felt like she was verging on heckling him, so Junior decided to leave it at that and change the subject. "I'm heading back toward the plateau myself. I haven't been there in over a month, 'cause... I'm an idiot, to make a long story short. Did Gunnar tell you about it?"

Ein's ears slicked back to rest at half mast against his skull as Junior continued to give him advice. In a way, he appreciated it even if it made him cringe because she was suggesting that he face Ragnar and all the disappointment that Ein would have staked his life on that would come. An endless abyss of disappointment. “I don't want to be called Ein anymore either,” The Lodbrok boy mumbled though in the hindsight of her advice it was a little irrelevant. “It's not even a name. It's just a number. I don't even have a name, I mean who does that? I want my own name, like Gunnar.” But he didn't want it to be Norse because that would only serve to feed into the horrendous spiral of lies that Ein had been living lately. The whole Norse thing just didn't feel right to him. He had once been devoted to it because he was a jealous little prick and wanted Ragnar to notice him the most but now that he was becoming older and able to be the individual he truly was he didn't want that attention anymore; but he also didn't want to be the biggest fail of a son to have ever lived, either. “I know what you're saying Junior, I do,” Ein fixed her in his imperial green gaze, not wanting her to think that he was being stubborn (though he partially was), nor that he wasn't hearing her. He was hearing her.

“I guess I'm just scared,” Of Ragnar, of becoming the (literal) black sheep of his family. It wasn't exactly relieving, admitting that out loud to anyone but himself but there he was admitting it. “Yeah, he did,” Ein told her softly, wanting to ask but also not wanting to be rude, as well. “You know if...things don't go well you can always come to the Bay. Not that I think anything is going to go wrong but you know.” Ein trailed off awkwardly, ears twitching for a moment before he cleared his throat, wondering why he said that. He just wanted her to know that she had a home there, despite that it really wasn't his place to offer it.

When he admitted to being scared, Junior took a few steps forward and offered a nudge. "I know. I know how hard it is to confront someone, especially an adult, especially your dad. When I went to tell mine I was leaving, I was pretty damn anxious." She made a soft heh sound and added, "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. And, hey, if you need someplace to go, maybe you could come to the plateau."

After giving him another bump with her nose, Junior sat in front of him and addressed his prior mumbling. "You should pick a name then. Pick something you like and demand people call you by that. It's what I did," she shared, shrugging lightly and managing a small smile for her foster brother. She wondered what sort of name he might pick.

There was a part of Ein that felt horrendously humiliated to admit that he was scared to confront Ragnar about the fact that what he was supposed to be he didn't want to be. That his entire family heritage didn't interest him. That he no longer wanted to be apart of it. The thought of facing his biggest demon right in the mouth made the Lodbrok boy queasy, but there was also the consideration of if he couldn't even face this like a man how did he expect to be able to face the world outside of Stavanger Bay? There were worse things out there than disappointing Ragnar, Ein knew. Her little bumps and nudges were encouraging but Ein wondered how long her encouragement would last in the face of the anxiousness he was sure to feel if he took her advice. He could muster all the courage in the world and lose it in the split second before blurting it out. Courage was only worth while if it actually stayed with you. “I like Mercury. Or Mercy for short. Mercury was the Roman God of travel, and Mercy just sounds cool as a nickname.” It was better than Ein which translated to 'one', anyway. It really didn't have anything to do with Norse mythology which was exactly what Ein had been going for. He didn't want to be associated with a religion he couldn't even make himself believe in. Once upon a time he had nearly refused to speak anything but Norse but he'd been a different boy then, and he had changed much like the ebb and flow of the shore he had come to love.

So I got some strong déjà vu while writing this post! :o

It seemed he had one in mind already. When he shared it, a smile flickered over Junior's hungry face. Although she didn't quite understand how Mercury could be shortened into Mercy (a hard C versus a soft C), she kept that thought to herself.

"I like it," she said, then added an emphatic, "Mercury." It felt strange to call him something other than Ein but she would respect his wish, of course. It was his name, after all. "Anything named after travel is cool in my books." Her tail waved.

"Speaking of which, my travels are about to come to an end for a while. I've gotta start heading to the plateau. And you need to turn around and go home to talk to Ragnar," Junior said pointedly. "Good luck, Ei — I mean, Mercy. You'll be fine!"

The juvenile gave her foster brother a final nudge of encouragement, then spun and began loping in the direction of the plateau. This was, quite literally, the home stretch. Despite her hunger and exhaustion, she ran as fast as she could. She told herself she was going so fast in an effort to beat the rainstorm she sensed coming but the truth was that Junior suddenly couldn't wait to go home.

Mercury offered his foster sister a smile, cringing a little on the inside at the consideration of what kind of blood sacrifice it would take to get Ragnar to not only accept it but actually call him by it. It was a conflict of mythologies, but Mercury enjoyed collecting them as potential stories; and Mercury was past the point of caring enough to let Ragnar temper (or bully) him into being what the Jarl thought was an acceptable son. Whether Ragnar accepted it or not Mercury had no real intentions of staying in the Bay. “Safe travels, Junior. I hope everything goes well for you.” Mercury told his foster sister, offering her a quiet nod when she encouraged him to find the courage that he wasn't sure he had to confront Ragnar about this whole thing. It was measurably worse because Ragnar was currently away on an Outrider mission and it would be a couple of days maybe a week until the head of the Lodbrok family returned to them. Which meant Mercury had plenty of time to consider what he was going to say which made his anxiety spike a little. When Junior disappeared out of sight Mercury headed back towards the Bay, his walk slow and distracted as he considered how to best approach his mother about it figuring he would talk to her about it, first.