Wapun Meadow Tiny Flower Swaying in Your Palm

From Emberwood to Duck Lake, and finally the meadow. He knew not the names of the places he visited, and yet he still had an idea of them and where they were. He moved with the wind, following where his paws took him, but was still able to take in everything around him and remember where he'd come from. Unlike his brother, Alastor was a much better navigator, able to tell which direction he was going simply by looking at the things around him. He knew he was still North, but had ended up heading East. The argent yearling was, in fact, looking for a place to settle. His mind urged him to find a place to call home, but it also disregarded the previous places he'd visited. One seemed too bare, while the other was noisy due to the ducks. What he would find in the meadow, not even a psychic would be able to tell him. Not that he knew one, of course. The idea of such a gift was borderline insane, and that was saying something when coming from the male.

While the space was filled with snow, rather than flowers, he could tell it was a meadow of sorts. It was pretty, in his eyes, and he could only imagine what it was like during the warm months, when the flowers where in full bloom. "Ακόμα πιο όμορφη, πάω στοίχημα." His voice was hardly above a whisper, not wanting to disturb the area in any way; though the prints his paws had left already did just that.

The petite grayscale girl wasn't far from home— outrider duties, she was on. Recruiting and exploring. Things back home were going pretty well, with a few new members, brimming with potential.

She hadn't been to this particular area she'd came to know as Rising Sun Valley. A large meadow, speckled with snow atop wilting flowers, the view very much beautiful all four seasons. Promptly she wondered how the meadow would look like during summer.

Crëyr dipped her delicate silver crown at one of the flowers— formerly an avid pink, she supposed, now half-dead, covered in a layer of day-old snow. She nudged the dusting of white off its petals and tried to take it much of its freshening scent. It wasn't long before she caught a whiff of another, though, and when she looked up, opening her cerulean eyes, she saw the male— a dark pelted wolf, his fur swirling with multiple colors.

He didn't smell of a pack she knew of, though that wasn't many. Her lissom legs carried her forward, towards the male, before stopping a respectable distance away behind him. "It's beautiful, isn't it? Even in winter."

To the sound of a voice, the argent male turned. He hadn't heard her approaching steps, the sight of the meadow distracting him from doing so. It probably wasn't a good idea to allow himself to be distracted so easily in the still foreign land, but he couldn't help it. So when his eyes were brought to the owner of the voice, he was glad to see her posture didn't appear aggressive. Giving a nod of his head, he showed his agreement towards her words. "I've not seen it at any other time, but I am sure it is just as beautiful during the other seasons."

Alastor liked flowers and other plants, finding the brighter ones to be the most appealing. He wondered what type of flowers grew in the meadow. Whether they were tall or small, bright or dull. His nose was curious to find what fragrances they held when alive and healthy. "Have you seen this place during the warm months?" the ashen wolf questioned. "Is it a sight worth witnessing?"

The male offered words of agreement amiably enough, though he added that he hadn't been around to see it any time other than today, she guessed. This season, probably. Crëyr nodded at his words, for she also hadn't stuck around long enough to see Wapun Meadow any time other than winter.

The silver-graphite girl nudged another wilted flower with her nose, this time a darkened shade of blue, though she knew it had been bright in the warmer seasons. Almost the color of her eyes, she noticed. Slightly darker. "Nah," She offered. "I haven't been around too long for that. I arrived just when autumn came round the corner, though I definitely plan to stay here long enough to see them bloom again."

She sniffed the withered blue flower once more, a smile brightening her delicate features. "This is a geranium, I'm guessing. I'm not that good with flower names, but I know a few."

The yearling was almost relieved by the fact that the female hadn't been their long enough to see the flowers in bloom. Though he did wonder if the sight was worth visiting the place again, he also wanted to be surprised by it. He wanted to see the bright colors and get a whiff of all the scents without having the words of another wolf in the back of his mind, murmuring of what they'd experienced or seen in the meadow at an earlier time. It also presented him with the opportunity to see the woman again, depending on how their current encounter was to go. She seemed kind enough, but didn't know whether it was a mere act or not. He hoped for it not to be, that way he would have someone to see the meadow with again, rather than wandering to it alone for a second time.

Hearing her voice speak of a flower, a geranium, he raised his head a bit in order to try and peer at it from his current length away. It wasn't easy, so, hesitantly, the argent boy moved a bit closer so he could look to the flower. It was dull, most likely from the cold and snow, but he knew it would be bright again someday. If not that one in particular, then he was sure many others would come to take it's place, to shower the meadow with an arrange of colors. The sight was a long ways away, sadly, but already Alastor was preparing for it, thinking over each and every flower he'd ever seen. "Perhaps we will be able to see it again in the Spring, when it's color is bright and inviting," the young lupine said.

hella short post dammit sorry

"Yes, of course we will. I plan to. In this case, it will be a beautiful surprise for both of us, won't it?" The grayscale girl spoke once more with a smile as the male had closed some of the distance between the two to inspect the geranium himself. "My name's Crëyr, by the way. Flower enthusiast, glad to have met another." After all, she respected and loved all things bright, lively and beautiful, regardless of its size or condition.

The Welsh female then proceeded to look for a flower in the shade of her companion's eyes, an icy, crystal glacier blue, and promptly found one that had sure wilted but still had the color it once was. A bright, avid blue. "These look like the color of your eyes. Kind of, I guess?" A melodic chuckle followed.

It's fine! :)

The boy's head nodded in agreement, eyes still looking to the flower. When her voice entered his ears once more, the words telling him her name, he looked up. "My name is Alastor," he said, realizing in that moment that he should have introduced himself sooner. The part of being a flower enthusiast brought a smile to his face. "It is always nice to meet another who appreciates the delicate flowers." Gods, if his brother could hear him now, he surely would have torn some piece of him off, and then went on to joke about him being a wuss. The irony of it would have been the fact that, while he did have a calmer, more sensitive side to him, Alastor was still the more dominate of the two. The thought brought a pang of home sickness to his stomach, but the feeling was quickly forgotten when the female he now knew is Crëyr pointed out another flower. It'd shade was brighter than the previous one, but not as bright as it could be.

"They are certainly close, if not spot-on," Alastor said, his tail wagging a bit as he listened to her laughter. He'd always thought blue hydrangeas matched his eyes the closest, especially when they were light and basking in the sun's warm glow. It was clear the flowers she'd pointed out where not hydrangeas of any sort, but it didn't change the fact that they were still beautiful. When he looked to her eyes, he felt as if delphinium blue birds would match hers the best, though probably not spot on. He seen the flower only once, so it's exact shade was not entirely engraved into his mind.

”Alastor,” She said, the name rolling smoothly off her tongue as she tried it out. ”Good to meet you.” Crëyr placed the flower on the ground where she could see it before returning to her thoughts— her mind went back to Draenen back in Wales, where she would laugh and place a flower on her head whenever she could find one.

Rolling a slim shoulder, she decided to tell him. What was the harm, anyway? These past months had flown by so quickly, the sterling girl realized that she'd rarely ever found time to stop and smell the flowers. If not, appreciate them. It was only then when it was winter did she need to notice...

”Back in my old home, my sister used to put wildflowers on my head whenever we played. Sounds kinda silly, but... Well, good memories. That's how I learnt the flower name geranium." She offered, reminiscing of past times.

"It is nice to meet you, too, Crëyr," he said. The name seemed pleasant to him, sounding much better than the ones he'd grown up around. As she went on to explain how she'd learnt the flower's name, he stayed silent and listened. He use to wonder what it would be like if he'd had a sister, rather than a brother, and the woman's words only seemed to revive those thoughts. The relationship she seemed to have with her sister sounded as if it was a good one, or at least it had been. Alastor knew she spoke of past events, but was curious as to hoe the two were in present time. Did they still speak? Could they still speak? Or, perhaps, was the female before him in a similar situation as himself, taken far from her home and family. The young wolf wanted to ask her, but didn't want to take her into old memories that could, potentially, hold some darkness to them.

"It sounds like you and your sister were very close," he finally said, still unsure as to whether he should ask about her sister directly or not. "What other flowers did the two of you learn of together?"

Alastor listened as she spoke, not interrupting her words midway, like how she liked it. When she finished, he offered her a question, something Crëyr was glad to answer. She didn't mind what he asked her, really, the fae was glad for somebody to speak to about old times after so long.

She shrugged, her expression holding a tinge of sadness. ”Yes, we were close." When he brought up more about the colorful plants that surrounded their feet, she shrugged, thinking, momentarily lost in her thoughts. ”Orchids, I think. Orchids, daisies. Clary sage. Those were my favorites, yeah. I hope they'll grow around here during the spring." The petite grayscale girl smiled then, regarding Alastor curiously with cerulean eyes. She wondered of this male then, of his origins, where he was now. ”What about you, Alastor? Did you have any siblings to admire flowers with?" She decided she was half-joking, but the question was definitely legitimate.

The younger male felt happy for the greyscale woman when she mentioned that she and her sister had actually been close. As she mentioned other flowers name, images of what they looked like passed through his inner vision, reminding him of each one. He remembered daisies taking up a small patch of cleared land near his old home, and how the small flowers would dance with the flowing wind. It was always such an amazing sight to him, and one that he missed greatly. He, too, hoped for the flowers to grow in the Spring and Summer months, so he could reminiscent with them and, possibly, Crëyr.

At the mention of his own siblings, or rather sibling, Alastor had to hold back a small chuckle. "I had a sibling, yes, a younger brother," he told her, not caring to bring up his deceased little sister right away. "He was never up for looking at the flowers, though. He'd just laugh the small lessons off when our mother would go on about each and every little flower she came across." He recalled the one time his brother, Naos, had tried to run away during one of the lessons, taking Linette with him. It was before the fox had managed to slip in and steal his sister away, and was one of the few memories he had of her that still remained. "My sister, though... she use to love looking at the flowers, and was constantly wanting to go out and see all of the ones she could."

The male regarded her with gentle, amiable eyes, which allowed Crëyr to have herself relax even more around him. Fixating him with a smile, she decided that she would love to come here with him again once the flowers began to grow.

She heard him laugh before providing an answer to her inquiry, reminiscing of his family, how he seemed to also have a cheeky brother and a flower-adoring sister. The petite grayscale girl smiled at that, wondering at the vaguely distant expression on his features. She assumed that happened to everyone who talked about the past they'd left behind. Or had he? ”Sometimes I want to return where I came from, back to family, but the wolves of my pack are family now."

The graphite-grey wolfess looked around the meadow, looked at how the wilting flowers seemed to pick their withered forms off the ground and how they seemed to return to their avid colors and bloom as if they were in the warm seasons once more. She knew it was all simply a memory or a vision, as if she was whisked back into the meadows she used to visit back in Wales with Draenen, how she'd yipped and laughed and tumbled and had accidentally squashed the petals before carefully proceeding to nudge them upwards again.

”Come to think about it, memories are like flowers that grow in your mind and in your heart." Flowers didn't last forever. They lasted for a while, tiny seedlings that proceeded to bloom into brilliant colors— then they faded after some time, their bright hues faltering— then they withered and died, just like the ones that were on the ground at the very moment.

But she found that they were still beautiful.

Occasionally her mind would whirl back into broken memories and crushed dreams, but she prevented them from consuming her. After all, she was happy here. Just in a different way.

The memories caused the argent boy to wonder. He wondered what his brother was up to, who of his family still lived, as well as how they were all doing. It was a terrible thing to be taken from them, which was all he could think when it first happened. He had wanted to return home, to walk on familiar land once more, but knew the chances of that happening to be slim to none. The humans that had brought him to the strange land received nothing but his hatred at first, but now that he'd had the time to explore such a place, and meet such kind wolves, he might only tear off a finger or two if he'd ever been forced to meet them again. Might, though, he couldn't confirm those words for himself. "I wanted to return for awhile," Alastor told her. "Now, though, I'm content here. Even if I don't have a family here, I intend to find one, and the land still interests me enough to want to stay until I do."

Alastor could still remember the flowers that grew around his family's old den site, as well as the look of crimson given to the petals the one night. The memory, the image, was pushed from his mind instantly, not wanting to remember such things. Instead, he focused on all the good he remembered. The lessons on flowers and some other plants, rolling around in the little fields and meadows with his siblings and, sometimes, his mother. It had been fun, and he did miss it, but knew he couldn't go back. It was an impossible task, unless he'd somehow manage to grow gills and cross the ocean to get back to Pelion. Impossibility aside, he didn't want to return. Not entirely, anyways. In the Wilds, there seemed to be more kind wolves than anything, leaving him with no reason to have to act out; unlike back home.

Icy orbs held understanding in them when the female spoke of the similarity between flowers and memories. She was right about them growing within one's mind, as well as their heart. "But not all memories wilt like flowers tend to do," he added. Some memories were quick to die and fade away, but others stayed, and some were forced away. A memory could be destroyed, trampled on and pushed away, just as easily as a flower. Both were so delicate, and both needed to be cared for and watched after, so as not to fade away. "Memories just don't return each Spring. When they're gone, that's it."

one or two more rounds? :)

The male spoke of how he was content in the Teekon Wilds though he planned to find somewhere to settle, and the glimmers of an idea began to brew in her mind. Well, she'd originally been planning to be out for outrider duties, anyway. ”I could give you a play to stay, if not, a home. I am of a pack, Noctisardor Bypass, and there may be a place in the ranks for you. Consider it, maybe? We're short on members, anyway. You'll have a friend there," She said, giving him a friendly smile that said that she was his friend.

What Alastor spoke were words of agreement when she stated what she believed, but when he added something else, the small grayscale girl began to ponder on his words. ”True that," She murmured, ”Both are delicate things that we need to look after."

She smiled for a moment, wondering about how the friendly flower encounter had turned into such a deep talk between the two. She liked it, though. The sterling outrider girl never really had the chance to have deep talks with people, with the exception of Shadow.

Sure, that sounds fine to me. c:

The second she spoke of a home, of a pack, Alastor's ears were perked and intent on listening. He wanted to join a pack, and what better an idea than to join one that held his new found friend? It was a big decision for him, and he know he would need to think it over a bit more, but in the moment he saw no downside. If he were to join the Bypass, then he could see Crëyr often, and also wouldn't have to track her down come Spring. "I will be sure to consider it," the boy told her, returning a wider version of the friendly smile. "Which direction does your pack lay? So I know where to go if I choose to join." The yearling would surely join her pack, but didn't want to say that right away. He didn't want to seem too eager, or appear as if he was ready to just blindly follow the female.

It would be a great thing, to officially join a pack. He'd stopped saying he belonged to the one he was born into around when he was taken, having seen no reason to hold onto something he'd never see again. Still, though, the memory of it lived on, having not yet been abandoned and left to wilt and fade away. "Yes, they are," he agreed, his smile having lessened a bit, but still lingered on his maw. He had worked hard to keep his memories of home alive and well, even when he'd been stressing over finding a way to escape the pen he'd been locked away in. What he recalled of that time in his life was something he didn't really wish to remember, but knew he had to if only to prevent it from ever happening again.

The smile grew wider on the sterling Gamma's features as Alastor gave her a promising response to her offer. Noctisardor Bypass had been rather empty as all former pack members had disappeared, leaving her with only Shadow, Flash and a bunch of new recruits she hadn't even gotten the chance to meet yet. If only Paar hadn't left...

”Awesome!" She said, beaming. ”Our pack is slightly northwest then way east from here. You know those wetlands northwest from here? You'll pass a lake on the way there," Crëyr murmured. Duck Lake was her meeting place with her two friends, Raziel and Scarlett. ”Anyway, yeah. When you get there, to the wetlands, then travel directly east from that. It'll take around a day." She smiled. ”When you get there, I'm gonna be a howl away. Or you could call for my Alpha, I'll also be there."

The petite grayscale girl paused, before saying, ”Well, I look forward to seeing you again, Alastor, so we can talk more."

Last post from me. Thank you for the thread! c:

As directions were given, Alastor's ears stayed alert so he could catch every last word. Once she'd finished, he played her voice over and over again in his head, making sure he had them secured in his memory, so he wouldn't be left wandering around. Remembering things like directions was, luckily, rather easy for him, so he was soon able to relay them to himself in his head both forwards and backwards. Well, not quite backwards, but the yearling was still confident that he had them entirely committed to memory. “I will be sure to stop by when I can,” he assured her, making it almost painfully obvious that he held the intention of joining her pack, or at least asking permission to.

With her last words, the argent boy was a bit disappointed, but had known the time would come. She was a pack wolf, after all, and was sure to have things she needed to attend to, and business to take care of. “I look forward to seeing you once more, as well, Crëyr,” he said, putting on a wide smile and offering a wag of his tail. “Please, be safe on your journey to wherever you are going next.” Alastor wasn't sure if she would be heading back to her pack right away, but still hoped for her to be safe. They had become friends in the short bit of time they'd spent together, and he would hate to hear she'd been hurt in any way.

After having said his goodbyes, the yearling had turned and headed towards the mountains, having wanted to see what they were like. He didn't know what lied ahead for him, but was sure it would be great. All the wolves of the Wild seemed to be kind in every way, or at least they did to him, so he was sure his own journey would be a pleasant one. Coming to a stop a short distance away, Alastor turned back and gave his new friend one last goodbye, before turning around and continuing back on his trek.

good thread renee! concluding post :D

The petite girl grinned— first recruit, and a promising, nice guy, at that. Well, she would have to see if he meant what he'd said, if he really did decide to join the Bypass. She hoped he would.

He returned her words with similar ones of his own, later on reminding her to be safe to wherever she was to go next. "Thank you," She said, smiling, marvelling at how kind and polite Alastor was. "And to you, Alastor. See you soon, hopefully."

Once they parted ways, the wind carried Alastor's last goodbye through the chilly air when they were a distance apart. She turned, smiled and did the same.