Blacktail Deer Plateau the mapmaker

It had taken a long time, but Pura was no longer perturbed by the cacophony of foreign smells that crisscrossed the Plateau. Previously, he had found the presence of a foreign scent incredibly irksome; akin to a house guest leaving a breakfast bowl out of place, or a roll of toilet paper facing the wrong way. Now, as he had been in his earliest day, Pura was once again interested in them.

He liked the scent of females best. They smelled sweet, almost forbidden. He had yet to take in the smell of a female in heat, but those that were capable of it still held an alluring, secretive aroma. It smelled.. loaded, tense. Even their urine differed, though Pura could not understand why. They all ate the same thing, mostly.

It was the epitome of a dreary January day, and Pura was rolling in stink. There was a particularly fragrant patch of earth near the siblings' old rendezvous site, and the large, freckled teen had decided that he wanted to wear it. Like a vast, silvery worm, he ground his back and sides against the cold earth, grunting happily to himself.

The encounter with Saena had left a bitter taste and, even though Osprey still didn't consider herself guilty. She had nothing to be ashamed of, this was her home and she wasn't going to let one person's hurt feelings get in her way. Yet it was easier said than done. It was not easy to pretend that everything was alright, if you knew that there was a person, who resented you, in the pack.

She had spent her morning hunting the smaller game, but it was fruitless, therefore she decided to try at a different time and place. She found herself not far from the den Peregrine and his children had once shared, that now was empty and forgotten. As she came nearer, however, she found out that it was not that forsaken as she had thought. There was a dappled wolf rolling in the dirt and looking absolutely happy and delighted with himself.

She recognized Pura - the only Peregrine's kid she hadn't met in person. "Having a good time?" she asked him, stopping few feet away from the male.

Forward-dating if you're still up for continuing. :)

Having a good time?

The voice caught Pura mid-roll, and he remained flat on his back for a few seconds before falling in Osprey's direction with a muted thud. He vaguely recognized the wolf in his sights. She was Peregrine's sister, if memory served, or at least related to him in some way.

"Yes," he grunted in a voice that sounded a thousand leagues from fun, and clambered inelegantly to his feet, pausing where he was to sample her scent. She possessed the same delicate, feminine scent as Saēna, but more complex. Maybe it was an age thing, or something to do with children. "Do you have puppies too?" Pura decided to ask. As if he didn't have enough work on his hands terrorizing Blue Willow's brood into submission.

ooc: ok!

Osprey hadn't had much interaction with Pura in the past, therefore she was pretty much unaware of a lot of things concerning him. The only thing she knew for sure, that he was considered as an odd one and that he was prone to keep to himself most of the time.

She felt a little uneasy, when he replied to her question, even though there was no particular reason for being that way. His question, however, unsettled her more. Him being the second person in a matter of days, giving her "pregnancy scares" that were very much real and possible. She looked at her paws, then let her gaze go over her back and flanks. Nothing seemed to be out of ordinary - no obvious signs that would tell the other person of her possibly having buns in the oven, so to say.

"No," she turned back to Pura. "How have you been? You often stay on the outskirts, not much around others."

"No," she replied. Her uneasiness was lost on Pura, who had never explicitly been told that prying into the very personal lives of others was rude. Blue Willow always answered him honestly, no matter what he asked, even though her voice took on a funny quality. Pura tilted his head and watched Osprey inspect one side and then the other. You smell different, he nearly qualified, but her question caught him off guard.

"I patrol," he answered - a little too quickly. It was not a good thing to be known for your hermit tendencies. "And I train Valtyr," he added with a nod for emphasis, keen to impress upon Osprey that he had a job with a modicum of social responsibility Behind him, Pura's tail gave the air a single swipe. "You tell stories."

Osprey remembered Valtyr telling her that he got along with Pura. The fact that someone was taking care of the boy was heart-warming, even though she didn't know, how exactly did the dappled wolf train the boy, nor, what he taught him. It didn't bother her that her nephew preferred to be on his own than to mingle with the rest of the pack wolves. Some people were simply like that, but it didn't make them any worse than the rest. They were different and that was all.

"It's good that you work with the boy," Osprey told him. And to reply to his question: "Yes, I tell stories. Do you like stories?"

"Do you like stories?" Pura's face scrunched up in thought. To his memory, he had never heard a story - or if he had, he could not remember. His parents had doubtless told him many, but Pura's had lived his childhood in a thick haze - on that still followed him, muffling every thought and action. His life's mission was out there somewhere, hidden under dust - and if Blacktail Deer Plateau was lucky, he would never find it.

"I don't know any," he told Osprey, chewing slowly, thoughtfully on the inside of his cheek. Eventually, an idea occurred to him, and Pura displayed his desire for the conversation to continue by sitting down and asking a question: "Can you tell a story about me?"

I don't know any. Osprey lifted her eyebrows in disbelief. Up until now she had not yet met a kid that had never heard a single story in their lives. It was even more surprising because this kid had grown up under Peregrine's wing. He was not a master story-maker, but he knew, how to make the kid's lives' exciting by telling favorite dragon tales of his past.

"You," this was a bit tricky, because apart from the fact that she knew, what Pura looked like and that he was her nephew and Saena's brother, there was nothing else. "What do you want to have in the story about you?" she risked to ask, not knowing, what she would hear in return. But details were crucial. Without them she could not come up with a story.

"What do you want to have in the story about you?"

Unusually, Pura's ears perked up. Beneath fur, skin, and skull, an elusive buzz of curiosity began to crank the gears. If it was a story, he could be anything - anyone, without having to work for it or navigate the social labyrinth. "I want to be Alpha," he told Osprey promptly, his eyes losing focus as he considered the ingredients for his very own fairytale. "With puppies," he added, "And.." A glimmer of hesitation stayed his next requirement. "An enemy. That tries to eat us."

"An alpha, puppies and an enemy..." Osprey listed all of the characters Pura wanted to have in his story. They weren't difficult ingredients to work with, because each word had a passing concept of similar meaning. Alpha - the king, puppies - children/elves/spirits etc. Enemy, who wanted to eat them? Great. There were so many to choose from. Starting with classical ones such as dragons or giants or ogres, not to mention cannibals and evil ghosts. The only fact that made it a little hard to mix these ingredients and cook them in a tale that Pura would enjoy and like, was that she didn't know the boy that well.

But a promise was a promise and she gave a try. Failing was the worst thing that could happen. "Once upon a time in a faraway land there was a forest - much like the one we live in now. With stony hillocks, tall trees, small lakes here and there and a lot of prey. And in the middle of the forest there was a throne made of black and shiny obsidian, which belonged to the Great King that ruled in this forest.

The king himself looked very much like you - Pura - with gray, dappled fur, reminding very much the color of sky before a storm. The legend would have it that he had once been the Cloud wolf himself, who had decided to leave the realms of sky to walk the earth and rule the forest he had found. Whether it was true or not, he was no ordinary wolf either. He beheld special abilities," here Osprey paused giving her nephew time to take in all of the details and wondering, if her choice of words had not been too complicated for him to grasp.

Therefore - as she usually did - she let the one, who listened, join in the story-weaving process. "Can you tell, what kind of powers he had?" she asked him. Since this story was about Pura, he must have something to add.

Pura had not imagined that Osprey would cast him in the role of the king, and it threw him a little when she asked him to contribute. Had she asked him to colour in the antagonist, he would have given her enough detail to bring the creature to life before their very eyes. He would hold back, of course - Pura was neither stupid nor self-destructive.

But that wasn't what she wanted. What sort of qualities would the story's hero possess? Pura shifted where he sat, never breaking eye contact with Osprey as his mind churned around her question. "Weather," he decided - it seemed logical. "He controls weather."

ooc: I will have this very short and brief and fade it out. I don't have much muse at the moment and I am very sorry that I can't go on with the story. Maybe another time. :(



"Very well then," Osprey accepted Pura's input and after a moment of silence continued the story of the Great Cloud wolf, who was able to control the weather and who accepted all of the abandoned and forgotten children in his world, where they found peace, solace and safety. There were orphans, there were those, who had been abused or had suffered greatly in their lives, the king had a place and love for them all.

She told him, how once, however, the sadness for all the suffering in the world had found it's way in the king's realm and stayed permanently. How the previously sunny days turned gloomy and there were always heavy rainclouds hanging above the forest. How the despair had crept among the trees, wrapping everything in an everlasting mist. How no matter, how hard his children had tried, it was not possible to cheer the king up.

The story went on for a while and had a happy ending eventually. Most of Osprey's stories had, but the point was that very often our greatest enemy  is the one that hides within ourselves and unless we are able to lift our heads and face it eye to eye, we easily succumb to it's power and let ourselves be hunted by devastation.

After she had finished, she excused herself from the youth's company and went over to Blue willow to check, how her friend was doing.