Stavanger Bay life is like a box of chocolates

happens after this, private for @Aesop

Charon had never been so embarrassed in his short life thus far. He hated the stupid stranger wolf. Worst of all, the stranger was a part of his pack, probably, and Charon would have to see his face around more often and would not be able or allowed to chew it off. So far, all the wolves of the Bay had been really nice, but he didn't like this one at all. He wasn't sure about the other Bay wolf, who had been nice overall, but had ended up disappointed because Charon didn't want to apologise. And then... it had happened. He didn't even want to think about it at all.

He'd run until he grew tired, and in the middle of the forest, Charon stopped and grabbed a branch off the ground to unleash his fury onto. He tugged his head from left to right in anger, wishing that he was holding the stranger-wolf's ears between his teeth instead. "I hate you!" Charon shouted at the branch after letting go of it and throwing it against a tree, where it shattered in two.

thank u for starting <3!

Things had not quite ended as he'd hoped they would. They often did not, of course, but in retrospect, Aesop thought he could handle things a whole lot better. Maybe he'd been trying to prove himself, as both a productive member of the pack and an elder. He was supposed to be a role model, capable of talking other wolves through conflicts. Clearly, when there was puberty involved, he was less than capable. Aesop hadn't thought to factor in the extra hormones, nor whatever other wild cards youth would throw in.

No matter, he would be able to make things right. Hopefully.

Aesop followed Charon at an easy walk, confident in his ability to track the kid down in the end. Some alone time might do him some good, but Aesop thought the matter too dire to leave for another day. Eventually, following the sounds and scents of the boy, he caught up, just in time to hear his shout and watch him shatter the branch against a tree. "Hey now," he called, "what'd the branch do to you?" Aesop tried to appear friendly as he approached, sitting down a few feet away.

When he heard the Bay wolf's voice, Charon startled, as he hadn't expected the approach of another wolf. In his distress, Charon had not even noticed being followed at all. The Bay wolf was friendly enough, trying to appear harmless, though Charon, in his clouded state, did not feel much like company.

Charon sniffled, trying to collect his emotions and appear tough, rather than sad, as he looked at the Bay wolf. "What're you doing here?" he said defensively, while giving the Bay wolf a hard glare. He didn't feel at all like talking about what had just happened, and was suspicious that talking about it was exactly what the Bay wolf was here to do.

Though they had long since passed, Aesop could remember the wilder days of his youth, back when many of his more apparent flaws were far more intense. He liked to think he had simmered down a bit, was more patient and able to speak about his feelings. Still, he remembered that sometimes not talking about it, whatever nebulous, weighty thing it was, was not always the best way to get over it. So, for now, he steered clear of the topic.

"Didn't want to be stuck with that asshole back there," he lied, grinning, "besides, I never got your name, and shit's rude as fuck. 's not like me to forget my manners like that." That might have been a better excuse. Were they not so ingrained in his speech patterns, he might have omitted the swears. However, it was a force of habit at this point, and it was all too easy to let them casually slip before he could censor himself.

There were so many swear words in the Bay wolf's sentences that Charon stared at him for a moment while he took it all in. Especially to hear these words from someone who was a bit older and commanded respect through it, was sort of strange and broke taboo in a way. However, soon Charon was back to being mopy, remembering everything that had just happened and the horrifying embarassment it had caused him.

Charon felt like the Bay wolf saying it was rude not to catch someone's name was incriminating him in ways, too. "Well, I didn't catch your name, either," Charon muttered defensively. After a brief pause he added, ".. But that other guy was a pretty big asshole." It felt liberating and wrong all at the same time to call someone an asshole and break the moral codes he'd been taught. But mostly it felt liberating.

After another brief pause he added, "I'm Charon."

Aesop snorted at the retort, glad to see that his foul mouth had less of an effect this time around. It did seem the lesser of evils in comparison to everything else Charon had had to deal with that day. "Got me there," he admitted, before breaking out into a grin at the addition.

"Atta boy, let it out. Ain't no use bottlin' that shit up. Our friend back there was pretty damn rude, but I think he just has some growin' up to do. We all do," Aesop admitted. At this point it'd be hypocritical of him to exclude his own shortcomings, as the previous encounter had proven. Even at his age, he had so much to learn.

His grin lessened, but grew in sincerity. "Charon," he repeated, as was his custom, "glad to put a name t'the face. Aesop's the name." Now he wasn't so sure what to do. Ignoring the obvious path seemed to be the best choice, because Charon no doubt did not want to talk about what had occurred back at the beach (Aesop knew that he wouldn't want to.) Then it came to him. "You said you can't swim, right?"

When the other wolf said that they all had some growing up to do, Charon said in surprise, "But you're super old! Don't you already know like, everything?" In his young, naive mind, old wolves knew everything. To see one admit that even he had things to learn was quite strange to Charon.

The other wolf introduced himself as Aesop, and Charon nodded. He didn't much feel like this conversation, but it looked like Aesop wasn't one to simply let go and let him be frustrated in solitude.

Charon cringed a little when Aesop reminded him of the fact that he couldn't swim. ".. Yeah.." Charon said and he looked away. This wasn't a subject that he much wanted to talk about either, but he wasn't given much choice, unfortunately.

The youth's outburst had Aesop snickering, laughter quickly tamped down so as not to seem rude. "Nah, everyone's always learnin' somethin'. I know maybe half of the stuff there is to know," he said. Aesop was pretty confident in his estimate, since, while there was much to know in the world, he did know quite a bit of it. After all, he knew the name of every constellation and the stories that went with them. (And he would be shocked to find out that there was another hemisphere with another sky, and that every language has a new name and new story for even the constellations he knew.)

Aesop stood, pacing up to Charon and bumping his nose into the youth's shoulder with just enough force to jar him slightly if he wasn't paying attention. Confident that that would get the kid's attention, he continued, smiling wryly as he said, "you wanna learn? I don't know everything, but I do know my way around the water well enough."

Haha, I love this -- "nah, I don't know everything... only like, half of everything." :)

Half the stuff there is to know sounded about like how much Charon thought he knew. Did that mean that Aesop knew relatively little about the world, or did it mean that there was yet more to learn than Charon thought?! Without thinking, Charon blurted out, "Do you know star stories?? I'm learning those!" Hopefully, stories about the stars were included in the half that Aesop did know. Charon would love to learn more!

Aesop went on to say that he could teach Charon how to swim. In the light of learning more Naturalist things, it seemed kind of dull to Charon to learn to swim, but he supposed he could try. "Sure, I guess." It was evident that his heart was a lot less in this than in the Naturalist stuff. Maybe if Aesop did know a lot about Naturalist things, Charon thought, he could always teach about swimming later.

Infinity is a novel concept to Aesop, apparently.

Though he thought his knowledge far-reaching, it was limited greatly. If his knowledge was infinitely increasing, then so too was the limit of knowledge to learn. Aesop would probably shit himself if he knew what Chemistry was. Alas, the canine mind can only accomplish so much, and while he was a great thinker, he was still limited. "I know star lore, yeah," he said, shrugging, "didn't think you were the type, but I guess I got you pegged wrong. What d'you know so far?"

Charon was clearly far more interested in the stars than in swimming (and honestly, Aesop couldn't blame him.) "But swimmin' shit ain't fun to learn in the winter. Water's cold n'all. I'll make good on my promise in the spring, if you remind me." That provided them both an out, at the very least. Unless he was truly fervent about learning to swim, Charon would probably forget, and then Aesop would get out of teaching swimming lessons. And if Charon did remember, it would only be because it was important to him.

"Yeah, better we do it in spring," Charon agreed, even though he didn't know what spring was like at all. The truth of the matter was that he would much rather just chat about the stars and the sky rather than learn to swim, and anyway, swimming just reminded him of the snooty ass that was probably still sulking and being whiny at the beach.

Aesop made star lore out to be just something small, but Charon's eyes widened as it was mentioned. "I love the stars," he went on to talk, the earlier mishaps nearly completely forgotten as per a youth's fleeting mind. "I uh, learned a story about a giant who died and whose eyes were put in the sky as a respect to his daughter. I think it's a viking story," said Charon, and he looked at Aesop to see if he recognised the story at all. "That's kinda all I know. And I like to just sit and look at the stars at night. It's almost like they're trying to tell me stuff." He wasn't sure what the stars were trying to tell him, but surely some day he would. Charon would eagerly await that day while learning about the stories they had shared with other wolves.

And so they decided to put off the task until the coming of spring. Which was for the better since, after all, the waters would be far more pleasant then. Not only that, but Charon perked up, now cheerful at the prospect of talking about his passion with a like-minded individual.

And oh, did Charon have passion for the stars. Aesop nodded along, making approving sounds in the back of his throat. "Don't know the viking stories, so you've got the advantage there. We tell different stories in the Southern plains where I come from. You'll have to tell me that one sometime, and show me these eyes," he said. The second part intrigued him more, because the stories held only half of Aesop's love. He loved the stars more for their ability to tell what was to come. "That's 'cuz they are, kiddo. If you know your stuff, they can tell you all sorts of, uh, things. Can tell you if there's gonna be good huntin', good weather. If things'll go wrong or right. A whole lotta wisdom in the stars, since they've seen a whole lot. Good on you for noticin' that they're tryin' to tell you things." Much of his life had been devoted to the activity, and though sometimes the stars lied, he found that they had been true to him.

It was secretly kind of pleasing that Charon knew things that Aesop did not. He'd have to tell the whole story sometime, but today was not that day. Charon was tired from all of the fuss with the stupid other wolf and he didn't feel like telling stories much right now. He was still excited to talk about the stars in general, though, because he loved them and could talk about them all day.

Charon's eyes widened when Aesop said that they stars were, indeed, trying to tell him things. Oh, boy, did he want to hear all of their secrets! "I guess I gotta listen harder," Charon said, because so far they had not told him any of the cool stuff Aesop mentioned. He just knew there was something out there... but he couldn't quite understand their whispers yet.

"How do you tell the weather by the stars? I've been learning to predict the weather a bit by looking at the clouds, but —" Charon's words were interupted by a wide-mouthed yaaaawn. He hadn't realised just how tired he'd gotten through all of the excitement of the day. "What was I saying?" Charon mumbled as he smacked his lips, clearly ready for a nap to forget all of the day's stupid events and dream of the stars.

Wrap this up?

Aesop offered a solemn nod to Charon's statement. "Sometimes it's more in the seein'. Ain't always a whisper, sometimes it's spelled out, you just gotta know how to read it," he explained, statement blessedly devoid of any of the foul language that usually colored his speech. Seeing and reading the messages in the stars was long and wearying business, as it meant seeing and comparing and squinting at the ever-rotating sky through the early hours of the morning. And sometimes messages lacked clarity or detail, because no shit Mars is in retrograde, but what exactly is going to go wrong?

It was a vexing task, but one that Aesop reveled in, as he loved a challenge.

Rather, some challenges. They had all had a long day, and by now Aesop had the beginnings of a headache, a pressure at his temples. With a tut and a gentle prod of his nose, Aesop tried to stir Charon into action. "That," he began, "I can tell you later. I think we're all due for a nap, so why don't you scamper on home, kid? The stars have been there for a long-ass time, I'm sure they'll wait until nightfall." Because Charon seemed to need a nap, and Aesop wouldn't mind one either to relieve the growing pressure in his skull.

yup! feel free to archive this or post once more :)

Charon was glad that Aesop mentioned going home and taking a nap. He'd gotten quite tired and even though he didn't like to admit it, he really needed nap time. Charon bobbed his head in a nod upon the suggestion. "See ya later, Aesop," said Charon and he started to trot off towards his home den, which wasn't very far off.

Once home, Charon snuggled into the den with whoever was there too and fell fast asleep, dreaming of pummeling the stupid wolf from the beach.

thank you for the thread!

The two parted ways politely, though each was pleased to be free from social obligations, it seemed. With a grunt, a stout nod, and a "later," Aesop bid Charon a good day. He allowed his mind to run blissfully clear, to allow his feet to lead him to a warm spot in the sun where he lay down, resting to banish the growing pounding from his brain.

With some excitement, he began to mentally plan his lessons, to string together the right words to illustrate concepts. And when he finally nodded off, he dreamed of flashing stars.