Secret Woodlands broke a mirror before i was born

Secret Woodlands, a new rabbit warren has cropped up in your territory.
Multiple SW wolves welcome <3

As was increasingly typical, Duck had snuck out into the morning before anyone else woke up, including his mother. He didn't really need her devout protection anymore (and hadn't for a while, really... he was supposed to be a full adult now, having passed his second birthday, although he still felt treated like a child) and with how well he had settled into the dense, tangled spaces of the thicket, he felt safer in this territory than he ever had anywhere else. While he still definitely preferred not to bump into anyone else, he could usually avoid confrontation or socialisation when he heard or spotted someone else nearby, and had narrowly avoided many conversations in that manner.

Perhaps this was why this particular morning was so very bad. Was it because he hadn't been fully engaging in the rich and vibrant social life of a pack? He was giving them fish on a nearly daily basis, wasn't that enough?! Did he have to want to talk to them, too?! It had started when some birdcrap had landed right on his muzzle, which was an infuriatingly difficult place to wash and there was no way he was gonna try to lick it off, so he'd reluctantly tried to rub it off and instead just smeared it into his fur. And then it had gotten on his paw and forelimb, too. Grumbling, he'd turned around to go in search of some water to cleanse himself, and, momentarily cross-eyed as he was studying the mess on the bridge of his muzzle, he'd tripped over a low bramble's vine and smacked face-first into the ground.

Breathing steadily to try and calm himself, and his jaw smarting, Duck had carefully picked himself back up and carried on towards the stream he knew was just a minute's walk in that direction. He could do this without going mad, he could. At the water's edge, he'd gone to shake his muzzle in it in some attempt to dislodge it without needing to rub it further, when somewhere in the thicket behind him, sudden and loud and entirely unexpected in the otherwise calm, still day, a goose had honked with all its might. Already on edge and frustrated, the boy had jumped at the sound, and, as seemed to be too common lately, slipped, his forepaws sliding forwards into the stream as his jaw hit the water's bed, water shooting up his nose.

Sick and tired of the day already, he'd picked himself up (still having not gotten rid of the bird crap properly) and stormed off, fur bristling, and that's how this had happened. What had once been a small, clear patch of ground was suddenly dotted with several fresh holes, but of course he had failed to notice them or the scent of rabbit in the air - and had stood squarely in one, his leg falling a full foot further than his brain had expected, and for the third time he smacked into the ground, this time with a thoroughly twisted ankle as complement.

In a heap on the floor and able to take a hint, Duckweed tried to squirm his arm free from under him, but couldn't muster the necessary enthusiasm or willpower. With a single long, low, sad whine, he accepted defeat.

Hope this is okay? If not, or if I powerplayed too much or something let me know, I'll change it no questions asked Dx

Rose wasn't necessarily one to stalk another wolf, and let it be known now that it was never really her intention to have followed one particular being for so long, but once she had already started it grew sort of addicting. Who knew so much wrong could happen in such a short time frame! It'd started with the former-princess heading out for her usual morning walk, routine was important after all if she wanted to maintain a well organized lifestyle. But then that's when she'd been lucky enough to witness it, the start to another's misfortune, and she found herself simply unable to stop gawking from then on.

She'd thought it difficult to halt her laughter when a bird seemingly passed a movement right onto the poor fellow's maw, however being present (in secrecy?) for everything to come, she couldn't help but absolutely lose it when he'd startled himself into a stream. Perhaps the distance she'd purposely placed between herself and the man actually came of some use, for he'd apparently not taken notice to her little outburst before storming off. 'Or maybe.. Or maybe that's WHY he stormed off!' She gasped, altering her amusement into remorse. 'Oh gosh, I need to find him! I've got to apologize!' and without a second thought, the auburn woman darted after him.

She'd arrive with just enough time to once again take witness to such an extreme case of bad luck, watching the small white tuft of fur get mangled in the likes of a rabbit hole, and that's when real guilt set in. "Are you okay?!" wide-eyed, she closed the space between the two.

Tell me what to do to make it all feel better.

Rose Hervok

totally fine <33

He had no idea he had been watched the whole time. It was probably a good thing; what had 'just' been a string of crappy occurrences would have been made so much worse by knowing that there was a spectator for every second of it. If he didn't want to die now, then he surely would then. Fortunately, he had thought himself quite alone, and even when his ear flicked up at the sound of someone dashing in (which was just about as much effort as he could muster right then) he didn't suspect that she'd actually been following him. No, rather, this had been inevitable; the longer he just sat here like a defeated lump, the more chance there was of someone seeing him.

He'd rather hoped it would take longer than a few seconds, though, to at least give himself some hope of extracting himself before someone else witnessed the pinnacle of his awful morning.

Seeing her approach out of the corner of his eye, Duck wriggled again, just a little, just a token effort to try and escape even though his heart wasn't in it. At her concerned question, his curious ear fell flat, his first response just a small, grumbling sound in his throat as he stared off into the distance, unable to look her in the eye.

She was just some packmate... the daughter of Ash, he guessed, but he didn't have the brain power to try and work out what that meant she was supposed to be to him. Some weird kind of family this was. He had no idea if she'd come to laugh or help, and was currently too pissed-off and tired to really be bothered with either. "N-n-n-n-no," he mumbled, as honest and true an answer as there ever was. He wiggled the toes of the forepaw stuck in the hole, just to make sure he could still feel them, and then tried to jerk it out again, but failed. He was just done. Let it be over. The rabbits could just consider this entrance a write-off. From the looks of the clearing, they had plenty of spares.

She examined the situation further as she approached. The man surely was stuck, and perhaps even a bit injured. Though how could she help? In her eyes, the probability of this being her fault in the first place was already high. What was it that she could do that wouldn't humiliate the poor guy further, or that wouldn't just make matters worse in some other form? "I-I could try to dig you out?" It was the least she could do, though she'd have to be precise as to not scrape up his little leg whilst digging. "I.. I want to help you, if that's alright.."

Rose hadn't really allowed much time for the off-white male to respond before taking matters into her own paws. She'd delicately scraped around the surface of the rabbit's den, trying desperately with each swipe to keep in mind that there was a limb somewhere in there. "You uhm.. You're my.." She attempted small talk with the stranger, though had seemingly forgotten what her relation was to him. "Unc... Cousin? Uhh, I'm Rose by the way. Ash's daughter, though I'm sure you already knew that.. We seem to be a bit uh, similar in appearance.."Just shut up! Having been there for the man's rough morning, it should have been apparent sooner that he wasn't in the mood to hear her ramble.

Tell me what to do to make it all feel better.

Rose Hervok

Rather than be put off by his grumbled answer, which Duck had both expected and wanted (because wallowing in self-pity was so destructively satisfying) the girl lingered. Not knowing what her intentions were, the runt's unease grew until her hesitant offer reached his ears, and he turned his eyes on her in mild surprise, ears pulling back with his own discomfort.

She wanted to help? Well... that did make sense, they were in the same pack, and he had no reason to believe she was a bad person... it was the sort of thing his mother would do, without question. The comparison helped him to relax a little, because his parent was the only person he would have been entirely comfortable with at that moment, knowing that she would have helped without judgement, so while it was deeply embarrassing to be so useless in front of a relative stranger, the possibility that she was anything like Bella was a good thing. For the most part. So long as she didn't start smothering him in her desire to be helpful...

The girl moved towards him to excavate the earth from where his limb disappeared into the hole, gentle and careful in her movements. Duck felt a little guilty for thinking ill of her initial intentions. Rather sweetly, she attempted to make casual conversation as she worked, introducing herself and trying to identify their relation to each other. She definitely did look like her father, there was no mistake there. In fact... "I l-l-l-l-look l-like muh-m-my, my dad too," he stammered, though immediately wasn't sure why because it wasn't funny and the comparison made him sick, but she had no idea who his father was and she was trying to reach out and it had seemed like a good idea at the time? "Th-th... thanks. 'M Duck," he muttered, feeling foolish but unable to take it back, hoping that she wouldn't take his flippant comment as... oh no, please don't start asking about him, why had he done that he regretted everything this morning was awful. Quick, a redirection!

"Y-yuh, you're m-muh-my... uh, aunt?," he asked, just as unclear on the exact nature of their weird familial relationship as Rose, but thinking about that was way better than the alternative.

Much to the Hervok's surprise, her off-white companion seemed to have actually relaxed a bit after she offered up some of her endless babbling. Definitely not the usual case, though she couldn't say she wasn't grateful. Awkwardness always made the fae feel a bit panicky, perhaps because it meant that something was going wrong, though she hadn't exactly pinpointed the reason for sure. He responded to her introduction with how he also resembled his father, though the russet yearling couldn't exactly remember who his father had been, or any of his immediate family as a matter of fact. Though they were related, somehow. She knew that much. 'It'd be rude to ask though, right? I'll just bother Korrin about it later..'

Duck, finally the face had a name, and a familiar one at that! She'd seen the young male at the last pack meeting, presumably hanging around what would be his mother, though he mustn't have said much because that was just about all she could remember about the occasion. 'Well if that's the case then.. Bella is uhh... Dad's...?' The connection between the pair was enough to give Rose a headache. She hadn't exactly pried for information on the family tree anywhere in the past, though perhaps she really should have. Just as she was about to visibly show her frustration with the matter, the male spoke up, and thank the Gods for that because she was honestly clueless. "Aunt? Perhaps... Yeah you must be right!" She smiled, amused with the fact that her 'nephew' appeared a bit older than she had.

"Hold on, ermm, Okay there ya' go!" The yearling was finally able to completely work her way through the dirt and to his appendage, seemingly leaving him unharmed him in the process. She was honestly a bit proud, though she could only hope that this'd make up for stalking him all morning.

Tell me what to do to make it all feel better.

Rose Hervok

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

The universe took pity and didn't encourage Rose to poke into that whole ugly 'dad' business. His diversion had worked, joy! Instead, she pondered over their weird familial connection, and Duck just sat there quietly, feeling grateful but uncomfortable by her willing to help. She wasn't laughing at him, though. She hadn't laughed once. Why did he still expect it when the wolves here never acted like his worst fears? When would he just be able to get over it? Maybe his mother was right...

He blinked as she declared her work done, manner chipper. He could feel the dirt was more loose around his leg, so @Rose must have displaced quite a lot of it. He wiggled his toes again - yep, still working - and then took a breath and tried to pull himself up again.

The brief respite had helped, too, since he'd been able to just take a breath and calm down. With the burrow entrance's grip on his limb lessened from his aunt's (heh) efforts, and now feeling a bit of pressure not to be so pathetic because he had an audience, Duck heaved himself up, scrambling to pull his arm out of the hole. Though he fell back down again promptly, it was with success; both arms were splayed out in front, one significantly more brown than the other and feeling a little weird, but, most importantly, it was free.

His tail made tiny twitches behind him, the most weedy of wags, as he looked at Rose with relief and gratitude. "Th-th-thanks," he muttered, a shy smile creeping over his face. With a quiet grunt, he pushed himself up properly, so that - finally! - he was standing again, and made sure to place his feet very carefully so as not to make the same dumb mistake twice.

"St-st-stupid-pid rabbits." There were freshly dug holes all over the place, as though there had been some of competition or something. Why would they think wolf territory was a good place to call home?! He glanced at her feet, and jerked his nose at them, indicating a small hole just behind her. "Cuh-cuh-careful. They're all oh-over the p-p-p-place."