Oak Tree Bend is this the real life?

Really sorry for the wait <3 Are you still planning on going for the teacher role? We could probably get 6 posts of dedicated history-lesson out, I think this would be the 3rd or 4th depending on interpretation... and this is your game so you definitely get final say :P

In response to his tentative placing of Kinis in the family tree, Rue grinned, nose bouncing up and down vigorously to affirm it despite the sad little clenching in her chest at the sound of his name. He was just dad to her, of course, but to these wolves he was Kinis Tainn, brother or uncle or memory or player in some distant-feeling history. After a lifetime of being a stranger to everybody outside of her nuclear family, and instead being the one to memorise and recognise names and relationships and histories, it was still so novel and wonderful to hear her reality spoken out loud by someone else. Would it ever grow old? She hoped not.

What came after that was new, confirmation of what had happened to Swift River after her father had left it behind. Her brows knitted to hear that Indru had abandoned them yet again, and she wondered what had happened to her enigmatic and wandering uncle, and whether he was still out there, somewhere. Not that he had been the most significant of his particular generation - it had never been a secret that her father had adored Ruiko, and that love had persisted throughout the years despite their distance. She could still perfectly picture the pain in his face at the belief that he had hurt his beloved older brother with his absence. He'd never really explained why he'd left.

And it didn't really matter, anymore. Rue's bright manner dampened as Corinna's death was confirmed - she suspected as much, given the matriarch's probable age and notable absence from the pack she had created - and only dimmed further at confirmation of Ruiko's fate. Her ears drooped, heartrate quickening as she was forced to let go of all the luggage she had been carrying all this time, even though she had half-expected it anyway. It had been a long time. Rue hadn't believed that she would find any of her kin for years to come - she'd already accepted that she would arrive only to find the wolves she knew by hearsay long gone.

It still hurt to hear. It was silly, but it felt a little like a failure.

"I'm real sorry to hear that," she said softly, genuinely, mourning for family she'd never known and yet known so well. "I always hoped I'd - well. It doesn't matter." By that timeline, she hadn't even been born when they died, so it wasn't like she had just missed them, or could have been just that little bit faster. It had been a doomed quest.

But no, it hadn't, because the Tainns were larger than any one of them, and here she had found the next generations of them, and they were just as important and special even if she hadn't known their names all her life. Perking up, her wilted smile refreshed and she refocused onto Serach's bright moonlit eyes with renewed vigour. Even if the front of her mind had been preoccupied with disappointment and loss, the back of it never slept, never stopped paying attention. The opportunity to learn more about others was something she never passed up - and these were the most important wolves she would ever meet! "You have a brother?" And that question immediately birthed another, realising that she didn't have an obvious answer for it - she would have assumed Indru, except that the timeline Serach had described was all wrong. "Who's your father?" 

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

I think it counts. :) I'm all for continuing. Serach always has a lot to say when it comes to his momma <3 I'm assuming that Rue followed him, but can change if needed.

Serach was grateful that he had correctly been able to place @Ruenna's father on the Tainn family tree. The youngest of the Hidden Tree pack had been long gone by the time Serach had come around, so he would necessarily have been expected to know the exact relationship, but he was happy that he had known anyways. He always felt like someone had headbutted him in the gut when references to his own parents came up and they didn't understand who they were, and at the way her eyes lit up at the mention of family, the pale man figured that this long-lost cousin probably felt similar.

She was kind enough to offer sympathy upon hearing about Corinna and Ruiko's deaths, and Serach was humble enough to utter a quiet, "Thank you." There was little else that could really be said. He could appreciate that she would have hoped to meet them - more likely Ruiko than Corinna - but that was a dream long gone for all of them.

She has a quick mind, the man thought as he watched her, almost able to see the questions forming in her head at the rate of a million miles a minute. His mention of his sibling, also lost long ago, had not gone unnoticed, nor it seemed had the obvious space in the timeline of events after Kinis had left Swift River. Surprise, he thought ruefully, wondering if she would think any less of him once the truth came out. While Ruenna was cousins with his older siblings, there was no blood relation between the two of them.

"I do have a brother. Four of them, actually, although only one of them is my littermate. Why don't you follow me and I'll tell you all about them?" He answered her, waiting for her agreement before setting off at an easy pace further up the creek where the waterfalls named for his three sisters were. It might be a little bit cheesy, but she wanted to know about family and she was also new to this territory, and it felt appropriate to Serach to explain to her a little bit about both.

"Rihael, Kisla, and Fenru are my oldest siblings. They were Indru and Corinna's first litter, born in Swift River. I don't remember if Kinis was still in Relic Lore at that point, to be honest," he looked at her with a grin as he shrugged his shoulders. "If he was, he might have met them when they were young. I don't know. I guess Indru had wandering paws though, and soon after they were born, he left the River. I guess it was tough, as the pack didn't have a lot of members at the time, so really my mom and Triell were the ones who were looking after them. Indru came back eventually, and after that the pack flourished. They even had a second litter, the following year: Aiyana, Rissa, and Torrel were their names." He paused, looking at her again to give her time to ask any questions if she needed to - he was throwing a lot of names at her, and if she wanted to understand just why Serach and Oak Tree Bend itself came to be, she needed to understand.

"Well...things got bad, after that. In two ways. Indru left again, soon after the pups had been weaned. This time, though, he didn't go alone - he took Torrel with him. Rihael also disappeared around the same time, but I don't think anybody knows if he went with Indru or just left on his own. The pack searched for them, of course, but after a few days of no trace, they had no choice but to give up. That was the last time that anybody has seen Indru, or my brothers, as far as I know. And unfortunately...it got worse. The same summer this pack of wolves showed up in the Lore - you'll have to ask Triell if you want more information about them, but they were sick and mean and brutal. And well....they got Rissa." He stopped again, this time more for his own benefit rather than Ruenna's. He had never known any of his siblings from his mother's second litter, but there was still a pang in his heart when he thought about the agony he knew his mother, Triell, and his older siblings had gone through when they had found Rissa missing.

"They found her body in the woods north of here," he said quietly, clearing his throat before continuing on. "After her killers had been killed themselves, by all the packs in the Lore, my mother decided it was time to leave. The River had been too unkind to her that year, and it was too much for her to remain there anymore - knowing what she had lost. So with the rest of the pack in tow, she decided to lead them over the mountains and eventually discovered the Bend. She wanted to be close to Rissa."

It was a long story, and one that was hard to tell. But he had talked long enough, and now they had arrived at their destination. The three waterfalls, although relatively small, splashed quietly in the darkness ahead of them. Breathing in, Serach chuckled quietly. "All of that and I guess I never answered your questions, did I?" He'd been so caught up in telling the part of the story that would pertain to the Tainns that he had forgotten to explain how he had come to be. "When the pack relocated to the Bend, my mother took another mate. Her loyal second, a man named Ice Aesir. I never really knew my father - he left soon after I was born, just like Indru had. So like my other siblings, my brother Sceral and I basically grew up raised by our mother and Triell. We call him "Uncle", but he's really been more of a father to me than anything else." He would explain the waterfalls in a moment, but for now, he wanted to give her a chance to process, to ask questions, and to speak.

And I made you wait way, way too long again, I'm sorry.

He did not need to ask twice; skipping forwards eagerly to match his pace, Rue spent the walk with both ears glued to his words, and she found herself drawn to looking at his face so much that she would nearly trip at least three times. Like with so many before him, what were just tiny simple questions spurred Serach on to share something much grander, and it was with pure fascination and appreciation did Rue listen. This was her bread and butter, her reason for living, for the hunger in her stomach was as basic to the girl as was her need to learn more about anyone and everything that she came across - and this was far more precious than the vast majority of the others. And as Rue held each one of her storytellers in high regard, that was no small feat.

Serach was practically family, with real, tangible ties to the names and relatives Rue practically obsessed over, and so she made sure to record his tale with a very special pen and ink, and frantically flashed back and forth in her existing notes to see where his version overlapped with what she already knew.

It was with no small measure of excitement that she did recognise the names of his older brothers and sister, recalling with ease that her father had told her about Indru's litter, the story about the hunt with the boar when they were being taught how to hunt... did Serach know that one, she wondered? This was the best bit of all; for the first time, she might be able to give a little back to the story, rather than just feed off of it. But she did not interrupt, for she recognised a train of thought when she saw one, and it would benefit nobody to derail him when he was taking such a lengthy trip down old memory lane.

Before long, her knowledge of Serach's timeline faded as her father's involvement ended, the stories diverging down two separate roads. She made sure to open a fresh book to a fresh blank page to record everything effectively. She eagerly scribbled down Aiyana, Rissa and Torrel with notes to ask more about them later - yet more family! - but it would prove unnecessary, for Serach filled in the sorry tale without any need for prompting. So... Indru had gone again. Her father had always been closest to Ruiko, she knew, and while affected by his other brother's departures, had not been as distraught as others. Or so he had told it, anyway. But knowing how his family had dealt with so much abandonment - both willful and otherwise - Kinis had never been secretive about his incredible guilt for just being another vanisher. Another Tainn lost to the wind.

Her inner thoughts were dashed as she heard of Rissa's fate, the news hitting her like a falling tree, and entirely independently of the fact that Serach stopped, Rue also was stopped dead in her tracks from the shock of it. "Oh..." she breathed, mourning second-hand, but she always felt blue at the sad parts of stories - and since this one was so close to her own, the horror and sadness struck all the closer, even though she had never met the poor girl.

And with his sister's fate, so was Swift River's, and she was able to strike a line through the pack's name with finality. That era was gone, and in its place had arisen the Bend, different in name but so clearly full of the same souls. Born from a mother's love to be near her lost child.

Rue had all but forgotten her first questions by this point, for she had gotten so very much from them already, and it was only when Serach stopped and laughed did he remind her of it. Glancing at the three waterfalls ahead as he continued, Rue wondered whether they were here for any particular reason, and looked forward to discovering it. So the story came to Serach himself, sired by a man whose name she didn't know, but who was written down all the same. And so the tale came to its end, and though Serach did not detail his own mother's passing, Rue filled in the gaps, assuming that she had spent her remaining days in this misty place. Rue hoped it had made her happy, that she had healed after so much loss. It was a sad thing that she would never meet this woman who had had such a big part to play in Tainn history, and Rue regretted that she had had little idea.

"Triell always stayed?" she asked, sensing that he was done, and though she was fighting off about a dozen tracks of thought, she did not want to just stand there like a dullard as she processed everything he had said. She seemed to come into focus the more she spoke, as though coming back out of some deep place of thought. "Dad always said he was dependable, called him his rock, his guardian. Him and Ruiko. Do you know what happened to Ruiko, to Aeylen, to Volkan, did Copper Rock Creek survive?" The questions would come as long as Serach answered them, Rue simply would not be able to curb them or run dry.

No worries <3

She was an attentive speaker, and despite the breadth of the story that Serach told her, she remained quiet throughout it all. There was a lot to digest, for both of us he had realized at some point during his tale. As strong as the Bend was, and as much as he loved its members, there were few who cared to know the true story for how it came to be. They were a young pack, relatively, but their history was much greater than what many supposed. Serach had done his best to explain to any who would listen about his family's legacy in large part because it helped Serach himself feel more grounded in the pack's larger history. There was such an emphasis on the Tainn family, particularly Triell's branch, that sometimes Serach felt a quiet need to remind those who did know that there was a larger family - many who would consider Serach to be a part of it despite his surname.

Her previous eagerness had prepared him for a multitude of questions, but when he finally quieted and she was given the space to speak, she had relatively few for him. Nodding his head, he affirmed Triell's loyalty. There was only twice in Serach's actual and historical memory did he know that Triell had left the Bend, and both times he had returned to his family. Perhaps they're still reeling from the most recent time, but she does not need to hear that from me, he thought as he pondered over her next question.

"Copper Rock Creek disbanded before I was born. I don't really know why. Ruiko and Aeylen came here to the Bend - their children had all decided to leave the pack, as yearlings are wont to do. I was just a child at the time, and Ruiko became another father figure in my life. He was there with me when my mother died, but he did not survive her for much longer. A lynx in the mountains during the summer, protecting a friend," the news had been hard to hear, but there was solace in the fact that Ruiko had died being loyal to the end. "I'm afraid I've never heard of Volkan, or if I did, I don't remember," it had been a long time ago, after all. Almost 3 now, Serach had met his uncle and lost him all within a year. And despite being close, Ruiko had not been one to engage in lengthy conversation. "I'm sorry it's not better news for you."

The answers were not nearly as rich as the previous one, but she wasn't surprised; Copper Rock Creek was a bubble set apart from @Serach's own, he had no reason to know it or care for it as deeply. Not that it sounded like it had a grand history worth immortalising anyway; hearing that it had disbanded so long ago made her visibly wince, and in a rare moment Rue was glad that her father was not alive to hear that. His already considerable guilt would have only become even more crushing at hearing that the pack he had so desperately wanted to thrive had crumbled so quickly. He would have blamed himself, she knew it. That had been his way.

Then came the second blow; Ruiko was dead, too. It should have come as no surprise, for the man had been of the same generation as Corinna, the generation which you didn't see many of these days. It was still difficult to hear, her love for her uncle second-hand, but that love had been so emphatically and earnestly passed down. That rare thing then happened twice in as many moments, for a reunion had been the pillar of strength which kept Kinis going through weakness and doubt, and she could well imagine how this would have been received.

Perhaps it was all for the best, then.

Her sombre turn of mood would have been plain as day, her sadness worn openly on her sleeve, but Serach's gently offered apology lifted her eyes and ears and planted a smile on her face. "No, no, thank you so much - so so much - you don't know how much - I don't think I can ever explain how much I've wanted to know. All of it. Happy or sad, doesn't matter. It's all important. So important. You know, I still can't quite believe I found you at all to hear about it - I honestly thought - honestly thought that I'd just be wandering my whole life without ever meeting anyone who knew these names. It feels like... like I'm remembering this stuff, but that sounds stupid, right? Like it's a part of me, somehow, but I'm only discovering it now. Like it was just covered in a thick layer of snow this whole time, but now it's melting, and -"

She laughed, then, one soft bark aimed at herself. Under other circumstances she would have rattled on happily, but she couldn't afford to stretch the patience of this wolf who, though he hadn't necessarily been so at the start of their walk, was now a part of the family she had all but worshipped all her life.

"So what's this place?" she chirped, tail raising to wag happily behind her as she turned to look at the waterfalls he had seemed to so purposefully bring them to. "We're still in the territory, right? I'm still building the old mental map, you know how it goes," she winked, and then continued, but almost more as an aside to herself: "Also not really all that used to keeping myself within marked borders..."

In light of the recent announcement about Rue, it makes me sad we didn't get to have more threads together. :( But I'm glad we had this one!

She took his answers in stride, despite the fact they were not particularly good answers. Serach did not know just how far Ruenna had come to ask these questions, but he hoped she did not fault him too much for having to be the bearer of the bad news at the end of that journey. He was grateful at her reassurances, but he still looked down shamefully at his paws, ears perked to listen to her speak. No, he thought, he really didn't have any idea just how revolutionary this all must be to hear. Which was a strange concept for somebody who had been born into this history and had known the places and the wolves and their stories in intimate detail by virtue of that fact.

"I'm glad you're so interested. Most of the wolves who join us only take a cursory interest in it. But it all matters, you know. The Bend wouldn't be what it is today without all of this history behind it. Of course, most of the wolves who join us aren't connected to the Tainn family at all either," he told her with a smile and a wag of his tail. How had things had changed in the short time since he had found her snooping near the creek earlier that evening.

Serach chuckled again as she posed her question, turning his gaze away from her and to the falls. Not for the first time that evening, he felt a pang in his heart as he reminisced on his history and that of the land all around them. "We are indeed," he confirmed. "These are the 'Three Sisters' - my mother named them for her three daughters. Kisla's the biggest, and then Aiyana, and finally Rissa is the small one there," he said, pointing with one of his forepaws. "Just something special I thought I would share with somebody so interested in exploring. It'd be a shame if you left them off your mental map."

Turning back to her, he studied her in silence for a moment before deciding to ask a question of his own. "So what's your story, Ruenna? And your family's?" He had told her what had happened in Kinis' absence, but he was curious as to what had become of Triell's littermate after he had taken his leave from Cut Rock River.