Drooping Willows you alone could understand

Tag-a-tag for Miss @Quil. One more before before we/they move on (please)? <3 As one of Rook's inspirations, Robert Frobisher, might say: "Hated leaving you like that. Wasn't the goodbye I had in mind." So... here's to just a few more moments.
Also: Halloween Event: Rook, after walking through the woods, you hear some strange noises.

Talking in your sleep when you're all alone.

rook lyall

Waiting on me to come back home...

September 27th; Nightfall; Partly Cloudy; 44° F/7° C; set promptly after this thread.

In the time they had taken to leisurely break through the stretch of the Drooping Willows that reached from Whisper Caverns to Willow Ridge, Rook had managed to get a hold of himself. Despite the now countless smiles he had silently given her, he still continued to beam at her, much too bashful in those moments in the cave to even utter a hint of a statement that he really enjoyed her company. Only a boy, he had been foolish to think that spending time with her would have been like the times when he had met his other companions; and, as a result, he was taking far too many measures when it came to preparing all the words he longed to say.

Somewhere beneath a willow, he stopped, his pale gaze following her every move, whether she stopped beside him or continued on a few steps more so that she could turn back to look at him. If it hadn't been for the anxiety that made his legs itch, he might have taken a seat and invited her to rest a while before they had to return to their corresponding territories. Plus, the darkness, now that it had fully descended upon the Lore, was much too eerie for a typical autumn night. The mourning doves cooed in the treetops above as they settled into their nests, beckoning the answers of other wildlife that were hiding away in the shadows.

He supposed it was best to ease back into their conversation with letting her go first. If he had the chance to start, he would have plunged head-first into the thick of it all, wanting to pull from her very core the reasons and explanations of how and why they had come together on night like this one - everything from what she knew about Grizzly Hollow and her father, what she believed in, what resources she might possess to help him advance in his quest (which would, sooner or later, be revealed if given the chance or opportunity to tell her). "I'm still not sure where I ought to start; are you curious about anything I might know or have anything I could possibly answer for you? Obviously our dads had known something more than what we've been told, the reasons why Grizzly Hollow no longer stands..."

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Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

I just had to match the table, which I loved! One more before they part ways. <3</3

...I can see you walking far away.

quil attaya

I don't know how, so I'll just wait.

She had followed him quietly as he'd led her from the mouth of the cave back in Whisper Caverns, but that didn't mean that there wasn't a lot on her mind. Even despite the fact that the mystery of him and both of their pasts kept running through her head over and over, she felt utterly at peace for the first time in a while. All those months wandering around in the wilderness on an endeavor that she, as a yearling, had not a clue about how to fulfill, and a piece of what she was looking for had ended up right on her doorstep. And there he was, leading her through the night or at times walking at her side, and just because they'd not much to say on the way home, she knew that it was only because they both had been blown away by what they'd found out.

A shadow of her own as she strode through the darkness, her eyes would cast over him often, taking in the way the moonlight paled his pretty eyes and bathed his tawny fur in a dreamlike glow. She had no clue where they would go from here, but she was decided on one thing: she wasn't letting him go, not any time soon if ever. Rook was a diamond in the rough, and maybe he didn't even know it. But she did. She knew it even before she'd come to know who he really was. As they approached Willow Ridge, she could have been anxious in knowing that they would soon part ways, but she wasn't. Something about this thing they had muted whatever doubts she could have about whether or not they would see each other again. She knew where he lived, she knew who he was, and she knew that, even if he didn't seek her out first after tonight, she would find him if and when she needed to. More than a companion, Rook was a lifeline, and she couldn't deny to herself that maybe she now wanted him for her own.

Her rounded ears fell toward him as he broke the eerie night's silence and she turned to face him, her eyes holding a sparkle that didn't come from the starlight. There were so many things that she wanted to get from him, things she wanted to pry from the folds of his mind and any facts that could help her find her family. "You must know that I've gone all this time wondering what came of my parents after the flood..." She had a feeling they might be here a while, so she gracefully reclined to her haunches but a foot or so away from him. The autumn wind blew up her back and ruffled her sable and crimson and silvered fur, cutting between her ears and along the curve of her cheek. "I always held out hope thinking, you know, what if they'd made it? What if they're still out there somewhere? What if they looked for me and my sister and just couldn't find us the way I can't find them...I know my dad really loved and respected Jaysyek and Borden, maybe...Did he ever turn up at Renegade's Reach?" It wasn't really such a long shot. Where else or to whom else would he have turned after losing everything. Kade was a sharp man ─ even if he didn't know where his daughters were, surely there was a possibility that he could have found the Lyalls up north.

Quil figured that Rook might have offered her any information he had about it, if he'd seen Kade in the meantime, but maybe the time just hadn't been right.

"And...I know that he told me when I was younger that he really loved Grizzly Hollow and had devoted himself to it for years. He'd said that he didn't want to leave, ever, but that strange things started happening. First, the disappearances of some of the cubs from other packs, and then some kind of sickness that had turned the forests to ruins and drove the wolves to insanity. And I know that the herds either began to die off or move on." She craned her head to look up at the sky as she envisioned what that must have been like before returning her gaze to her companion. "After your parents had left with their family and some of the others, my mom was pregnant, and he told me that he'd been scared to bring us into a world like that, so...He gathered up what was left of the Hollow wolves and led them over the mountains, and we all ended up in Secret Falls, which is where Darkwater Rapids was. I guess...my brothers and sister and I were born just after, and everyone was happy and safe. For a time."

She was quiet for a moment, breathing in the scent of him intertwined with the woody one of the willows as she welcomed any questions he had about what she'd said. Quil was so thankful for Rook.

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(This post was last modified: Oct 22, 2014, 01:26 AM by Quil.)

<33!!!

Talking in your sleep when you're all alone.

rook lyall

Waiting on me to come back home...

She obliged; and, what they - or, at least, he - already knew was immediately accounted for:

• First, she was Kade Attaya's daughter and he was Borden and Jaysyek's son.
• Secondly, Grizzly Hollow was no more; there were no packs currently occupying it. As Taima had said, it was nothing more than a hole in the ground.
• When Borden and Jaysyek had left to establish Renegades Reach, Kade and Ava had gone to establish Darkwater Rapids; and, while Rook assumed his parents were still tucked away to the northwest, Quil had let her companion know that her family - her parents and her siblings - had all been washed away in a flood.
• There was a sickness that Borden had terribly feared (knowing very well that its presence and impending arrival to Grizzly Hollow, as well as Taima's disappearance, had spurred his family to move) but apart from its descent from the mountain, Rook was not sure what had prompted the remaining Grizzly Hollow members to move.
• Despite all the commotion, there was a possibility that Kade and Ava, as well as Quil's siblings, were still within Relic Lore.
• Taima, the lost sister who had spurned him and wanted nothing to do with him, had also survived and was also somewhere within the Lore...
• As a side note: Rook's Uncle Angier, who had helped move Rook's older brothers when Jaysyek had taken Trisden and Calla to Renegades Reach, had taken up a mate who was the Leader of Willow Ridge. It was also made apparent that Elettra had had children in the recent years and, though Rook and Quil had only just met Sköll, one could assume that he had at least one or two more cousins. Lyalls, as much as Rook knew and dared to assume, did have large litters of five cubs at the most.
• Rook had been journeyed to Relic Lore to find a cure for his father (something specific Quil did not yet know) and see for himself if Grizzly Hollow was still inhabitable. Quil, on the other hand, had come this way in search of her family.
• And, lastly, given the confirmed fact from either party that both Kade and Borden had had a deep-rooted bond and understanding with one another, it only made sense that both Rook and Quil could trust one another to fill in the blanks that needed to be occupied with much needed information.

Unfortunately, Rook had to shake his head in reply, "If you were able to survive, there's nothing to say that they couldn't have. Though, we have never heard from or met Kade. With only stories to go on, I thought I would have the chance to find him at Grizzly Hollow. But, he wasn't there, and I met my older sister Taima instead." He fell quiet again, his eyes and brows urging her to continue.

Quil went on to relay to him all the things that had made up the ghost stories he used to be so frightened of as a cub. The sudden disappearances of cubs in both broad daylight and the dead of night, the sickness that had threatened to wreak havoc on even the hardiest of wolves, and then how the herds had suddenly seemed to become scarce and navigate away from the safety of the thickets... Rook watched attentively as she tipped her head upward, soon after meeting her gaze with a silent nod, a gesture that confirmed that he had known the danger, too. In fact, he would not forget it; with the way his parents had often told him and Bishop the story of their birth, it seemed as though the move from Grizzly Hollow had to happen for the sake of their birth. No matter how much he liked to fancy the idea that he still could have been born within Cedarwood Forest, he supposed it had been fate. Logically, there were so many factors, that if any of them had been changed, he might have been born into Grizzly Hollow, but he might not have had Bishop as a sister or Quil and her siblings might not have even been born...

He quickly derailed that train of thought. In that aspect, he didn't like it at all. Perhaps it was better that he just adopt the title of being Grizzly Hollow's heir than to sorely wish he had been raised to introduce himself as such.

Then came a piece that was missing from Rook's part of the puzzle. Why he had not been able to meet Kade was this: the Attaya Leader had taken the Hollow wolves with him to the east. These wolves, he soon came to realize, then became the ones who looked after Quil and her siblings. His eyes focused on something to his left and the way he angled his head suggested he was staring at something on the ground not too far from his left forepaw. The manner in which his lips had pursed and his eyes had somewhat narrowed, however, suggested he was thinking, cataloguing the new information and adding it to his mental list of facts.

When his tongue at last darted from his mouth to wet his lips, he looked back her. "So, you've managed to come this far in search of them, your family," he stated slowly. "Have you had the chance to check Grizzly Hollow at all? Could there be any other places where they might have shown up?" The tail at his ankles gave a lilting wag that last for a few seconds before becoming still again. "Whisper Caverns was on good terms with the pack when my parents were in charge," he commented. "I'll keep an eye out if he does find his way there and let you know as soon as I can if and when. But, is there... anything else? And, I mean, anything at all, because if you speak to my aunt Elettra on my behalf about those remedies, I'll give you or help you with anything I can in order to repay you back."

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Team. <3

...I can see you walking far away.

quil attaya

I don't know how, so I'll just wait.

There was no denying that she was dismayed by his answer to her first question, but she didn't let it show. On some level, it had been what she had expected to hear ─ that Kade had not returned at all, so far as Rook knew. Whatever images she'd conjured of her father reuniting with the Lyalls (all of whom remained faceless to her, save for her friend) quickly dissipated, leaving her with what had become an empty hope.

"If you were able to survive, there's nothing to say that they could't have." This was true, and as he had consistently done, Rook's words made her feel better about the whole ordeal. When he then asked if she'd made her way to Grizzly Hollow yet to check things out there, she realized that maybe that should have been one of the first places she should have looked. She'd never actually been there, but Cedarwood Forest was only so big, and surely she could locate it if she tried. Another thought that crossed her mind was that it could be beneficial to track her way back to Darkwater Rapids, but the idea of going back there made her feel sick to her stomach. It probably didn't even exist; or it probably would be unrecognizable, what with the destruction that had torn through it like something that only existed in nightmares and not reality. Should she ever dare to return, she imagined she wouldn't do it alone. @Rowan was in Relic Lore, right in Willow Ridge, and she didn't know how her brother felt about her ─ or if he even knew that she was alive or had came back ─ but she was sure that if it ever came down to the two of them venturing over the mountains, he would probably be as sick about it as she would be."I haven't been to Grizzly Hollow, and honestly I never thought to look there, but you're right; If my father was going to be anywhere, it would be there or Darkwater Rapids." She studied Rook's face thoughtfully, considering his offer of help and his statement about relaying any useful information her way. "I appreciate your offer, and would be grateful for anything that could help me find him, but..." A soft and kindly smile touched her face just as her heart lept a bit at his sweet gesture. "You don't owe me anything, Rook, not a payback or the like. You're doing so much just by being here with me now." Just for being in my life at all. "It goes with or without saying that I'll do the same for you, anything you need and any help I can give." And she did want to do anything in her power for Rook. "Speaking to Elettra is the least I can do, and when I find what you're looking for you know I'll find you."

It dawned on her then that if she was going to consult with @Elettra about medicinal things, it would be a good idea to know what exactly she needed to ask about first. Rook's use of the word remedy specifically caught her attention, and she wondered who it could have been that was sick. "I'll seek her out as soon as possible; what exactly are you looking for?"

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(This post was last modified: Oct 22, 2014, 04:18 AM by Quil.)

Oh geez, LOL. XD YESSS.

Talking in your sleep when you're all alone.

rook lyall

Waiting on me to come back home...

"Ohh," he sounded when she said that he did not owe him anything in return, the note heavy on his tenor-pitched voice. "But, I do." He exhaled through his nostrils, much too focused to listen to the squeaking of fluttering bats overhead and whatever else was starting to go bump in the night. He couldn't lose his cool, not yet; whatever was making all those strange sounds - what he thought could have been the strange and uneven gait of a three-legged creature, the owls who had begun their shuffling in the wispy willow branches and hooted to one another in passing, the occasional rustle of the willows themselves that made the forest seem much too active for his tastes - he was determined to keep at bay. Rook focused on her now, knowing how rude it had been to intercept her if even for the briefest moment.

"It goes with or without saying that I'll do the same for you, anything you need and any help I can give." The statement that followed soon after had not gone unheard and a close-lipped smile accompanied his short nod. If she could rely on him, then he would rely on her. Everything that had come out of their meet-cute and sudden revelations about one another was now beyond the concept of values and the weight of word. Just having her, sharing the first of what could be a string of meetings, both in secret and out of duty to the other's family, was more than he had even prayed for.

"Anything," he said, failing to actually figure out what it was that he actually needed or was asking of her. Without Borden nearby to actually confirm his mental state or prove that any given remedy could have worked, he only had his assumptions to go on. "Specifically for memory... Um..." he really shouldn't have hesitated. He had done this whole spiel before. This time around, at least, he had his wits about him and there was no use in seeming desperate, even if he was no facing the possibility that there were no more summer herbs to collect in the upcoming arrival of autumn. Quil had already told him that she would help; he did not need to 'hook her in' as he had with his other companions. "My father needs help."

A wince settled on his face and he grit his teeth, "We think he's sick; our pack Healer at home has tried everything but he still... he still has these moments where he'll forget who he is, where he is, what we might've been talking about, who I am, where my siblings are... and sometimes he's okay." His muzzle wrinkled along one side before smoothing out, "But, other times, he will actually call me someone else and he'll ask for pack mates who are no longer around to call upon. It was hard. Before he started calling for my sisters, he kept demanding that he see Kade... as if nothing had changed at all since his time in Relic Lore."

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Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

;)

...I can see you walking far away.

quil attaya

I don't know how, so I'll just wait.

It wasn't until Rook seemed slightly distracted that she took notice of how creepy the night seemed to be. It was exceptionally dark and in the lows of the hills fog seemed to be rolling in, accompanied by a distinct chill in the wind, and somewhere off in the distance past the border she did hear something...Her ear twitched in the direction of the flapping, which was soon followed by the shrill and seemingly foreign sound of...bats? Only a few times in her life had she ever encountered the creatures, which looked to her like tailless mice that she would never want to eat. When she was younger, she'd encountered some in a cave uphill from the river, and she couldn't ever understand how they slept upside down. Come to think of it, it made her feel a bit dizzy. Her eyes strayed over Rook's shoulder, but she couldn't see much of anything. It was like they weren't really even there, camouflaged in the darkness. For a moment as she lost her own train of thought, she wondered if perhaps Skoll had scared the lot of them into activity ─ because if anyone was creeping around at night around these parts, it was probably him, and it wouldn't have surprised her if even the bats couldn't tolerate his ice-cold eyes.

"Anything," he'd began, but as he went on to let her know that what he needed was for Borden, her eyes softened and the night's distractions faded to silence. It sounded awful, and Quil couldn't imagine seeing her father afflicted in the way Rook described his own to be. As young as she was, she'd never seen such an ailment herself, but still imagined the strife it must have caused his family. His mention that their healer had been unsuccessful in finding any sort of resolution of his symptoms cast a shadow of doubt in her mind. She was naturally optimistic, however, and she wanted to believe that Elettra could hold the key Rook needed. "I'm so sorry to hear that...How...how long has it been going on like that?" A frown threatened to tug at her lips, but if anything she wanted to lift Rook up about it and that was what reflected in her eyes.

She leaned in closer to him, wanting to reach to nudge his shoulder reassuringly but finding that she felt suddenly shy about it. "I imagine how hard that must be for you and your family, but even if nothing your healer has tried back home has worked, maybe there's something around here that'll do the trick." She shifted her weight and continued on to add, "And if there is, we're gonna find it. I promise I'll do my best."

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(This post was last modified: Oct 22, 2014, 05:21 AM by Quil.)

Talking in your sleep when you're all alone.

rook lyall

Waiting on me to come back home...

Quil offered her sympathy so easily; and, for the first time ever, he actually wanted to hide his face, to seek out the touch of another for relief. He sniffed, doing his best to hide the unbidden heartache that was threatening to find its way into his voice. She leaned close to him, but even if he could have accepted her closeness and let even the guard hairs of their pelts touch one another, the startling sound of coyote barks among the sound of diurnal birds being startled from their nests. Rook tensed and he gently nudged his nose to her shoulder as a sort of gesture of gratitude and that there should be nothing to be scared of. It had occurred to him, too, that Sköll was probably nearby, just waiting for a chance to sink his teeth into her and never let her go again.

He tested the air, finding nothing unusual. "The Lord wouldn't give us anything we couldn't handle," he assured her. "I would just rather the episodes of confusion stop for both his and my mother's sake. My siblings and I are quick to get over it and leave the fallout for later but once the times comes when my mother can't bring him back to the present, I would hope I'd have something for--."

The staggered footsteps seemed to be coming closer now, even when the odd barking continued at a distance. "--for it." It made his fur bristle all along his spine and he definitely did not like it all. At first Rook had thought it truly was his cousin, yipping about and hoping for a panicked reaction, but when the barking escalated into a loud, ear-piercing yelp (another yearling screaming in desolate measures, maybe), the Lyall could not longer fight the trepidation that was beginning to eat away at his core. Shaking a bit, he stepped to one side, his voice hushed now in an insistent plea. He could have very well been playing out after dark with his sister Trisden, who constantly dared him to prove that he was not actually afraid of the dark. The thing was, it was never really the night that Rook had been afraid of - more so the monsters with curved fangs, scraggly fur, and ghost gray eyes. "Lead the way?" he almost whimpered. "I'll walk with you to the borders." Anything to start moving away from whatever was coming in their direction...

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...I can see you walking far away.

quil attaya

I don't know how, so I'll just wait.

The tension that radiated from him could nearly be felt. Even at this point, the very beginning of what she believed would be a lifelong friendship, she didn't like to see him suffer and she knew that he was. What he was doing for his father surely wasn't easy, but it only spoke to his character that he was trying to fix what was broken in Borden and what his affliction had broken within their family.

The cries of the coyotes, shrill and offsetting as they echoed out in the distance, caused her jaws to clench a bit ─ what was going on around here? She was so close to home that she felt safe, and even if she hadn't, Rook offered her a comforting nudge. As his muzzle roved over her shoulder, she leaned to bump his cheek with her own, the feeling of their touch sending a tender shiver through her body. Quil could have cuddled up to him in that very moment and she longed to, to find the comfort she realized she desperately needed in him. When he went on to assert that the lord wouldn't give them anything they couldn't handle and went on to elaborate, she silently agreed and heard him out having learned something new about him ─ he was a spiritual creature. She herself had always believed in some kind of higher power but had never been one to pray or the like. If anything, she believed that what would be would be, and that her choices were the mechanism of her own fate even if there was something out there pulling the strings. Nonetheless, she liked that about him, and it humbled her to think that she was in the company of someone who continued to seem inherently good.

For whatever reason, her counterpart seemed to be a bit on edge. She reckoned that the reason behind it was probably all of the noise, uncharacteristic of the territory on most days, and there was no denying that the eerie quality of the night was increasingly unsettling. "Lead the way?" he'd pleaded to her. She wasn't ready to part with him just yet, the thought of it weighing on her shoulders as she nodded and stood to make her way. It would be a long walk home for him, especially if the things that were bumping in the night were around in more places than just here. Perhaps it was a long shot, but it was the right thing to do to offer to stay with him until sun up. "There's a old den just outside the borders, a short ways south down by the creek. If...if you'd like, you're welcome to stay there with me? I understand if you'd rather go, but we'd be safe and sound." He could make his way back to Whisper Caverns at any point in time after, but truthfully, she'd be waking up missing him if he decided not to. It was selfish, perhaps, but maybe he needed the comfort of a warm body to lull him to sleep as much as she did.

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Certain there's a bit of PP in this (walking this way and that, I think); let me know if I can change anythin'. <3

Talking in your sleep when you're all alone.

rook lyall

Waiting on me to come back home...

He was fighting off the urge to run and duck for cover; as if the hint of adrenaline and unease in his scent would not wholly give his position away. Had Quil not been there at his side, it was a fifty-fifty chance that he either tried to Sköll out from hiding or he made himself scarce. It was a good thing that she was with him though, it made him focus, as he had more than his own safety to consider. The hair-raising barking continued and Rook shook his head, not to deny her offer but to simply try to keep his wits about him. "All right," he verbally agreed in case he had been mistaken as wanting to basically abandon her at the edges of her pack territory.

"Sure, let's go." He gave a startled jump when he could finally pick out the sound that signified that the stranger in the dark was dragged its fourth limb along the ground. Just as his mother commonly did, he reached out to her with his ears slicked back, giving her the gentlest but seemingly impulsive touch of his nose to her sable shoulder. The last thing he wanted to do was rush her along, but, not being familiar with Relic Lore's wilderness caught him off his guard.

The courteous fellow he had been was now overshadowed by the last-born cub he had yet to cast aside; and, it was this part of him that tried to usher her along. A few long strides only brought them so far, but after about twenty-five of them (he had been counting in his head), he had thought they had evaded the approaching menace. His pace slowed, even though his heart still thumped loudly in his chest. The strange hoot of a juvenile owl, however, gave him another fright. Without even thinking or even considering what he was about to do (as Quil was definitely not someone he could mistake for his mother or his sisters), he stumbled to her side and pressed his face in the fur along her ribcage, closing his eyes against her side while the hair along her elbow tickled his downward-angled nose.

A small whine came from him when the winged predator above had quieted. Never mind if he ought to have felt embarrassed, all he wanted to know was this: "Has it gone?"

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(This post was last modified: Oct 23, 2014, 05:07 AM by Rook.)

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.