Grizzly Hollow pathos

For @Amaryllis, backdated to the same day as this thread where she visits GH, and set that evening. I'm pretending that Lily offered to show them somewhere to drink at the end of that thread or soon after, if that's okay? Also assuming she was given permission to be within pack borders during the visit, which would only have been for one night. @Veho @Oula let me know if that (or anything in this thread) is a problem. ALL THE ASSUMPTIONS. /starts a fire
I'll probably hop in with Duck in a round or two, or whenever he does something worth writing about. herp <3

How long had it been since she and Duck had last come this way? They had been travelling towards the mountain, then, en route to meet up with her other children. It had been a simpler and yet harder time; still feeling as though she was fleeing, despite being many, many weeks' travel from the lake of her mate's death, Duck had been miserable and his siblings bitter and argumentative, providing for all of them difficult and time-consuming. She missed them all dearly, even their sneers and snide remarks, for it was all too easy to remember the four of them as nothing more than babes, innocent and helpless, cups waiting to be filled, tiny beings of pure potential. Perhaps she had failed them, all of them. Perhaps, just perhaps, she could redeem herself with Duckweed.

But she was getting distracted already; it had been well before winter that they had travelled to the cedarwoods, seeking out Grizzly Hollow and bearing a message of love and family from the Reach. Rook had graciously allowed Bella and Duck to rest for the night safe within his territory, and that had been a more peaceful sleep than she had known in a long time. Despite the fleeting visit, and that the season was entirely different, she felt like the pack's lands were something comfortably familiar. Perhaps it was that she associated the scent of Lyall with friend, and that Veho's presence was everywhere, as was befitting a leader.

There had to be a story there! But Veho hadn't had time to indulge her then and there, so Bella had happily excused herself with the promise that she would be pestering him come the morning. The journey had not been long, but to rest and rehydrate was appealing, so she had asked after their nearest watering hole and the first woman to greet them had offered to take them. Grateful, Bella had accepted, eager for the opportunity to get to know the other members of the pack a little better.

"So you've not been with them long, is that right?" she asked conversationally as they walked, enjoying the different sights and smells of the Hollow territory. It was funny how the two packs could be relatively nearby and yet be based in the heart of such different terrain. Duck trailed along somewhere behind them, silent.

(This post was last modified: Mar 31, 2016, 04:52 PM by Belladonna.)

Amaryllis had kept to the side as Veho and the others spoke with Belladonna and Duck, watching as the duo were allowed to enter the borders to rest for the night. Though Bella asked where she could quench her thirst. Amaryllis spoke up then, offering to show the mother and son a nearby water source, so they could drink from it. Belladonna happily accepted the offer, following after her as she lead them between the huge cedar trees.

Soon, the other woman asked a question, obviously trying to be conversational and friendly. Well, Amaryllis wasn't going to be rude and ignore her. Bella and her son were guests in her home after all.

“Yes, I joined Grizzly Hollow about two months ago.” Her eyes went over to Bella for a moment. before turning back ahead. There was a creek coming up, where Bella and Duck could quench their thirsts. “What of you? Have you been in your pack for long?” She was curious about this other pack that was nearby, who Veho was obviously friendly with and the leaders didn't mind allowing the members into the borders.

Amaryllis paused as they came to the creek, the healer in training gesturing towards it. “Here we are. The water is still cool.” Her eyes wandered to Duck, the boy having silently wandered slightly behind the two elder women. “What about you Duck? Are you enjoying yourself?” She asked the boy kindly, not wanting to make the boy feel left out of the conversation. A pang was felt in her heart, a small sadness showing in her eyes. It had been quite some time since she had seen her children and she wondered if her own children were alright within their own packs. If they were happy or not. She hoped they were.

Her only hope was their father didn't find them.

A young deer has been separated from the rest of its herd. Hunt Opportunity

It had been longer than two months since she'd last seen Veho. How time flew! There hadn't been much opportunity or justification for an excursion in the middle of winter, and soon the pack would be supporting puppies. Naturally, Bella would be giving that her all, so now had seemed like a good opportunity, while the caches were full and there were no important duties to immediately worry about. Hopefully, with the packs so close, she'd be able to visit more often.

"About three months," she answered, after musing for a moment on how long it had been since she'd decided to finally settle. It had meant giving up on her mountain dream, but it had proven to be an unattainable one, impractical. The thicket had been good to the both of them, she didn't regret it. It was a good thing that she hadn't let herself get too attached to Mirren, else his departure might have made it difficult to stay, but she had reason plenty in @Ash. "My father had moved there earlier in the year, so it was easy to feel at home."

They came upon the creek quickly, Bella smiling softly at the sight of it. "Oh, thank you," she said, moving towards it to lower her head, tongue splashing at its cool surface. An ear twisted back as Lily addressed Duck, and Bella rose her head again in helpless curiosity, licking her lips of any water droplets as she let her son answer the question directed at him. She smiled at him in encouragement, tail sweeping lazily from left to right.

(This post was last modified: Apr 02, 2016, 04:30 PM by Belladonna.)

One foot in front of the other, over and over, keeping his mother's tail in sight as it swayed from side to side: a typical job for Duck. He'd agreed (hah, like he'd had a choice!) to come under the assumption that this was her social visit, not his, he was just a decoration, but then the pretty little grey girl had appeared and now he was nervous that there would be other familiar faces he was expected to interact with... Would it be okay to excuse himself and find a river or stream or something nearby to spend the time until the next sunrise? He could even give the surplus to this pack as a bribe to leave him alone.

Their chatter was uninteresting and typical, his mother's smooth voice so familiar and her words so generic that it was just background noise. The sound of trickling water had an ear pricking upwards, the declaration of the water still being cool filling Duck with a brief hope that he'd be able to amble away from them and see what lived in it, but alas.

The sound of his name snapped his attention to the stranger - what had she called herself, Lily? - who was now looking right at him with a mouthful of rude, polite questions. His jaw opened and closed a few times as no sounds came out, not having prepared himself for this. Instinctively he glanced at his mother for guidance, but she was only looking at him with that infuriatingly supportive look on her face, so he swallowed, forced a shaky smile and looked back at Lily.

Was he enjoying himself? "Y-y-yeah, yep," he choked out, trying to be convincingly casual about it and failing miserably, but what was he supposed to say? What was he enjoying? Not starving to death as a loner, not being pushed off a mountain by his siblings, not being treated like the pack's punching bag? Those were all enjoyable things. Pretending that that was a perfectly acceptable amount of conversation, he scooted towards the creek, lowering his head and forcefully lapping at the water, very clearly giving out an aura of I'm busy drinking now you don't need to talk to me just pretend I'm invisible okay thanks.

Bella just clucked quietly, then turned her gaze on Lily. It would have to do. At least he'd actually answered the question. Grimacing slightly in apology for her son's manners, she rolled her eyes and shrugged to try and convey that Lily shouldn't take it personally. Not wanting that to be the end of matters, for she had quite wanted to get to know the other members of Grizzly Hollow, she continued: "Do you have family here? What brought you this way, two months ago?"

(This post was last modified: Apr 02, 2016, 04:33 PM by Duckweed.)

Amaryllis wondered about the boy's behaviour as her eyes follow Duck as he scampered over to the river, giving off the air of leave me alone. It was further explained by Belladonna rolling her eyes and shrugging her shoulders as if to say what are you gonna do? She understood it was nothing personal and continued onwards. Children could be difficult, she guessed, though a small shot of guilt at the thought of her own children.


"No, I am alone here. I wished to get away from my old pack, so I could learn more about medicine and herbs." She answered simply, stamping the guilt down and toying with the idea of should she mention her own pups, in the question of whether she had any family. It would be just them she would mention if she did, not her mate that her insides still quivered at the thought of him. "I do have family elsewhere, though, mainly my own pups who should be about Duck's age now." Her wording might be considered odd to Belladonna, as it sounded as if she hadn't seen her pups in months but Amaryllis didn't notice it.

"Is Duck your only child? Or are the rest with their father?" She asked back to the other woman, wondering if Duck was truly an only child. She had been an only child, in her own litter though that didn't mean she didn't have older and younger siblings.

(This post was last modified: Apr 03, 2016, 07:24 AM by Amaryllis.)

There was something vaguely melancholic about Lily's choice of words; alone, to get away, as though she been escaping something. It might have been innocent, of course, and Bella was merely hearing things which weren't there. She had been about to remark on how Lily couldn't possibly be alone in a pack as genial as Grizzly Hollow when the woman cut her off to mention her children.


Bella's instinct was to perk up, cheered by such a topic, until she realised that there was a sadness in that choice of words, too. One ear swivelling forwards to pay closer attention to the dainty grey woman, the other flicked out in minor apprehension of whether or not she should press it further.

Yet again she was beaten to it, and her jaws hung open, left there from a previous readiness to speak. It was a perfectly innocent question and harmlessly meant, but her instinct was to look towards Duck, who was stood by the creek, still as stone. From her position, she could see his tongue jutted forward, as though frozen halfway through a lap of the water. Swallowing, her mouth opened and closed aimlessly a few times, as though the motion might bring her wisdom. It was such an innocuous thing to ask, why did it have to provoke this reaction in the both of them?

"Yes and no," she managed at length, bringing her gaze back to Lily, her eyes slowly refocusing on the woman's face. "He has littermates, a brother and two sisters, but... they are adults, now, and choosing their own paths. Two of them are very close and I know will be together, the third has always been independent and capable. Their father is dead." She spoke the last part with a coolness that was rather set apart from her usual manner, a blunt choice of words for a wolf who normally preferred softer language.

They had been out of his life for so long that his guard was down. He had been able to start relaxing in the last few months, relax in the knowledge that they were gone, they really had gone, and while their faces danced in his dreams occasionally and sometimes strangers wore their face, it was never really them - none of them. Least of all him. And yet, if he was so recovered, how could the simple mention of them make his blood run cold?

It shattered his attempts to construct a world where they weren't real.

She would have been looking at him, knowing, but he didn't move. Couldn't move. At length, her diplomatic reply came, the truth as condensed down for a total stranger's attention span. Their father is dead, she said, and Duck flashed his smallteeth at the water.

"'M gonna..." he muttered, not bothering to finish whatever excuse he'd started, flicking his tail to the side as he turned away and stalked along the creek, following its direction of flow, keeping it in his sights, begging for it to wash away how suddenly dirty he felt.

{Duck exit}

Bella didn't stop him. She watched as his white tail disappeared beyond a cedarwood and was gone, and then let go a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, shoulders slumped, bringing her eyes back around to Lily. She was normally so much more composed, but it had caught them both off guard, and she couldn't flee like he had. How lucky he was to escape into his own private, antisocial world like that. "He's... We're... It's not easy to talk about."

"I am so sorry, I did not mean to-" to what? To bring back such bad memories for them? To send her son off running as if there was a bear snapping at his heels? To make Belladonna look so despondent as she tried to explain? "I am sorry." She finished lamely, guilt at what she had done to the pair clawing at her heart. It pounded in her chest, her eyes lowering down to her paws as thoughts flew about her mind. How could she make it up to the woman? How could she possibly apologise for her slip in words?

It was clear the relationship with the father of Duck and mate to Belladonna, now dead according to the mother, hadn't been a particularly good one. It had obviously gone south, given Duck's reaction by fleeing to god knows where within Grizzly Hollow and Belladonna almost looking defeated.

"At least, he is dead," she blurted out suddenly keeping her eyes to the ground as the words slipped by her lips. Two wolves in a month, when before she never even mentioned him to other packs she had joined temporarily. What had she come to? Veho had taken her by surprise with his question of her knowledge of pups and now this? A woman and her child whose father clearly wasn't wolf of the year and she was blurting out all her secrets. "Mine is still alive and I wish he were dead. I live in fear that he will find me. That he has found my pups and killed them or turned them against me-" The fear that he had found their pups - and she still sees them as pups, because that is the last age she had seen them as - and twisted his own agenda onto them and made them hate her, made them angry at her for leaving them behind and never coming back, even though she had given her word she had. That fear was greater than if they were just...dead. Death meant she could grieve for them and move on after some time. Living anger and hatred from those she loved, that was different. She could not deal with that sort of thing, from her own children no less. “I didn't even get to see them grow up.”

I'm so sorry for the wait D: @Amaryllis

Lily was perceptive enough to realise that she'd accidentally stepped into a minefield, but Bella just shook her head and smiled, trying to dispel any notion that the woman need to apologise. It had hardly been deliberate, for how could Lily have known? It was just another normal topic of conversation to anyone else... and had Duckweed been of stronger fortitude, he would not let it affect him so much after so long. It did worry her that her son seemed so unable to move past it, to grow beyond it, to let it go... but perhaps she just wasn't empathising with him well enough. They had experienced the cruelty in different ways.

Bella would have spoken the reassurances out loud if Lily hadn't beaten her to it, offering a very blunt sentiment which left the chocolate woman temporarily stunned. It was not something she disagreed with, but to hear it said so coldly... Her ears flicked back in uncertain and mildly uncomfortable surprise, but she didn't contest it. When Lily continued, the reason behind it was made clear, and Bella's reservations melted away in understanding as the woman shared what was surely something very delicate and private.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, taking a careful step towards the woman, wanting to offer her comfort and support but not overstep any boundaries. Her mouthed fluttered opened and closed as she was caught between sharing more of her own situation, for solidarity, or just making herself available as an understanding ear. Had Lily's brief but telling snippet of story not resonated so much, she may have opted for more of the latter. With a soft whine, she lowered her head, ears pressing back in gentle concern as she watched Lily for any sign that closeness would be welcomed.

"I can't... I can't begin to imagine how hard that must be. I always had my children as my rock, my purpose... Why didn't you get to see them grow up?"