Thicket of Secrets Seasons

PACK RE: "Secret Woodlands, one strange tree in your territory remains vibrantly green while the rest have changed" Come explore the mysterious Inkberry tree with Flair! - @Rayne, @Enia, @Korrin, @Rose and/or @Duckweed perhaps :3

The air was chilly, small breezes spiraling through the thicket and creeping in under thin puppy fur with icy fingers. The snow, that wondrous white, had disappeared as quickly as it came, melted away by temperatures that seemed more than cold enough to young paws. Above, the trees were already half naked, their remaining leaves shifting from red and yellow to dull brown; They'll get new ones, the adults promised, assuring their offspring that this was all completely normal and only meant winter was coming. That lurking ghost, a time of cold and dark and wanting. It seemed nothing more than a tale meant to scare the pups, though it was hard to imagine their mother doing such a thing. Sunlight filtered down through the thinning canopy, bright and sharp against eyes used to the dimness of the thicket. It cast odd shadows on the leaf-littered floor, turning gnarly bramble and naked branches into threatening, dark figures against the azure of the sky overhead. But it took more than that to scare Flair Athesila! She was ready to take on any winter-monsters that might jump out as she navigated the thicket with head and tail held high. She knew these lands like she knew the inside of the pack den, a lack of green wasn't gonna spook her. But it was oddly saddening, to look around and see only brown. She wouldn't cry about the plant's dying; I'm not @Enia! But the forest did feel weirdly empty. Maybe that was why the small flash of green caught her attention. She didn't otherwise care about plants, not like mom and Nia, but she was curious about the forest at large, and seeing green among all this brown inevitably awoke that curiosity. Shifting direction, she weaved between the bramble towards the unexpected life, wrinkling her brows as she came upon the small tree, thriving in a particularly thick ray of sunlight. The leaves were dark, surrounding clusters of dark berries, and unlike everything else, they seemed completely unmoved by the change of season; But why?! Word count: 343 Thoughts ”Speech”

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(This post was last modified: Oct 14, 2016, 08:15 PM by Flair.)

Considering his extreme trauma, since recovering, Duck had managed to return fairly quickly to his status quo. Would anybody have noticed if he was anymore quiet and reclusive and shy than normal? Certainly they were all very kind and gentle and caring and sympathetic but it just made his gut feel like stone. @Nineva came to visit him sometimes, to check up on him, and while at first he had been flattered and bemused, now it just felt like... well, it felt like he couldn't be trusted to look after himself. And considering how his mother treated him, it was hardly surprising that others felt like that, too. Like he was a delicate little flower which needed to be protected, and the attack on his life, the nearly drowning, the need to be rescued, it was all just evidence to support that.

But @Miccah still wanted him to be a hunter, and Duck would have rather chewed off his own tail than let that man down. So while he hadn't yet plucked up the courage to go back to his once-favourite creek, Duck had just made do with the other streams and rivers about the thicket, and not ventured too far from the territory. Not too far. And he was always glancing behind him and hearing cruel whispers in the wind but, really, that felt more like nostalgia than a new kind of paranoia.

But there were wolves in the pack who didn't treat him any differently at all, and perhaps it was in those that he found the most unlikely (or likely?) stability. "Flair?" he called softly, having spotted her fiery body through the brambles, staring at something, and he picked his way through the branches towards her without hesitation, shivering only a little at the cold. He was always cold at this time of year, his pelt so thin and raggedy, but the cover of the thicket was far more protective than the harsh open spaces on the mountains his mother would have preferred to bed on.

"Wuh-what're you l-looking at?" Though he couldn't help but answer his own question, following her gaze to the small but bizarrely vibrant tree, as if unaffected by the world around it. Or had she spotted something else?

Everyone else still very welcome! @Duckweed

Her ears flicked back at the call, though she didn't react any further, recognizing the voice. Her eyes were still locked on the odd spot of green in a thicket of brown. The tip of her tail twitched at her hocks, head tilting slightly as she looked the small tree up and down, nose quivering even though she hadn't the faintest idea what to use the scent for. As the sounds of paws in the leaves grew close to her side, the girl blinked, finally turning her head to look at the pale boy. His stuttered question made her half-roll her eyes, though he had already turned to the plant, so surely he realized how dumb he had sounded. Still she gave a reply, lips curved in a thin smile; "I'm lo-oking at that!" She dragged out the word as she turned to point her nose at the tree, brows rising questioningly, then knitting together. "Why's it look like that?" She asked the older wolf, still looking at the emerald leaves, mesmerized by their existence. Duck had a lot more experience with this whole fall thing, surely he would have an answer. For some reason it was very important for her to know, not because she really cared about the plant itself, but she wanted her world to make sense! She'd just adjusted to all this change, since they said that was just how it went, and now there was this little tree that didn't play along. Something about that both frustrated and exhilarated her. Gaze shifting to the gangly lad, Flair pursed her lips, an unusual, thoughtful expression on her face; "How can it stay green when ev'rything else has to shift?" There was a mild note of accusation in her tone, though it wasn't directed at Duckweed as much as something larger, and harder to argue with. She liked the white boy, he was nice and unimposing, a lot easier to have discussions with than her brother – Ugh! – or the other adults who tended to brush her off, thinking, and sometimes saying, they were right and she was wrong. Duck occupied this weird in-between space, grown-up, but still somehow closer to the pups than the rest of the adults. Flair looked at him now, expectantly, eager for answers that he could, hopefully, provide without being condescending. Word count: 388Thoughts ”Speech”

Dawnthieves.de

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

Her sassy reply might have thrown off a younger Duck, but while he felt the familiar twang of anxiety in his stomach at the idea of being mocked, he took it with a weak smile and a shrug. Being made fun of always stung, even when done with affection - a concept which had been entirely foreign to him for far too long.

Besides, what came next was far harder to deal with. Realising that he had somehow stepped into the role of adult-who-should-know-everything in the eyes of Flair (and when had that happened?! Duck still felt like a child most of the time, but he was approaching his third birthday) the pale wolf swallowed, mouth falling open in an utterly gormless lack of suitable response. How was he supposed to know?! Struggling to come up with any kind of good explanation for why a random tree might have forgotten it was supposed to turn its leaves, because really, did trees do anything on purpose, clearly his lack of immediate response wasn't good enough; Flair posed it again, with an intimidating kind of thoughtfulness behind her tone. Glancing at the girl (and immediately regretting it as she was looking at him now so he quickly looked back at the stupid tree), Duck quickly exhausted all his knowledge of plants (which was almost nothing) and came up with nothing satisfactory so... he just said the first thing which seemed to make sense:

"Some th-things are just st-stronger than other things," he said, trying to come across light and wise but he just felt foolish and then, a moment after, realised that if his oxshit was true, it meant that he was the exact opposite of this dumb green tree. He was the bare twiggy thing next to it which had barely put out leaves even in the height of summer. And instantly, he decided he didn't like that answer anymore. "M-muh... maybe it doesn't want to s-sleep for winter. Maybe they can do that." Who knows? Maybe plants just had this universal agreement with all the others that they'd change colour and shed in the cold season, but this one just wanted to rebel.

Flair just gonna take this explanation and run with it, nbd.

She watched him expectantly, unaware of how intimidating her raised ears and childish pout could appear. After all, adults weren't afraid of anything, certainly not questions; Or @Cinaed would have made them all piss themselves a long time ago. Still Ducks face looked rather shocked at her question, and silence stretched between them. Impatience quickly crept into the pup, one hind paw starting to tap the snow eagerly, what was so hard about one question? She was sure her mother would have known and given the answer instantly – after all she loved talking about plants – probably excited to see her oldest daughter show some interest in that area. In fact, Flair was just about to get up and seek her out in search of answer, when Duckweed finally started talking. Instantly, the girl perked up, eyes wide as she listened to his explanation. It sounded weird, that this shrubby tree might be stronger than the towering alders and hornbeams - @Enia had asked for their names once and those two had stuck – this thing was puny in comparison, maybe not as scraggily as some of the leafless saplings around it, but certainly no king of the forest. As if reading her doubt – it was probably quite evident on her face – the pale boy suddenly changed his answer, prompting the girl to cock a brow in disbelief. But then again, she liked this explanation much better than the previous, a small flicker of wonder lighting in her eye. "They can?" She asked with fascination, excitement slowly animating her doubtful features into something wild and hopeful. Tail wagging widely now, she looked over at the tree, seeing now what the young adult meant; Strong! Different… She smiled, half to herself, looking at the dark leaves so bravely fighting against the wants of the larger trees around it. Then, realizing how she was stupidly grinning at a plant, she tore her gaze away, pinning Duckweed with another question; "How? How's it keep doing it when th' other trees can't? Keep doing what it wants?" There was a demanding tone to her voice, but below it lay a note of anxiety, a fragile part of her desperately searching for the answer to the question that would keep her up at night; Why am I different?! Word count: 381 Thoughts ”Speech”

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