Charred Ash Draw champagne supernova

@Kino but i guess if some cad wolf REALLY wanted to interrupt, it is ur pack lol. @Arcus is assumed to be "around" and I suppose you could also pop in and foil mommy and daddy's attempt to talk LOL

Sahalie was getting antsy, staying in Charred Ash Draw for the last six weeks. Arcus was getting so big now and Sahalie was feeling like perhaps it was time to go. She wasn't sure; there was no rule book on this sort of thing. Could Arcus handle the journey they had ahead of them? There would be a lot of learning-on-the-go. Most of her canine education thus far had been focused on naming objects in the world and teaching Arcus her own name. But the real training, training to survive had yet to happen and it really needed to her. The young mother began to pace back and forth, letting all the scenarios and contingencies work her up into a guilty frenzy.

More than anything, Sahalie did not want to ruin Arcus' childhood just because she and Alastor had "shit to do." Forcing Arcus to go out into the real, coyote-infested world too soon might make her grow up too fast. What if she lost that child-like wonder? What if she got eaten by a coyote? Yet, at the same time part of Sahalie wondered if it might not end up to be the most fantastic adventure of a lifetime. As a child Sahalie hadn't initially liked "adventures" and wanted nothing but to stay inside the safe, cozy mists of Spectral Woods forever, but as she grew she had enjoyed venturing here and there up and down the Vale of Secrets. Should they ask Arcus what she wanted? What if she liked it here....

"Al?" she said uncertainly, whining a little, "Al I wanna talk to you... It feels like its time to leave." But it was just a feeling. Sometimes she felt like it would surely rain, but then the clouds would clear up and move out without a single drop.

Life for the pair was chaotic, as usual, but it seemed they had hit a brief peaceful period. He was content to enjoy it while it lasted, basking in the sun, doing some duties to help out the Draw, and most importantly spend time with his daughter. She was his sun, his moon, and all of his stars. The love he felt for the rambunctious, clever little girl was seemingly endless. If she asked him to jump, he’d say ‘how high’. She was the greatest blessing in his life, followed very closely by his chocolate mate. How he’d gotten so lucky, he would never know.

The pair were taking a stroll, having left Arcus to play with her cousins @”Aquaria” and @”Scorpius”. His auds swiveled as his mate spoke, pace slowing to a stand still as the wavering of her voice. Then, she suggested they leave and he choked down the sigh that threatened to bubble up his throat. He knew that it was on her mind, ever since she’d learned that Triell wasn’t with the Draw she hadn’t wanted to stay. He didn’t understand it. Even if Triell wasn’t in the Draw, she still had family there. She had Treyah, and their weirdly shared niece and nephew (which he tried very hard not to think about connection wise). Here, Arcus had family she could know too. They had everything they could need, and still she wanted more.

“What makes you say that?” he asked, though he was fairly certain he knew the answer. The large silver man planted his rump, topaz gaze looking quizzically at his mate with a slight tilt of his head. He wanted to hear what she had to say before he went stomping on her thoughts.

@Kino

Alastor did know the answer to his own question but he was playing dumb. Her lips stretched tight. He knew they had other things to do, other goals that they had agreed on and having Arcus had not changed their goals and they had not set them aside. The last few weeks had been almost entirely uninterrupted by coyotes—save for a run-in or two—and it had been practically idyllic, enjoying the world with him and her daughter, but it felt as if she had checked into some dream life that wasn't hers. She couldn't just do this forever: live out the rest of her life in the pack her father built, her sister owned, in practical anonymity while there were questions that needed to be answered and mistakes that needed to be made up for.

"Didn't I tell you—" she started before quickly closing her mouth. Already she sounded to aggravated, already she was jumping the gun into a full blown argument. They didn't need this to be a fight. More slowly, more calmly, she breathed, "—that I didn't want to settle down and live like a ghost." Sahalie jabbed her muzzle in the direction of Charred Ash Draw, "Well this is living like ghosts. This is being stuck in the legacy. I'm not ready to be done. What about finding Morganna? What about finding Laurel?" This forest was not her home even if she had family here. And she was scarred to mess something up again.

If they stayed too long everyone would just be more upset when they finally left.

He knew about the things that she said, none of them being new. The only reason he’d asked was because he hadn’t known if she’d come up with any other reasons. Assumptions got him in trouble sometimes, but so did playing stupid too. It did hurt his pride a little for her to think that he’d forgotten about everything. Yeah, he liked it at the Draw. He didn’t have to hold the safety of his family completely on his shoulders anymore. They were protected there, they had family there. To him it seemed like a pretty good gig, but Hal always wanted more. She didn’t want the legacy that it held, even though when they were younger a legacy had been all she’d wanted. It went to show how much both of them had changed.

“I know Hal. I want answers too, but I want our daughter to be safe even more. You might be ready to head out, but she’s not. She’s too young, too vulnerable. There’s only so much you and I can do against a band of coyotes alone while also looking out for her,” he said with a frown. She had to know how hard it was for him to admit that. Kino, who had tried to take on coyotes single-pawed in order to protect them. Kino, who had done his best every step of the way for them. For him to put aside his pride enough to vocalize that even he wasn’t strong enough was a feat in itself.

He didn't want answers like she wanted answers. But she bit her lip because he was right: Arcus was small and young and she could barely string a whole sentence together let alone hold her own. What if she got lost. How would she tell the wolves that would find her who her parents were, where she was supposed to be, or how far away that was? If she smelled like a loner there would be nothing. Frustrated, air bursting from her flared nostrils, Sahalie turned her face away from her mate. "They're going to try to make us stay." She was thinking of her conversation with Garmir. "They'll try and keep us here and I'm just not ready. Not here." Almost anywhere besides here would be better.

"We're going to have to start training her. Like really training her," she said, relenting to the inevitability that they would stuck in the old burnt down forest a little longer. There was so much that Arcus needed to know, and if they weren't going to be on the move it would at least make Sahalie feel better to be doing something useful. Rotting away on the border of a ghost town was not useful. Sahalie had nothing to contribute to Treyah's pack and she did not want to get involved. Being involved would only lead to difficulties and complications and then something would fall apart just like Oak Tree Bend or Quaking Vale. She couldn't put her heart into anything besides her family right now. A much smaller pack, but safer.

(This post was last modified: Jul 09, 2018, 02:37 AM by Sahalie.)