Cedarwood Forest Wanderlust and itchy paws

I would want myself
I'll put you through hell just to know me
Euna Valle

Euna's brows furrowed grumpily at his question, "Why do I have to ask for honesty?" It was a genuine question, the girl's frustration evident. She eased down a bit, he could tell her about a pack, and that might be interesting! "Okay, but you promise, no lies?" She looked at him with a narrowed gaze, not wanting to take no for an answer. Her head cocked to the side, "But...how can you not remember?" The child couldn't simply fathom the idea of forgetting about her family. Even Tori had made herself impossible to forget, unfortunately. Life doesn't always give us what we want....but Euna got what she wanted a lot as long as none of the other pups were around to compete. She glanced over to the nearly forgotten deer and then back to him.

"Yeah, um, how did you forget?" She asked him more softly, her voice de-escalating from the high squeals of anger it'd reached earlier. "Oh! And do you choose to be alone?" She wanted to know. It was odd to her that there were just wolves that existed outside of packs without loving families to go back to at the end of the day.

His question would bring about an exasperated sigh followed by a dramatic slump to the ground, her bottom lip pouted out. She laid her head on her crossed paws, propping up her muzzle as she looked at him. Euna decided then to simply just be open, she probably wouldn't see this wolf again, right? He was a loner, as long as he stayed away from the backwater...what could the harm be? "It's not just you...it's everyone. They won't submit to me and my sister pushes me around a lot. I just wanna be the boss for a change, but I don't know how to stump her." She let out a loud huff. If she could push others outside of the pack around, or even the newcomers, surely she could learn her way around her sister.

One Kiss away from Killing

BACK OFF, I'LL TAKE YOU ON, HEADSTRONG TAKE ON ANYONE

His head lifted up a little when her first question arose. “It’s not necessarily that you need to ask for it, just rather that you shouldn’t expect all wolves you come across to be honest. Not every wolf has honest intentions, and therefore the benefit of the doubt doesn’t always work. Just a thought. It might help you sometime.” His words weren’t pointed, just meant to help at sometime or another. He wasn’t good at advice, but that was something he did know that he could pass on.

Cypress nodded his head, “I promise. I don’t have anything of worth to promise on, but I promise. No lies.” All of which was true. He wasn’t sure his mother or father lived anymore, and the one person he did remember in glimpses wasn’t with him anymore. The male wasn’t sure where they went. Not to dwell in his mind, he focused on answering the rest of her questions before he started his story.

He sighed softly, though he wasn’t irritated. “I feel like we are going in circles with this one. I do not yet know why I don’t remember where or who I came from but I do pan on figuring that out eventually if I can. It wasn’t something that I chose to do, it just happened. Something bad might have happened and I could’ve shut down. I’m not sure. The farthest thing I remember was splitting off from an older wolf who helped me stay alive, but that was a long while ago for me.”

His eyes watched Euna as he thought on his next answer for a moment. “I’m not sure that I would say that I’ve chosen to be alone, it just happened that way. I think it is that way for most. Something happens and suddenly you have nobody. No place to call home, nobody to lean on when things get tough. Only you.” He shook his head as he finished talking, hoping to throw such thoughts out of his mind. They were sad and he didn’t want to be sad.

As Euna sighed, he would watch as she dropped herself downwards. He was now mostly level with her, which might make talking easier for the both of them. He listened quietly as Euna spoke, respecting her words as she had his. After she was done, Cypress would give a small nod. Though his thoughts differed on what he wanted to say, he ignored them for now. It probably wasn’t the best advice to give a wolf that seemed so impressionable, but he thought his words true. “Well,” he started, trying to find an order in the words that wanted to escape the confines of his mind. A few seconds may have gone by before he continued, “You are only so young right now. They might just see it as you learning your place in the pack.”

He wandered off for a moment before offering the rest. Whether Euna put it to use or not was up to her. All the while, his mind was screaming at him not to speak any further. “Though as for your sister, I might say try to find things that irritate her. But only little, little things. So small that she doesn’t even realize it gets to her. Once you find what you are looking for, exploit that. Only a few times might do.” He waited a moment before adding, “The goal with doing that is to find something that annoys her, but also something that she doesn’t think about so much. That way when you do whatever it is you wish with that knowledge, she won’t even know that you are doing something. If it works right, you might just be able to get to her like you want to.” He gave her time to let that sink in before going a completely different path that personally agreed with him more. “Or. You could always just gain her respect. Do things that she does like, without being asked to help or otherwise. Eventually, she will listen to you and do the same. It may take more time to do, but the result is more worthwhile.”

With a soft sigh of his own he looked to the sky. After he collected his thoughts again, he began to tell Euna his story. “I’m sure you know, as do I, that most packs stay in their territory and that is where they live. Well the pack that I know of, one that isn’t anywhere near here mind you, didn’t have such ideologies. They traveled wherever they wanted to, just because they could. They had the numbers, which made everyone else cower in their midst. What the other packs failed to gather was that the pack had to have gotten so many members from somewhere right?” He paused, giving her the chance to answer the question if she so chose. “As it turns out, that pack was traveling with the herds, only gathering adult wolves. There was never a pup, not one. I came across them a few months before I arrived here. It was certainly an odd sight. Though to their credit, they worked very very well together.” His story was over, though the silence that followed left plenty of room for more questions or comments. Talking to Euna was probably the most exciting thing he had done since he watched that pack down a bison.

Cause two can keep a secret if one of them is Dead
Euna Valle

Euna felt dumbfounded, not all wolves were going to be honest with her? On one paw it made sense, she and her siblings weren't always telling the truth. On the other paw, adults didn't lie! Or did they? She wondered how many times she'd been lied to without even knowing it. The thought made her pout a little, but she solemnly nodded her head to show him she understood. This was a lesson she'd be keeping in the back of her mind going forward. Despite the unpleasantness of reality, a small smile crept onto her face at the realization that Cypress was giving her invaluable information like she'd originally wanted. Her tail gave a happy wag.

Her smile grew, <b>"Okay! Thank you, Cypress."</b> Her words were eager and light now, any prior frustration gone as quickly as it had appeared. She kinda liked this loner! Now that he wasn't lying to her. Euna's emotions seemed fickle as she grumbled out a <b>"Hmmm."</b> The man simply didn't know, and this bothered her. Could she someday forget about her Dad? She sure hoped not! For a moment she was tuning out the wolf in front of her, worried that she could potentially forget her favorite wolf in the whole wide world, and then the next she was intently listening to his tale. <b>"Only me?"</b> She thought about it for a moment, then shook her head, <b>"I wouldn't like that very much! You should try joining a pack."</b> She suggested this in an innocent captain obvious manner, still so young and oblivious to the world.

Her paws crisis crossed beneath her, ears facing towards the male as he started a long-winded response. She was keen to catch every word, hoping that the seemingly wise wolf would have the answer to all her problems. His first solution had her eyes lighting up with enthusiasm, her tail thumping against the ground as her tongue lolled out in a big smile. <b>"How do I annoy her though?"</b> This idea was genius so long as she could figure out how to set it in motion. Her little mind tirelessly ran over various scenarios between the time he'd spoken last until he started again. She reeled out of her thoughts to focus on him. What he offered her was met with a cocked head, a thoughtful expression on her young face. Briefly, she'd look at the deer. She knew Tori liked food because she too liked food, and all her siblings tussled over it here and there. Maybe...just maybe she could share this one time? See if it got here anywhere.

She leaned in as he told the story, cutting in with excitement when he paused, <b>" From where?!"</b> She listened as he finished and let out a loud, <b>"Whoaaaa."</b> She jumped to her paws enthusiastically, gesturing her muzzle in a wide arc, <b>"They went wherever they wanted? To hunt after the deer! That is so cool. I wish we went around everywhere, I love exploring, but we stay here by the boring creek. I want to see the world like the pack in your story! Although, I'm glad my family has pups, that way I can exist."</b>

One Kiss away from Killing

BACK OFF, I'LL TAKE YOU ON, HEADSTRONG TAKE ON ANYONE

Cypress dipped his head when Euna thanked him. Her mood seemed to have greatly improved. He wondered if he was ever like that when he was younger. He couldn’t help but chuckle at her words of joining a pack. It certainly wasn’t due to a lack of effort on his part that he hadn’t found a pack yet. He’d searched there just seemed to be nothing and nobody around until he came upon these lands. His composure was quickly regained, and he nodded. “Yes, perhaps I should.” Euna was likely the first pack wolf he’d encountered during his journeying, but there were bound to be more packs other than hers somewhere.

It turned out that Euna actually listened to the words he offered. He wasn’t surprised per say, but it was something along those lines. Even though he had given her advice on something she asked about, he wasn’t truly sure she would actually pay attention. Cypress stayed silent for a second as she asked but a small question. He wasn’t sure if it was meant to be answered, but he figured he might prod a little. “I’ve never met nor seen your sister, or any of your family for that matter, but I would suggest observing what she does often and happily.” Whichever way she decided to take his ‘advice’ was up to her, for better or worse.

Her excitement about his tale got him wagging his tail as she questioned. “They gathered the wolves that were dispersing from all of the other packs and when they came across them, they would bring in more experienced lone wolves for a bit.” His story continued, and he didn’t speak up until the end. “That’s crazy isn’t it, how none of the packs noticed that some of the wolves that were once with them had gone and joined that other pack?”

What you gon’ do when there’s blood in the water
Euna Valle

"Mhmm, just avoid the mountain pack!" Euna enthused with a sure nod of her head. Aside from her own, that was the only group of wolves she knew about. <b>" And if you pass by again, tell me about the others, okay?"</b> Her bossy little voice left her without concern for consequences. If there were other packs, she wanted to know about them. She turned to point her muzzle towards Dire Mountain. She wanted to see what it was like up there and didn't understand why they were bad yet. She just knew the adults didn't like them.

"Oh, okay!"

The pup listened intently with a widespread grin. She wanted to keep asking him questions! A sideway glance cast towards home made her rethink such. She'd been out here long enough for the adults to notice. "Yeah it is! My family would know, they love me!" She boasted with a proud puff of her chest. Then she stood up, grabbed her deer leg, and muffled, "Better get home!" The girl turned to trot away, leaving the mysterious wolf alone again.

EUNA EXIT unless stopped.

One Kiss away from Killing

BACK OFF, I'LL TAKE YOU ON, HEADSTRONG TAKE ON ANYONE