Secret Woodlands Try

For @Duckweed <3

Things had been slow in Secret Woodlands. At least, slower than usual. With the deaths of Nina and Belladonna weighing heavily on everyone's mind, it was hard to think that life would just bounce back to normal, and it hadn't. She was old enough now to understand how the pack worked and it did not take a healer to understand that her father was not feeling well. This worried Enia deeply. What if she lost him too? The Athesila pup picked up on quickly that her dad was not doing as much work around the pack. The shift in leadership was needed since he needed to heal, but it concerned her to know that he felt so bad that he needed to step down from his position. Nia imagined that the change was not easy for Duckweed either. The man had just lost his mother and the dark girl could not comprehend how she would even deal with her mother's death. She looked up to her mother so much and painful tugs at her heart occurred whenever she even thought about it. While she was not particularly close with Duckweed, she did feel the obligation to see him and see if he needed anything. Enia did not want him to feel lonely. She certainly did not want him looking the way he did the first day he returned from his trip without Belladonna. With this in mind, Enia set out to find the man, her nose close to the snowy ground. It was harder finding others with the white sticking to the ground and she almost resented it. The snow, however, provided a worthy playmate for when she was bored, so Enia found a certain soft spot for it. After what felt like hours, the Athesila finally grabbed onto something that resembled Duckweed's scent. Excited by this, a smile formed on the girl's lips, knowing that she needed to get a move on if she was going to find him. She pushed forward, light brown eyes wide open just in case she could find anything. When the scent started getting stronger, Enia barked out to alert him, if he could hear her, that she was nearby.

Keeping himself busy had, for a time, been what kept the boy sane, kept him grounded, kept him distracted from thinking of all the terrible things that haunted him. That he let haunt him. Then the boy had grown into a man, if a stunted, thin, wispy one, and while he still fished with the same dedication, it had become less and less out of a need for distraction. It just became what he did, how he gave himself purpose. A positive thing. It had helped him to grow, to feel the very earliest seeds of confidence take root in his soul, to believe that he had a worthwhile place in this pack.

These were the things he tried to remind himself of every day since @Miccah and @Aideen had asked him this impossible thing, but he had not been able to agree only for himself. It had been for love of them, for the pack which looked after him, which strove to understand him, for his love of them in return. It felt different to his mother, it always would, but... it was love, all the same.

And as he sat safely within the territory, carefully pulling apart the largest fish he had managed to catch all season, his ears caught onto the sound of one of his beloved voices and he turned obligingly, but could not yet see the form of the smallest Athesila child - she must just have been nearby, looking for him. "Ennie?"

Even as she stumbled forward, Duckweed's voice in response was all the encouragement she needed to push forward. Giggling triumphantly, the dark girl trotted through the thickets, light brown eyes gleaming in victory. Ever since her Grandma's death, Enia and her siblings had stuck mostly to themselves. She knew that the others were grieving too and they should not have to do it alone, it was the worst feeling. When she finally caught a glimpse of the off-white fur, only a slightly different color than the snow on the ground. She bounded forward, nose wrinkling at the smell of fish but instantly drew forward at the size. A smile grew on the girl's face, gaze going back to the man. Her voice was light when she spoke to him, a giggle forming on her lips, “Hey, Duckie! That's a big one ya got there.” The little girl's tail wagged enthusiastically. The Athesila pup imagined that with everything happening, he was going through a hard time too. Maybe she could make him feel better and give him a distraction! Peering down at the fish in speculation and then back up at the man, she spoke timidly, “Is fishing hard?” The girl waited patiently for the man, knowing that he was usually not the most social.

When he saw her sweet smiling face appear, the surge of love which accompanied it did almost as much to soothe him as the menial but comforting act of preparing his fish. She was possibly the sweetest of the three, though Cinaed came close - funny how both of the black-furred children would take after their gigantic father's gentle ways, whereas Flair and her mother shared a rather different kind of fire. Not that Duck was quite sure where the little firecracker got her gumption from, but that was beside the point... Hearing Enia's greeting and compliment, the runt glancing briefly down at his sizable catch, a smile lightly touched his maw.

"Yes and n-no," he replied, unsure if she was here for some ulterior motive or really just for the company. His loss had been made no secret, and amongst everything else to be afraid of, the children treating him differently ranked very highly, but all three of them were more considerate than that. To look at them and see pity in their eyes would have been the hardest thing of all. "Do you w-want to, want to try?"

Enia was certainly pleased with herself when she saw a small smile form on Duckweed's lips. The little girl hoped that he was happy but would not dare to ask him such a thing. Brown eyes narrowed in confusion at his answer, her head tilting slightly to look at him. That doesn't make any sense. The Athesila girl had never heard anyone claim that something could be yes and no. When the man offered her something that she couldn't refuse, Enia's eyes grew wide in excitment, her rump moving side to side because her tail was wagging so fast. Light brown eyes crinkled in happiness as she nodded enthusiastically. Cinaed and Flair will be sooo jealous. She wanted to be considerate to her pack mate though, her family member, and spoke softly, “I mean, I would like that very much, if you're not too busy?” The youngest daughter was smart enough now to realize that Duckweed had taken over for her father while he was ill and she sometimes wondered if it was hard on the man. The dark girl could never imagine losing her mother, it would be devastating and just the thought brought her pain. Pushing that thought out of her mind, she focused back on Duckweed, wanting to enjoy the day with just the two of them.