Round Stone Crest hotdog

ooc: @Kova, although of course anybody else is welcome to pop along, too, since this is the pack thread. Calanthe is more or less sunning herself near the den entrance - not really on top of it, but within view of it.

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It had been two weeks, now, since Calanthe had finally cast off her time wandering the wilds and come to Round Stone Crest as the pack's newest member. Her time here could be visibly noted: She stood more sturdily now, and although she was still skinny, neither her ribs nor her spine stood out noticeably through her fur. Even the thin patches where her pelt had been scorched away were beginning to grow back in again, and the shock and loneliness with which she had greeted her new pack mates was wearing away little by little, making way for a tentative friendliness - though she still preferred solitude when she became overwhelmed by all of the changes she had once again been forced to rapidly adapt to.

She was feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment, too, so she had quietly found a sunny patch near the den to lay and sun herself for a moment. Calanthe was smart enough to know to enjoy these quiet, reflective moments; soon enough she would be kept as busy as the rest of her pack, working to help them stay strong and safe - hopefully, as she had discussed with @Raela, as a Hunter.

Calanthe's inability to take on the Scout's role truly didn't bother her much. She had never been overly thrilled about inheriting the role from her mother, and even less thrilled to learn the role from her brother Ikenna, who had been a kind but overly gentle teacher. Despite the risk that she might turn out to be a poor fit, the chance to actually choose her path was an invigorating notion.

But she couldn't begin to learn until she was better, and while that couldn't be too very much longer now... She frowned down at her skinny sides and her long legs. Curse her body for being so lithe! She hardly even remembered what "healthy" looked like on her, but she hoped it would mean more obvious muscle - or at least a more believable threat to the surrounding wildlife.

She sighed and turned her face to the sun, eyes closed against the blinding light it cast. Moping about it now wouldn't help - and it was too nice and warm to bother with moping, anyway.

(This post was last modified: Sep 08, 2015, 02:31 AM by Sahalie.)

The young male had been patrolling the border with Gent until only a little while ago. The dark man had become much easier to work with as time went on, and Kova felt that they had a mutual respect around each other now. The silver hued youth had found that Gent knew many things about surviving in the wilderness with and without a pack at your back. Wanting to know all he could, Kova made sure to listen to the alpha male and ask whatever questions came to his mind.

However Gent had dismissed Kova for the rest of the day only asking him to check on his siblings before relaxing. Kova had done just that, looking all over for his younger siblings who now liked to wander the territory. He found Draven first, near a hollowed out stump playing with a dead lizard of some kind. Once the young male was herded to the den Kova then searched for the other two pups. He found Marianna and Kino arguing over who got to be it n a game of tag. After a few minutes of playing tag with them Kova then brought them back to the den as well. Unfortunately Draven had disappeared again, which caused Kova to growl as a headache began to throb at his silver cranium. He then went to look for Draven again and found the child with Raela. Glad that his brothers and sister were accounted for Kova had then decided to make his way to a pack cache. He spent some time gnawing on a deer leg there until the sun moved across the sky.

As the day went by Kova found himself getting up and heading back to the den again. He was greeted by the scent and sight of a new wolf. Slowing his pace a little so that he could investigate her scent before actually greeting her, the gray prince sniffed at the air. Her feminine scent told him that she was a year older than him, and thus his superior. Flicking his ears back to the sides of his head to look more calm, Kova then began to pad forward with his tail wagging. Calanthe's scent was mixed with Raela and Gent's which meant that she should not be a threat to the pups since she was officially of the pack. Still he would keep an eye on her around the den that his siblings frequented.

  “Hello.” Kova greeted her before pausing in the sunshine. The rays of sun felt nice on his coat as he tipped his head to one side curiously.

Calanthe's head turned towards the newcomer, her eyes blinking a few times to clear the dazzle the sun had left even through her eyelids. His scent told her this was a younger wolf, though not so young as any of the puppies. That narrowed it down a little while she waited for her vision to clear again - which it did, a few seconds later. Ah, that was... Kova. Yes, that name definitely seemed to fit with the wolf in front of her. Calanthe smiled and said, "Hello." Then, because it seemed rather awkward to lay around without saying something else, she added, "I'm glad it's so nice out today. It feels good after the chillier weather we had a few days ago."

Yep, she had just resorted to talking about the weather like some bony old ex-Warrior. Oh well; it seemed an innocent, neutral icebreaker, at least. And she had managed to say the first complete sentence in their... conversation? Exchange? In any event, that was definite progress - or so she told herself in an attempt to soothe her own frayed nerves. It had been two weeks here. Didn't she have anything at all better to talk about than the blasted weather?

Not that the weather wasn't very important, of course. Especially when it was sunny; it wouldn't do to ignore such warm, sunny weather like last time. That would only spell disaster. She gave her mane a slight shake and looked idly about, not really keeping an eye out for danger so much as simply enjoying her surroundings (although with the pups' den nearby, she supposed keeping an eye out just in case didn't hurt, either.)

Kova shrugged his shoulders as the female replied. When she spoke about the weather he simply huffed before laying himself down about a foot or so away from her. He yawned then looked up at the sky. It was a nice day out, and he had been so busy that Kova hadn't realized the weather changing around him. Fall was coming closer and closer, as was evident in the earliest trees beginning to turn a golden yellow.  He was stunned into silence at that revelation. Kova had been around for two summers now. When did that happen? He still remembered romping around the blackberry patches eating the last of the ripe ones with his sister. Now where was he, on some distant mountain while his sister was still missing. These thoughts greatly depressed the boy as he lay his head upon his front paws and leaned towards Calanthe without realizing it. He had totally ruined the chance to speak with the other girl by thinking about his sister. Now All Kova could think to do was ask the she wolf her name.

“You are new huh? So what's your name? I'm Kova, Kova Lagina” He spoke gently. His voice was not loud or enthusiastic, but it was etched with sadness that could barely be noted within it. Not unless you had known the boy for a long time would a wolf note the tone in his voice as sadness. He had been getting quite good at being clam and neutral with his face, body, and voice much like his father had once been.

Calanthe's immediate reaction to Kova's huff was knee-jerk worry. Was he put off by her lack of an actual topic of discussion? Perhaps he was wondering how such an unimaginative hairball had managed to impress Gent enough to be allowed to join the pack now - and, honestly, it wasn't as though she didn't wonder the same thing. She couldn't even talk to her pack mates; how would she ever be of any use to them--?

Fortunately Kova spoke up again when he did, drawing her from her momentary fretting by introducing himself in a soft, calm voice - and, good, this was indeed Kova and Calanthe hadn't gotten the wrong name. She smiled tentatively as he asked her for her own name; this wasn't the first time she'd been asked, although she doubted it would sting any less this time than it did any other time. Choosing an epithet to mark an extraordinary life event was turning out to have some rather unexpected downsides.

"My name is Calanthe Quickfoot." There. Refusing to hesitate between the names made the sting a little bit less... Oh, but he probably deserved to know the story behind Quickfoot. If little Kino had been able to guess it wasn't a family name, surely Kova would, as well. "Quickfoot is... an epithet I chose for myself. To honor my escape from the fire." Which she hoped he wouldn't ask about, though she wouldn't refuse to explain if he asked her to. But surely there were better things to discuss. Such as... well, such as... er...

Well, there were better things to discuss. She just needed to think of one. Unless he did first. Which would be fine, since she had already shown initiative by speaking the first complete sentence of their... interaction. She could only hope he didn't think she was too flighty to put up with and leave...

He nodded slowly as Calanthe introduced herself. She used a word for her last name that he didn't understand, and this of course pricked his interest. She was obviously a well educated she wolf to use such a strange word while speaking to him.  “What does epithet mean?” He asked while allowing Noble's face to be swallowed by the shadows of his mind. Kova had practically given up on his sister ever coming back after his father was killed. There was simply no way she was still alive, and it wasn't right for him to dwell on her memory.

After listening for an answer, and possibly receiving it, Kova then yawned before picking his head back up off of his paws. His deep blue gaze turned back to Calanthe's lean form still somewhat malnourished from being a loner. He could sympathize with her on that, having been lost for quite some time in these now familiar lands. Without his knowledge of fishing Kova probably would have been done in by starvation. He was lucky and forever grateful to his family for teaching him basic hunting skills even before he turned a year old. Otherwise he might be in Noble's position, lost, and probably dead from lack of something to eat.

“So what kind of role do you have in the pack?” He asked while glancing towards her but not at her. As an adult she was the higher rank than he was, and Kova was ever lawful. Then he looked back towards the den wondering where his siblings had disappeared to. They were probably just as adventurous, or maybe even more so than he and Noble had been. A flare of worry ached inside his heart. Kova didn't want them to get hurt, but by now they should know the rules and boundaries right?

Kova's question drew Calanthe up short, and the pale woman's ears twitched twice in surprise. That was certainly not a question about the fire, at least... but how did he not know what an epithet was? Then again, hadn't it taken her a while to understand how family names work? All the same, though, she hadn't expected to have to explain an epithet to anybody... where did she even start?

"An epithet is... it's like a nickname, I suppose." It sounded strange to call it that - Cal was a nickname. Ken was a nickname. Nicknames were shortenings; epithets were not, at least, they hadn't been in Spirit's Gambol. "But for us - for my former pack--" she ignored the little zing at their mention as well as she could, "--it took the place of family names. Fathers and mothers didn't pass on their second names to their children, the way your parents do for you. Each of us had to earn our second name through some extraordinary life event."

None too keen on sounding like a know-it-all, the pale woman cleared her throat self-consciously before adding, "It's - it was - something of a badge of honor. One of my brothers, for example--" Work through the pain, Calanthe, it's water soaked through the earth, "--had the epithet Jaggedmaw, because of an injury he received helping two of our pack mates bring down a caribou. My sister was called Greatleap after she knocked another of our pack mates out of the way of falling rocks."

She had to stop now, before the ground before her paws started swimming any more than it already was. It hurt. It hurt a great deal. This was exactly why she should keep their memories shoved far, far into the back of her mind when she was awake and had the power to do so. She couldn't talk about her pack anymore, least of all... she couldn't talk about them. She couldn't think about them. Not now.

She gave her mane a hard shake, then dragged herself back to the present in time to hear Kova's next question. This one wouldn't hurt to answer. This one wouldn't break her heart into even tinier pieces than it was already in.

"I don't... have a role in the pack, yet," she finally admitted. "I've been waiting to get back into shape enough to start my defensive training. After that, though... I think I might like to try and earn a role as the pack's Hunter, if I can." She glanced over at Kova and asked, "What about you? Do you have a role yet?"

Kova noted how Calanthe's ears twitched and flicked one of his own hoping to prompt her in answering him. He was awarded with a short description on the word epithet. Then she paused for just a moment allowing Kova to tilt his head one way curiously. She then spoke about her former pack which brought forth more interest form the pale silver boy. She went on to explain how in her pack the second name was only given after a wolf earned it some way or another.  “That's strange.” Kova mumbles while keeping an ear on Calanthe to hear her speak clearly. She then began to tell the gray male about her brother who had the epithet of Jaggedmaw, and her sister who held the name of Greatleap. Kova logged the names into his head trying to remember them well for some reason. Maybe it was because of all those family tree lessons from his father, but whenever he heard a name Kova tried to make sure that he would always remember it.

He also noticed how bothered she seemed to be by something. Though the woman tried to shake it off and hide it, he now held a bit of worry for the young woman. Then she told him how she didn't have a role in the pack yet. He gave her a half smile at this, though secretly he still wanted to know more about her family. Kova had taken her unease as a hint that she didn't want to speak about them anymore. “Oh so you want to be a hunter? If you go out to hunt can I go with you? I like hunting, it's quite exciting when you are not two inches from being trampled to death..” He commented between her words too enthusiastic for his own good. Then she asked if he had a role yet prompting Kova to shake his head no.  

“I'm in training to be a teacher. That means I have to learn about all of the roles to help out other pack mates when they ask for help.” Kova answered brightly. He hoped that he could be a good teacher, and that his siblings liked him trying to help them out. “I already know a bit about surviving on my own, scouting, and guarding; though I haven't put my knowledge of scouting or guarding to use yet. I'm a good fisher, and I like to go out whenever I can when a hunt happens.” Kova boasted trying to impress the woman while smiling to himself.

ooc: This post has 365 words and 1993 characters. Every day of the (non-leap)year AND my birth year!

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Calanthe latched onto Kova's words, smiling at the enthusiasm the boy had in comparison to her own afebrile explanation moments before. It was easier to let herself come back to the present by focusing on such an energetic wolf - and it helped that what he was saying wasn't intimidating or vital to her survival. Instead his cheerful commentary made her relax again, even bringing a smile to her face as she said, "I'd be happy to have you along on a hunt. Although I doubt I'll be going after any difficult game for another few days yet," she added, casting a disdainful look down at her sides. "But once I start tackling bigger game than rabbits and mice, I'll remember to ask you to come along."

Although, she reflected privately, she would be sure not to bring him on any hunts that might turn into fishing expeditions. She didn't mind other wolves taking fish, and in a tough enough situation would take a fish or two as well to help the pack - but she despised the taste and texture of fish meat, and in any event the creatures were such lovely, peaceful things to watch. She didn't want to dodge any questions that might arise if Kova wound up trying to convince her to fish with him.

Ignoring that, she had to admit her curiosity was piqued when he mentioned training to become a teacher - as though it was a distinct role carried out only by some, just like being a Hunter or a Scout. That was an odd concept for the pale wolf; surely, all of a pack's wolves could teach? And surely it was easier to have specialized teachers, rather than training one wolf to have some knowledge in all areas? How did that one wolf keep his knowledge straight in his own mind?

"You said you're training to become a teacher?" she asked, tilting her head. "Is it... difficult? The training, that is. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by everything you have to learn?" She certainly would, in Kova's place. She already felt a bit overwhelmed just thinking of the work she needed to do to become a Hunter.

Kova shook his silver flecked ruff before letting a yawn escape from his dark gray muzzle. His muzzle then stretched into a smile as Calanthe answered with an invitation for him to go on a hunt with her. Of course this would only happen once she was back on her paws, but Kova was happy nonetheless. He growled contentedly as time began to pass where they didn't speak. The gray youth was glad just to have company nearer to his age. Not that his siblings weren't close in age to him, but they were harder for him to relate to right now. Datura was the only other wolf close to Kova in age and the young Lagina had found the young male to be pleasant company. Right now though Calanthe had his attention, for she was like a new and mysterious toy that he had yet to figure out. He wanted to know if he would like her or not, or if this new friend would run off and leave the pack like Firefly and so many others had. 

When she asked about whether he had problems with learning to be a teacher Kova could only smile and shake his head no. “Father used to say that I learn faster than a deer can run. Gent teaches me stuff and I just remember it. It's not that hard really. ” He said truthfully not understanding that it was usually a tad bit harder for wolves to memorize things like he did. The boy then felt comfortable enough to lay himself all the way down and roll onto his back to get comfortable. Normally this was a submissive posture, but Kova also just liked to sleep in this position. Though he wasn't nodding off just yet, the young male was getting ready for a nap.

“I actually think its harder to learn like.. when I do things. Like when I went on the hunting trips with the pack. I knew the things in my head, but my legs and body didn't know what to do. ” Kova tipped his head to one side glancing to Calanthe as he spoke. His tongue lolled from his mouth over his nose as the gray male let his tail wag.

(This post was last modified: Sep 08, 2015, 02:36 AM by Kova.)