Sunlight streamed down as the sun shifted downward in the afternoon. It was a hot spring day that spoke of the coming of summer and Harbringr hoped they'd be moved before the heat of summer set in on this place. In the mean time it was an excellent day to build a little sundial. Hari hoped for it to be a prototype for a sundial he would build when Ashen once again found itself a permanent home.

At the moment Harbringr was busying himself scraping rocks and dirt off a flat surface of stone he'd found while Ari laid out the chiseling tools. There was a nice little hole in the center that would just fit a stick if he could find the right one. They might need to use a little clay to get the hole to fit perfectly but it would work well for the prototype the pair was hoping to build. Costanza stayed in the shade of the den and rested. The barn owl had no desire to be out in this heat like her compatriots.

There was absolutely nothing to do in this stupid barren rocky land. The more she grew familiar with it, the more Pesto hated it. The adults were always busy, and her siblings were always annoying. When she crossed by Hari and his tinkering, the princess veered in to complain to something with a face. "My sisters and brother suck" She insisted without a greeting, comfortably moving up into his business and placing her forepaws upon Hari's flat stone to inspect it absentmindedly. "When are they gonna grow up and stop talking about God all the time?" Pesto leaned down to press her nose against the hole, then licked it. Hm, nothing special about this rock. Uncle Hari always messed with weird useless items though, and Pesto loved him enough to accept his eccentric hobbies without question. She turned so she could sit upon the stone, looking up at him expectantly.  "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

Harbringr and Ari were focused on the task at hand when Pesto walked over in a huff. He smiled at seeing his niece and in amusement at the struggles of childhood. He knew how siblings could be. She mentioned this 'god' that Archon always seemed to prattle on about. Ah yes, that. He'd rather hoped that ridiculous ideology had died with their father but apparently he'd already been making an impression with it.

"They're still going on about that are they? That's a shame, but we can't control our siblings, only our reactions to them. I hope your mother is teaching you about more than that when it comes to the mystic realms." Harbringr himself didn't believe in any 'god' as others often did. There was Nature in its entire essence. The force that gave life and reclaimed it but he did not consider it to have a face or persona in the way may often gave to their gods. He hadn't talked with his sister much about religion and he could not quite say where she stood, he only hoped she hadn't swallowed too much of Archon's swill while he was alive.

Hari chuckled as she licked at the hole in the earth. "How's it taste?"

He carefully picked up the stick he'd selected and eyed the hole for a moment before tipping his head to the side and attempting to force the stick into the hole. After a couple of embarrassing misses and a smart ass remark from Ari he succeeded. The monkey quickly took some clay and added it to the base of the stick to secure it. As the sun beat down on it and dried the clay it would solidify. Now all they needed to do was mark time.

Hari was usually much more helpful then this, and Pesto groaned at his typical adult-like response about controlling their feelings towards other peoples actions. Her eyes rolled skywards. "When did you get boring?" She accused him. "Ari is more fun then that." Though his response wasn't what she was looking for, she couldn't help but be pleased that he did not share the family's beliefs. He even threw her mother into the blame, and for that Pestilence decided she'd forgive him for his temporary dullness. "She still believes in it, and in Dad." The pup responded simply, dragging her paw around the rock sadly.  Harbringr was moving a stick towards where she sat upon the stone, and then wedged it into the hole. As soon as his clay was pasted around it Pestilence shuffled to look, and placed her paw atop it's tip to wiggle it absentmindedly while it dried and she talked. "I don't want to live here anymore, I want to go back home. How long until I'll be allowed to go by myself?" She asked, giving him a sad frown while he worked.  "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

Harbringr chuckled at the girls reply as he reached out with a single claw to etch four marks in the stone that would divide the dial into four quadrants. Four seemed like enough for now. He didn't really need to tell exact time, only separate out the main portions of the day. "Don't worry, I've never been able to do it myself. I find a good bite to the ass of the perpetrators is what makes me feel better." Of course he doubted Deathbelle would want him telling her daughter this. She was raising princes and princesses, not heathens and Harbringr tended to stray toward the later. Ari chuckled at the girls words as well, catching Harbringr's eye and puffing out his chest. Hari clicked his tongue and tapped at the stone to which the monkey begrudgingly grabbed his chisel and began to create deeper marks in the stone where the older wolf had indicated.

"She still believes in it, and in Dad."

Hari couldn't help himself, he winced. Neither he nor Hannibal had been overly thrilled with her new religion, especially as it resolved around one mortal man who could very well have been pulling an elaborate con to get at a woman well above his station. At least that was how Harbringr saw it. He hated to see Deathbelle falling for it hook line and sinker but he knew there was little her could do about it. Telling her to stop would only make her dig in her heels all the more. He just hoped she would not start forcing her new religion on the whole pack. He loved his sister but he would not pretend to worship something he did not believe in.

He sighed. "I'd rather hoped she let it go when Archon died. I thought surely nothing would show how mortal Archon was then his own mortality. A corpse is a corpse. A spirit is a spirit. Neither makes one a god in the after life." Harbringr did find himself glad that Pesto was holding her own against this indoctrination though it put him in a difficult spot with his sister. Hopefully, they could all find a way to coexist with each other in this matter. Though Harbringr secretly hoped Belle would come to her senses but what could he really say to someone dealing with this grief? It embarrassed him. He knew her pain. He'd been there but he hadn't the slightest idea what to say. After all, he'd work through his own grief alone. Hari only knew how to work through it solo.

"I don't want to live here anymore, I want to go back home. How long until I'll be allowed to go by myself?"

He glanced back at Pesto who was wiggling the stick. Hari dipped his paws into more clay and patted the clay around the cracks before placing a paw on either side of the stick to stabilize it. "Preach! If we stay here during the summer we are going to cook alive. However, I'm sure the Empress will move us. There's no way she'd keep the pack in such a barren place during the hottest season." Though in truth they could move back to their old territory now. He was not sure yet why they hadn't but perhaps she was waiting to see that the volcano really was done.

"How has your training been going?"

Pestilence let herself smile again as he spoke out about his own advice, believing a bite on the butt to be the most effective way of dealing with annoying wolves. "I can't bite Venom on the butt." She stated matter-of-factly, wondering if there were any safe places upon her quilled sister to bite upon. Hari's monkey moved in to begin marking the stone, and Pesto briefly considered biting the macaque's butt as practice. She decided against it quickly enough however and instead lifted a paw to gently push against the monkey's rear to direct it out of her sightline so she'd not be too tempted. "They're all stupid." The princess returned, continuing the conversation on their family's ridiculous new beliefs. His mention of her father's corpse caused the girl to flinch, but she did her best to hide the reaction. "Yeah." Her soft agreement came, and she lapsed into a few moments of silence following it. The conversation shifted towards her training, and Pestilence took hold of the topic to get her mind off the picture of Archon's ashes settled at the bottom of the volcano. "It's going okay, I'm working a lot every day." [/b]She told him proudly. "I told mom I'm going to be the next Warlord, leave the nonsense roles to my sisters." Plague however reached high in his ambitions as well, aiming to be the Empress' right hand one day. And Venom... Venom was to be heir. The thought made her kind of mad, but at the same time she didn't want to do diplomacy and meetings and crap either. She just wanted to fight, and fight well. "Will you be my tutor, Uncle Hari?" She asked suddenly, looking up at him. "But not any of their tutors. Just mine." "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

Harbringr eyed the sun dial for a moment before deciding that the prototype was indeed done. As if reading his mind, Ari brought out the next project they had for the day, what would soon become the beginnings of a map. The macaque presented the thin roll of hide and Hari unrolled it, placing his paws on either side as Ari took a bone scraper and began thinking the drying hide. As the monkey worked, Hari turned his focus back to Pestilence.

"I'm sure they have some strengths, they're just a bit gullible when it comes to religious swill." He disagreed with Deathbelle's beliefs in Archon but he would never consider her stupid. His ears perked up at the mention of her desire to be a Warlord. Ah, so that's what she was aspiring to? "Is this the Warlord of the Armada or of Ashen? At the moment we don't have a warlord rank but tell me more about what it is you want to do." At least as far as he knew there was no such rank. Maybe she meant to say Daimyo?

"I'd be more than happy to teach you Pesto and you are getting to the age where you need to be assigned a mentor. However, I can't promise I won't help your siblings if they ask. We want all of Ashen's warriors to be strong and skilled fighters. Besides. It might do them good to spend time with other wolves who are not so religiously inclined." Not that he would try to persuade them one way or another but he did feel it was important to know that Ashen was a place of mixed beliefs. Not all the wolves believed Archon to be a god or some such nonsense.

Pestilence thought hard on what Uncle Harbringr had said, remembering her lessons and how she'd studied Ashen's hierarchy as a younger pup when she was deciding what path she'd want to walk. She didn't like to assume that her uncle was wrong, but felt the need to defend herself. "No! I don't want anything to do with the Armada." The pup said quickly. They were a lower branch of the empire, and Pestilence wanted greatness. "I remember when dad was around.." Her voice grew soft, almost a whisper. "When he was a Daimyo, and Sirius was one too. And Uncle Hannibal I think. They were all Daimyo but had second names too. Sirius was our warlord, dad was the counsel I think. And Uncle Hannibal the ambassador. Sirius just stole his title and took it with him to lead his thing." She didn't want to think too hard on her mother's ex-slave and how he'd grown in the ranks. It didn't feel right to her, though she didn't say it out loud. "So I guess with Sirius gone, that'd make you the warlord right? I don't know. Maybe mom changed the whole thing when dad.." She clamped her mouth back shut to cut off her words. "Or maybe I just was wrong." Neither train of thought made her happy to think of, and Pestilence shook her head to clear her mind. She returned to his next words, willing herself to forget her father's death and how it'd changed the pack. Pestilence tried to smile at him, to ignore her feelings inside. "I do want you to teach me." She confirmed. "I wish you didn't have to teach them, though. How am I supposed to get an edge on anyone when we all have good teachers?" To the pup it wasn't a matter of ensuring all of Ashen was strong, only her own future. When she was a fierce warrior the others wouldn't need to be strong fighters, because she'd protect them. "They're all hopeless anyways, they'll never stop believing even if they spent all their time with you. They think they've seen dad." "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

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Harbringr examined his final scraping of the hide. Yea, this looked good enough for a test run anyway. A sketch before the final, nicer and hopefully much more permanent final project. He grinned as Pesto stated she didn't want anything to do with the Armada. She then went on to explain the links and Harbringr thought on her words before chuckling. "Ack, you're right! I'd forgotten. I would have to talk with Deathbelle to see if that is still the case. You really are a sharp-minded young wolf."

He felt something brush his paws and looked down to see Costanza standing there with a goose feather in her beak. "Ah, thank you, love." It was a little unnerving how quiet owls were. He hadn't even heard her fly in. "No problem," she purred before flying back off to finish her meal. Ari moved over and took the feather, and began shaping it into a quill. He snipped at tip of it, carefully creating a trough for the ink.

While his companions worked, Harbringr turned his attention to his niece. "Hard work and practice, that's how. Besides, it is to the advantage of the whole empire for all our young warriors to be skilled. When you're the next warlord don't you want a bunch of badasses to lead into battle?"

He paused and stared at Pestilence for a moment as she mentioned that her siblings had seen their dad. Hmm… he sat back and thought for a moment. "They say they saw him? What do you mean, like in a dream? That's rare but its not unheard of for spirits to visit their loved ones in dreams. Costanza and I had talked several times before the dark period where her voice left me." That was a terrible time but her spirit was with him now in his owl companion.

Harbringr complimented her sharp-wit, and then continued on explaining the need for strong Ashen warriors. Pestilence rolled her eyes skyward, catching sight of the owl as she flew in. She watched as Harbringr addressed the companion, and then spoke again when she'd flown away. Somehow it was acceptable to her that his love was reincarnated in another species, and Pestilence had no interest in interrupting their conversations. "Why would I want to lead bad asses into battle?" She scoffed. "They'll just get in my way." At first Pestilence expected her uncle to be on her side with the whole 'spirits weren't real' thing, Costanza aside. When he mentioned that Archon's visit might have been real, her ears flattened and tears stung her eyes. "I don't know, I didn't ask." The pup murmured softly, trying to recall if they'd said he visited in a dream or during a ritual. After a moment she sniffed hard, and then looked up at her uncle tearfully. "if it's true, why did he visit them and not me?" The princess hadn't had any dreams where her father talked to her, just nightmares of his doom in the volcano. "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

[/b]

"Wars are fought by many and no matter how strong you are fighting off eight opponents is just not possible. Besides, maybe you want your badasses to take care of the weaklings in a rival pack while you take on the alpha? Surely you don't want those lower foreign pack wolves getting in your way then?" Ari tapped on his shoulder and Harbringr took a moment to examine the quill. Ah, yes, good. He nodded and turned his attention back to Pestilence while are wandered over to a deer hide bundle. The monkey unwrapped it and pulled out a small clay pot full of raspberry juice. A sneaky fly attempted to make a get away but with a swift move Ari caught it and swallowed it.

Harbringr realized his mistake too late but there was no going back. He very much believed in the spirit realm though he could see now that it lead to some painful considerations. Why hadn't Archon visited Pesto? He thought for a moment and sighed. "I don't know. Maybe he's just slow." Course, that didn't really explain why it was taking him so long. Even if he showed up tonight what was the hold up. Spiritual disturbances didn't really explain it if he could get through the veil to the others. "I assume this plays into his delusions of being a 'god'. He probably expects you to do something to earn his visit. Like praying to him or something, which is bullshit. Being a spirit doesn't making one a god. We all become spirits when we die. I would've thought death would've brought this realization to him… I'm so sorry, Pesto. I wish I had an answer for you."

Another tap on his shoulder caught his attention and he looked down. While he'd been talking Ari had dipped the pen into the raspberry juice and had drawn a rough map of their location. It wasn't bad but the juice did seem to be attracting more bugs than he'd like. He didn't give the monkey any indication of his thoughts and instead looked back to Pestilence. She was his main concern now. They could discuss various kinds of ink at a later date and after the raspberry juice dried they would try rolling the hide up and seeing if it smeared or stuck strangely.

Harbringr's response did nothing to lift her spirits, even when he mentioned her fighting an alpha in this hypothetical situation. She shrugged sadly. "Yeah okay, I guess other people can learn stuff too." She relented, pained by his latter words. While he was trying to make her feel better it definitely wasn't helping, and her heart only hurt more the more he continued to talk. So her dad didn't think she was worthy of him anymore? The pup sniffed, lifting a paw to swipe at her wet eyes. "I think they were just imagining it." She insisted sharply, trying desperately to convince herself that their talk about seeing Archon was all lies. "Spirits don't exist, there's nothing after death." Her voice was low and sad, and while she spoke Pesto only pictured her recurring nightmare of her father's body falling into the volcano, his paws bloody from trying to grapple onto the sharp rocks and the nameless wolf who she was told followed him into death. After a moment she shook her head clear, sighing.   Costanza caught her eye in the distance, and Pestilence's eyes slid shut as she realized her carelessness. "'Cept 'Stanza." She clarified softly. "She can be real, but only her because she's special." It felt wrong to insinuate her dad was less-than-special, but he'd not come to visit her in her dreams. Pestilence was understandably bitter to have been skipped over, and only more upset if it was true and her father was waiting for a prayer that would never come. "Speech" "Thinking" "You."

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