Balthier was troubled by his feelings being here in The Hallows and with his mother. He didn't mind the travel, in fact he enjoyed it. He was an adventurous young boy and was eager to see what the world had to show him, even if it was all covered in snow and ice and not at it's full potential right now. What he had an issue with was his mother. He wasn't exactly sure how to feel about her other than the natural need to want her affection and protect her as his family. But the emotions weren't the same he felt for his father, his siblings, or Poem and her family. It made him a little sad to feel that way, he knew he shouldn't have. But he couldn't help it. His mother felt like a stranger to him, even while he tried to remember all the memories he shared with her. She had never treated them badly other than leaving them to live here in The Hallows, so there was really no harsh memories for him to go by when he looked at her. Just a strong tension of what he had missed out on in her absence. He preferred the courtyard of the castle, mostly because of the traffic that ran through it. He sat up against a wall by a western staircase. The boy wanted and needed friends, but he felt like as long as he was here, even not acknowledged, the amount of wolves that came through the area made him feel close to them. There wasn't a place like this in Abaven, he usually had to make advances to others to get anyone's attention and he wasn't really good at that. Here he could sit in the courtyard and basically trap the other wolves into meeting him. Maybe that seemed kind of wrong, but he was getting desperate for the attention of others. Walk "Talk" Think

"Yes, exactly. And what would you use juniper for?"

"Inflammatory things like arthritis usually... And for congestion and..." Gwyn paused for a moment to think as she walked out of the castle and into the courtyard, a little frown pulling at her lips as she dug through her memories. Eilwen was perched on her shoulders, quizzing her on her herb lessons at Gwyn's request. Any moment that she wasn't studying or practicing her skills felt like a waste even though she ended up feeling tired all the time because of it. Her expression brightened and she finally added, "Oh! Urinary tract issues, right?"

The pale raven gave a pleased ruffle of her feathers and nodded, replying. "Yes, very good. And where can you find juniper?"

"They grow on shrubs, right? On mountains."

"Any sort of higher altitude, but yes, typically mountains. Honestly, miss Gwynevere, I don't know why you have me quizzing you so incessantly. You know all of this stuff forwards and backwards by now."

Gwyn's ears flicked dismissively as she started making her way toward the greenhouse on the other side of the castle. She had to be the very, very best healer she could possibly be. Her brothers kept getting hurt and she found herself personally responsible for their well being. She knew there were a bunch of healers in The Hallows, but Artorias and Rudyard were her siblings. She had to care for them the same way they protected her. What if they needed her and she suddenly forgot something really important? No, she couldn't let that happen.

"Gwynevere" | "Eilwen"

As Balthier sat in the corner of the courtyard, he couldn't help but feel a little useless. Sitting here waiting for someone to notice him, perhaps that was a bit desperate. Still as those walked by, he felt social even when not being acknowledged. His mother was usually busy doing healer things, or he preferred his other siblings to spend time with her. He felt they needed it more than himself. And his father at least went out to help provide for them as visitors, it was only polite to do so especially while the winter was becoming deadly to all life. The sound of chatting caught his attention more than anything, and he watched as a young girl nearly his age moved past him and across the court yard, talking to a bird who was perched on her shoulders. What he noticed more was the talk of juniper, or rather herbs and healing. And he took it as an opportunity to relate in conversation. He stood and maybe a little too eagerly at first starting to move towards her. His pace slowed as he grew closer, but now he was feeling stupid for doing so. Maybe he should have just stayed in the corner like a weirdo instead, he wasn't all that great with words anyway. When he found himself before her, he was at a loss of words. But soon enough it would come out, "My mother's a healer." Was that... he didn't know what he was doing. Making friends was hard, in Abaven or here, it didn't matter. "Uh . . . My name's Balthier." Maybe that would have been a better start, but it was too late to turn back time now. Walk "Talk" Think

It was really only the sound of crunching snow that alerted her to the boy’s approach as he came up to her. If it hadn’t been for the ever present wintery coating on the ground she probably would have missed him entirely until he spoke unless Eilwen had alerted her. She brought her lavender and mint marbled gaze up to look at the black and gold boy, slowing to a stop as she looked at the stranger curiously.

She knew that they had some guests staying in the pack right now so it wasn’t necessarily surprising that he smelled like he was from another pack. His markings were far more striking than she was used to and it made him stand out boldly against the otherwise very monochromatic world around them. Gwyn blinked with a bit of confusion as he stood there for a moment in silence before telling her simply that his mother was a healer. It wasn’t too hard to put two and two together that he had heard them talk about herbs so that’s what had prompted the connection, though the way he went about it was a bit disjointed.

Either way, she smiled kindly as he introduced himself and her tail wagged gently as she went through some of the “polite” motions she had picked up on. She always wanted to be nice to others, but socializing wasn’t entirely her strong suit - though it didn’t seem like it was his either. ”It’s nice to meet you, Balthier. I’m Gwynevere… But I usually go by Gwyn. This is Eilwen,” she informed him, giving a little nod up at the white raven currently perched on her shoulder when she introduced her companion. ”A pleasure,” Eilwen chimed in, flaring out her wings as she gave him a small bow.

"Gwynevere" | "Eilwen"

His eyes moved to the girl's bird that also introduced herself, he kept a gentle grin on his maw which wasn't unusual for him. "Sorry, I don't have a shorter name to go by." He chuckled lightly to her statement. But honestly he liked his more royal-type name. His mother named him, not that he was really giving her any recognition. But it did set him out from his other siblings. He carried the gold markings of his father, but was given a name relative to his mother's raising. "I uh-" He was getting a little better through the conversation, but still wasn't exactly on the same wavelength of this socialization thing. Maybe he should have been more adamant about meeting others back in Abaven. "Do you know of anything fun to do around the castle? I assume you've been here for well... ever." He couldn't imagine a wolf his age being through different lives. He could only assume she was born here in The Hallows like he was in Abaven. "I'm not sure of any good places to go, and I'm not all that great at making friends either." He chuckled again with his little joke. But maybe that was a little clear with his uneasy spoken behavior. He may have appeared pretty nervous, but he also played it off kind of cool too. He wanted to make friends, but he didn't really care much about embarrassing himself or what others thought of him. Walk "Talk" Think

She chuckled softly and shrugged when he mentioned that he didn't have a shorter name to go by. "That's alright. I like Balthier." The only reason she really had a nickname was because Gwynevere pretty easily shortened into Gwyn and because Gwynevere had been a lot of name to say when she was a very young pup. When he brought up the question of what there was to do around the castle she hummed thoughtfully for a moment. She didn't really think what she thought of as "fun" would really suit him that well, considering he had led this whole conversation with the fact that his mother was a healer and not himself. Considering that she thought running through drills of different kinds of herbs and their uses as "fun"... she didn't really know what he might like. However, when he added that he didn't really know where to go and wasn't good at making friends, she sympathized with the boy and immediately felt like she just had to take him under her wing - even though he really wasn't all that much younger than herself.

"We've been here for a while now, but not forever," she told him with a smile. "We used to live up in Boreas too and moved down here during the winter. As for stuff that would be fun..." she hummed again, glancing around the courtyard. "Well... How about I just show you around? Then maybe you can tell me what you're interested in!" Yes, that seemed like a good compromise. She nodded toward the greenhouse she had been walking toward and took a few steps in that direction. "This is our greenhouse. Mister Ulric and Miss Aranea built it... Miss Aranea is your mother, right?" She only made the assumption because she knew the guests that were in the castle had some kind of relation to the healer so she had to guess he was probably her son. She didn't linger on the question long though, soon adding, "There's not much planted in it yet though because the winter just keeps going on and on so we haven't been able to get any plants to put in there yet. But soon we can I hope!" It would definitely be nice to not have to go out exploring every single time she needed some basic herbs.

Turning her attention away from the green house, she led him across the courtyard to the big training area that stretched out in a rectangle across a section of the courtyard. The space was outlined with rocks and an old shed stood beside it. A couple of abandoned training dummies stood in the middle of the space, marking the spots where someone was last training. "This is the training grounds for fighting that Mister Ulric set up as well. I don't really use it, but most of my siblings do whenever the weather is good enough. Though I think Artorias might train inside mostly right now. There's a lot of big rooms in the castle that have plenty of space for that sort of thing." She felt a bit like she was just trying to fill the silence with words since she didn't know much about fighting and didn't much like it, but it was easier than just waving a paw at an empty space without having anything to say about it.

She paused for a moment, glancing in his direction again. "Maybe I can show you around inside a bit? There's a tower that gets you a really good view of everything, but it's really high up so there's a lot of stairs to climb," she warned, but she personally thought it was worth the effort if he was interested.

"Gwynevere" | "Eilwen"

He barely remembered a time his mother lived at the falls, he always remembered her living so far away out here and hardly ever visiting. So when Gwyn had mentioned, it poked a hole in his heart for that moment in time he had lost. He shook it off though, looking back to her as she offered to take him around the castle to see if there would be anything specific he found interest in. "Sure." He nodded and eagerly went to follow her as she started the stroll. They first came to a green house that apparently his mother had built. He hadn't made any assumptions about this "mister Ulric" though, he didn't really have a reason to. It wasn't like he knew how a relationship should work given the fact that his mother and father had been so distant now a days. "Uh- yeah that's her." He confirmed, and listened intently to what she had to say. As she had been quizzing about herbs, it seemed she found joy in the thought of planting herbs in the green house. And it only made him happy to see her in such away. He had only just met her, but he wanted to surround himself in a facade of happiness, or because his own happiness may have been a facade. They moved on a short distance to the training center, and he again still watched her and looked around as she explained and toured the area. She was talking much more than himself which was so normal for him he wouldn't notice. Of course he didn't mind her talking so much at all, he was mostly naive and held no judgment towards others. So following her around and listening to her didn't feel like a chore to him, even at such a young age. He hadn't necessarily found an interest in fighting, but he knew he wanted to protect his family so the idea of learning how to defend himself and those he loved stuck at the most forefront of his mind. She asked if he wanted to go to the tower and overlook the grounds and whatever else there was to see. He wouldn't object, he was one that saw more beauty in things than not at least. He had the heart of his father. "Sure, that sounds cool." He gave her a smile and motioned for her to lead the way with the raise of his paw. He could handle some stairs, it was good for his strength building or something of the like. While they made their way to the tower, he quietly started, "Sorry I don't talk so much." His tone held a bit of a joke in it, but he couldn't help but feel he was taking up her time. She could after all be quizzing her brain as she had been before he interrupted her. "Thanks for showing me around, I bet I'm not all that fun to be around." He was still joking but also serious. He knew he had a hard time making friends while he was so introverted, quiet, and awkward. But he didn't want to be alone for the rest of his life. He could be optimistic though, he didn't think he would be alone forever but he wanted to know others now. Walk "Talk" Think