what's a goon to a goblin
Pyrrhic strutted through the woods with his head held high and his tail arched over his back like a sword. Him and Aureus had left the Abraxas caravan to pee and then decided to do a little exploring. Somewhere along the line Aureas had up and disappeared on him, but Pyrrhic wasn't particularly worried. No, he was quite content to wander the forest in search of new and exciting things. He thought he had a pretty good idea of how to get back to the caravan and he had no doubt his brother, wherever he was, did too. Until this point Pyrrhic had never been beyond the pack's borders so he was eager to stretch his wings and get a good look at the outside world. So far he was enjoying it. It felt nice to stand straight and tall before the world; to be unguarded, exposed, and to still feel the strength of the fallen god in his veins. The boy frowned up at a familiar looking tree. Hadn't he just passed this one? He studied the odd bend in one of its massive branches - the very thing that had stood out to him the first time he'd walked by. His confused expression turned to dismay as realization hit him. He was walking in circles. "Pyrrhic" "Benkos" |
It had been a long journey, moving from Eastern Boreas to the southern continent. He was weary, and tired, and although he desperately wanted to stop and rest he couldn’t. He had caught the scent of an unfamiliar pack earlier that morning and felt a touch of hope grace him. This far south they were unlikely to be involved with his father’s family. He had been considering the best way to go about approaching them, when a pup of all things wandered past him, strutting confidently before he disappeared into the woods. He wondered if the cub’s parents were anywhere nearby, or perhaps had passed him without him realizing only to see the pup reappear again and pause, staring questioningly at the tree.
“Um…Little boy? Are you lost?” He asked, although in truth the boy was anything but little, he couldn’t be more than a handful of months old but he was already nearly as large as Rain. Not that there was much to be said there. He was quite small compared to his father, although judging by his grandfather and the gigantic wolves that had been his uncles, aunts and cousins his father was far from the largest to roam Boreas.
speaking Thinking You |
Pyrrhc nosed around the base of the tree in search of - yep, there it was, - his scent. He had been here before. Well, that was just peachy. He'd been confident in his ability to find his way back to the group, but if he couldn't even walk a simple straight line, could he really find his way back? “Um…Little boy? Are you lost?” "Oh!" Pyrrhic jumped and spun to face the stranger. In an instant he realized his mistake and did his best to recover, to appear nonchalant, as if he hadn't just about jumped out of his skin. "Um...no, of course not." Him, lost? What an absurd idea. He was totally fine...probably. At first glance he'd thought the stranger was around his age, but after recovering from his fright Pyrrhic noted the boy's sharper features. Pups his age tended to have rounder faces and wonky proportions. Even though the stranger was pup-sized he looked more like a grown up than a pup. Hoping to draw the stranger's attention away from his predicament, Pyrrhic flipped Rain's question around. "Are you lost?" "Pyrrhic" "Benkos" |
He opened his mouth to say “no” then considered the question then considered the question. He knew where he was, and what he had traveled so far south for but his world had changed from one extreme to the next in the short first year of his life. Now he was left with nothing. No family, no pack to come home to, no father to sooth his weary soul.
He gave a short, high bark of laughter. “In a sense I suppose.” He answered cryptically and shook his head. “My sense of direction isn’t the best, but if you were lost I could help you find your way.” He supplied before the pup had time to consider his initial statement. “Buuut if you’re not lost, I guess I could just go on my way.” He said, every bit insincere as he made a show of slowly turning and pacing away.
speaking Thinking You |
Pyrrhic frowned after Rain as the older boy pretended to walk away. He didn't want him to leave, but he also didn't want to admit that he was lost. The idea of being alone wasn't terribly scary, but if he got to pick, he certainly wouldn't pick being alone again. His ears pricked forward as an idea came to him. "Well..." he said slowly. "If I'm not lost and you are, maybe you should stay with me." To his own ears the idea sounded pretty good. Quickly, he added, "Just until you're not lost anymore, I mean." It struck him as a very reasonable offer. He got to save face and the older boy - who had kind of said he was lost, had he not? - got to do a good deed. "Pyrrhic" "Benkos" |
“Deal.” He said with a soft smile and flicked his tail playfully. “But just out of curiosity, where exactly were you heading before you found me?” He asked, keeping a slight if not pleasing smile on his lips. His father may have been proud but he had never been as arrogant as the young boy. To Rain it was oddly comforting in a way he couldn’t exactly place.
The boy smelled of pack but the pack scent wasn’t immediately detectable in the woods. Whoever the boy’s family was they hadn’t claimed the woods as their territory. A relief for him if only because it meant that when he found the boy’s family they might not feel particularly apt to maim him for trespassing.
speaking Thinking You |
Pyrrhic struggled to hide his relief as the older boy agreed to the arrangement he'd proposed. Even though he felt he could manage it, he really didn't want to be alone. He was also quite pleased that he'd successfully salvaged the situation. If the older boy had continued on his way Pyrrhic would have had to wrestle with his pride. Caving and admitting he needed help would have been a blow to his dignity and being left alone? Well, the ways that that could go wrong were too numerous to count. "Good," he said happily as he moved to stand beside Rain in anticipation of "leading" him out of the woods. "To a castle in the north." That was where the new pack was going to be. He was really excited to see it, too. The way his dad had described it made it sound like the best place to live ever. It occurred to him suddenly that he didn't know the older boy's name. "Hey, what's your name? And what are you doing out here, anyway? This is a very dangerous place," he chastised. Unbeknownst to Rain, Pyrrhic was parroting something his father had told him not that long again. He'd been cautioned against wandering away from the caravan and warned about the nature of these woods. Clearly he should have listened better. "Pyrrhic" "Benkos" |
Pyrrhic gets a treat!
Though he hadn't been so lucky in getting lost, he was grateful to have found someone to help guide him home. Hopefully luck was on his side from here on out. Pyrrhic gains 16 gems!
Rain gets a treat!
Empathy is one of the defining traits of a truly successful healer, some might say. Rain displays a great amount of empathy when he decides to help Pyrrhic find his way back home, even playing along with him and letting the boy pretend that he is helping Rain home. Rain can claim +5 healing points for helping a stranger!
Rain knew, more from intuition than experience that the best way to lead the boy would be to convince him that their course would be his idea and that the direction the headed in had been his idea all along.
“Well, if you wanted to head North, I think the best way to go would be past that tree.” He said, gesturing to a moss covered tree beside them with his paw. If the boy’s family was headed North chances were they would run into them long before they reached the castle. Rain had seen castles before when he and his father had been traveling, he had marveled at the structures and wondered what sort of creature had the strength and intelligence to shape and place stones at their will.
He was snapped from his thoughts by the boy’s question and he couldn’t help but feel a soft laugh rise from the back of his throat that was faintly touched with bitterness. “My name is Rain, and if you saw where I came from you wouldn’t think these woods were all that dangerous.” He said his answer once again cryptic and esoteric. He wasn’t sure how he could describe his grandfather’s pack in a way that the child could comprehend.
speaking Thinking You |
Dutifully Pyrrhic swung his head around to look where Rain was pointing. He was glad the older boy had pointed out the right direction because otherwise he wouldn't have had a clue which direction to take. "Yeah," Pyrrhic said with a happy, decisive nod. "That's where I was going to go." He began to walk confidently in the direction Rain had directed him but stopped once Rain's statement registered. Pyrrhic shot him a quizzical look. "Why's that?" After a beat he began to move forward again. They could walk and talk at the same time. Honestly he was having a hard time believing that Rain came from a more dangerous place. If his father had made a point to tell him that the forest was dangerous than no doubt it was exceptionally dangerous. "Pyrrhic" "Benkos" |
He couldn’t help but smile at the boy’s curiosity, he was silent while he puzzled out where to begin and what to say then he decided he would start with what was obvious. “We lived on a mountain full of molten rock, it would quake and spew smoke often, and sometimes shoot embers into the sky.” It had been a terrifying prospect at the time and he had promptly chosen to stay on the maw when he first saw it as a result. “My grandfather said demons lived inside it, and they were supposed to sacrifice wolves to appease them.” He realized that he had started on a subject he meant to avoid then promptly changed the subject.
“You know, it might be a good idea if we head to the left now.” He said hastily, eyeing the natural bend in the path ahead of them that would surely bring them back to where they started. He wondered if he could tell the boy what his grandfather had told them of their eyes and what they meant; that they were vessels for demons, and that he in particular was supposedly home for two. He decided that unless he was asked he wouldn’t bring it up.
speaking Thinking You |
Pyrrhic's eyes lit up upon learning where Rain was from. It sounded like a really cool place! He'd happily live on a mountain like that. Whenever someone was bad to his family they could just chuck them into the molten rock. No fuss, no muss, just boom, punishment delivered. Perhaps he'd ask his dad if they could live on a mountain like that some day. "That's so cool!" he said at last. "I think I wanna live someplace like that some day so I can roast all of my enemies." Wait, it was time to turn left now? Shoot, how had he missed that? The forest was very confusing. "Oh yeah," he said after a beat. "I forgot to tell you we were gonna turn here." "Pyrrhic" "Benkos" |
He couldn’t help but smile at the boy’s ignorance. He was sure he would be singing a much different tune if he was the one that would be thrown into the hell mouth. He decided it would be best to change the subject, at least to keep the boy talking as they walked to keep him calm. Not that he was in any way frightened, on the contrary he never lost his exuberant confidence, not even when the path became more weather beaten and worn.
speaking Thinking You |