Thorn was loving this autumn weather and just the joy of exploring the world all around him.  Why had mom and dad waited forever to take them out here?  All the time holed up, growing up in their room, they could have been out here!  Not that they had been kept protectively in the room any longer than other pups but Thorn didn’t know that part.  He also had no realistic idea of the dangers that could come to a small pup alone.

This time he had found a new friend, apparently, they were related.  Relationships were good and all but what really was important was if Kite was fun to explore with.  “Have you learned the best thing about this ‘fake autumn’ yet?”  Thorn asked as he looked up at the sky and a stray orange leaf floating along the breeze.  “The best part is leaf piles.  Our garden does great at collecting them.  You pile all these leaves together then have a race to see who jumps in it first.  You sink into the pile and scatter a bunch about.”

The weather was great, the smells were pleasant and if bees or butterflies landed on the nose it tickled but leaf pile jumping was obviously the best part.

"Thorn Carpathius"

Kite trotted alongside Thorn, her cat on her other side. She walked with confidence, despite the annoying sunlight that forced her to wear her eye mask. The thick material protecting her from the pain. “No?” she said, her voice a question as he asked if she knew the best part of the autumn. She raised her head, sniffing the air. “Are there lots of leaves around right now?” she asked, forced to use the mostly-stranger as her eyes.

Was he suggesting they play that game now? She would have to pace the distance and touch the leaf pile to know where they were, running blindly could be scary, but sometimes it could be fun, too. And maybe the leaf pile would be a softer landing then she could usually expect. “Do you think this funny autumn messed with the life cycle of some of the animals? Like, the ones that would hibernate?” she’d heard a little about hibernating creatures. Digging into a dark cave and sleeping away the winter sounded rather boring.


"Kite"

Thorn glanced at Ky curiously, once again finding the eye mask thing really odd.  “Uh, no?”  He stalled in his trek for a moment before continuing on. “Are you sure it’d be all that bad to take that mask off?  The sun isn’t that bright ya know.  It’s pretty out here, maybe it's worth taking a look?”  Thorn shrugged, a motion he imagined she’d not notice, “we can make a leaf pile later and I’ll let you know when it's time to leap.”

“Hibernate?” Thorn questioned the word he didn’t recall hearing before.  Had anyone said it?  The young wolf’s brows furrowed.  He was learning a lot of new things every day so it wasn’t impossible.  “I know things have been affected and lots of stuff is different.  It’s colder if you go outside the autumn areas so I guess so?” Thorn didn’t want to sound so much like a little kid to his older companion.  A whole season older felt like a lifetime at this moment.

“I think there are more prey about than before.” Thorn had heard someone mention that before so he repeated the fact, hopefully sounding more intelligent with that bit.  “What do you think?”

"Thorn Carpathius"

Kite grimaced and glared in his general direction. “If you wanna see me scream and fall to my knees, you could just say so” she said, her voice getting a little sullen. “Even a little bit of sunlight is like being stabbed by a hundred bees. Right on my eyes.” she told him, her voice a little grumpy. She wished she could see the pretty scene he was talking about. His words were like salt on her existence. Yeah, she was crippled. Rub it in. Maybe Thorn would see her like Azure did, a waste of space and good air.

She was glad to change the subject, and nodded her head. “It's when animals eat lots of food, and then sleep over the winter when hunting is more scarce” she said. She probably got it right, but she wasn’t totally sure. “More prey is good, so maybe it will effect the things that want to sleep, since they can eat more food?” she suggested, trying to sound wise. Like she knew what she was talking about.


"Kite"

Of any reaction Thorn could have expected of his question the boy hadn’t expected to hear her talk about screaming and fall to her knees.  Thorn glanced up to the sun curiously then back at Ky wondering how the sun could be that bad for anyone.  It was obvious it upset her so he wouldn’t ask about her taking it off again but one thing did intrigue her comment.

“Well, sorry then.” Irritation a how he should of known any of it but then he brushed it away to the part that made him curious, “are you sure though?  I mean not about it hurting, I got that and it sucks.  How do you know if it compares to being stung by a hundred bees?  You ever been stung that many times before?  Upset a bee nest?  I hear there are a whole lot of bees in them and that the stings hurt.” How else would she know to compare?  If so hundred bees stinging you could make you drop to your knees and scream.  They were such tiny things though!

The subject turned to hibernation, Thorn soaking in this new information.  “That sounds really boring.  So many things to do outside.  Too much to miss out if you sleep a whole season.” Thorn glanced around at all there was to see that the other wolf was missing out on.  “Well, there are leaves out here.  Um, wait, stop for a second.”  While she waited Thorn ran ahead a bit to grab about eight leaves in his mouth and raced back to her.

Thorn set the leaves in a tiny pile, then stood just a stride in front of them, “Ok, now come straight to me. its basically a whole lot of grass out here, far as you can see.  Sky is blue but today, two tiny clouds. The leaves are orange and red shades.  Um, there are a few bees about, and little white butterflies, some  yellow and orange ones also.”  The boy did his best to describe what he could see even as he decided to try and help her feel what a tiny pile of leaves was like.

"Thorn Carpathius"

She nodded her head, accepting his apology. At least he had said it, some wolves didn’t. She wrinkled her nose as he asked how she knew and she didn’t really, she was guessing. And it sounded good. What happened when she looked at sunlight was awful and she struggled to find ways to explain it to people. Her bee one sounded good, but it didn’t seem like Thorn believed it.

“Yeah, I can’t imagine sleeping so much” she agreed. She froze when he told her to stop, not sure if it was something serious or not, but Lioness at her side gave her a murr, and rubbed her head against Kite’s leg. It was enough to tell Kite whatever was going on wasn’t serious.

She frowned, confused, but stepped forward when he told her to. Only to hear the crunch of the leaves underfoot and she grinned wide, stepping harder with her next step to hear the satisfying crunch. She giggled, lost in what she was doing and trotted forward - right into Thorn. She banged her head against his and sat down suddenly. “Oops” she said, knowing she’d made a mistake. She sat there at his paws a moment, however. And listened as he described the world around them. “I wish I could see it” she said with a soft sigh. She didn’t often admit that to people.

"Kite"

Thankfully the slightly younger pup could see Ky to realize at the last moment she was getting too close.  He didn’t have time to fully get out of the way but at least he had shifted his weight back, stumbling back several steps and shaking his head.

Still, Thorn was grinning despite that.  She had enjoyed his leaf pile!  Admittedly, it wasn’t much of a pile but it had been enough for her to get an idea of what it was like. His eyes went about, glancing between all the sights, his young inexperienced mind trying to think through what else he could offer.

“Wellllll,” Thorn drew out the word as an idea was starting to form in his mind.  He had something but was he making any mistakes? He didn’t think so! “I got an idea!” The words come out ecstatically.  The idea he could help her out with something that was likely a big deal to her made him happy if only a little.  “If the sun’s the problem we can take you into one of the guest rooms and close the curtains. I can grab whatever you want to see, not counting bees, and you can look at them there!”  It wasn’t the same as getting to see a sunny day but at least she’d get to see some of the things he was talking about.

“Nightime is ok, right?  Do you walk around with your eyes open at night?  If so I guess you’ve seen some of the basics of what I could show you.”  Moonlight was pretty dim, and sometimes the moon even hid so surely she’d been able to do that?  “Butterflies are just daytime I think so I bet you’d like to see one of them?  I found a sand dollar on the beach,” dad had told him what it was, “I can show you that too!  Just tell me what you want to look at.”

"Thorn Carpathius"

She stayed at his paws, lifting her nose up to the wind as she took in the plains and wondered how it would look under a blanket of night. Thorn suggested going into a guest room, and asked if she could walk around at night. “I can see at night. Do you think they’d let us into the plains after nightfall?” she asked. It would be way better if she could do that.

Then she’d know a lot of what she was missing out on. “I wouldn’t mind seeing a butterfly. Maybe you could catch one for me?” dead or alive didn’t really matter much.


"Speech"

Would the adults let the two pups wander about out here at night? “Probably not.” Thorn shrugged, “but I wanted to now when thinking of what I should grab to take to a room to show you” The boy realized shrugging had to of been pointless a moment later.  His gaze swept around the terrain.  “That means some things are pointless.  No grass or rocks, stuff like that.”

When she mentioned a butterfly the boy nodded quickly, “sure, but I think I need to go back home first.  If I bite it I’ll probably crush it.  I need something to catch it and carry it back in.” Even as Thorn said it he was trying to figure out what would do the job. “Anyway, I’ll figure something out.  So give me an hour and we’ll meet in the most northern guest room.  I’ll close the curtains and make sure the fireplace is out and then I’ll show off whatever treasures I catch.” Thorn eyed another bee and reminded himself that wouldn't work well.  Well, unless he did just catch it in something but if it got lose it might be mad?  Maybe there were even things in the castle his new friend would like to see? This was going to take a lot of thought.

"Thorn Carpathius"