Ψ · Hiding in the rocks, below the dirt,

@Rosemary @Archon

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 The boy was safe, but for how long?

 Meissa moved through the brush, heading directly towards Rosemary's den, where she had left Archon to be watched by the blind healer while she and Flynn "finished their rounds," or more accurately, discussed what was to be done. Everything was chaotic but she had something to talk to them about. Seeing how late it was, she was almost certain the boy was asleep.

 She didn't know how much time they had, with the way things were going. From what Flynn had said, it seemed like Celnes was on the verge of throwing him out on his rump and if it was up to Meissa, she would be following and she could not leave Archon without at least talking to him.

 Still, her fur burned. “Rosemary, you still awake?” she would call in softly, “Archon?” If he wanted to stay, she could not force him not to, but she had to at least give him the option. Plus, she wanted to ask Rosemary how much he knew.

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Rosemary was not much of a babysitter, but he felt rather friendly with Meissa. It didn’t seem like many others in the pack were babysitters, either. He instead assumed that because he was a knowledgeable healer, that it was probably smart enough to leave a pup with him. If anything turned south, he would be able to handle it, after all. So he had listened to her go to meet with who he assumed was probably her mate, as he watched their child.

When Archon was awake, Rosemary had started to randomly pull out different herbs, listing off their names and quick uses. Archon had so, so many questions, but Rosemary would cut him off each time with a short, ‘no, I am talking right now’, until the pup had finally fallen asleep. But it seemed the pup did have some interest in the herbs, but if the pup wanted that path, he’d teach the little guy later on.

Rosemary had settled down after cleaning up his den and started to drift off pretty fast. Sometime later, his blind eyes were opened as he heard his name whispered to him, and then the pup’s name. He gently got to his paws, trying to not wake the pups but probably failing. “You are back. Archon is fine.” Healthy, uninjured - a perfect result from babysitting.

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 Archon was still asleep, from what Meissa could tell. She inched into the den, checking around her before she was properly inside. “Thank you for watching him.” She said, genuine as ever. Still, this wasn't a pick up. Not yet, anyway.

 “Tell me, Rosemary - what do you know of the beliefs of Elkshire, of the Deorwine religion?” Her eyes studied his face, trying to read his red features in the dim light. Was he as dutiful as the rest? He hadn't been from the family, that much she knew. If he was a devout believer, she had to be careful not to let a word slip about the discomfort, the plan, lest he run to Celnes and tell her of their departure before they were ready to truly leave.

 These were dangerous waters she was treading and her only hope was that she was not swimming with a shark.

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Maybe the outsiders of Elkshire learned through being around fellow pack mates about how the pack functioned, but Rosemary had not been doing that. He was usually found in his den, or on select routes that he knew had herbs. There was little interaction with those around him. Rosemary only knew Meissa because had thistles stuck in her back at one point. So he lacked the knowledge of the customs here.

“I was not aware there was a religion.” Although, usually it mattered little to him. His home had served almost anyone, with a few rules. Rosemary would not hate someone for having some kind of belief in higher beings. But the tone Meissa spoke, he felt some kind of coldness take his body, some kind of tingling in his throat. His ears flicked to the den, and then he leaned in closer to Meissa.

“There is something wrong; tell me.” Something was bothering her, and he needed to know that his only friend was okay. Maybe whatever it was, they could deal with it.

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 She listened cautiously to his words, his intonations. He spoke of not knowing of a religion and she let out a sigh of relief. She had worried that the man before her had similar beliefs and this lit a glimmer of hope within her. He leaned in closer, asked more deeply of what she spoke, and she swallowed.

 “The religion of the Deorwine family - the ruling party within Elkshire... it is one of discrimination. They worship an elk they call the High Elk who has commanded that they disdain any wolf besides earthy tones of brown, tan, red. They believe any wolf with white within their fur to be some... proponent of sin? That they either had sinners in their lineage that they must atone for or that they will commit some sin? Pure white is never permitted, grays and blacks are distrusted.”

 She sucked on her teeth for a moment, “The crush I spoke of before? We are now paired,” She could not truthfully say they were mated as they had yet to do the deed. Truthfully, she just wasn't quite ready and thankfully, Flynn had been alright with that. “Flynn.”

 “If we have children, those children will likely be considered cursed by the pack. Could... could be sent away, I assume. I cannot stand for that - we plan to leave, to take Archon and go.” She would not implicate Tavra, not if this man did still turn out to believe in the queen's lies.

 Yet again she was faced with a twisting pain in her gut, the question unasked that she hoped would not be: Why did you stay this long if you were hated? The true fact was ugly. She was not faced with the brunt of the injury, only passing insults and mostly from those not even of their pack. Now that she had to think about her own future children, now that Flynn was growing confident and sick of maltreatment - it could not go on.

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+1 formation

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Rosemary tried to keep a calm demeanor, not wanting to get too worked up and possibly wake up the pup yet. From what Meissa was saying he decided it was not the kind of thing for a child to hear, not yet. With the way she spoke, Rosemary believed that she must be white, as well as her new taken mate. It was against his moral code to be petty over such things as color - not that he really understood that much about the subject - and if there was the chance of pups being in danger, all the worse.

There was no hiding his looks of disgust, and a little tsk that escaped him. Maybe no one had ever told him because it wouldn’t matter too much for him to know. If someone was white, he would never know. No one would blame him for being around those they deemed ‘sinners’ when he had no idea what they appeared to be. “I apologize.” Was the first thing he could muster to say. It was a lot to take in. Up to waking up in Elkshire, he had been raised to not discriminate against who he helped. This went against what he was raised to do.

“I understand.” He started off. “Where will you go? Who are you taking with you?” He hated asking questions, but this was too important to think about his wording. There was no way Rosemary could leave Elkshire on his own, but with others, he possibly could. He didn’t want to invite himself along for her and Flynn’s journey, but in good faith, he could not work in Elkshire any longer. He wondered if he had only been allowed to live in Elkshire because of his fur color, and it felt like a betrayal.

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^^

Zzzz..

Archon would have liked to say that he’d had a busy afternoon, but most of his questions had gone unanswered and were rudely interrupted with the same line. Over, and over, and over, and half the time - it hadn’t even been true!

Well fine then. He’d taken mild interest in the herbs and what nots, but he had even more interest in the red wolf with a funny name, and odd eyes. So he’d eventually curled up and went to sleep.

He had not stirred at the first calling of his name, but would eventually come to wake. Ears flickered and his tide-pod eyes fluttered open as he stared over at his caretakers, who looked like they were in the middle of a conversation. Archon was surprised and a little hurt to hear Rosie say something other than no i'm talking right now. So was it just Archon that he didn’t like talking to, then? That wasn’t very nice. How come he would talk to Mezza but not him?

His eyes would fall upon his legs, which were stained with color. Not white, but there were hints of light gray, and his toes were spotted black. His ears lowered. The nice lady from before thought he was distrusted? What did that mean? At least Mezza wasn’t going to leave him behind. That felt.. He didn’t know how that felt, but it made his heart beat a little faster.

He gave a soft whine, slowly walking over to them and sitting behind Mezza. “What is distroosted? That why you no talk to me?” Archon said, glaring beams at Rosemary. ^^

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 Her eyes on him, she didn't even notice Archon appear until she had already given her spiel. For a moment, she hoped the boy hadn't heard, but then it was obvious he had and her ears fell. She nuzzled the boy, pulling a paw around him to draw him close in a comforting embrace. He looked saddened and it broke her heart into a thousand pieces.

 “Rosemary is blind, Archon - he can't see what colours you have. The queen likes you because you're so brown, that's why she let me in too, despite the white on my back and tail.” And face, and throat, and all the rest. She cleared her throat, looking back to Rosemary and giving a moment in case he wanted to explain anything to the child. “Distrusted is... when you don't tell someone any secrets. What we're talking about right now is a secret.”

 He was already here, they couldn't shield him from it, not anymore.

 “We don't know yet. Tavra - ah,” she paused, clearing her throat. She hadn't meant to let the name slip, though she doubted Rosemary knew of her anyway. “She is planning to scout ahead while Flynn and I finish up business here. It has to be a distance from here, I fear ambitious allies may instead become enemies before too many seasons pass.” She looked at Rosemary, then at the walls of plants around him. “We are open to more who might want to come, but we aren't trying to steal the queen's numbers.”

 “You are likely safe of that hatred here, your coat is fully red, a tone the queen seems to prefer.” She tapped her claws on the ground in thought. “I don't know exactly when we will leave, but soon.” Nor did she know of any true plans. If there were enough of them, what, would they become a pack of their own? Simply settle somewhere, hidden away from the eyes of the Temperate?

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Rosemary flicked his ears toward the pup, hearing him wake up. It felt like bad timing, but Meissa seemed to easily take it in stride. While Archon accused him of distrusting him, Meissa explained. Apparently, the pup wasn’t white, and Meissa wasn’t all white either. “I do not know colors.” He said shortly, hoping that it would help the kid understand better. Sometimes they could process that he was blind but saying little things he couldn’t see really hit it home with them.

The adults went back to talking, and Rosemary decided if Meissa was to be honest like this in front of the kid, he would not try to sugarcoat anything he said, either. He knew that Elkshire had allies, and he hoped that they would not see this as some act of betrayal, but he also knew they would not be the ones to tell the story. If the queen was angry about their escape, then it was easy to think she would spread the word to her allies, and then it could bring down hellfire.

“I can go with Tavra, search for a valuable place to settle down.” He offered. If a pack was to survive, they needed to have the medical supplies to heal their wounds. “I will not partake in such ill practices the queen spreads.” He would not leave them to hurt, not take all the herbs. If he had the time, he would prepare his den to possibly be taken over by another healer. His ears flicked towards the pup - this was not how he should be raised; even if Rosemary was a dick to the little guy, he did want what was best for him.

He knew his time in Elkshire was coming to an end.

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+1 formation

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^^

The rude man did not know colors because he was blind. What an odd thing to be! This would not excuse him from being hurtful with his questions, but Archon would curl into his Mezza’s embrace with a little whimper, until she captured his attention with the word secret.

His ears perked at her as he glanced over her, as if regarding her colors for the first time. The white on her face, then some on her shoulders, that draped down to her tail, and even took over the other tail - Archon was still very jealous over her two tails - and then some on her back feets, but not the front feets.

“I like the way you look. Uh, you look, um… good.” Archon said with the nod of his head, deciding that “good” was the term that was the same thing as ‘handsome,’ but for girls. “Blind guy no talk to me while you wuz gone, Mezza. Now he do?” Archon grunted, showing his own distrust over him with the shake of his coat.

“Peahaps quaaaeen no like that you look... gooder than her.” Archon said with another, very firm nod.

^^
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 Archon still seemed offended and she raised a brow when he said that Rosemary didn't talk to him. Well, she hadn't expected the man to be overly excited to chat with a child. She was just grateful that he had agreed to watch the pup while she and Flynn were out. Despite her attempts to keep things under wraps, well, it seemed the pup knew now, so what use was hiding it?

 Despite loving children, she had no idea how to sugar coat things.

 She enjoyed the boy's compliments and gave him a peck atop his head in thanks. “Maybe so, maybe so.” Despite how he might think he was a teenager, to her he was a child and meant nothing unbecoming by the statements. Nevertheless, she grinned, but then looked back at Rosemary. “If you want to come, I have no problems with it.” She gave a smile though she knew he couldn't see it. “It'll be good to have you along.”

 “Flynn, Archon, and I leave by daybreak - I can come get you in the morning if you'd prefer to rest, or you can catch up with Tavra's scent when you're ready.” She didn't want to rush the man and knew that with the time, he would likely want to rest. She knew she needed it and Archon did too.

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For a moment, the healer thought about cleaning up his den, making sure he left everything so that the other healers could use whatever he had. But Rosemary was already a clean man, having kept his den tidy at all times. The most were he may have a herb or two drying, but that wasn’t something to fret over. The blind man mulled over his thoughts for a moment. Either way, he would be leaving, that was a fact.

“I will find Tavra. Make me walk in the direction she left, and I can catch up to her.” He didn’t need to really know her scent; if someone was heading out of the packland, then he needed to simply follow the scent of someone going far. The rest of Elkshire had decided to shield away, with the queen expecting. No one else was likely to be leaving. As soon as Meissa would get him in the right direction, he would set out.

ooc: sorry short but this can also be the ending of the thread

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