we contain multitudes

Having been home within The Hireath for the past week or so had, surprisingly, renewed the druid. Besides the fact that she was tailed everywhere she went by her parole officer Benry (and it was just easier to commit to one place than wander far and wide with a cat on her heels), she hadn't realized how she was running herself ragged by traipsing through the mountains and well into the frosted north. She was spry, but she could not run on fumes, so she took advantage of this opportunity to foster her roots, and get to know her packmates better.

Still, the wolves of Little Haven were elusive and the sinkhole within which they lived was large, and Olive found she tended to preoccupy herself with one of two pastimes: chatting with her new feline friend, and tending to medicine-making. Though the dank environment created a nice habitat for spores and mushrooms grew plentifully, Olive carefully avoided harvesting them, as she didn't want to buy more time on her parole sentence. In fact, this is what she thought about as she carefully nosed over a cluster of mushroom caps, looked around to see if Benry was nearby. Even though she strained her eyes to spy his form amongst their milieu, she couldn't; even still, she passed them over, humming a tiny tune that her mother used to sing to her as a child.

♬ " I need you; I need you, ohhh..." ♬

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^^Archon would have been blind not to notice that his little family within Little Haven was growing. There were faces and scents within the land that he did not recognise. He wondered, briefly, how many more wolves would join before they changed their names to Big Haven.

Archon spent most of his days minding his own business; taking notes of others from afar, collecting sticks -- only to be disappointed when those sticks were not his trusty Bam Bam -- and sun bathing. Sometimes, he could be found on his back, with stick in mouth, asleep or simply chasing his own tail.

He was, as far as he was concerned, the youngest member of Little Haven, and didn’t usually like to bother the adults; not since the blind man was rude to him, and Archon realized that perhaps all adults were sinfully rude. Not to mention the one time he tried to look past it, and he had found a zombie in the Meadow.

So today, while he was looking for Bam Bam and stick collecting - his theory was that if he collected ALL the sticks, Bam Bam would surely be found - he paused when he heard something he hadn’t heard before. It was a tune, which he could only describe as 'a howl but not.' Curiosity grabbed him, and Archon couldn’t help but to investigate, watching the singing woman from afar.

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Olive liked to think that, even if she didn't know the names and the faces and the personalities of her some of her packmates, she knew their scent. The air amongst The Hireath was dense with the scent of wolf, and Olive knew exactly how many of them there were. She was able to tell who was recently here, and who hadn't been here in several days. Olive knew who slept where, and if they slept alone. She knew who was sick, who was pregnant, and who was hale. She knew almost everything about them, save their faces.

Olive stopped in her perusal of the cavern's walls, and blinked at herself. She really needed to get out of the house, didn't she?

As the woman lifted her head, she was able to see the shape of a wolf in the distance. Olive squinted her eyes against the dull light, trying to see if this was one of the pack member she knew — and it was with some small sense of surprise that she realized this wolf was not far off in the distance, he was simply an adolescent. "Hey there," the sylph greeted softly, daintily placing her front paws beside one another, waiting to see if he would come forth and engage her.

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^^It wasn’t often that the boy made time for adults. Even his most favorite of all the wolves seemed to have forgotten about him, or was just too busy with the life of an adult to pay him any attention. Archon found ways to pass the time, though, and that usually involved digging holes, or stick hunting.

When she spoke to him - and kindly at that - Archon’s interest with her grew. She was a small, petite thing; though pretty normal as far as wolves were concerned. He thought briefly to the couple that had brought him here for a moment. He slowly stepped forward, though nervously, as he tried not to get his hopes up. He had been plenty polite to Whatshisface, and the guy had gone out of his way to be mean to him,

“Hey there.” Archon called back, trying not to sound too nervous or too excited. “Whatcha.. doin’?”

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Half of Olive expected the boy to skitter off (if she hadn't met him up until now, perhaps there was a reason for it), but he didn't; instead he stepped forward, and in turn, a smile blossomed upon the woman's fine-spun maw. She found youths to be some of the most spirited and honest of wolfkind, and in many ways, Olive (and any other adult, really) tried to maintain their youthfulness with a vigor reserved for little else. The desire to be near young adults, pups, and babies sometimes outgrew her desire to be around adults, at times — Olive supposed this predisposition was what made her such a well-equipped midwife.

"Nothing important," Olive admitted freely, allowing her inhale-exhale to flare her nostril alongside a sort of ho-hum shrug of her shoulders. The woman looked him over, and even though he was absolutely adorable, decided to treat him as close to an adult as he would allow. "I'm Olive," she introduced, taking several steps forward and bowing her head in deference to another packmate. "Who are you?"

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^^Archon wasn’t positively sure what he was doing here, or with her, but here he was nonetheless. Not like he had much else to do, he supposed. He watched her with suspicious eyes that slightly narrowed up until she changed everything just by smiling at him. She had such a lovely smile, too, didn’t she?

Her name was Olive, and some part of him oddly wondered if it was short for Oliver, which had been his father’s name. And while it would normally be a weird name for a female, he was bitterly reminded of the weird-named fellow who had been not so nice to him. The female stepped forward, breaking his thoughts as he blinked up at her and lowered his body to the floor, with lowered ears.

“Oh, erm, I’m nobody.”

Or, at least, that’s what it felt like.

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If Olive had absolutely nothing else in this world, at least she had her bleeding heart. It was written in her very nature to be drawn towards things smaller and more helpless than she; didn't the Gods pity and help she, a mere mortal? Did she think herself better than the Gods, to not give charitably, and to feel most empathetically? Olive nodded demurely, teeth gritting behind a placid expression. "Sometimes I feel like that too," she shared, and didn't really expect him to respond to it. That wasn't why she said it.

The sylph got down, close to the earth, matching the boy. "So, Nobody, how long have you been around here?" Olive sported a sheepish grin at her small joke, unable to hide how funny she thought it to be.

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^^Archon watched her carefully, ears pressing forward as she spoke on a level that Archon understood. He felt like a ghost; he held no importance, no role; nothing. Meissa, the only people he knew, was busy and Archon couldn’t fault her for that.

Olive moved, and Archon flinched, ready to bolt as needed, but she lowered herself and not towards him. He watched her, ready for her to try to get him to tell her his name. Instead, she rolled with it. He giggled, allowing a smirk, though it disappeared quickly as it had come.

“From the beginning. Meissa found me in the forest and brought me here after I met the scary lady. Kinda been around ever since, trying to find Bam Bam. No luck, though. Got all the sticks in the world, but no Bam Bam… ” Archon sighed dramatically, looking into the distance, as if Bam Bam was a lover and not a broken antler.

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Olive nodded along attentively as she listened to the boy speak. Ah, the trivialities of youth! She could not help but be enthralled by his verbiage and the turns of his story, as well as the sound of his small laugh. Perhaps it was ultimately selfish of her, to use another's vigor and energy to bolster her own sense of wonder, but hey — looks like he had a story, and an identity, after all. It didn't sound like he was nobody to her.

"You've been around for longer than I have," the pale druid mentioned, not only to prove a small point, but because it was true. When Olive had met Meissa that fateful day, before Little Haven had existed, the soon-to-be Queen mentioned traveling with a small band of outlaws. She imagined the boy to be one of this gang, which procured no small amount of respect within the woman.

"Bam Bam is a stick?" she continued, asking a brief clarification question. "I have plenty of rocks, but no sticks..." Although she had been known to also collect sticks before. and herbs, and shells, and bugs, and feathers. All sorts of talismans, which she often had to leave behind whenever she eventually moved on from that home.

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^^Archon watched her carefully, comparing her to the blind man that he was determined to hate forever. This one let him talk, and seemed interested in things he had to say. Her cute face nodded as he spoke, and he felt like she was actually listening to him.

“Yeah! I-I guess I have been. How new are you, Olive?” He wondered, then, how many other new faces there were, that Archon didn’t know about. Though it didn’t matter; he didn’t need to know everyone. Just the nice ones were fine.

And then she asked about Bam Bam, and boy, that smile grew tenfold. “Yeah! He’s the bestest stick I’ve ever had! I carried hims everywhere, y’know? Like the bestest pal ever, and then one day, I woke up and he wasn’t there no more! Meissa was there, instead, and she said she didn’t steal him… but he’s been gone ever since. I’ve been trying to find another one, but all of the other sticks are weak and they break when I chew on them, so they’re not the same! Bam Bam was super duper strong, Olive. He didn’t break under my teeth, or if I stepped on him.” Archon leaned forward. “I think someone took him.”

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After the boy had told her his origin story, he asked about hers. Archon would be in luck, for the story of Olive's joining of Little Haven was fraught with danger and intrigue — good fodder for a story to tell a youngster who, for all intents and purposes, was likely very bored and lonely. So Olive crawled several inches closer, and leaned her fine-boned head closer in.

"I'll tell you a secret," she bade him, her green eyes looking from left, to right, as if someone might appear at that moment and blow their entire cover. "Meissa saved my life," olive then divulged, nodding her head to assure him of that fact's truth. "I had accidentally walked onto another pack's hunting grounds. They were most territorial — and you know what that usually means." Nothing good, Olive thought to herself, as she remembered how much the female had wanted to harm her. "But Meissa found me, and she knew the pack-wolf who, and she managed to sweet talk us right outta there." And thank the gods for it! If Meissa hadn't shown up when she did, Olive might now be a prisoner, or worse. "Then she told me of her plans to form Little Haven. She mentioned the group she was traveling with... I suppose that would include you, wouldn't it? So then, a couple months ago, I tracked you all down, and now I am here, having this conversation with you! Funny how things come full circle, isn't it?" The sylph couldn't help but punctuate her story with a smile and a laugh, as it truly was a funny, funny thing.

Then, as was fair, Olive listened to the boy belabor his missing stick situation. Oh, the good old days, when her biggest problems had been fighting with her brothers and procuring lost playthings! Still, Olive could empathize. She remembered feeling those losses as viscerally as she experienced any loss today, albeit more inconsequential. "I am sorry, it's so unfortunate to lose something you love deeply." She reached out one of her paws on the earth, wondering if he was the type to take comfort in physical touch. If so, he would probably react in kind — if not, then it was only a kind gesture. "I like chewing on bones, personally." She proffered, offering him an out. "I find them stronger than sticks, and they taste good! You might like it."

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^^Archon smiled up at Olive for a moment, though his eyes grew wide and he inched closer to hear this secret of hers, nodding his head along as he learned that Meissa had a habit of saving lives. He supposed in some way, she had saved his life, too.

But as he learned more details about her and Olive, his ears lowered; mostly because he knew what it meant when packs were mean like that - usually, bad things that frightened him.And then, he smiled, wagging his tail. Yes! That did include him!

Wouldn’t you know it, Bam Bam was actually a bone - but not that Archon would know the difference. A stick on the floor was a stick on the floor, bone or not. And since bones were usually located inside the body, Archon’s ears flattened and his hackles rose. Did that make her a wolf that ate other wolves? Was she… a bad guy?

“...oh.. ” Archon said, softly, looking around and slowly taking a few steps back. “Please don’t eat me for my bones, m-miss Olive.”

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For a sad moment, Olive watched as the pup's face contorted and he shuffled away from her — immediately, the woman began filing through the previous several moments, wondering which of her words could have struck him in such a way. However, the boy soon revealed himself, and Olive nodded in youthful understanding. "Now, that's a scary thought," she endorsed his reaction, but she hoped her amenable smile would tell him there was no chance of that, here. "It simply wouldn't be proper. You need your bones," she explained, hoping that this dear cub didn't truly believe he lived with cannibals.

"...but a deer, felled by a wound or by sickness? They no longer need their bones," Olive shrugged, suggesting it was no-big-deal, which is wasn't. As Olive had discussed with the horse the night of the new moon, that was an ungulate's lot in life.

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^^Archon blinked up at her and wondered if this was the end. Would she eat him for his bones? Was that how it worked? No, it would not seem so. At least, not in Olive’s case, and Archon watched her carefully, breathing out a sigh of relief.

His life with Olive was not in danger, and the child could relax, nodding his head and giving an awkward wag of his tail. “Oh. Right! I knew that. That was… a test! ” Actually, it wasn’t. He had been very serious, but he didn’t want to feel or look stupid or foolish, so if anyone asked, it was a test of… friendship! And she passed, so she got to be his cool friend now. See? See, it worked out just fine.

“I haven’t seen any deer here, though.. ” Archon sighed, casting a longingly glance into the mountains, where the deer lived and a deep sigh. “I wish I lived there.”

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Olive wasn't aware how lucky she was, having passed Archon's silent friendship test. He had already passed hers, though to her, the boy was still nameless. He glanced longingly towards the mountains to the west, the 'land of sticks,' and Olive wagged her tail because that was a very real desire that gripped her heart, as well. As a young pup, the shewolf couldn't be kept still — she left her natal family the moment she could, and never seemed to stop wandering.

Olive nodded, her gaze following his own in their thousand-yard stare. "I'm nowhere near an old woman yet, but I've traveled far and lived many places," she began, always enchanted by the innocence of youth and the fervor with which they did anything. Whatever it was that the boy (or any child) wanted, Olive would do her best to encourage him towards that thing. "There's absolutely no reason you can't live 'there,'" she explained, not wanting him to give up on dreams before he even realized he had them.

"The idea that we must stay where we are planted, and never move forward, is what keeps a lot of great wolves... small." Perhaps this ideology was beyond the chocolate-dipped boy, but she had a feeling he would innately understand.

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^^And somehow, despite having just told Olive that he had originally come from one place, it had never occurred to him that he could… go any other place he wanted. For some reason or another, he had assumed that once he was here, he was here forever. And as Olive spoke about traveling and how she had traveled far and wide, Archon’s eyes widened with excitement.

He turned his head to look at her with that same excitement, as if being told that he could have anything in the candy store. “For real?” He almost barked with excitement, and glanced from her to the mountain range, then back to her. And then, he nodded, as if making an internal decision - he stood, shook out his coat and turned to leave.

“Okay, bye! It’s time for an adventure!”

And off, he would attempt to go to the mountains.

On his own.

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and just as quickly as he came into her life, did the boy depart. Excitement over the prospect of one day leaving this place overtook him, which pleased the sylph of course, but he jumped up, bid her adieu and ran off seeking another adventure. This particular adventure with her, today, was through.

Olive giggled to herself and also took up from the dank, dirty floor, realizing that she hadn't yet got his name. Perhaps she'd ask Meissa, or — better yet — the woman might seek the boy out again to continue the search for Bam Bam. Either way, Olive was tired now, so she trotted lazily back to her bedchamber to curl up for a nap.

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