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After making the long journey across the lands, Pilot was amazed that his son could have done this trek by himself. Not only that, but Noah had also come to Shadowed Sun all the way from Twilight Vale. He knew both of them would grow up with courageous hearts and would become assets to whichever pack they decided to live with. Pilot couldn’t wait until his sons were older. Already they were learning so much.
He had come specifically for Naniko, though he also wanted to stop and visit Apollo. She had given him permission to visit any time he pleased, but he still always felt a bit awkward crossing over into their lands without calling for one of the leaders. As he reached the borders, he decided that perhaps he would call. His sons were older now, so they could always meet him at the edge. And even so, he had come for Naniko. He supposed it was proper etiquette; he called for her.
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Earlier in the day she'd considered going back to the human city. It'd be risky to travel so far when things were unsure with the coyotes, but she was having trouble keeping sights on the three boys that still lived in the lands. They'd given up trying to keep them in the house; boys would be boys, and these boys loved playing outside. But she really wanted to be able to keep track of them all...so she wanted to look for some binoculars.
It was pretty unlikely that she'd find any, but even if she didn't it wouldn't be a wasted trip. She and Deuce had found an herbal shop the last time they had gone, and she'd planted an entire garden from the stock that they had brought back. She hadn't seen the matron around the lands lately, but there were still little telltale signs that she was still there; sometimes she'd go out to the garden to find that the weeds had already been tended to.
At the howl her head lifted. She had told Kansas to howl for her if he found coyotes on the border, so that she could come and chase them away...but this didn't sound like Kansas' voice. It had a familiar sort of ring to it, though. The already-shifted female turned around, starting for the area from which the sound had originated. She approached, coming over a small knoll, raising a hand up in salutation. "Pilot! I didn't think I'd see you here!" It was a good thing, though. It was really nice to keep up with what everyone was doing.
She was a bit out of breath by the time she got to him, and she breathed heavily, shaking her head. "I've been out of energy lately, sorry. I think I've caught the flu, or a cold"
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He folded his hands behind his back as he waited, thinking about the language book he had been reading the other day. He tried to remember one of the phrases he had tried to teach himself, but couldn’t think of it. "Buona nuit," he breathed, trying to think of the phrase. But he realized that wasn’t quite right. He was mixing the languages. "Buona notte," he tried again – successfully this time. He glanced up hoping to see Naniko, but so far saw nothing.
His gaze fell to the ground and he let his hands drop from behind him, down to his sides. He traced a finger along the edge of the tattoo on his wrist, eye the lightening bolt and reminiscing about the times spent in Storm. Inferni had picked up here where they had left off in the old lands. Maybe Pilot shouldn’t have been so quick to lose loyalty and start Shadowed Sun with Tayui. Maybe he was meant to keep Storm’s legend living. He would never know, but he thought about it whenever his eyes swept over the tattoo.
"Naniko!" He called out as her voice suddenly erupted seemingly from no where. He turned to face her and watched as she approached. "I’m glad to see you again. You know, I’ve read that rose hips could probably help you out." He offered her a smile, knowing that she would probably get over it fairly quickly. Especially with her knowledge of medicines.
"I hope I didn’t interrupt you from anything too important. I just thought I might come and talk - catch up. And maybe ask you for some advice even." He wanted to talk about Sirius and Deuce. He was curious about what his son had told him – that Deuce’s head was sick.
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She had wondered if what she was feeling might be the beginning signs of pregnancy, but had decided against that idea. Naniko didn't know a lot about it, and she didn't know that sometimes nausea came with it. She nodded at the suggestion of rose hips, tail swaying from side to side. "You've been learning, I see. How're things going in Shadowed Sun, with the herbs and everything?" She had been sad to hear that Phoenix had relapsed into a worse sickness than before after she had tried to help him...but sometimes even herbs weren't enough.
"Come on in" The girl turned to walk back along the same path she had come out on, going a bit slower than before. She didn't want to overdo it. "We're doing pretty well here. Mom said that she found Sirius, that he was over with you. We were all really worried for a while...he just up and ran off. I guess that's youngsters, though."
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"Things are going good. The herb garden is looking rather good and we should have a decent amount of medicines fairly soon." He trailed after Naniko at her invitation to enter Twilight Vale’s borders. He felt refreshingly lighthearted even though he wanted to talk about a few serious things. "Sirius, oh yes, he’s fine. I was kind of surprised to see him in Shadowed Sun. He had gone all that way on his own. To say the least I was a bit impressed. He’s so young – I didn’t know he had it in him. The trip makes even me tired," he added with a soft chuckle.
"But he was talking about Deuce. He said that Lucifer told him that her 'head was sick'. I’m not sure what he meant by that, but I was curious if you knew anything. Is his imagination just running wild?" He strolled casually by her side, falling in time with her step. For a moment he pretended that he was walking alongside Dierdre.
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I luff Pilot ><
"Getting around the packlands makes me tired. I don't know how he got up the energy...but that's one thing that young ones have in abundance" Lately Conri hadn't been having as many nightmares, but it still happened from time to time. Naniko couldn't understand how he felt, exactly, but she had a keen empathy...with some help, he could get back to sleep in a few minutes, some nights.
She was quiet after his question, unsure of how to answer. Things had been kind of bad around Twilight Vale for the last few weeks, and she didn't know how much of it had leaked into the pups' ears. "She went crazy, Lucifer said. He told her she couldn't see any of the pups unless she proved she wouldn't hurt them or herself. She's had problems with suicide before, I know, so I agreed with Lucifer. Sirius must have asked him, I suppose. I'm not sure how I'd answer such a question, if asked by a pup."
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Lolz, I just noticed how crazy the new avatar I made for Pilot is. Looks like he and Deuce could be friends! :o[html]
So Sirius was sort of right in a way. Deuce was sick. But Pilot couldn’t really blame her for suffering from a twisted mind. When things with Dierdre fell apart, he had felt very similar to what Deuce must have been experiencing. Suicide… well, Pilot hadn’t gone that far, but he still could understand. Maybe it would be best for the pups to spend some time away from Deuce while she got things settled out in her life. He supposed Lucifer had explained it well enough to satisfy Sirius without tainting his young mind. "I see," Pilot muttered, thinking then about Apollo.
"How has Apollo been without his brother?" He was glad that they were able to stroll along at a leisurely pace and Twilight Vale had quite the scenery. "I know the boys were starting to spend less time with Deuce and more with you, but I was hoping he wasn’t feeling too lonely. I didn’t exactly grow up normally, and I just don’t want the boys to have to suffer from some of the loneliness I went through. It’s hard deciding what the right thing to do is. I wish Dierdre was here to discuss things with. If you and Deuce hadn’t stepped in like you had" – he didn’t need to finish his sentence. They were all well aware what the duo’s fate would have been if Naniko had not initially intervened during the premature fire birth.
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I likes the silver eyes <3. And I love this song, too. Is it the one that goes "if I didn't have you I know I'd be floudering around like a ship at sea" or something like that?
She did worry about Apollo sometimes. He got along with the other pups, talking to them when they asked him questions or playing with them when they invited...but other than that he went solo. Naniko had tried to get him interested in herbs, but he didn't jump on the new knowledge like Sirius had. She didn't know if he even really wanted to learn the languages that she had been trying to teach him and his brother...so she'd cut it down a little, speaking more Itallian and not as much French. She did speak a lot of English to him, too.
"Honestly, I'm not sure. He doesn't play with the other pups a whole lot unless they specifically ask him to come and play. And even then I can tell he doesn't really want to...he looks at them, then at me, then back at them. Like I'm supposed to tell him whether he's supposed to go and play with them." Was that normal behavior? Maybe she was too used to outgoing, rambunctious pups like Sirius and Noah. "But it's not a bad thing. He's really quiet and very cautious around new things. I wish I had more pups to base his behavior on...but each one of them is different, really."
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I know the song you're talking about (it's country! eww, haha) but the one I was thinking of when I wrote it is from the Monsters, Inc movie! :] [html]
"Oh," Pilot responded, curious if Apollo’s apparent apathy had anything to do with Pilot’s rare appearances to Twilight Vale. He couldn’t be so sure. Maybe it was natural, like Naniko had said. Maybe Apollo just had an introverted personality. Pilot really hoped so.
"Maybe he’ll grow out of it," Pilot offered, thinking then of his rather miraculous change in temperament. The days when Pilot had been naïve and rambunctious were now a distant memory. He wished he could revisit them sometimes – fall back into his memories so that he could see the types of things he had said or was told about. He could vaguely remember meeting Gibraltar (his then hero) and seeing his first wolf. But now all of that seemed as if it happened in a different lifetime.
"Naniko," he started, pausing for a moment where they were walking. He looked to the ground. Phoenix had been the one Pilot often went to for advice since he had been much like a brother to him. Now he felt as if he could confide in Naniko even if maybe she didn’t know him as well as perhaps some others might have. He valued her knowledge either way. "Do you think I’ll ever get over Dierdre?" He asked, looking up to find her reply.
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We listen to a lot of country in Iowa >>;;; And if I say anything about Apollo that you don't like or approve of, definitely tell me :] I think we said he was going to be more withdrawn than Sirius? But I'm not sure exactly what that entails, so :]]
The only wolf that Apollo had ever really liked playing with had been Sirius...so now that his brother was gone, it made sense that he would be playing more by himself. Naniko did make attempts to play with him, but he always seemed to see her as more of a teacher than a playmate. Naniko had grown up in Clouded Tears without anyone of her age to play with, so she didn't understand why he wouldn't want to play with the other boys if he had the chance to...but she knew that he was a very different pup than she had been."Yeah. Pups are always peculiar...you never know how things will go."
He stopped walking and she did, too, looking back at him. She frowned, trying to think of an answer. "I...well. I don't know if you knew, but last year Conri dissapeared. I didn't know that he'd been kidnapped or I would have gone after him. He left me a note telling me to stay where I was, too...but it had blood all over it. I thought that maybe he'd been badly injured, and that he'd gone away to die and didn't want me to follow him. Or that he'd just wanted to go, for some reason. I waited for months and months for him." Back then she'd been caring for Dhalia and Khaden, who'd dissapeared soon after.
"Eventually I just got sick of it. Not of waiting for him, because I knew I'd always be waiting...but sick of beating myself up over it. Sick of putting my life on hold because I couldn't let go." She looked at him seriously. "Have you found yourself doing that? Maybe...not doing something you would have done before, not branching out and meeting new people, making new friends? And...possibly new relationships? It's been two months. She could come back. She really could. But you don't have to suffer while you wait."
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What she had said to him was the best advice that anyone could have told him. Pilot really needed to move on – at least enough for him to live his life uninhibited. He had been going on letting her disappearance affect him for so long that he had started to overlook things that once gave him joy. He had even overlooked his sons some, but he didn’t want to fully admit that. "Thank you Naniko," he responded, as a hand strayed to grasp the arrowhead hung around his neck.
He doubted he would find another love, or if he even had the patience for that. But new friends, new faces, and new experiences… that he could do. "Have you ever thought about the old packs?" He asked, thinking back to his earlier thoughts. "You know, Jaded Shadows… Clouded Tears… and even Storm? Do you ever miss them?" He had begun walking again and they once again maintained that slow paced stroll, and Pilot looked to Naniko with a smile. "Sometimes I wonder if I should have tried to keep Storm alive instead of letting it fade to ash in the fire."
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It had seemed unnatural back then, that she might move on and meet other people...maybe even meet other people who she could someday become involved with, but after a while she'd figured out that what she had been doing was very unhealthy. She hadn't had anyone to tell her that back then, though. And she'd been so withdrawn that she hadn't really had any friends that came around often enough to realize what was going on and to try and help. The pack had also been pretty bad about that kind of thing....she was really glad that she'd found a pack that was different.
"Clouded Tears seemed so important at the time..but I can see that this is the best choice. If I had to choose over again, I would choose Twilight Vale. Maybe not the fire, not all of the death and burning...but this pack is amazing. Clouded Tears wasn't anything like it...and I guess I didn't realize until now how really unhappy I was there." But Storm was a different story, she supposed. "I'm not sure if you would have been able to get enough of the old members back to form it--there are a lot of wolves in this area, really. The coyotes had it easy...them all staying in one place and all. They can recognize each other pretty easily, too."
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What Naniko said was true, and Pilot knew it. Even if he had wanted to keep Storm alive, he most likely would have had trouble rounding up the members in order to do so. He was almost positive that Skoll would have been there to join, as he had even decided to stick in Shadowed Sun with Pilot. There may have been a few others too – perhaps the remaining Phoenix children, or even Iskata, now that she was back. But maybe it was better that Storm had gone. It closed the chapter on growing up and now Shadowed Sun started the new chapter of the wolf he had become.
"I think I might go visit Apollo to see how he’s doing. Maybe he’ll even think about coming to live in Shadowed Sun with his brother." He blinked, looking over towards Naniko. She had really become a good friend to Pilot. He only hoped that she could look at him in the same way. "I just hope the boys don’t loose touch with one another. I’d hate to see them grow apart at all."
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"I was hoping that Apollo might stick around here, but if he wants to go I definitely won't stop him" She said, nodding. Naniko loved having pups around the lands--they made life more interesting. Conri liked having the boys around too, even if he didn't say it much. She had shared a meal with the pups and Conri enough times to see that they made him at least a little happier. Soon enough they'd be starting their own family, here in Twilight Vale.
"I don't want them to lose touch, either. I'd give anything to see Selene or Pontiac again. Even Helios...though I haven't ever met him. I think that Selene went off to look for dad again...which is a hopeless job. Tried it already myself."And it had landed her with memory loss and a broken leg.
"You're a great dad, Pilot. I can't wait until I have the chance to be a mom--to have pups that're all my own" She started walking again, reaching out to nudge him before she started going a bit faster. "Let's gooooo!"
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"I’m sure you’ll make a great mother, Naniko! You’ve done a great job with my sons, and I know you’ll be ten times better with your own!" He smiled at her, positive that what he said wasn’t a bluff. "It’s your compassion – I think it would be hard not to like you." Honestly, Pilot couldn’t ever see anyone as an enemy of Naniko. She had been kind enough to help out Storm when Phoenix was in need, and never was there a time when she had refused to help Pilot. If there was some sort of dark side to her, Pilot had yet to ever see it.
"Heyy!" He called out, quickening his pace as Naniko began to take off faster than before. In just a matter of seconds, she had been able to put quite a few feet between the two. "Someone’s speedy," he joked, smirking as he made to catch up with her.
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"Thanks..I hope so. We have a big enough house--it's about time to really fill it up" She grinned, staying at the same speed. "Maybe a nice run. Exercise is good for anybody and everybody...I probably need some of it, staying inside the house like I've been. Conri's still getting better, so I spend a lot of time changing bandages and fixing him up." She continued at the same pace, paws digging into the soil.
"Do you like to run?" She asked, looking to her side and spotting him a few feet back. "Sorry, didn't realize. Twilight Vale's pretty big...so we'll be able to take some more territory soon. More running space!" She had been wondering about how Shadowed Sun was--she hadn't even met Tayui yet. "How's Tayui doing? Haven't seen much of her"
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"Lately I’ve been spending a lot more time shifted then on four legs. So I haven’t done much running like this in a while." It was nice though – refreshing. Maybe Pilot was loosing touch with the Luperci Nonnisi he had once been. He had gotten so used to the versatility that being a werewolf brought, that he had forgotten the days when he had once been naïve to the world of werewolves.
"Tayui’s been good, as far as I know. Even though it’s been a few months, we’re still trying to sort out things with the pack to solidify it a bit more. I’m trying to think of some ways to get everyone connected. With the pack being so new and everything, we don’t have much traditions or things established. We’re hoping to unite ourselves a bit further beyond just our passion for learning." He could really feel his heart pumping, and he enjoyed the feel of adrenaline leaking in his veins. The cool wind whipping through his fur felt wonderful and he looked towards Naniko with a grin plastered on his face. This made him think back to when he had tried to learn how to hunt deer from Drako. He had run so much that day, while unsuccessfully catching anything. Instead he really gave those animals a workout.
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