Eclipse had gotten her rest, the rest she sorely needed from the whole trip to Vinatta and then the hurricane and having to come back she had been mentally exhausted. The rest wouldn’t end, she wasn’t about to let it though. Instead she found herself moving through the forest towards the treetop terrace. She heard it was nearly taken apart after the storm and she wanted to visit her children’s gravesite. As promised the terrace was in ruins though some stuff was picked up here and there she knew it would take a long time to make it what the previous leader had made it before. She wondered if it really was worth it. She headed to the tree the puppies had been burried and saw that their gravestone had been washed away but the ground was relatively untouched and they were still under the earth.

Eclipse went to work to find some twigs, as that was what she had used before, Thick sticks that she could put a saying on as she had with her other ones and went to work carving with a rock what the puppies meant to her. She no longer cried about it, though she missed them even if they never took their own breath before, but it was a depressing thing to have to do. She sighed, sitting down near their site, carving the words “Love, hope, dreams, and spirit” on each of the three sticks she had found. Then put them where she knew her puppies were buried. She sat there looking at the area, no longer little mounds, but she knew what was there, and she hummed a tuneless sound for them. She was no good, not compared to her mother, but she would at least try to let them know she still thought about them and loved them even if they were no longer with her.

Eclipse finished the last of the sticks, having already smelled the man coming but didn’t move from her spot. She did not know who he was but he smelled of the pack, which made her not lose her concentration. If he had been someone who did not smell of the pack then she would have thought her life in danger. She knew Skye would not allow anyone who would hurt them to come into the pack and trusted her alpha in everything. She let a soft smile crease her face as she put the stick down on the last of the spots. She was certain that was where they all were, and they had their own space, but were buried together. She remembered that night, that terrible night when she was still hurting from birthing them, and that she held all three of them, and put them here. She stayed silent, her humming had stopped when she put the last stick in.

“The hurricane did a terrible thing to the terrace, but it was merciful to my children. I thank the mother that she was kind enough to leave their graves clean and untouched.” She finally said, but she did not make it a certain thing that it was to him or to herself. She sighed and stood then turned to the man, surprised at his form. Not many took on their secui form. She masked her surprise with a smile and nodded her head to him; “My name is Eclipse, I’m the resident cook here, who might you be?” She asked curiously. Her tail wagged slow as though she was doing something that she would normally do every single day. She had hardened herself, and made herself understand that she would go on no matter what happened but she would always cherish what she once had. Her parents had taught her that the hard way. The very hard way.

Her ears perked as he introduced himself and lowered his head she put her hands together, an automatic response, and bowed her head to him; “Namaste, what kind of crafter?” She asked curiously. He would be one of those useful to the trade that went out now and again, like the one Adrian had gone one, she’d found out only recently when she found the caravan gone. She wished she could have joined him but she had been on her way back when he left to go, Robert would have disagreed and Eclipse wanted to keep close to the man she loved.

He admitted he didn’t know who the Mother was, but not all did, she hadn’t and she shrugged; “A friend told me, that the Mother is the earth. She created everything and can decide to take anything away she had created.” Eclipse explained. She only knew about that much but to her that was enough to have a big impact on her life. She looked down at the grave markers and sighed; “They were born too young. They could not breath and so they did not ever take their first breath.” She said a sad note in her voice. She wished it hadn’t been so but she now understood that come time she could have more, not to replace them, but they could still fill the empty void, so the prospect of having Roberts children gave her thoughts like no other, though that fear she could also lose them too came to mind.

He spoke again, changing the subject to cooking and she smiled nodding; “I have been trying to perfect it. I do have some dried meat, though it is not as tasty as fresh meat, but it has the same sort of taste” She reached in her pocket to produce a bag with a few chunks of dried meat, it had a few of the spices, nothing too harsh and held it out in her hand offering him the little bits; “I have been learning the best tenderness to cook meat, and recently I have been learning how to make bread, but with so little resouces, well it’s hard to tell.” She said shrugging a little. She was learnign little by little by what they had, but would do her best not to waste anything even on practice.

A wood carver, it made her wonder what else he could do and made her wonder, could she too be artistic in any way? She was a cook but she had only tried her hands in making art by painting to ease Saul’s mind that she was in no way a painter. Perhaps he had something that she could learn. She was always learning. “Perhaps you can show me something sometime? It might be useful if I have to make myself anther bow or something.” She said, perhaps she could figure out other crafts he could do. She had plenty of time to find out. “Since you put it that way, yes, I think that is how it is. I have only a few teachings of her from my old leader.” She answered thoughtful at his words thinkign they sounded perfectly logical. There was a short silence after her explanation, but he spoke and his words were wise enough; Yes I know, she will look after them until I can see them again. There is always the future to look foward to. I was too young, I let myself be tempted by something. It was a horrible thing to happen but I think it was better than... some fates. She said a small smile on her face.

Upon giving him the bit of meat he seemed to take to it quite well. She grinned, then nodded; “I used a bit of bayleaf and some Oregano i traded for. They were already dried but i just had to put it on with a nice oil, I used a local plant for it. Tasty and good for you. I am very glad you like it.” She said happily. She had many different techniques of cooking, though her most favorite had to be cooking meat. She was learning how to make meat pies though as she mentioned earlier grains were not that easy to get. Most of it was used for the horses and animals they had in the stables. At the mention of the corral her ears perked; “Oh you did that? I noticed it when I brought my horse in yesterday, that is some fine work!” She said happily. She didn’t think she could work with wood as well as that but there was only one way to find out.

Eclipse was thankful that he did not continue the talk of her pups, but seemed quite interested in the plants that she mentioned. She smiled nodding as he mentioned just eating straight from the carcass. She did that at times, she was still a wolf after all and nothing would change that. “Yes they are herbs, plants of specific kinds, they can be good in small uses. I don’t always cook my meat through myself, unless i dry it. I don’t see why we can’t have both.” She said with a grin on her face.

She listened to him with fascination as he spoke about carving and how most of the time he didn’t know what he was going to make. It made her wonder if she would be like that or if she would have to plan things out like she did when she cooked. She always wrote down recipe ideas before she started and crossed out or added on while she was doing her experiments. Most of the time she didn’t have a recipe book, most of them were damaged from time spent exposed on top of fridges, or they had things that a wolf just couldn’t do. At least she couldn’t do. His proposition made her ears perk up and she grinned; “Deal!” She said, she wasn’t about to ask him to give her something for nothing, she was sure that he could learn something from her or she would make him a few meals or hunt for him for the training sessions if he couldn’t. “Though I do have a bow myself and it’s quite special to me, but I wouldn’t mind more arrows.” She had to learn how to make those because she lost so many and even trading for them wasn’t enough for the woman, who constantly used her bow as often as she could. She did wonder if he had a better, quicker way of making arrows or if they could in some way collaborate what they knew.

She smiled at his sudden affection, her eyes gleaming with happiness at his motion. “Oh Everyone in this pack are all my friends, I think we can be more than aquaintences at least.” She said her friendly smile not leaving her face as she spoke. She was a blunt woman and always spoke her mind. It was how she was taught as a puppy. Her father and mother, when they had actually been there for her were the ones who taught her that much. She then kept it up in through her whole childhood, adolescence and now adulthood, where she learned to use her words in a more favorable way.

She smiled as he explained that he was a novice at making arrows, “I do know how to make some myself, if you have trouble, I have no problems sharing what I know, as for what kind, I usually use bone. It is easier to shape though I wouldn't mind trying stone.” She said, though she didn't want to make it very hard for him to work at all. “When would you like to learn cooking techniques?” She asked raising her eyebrows. “ I am afraid that some of the ingredients of spices and herbs don't all grow naturally here, they are traded here and there from other wolves, and seeds are collected, though they are easy to grow with patience and practice.” She said, though she didn't mention that different climates as well as sunlight would be a problem on the outside. She knew about greenhouses and they were in the process of building one, or they were before the hurricane hit, that way they could grow things that normally didn't grow in the area.