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....... The Working Fields.
ANOTHER HARD-LUCK STORY
.......The sun was scaling the horizon, climbing through the clouds as if they were a set of stairs and lighting each one with a deep incarnadine light. These lands were particularly beautiful in the early morning, Hemming had noted, and for the last few days he had been waking early to catch these precious moments. Wild grasses swayed in the gentle wind, and the gray wolf parted them with a hand to pass through them. He had spent a fair bit of time venturing throughout AniWaya territory to try to get a grasp on the size and scope of the place, but his explorations had not yet done justice to the village and the areas around it.
.......As he was wading through the grasses, an odd scent reached his nostrils. It was almost like the wapiti that grazed in the field, but a mustier, more concentrated scent. The male perked his ears a little and paid more attention to his surroundings. It was quite easy for him to get lost in his mind, and he did it readily, often not realizing he had. Thoughts, usually just airy daydreams, would drift through his head and he would follow their path, losing track of everything real besides the pleasant breeze and the rosy light. Now, he tightened his mental leash and kept his eyes open.
.......Following the scent led him to a building, and he noted it on his imaginary map. There was a fire burning in the distance, which he had noticed within the first few hours of being a tribesmember, and using its position he was able to orient himself a little better. Hemming did not have the best sense of direction, and seeing these landmarks helped quite a bit. He navigated around what seemed to him to be a field for crops, avoiding stepping anywhere it looked like things might grow, and headed toward the stables.
.......The sounds of horses were quite obvious now, but the wolf did not recognize them. He drew closer, curiously, and peered into the building through an open doorway. Kept up in the stable were some kind of creature, and though Hemming wasn't able to say exactly what they were, he would tentatively label them as domestic horses. A little too nervous to actually go in - he did not doubt these were strong animals - Hemming leaned on the doorway and chimed, "Hello darlings," as a means of acknowledgement.
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[html] wc: 500+. Hello! Here is a picture of the horsey-- http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/phys...lis/xxxxx-1.jpg
There were still drops of dew on the grass that she passed through and the female formed a dry trail through the reeds as she walked toward the barns. She'd been out in the areas around Crimson Dreams for the last few days, watching a herd of wild horses and trying to decide if there was one amongst them that she might like for her own. The warrior had gone for a long time without a proper mount of her own, travelling by foot, but now she was beginning to consider the idea of getting a horse to do the walking for her. She did make a lot of trips to the city to gather books.
Ember would have picked a horse from the barn, but she wasn't sure which of them belonged to tribemembers and which of them didn't. It was probably better to catch one of her own anyway and train it the way that she liked it. She'd read a book about taming horses, though, and knew it wouldn't be easy.
The dark female had been feeding some of the horses in the group over the week or so that she had tracked them, and had managed to win a few of them over. Her favorite of the group was a young stallion, just old enough to be getting along by himself. His coat was a brown color around his shoulders and front, but near his rear it turned to brown spots against a white background. She didn't know if horses kicked the males out of the herd when they reached a certain age like some other kinds of animals did, but either way he was definitely her pick. He did interact with the others but seemed to shy away from most of the group most of the time.
Today the yearling wolf looked the same as she did most days, her long black/brown hair tied back with a thin piece of leather that was decorated with several beads and feathers. She also wore her cloak, her sword Lightning attached by its hilt to a belt that lay around her waist. She led the horse back toward the barn with a thin rope around his neck, the creature following with his ears perked forward in interest. It hadn't been too difficult for Ember to get the rope on him, and after an initial bit of fear and a bit of reassurance from her he had been walking. She'd already established a trust base with him by feeding him oats before, so it was easier this time.
She rounded the corner to the stable without noticing that anyone else was there, taking the horse to the nearest empty stall and closing the short door behind both of them. "Okay. Rope off...now let's see how ya do with a blanket on yer back. Oh! And I guess ya need food. Everyone needs food, right? And it'll help with that bit of attitude ya got left...acting all pissy..."
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.......yayhi  what a handsome horse.
ANOTHER HARD-LUCK STORY
.......The horses didn't give any sign that they really cared the tall wolf was there, besides a snuff or two that may or may not have been sent in his direction. Though they were doing things that they surely did most hours of the day, Hemming was intrigued by the way they moved and the way their muscles rippled beneath their coats. What glorious creatures they were, and to imagine they were responsive to the wishes of wolves like him! His new homelands never failed to amaze him with the wonders it held.
.......After he had observed for a little while, the boy took one step into the stables and leaned against the front wall. His eyes able to adjust to the light more completely and the details of the horses became more apparent to him. It was not much later that one of his tribesmates led another horse in and settled it into a stable. Hemming remained quiet the whole time, watching the way she spoke to him and admiring the beast's form. For a fleeting moment, he also thought about how the wolves of AniWaya were so decorated and that he ought to decorate himself as well. He felt so bland compared to them.
.......Hemming wanted to talk to the female that had brought the young horse in, but didn't want to startle her, so he stepped out of the shade into a place where light fell before speaking. "Hello," he said softly, wearing a gentle smile. "Beautiful creature," he added with a nod, wanting to move closer to the stall to better admire the horse but holding himself back to make sure his presence was well-received. It seemed like curiosity was prodding at the inside of his skin, the many questions raking their itchy fingers along his insides. He had been able to befriend many small animals, but the stakes were fairly low; the most damage a bird or a mouse could inflict was usually just a break in the skin and a little blood. Someone that was able to gain the trust of a horse must have many talents, patience and understanding among them.
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She had been able to speak to lower creatures for a while now, but horses were rather difficult for her. It didn't have anything to do with being in Aniwaya, her ability to communicate with them...it was a skill that any wolf could learn if they gave it enough time. Who had been the one to teach her? Pilot, maybe....or Phoenix. She didn't remember any more. But after a few lessons she had been able to talk to nearly every creature she came across.
Ember wasn't sure why horses were so difficult to communicate with. They seemed very intelligent to her, with the way that their herd was set up and the ways that they spoke amongst themselves. Maybe she just wasn't listening the right way. She reached over for a blanket that she knew was hanging over the stall door, eyes still trained on the horse. Hemming spoke around that time, and she pulled the blanket off of the door quickly. "Ah...hello there. I haven't seen you around here before" She backed away from the door to make room for it to come open, brushing some dust and burrs off of the horse blanket. "He's new here too. I just caught him. But...he seems alright with me in here, so I don't see why you can't come in too. Just grab a handful of oats out of that bin over there to feed him and I bet you'll be buddies real quick."
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.......
ANOTHER HARD-LUCK STORY
.......Speaking to other animals was something that Hemming did frequently, but they did not respond in a language that he understood. He enjoyed it anyways, and would greet and make various comments to whatever beasts he came across. Perhaps not being able to understand their words added to his fascination; he liked to have big secrets to ponder about and break down slowly. The wolf would learn of their ways by other means, by watching the way they reacted to his movements, or the way they interacted with other lower creatures. Reading also helped him learn a lot; the humans had made so many discoveries that the wolf could bury his nose in books all day and still wonder. Sometimes it seemed like answering questions just made new ones.
.......He flinched a little at the quick movement that his words elicited, lifting his shoulders slightly. "I'm sorry to surprise you. Yeah, I just got here a few days ago. My name's Hemming." He smiled some more before raising his eyebrows at what she said next. "Really? Wow, okay." With a bounce in his step he headed towards the stall, opening the door just wide enough for him to slip through and then closing it gently.
.......It was quite amazing to be so close to the creature, and Hemming's breathing almost stopped as he surveyed its large eyes, the shape of its ears and the bristly hairs on its great snout. "Hi," he uttered to the horse, the words almost quiet enough to be a whisper. "What's his name?" The wolf was eager to feed him but for now, simple awe had gripped him. The creature did not seem full grown yet - its proportions still slightly childish, - but already Hemming could see strength and elegance shining through. The horse would be very handsome when it was older.
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She had first learned about the Aniwaya tribe through her friend Tayui, who had previously been her leader in the Shadowed Sun pack and who had also come from the old lands over the mountain, and Ember had been a member from the beginning. She and Tayui had both been in need of a place to stay that was stable, and the darker female had sought to join a pack that did not already harbor any of her many relatives. Every other pack had at least a few Sadiras in it; Dahlia de Mai had her sister Firefly, cousin Cercelee and others from her side of the family, Crimson Dreams had her brother Kansas and her neices and nephew, and Phoenix Valley had Davinci. That wasn't including the large assortment of adopted wolves, like Naniko D'angelo and all of her children. The family was very extensive.
It wasn't that she didn't like her family. She did. But after constantly living with them and being around all of them, she had felt overwhelmed. She couldn't do anything or have anything without someone knowing about it and couldn't do things on her own without others trying to help her out. Naniko was a really good healer, but she'd saved Ember so many times that the debt the dark female felt that she owed her was a pressure on her that she couldn't take any more.
"Ah, that's good then. That you're new. Sometimes I don't get out much, and meet the other packmembers...ya could have been living here for months and I wouldn't have known. So now I don't feel bad" She offered him a smile in return, running her hand very slowly down the horse's side. She didn't want to make any surprise movements either, and spook the young animal. "I'm Ember. I was born over the mountain, in a pack called Storm...but those lands were burned down by a fire around a year ago. Dawali and another wolf started this tribe up, so I joined with my friend Tayui. Did you get to meet Dawali at the border? He's pretty cool." She started by barely rubbing the blanket against the horse, letting him get the feel of the fabric. He didn't react much, just snorted a bit of air at her, so she began to slide the blanket over his back. It was folded in half, so it didn't cover him too much...just enough to cover the area where one might sit to ride him.
"I hadn't named him yet--I was thinking maybe some kind of a tribal name, so he'll match everything else here" She hadn't been born to the tribe, so some of the things that they did here had been foreign to her as well in the beginning. "Do you have any ideas for what to call him?"
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.......Hemming had not spent much time with his family. For the first year of his life, he lived on and off with his parents in a fairly large pack in central Canada. The way they lived there was basic and the boy had found it much too mundane for his tastes. He had left many times, each time longer than the last, until eventually the little bit of time that tethered him to the pack broke off completely and he drifted away. In the next few years he wandered further east, settling down once and a while. Only once in his travels had he had a companion, and even that was short lived. It was nice to be back in the company of others, and Hemming was finding that already he had learned a lot. These lands were not short on wonders, and he was certainly more happy than he had been in a long time.
.......He chuckled at the female's statements, bowing his head a little bit. She moved carefully and gently, and the grey wolf continued to be enthralled with the way she was interacting with the horse. "Pleased to meet you," Hemming replied, meeting her eyes briefly and smiling gently. "Yes, I did meet Dawali. He is quite wonderful." The smile deepened. The male had found his company, however brief, was quite pleasant and hoped that he would run into him again soon.
......."You know, there is quite a fantastic horse in old human literature. This horse could carry many riders at one time, and understand what they were saying to him." Hemming raised his eyes to the ceiling of the stable as he let his memories of the stories come to his mouth. A golden light drifted through cracks between the boards and the wolf realized how lovely it was as it was caught up in the thin screen of dust floating in the air. "The king doesn't like that, though, and he takes the horse and ties a great rock around its neck before throwing him in the river. What happens next, though, I think is quite wonderful. The horse breaks the stone and swims away. They say he lives in the woods to this day." The male smiled and brought his eyes back down. "His name's Bayard. It isn't really a tribal name, at all, though. Bayardawi, perhaps?" he joked, smiling and looking back to the horse.
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She wondered about how he'd gotten his name; it was a peculiar one that she'd never heard before. But then, Ember had never ventured outside of the general area either. Maybe his name was common in other places, and she didn't know it. She had almost left the lands once, to go and look for her mother, but had returned quickly when she had seen the smoke on the horizon. Ember had gotten her name from her father Phoenix; she was named after a friend of his, a different Ember that had died before she was born.
The horse leaned his head toward Hemming, sniffing at his hands. Whenever Ember had approached him before she had almost always had food in her hands for him, or something in a pocket, so he suspected that this new wolf might have something for him as well. Ember reached down for a bag of oats that was leaned up against the door with a quick 'excuse me' to Hemming (it was rather close quarters in the stall with both adults and the horse) and ripped a small hole into the top of it. She offered the new Aniwayan the bag.
She nodded when he spoke of the sub-leader, agreeing. "He is wonderful. He's a good friend of mine, now. I never really had an easy time makin' friends...but it seemed easy to be friends with him. He's real likable." Dawali was great. She liked him a lot, and felt really comfortable around him.
Hemming spoke of a name for the horse and told a tale that she had never heard before. Ember leaned back against the wall of the stall, listening with interest and waiting for the ending to the tale. Hmm. Bayard. It wasn't a bad name, and this horse did look like he would grow to be pretty big. Maybe he could carry a lot of people at once, too. "I think Bayard sounds perfect. I'll name the next horse something related to the tribe--I really like that name, and I'd like to use it! There will be other horses to name in the future, I'm sure. I was plannin' on bringin' a few more in, after a while."
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.......The wolf had enjoyed sharing that story. He had a fondness for classic literature and poetry, and with a little provocation these stories would resurface from the depths of his memory. Being alone for so long had given him a lot of time to bury his nose in dusty old books he had scavenged from buildings, and everything he had learnt was filed away in his mind somewhere. The creativity and knowledge of the humans impressed him greatly, and he would spend hours on end flipping pages in books on natural history as well. That was one of his favourite topics.
.......It was quite a sad decision he had made, to choose just a few books off his makeshift shelf to bring with him. He picked the paperbacks, the lightest ones, so he could carry more in his fraying backpack. As he left the small home he had made in the forest, more like a treehouse than anything, he placed a hand on a row of books as if to say goodbye. It was likely they were still there, and perhaps someone would stumble upon his stash and find it as intriguing as he did. It was months away and, at the moment, not worth going back to. He'd have to make so many trips to bring all his books back, anyway. And then there was his equipment - his telescope and microscope were his favourite - that he had been so sad to abandon. Those were too heavy to put in his bag, besides a small Galilean telescope. Even sadder for him had been watching his bag of books plunge into the ocean; fish couldn't read, and likely the books would be too damaged for anyone to ever read again. Dawali had awoken the hope of finding new things in the city of Halifax, and for now Hemming just held onto the excitement that prospect brought.
.......He grinned at the attention the horse was giving him and open his hands to show that he didn't have anything. The female passed him a bag of oats, and with a 'thank you' he reached in and grabbed a handful. The horse seemed interested in his treat right away, and Hemming shrugged against the wall just long enough to put his hands together to support all the grain. "Here y'are," he crooned, holding back a giggle as the horse's snout tickled his hands. What a strange interaction, he thought, such a big creature so gingerly eating oats off of such a weak thing's hands.
.......Hemming looked to the girl in surprise as she announced she would use the name he had suggested. "Yeah? Splendid," the wolf said with a chuckle, glancing back to the horse to make sure he wasn't munching on some tasty fingers. "Oh, really? I'd like to watch... to see how you do it. You seem to have a gift. Would you mind if I tagged along, sometime?" He lifted his eyes back up to her, eyebrows raised slightly. That would be marvellous.
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[html] My apologies for the wait <33 and lulz, our wolves are bookworms! Nerds And hey, maybe if it's ok with Marit, we could have a three-wolf thread where the three of them go to the city sometime? We were gonna have Ember and Dawali go anyway!
She really enjoyed meeting wolves from different places. Where had this one come from, she wondered. He looked as if he hadn't been around horses much, that was for sure--he looked hesistant, unsure of his actions around Bayard. She watched him curiously, his body language, and listened to what he had to say. Ember was a lover of books as well, and had a large collection of them stashed in the back of her den. There had been times when Tayui's pups had knocked the stacks over or gotten something on them, but that was alright with her. They weren't really damaged...and a few bent pages or splatters of deer blood would give them character and individuality.
"You could pick one out, if you wanted. If it's not too bad training this one, maybe I'll train those for riding too. You could help out. We could get the pups on horses once they learn how to shift...maybe give 'em each a horse as a gift or something." She spoke the idea aloud, nodding along. Yes! They would need proper mounts, to get them away from danger if they ever came across it. "I think Bayard's probably had enough excitement for today, though. You wanna take a walk? I could show you around. Do you got a den already?"
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.......No worries! <3 Haha nerdy wolves. >D I'd love to join that thread!
ANOTHER HARD-LUCK STORY
.......Ember's words put images that were very strange to him in his head: young wolves riding around on a little fleet of horses. The idea of real-life horses in general was still quite strange to him, and to actually ride them was even stranger. What an exciting prospect it was, though. The male would love to befriend a horse and have it trust him enough to carry him around. Helping with training horses for the pups in the tribe would be wonderful too. "I think that's a marvelous idea. I'd love to help." He watched Bayard for a few moments as he exhaled air forcefully and shuffled about a little, flapping his tail. The horse did look a little tired.
.......Hemming had not found a place to stay permanently yet, and he had been sleeping wherever he ended up by sunset. He was quite pleased that Ember asked about his situation, as he wasn't exactly sure how one's residence was established in the tribe. Something like a tour would be superb, too, as the newcomer hadn't done much exploring, and the little he had seen was lacking context. He'd be able to draw some understanding from the girl's explanation. "That would be wonderful... No, I don't have a den yet." The wolf smiled cordially at the black wolf for a moment, looked at the horse, and slipped through the door out of the stall.
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If there was one thing that she definitely had experience with, it was joining packs. She'd been in many of the new packs that had popped up here and there since the fires, and each one had, in turn, disbanded. Besides Dahlia de Mai, this was the first group that she had been in that hadn't been forced to disband. But, unlike Dahlia...this was the place that she felt comfortable. Maybe her sister Firefly could live there, in that pack, but it wasn't the place for Ember despite the fact that it was led by her two cousins.
So far she found Hemming to be a very friendly and easygoing wolf, with a kind atmosphere around him. It made him easier to open up to, and she found herself wondering again where he'd come from. She gave a nod and followed him out of the stall, making sure that it was properly latched so that Bayard couldn't get out during the night. Having a den was pretty important, to protect one from the elements. There were several caves around the same area that she was staying...maybe one of those would do. In her den she had spruced things up a bit with shelving and furs on the floor, and if they went to the city they could find the same things for his if he wanted.
"Did you come from a far away place?" She asked as they walked, the dark female leading them toward her den and the cave area. "I've lived here all my life. Well, not here in Aniwaya...in lots of different packs. But in this area. What's it like where you came from?"
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.......Hemming followed the girl's lead, unsure of where they were going but trusting that she had a general destination in mind. He had already been impressed with the beauty of the AniWaya tribelands many times, in the limited wandering he had done in the past couple of days, and was excited to finally have a tour. There were always little wonders in a place that you wouldn't find unless you had been there for a long time or had someone that had been to show you around.
.......It had taken a long time - three years - for the lithe wolf to wander from his home pack in central Canada to where he was now. He had settled down a few times on the way, and did indeed spend most of his time in a little fortress of his own construction in the forests of northern Nova Scotia, but where he was actually from was an ambiguous question even for him. Hemming thought about what the answer to that question would be as she explained her history, and nodded along. It would be nice to live somewhere long enough to know the area well, but it was also nice to travel around. The male had completed one part of that, and was just beginning on the second.
......."I wouldn't say it was that far away... it was north of here, and took me a long time to get here. That's mostly because I meander, I think, but it was a fair distance. I lived in the woods, and near the ocean. It was nice. Similar to here, but without anyone around. Very snowy winters. I think I like it here better." He smiled at her as they walked. There had been a wealth of human artifacts near his old home, but Hemming wasn't able to judge this new one yet. He had yet to plunder Halifax.
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Ember did hope to someday rise in Aniwaya in rank, as her skills with the sword improved. She wanted to be able to protect the pack with everything she had and not have to worry about answering to somebody else about it. Unless that somebody else was Dawali. She would answer to him; he had earned her respect on the very first day that she had met him, with his quiet ways and calm attitude. She wanted to be more like him some days.
Other days, like today, she was more than happy to just be herself. Sometimes that was the hardest thing to do...to be yourself. To accept yourself for all of your mistakes and to go on living life despite the things that you had done wrong. She'd made her mistakes. The girl's long, feather-decorated hair swayed back and forth evenly as she walked, taking a pace that wouldn't be too fast or too slow for the other to be able to keep up. She was used to travelling with wolves of all sorts...adults or pups. Sometimes it took a bit longer to get places with four puppies trailing along behind.
"Ah, I see. I like it here too. It's relaxing some days and busy others--it just depends who you talk to. Some members are very involved in the pack, and help out, and others are more reclusive. Everyone needs a little time off from pack duties, though. Some time for fun." Mostly, her resting days were spent with Utriu. He was the one who really seemed to get her, and she loved him for that. Her spirit-animal was kind and understanding, and often offered her advice. She had a new problem for the orca to help her with, the next time she decided to take a day off.
"I was wondering too, if you don't mind my asking..how did you get your name? Hemming? I have never heard of a wolf being named that" The dens were coming into view, and she motioned toward her own as they passed it. "That one is mine, if you ever want to come for a visit. The one next to mine is Tayui's. She's got four little ones to care for...and if you wanna make a good impression, I'd bring some meat or food by. I don't know how many of them still stay there, but food is always a good thing to give to anyone"
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.......As they walked, Hemming admired the land that laid around them. The sky seemed to have such a perfect clarity here, the air was crisp, and the grasses swayed with a wonderful rhythm. Perfection. A change of scenery was nice, especially when the new area was so pleasant. Though a part of his mind longed for the things he had left behind, all the sadness was replaced with an excitement of the potential these lands held. The male was eager to meet some more of his new tribemates, and hoped that he would become one of those wolves that did like to help out. Based on his limited pack experience, he would classify himself as more of a reclusive type. Perhaps, after years of being alone, the promise of interaction would draw him out a bit more.
.......He nodded at the statement, lost in thought about what she had said for a few moments. It was quite nice to take a walk with someone who knew where she was going. Hemming was quite capable of wandering, but even if he found somewhere of extreme beauty it wasn't necessarily a place that was important to the pack. Following the girl, he would learn more.
.......The male was watching out to his left, where a hawk seemed to be simply floating high in the air, and brought his head forward again when Ember asked about his name. "I'm not completely sure why I'm called that. The pack was from Scandinavia, but any generations that had actually been there are long gone by now. I suppose the Scandinavian names are left as an artifact of their old culture..." A small smile tugged the corners of his lips. The question had uncovered a little bit of Hemming that wished he knew more about his birthpack.
.......Peering at the entrance to the girl's den, Hemming nodded. He didn't have a great sense of direction, and since he had followed someone there he would be lucky if he would be able to find this place again without spending a quarter of a day. Noting the river near by, a landmark that was not extremely specific but provided a path he could follow, he turned his gaze to Tayui's cave. The newcomer had not yet met her, but he told himself he would bring something by. The thought of doing so gave Hemming a warm feeling. Living alone didn't give you a chance to do little things like that, and he liked the idea. Perhaps he could try a bit more cooking, too; it didn't seem worth it to cook just for yourself, but if he had someone to share with he could certainly justify the work that went into it.
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"This is a very nice little place," he said, walking a bit further to get a glimpse of a few more caves. One of these would certainly do, and perhaps Hemming would be able to set up a nice bookshelf and a desk to store whatever he found in the city. His grin grew broad as he peeked inside one of the caves, clearly very excited.
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To her, the lands seemed as normal as ever. She had lived here for what she considered to be a good amount of time, compared to other places she had stayed, and now she was used to the sights and sounds of the territory. It was a beautiful place, sprawling with plants and animals alike, full of life even as spring faded. Aniwaya seemed like a kind of safe haven to some sorts of animals, as the tribesmembers only hunted exactly what they needed, respecting nature and letting the animals repopulate themselves.
She was glad to be able to show someone around, not just because it was considered a good thing to do for the pack. Unlike previous stages in her life, she was to a point where she enjoyed being around others and talking to them. Now it felt easy, somehow, when before it had been so very difficult. Ember herself had changed when she had come here, and she was glad to show around a new member, to help them discover the same things that had helped her when she had come here, battered and broken.
The girl had never heard of Scandinavia, but nodded along nonetheless. She didn't want to seem ignorant. "Ah, I see. That makes sense, then. My name is a name that was given to me by my da...I was named after someone else, though, someone who died. I guess I look kinda like her." She had always wondered about that other Ember, what she had been like. She must have been wonderful, for Phoenix to name her after her.
The cloaked wolf nodded in agreement when he commented on Aniwaya, looking into the cave alongside his. "They're not too comfy at first, but the longer you live here the better it gets. I do have a lot of furs in my den, from back when the pups used to sleep over. They were real picky about sleeping on something nice and soft. A few of them would start ya off until you get somethin going" The thought had occurred to her now, not back when they had been passing her and Tayui's den. So she would bring them by later, before bedtime. "There are a couple of them here. Caves, I mean. Or you could always dig something out for yourself, if the caves don't seem too homely"
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.......Once the humans were gone, it seemed like much of history stopped being recorded. From reading their books and manuscripts, Hemming had come under the impression that they were obsessed with recording every little thing; not just great battles and amazing scientific discoveries, but the exact day a specific baby human took its first step, or what someone ate for lunch. These records were, perhaps, interesting to the person who took them and to a few people that were closely related, but when anyone involved was already dead they were largely useless. It was true that a few people who kept these meticulous journals had very interesting lives, but when Hemming found those sorts of thing on his scavenging adventures he would only give them a few seconds to prove their worth.
.......Wolves, on the other hand, did not seem to record such painstaking details. Though it was again a case of relative interest, Hemming would certainly like to learn more about his family; where they had come from and why, and what life was like for them. In a way, by the time that the gray wolf had been born, the pack had fallen from the grace of their ancestors. Their life, no longer freed by the stories of the gods they worshipped or enriched by old ceremonies, had drifted from the realm of the fantastical to a drab little place. A very sad thing. Hemming wanted to know what it was like in the glory days.
.......Ember too, it seemed, had questions regarding her past. Being given someone else's name, presumably someone she hadn't met, would certainly leave some mystery. The male was silent for a few moments, pondering. "Oh. She must have been a good person," he said at length, offering a small smile. (If there was one thing Hemming could be generous with, it was smiles.)
.......The girl had already struck Hemming as extremely generous, and this veiled offer solidified the impression even more. "That would be wonderful, thank you very much. I think I'd like to take a cave. All natural, you know?" Chuckling, he stuck his head into another cave. This one was a bit bigger, and there'd be enough room to keep his things and sleep comfortably. Going inside completely, he called back. "I quite like this one. However, I do think it could use some better lighting." Hemming grinned. This already felt like home.
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It was very interesting to learn about how the humans had developed over the years, and Ember wondered if the werewolves would do the same. Surely the werewolf virus would spread...would it take over the entire globe someday? She had only ever lived here...nowhere else, so she didn't know how much land that the virus would have to engulf. But it made sense. If one werewolf mated with a normal wolf, then they would get it..and all of their pups would be werewolves too. Hmm. Then from there it would just multiply.
Would the werewolves someday be like the humans? Half of them, Ember included, wore human clothing...would they learn how to manufacture it themselves someday instead of pillaging it from the old human stores? And learn how to make cars and trucks run and the cities light up once more?
"I hope that she was." She said in agreement, breaking out of her thoughts. His comment about being all natural made her laugh, and she shook her head. There were scattered houses and barns all over most of the territories here, and if he didn't like the caves and didn't want to dig a den then she would have suggested one of them. A cave was more natural, though, because it was something that was already in nature and that the humans hadn't built.
"Well, if we use a hammer and a chisel to break a hole through the top, we can make you a smoke-hole and get a fire going in here for a little light. Or you could use candles. Might be too warm out here for a fire." Already ideas of how to improve the cave were coming to her. It would be fun, helping Hemming get his den into a livable condition.
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