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 Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:28 pm
 Oh look at all these glorious, interesting things! Athena was as happy as a pig in mud as she explored even more of the Draug Faroth territory. Now that she was older her parents allowed her more freedom to run and explore and most importantly learn. Athena craved knowledge just as much, if not more than she did when she had been but a pup. Every day brought new knowledge, facts and questions that the older wolves in the pack sometimes could not answer fast enough for her liking.
However know she didn't just seek out knowledge, but as well any interesting object that she could find and, should it be small enough, place in her medicine bag so that it may be brought back for further inspection. Ah all these treasures that she found on a daily basis were just wonderful, be they rocks, bark, flowers and anything else she could get her paws on. In fact if this infatuation with items continued her den would be overflowing with various treasures. Spotting something interesting up ahead Athena dropped the acorn she had been previously looking at - there were already at least a dozen of those in her den - and went to investigate.
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Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 4:55 pm
 Much as Neptune never showed it, he was a guy who remembered stupid, stupid things that he did - and was more often dogged by at least a little bit of guilt for it. Now, most of the time he could justify it in his mind so that he could avoid such nuisances, but certain ones, like the one bothering him that morning, refused to be let go. In this case, it was his rather dickish behavior after the first scavenger hunt they had participated in.
Which isn't right, Neptune growled in his mind. I had full right to say what I did! I actually learned how to hunt, and stupid Athena just was showing off and cheating and . . . Well none of it mattered anyway, because one way or another he had found himself looking for owl feathers the night previous, something to use for an apology without making it look like one. Because he was not going to say sorry, no sir. No, he was just deigning to acknowledge Athena's new purse-thing by filling it with something. He wasn't jealous at all. Who wants something thumping against you everywhere you go? Who friggen collects things for the hell of it while we're at that? Yeah. Stupid prize . . .
Still, Neptune kinda wanted to know what Athena actually had collected since the event. He had managed to mostly not bump into her after they were given their individual prizes, still rather broody and sensitive about the whole thing. In retrospect, it was stupid, sure. Again though: not apologizing.
Thing was, no-one had ever told Neptune what the difference was between an owl feather and any other damn feather he happened to sniff out in the forest. As such, he was stuck reacquainting himself with the notion of monotonous hunting which, had it been for himself, could have actually been done without the level of grumbling he was doing. Finding a feather alone was work, but then there was finding an actually intact one, then sniffing it to see if maybe he could detect owl by scent alone, then trying to see if he could stick it to his fur while he looked for another one - which, by the way, didn't work. By the time Neptune had found a fifth feather by early afternoon, he had lost the other four and was once again in a dark, angry mood.
"What the hell am I even doing here?!"
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 7:48 pm
Well now what do we have here? Athena stepped closer to the object in question which appeared to be partially bruied in the dirt, which of course made it all the more interesting. Though she had learned quickly that it was best not to hurriedly dig up something before examining it first. The object could prove to be too fragile to extract without ruining it. Circling around the object Athena tried to figure out what it was, and how to free it from it's earthen prison.
From this angel it looked like a....well she honestly wasn't sure. It could be a bone, though the color seemed off, possibly a half buried stick. Lowering her head Athena sniffed about. Nope not a stick, there was no woody smell. Tipping her head to the side in thought Athena was unsure of exactly what it was. Reaching out with her paw she very gentle touched the object. It was hard, so certainly not too fragile to dig up. Excellent! Immediately she set to work, careful not to touch the object in case what was underground was less stable than above.
But then she heard a voice, not too far off but certainly not right near her. It was male and sounded a bit frustrated. Glancing between the buried object and the direction of the voice Athena was torn for a moment. Well she could continue to dig it up and then go see who it was, but then the owner of the voice could move on. Well the best solution was the follow the voice, that mystery object wasn't going anywhere. Turning she padded off in the direction of the voice, the medicine bag around her neck bouncing lightly against her chest.
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Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 9:39 pm
This was so stupid. Gods. He should be sleeping. The feather clung to his neck just below his jawline, and if he moved his head too much it'd actually lift enough to tickle him - or try to. Irritated, Neptune swiped at the thing several times until it finally lost its purchase upon him and floated to the ground. For some reason, that bothered him even more: that he had forced it off with rather violent motions that weren't needed, yet it had the nerve to daintily land on the ground his influence was nothing to it. Snorting, the teen smashed the feather under paw, growled again, and decided the whole thing was a huge waste of time, and that damnit it he was going back to sleep for another few hours at the least.
'Course, it was just as he was turning about that he heard the crunch of brush under paw and the sound of something bouncing, shifting with contents. Aw . . . great. He looked skywards with a huff of a sigh, gifted a headache for his impatience from the harsh light hitting his more nocturnal eyes.
So he had a headache, his eyes hurt, his feather hunt had been for nothing, he lost sleep, and Athena was probably gonna pop over. Just friggen perfect. The only thing he did to "prep" himself was to re-collect the smushed feather and suddenly become very intrigued in it before she approached. You know ,like he was actually doing something semi-productive.
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 12:12 pm
It didn't take long for Athena to spot the dark blue hide amidst the green and brown of the forest. And with a quick glance towards the wolf's paws Athena confirmed that it was indeed Neptune out here. She had barely seen him, let along talked to him since that treasure hunt so long ago. It didn't help that he usually slept during the day so it restricted the amount of time she could look for him. So seeing him out in the middle of the day was a bit interesting.
"Neptune," she called out as she emerged from the trees, not seeing him clearly she noticed the feather and wondered if he was doing the same as she had been - looking for treasures. "What are you doing?" It's not that she was asking that because she didn't like the idea of another wolf finding treasures before her, no on the contrary she was indeed curious as to what he was doing and what he had been up to since last she saw him.
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Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 12:38 pm
"Nothing," he mumbled without looking at her, looking intensely at the feather. Counting the tiny bits that made it lose its original smooth form, guessing what the colors probably were, what bird it might've come from, from where specifically on said bird . . . Neptune pressed his paw down again to see if he could undo the damage he had just did. "What, there aren't enough stuff about to keep you interested?"
Yeah, it was just instinctual to be abrasive. His pride was saying screw the original meaning of his being out there at all, he wanted to look like he wasn't annoyed by anything whatsoever. Nope, certainly not by her medicine bag or anything.
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Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:36 pm
The gruffness of Neptune's response was not all that unsurprising. In the short time that she had previously spent with Neptune and from talking with his siblings Athena knew that if he seemed a bit abrasive it was just the way he was. Even so her ears dropped ever so slightly, she had hoped they would get along better now that they had had some time apart. She still didn't understand why he had been avoiding her, and chalked it up to them running on different schedules. But all those thoughts were brought to a stop when she saw Neptune intently staring at something on the ground. Eyes moved towards his paws and spotted a feather.
Ah, so that's why he was so defensive. Did he honestly think she was here to steal the feather from him? She hadn't even known that he was here until he had said anything. "I only came over because I heard something." She explained thought it had been hard to look up from the feather as it was a bit interesting, but she did look into his eyes. "I didn't come to steal your feather." Her voice was a bit defensive but she wasn't about to let him assume that she had come here to steal his things.
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Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 7:48 pm
"Steal my wha- Oh. That?" He snorted. "Keep it, it's gunk anyway. Thought it was something else." Neptune illustrated his point by pushing the feather away with a paw, an odd action after what had looked like intense curiosity for a minute or so before. He wasn't sure how to act now: disinterested now that Athena had brought it up, or more interested in it to avoid looking at her some more, or maybe just walking away. Yeah. That third option looked pretty nice right now, but his pride wouldn't let him simply leave without a word; oddly, that was one of the few lessons of politeness that ingrained itself in him. One of the more annoying ones when he just wanted to get sleep and put off this whole encounter another day.
"Look, obviously you're busy collecting things as usual, so let me just get out of your way," he said without looking up, thinking that was best if he wanted to make a clean getaway; and so to try and hide his somewhat gaunt look that he had been getting more and more of lately, that of a wolf that didn't sleep so well. Best way to avoid someone? Make them angry and get away. Best way to make someone angry most of the time? Being passive-aggressive. The young teen turned his head about, scenting for the way he came through.
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Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:59 pm
Eyes ticked to the feather for but a moment before returning to Neptune. Now he didn't want it? Because she had looked at it or because he truly cared not for it? She made no move towards it, not until she knew for certain whether he was indeed giving up rights to it. He had found it and therefore she would only take it if truly abandoned the feather or if he insisted her to take it. "It is yours Neptune." She told him, remaining where she was for now.
When he tried to excuse himself because she had been looking for treasures Athena was at first willing to let him go. Taking a step aside she silently signaled for him to leave. He had been distant for so long that she was beginning to think it was not worth trying to speak with him again. There were still his other siblings she could talk with. She was about to let him go, forget all about the adventures they had as young pups - but she refused to.
"No." Her voice was firm and she stepped closer to him, as if to stand in his way. If he truly wanted to leave then he would need to get past her first. "Damn it Neptune, we have not spoken since that stupid hunting event. What happened to the two pups who would search for owls in the night? One's who didn't let stupid trinkets get in the way of friendship."
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 1:38 pm
He was actually surprised briefly that she was going to let him go. If Athena sought something out, it was known she'd acquire it one way or the other - and that included conversation with wolves. So by that logic, if she let something or someone go, it wasn't all that important to her at the moment - and that frankly was going to piss him off some. Because insane little wolves like him didn't want to be proven right, even when half of themselves bitterly said "I told you so". Maybe he ought to go find Aegean or Boreas, least they occupied him with something -
And then, magically, Athena stepped in front of him and firmly told him he wasn't going anywhere. Equally magically, this was a little relieving - if not getting a slight rise out of him, because since when did she decide what he did or didn't do? Neptune gave her a cross look, jaw set as if he wouldn't speak as she did. Of course she had to hit the heart of the matter, only not really. That hunt had been the last straw for him after a string of issues he kept to himself, and like hell was he about to just blurt it out to her. Eventually, he grunted noncommittally.
"Well alright then. What do you feel like doing?"
Humor me, he thought, squinting as the sun came out from behind a cloud; it accented his growing hollow look. Not like I'll be getting sleep yet.
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Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 9:16 pm
So he wasn't going to ignore her for once, good, it would certainly make trying to talk to him much easier if he was actually present. And now that she had his attention she needed to keep it. But how? Luckily Athena was a quick thinking and would be able to come up with a solution to this in no time. "Well, we could go hunting." She suggested, perhaps doing something that his father had trained both of them at then he would be more willing to go along. Perhaps if Neptune showed her how to hunt, even though they both had training, he would be less sore about things.
"You can pick the prey." Athena was more than willing to let Neptune lead as much as possible, if only to show him she wasn't trying to get in his way. The last thing she wanted was to lose a friend, especially over something as stupid as trinkets. Trinkets could be lost, stolen or broken, but friends were something that should be cherished. Oh sure, friends could be lost through a variety of reasons but she was not willing to sit on the sidelines and let him walk off. Not at least without putting a whole heck of a lot of effort into it.
"Or, if you don't want to hunt we can do whatever you want to." She offered, just in case he wasn't up to go on a hunt.
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Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:58 am
This is bribing, he thought. This is so bribing me. And Neptune kind of liked it. All to his catering, whatever he wanted. Too bad he never knew what that was most of the time. Earlier he wanted sleep. Then getting a not-an-apologetic gift. Then ignoring her and going right back to sleep. Then not going to sleep when remembering the nightmares. And now this. Oh, how the boy hated to be indecisive, swaying this way and that. At least the rivers he sat in ran a direct path.
Rivers . . . That would be a great substitute for sleep, he thought. Just the cooling of the water. "Fish," Neptune said after a pensive moment with a slight nod. The worst prey for him to catch (the glint of the sun, the way that the fish all looked like moving bits of water to him in his color blindness - all just a headache), but whatever. He wasn't all that good at hunting anyway, so this wouldn't be too noticeable. "Maybe two if we're lucky." It'd make Dad happy at least, knowing the least active of his children was at least attempting to do something.
Making a motion for them to move, Neptune began to lead her down the familiar path to the river.
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Posted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:34 pm
At first she wasn't sure if he was going to accept her offer to go hunting, or do whatever he wished, Neptune seemed a bit more indecisive than normal. And while she wanted to ask what was bothering him outside of the trinkets Athena knew it was best to wait a bit, let their friendship become a bit less fragile and then see what was bugging him so much. When he finally mentioned fish Athena quirked an eyebrow. He wanted to go fishing? Well she certainly wasn't a huge fan of the water nor had she ever tried to go fishing but sure she was willing to try everything once.
"Fishing it is." She confirmed with a nod of her head, though Neptune was already on the move. Athena followed behind him silently, not wanting to push him too much, but she did so desperately want to talk to him. Perhaps once they reached the river he would be more open. Her eyes fell upon the bracelet that he had won in that competition, it was actually really nice looking now that she actually got a good look at it. But just in case he looked back and saw her glancing at it which may lead him to think she wanted to steal that Athena moved her eyes to the forest around them as they walked.
As the sound of moving water reached her ears she perked up a bit. They were almost there, perhaps now she could break the awkward silence that had filled the short trip here. "I've never fished before. Have you?"
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