Log Date: 8/10/96 Log Cast: Trouble, Dart, Ynderra Log Intro: It's been a few moons since Dart's arrival for a visit to Lostholt -- to not only remind himself of what it means to be a Wolfrider, but to work up his courage to talk to his father Strongbow about his insecurities over being compared to him. But Dart's not the only one in Lostholt with a difficulty talking to a parent... Trouble, ever since her return from her visit to Sorrow's End at Dart's behest, has been struggling to determine how to make up for long-standing wounds between her and her mother Myriel. But Trouble is not good at expressing tender feelings -- and furthermore, her heart wars between whether she should approach her mother first, or look within for some sign that she is better than the cub she believes Dart accuses her of yet remaining. It doesn't help, either, that Dart himself makes Trouble quite nervous..... ---------- Base of the Lost Holt Father Tree(#765RJ) A dense grove of grotesquely shaped trees dominated by one immense Grandfather of a tree whose age is no less great than its size. It is obvious that the old tree has survived a terrible tragedy but new growth and thick strong branches cover the worst of the scars left by the terrible blaze. Weeds and night blooming wildflowers grow in natural disorder around the trees roots. Like old friends, the gnarled trees embrace one another, their many branches entwining to form a dense canopy high above the ground, serving to keep the ground cool from the summer heat. The shadows lengthen as the daystar slowly approaches the horizon. The holt slowly comes to life as elves wander the holt paths. Contents: Dart Dare(#10408Vaeps) SafeRunner Calmwind(#7032Jopq) Obvious exits: Into the Tree Around the Tree Clearing Trouble steps out of the Father Tree, squinting into the deepening gloom, glancing around with a wariness that speaks of 'young wolf scenting for possible dangers'. Dart is perched on a low branch of the Father Tree, absent-mindedly fiddling with the pendant around his neck. He glances down at you, ** Shade, Trouble. ** Trouble's head lifts, sharply, suddenly. Her green eyes go unusually wide, then she nods, another sharp and short movement. ** ... sweet water, ** she returns, after a moment. Dart rolls onto his stomach carefully, making sure he doesn't fall from the tree, ** Didn't mean to catch you offguard. How've you been? Haven't seen you much. ** Trouble leans against the tree, looking up, then away, then up again. ** How am I now, or what? ** Dart sends openly ** Yes, how you are now. ** Trouble's eyes turn slightly... haunted, perhaps. ** I've been... ** Dart's expression changes, from one of curiousity to one of concern. ** What's wrong? Did someone bother you here? <> ** Trouble looks up again, and her mouth quirks upward on one corner. She shakes her head, but her eyes are still distant. Dart sighs, ** Then what's wrong? ** Trouble crosses her arms across her chest, and doesn't look up at the hunter in the branches; her head is slightly bowed. After a moment or so she finally sends, ** I haven't talked to her. ** Dart sends openly ** Your mother? ** Without looking up, the huntress sends assent. Dart shakes his head quietly, ** It wouldn't kill you to talk to Myriel. ** Trouble sighs heavily. Then looks up. ** Have you talked to your sire? ** she counters. Dart shakes his head, ** No, I plan on it though. ** ** Why haven't you yet? ** The question is tight, delivered in a controlled tone, but nevertheless, underneath Trouble's question is a tentative curiosity. Dart sends openly ** Because I have other things to figure out first. Once I have everything straight, I'll talk to him. Why haven't you talked to Myriel? ** Trouble is silent for a very long time, before she finally sends, ** Scared. ** Dart blinks a few times, **I'm scared about talking to my sire but I know I have to sooner or later. ** Trouble shrugs, frowning, perhaps petulantly, then looking off across the quiet Holt, watching one of the wolves pad out on a night errand, probably a hunt. Dart sends openly ** You can either talk to her and work things out or you can keep hiding like a wolf that's been run out of the pack. ** Trouble pushes herself up and away from the tree, snapping aloud, "I came home, didn't I? I might have gone.... Timmorn's Blood, I might have just kept running!" Her voice is low, husky, not so much that it sounds as if she's never used it. And less low than it might be, here and now, strident with emotion she may likely be trying to suppress. Dart sends openly ** You came home all right and went right back to doing what you did when I came here last, hiding. Curse it, Trouble! If I had know what you were going to do I wouldn've never let you come back on your own. ** Trouble whirls around and growl-sends, chin lifting, shoulders going taut, ** You don't know the first thing about what I've been doing, son of Strongbow! ** Trouble adds, eyes flashing, ** You've been here moons already -- I don't see you in a hurry to work things out with your sire, either! ** Dart scowls, looking more like his sire than usual, ** Yes I've been here a few moons but I don't plan on waiting turns before I talk to him! ** Dart growls softly under his breath while sending, ** As for what you've been doing, I've tried to find out but you won't tell me! <> ** Dart mutters, "Nice to see that all my worrying about you was in vain. You're doing _just_ fine." Trouble jerks as if struck, then abruptly turns scarlet, which clashes with several of the shades of her hair. Trouble whirls away again, tensely. ** You told me I should stop being a cub, ** she send-snaps. ** Been thinking of doing something about that. ** Dart sends openly ** I told you to stop being a cub, doesn't look like you took my advice. ** Trouble smirks over her shoulder for a moment, then turns to stalk off into the tree. When she comes back, she's got a sleeping fur and her bow and arrows, and her gaze is positively molten. "Now's as good a time as any," she mutters. Trouble slings the quiver over one shoulder, the bow over the other, and with the fur draped over one arm, she stalks stiff-footed towards the back of the father tree. ** I'll come back when I'm no longer a cub, ** she send-growls. And is gone. You walk around to the back of the Father Tree. Behind the Father Tree(#650RAJ) The land of the Abode surrounds you. As you walk around the Father Tree, you come upon a sight unexpected in a Wolfrider Holt. It is evident that Redlance has been putting to use the skills learned long ago in the Sun Village. A neatly tilled garden lies in front of you, with small green plants rising from the rich soil, and along the edges of the garden, taller plants carefully staked upright for support to their slender stalks. A tiny opening leads into the back of the Father Tree. Off to the north-east lies another large tree, small in comparison to the Father Tree, but quite large enough to house many elves. The warm summer night is alive with sounds and scents. Your keen ears can hear the sounds of wolves in the distance. Contents: Bearpaw Obvious exits: Path Den Tree Woods Father Tree Around the Tree Dart locksends ** Fine! ** You walk in a westerly direction, towards a thick stand of trees, that mark the begining of the woods. The Edge of the Woods Stopping to catch your breath, you see before you... Trees grow close together here and the forest begins to thicken. There is no actual path, except for faint markings left behind by some animals, and perhaps other elves. Moss covers the most of the ground and climbs up to grow on the sides of some trees, the ground moist beneath your feet. The shaded woods offer a cool respite from the heat and even the animals seem to seek shelter under the trees and bushes, to escape the heat. The riot of colors and smells bombard your senses and you walk carefully, not wishing to break the silence you find here. The warm summer night is alive with sounds and scents. You look up to see Child moon sleeping lovingly in the cradleing arms of Mother moon and your keen ears pick the sounds of wolves in the distance. Contents: White Ears Obvious exits: Into the Holt(E) Into the Woods(N) Trouble, if she hears Dart's sending, gives him no answer. Only a couple of the wolves of the pack, startled by her passing, see her slink through the trees to the north of the Holt. You press on, continuing deeper into the woods, the silence around you broken only by the occasional sound of a branch falling or an animals cry. Soon you find yourself deep within the embrace of the forest. Woods The land of the Abode surrounds you. All around are tall trees towering up toward the sky, forming a dome of green hues. Huge as well as small shrubs and long vines fill the gaps between the trees, making progress difficult. Moss covers most of the ground and climbs up to grow on the sides of some trees, the ground moist and spongy beneath your feet. Deep into the cool woods, you get respite from the heat as even the animals seem to seek shelter under the trees and bushes, to escape the heat. The riot of colors and smells bombard your senses and you walk carefully, not wishing to break the silence you find here. The warm summer night is alive with sounds and scents. Your keen ears can hear the sounds of wolves in the distance. Obvious exits: Towards the river Edge of the Woods [Dart has, or so he tells himself at least, sense enough not to chase surly females unless of course they run out into the desert. But as he stews over Trouble's stormy departure, someone else is alerted, as well....] You walk back out of the Father Tree. Base of the Lost Holt Father Tree(#765RJ) A dense grove of grotesquely shaped trees dominated by one immense Grandfather of a tree whose age is no less great than its size. It is obvious that the old tree has survived a terrible tragedy but new growth and thick strong branches cover the worst of the scars left by the terrible blaze. Weeds and night blooming wildflowers grow in natural disorder around the trees roots. Like old friends, the gnarled trees embrace one another, their many branches entwining to form a dense canopy high above the ground, serving to keep the ground cool from the summer heat. The warm summer night is alive with sounds and scents. Your keen ears can hear the sounds of wolves in the distance. Contents: Dart Dare(#10408Vaeps) SafeRunner Calmwind(#7032Jopq) Obvious exits: Into the Tree Around the Tree Clearing Ynderra, yawning, blinking rapidly, comes stumbling out of the Father Tree. "Trouble?" she mumbles drowsily. Dart says "She's gone." Ynderra blinkblinks her big blue eyes, forehead wrinkled. "She sent... something about her soulname...." The healer maiden shakes her head drowsily, rubs a hand across her eyes, and mumbles, "Why send to _me_?" She then peers up at Dart and adds, awkwardly, "Um, I, uh, think she's going looking for her soulname. If she meant what I think she did when she sent..." Dart looks to be a combination of annoyed and depressed, "She didn't send to me because I'm the one who started the whole problem. She sent to you because she doesn't want to talk to her mother about it, I suppose." Dart says "She's not coming back til she think's she's an adult." Ynderra nibbles one corner of her lip, then allows sheepishly, "I'm, um, her closest blood except for Myr, I guess... can I, um, help or something....?" 'Derra's liquid gaze goes rather more liquid as she notes Dart's tense voice and features. Ynderra ohs, then. Ynderra sits down quietly on one of the Father Tree's biggest roots and says tinily, "It took me forever to find my soulname. Or at least it seemed like it. I've, um, sent to Cutter so he knows she's gone, anyway. We'll keep an eye out..." The maiden chatters a little, though her tone isn't quite as bright as it might otherwise have been. You say "As long as she doesn't go near the humans, and they don't come down near us she ought to be okay... she sure wouldn't go near the Underworlders... nothing else really nasty around, and she knows the woods really really well, she'll be okay, she wanders off a lot... um...." Ynderra trails off, wanly. Dart glances off in the direction Trouble left in, "Didn't take me that long to find mine when I tried to find it." His voice is shaking softly. Ynderra studies the tall brown hunter unsurely, features crumpling a little at that tremor in his words. "She'll be okay," she offers, meekly. "She hunts a LOT better than I do..." Dart says "She'd be here if I hadn't come, I should've just forgotten about her when she left the village. Probably shouldn't have convinced her to come with me to the village in the first place." Ynderra trails off, deciding that under the circumstances now is probably not the best of times to mention that Strongbow taught Trouble very well on her bow. "She's, um, gone looking before...." At Dart's further words, though, she blinks. "What?" Dart glances down to Ynderra, still thinking about how to to phrase what he probably should say. Dart sighs, "I can't explain it, Ynderra. It's just something." "You didn't go and Recognize her or something, did you?" the little healer asks, guilelessly, but with apparent concern. Ynderra giggles a little, and murmurs, "Might shake her up a little..." Dart says "No, no, nothing like that." Ynderra purses her lips and adds wisely, "Well, I know for a fact she's never ever treed with anybody, High Ones, I don't think she's even joined..." 'Derra quirks her head. "As a matter of fact, you know, I think she acts around you almost like her mother did around Rayek, except reversed, you know?" Ynderra leans against the tree behind her. "Enough to drive anybody mad, if you ask me. If she's anything like Myr and I can get. About joining, I mean." Dart frowns, "Well we certainly didn't join while she was in the village." He smiles some, "I know about you two, High Ones forbid that I ever forget." Ynderra concludes triumphantly, "Well, then, that's the _problem_. About how she acts around you. I'd bet my next bushel of berries from Pike on it." She winks, cutely. Dart rolls his eyes, "If it's not, you owe me a bushel of berries. If Ealge and Mirth were here they'd be taunting me something fierce for not figuring it out." Dart murmurs, "Never treed with anyone?" He raises his voice some, "You're sure she's never joined with anyone, I mean, Skywise lives here.." Ynderra bobs her head readily, confiding, "Well, even _Skywise_ doesn't take a lovemate who isn't willing, and she pitched a bowl at his head the first time he brought it up, you know? I mean, usually it's the healers who do the teaching, but he almost thought it unfair to ask Leetah, and puckernuts, she's my sister's _cub_, so I'm not sure I'd do it, I mean..." 'Derra's ramble falters, just a little. "It's still a little too close since she was born. But anyway, Skywise tried once, hasn't tried since....Besides, he's got Minx now anyway, so he just flirts with the rest of us for play, Ynderra ... "... for the most part. Not that we wouldn't play..." She giggles, once more. Dart gets the same look when someone compares him to his sire, "That's just it, Ynderra. Because it's too close since she was born, no one's letting her forget how she came into the world. Not you, not Myriel and she knows it." Dart says "Even her tribe name will remind her of what happened." Ynderra's expressive dainty face shifts, into plaintiveness. "I know," she says, tinily. "Myr doesn't like to talk about it." Dart says "And neither does Trouble but sh'e got to live with it. At least I'm proud sometimes to be called Strongbow's son but Trouble can't get any pride out of even her own name." Ynderra watches Dart through this, head still slightly quirked, studying his tone, his gestures, fascinated. "What would you name her?" she asks, intrigued. Dart says "Anything _but_ Trouble." Ynderra giggles a bit. "Well, not anything, I mean, we couldn't call her Puckernut, or Trolltoes, or something, you know? It has to fit her..." Dart says "She's not any trouble to anyone, she couldn't help the way she came into the world any better than you or I could." Dart says "The last thing she wants to be is trouble to someone!" Ynderra stares up at Dart, still seeming captivated by this argument, thinking, is he _sure_ he hasn't Recognized her? She leans forward, and says earnestly, "So you think we ought to give her a new name?" Dart looks completely exasperated, "I think she's got find a name for herself, just like I do. I'll always be Strongbow's son but I want people to know that I'm Dart too. She''l always be Trouble until she can pull herself away from what happened in the past." Ynderra says mildly, "Uh, well, she DID just go off looking for her soulname..." You say "Usually a good way to sort your head out, you know? And she won't mess it up with dreamberries or anything...." Dart says "Timmorn's Blood, Ynderra. The problem's not with her as much as it is with everyone else!" Ynderra wrinkles her nose. "It's our fault for naming her Trouble, but she's the one who has to get over it? Dart.... you're not making much sense." The shaper-maid's tone turns slightly pained. Dart says "You said that you couldn't explian about joining to her because it was too close to her birth, right? Who's got the problem?" Ynderra blinks, looking blank for a moment, then ohs! "No... I meant, I couldn't show her! Like Pike showed me the first time, you know? Leetah says she was the one who taught everybody in Sorrow's End how to join when they got old enough, till all the Wolfriders came, and she moved up here with Cutter." Ynderra finishes, earnestly, "Trouble's been _told_ about joining, but that's hardly the same thing, you know? I mean, it's like the difference between getting _told_ about dreamberries and actually _having_ them.... you don't think I ought to show Trouble, do you?" She considers this, frowning thoughtfully. Ynderra taps a slender fingertip against her cheek. "I've never shown anybody before. Hmm. Maybe I better talk to Leetah about it.... she's done it lots of times... she was going to teach me that thing she does anyway..." Dart grabs hold of the branch he's been lying on with both hands and swings down to the ground, "I'll show her since none of you can seem to get past that maybe she's scared to ask any of you." Ynderra blinks, startled. "Um..." Ynderra protests, half squeaking, "I really do want to help.... " Dart says "She's too scared to talk to her own mother, Ynderra! If you'd just try and talk to her, you'd know these things!" Ynderra blinkblinkblinks. Then, mouth curling down into a pout, she retorts, "I'm not a _total_ featherhead, come on, Dart, I live in the same Holt she does, I can't help but try to talk to her, you know?" She crosses her arms and tries to look stern, but it rather makes her look like a kitten trying to growl. You say "It just so _happens_ that I would not have brought up the whole topic of joining in the first place if she hadn't told me you asked her to stay in Sorrow's End with you, so there!" Dart says "I asked her to stay in Sorrow's End because I care about her, alright!?" Ynderra's pout remains firm. "And I've been trying for the last two eights of turns of the seasons to get Myriel to talk to her because I care about them both! So what's your point?" Dart says "You care about them because their your family.. I care about her because..." Dart's words trip and stumble over a feeling he can't even express to his own cub in words. Ynderra rises, slowly, and stretches forth a hand, palm up. Now, her pout vanishes, and she sends very softly, ** I'll do what I can to help. ** Dart nods slowly, looking slightly shaken by his last admission. Ynderra lifts the hand she'd stretched forth and clasps Dart's shoulder with it, smiling meekly, but her gaze is quite clear and direct. ** I promise I'll do what I can to heal this. And don't you worry, okay? She'll be back, and either she'll have her soulname or she won't, but either way she'll be back. ** Then, impulsively, she hugs the tall brown-skinned hunter, then is off in a flounce of black curls to find her sister. ** I'd better find Myriel -- talk to her first! ** Dart staggers back a few steps after the hug, smiling faintly, ** Leave some air in me next time! ** The healer's laughter follows her off into the Holt. [End log.]