[ P ] Happier Than Ever

baelfire
does she know that we bleed the same...

He had anticipated a much more tenuous conversation with his Lieutenant, but thankfully things had gone relatively smoothly. He seemed to be a pretty laid back guy, which Baelfire could appriciate especially in times like this. With that out of the way, it was back to work. He would patrol near the square today, and stay in the barracks tonight before making the journey back home to Perth. It still felt a bit weird calling Perth home, but really Edinburgh hadn't felt as much like home since he'd lost his family. He supposed he didn't often relate 'home' to a place, moreso than the wolves within it. Which led him to think of one wolf in particular who he'd not seen in a while. He'd forgotten the world when Sorcha had told him she was pregant but now that the pups were born and well he could find the time for other things. He wanted to be with them 24/7 but that wasn't possible and honestly Sorcha was probably getting annoyed with all his hovering. He smiled as he walked the worn pathways towards the square, emerald eye on the lookout for that familiar earthen coat.

There!

Baelfire was almost surprised to spot Alexei through the crowd, but once he did he began to make his way over. His tail waved behind him as he neared the other man and an apologetic look entered his gaze. He bumped shoulders with Alexei as he gave a bark of greeting.

"Hey! Long time no see!" he said. He could only hope his friend was as lienent with his 'disappearance' as his boss and coworkers. "Sorry I kinda disappeared, alot happened since the ball..." he said, almost bashfully. It all seemed like a lifetime ago when really, it had barely been a couple of months. He knew Alexei had not been at the ball, but surely he'd heard of it and of what had happened by now. Rumors tended to spread across the Kingdom faster than truth these days. "Did you hear about the assassination attempt on King Adamh and the protest that was supposedly a cover-up for it?" he carried on, a little quieter now so as not to be overheard, explaining to his friend that Sorcha was one of them and apparently this was untrue. The Voxi protest had been peaceful, the attackers were an entirely different matter. "Either way, she got thrown in with the lot of them and when she finally got out and made it home I found out she was pregant. Can you believe it?" he said, almost as utterly surprised during his retelling as he had been when he'd heard the news himself. He did leave out their fight, however...

"I'm not sure what to think about the Voxi, but even if they are peaceful don't you think it'd be a bad idea to leave things up to the people? Entirely?" he asked, looking at Alexei curiously. He didn't usually talk politics, but ever since he really got to thinking about it, he had chosen to align himself with the crown. He could see the other side of things but ultimately he knew that if it wasn't King Adamh calling the shots it would just be someone else. Wolves could not simply live and let live without law and order.

...don't wanna cry but i break that way

code by claerie

W

armth had returned to Rionnach. Which meant that Alexei could return to the places that he'd been too afraid to reach out to within the second month of his time here. Winter had stayed for many months. Many more than what seemed natural. Maybe it was just the way time passed for Alexei. Slow when unwanted. It'd been long since he'd interacted with anyone he knew well. Which was only three wolves here. He hadn't been entirely that social. He was still learning information about this place. Day to day, he seemed to learn something new. It was overwhelming enough to keep him indoors, mostly. Though today, for the first time in a while, the red-stained wolf would take steps into the marketplace once more. It was still unknown to him most of the common rules of the bustling area; but he was here just to take it all in. It granted some unwarranted stares and merchants chuffing at him to get him to come closer. Lex had never grown in a nation that was this big before. So it was odd. All their customs. He'd never even seen a marketplace or a castle before he came here. Another reason why he hung so dearly to this place. Despite the unknown and wavering feeling of anxiety; there was curiosity. As if he was a child once again; nosy and impatient to learn. And that was making it feel more like home than anything he'd known since he left his childhood neighborhood.

Examining from afar; some old stylish necklaces. Something, again, that he'd never seen before but overheard the merchant advertise them to a few ladies in passing. When all of a sudden; someone bumped shoulders with him. He froze up for a mere second until he heard the comforting voice of his best friend. 'Hey!...' Violet eyes find his one-eyed friend. It had been forever it felt like since he'd seen him. Alexei leaned into the shoulder bump and smiled widely. He felt no anger at how long it'd been; only joy that they had been reunited. "It's okay. You don't have to explain." He rushes out, with a paw lifted; trying to wave Baelfire's apology off. There was no need for it. He was an army man now. And he had Sorcha. There were things that came before Alexei. Who was he to question his friend? Instantly, Alexei was sucked into the story that Baelfire told him. Alexei had been lurking around the ball, but had never entered the doors. He found himself lost outside them; mentally. Not physically. He knew where he was but couldn't find it in him to go alone. With wide eyes, he shook his head. He had heard nothing about it. He listened intently to Bael.

"Oh my gosh..." Alexei's voice was hushed after all the information had been given to him. He felt like he'd just been through a whirlwind of emotions. "Wait, that means you're going to be a father?!" Had it been that long since they'd talked to each other. "That's great, Bael." He spoke, happy for his friend. Though there is still that part of him that's jealous. For something so stable. For love once more. The politics of the land were something he was not so well-versed in. But when Bael's question came; at first, Lexi responded with a shrug. Then he elaborated, "I don't know. Where I was raised, we didn't have a king or a queen..." In fact, he'd been raised on stories of a crude kingdom his parents had come from. But this one. It was different. Stable. Good things had come from being overseen. "It seems like it works well here..." He looked around him. At everything that had had been built on solid foundation. "How long has this place been ruled by kings and queens?" He asked, genuinely curious as his eyes drifted among the stone of the castle.

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

@Baelfire

baelfire
does she know that we bleed the same...

He was glad for a friend like Alexei, where he didn't have to relay every little second of every day they spent apart. It was nice to get together whenever and feel like no time had passed between them. However, it seemed they were not quite on the same page about some things and Baelfire found that surprisng. Then, he wasn't sure why he found it all that surprising given that Alexei was not from here. That idea faded from his mind as sometimes he felt that he had known his friend for far longer than he really had. "I don't know. Where I was raised, we didn't have a king or a queen..." "Really?" he said, a little shaken by that revalation. "Then who took care of... everyone?" The King and Queen didn't necessarily do it but the Guilds that worked beneath them helped shaped the entirty of Rionnach into what it was today. Without them, he wasn't sure what would be in their place and that was what he feared most. "It seems like it works well here..." he at least admitted. Baelfire nodded, agreeably. "How long has this place been ruled by kings and queens?" "For as long as I've been alive, and probably way longer. I don't know of a time where things haven't been this way."

"So... if you had no Kings, or Queens... then what of your Army or College? Where did you and your citizens go for protection or medical care? Knowledge?" he asked, very curious about how things could be done, and were done, elsewhere. Sorcha always thought the people should have more say than they did and maybe she was right, but how... how would they go about doing that while making sure everyone's voice was fairly heard?

It sounded much like a fantasy to him, one that was not really attainable. He worried for what might happen should everything fall apart. He anticipated chaos, debauchery and far, far worse than the slights they suffered now. The Thieve's Guild would probably become a much bigger problem then they already were, he could only imagine. His fur bristled lightly, but he held no anger in his gaze for Alexei. His friend just didn't know yet, because he'd never known anything like this just as Baelfire didn't know anything like what he'd lived through outside Rionnach.

...don't wanna cry but i break that way

code by claerie

W

hen he thought of the past; he fondly remembered his homeland. Of his mother and father. A nostalgic smile curved up over his lips. He was raised in quite a hippy sort of community. A band of wolves had come together, ones that had known each other almost since birth. They traveled far from the Kingdom they had once come from - which was on the precipice of downfall when they left. They found a few stragglers on the way to their planned home. It wasn't long before they found a nice forest free of others with a river that fell through it. And not far off from there, an ocean. A perfect place to settle themselves. Nora, Alexei's mother, got pregnant shortly after that. All the adults took care of the children, passing them off from one to another. The entire pack grew up almost as a family. Almost all of them lived within dens with another. Parents sometimes switch out with others; some children growing up with four parents. They all loved each other and were not afraid to share kisses with another. As far as when it came to their kids, when they felt it was needed to go off - they did. Parents wanted adventure for their children, just as they had. And so that was why Alexei was here. Adventure. And his life had been one so far.

Alexei nodded in response to his friend's shaken reaction of the way that Lex had grown up. There was still a little bit of a smile on his face. Baelfire explained that it'd been that way since he was born, and longer. It didn't stun Alexei. He knew there were other places out there, others like this and the one that his parents came from. Not that he had anything against it... His parents did speak of the Kingdom and how it just wasn't a fit for them. But when they spoke in hushed whispers to each other, Alexei admitted there was some fear when he first came here. But it didn't seem like the crumpling heap he had heard about from the community he grew up in. Therefore, he took a chance. Baelfire then started asking the questions that Lexi had to think about. His head turned to the side ever-so-sightly as he looked somewhat at the trees in the distance. "Uhm.. We didn't have an Army." He answered, firstly. "We lived peacefully, and mostly alone. There were strangers very rarely... And I'm sure my father and some others could have taken care of it. We weren't a very large group..." That was somewhat not true. They were larger when Alexei left, his brothers and sister bringing back a few friends and love interests; making the pack grow. He wondered if they were all still there now. "To be honest... I still don't know much about the College.." 'Or it's purpose.' Alexei kept his thought to himself. "No was one ever against each other for very long. Small tiffs but, everyone loved each other. Which meant.. no one could ever stay made at each other for long." He longingly got caught in a memory of he and Moira arguing with some of the other kids. His eyes grew soft and far off for a few moments.

"My mom knew how to patch a wound. But, my Aunt," Who wasn't blood related but all the kids referred to her as "Aunt", "she was the one everyone went to when they were sick." A busy job for one woman. Knowledge? Alexei didn't really know how to answer that one. "Well, my dad kept most of the history of our little band and uh, he knew a lot about hunting." Alexei gave a small nod - and the Gods that had once followed them. He doesn't remember them so fondly.

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

@Baelfire

baelfire
does she know that we bleed the same...

Baelfire blinked, dumbfounded. "No... army?"

As Alexei went on, he found it rather hard to believe that everyone simply lived peacefully... much less that they were able to deal with the dangers of the world on their own. His skepticism was not hiddin his his expression either. "Well, the College is where you go if you're sick or hurt, or if you want to learn something specific. Maybe even teach it one day." He wondered if Beltane was there and what he might be learning... was he a Professor or a never-ending Student? He smiled meekly at the thought, but his gaze lingered on his friend. "Those kind of things really shouldn't be left to one wolf... what if something happened to her and nobody else knew what they were doing? The same goes with the Army... if your father or friends were unable to fight... then what?" There always seemed to be a warm body in the Army, he thought to himself.

"It just seems like a precarious way to live. Violence can happen anywhere, at any time... I would know..." he said, his mouth going dry with discomfort as his shoulders tensed. "I just don't want to see all that we have crumble, it would put a lot of families at risk." The chaos... he knew it would be too much. It was already a lot. The idea that out there, somewhere, Alexei's family was just living in peace was a fantasy to him. Impossible, unreacable, for something on so large a scale as Rionnach.

"Have you thought about what you want to do? The Army is always looking for soldiers and working together would be a blast. Or perhaps you could learn about medicine, plants or whatever those smart wolves do up in Melrose."

...don't wanna cry but i break that way

code by claerie

A

lexei's friend seemed astonished at the reddened man's homeland. Lex did know that Baelfire had never left Rionnach. He'd leaned that the first time the two had met. He also remembered himself telling Baelfire there wasn't much out there. The cynic in him made it easier to think that way. Because if he thought too much about it; it'd break his heart. Knowing adventure and his homeland could lay outside the realm of this Kingdom. But, for now, he wanted to explore here, and stay with the friends he'd made. It'd make his mother and father proud. And there was a good chance that Moira wouldn't even be there. That was who he missed most.

Baelfire explained in between Alexei's own words, filling him in on what the College was. It seemed interesting. He knew very little about it. Just that there were teachers and students that seemed intrigued by herbs. Which was great and all, but Alexei found little interest in the plants that seemed to inhabit most of the world. There were so many others that found joy in them, but Alexei knew the basics. His mother had well-versed him in the common painkillers such as dandelions and how to make a splint with cobweb and a sturdy stick. Though, Baelfire made a good point. "Auntie" was older. Not elder, but nearing there when he left. Would his mother take over after? And then maybe one of his siblings who had returned? Or would they be left to no one? Though, the many questions that whirled through Alexei's mind were eased that everyone had always pitched in, therefore, they would find a way. They always had. "I... Hm, I don't know. I think, they'd find a way. But..." It was a lot simpler to have this kind of structure, Alexei thought. "We were small, it was all we really had.. Was each other. We weren't this big." So maybe, for a kingdom like this, it worked, because there were sections dedicated to each form of work. And like his father, there had to be someone went to for all history and such. Was that what a king was? A knowledge holder?

Baelfire expressed his own concerns and Alexei had no choice but to nod along, because he understood that would worry him too. If something happened to the structure, the masses would get hurt, affected in some way. "I see how it works here. There are a lot of families to think about..." His voice in agreement with his friend, looking around at the many families and couples that walked through the marketplace. "Bael... How was the King picked? Does.. he know a lot?" He felt somewhat dumb for asking this question, as Bael seemed so well versed here. But his friend wouldn't think of him like that. It was just the prickling of worried thoughts in the back of his mind that seemed to hop into the front of his mind with no consent.

The question of what Alexei wanted to do within the vast land of Rionnach made him clam up a little. The thought of being in an Army... Well, that was not for Alexei. He did not know how to fight on a professional scale. Nor did he know this land that well to be an enforcer of its laws. "Army? I don't think I'm cut out for that... as fun as working with you would be!" He assures his friend that it is not him that he doesn't want to work with, but the incapability of knowing how to enforce and telling others what to do when he barely knows what to do. Medicine? Plants? Alexei's lips twitched, he didn't want to dismiss his friend, but also, he did not find interest in that sort of thing... Was he just a waste of space here? A deflated sense washes over Alexei, his shoulders somewhat sagging and his eyes straying from his friend, "Oh... The College... Yeah.. Maybe..." He tried to sound somewhat interested; as not to disappoint his friend or make Baelfire think of him as some mooch. He just... didn't know if either would be a good fit for him.

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

@Baelfire

baelfire
does she know that we bleed the same...

"I suppose you'd have to do what you'd have to do," he said. It wasn't ideal, but he did realize that not every place ran the same. There were likely other groups run by Kings and Queens, or perhaps some other form of government as well as places opposingly not ran by anything at all. They would be goverened by the laws of the wild and for those wolves, he felt truly sorry.

His ears perked at the question about how the King was 'chosen' and he shrugged. "Well, King Adamh took over after Prince Jacon and his mother were run out, but I'm sure he knows plenty. He seems like a kind and just ruler to me. Better than Jacob would have been," he said. He didn't know either personally but a wolf who would attempt assassinations was no wolf he'd support. As their conversation turned, Alexei didn't seem all that interested in any of Baelfire's suggestions and he shrugged again, stepping forward to bump his friend's shoulder. "You don't have to decide now, or at all. It's whatever you want to do. The Army wouldn't want a soldier whose heart wasn't in it anyway, and I'm sure the college is the same. There are other things you can do to pull your weight. Like... babysitting," he said with a wide, toothy smile.

With that he turned and headed towards the crowd, motioning for Alexei to follow.

"Come on, let's head into town," he said. They could probably find something interesting to do, or some markets to peruse. They needn't sit and debate politics all afternoon, that would be boring!

exit

...don't wanna cry but i break that way

code by claerie

A

lexei gave a small nod to his friend's realization of how small they were, and how they did indeed, had to do what they had to do. But it seemed to work for them. He hoped it still did and that everyone back home was still within their joyous spirits. He missed them greatly, so much that his chest physically ached if he thought too much about it. So mainly, he didn't. He tried to marinate on his life here and his friends here instead of them. Baelfire's answer made Alexei's eyes focus in on him instead of the impending ache of his heart and he somewhat smiled. It was a rare look for Alexei, but seemingly was becoming a common thing around Baelfire. Alexei listened to him, with his ears tilting in and out with curiosity about the King and Prince. He'd not known of a Prince. He was still very new, obviously, to all of this but, nonetheless was glad that, one, he had a friend who was born here, and two, that the King sounded kind. "I see..." He hummed, after Baelfire finished his sentiment about Prince Jacob. If they were run out, it was probably for the best. And he had to trust Baelfire here.

'You don't have to decide now, or at all.' Baelfire's voice relieved the burden that felt like a pit in the bottom of his stomach. Alexei truly didn't know what he wanted to do. He barely knew anything at all about this nation. He wanted to get to know a little more before he settled into anything... But it was getting about time. He'd almost been here for a year. He took a breath and let the calming words that came from his friend soothe him. That he did not have to choose. Bael mentioned the Army and the College and he then, too, nodded along. He didn't think he had it in him to feign interest in herbs. Maybe he'd find it interesting if he wasn't so spacey. And he knew he didn't have it in him to be in the Army. Alexei's heart swelled with a gratefulness that his friend could understand his strife in the matter. It only continued the joy he felt being alongside him. A laugh came from his lips, eyes closed and head tilted back; at the mention of babysitting. "Well, of course! But I don't think that would be a job. I'd do it for fun." He insisted with a chuckle. Though babysitting might be a little out of his range, he'd try though.

Then, Bael motioned for Alexei to follow him into the crowd, which he did. 'Come on, let's head into town,' Lex nodded and trailed in tow of his one-eyed friend.

art and code by Yahtzee-Penguiduck

@Baelfire ;; exit <3