Log Date: 12/27/95
Log Intro: It's some several eights of days after the departure of
both Jasmael's party for Blue Mountain, and Rillwhisper and Strongbow's
leavetaking for Lostholt, and the Whitecold that has ensued at Willowholt
has proven to be a mostly quiet one. With Rillwhisper's son as acting
chief of the Holt, the Willowholt has moved into this winter as it does
into most, peacefully -- until Woodhawk wakes up one afternoon with
the uneasy, formless feeling that something is wrong....


----------
Woodhawk is perched on the log, frowning restlessly to himself, and staring 
  off vaguely northward.

No-fur climbs into a branch somewhere.

Woodhawk's left ear twitches at the slight sound of his son's movements, and 
  he glances up distractedly.
No-fur looks down (sorry for the lag). "Hey, father."

Woodhawk smiles a bit wanly, and nods his head. "Son...."

No-fur streeeeeetches out lazilly.
No-fur smiles down at you.

Woodhawk grins a bit, and asks, "How does it feel to be chief for a while?"

No-fur giggles. "Um..... boring, mostly. :)"
No-fur says "Mom kinda has it easy. :)"

Woodhawk frowns a bit, then, brown gaze going oddly disturbed. "Yes," he 
  agrees readily enough, though for some reason he doesn't sound quite as sure 
  as he should.

No-fur peers down at you. "You okay?"?

Woodhawk frowns, distractedly. "Slept badly," he informs you, "woke up feeling 
  like I'd had a bad dream, but I can't remember what it was about. Something 
  about Rill."

No-fur frowns.
No-fur sends openly ** Don't remember _anything_ about it? **

Woodhawk shakes his head. Random flecks of gold spark in his gaze, and the air 
  around him has gotten, very slightly, warmer. "Nothing. Just that... 
  something bad happened to her."

No-fur blinks. "Say what?"

Woodhawk shifts his regard back to you, measuringly. "I woke up feeling as 
  though something bad had happened to her," he repeats. And studies you, 
  gauging your reaction.

No-fur me looks REALLY concerned. "What do you mean 'something'"?

Woodhawk considers this, dark eyebrows drawn together. "The feeling of the 
  dream was that... she hadn't died... but that she was in danger."

No-fur says "How sure are you? That it wasn't just a bad dream, that is?"

Woodhawk adds, still watching you, "You think this is more than a dream." It's 
  not a question, at least not entirely. His voice rises just a bit on the 
  last word, leaving a hint of a question in his words, and at your own 
  question he continues, "Not at all sure, I'll admit. Don't know whether it's 
  just our furs wanting changing, or something bad that I ate, or... a true 
  feeling."

No-fur looks deep in thought for a moment.
No-fur sends openly ** Well, -I- don't think I remember anything. **
No-fur thinks more.

Woodhawk lifts one of his dark eyebrows. "Don't tell me you've slept badly 
  too?"

No-fur says "I'm not sure I'd say _badly_..."

You say "But?"

No-fur shrugs. "I don't usually put much thought to it."
No-fur says "Why didn't you come talk to me earlier, fire-father?"

Woodhawk lets out a breath, and almost smiles. "I only woke up a little while 
  ago myself. And I've been trying to piece this out in my head, ever since I 
  woke up..."

No-fur sighs and whimpers.

Woodhawk leans over and looks up at you from under the branch. "It might be
  nothing," he offers levelly.

No-fur sighs. "You don't think it's nothing."

Woodhawk admits, "I'm... worried." His voice turns a bit husky. "But she's 
  been gone for moons..."

No-fur says "So what happened."
No-fur doesn't look like a happy camper right now, nope.

Woodhawk leans against the tree below you, frowning to himself, as he stares 
  out across the Holt. "I don't remember much of it," he says again, "just the 
  feeling I had when I woke up."

No-fur sighs, whimpering.
No-fur says "Well, what do you think we should do?"

Woodhawk looks up quietly at you, and says, "I need to determine whether this 
  is... more than a dream."
You say "And whether it stays with me, I think."

No-fur says "In other words, we wait."

Woodhawk says, still quietly, "You're acting chief, son. I can only advise you 
  -- but if you have an opinion, I'd like to hear it."

No-fur thinks about it. "Well, I can't think of anything we really _can_ do, 
  you know?"

Rainfire emerges from the willow tree.
Rainfire has arrived.
Rainfire steps out of the tree, sliding a bundle of freshly fletched arrows 
  into his quiver.

Woodhawk stands, leaning against the Old Willow, peering up into the branches 
  at the brooding figure of No-fur. He looks around, though, as Rainfire 
  arrives, and nods to him. The firestarter looks distracted, and tense, 
  though he smiles a bit at the other's arrival.

Fhen has connected.
Fhen waves.

Woodhawk shoves a hand through his hair, and, a beat after spying Rainfire, 
  glances round again as Fhen emerges from the surrounding trees. There's a 
  slightly strained set to Woodhawk's features, but he nods readily enough to 
  the young elf.

Rainfire looks around, a faint frown settled between his brows, ** What is 
  amiss? You feel far from here, Woodhawk. **

Woodhawk looks back to Rainfire, levelly. "Had a bad dream this morning, 
  cousin."

Rainfire shrugs the strap of the quiver over his shoulder and settles it on 
  his hip. He glances back up at Woodhawk. ** That seems to be happening too 
  often. It bodes ill. What did you dream? **

Woodhawk crosses his arms, leaning back against the Old Willow again. His gaze 
  on Rainfire is thoughtful. "That something happened to Rillwhisper," he says 
  succintly.

Rainfire's gaze snaps immediately to Woodhawk's, that frown worrying itself 
  deeper into his brow. "I /knew/ she'd been gone for too long."

"It might," Woodhawk points out, though with one eyebrow quirked, "be only a 
  dream."

"It might," Rainfire concedes, "But the way my fur's been prickling the past 
  several days, it might not be too."

Woodhawk frowns.
You say "Prickling... how?"

Rainfire paces over to the log and sits, dragging a furrow in the earth with a 
  booted heel. "Rill's been gone overlong, 'hawk. She's been out of my range 
  to feel for long enough to raise my hackles."

You say "Lostholt is out of sending range."

Fhen gets up and climbs into the tree next to No-fur, siting down beside him. 
  He lays his head on the other elf's shoulder.

No-fur me quietly puts his arm around Fhen.
No-fur nuzzles Fhen.

Fhen nuzzles back.

Woodhawk glances up at the two younger elves, smiles a little, then looks back 
  at Rainfire. "No-fur and I were just talking about what to do about this."

Rainfire rakes that furrow a bit deeper and looks at the ground, eyes gone a 
  touch absent.

Woodhawk eyes the other hunter near him, consideringly. That Rainfire's 
  disturbed by this news of his is of obvious, and Woodhawk's dark eyes 
  flicker a bit golden. He waits, a bit, to see what Rainfire has to say 
  next...

Rainfire sits very still for long minutes and then finally stands and turns, 
  eyes scanning to the north.

[At this point, No-fur's typist runs off to bed; No-fur from here is spoofed
 by Woodhawk's player, with permission.]

Both Woodhawk's eyebrows go up. He'd... looked that way, too, he thinks, and 
  seeing Rainfire do so now, his eyes narrow a little.

Up on the limb overhead, No-fur frowns as well, one arm curled around Fhen as 
  he peers down at his mother's on-again, off-again lovemate.

Rainfire says "She doesn't answer, Woodhawk..."

Woodhawk, as No-fur's frown deepens, accompanied by another of the low 
  whimpers the young chief-son had uttered earlier, looks from face to face. 
  And notes, "As I said... Lostholt _is_ out of sending range... for Rill, at 
  least."

Up on the limb overhead, Fhen snuggles a little closer to No-fur, a worried 
  look on his face.

Rainfire's narrow toward the north as if straining to see with more than his 
  eyes. "Lostholt is not so far as the realm of the Gliders..."
Rainfire sighs in frustration, "Although Rill may be as far north as that..."

Woodhawk pauses at that. True. Then he says slowly, "She's... not dead. I'd 
  know it if she were."

Up on the limb overhead, No-fur pipes up with, ** She'd have sent Fallberry if 
  she were in trouble. She said she'd do that, when she left with Strongbow. **

Rainfire snorts, "Bugs are not always the most reliable bearers of messages."

Up on the branch, No-fur scowls a bit, his purple eyes flickering with a bit 
  of embarrassment as he feels -- at least for an instant -- derided. But he 
  answers calmly, ** Mother can't send as far as you, and Fallberry's the next 
  fastest thing she's got. **

Woodhawk glances up at his son, and nods very slightly, approvingly. 
  "Strongbow _can_ send that far, though," he concedes, now glancing again at 
  Rainfire.

Rainfire turns that over silently for a moment and then looks northward again, 
  a streak of elfthought hurtling away, searching.
Rainfire blinks after a time, shaking his head and breaking off the mental 
  beacon. "I don't know what to make of it."

Woodhawk considers. "You could reach them, if they were at Lostholt?"

Rainfire nods slowly.
Rainfire says "But they're most certainly farther away than that."

Up on the branch, No-fur frowns, snugging Fhen to him reflexively. ** Mother 
  _said_ they were going there... that she was dropping Strongbow off. ** He 
  sounds palpably worried now, and more than a little disturbed.

Rainfire gives a puzzled scowl, "All I get is something faint and there yet 
  not there...I can't quite find the words for it."
Rainfire drops back down on the log and sighs.

Up on the branch, No-fur stares down at Rainfire worriedly. ** _You_ don't 
  think it's just a dream either, ** he sends, bluntly.

Rainfire looks up into the tree. ** No. I don't. **

Woodhawk looks from Rainfire to his son and back again, as No-fur goes on, ** 
  Okay. What do you think we should do about it? ** Something in the 
  white-haired young elf's tone has changed; it's gotten a little harder, a 
  little sterner, as if he's trying to practice sounding like his mother when 
  she's being a chief. But it doesn't sound too out of place with him.

Rainfire glances northward again. ** If I could reach either of them out 
  there, I'd be on Thornclaw and gone already. **
Rainfire says "But right now the best I can think of is to relay to any allies 
  north of us and see if they've been seen."

Up in the branches, No-fur frowns. ** Lostholt's towards Sun-Goes-Up. The 
  Plainsrunners're closer, though. **

Rainfire says "And if they haven't...well, she'd come after any of us if we 
  went missing."

Woodhawk considers. "The... Cavedwellers're up that way, too. Splinterfire's 
  people." As Rainfire goes on, he nods solemnly. And adds, "Maybe some of us 
  could try together to reach her."

Rainfire nods in reply.
Rainfire stands wordlessly and climbs back into the tree, determination 
  written in his posture. Anyone who knows him can likely count on him going 
  to pack for a journey straight away, unwilling to waste any time.
Rainfire pushes aside the willow fronds and steps into the tree.
Rainfire has left.

[End log.]