A Brother by Any Other Name

[Danielle]

May 20th | Closed to Scamp for now. Will eventually open up to the other Dawnseekers.

---

A warm, yet still surprisingly cool breeze drifted through the Dawnseeker’s camp, chilling the residents as they went about their daily tasks. One member, in particular, had just finished helping the sled dogs pull a bundle of wood over to the newest construction site. Sure, maybe he hadn’t been much help, he wasn’t even half the size of those sled dogs, but he still tried his best, and that was what counted.

Now, after the task had been completed and the animals dismissed, the cocker spaniel boy made his way over to the mess hall, looking to get a well-deserved snack after his hard work. On his way there, he spotted a familiar gray pelt and diverted his destination. A skip came into his step as he trotted over to his brother, giving the other dog a quick nudge to alert him to his presence before calling his name.

“Hiya Scamp!” Danny said, stumpy tail barely visible against the speed of its wag. “Whatcha doing?” he asked, looking around his brother to try and take a guess at what the other dog was doing.

[Scamp]

Scamp found it easier to adjust after awhile. Even though the pain of his father's death was still fresh in his mind. The brisk wind blew through his fur. Sitting down, his thoughts started to wonder. He found himself suddenly turning to a cocker spaniel. He knew who they were. He found himself calling his sister his brother now, and he had gotten used to it, so he just went with the flow.

"Hey, Danny!" he said to his brother. He tried to give him a smile, but his thoughts prevent that smile from feeling real. He scratched at his ear with his paw as he waited for a response.

[Danielle]

At his brother’s rather lackluster response, Danny’s head tilted slightly to the side. He knew his brother’s pain, he felt it himself rather deeply, and while he would never be so cruel as to tell his brother to force himself to be happy, he still couldn’t help but wonder why it was hitting Scamp so hard. Was it because he’d been closer to their father than any of them, or was he still beating himself up over what happened when he ran away? Maybe it was both? Whatever it was, seeing his brother so down made the young cocker not feel so good himself. He suddenly came to the realization that he wasn’t really hungry anymore.

“You okay, bro?” Danny asked, turning worried, and slightly sad, big brown eyes up to lock with his brothers. A small smile that he hoped was comforting pulling at the ends of his muzzle.

[Scamp]

Scamp looked up quickly. "Hmm? Oh yeah, I'm fine," Scamp lied. He had to, he didn't want to worry him, nor did he want to divulge what made him sad in the first place. He was still trying to recover from what happened in France. It still shook him. Even after a month or two it still bothered him. He couldn't seem to get past this, and as much as he wanted to, he could never ever seem to smile as much as he did before.

The comforting smile his brother gave him made him feel a bit better, but not very much. The young dog wished he could be happier, but something kept holding him back. He glanced at Danny. "What about you, are you okay? Are you adjusting? Have you seen our mother recently?" he asked, his questions coming like bullets, but Scamp couldn't help it. He had been wondering about his mother, Lady, but hadn't seen her in quite some time, after since he left France.

[Danielle]

Daniel let out a small sigh as his brother offered only a short and simple answer to his question. Did he understand what his brother felt at that moment? Of course, he did, Scamp wasn’t the only one who had lost a father back in Paris after all, they both had, and it had affected them just as equally. Danny wished with every part of himself that his father was still with them, but for as slow as the young dog seemed to be, he also knew that there was no changing what happened. No matter how hard they wished for it.

Big brown eyes lowered as Danny looked away from his brother, seeming to give him a moment of time to himself. When Scamp spoke up once again though, Danny’s gaze shot right back up to him.

"What about you, are you okay? Are you adjusting? Have you seen our mother recently?"

Fluffy, dark brown ears pulled back as Danny offered a small smile in return. “I’m okay. Well, as okay as can be, I guess…” He trailed off for a moment, lowering his gaze once more before looking back up at Scamp at the mention of their mother.

“Mom? Oh, she’s okay. Well, sorta. She took us back home after what happened with Dad… It was after that that I came looking for ya. I knew you’d left after… y’know, but I never knew where you went…” He trailed again, glancing off to the side before giving his head a small shake.

“Anyway, Mom’s okay. She’s back home with Jim Dear, and Darling, and Junior. Her and our sisters.”

Just as the cocker had finished speaking, a sound off to the side of them caught his attention. Looking up, Danny expected to see someone approaching them, but decided to wait for that someone to speak first.

---

Thread is now open to all Dawnseekers!

[Ronno, The Broken]

Though he had indeed heard that the Dawnseekers were large in numbers that seemed set to swell further, the sheer size of the Camp alone had still somehow managed to surprise him. Ronno walked with an air of guarded uncertainty, notched ears near constantly swivelling towards the surrounding sounds, the stag kept his silence.

Instead, he seemed to drink in the hustle and bustle, still processing. While he had lingered in the Camp for a number of days? He hadn't exactly been the most...Talkative. He had been sure to lend a hand when needed but overall, those around him were no more than a sea of strange and unfamiliar faces.

For once in his life, Ronno - whose arrogance had once seemed to know no bounds - felt lost. Perhaps even more so than he had before, aimlessly wandering. Still, he supposed he’d have to make some sort of effort eventually, thus he had slowed to a halt, searching. Searching for someone, anyone, even a little less busy than the majority of creatures around him.

It was only then that his gaze settled upon the pair. Dogs, if he recalled correctly, dogs and yet…Not. Different, somehow. For they did not seem to be the same sort of dogs man often used. That realisation appeared to boost his stunted confidence, approaching the pair after only a moment of hesitation.

Naturally, he had waited for their conversation to subside before clearing his throat, and even then, he still felt…Awkward. Almost as if he didn’t belong, a passing thought which was frankly bizarre, all things considered. Between them, surely, he was better fit for war than they were…

“…Apologies for…Interrupting, the two of you.” A terse smile was all Ronno could think to offer, “-I was hoping that somebody could point me in the proper direction of…Wherever, it is, that I might be most useful.” It was almost painful for him, to recognise how uncertain he supposed he appeared, painful still to realise that it couldn’t be helped either. Compared to many, he was still somewhat unused to the concept of all-out war.

[The Gourmand]

“Crop fields.”

The voice was as distinctive as it was sudden. The Gourmand. His machine’s hum was audible as it hovered closer. He was taking a bit of a break but thought it would look bad on him if he, at any time, appeared to be doing nothing -- so he found some soldiers to talk to. Though he was an officer, his voice lacked the tone of authority (which he was more than capable of using if he wanted to) to suggest his statement was an order. When he stopped, he tilted his head in the direction of the small open squares of dirt the Dawnseekers were trying to grow crops in.

“You can pull a plow can’t you?” he asked the buck.

The Gourmand knew the deer was neither an ox nor horse, but as he was unaccustomed to land animals, he just assumed Ronno was close enough.

He turned his attention to the canines. Not natives of this army but the Gourmand felt his natural suspicion lessened upon being made aware of their treatment in their original army. He was more than a little tempted to apologize for the Rogue’s behavior a second time. But he didn’t. In fact he seemed lost for a few seconds as to what he should say. He just looked down, ever-calculating crimson eyes glinting in the shadow cast over his face from the sun. It was a little intimidating for a while, because he didn’t make it clear what he wanted, until he said;

“Lovely afternoon.”

[Ronno, The Broken]

'Crop Fields'

Ronno's ears had registered the voice well before he himself actually appeared to, the near-constant swivelling of such, given the camp in itself was alive with sound, now having ceased in favour of pin-pointing its source, now partially turning to face such.

At a glance? The buck's features could seem almost cold or indifferent upon meeting the gaze of what he could only describe as the creature. It was not intentional, of course, but the stoic mask was much preferred to openly showing what he felt; namely uncertainty, perhaps even a rather snobbish degree of discomfort.

While it was true the buck had been wise enough to try and gauge a sense of 'who was in charge of what' without being too obvious since his arrival, only openly bothering to ask if truly needed or not already introduced in some way, he was still often unnerved by the sights that met him.

This undoubtedly applied to The Gourmand himself, for neither his sight nor smell appealed to the deer in the slightest, ever-unfamiliar with the creatures of the sea, if not the sea itself. 

Indeed, the only waters he knew of were fresh.

Still, even if the Gourmand was not already recognised as an important figure - despite his tone suggesting otherwise - Ronno would never have been fool enough to show any open disrespect, let alone actively intend to offend his fellow Dawnseekers. 

Thus, eyes soon trailing the gaze of the Gourmand as he spoke, the buck would muster a polite smile as he nodded. Not entirely sure of what exactly a plough did, though eventually putting the pieces together the longer his eyes lingered upon the fields, he soon supposed it didn't matter regardless. After all, he'd only been asked to pull it.

"I suppose so. I have never tried..." Admitted he, eyes soon shifting back to The Gourmand, clearly curious as to whether his inexperience would pose any problems.