when by now and tree by leaf

continuation of this thread, @benry?

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"Olives aren't poisonous, though they might taste it." the woman continued their conversation, clarifying this Very Important Point as the two ascended the full height of The Hireath, hauling themselves up the small, winding trails that led them up and over the lip of the crater's bowl. Olive didn't know where they were headed — after all, she hadn't truly any duties that needed tending — but at the very least, Benry was outside of Little Haven's potential wrath and she could process the entire scenario whilst taking a stroll towards some unknown destination. A very real part of Olive thought he must be crazy, and therefore, not likely to follow-through with what he said.

What he meant by 'im gonna have to follow you round'  was 'we're just playing a game,' right?

The witch tossed her head back and rolled her shoulders as she sauntered abreast the cat. "They can serve as nutriment when there is no prey, if you're starving." She offered up these facts because he seemed at least somewhat interested in herbology and the art of plants, with his interest in weeds and kush and oregano and poisoned olives. "Perhaps you've never experienced such troubles before," the waifish wolf assumed, looking over the feline and knowing instinctively there was no need for a mountain lion to entertain any knowledge of plants and survival tactics. The muscled, serpentine creature was clearly a killing machine.

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his brain had shut off. it was really the best way to describe the blankness that had descended on his face as they ascended the sinkhole. the overwhelming expanse of the plains hadn't helped him much; his consciousness flattened to expand with the endlessness of his surroundings, a toneless, low buzzing making up his brain waves. he was vaguely aware of the words being said, only jerking back into awareness when he felt her gaze on him. “wha?” he said after few moments when his awareness had recollected.
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Olive watched the man as he appeared to be overtaken by the vast endlessness of the plains, inherently understanding him because she felt it herself, somewhat. These lands were interminable and indistinguishable; so dry that they held no real biotic or herbal value. Perhaps that might be why she traveled often to the lands beyond, under the guise of scouting, though not once had she harbored true intentions of conducting businesses on her travel.

“Nothing,” the sprite noted lackadaisically, turning her gaze back towards the path they trod, which revealed itself just as they placed their pawpads upon the earth. Honestly, she had even bored herself on the topic of the life-sustaining qualities of olives. Instead, she was intensely interested in more about him — it wasn't often she encountered one of his kind. In fact, Olive had been so certain that she would have been met with hostility, that she saw this as her 'golden opportunity.' So, the sylph simply asked as they bopped along at a leisurely pace, “Where are you from?”

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he could feel the glitching, the buzzing that clouded his brain as it tried in vain to coalesce into something coherent and purposeful. his ears and tailtip began to twitch somewhat, to ground his mind as its senses were overwhelmed. with her answer, his mind began to wander once more, content for the moment that he had no pressing questions to consider until—

benry's brows came together as he pondered how to respond to this. “mmmm...” benry was silent after his contemplative noise. a little longer than was really necessary for such a crucial question. “dunno.” he eventually said. it was really the truth, though he didn't dwell on it for long. it didn't matter. he didn't like thinking about that anyway. it was bad enough he had the collar on.
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Olive could not help but furrow her brow and pull her chin back in a grimace when her companion let the question roll off his back, unperturbed by it's very utterance and feeling no responsibility to return it with an answer. Olive hadn't know this cat for very long — really, it had only been a few moments — but she had glimpsed two interesting aspects of him: the jocular part that used crazy words and make-believe ideas, and then... this part. The witch found this part to be somewhat dull, but not unwelcome. She was willing to pick up his slack in the conversation.

"You don't know?" Benry certainly wasn't the first soul she had met in these lands who did not remember their past, but it surprised Olive every time. "Really?" Plus, Olive simply assumed the cougar prowling at her side was simply shaking off her question (the thing on his neck must have an explanation, after all), so she continued to prod. "I have traveled far, from the land I was born..." The woman gestured to some indeterminate point in the far distance with her black-button nose. "...but I still remember them."

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he thought that was enough to get her off of his back, but she continued, staring at him with something like...

uhh...he didn't really know.

“yeah,” he said, firmer this time. but she kept going rambling on about her home. benry squinted, his face scrunching as he tried to suss out why exactly she was bothering him with all of this. “ok. good for you?” he shrugged. he didn't get why this mattered.
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It was interesting how her prodding seemed to activate him, however subtly, into some sort of response. It wasn't exactly a pleasant response, and for the first moment, Olive began to wonder about the soul behind the silly non-sensical exterior. It only figured that he did not have happy memories of the past, or that he truly did not remember, and this caused him pain. Almost immediately her heart went out to him, and she could feel the emotion coalesce in a knot in her throat, because who hadn't felt that way before? Who didn't miss their home, some way, some how?

"Sorry," Olive muttered apologetically, unable to help how her demeanor sank at the realization that she had found a stray, homeless kitty. He was obviously crying out for help and deeply seeking a home, so much so, that he was willing to co-exist with wolves to find it. If Olive didn't fully believe that she would get a faceful of claws, she would have stopped right then and there and swept Benry into an embrace; but she didn't. Instead she turned her nose back towards the endless, pointless road, and said "Little Haven might actually let you stay," Olive glanced at him out the side of her jade-colored eye, but her attention whipped back to the horizon. "For real."

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while she was pitying the cougar, benry's brain returned back to a buzzing amorphous entity, thinking vaguely of the trek ahead, the landscape tugging at his psyche, stretching it like dough. he vaguely thinks that he hates this. hates how much his mind was turned into mush, despite his best efforts to stim and bring it all back.

“li'l wha?” he squints at her. her talking helps a bit to ground him, which is part of the reason why he has stayed so long. that and the fact he was her parole officer now, neurodivergency and all. “m'kay. cool.” he shrugs. they didn't have much of a choice, really.
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"Little Haven," Olive corrected, finding a pace that suited her tendency towards leisure but also matched the length of the cat's strides. It manifested as something like a sweeping trot; an easy, bouncy movement that felt good on her muscle and her bones and provided a nice metronome for her thoughts. If the woman didn't truly have a task for them to complete, as she had eluded to before, then perhaps a nice stroll and stretch of her legs was a worthwhile task in and of itself. "My pack," she continued to clarify, wishing there was a way she could quickly summarize the acceptance process of packs; but she couldn't find the words for it, so she left Benry to assume that it wasn't his home, yet. First, they'd have to ask permission for what might be the strangest ask of all time.

But first, to drum up conversation, she proffered information about herself. The two were practically strangers, after all. "I work as their druid, knowing the earth and how it affects all of life itself," Why was it, whenever she explained what she did, it always sounded so pretentious? At times, because of her calling, it felt that she was destined to always be misunderstood by those who didn't pursue the art themselves. "It's not an easy job, but I have fun with it," the sylph chimed, leaving an opening for him to add comment or question about his new parolee.

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*injects some backstory*

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“li'l haven,” he repeated. the place certainly looked the part, thought the wolves so far looked very sus in terms of their criminal history. “li'l haven fer criminals?” he joked. “wassa....wassa pack?” he'd heard the term before, but wasn't sure what she meant in this context. he was expecting something like...cabal, or mob.

she continued on about her duties and it seemed that—

oh.

oh.

benry stopped in his tracks. a grave expression wiped away his confused but lackadaisical demeanor.

oh.

oh, no.

he knew a different word for her type, but the description was all the same. his least favorite people, if he even had a scale of that type. he felt a familiar, though long absent tingling in a Y down his chest and belly, pinpricks on his haunches that were many and old and healed but he swore he could still feel them. “now i defff...” he felt a hiss slip through his fricative. he paused and shook his head, then turned from her all together. he grit his teeth, his tail lashing, his ears twitching like a storm. “i definitely gotta watchu.” he turned back and glared at her, a quiet accusation growing alongside his pupils. “mmmhm. exxxxxxtra ssssecurity...”
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He asked, so she explained, finding it oddly humbling to break down customary social dynamics as if she were talking to a pup. "A pack is a group of wolves that have decided to live with one another, and help each other." Packs were truly the strength of wolfkind, and was what made them the most fearsome, perhaps even over large cats and bears. "Some packs are bound by blood, but here, we all seem to be... misfits, that somehow found one another." Olive had never been a part of a blood-tie; she had left her home pack the moment she knew she wanted to. Of all the packs she had experienced between then and now, Little Haven was certainly the most eclectic. You'll fit right in, she thought, raising an eyebrow at Benry, suddenly certain of this above anything else.

That moment of assurance did not last long, as she then watched his face contort, then his entire demeanor shift away from her; the sporadic twitching of his ears stirred an uneasy energy in her belly, and it rose fast. "Are you alright?" the little witch questions with something that resembled empathy.

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he was only half listening. he was sociable, but he was still a cat. the concept of an organized group was a foreign concept, especially in practice. he had watched another social group...before, but never engaged, keeping to himself. he looked back quizzically at her as she raised and eyebrow. what was with the dreamworks face?

he hadn't expected to think about it: the before™. he had woken here confused, but not amnesiac. he remembered everything, even though his consciousness largely allowed him to stop thinking about it. the collar didn't help, but he got used to the weight. he wasn't even sure if it would work here. she kept prodding, though the words themselves were spoken kindly, they were still too much. “sssshhhhhhut up — shut. up!” he rounded on her, hissing. for once he looked something like a normal cougar would in the presence of a wolf — all fangs and flattened ears. “i dunwanna talk 'bout it. please?” his voice dropped into a mew, his eyes wide and pleading.
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Damn this bleeding heart of hers! It was as if Benry knew the easiest way to make Olive squirm was to encourage her sympathies, and he was exploiting it. Of course, the cat wasn't truly doing anything of the sort, but Olive felt incapacitated in the same way. Something had triggered him, which meant he had experienced a trauma, one that resulted in him losing his home. He might be her parole officer, but Olive decided them to take on the role of caretaker — to the best of her ability, and the most that he would let her.

"Okay," the pale woman said simply, not wanting to incite him further. They had stopped in their walking, and Benry himself was taking on such a sad, slackened posture, the Olive suddenly wished to escort him to The Hireath and allow him to heal amongst the safety and the darkness. "I—" she began, paused, and decided to rephrase her statement. "I have to admit, I have no where to go and nothing to do." Finally, the jig was up! What had begun as an attempt to rid Little Haven of an intruder was now, for all intents and purposes, futile. If anything, they just needed to move on from this particular moment in time. "

"Want to head back to The Hireath and I can show you around?"

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some part of him began to settle as she acquiesced, but he was still wound up, mental snares and defenses being activated and on alert for anything else. even as he relaxed, he looked at her suspiciously, waiting for some trick to make him spill.

it didn't come, not in the moment. she instead admitted to another ruse, one he was less concerned about. his whiskers twitched. what was the hiraeth, again? “yeah,”
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