Amberfeather thought for a moment before he began. Storytelling in the Vale was not quite elevated to the level that it is in the Shin'a'in with their shamans, but it still was an art that they didn't take lightly.

"This morning, I woke up late, which always starts my day off with me feeling sour," he began, breathing through his nose to calm himself as the remembrances of his day threatened to cause him to feel stressed again. "I am not a morning person, and I do like the chance to slowly awaken, and the chance to break my fast very deliberately and in my sleeping robes. But I awakened late, so I needed to get up immediately."

Amberfeather glanced around the room to judge how his story was being received, and he saw many looks of interest and good humor. Feeling better, he continued a little more happily.

"I didn't even get a chance to eat a hot meal, but only had time to grab a piece of fruit that I could eat while I was on my scouting circuit. Hyyeh was also sleeping late, but he wouldn't even deign to awaken even when I him. He just kept sleeping! I should have known it was going to be a bad day since he always seems to be on top of everything… if I didn't know any better, I'd say he has a touch of ForeSight, as they've got in k'Valdemar!" Amberfeather laughed, and they all joined him.

"Your bird has ForeSight? Well, if that's the case, my bird has hindsight, the way he always scolds me whenever anything goes wrong, like he knew it wouldn't work, but I was too dumb to listen to him!" Winterflower added, which caused a further burst of hilarity before they settled and asked him to continue his story.

Amberfeather told them about Winddancer catching him tripping and shared how embarrassing that was, which only added to the annoyance of being hungry and grouchy from sleeping too long. He told them about the dyheli buck that he couldn't convince to remain calm, and had therefore trampled him once he was free.

"After being trampled, I was really in a mood. If anyone had been around me, they likely could have seen the black clouds surrounding me. Then Hyyeh shows up! It was not a good time for him to arrive. I was admittedly, regrettably extremely angry, and I took it out on him, by calling him a few choice words."

He smiled and reached a hand out to Hyyeh, who showed he didn't hold a grudge by allowing Amberfeather to stroke the soft feathers on his belly.

"Words like 'lazy,' 'featherbrained,' and the like didn't sit well with Hyyeh, so he promptly smacked me on the head with his wings and left. It was the sensible thing to do; I wasn't fit company for anyone. Of course he managed to hit a spot that was already a little sore from the dyheli, because otherwise, it wouldn't be keeping with my luck."

"It wasn't a good idea on my part to alienate Hyyeh, because I need him when I patrol," he gave Hyyeh a proud smile. "He is a very helpful bondbird, even more so than they normally are. Since he's a hawk, I can use him as an extra set of eyes to see things far away, and also to warn me if anything is not right."

The scouts nodded, understanding, and the mages looked thoughtful. Amberfeather knew that they chose their birds more for companionship and to assist with small errands such as message delivering, so they might not be familiar with this concept.

"After he left, things became even worse! I continued on my route, and I met with signs of someone having passed through the woods. There were broken branches and other signs of passage, which you know couldn't come from any of us; we all know better. Besides, why would anyone be outside the Vale?"

Amberfeather paused in his story to take a quick drink of his chava, allowing the creamy taste to sooth his throat.

"I decided to not follow the intruder's trail on the ground, and instead put on my climbing gear and began working my way through the trees. I followed the signs, and found him, sleeping all stretched out on the ground.

"I didn't want to have to hurt him, of course, but knew I would have to remove the threat to the Vale if he didn't accept the fact he was trespassing and not welcome. Normally, I simply don't approach strangers unless I have several others as backup, as it just makes sense that way. No sense endangering myself when it is easy to get the two closest to me to drift toward me, in case I need back up.

"Of course, this is when Hyyeh would have be invaluable help… he simply would alert the closest bondbirds and have them tell their bondmates that I needed assistance. Since I didn't have Hyyeh, I had to do it myself, so I had to hike back the way I had come, extra quietly, and talk to other scouts."

Amberfeather stopped here, and looked embarrassed again. "I couldn't find anyone! I knew that Winddancer was nearby, because I had seen her, but she might as well have vanished for all I could locate her or any trace of her. I then began to worry that the sleeping trespasser had done something to her. I looked for Silvercloud, but he was nowhere to be found, either.

"To make a long story shorter, I panicked, and began tearing through the woods like a madman. Winddancer and Silvercloud both appeared suddenly, intent on shooting me through the heart, because obviously I was an Outlander, since no Hawkbrother would make that much noise!

"It's a miracle I didn't shoot him," admitted Winddancer. "He was running and yelling and carrying on, and I knew Amberfeather wasn't like that!"

Amberfeather blushed. He hated appearing this way in front of Winddancer. He had been considering offering her a feather since he wanted to get to know her better, much better, but knew he would never be brave enough after all of the embarrassing things Winddancer had witnessed. Oh, well. He was young, and he supposed he could always ask to be sent to k'Treva or somewhere else to live.

"So not only did I look like a fool, I apparently had been unable to follow the regular signs to where they were. In the mean time, they had discovered my little interloper and had taken care of it for me. This made me feel even stupider."

"So after that, "Amberfeather started again in a rush, determined to finish up this list of his faults, "I tried to pretend nothing had happened, but I felt wretched."

"I then tore my new shirt on a branch I walked too close to, I lost one of my boots inexplicably when I took it off to remove a rock, I got lost trying to return to the Vale, and when I did finally got back, I went straight to my ekele and ripped up one of the new plants I had planted." Amberfeather shook his head after these final events, and sighed with relief. "I must say I do feel better now, though I'm not sure if it is because I am relaxing in this lovely pool, or getting it off my chest."

He smiled at the people who had come to join him. "Okay, who's next? I want to hear something to make me feel better!"

There was a brief silence as everyone looked around the pool as if seeing who would volunteer. Winterflower stretched lazily, and piled her hair on top of her head, attempting to keep it out of the water.

"I will," she said, and leaned back in the water. "Let's see… how shall I begin?"

Thank you for making it this far! I will update very soon (maybe the 1st week or so of January?) Let me know how it's going, if you like it... etc. Reviews encourage writers, don't ever let anyone tell you differently!