---

Perhaps it was just her imagination playing a rather clever trick on her, but the obsidian female could have sworn that the pup seemed to be frightened of something. She couldn't be frightened of me, could she? Deception thought. It didn't take a lot of pondering for her to decide that she answer was probably 'no' - after all, she had been so friendly, mentioning that the trees were harmless, even though the concept of a moving, fangirlish tree was kind of weird. Hm, now that she thought about it, being 'ill' - as she had been diagnosed several times, though she sort of doubted it - was probably an extremely good thing. After all, she had made a discovery that no one else in the Valley had known about...until now! She planned to make a real goal out of spreading the word about the trees, and the fact that they were to be evaded (A 'hug' from a significantly heavier object hardly sounded appealing), but by no means to be feared. And what a wonderful spreading of information it would be! Perhaps she would start at the 'Fields, where they would be the most likely to take her seriously, since many of them knew her.

Her mind quickly swerved back towards the situation at hand as she noticed that the small female had stared at her, and then turned her head away for some reason that Cep simply could not fathom. Jeez, the last time she had checked, she had only had one noticeable scar on her face, and that was the one that was near her eye. Other than that, she wasn't hideously ugly - oh, wait. Maybe some sort of unbearable ugliness hadn't been the pup's reason for looking away. Anyway, she proceeded to mention that she was new to the 'Creek and that she had never heard of such things, also stating that the trees were probably afraid of her.

”Really?” Deception replied, a look of interest crossing her face, ”They shouldn't be. As a matter of fact, I'll tell them that...” She turned around, back to the younger female, and gazed meaningfully at the nearby trees. ”Yo, trees!” she shouted, ”Look, she's smaller than you, she's harmless! Stop shakin' in your boots! You don't have to be afraid of anyone!” Now finished with yelling at the plants, she turned around once again to face the pup. ”I think I've convinced them,” she said, smiling proudly.

---

She wasn't necessarily capable of wondering what the pup thought of her, as her mind was currently in a non-working state - well, granted, it worked, but not as normally or sanely as it should have. So, in result, everything that the obsidian female did came across, at least in her eyes, as completely sensible and not at all unusual. The belief that the Valley's trees could think and had feelings was cemented firmly into her mind, and so she hardly considered it irregular. She figured that, if someone had approached her and said something like that out of the blue, she would have believed it - at least, now that she was in a state that she preferred to label as 'enlightened.' It was almost funny how her discovery - at least, the discovery of a temporarily belief, but of course she didn't regard it as such - had given her more confidence. It was also quite a compliment that she could rely on the plants to be her fan club. She had never had a fan club, other than the fake one that her brothers had once started as a joke, a few dozen months ago.

The younger female voiced her appreciation, stating that perhaps she could get to know the trees. ”Glad to be of service,” Deception replied proudly, and then she listened as the pup mentioned that it would be best for her to depart now so that she could get home in a reasonable amount of time. However, in her state of drunken stupor, the dark-pelted female blocked her path every time she attempted to leave the cave, without thought and without reason. To her surprise, the other wolf seemed rather upset. ”Jeez, what's wrong, Queen Mood-swing?” Cep said, rolling her eyes slightly. This was absolutely peculiar. The pup had gone from fear, to staring, to slight humor, to determination, to frustration, all in a few minutes. She was a strange one, at least in the ill wolf's opinion.

---

Deception's jaw dropped as she was asked if she knew what it was like to be cut off from her family. How...how dare this...remembering that she was still gaping, she closed her mouth quickly and bit her lower lip nervously. She had never known that the illness would make her so emotional - and speaking of which, she was starting to turn into what she would surely label as Queen Moodswing, if not for the fact that she didn't really like to insult herself. ”Of course I know,” she said, ”I...I haven't seen my mother and sibling in...in ages! Try comparing that to a few hours spent away from non-blood relatives!" She failed to realize that, since the younger female had joined a pack within these lands, she was probably separated from her actual family, as well. Of course, it would have been much more horrible for a pup, and Cep would have felt deeply sorry for her - if not for her discombobulated condition, which disallowed a more complicated thought process.

Then she was dared, almost encouraged, to take the only thing that the pup had left - her sanity. The words that puzzled her were 'you need it more than I do.' There was a moment of silence as the obsidian female attempted to figure out exactly what that was supposed to mean. Then she finally managed to acknowledge it as an insinuation that she had lost her own mind. Hm, whatever - in her opinion, the pup was completely wrong (Though she was actually quite correct), so it wasn't worth arguing over. Instead, Cep simply stepped aside and said, ”Ta-da. I moved. Are you happy?”

---

The pup still seemed rather uncomfortable, perhaps even suspicious of the older female, although she now had a clear path out of the cave - but, of course, there was no real way for Deception to assure her that she wasn't going to jump in front of her again. She seemed to flip out for a split second as she came in contact with the wall, but after that, she had quickly calmed down and sighed. One of many moments during which the obsidian 'Fielder wished that she had humanlike eyebrows, solely for the sake of being able to raise one or both of them whenever she witnessed something like this. Of course, she was hardly capable of realizing that she was quite strange, herself, at least during the illness - as a matter of fact, her current oddness was definitely worthy of a few raised brows. Not that she was really capable of realizing this; but if she had, she wouldn't have been offended by it. Cep wasn't very strange when she was healthy, but she didn't see anything wrong with unique behavior. On the other hand, she normally would have looked down on the thought of trying to keep a panicked pup from leaving a cave for no reason.

Soon, the 'Creek resident inquired as to whether she was truly insane, assuming but asking whether she was sick. At first, Deception merely shrugged, not sure whether she was actually ill. She had been diagnosed, but it had been a few weeks since she had felt nothing but sick. She just seemed loopy and on top of the world these days...but she had once acknowledged it as something flu-like...goodness, this was all so confusing. ”Well, I've been told that I'm sick...” she bit her lower lip slightly and sighed, continuing with, ”But I just...I don't know. I don't feel sick, but...” She shook her head, not bothering to try to understand. Thankfully, she didn't have to dwell in thoughts for too long, as the pup soon introduced herself as Basenji and asked for the dark wolf's name. ”I'm Deception, but it's such a mean name!” she exclaimed, ”So call me Cep.”

---

She simply nodded in response as Basenji optimistically stated that, if she was indeed ill, at least it meant that she would definitely get better. Cep truly could not find the right words to say in response; she had been thrown into a state of confusion and distress over whether she was really sick. All of the signs were there, according to others - even according to someone who was less than a year old, for goodness' sake! But, other than the day or two that she had spent with dizziness and scattered blackouts, she begged to differ. However, she didn't allow herself to dwell on it for too long. Instead, she simply moved even further out of the way as the younger female stated that she had to go, wished her luck, and then exited the cave. ”Alright. Good luck getting home,” she called. Then she turned and set off in the direction of the 'Fields. Not that the pup would need as much luck now as she would have if she had attempted to reach Silver Creek a few minutes ago. Even the rather discombobulated female was able to notice that the rain wasn't quite as bad as it had been previously.

Her coat was rather damp, nonetheless, since she had never bothered to actually step into the cave. However, she shook her fur out before continuing on her trek towards home. The rain continued to let up, becoming a mere drizzle. She glanced up towards the sky, and a slight smile crossed her maw as she saw the dark clouds beginning to part. Her mood was as far from philosophical and overly thoughtful as possible, but she found it easy to compare her confusion about the illness to those parting clouds. Everything was slowly starting to become clear to her, and ironically enough, as the storm gave way to better weather, her conscience was cleared. She felt brave enough to attempt to decide whether she was sick, or if everyone had been wrong. On the other hand, whether she would have the intelligence and focus to discover the answer...the answer to that would reveal itself in due time.