(Yes! Sage should get to know Jack, then it's more like an explosion when he gets jealous)

+++

Jack tilted his head, seeming to be thinking. "Uhmmm.. I think around 18 miles. Maybe." He answered, sitting back against the tree and flashing Quinn a smile. "I'd love it if you paid a visit." He chirped.

-

Quinn nodded slowly, seemingly thinking. At his words she smiled back with another nod. "Yeah.." Was all she said, as she was focused on Sage. He seemed to slowly be getting more irritated, and it was worrying her. As the stick snapped, she furrowed her brows slightly. "Sage, what's wrong?" She asked, studying him for a moment as he scowled and went to go get another stick. She had a theory, so she decided to jump on it. "I'm not planning on going to town." She glanced at Jack, paused, and continued. "Just in case you're worried about that. Not anytime soon, anyway. Caspian and Frynn aren't ready for a trip like that." She said quietly, standing and edging closer to Sage. "I know you don't like Jack being here, but we can't just turn him down. he seems pretty harmless to me, and we both know how to take care of ourselves." She whispered quietly.

(perfect lol)

Sage felt his ear twitch when Jack mentioned the town. It wasn't super close....but it was, admittedly, closer than he would have liked. Of course, it was hard to find land that far away from human cities now...they had pretty much taken over every habitable place. But they needed this cabin, so it would have to do.

Sage glanced over with a sigh when Quinn wandered over to him, nodding when she said she wasn't planning on going to town. "I know," he sighed quietly. "but still...I worry. Someone knows we're here now. If word gets out...." He trailed off with a shrug, poking at the fire again, thoughts swirling. "I don't care about him," he finally mused. "But I'm not going to kick him out if you don't want me to. Just...don't expect me to befriend him. I know what humans are like," he whispered, looking up at her, silently pleading with her not to make this any harder for him than need be.

Quinn watched Sage with concern, her emerald eyes studying his, like she was trying to unlock all his emotions and thoughts. However, she had long since blocked herself off from reading his mind, and it had been slightly hard to hold back on reading Jack's, because their thoughts were LOUD. "I know what could happen. I just really don't think he's like that." She answered quietly, tilting her head slightly. "You don't have to befriend him. Just tolerate him." She said, but his last words sent a stake through a soft spot. *I know what humans are like*. He had referred to it like all humans, and although she knew he didn't consciously mean her... it still hurt. She didn't say anything and instead just walked back to her spot, sitting down, much quieter now. Of course, she knew she shouldn't be offended by that... but SHE was a human. A full-blown human. And he had said it in such a way that it hurt, more than she'd like to admit. Did he view her that way? The same as every other human? Did he not want to be near her anymore? Worried thoughts shot through her mind, until she couldn't sit there any longer. "Excuse me for a couple moments..." she mumbled, getting up and disappearing inside the house. She went into the bedroom and sat on the bed silently, staring at the sleeping babies. Did Sage regret anything? The mere thought made her want to curl up and die. Why was that one sentence making her act like thus? "Stupid brain, just shut up..." she whispered.

Sage sort of sighed in response to her comment, nodding slowly. 'i trust you. Your instincts. You haven't been wrong yet," he admitted. He glanced over at Jack, who was by then looking over the garden and such with a somewhat awed expression on his face. "It's not necessarily him I'm worried about. I'm not even aure how he manages to hunt well," he thought out loud. Though, when she asked him to just tolerate him, he nodded slowly with a sigh. Of course, when she walked away, he frowned slightly, wondering if he'd done or said something wrong. The thought kept nagging at him for the next couple hours until he stood with a frustrated growl. "I'm going hunting again," he mumbled to no one in particular, before glancing at Jack. "Tag along if you want dinner," he added, stalking off towards the tree line. The man would have to catch his own food, or at least help in a catch. Sage wasn't going to give up their food for him when he could make his own kill.

Jack was not listening in on the conversation. Instead, his gaze had been attracted to the garden, in which his eyes widened and he stared in awe. How had they done that!? He couldn't get anything to grow! Eventually, he just wandered around, looked at things, and stared at random trees for a while before he heard Sage's grumpy voice. He wanted dinner, so he took a step forward, then stopped. "How am I supposed to hunt anything without my weapon?" He mumbled, searching for a second before finding his bow and arrows, then quickly following Sage. He quieted significantly, his gaze flitting around the forest, an arrow already on his bow. There was a small, almost unnoticeable trail, so he followed it, not caring where Sage was anymore. He stopped at the edge of a clearing, crouching, watching. A couple minutes later, a lone deer wandered into the clearing. Jack made sure to stay downwind. He pulled the arrow back silently, and let it fly. A rather stunning shot, it killed the deer immediately, although the animal jerked around once or twice.

+++

Quinn had ended up falling asleep for a while, then she awoke at Frynn's demanding cries. She fed both babies, then put them back to bed and stood, walking out of the cabin to see Sage and Jack gone. Slight worry flitted across her face, but she guessed they were just... walking. Or hunting. +Sage, please don't be murdering Jack+ she thought.

Sage had pretended to drift off, following his own trail, but when Jack had picked up a trail and followed it, he heasitated before creeping after him, watching. Seeing how he did, what he did, that sort of thing. He'd learned that the way a person treated the natural world around him or her said a lot about his character. He had to admit, for a human jack was pretty good at moving at least somewhat quietly...and he'd made a clean shot. Of course, he'd wound up waiting for a while instead of finding the deer, but that may have just been his method. "Not bad for a human," he said, not moving but waiting as Jack glanced around until he spotted him. He'd hidden decently, though made sure it wasn't as camouflaged as when he was actually stalking the guy. He wanted him to see him. Once he found him, he slid out of the brush silently, yanking the arrow out of the deer definitely and handing it to Jack silently as he scanned the area, head cocking as his ears flicked around, mouth parting slightly as he sniffed the air around him. "We can clean it by the stream. There's nothing more out here we can catch easily," he said after a moment, muscles in his arm and back shifting as he tossed the deer over his shoulder and walked off again, still not making a sound. He made sure not to camouflage too much though, since he was showing Jack where to go, and if he camouflaged too much he'd loose him. Which he didn't care much about, but Quinn would probably be rather upset with him, and that wasn't ideal.

Jack crouched behind the bush for a second longer before standing, knowing the deer was completely dead. At Sage's words, he glanced sideways, having thought they left. He grinned slightly. "Must pain you giving a compliment to a human." He answered, his sharp eyes picking out Sage in the brush. He then took his arrow and walked up to the deer, glancing at Sage. They were doing a weird thing with their head... OH. Scenting the air, maybe? It was weird... but probably made it a ton easier to hunt. Jack almost wished he could smell, like, everything. He nodded curtly, but was bursting with a question. "Did you scent that there's nothing, or are you guessing? Is your sense of smell stronger than a normal humans? Can you see better than a normal human? What about taste- have you ever eaten meat raw? Is it bad for your immune system?" He asked quizzically, all but buzzing with questions. "I can help carry it if you want..." His voice trailed off as Sage disappeared. Jack quickly hurried after them, sticking close enough to wear he could see, though keeping his footsteps as quiet as he could. "Wait, can you hear better, too?"

++

Quinn paced back and forth outside for a couple minutes. The sun was slowly sinking, so she decided to try and be helpful, getting a fire going. The comment he had made still nagged at the back of her mind, but she didn't pay attention to it. After a good fire was going, she sat down and waited, a bit of a worried expression on her face.

Sage grunted in response to jacks never ending babble. It had annoyed him at first, but the guy seemed so innocent he had to admit it was rather hard not to like him. He offered him a sort of thing smile at his first comment though, shrugging slightly. "just a little bit," he mused, half joking. But also it was sort of true. He threw Jack a rather used look when he started bombarding him with questions. "There's no scents and I can't hear anything," he said with a shrug. "So there's nothing within ten miles or so," he informed him. "And yes, my senses are better than the average humans," he informed him. "Including touch, which is annoying when some pesky bounty hunter decides he wants to shoot me full of bullets or try and trap me," he grumbled. Then he flashed Jack a toothy grin over his shoulder. "It's nice in bed though," he mused, figuring the lighthearted comment would help break the ice enough so that the guy wasn't scared of him. Not that he really sed to be. But he supposed he wasn't all bad.

(I did make Jack, like, the most innocent happy-go-lucky character ever XD. But maybe that's just a ruse.... 0-0)

++++

Jack muffled a snorted laugh as Sage answered with a yes at his first question. Of course it hurt the poor guy to give him a compliment. Yeesh. "Ten MILES? HOLY CRAP DUDE you can tell from that far away! Yikes!" He exclaimed quietly, his eyes popping open. He winced at the explanation. Of course it would- had they been shot before!? What!!! That... ouch. Ouch. He was preoccupied, so Sage's joking muse caught him off guard, but internally he was a little shocked the guy would say anything like that. Of course, other not so innocent thoughts flitted through his mind, but he was an expert at keeping his expression how he wanted it. "I bet so." He chuckled like it was a joke, glad when they got back to the camp.

+++

Quinn's eyes shot up as she heard a rustle, then Sage appeared, followed by a live Jack. That was a good sign. She immediately went to get the roots, as they were her preference- however, when she saw they had hunted a deer, her eyes lit up. "Who got the deer? I love venison." She commented,

(LOL)

Sage sort of hummed in response to jacks snort, sliding down to the river bank where he set the deer on a rock, claws sliding out of his nails as he moved to skin and gut the animal quickly. He winced slightly when Jacks voice rose right behind him and nodded. "Yea, which means you don't need to yell this close to me," he snorted, though not in a angry way, more amused than anything. He was done soon enough with the deer, though sensed jack wasn't entirely finding the joke funny, so he let the matter drop.

Once they got back to camp, he greeted Quinn happily with a grin and a quick peck before setting the deer down by the fire. "Jack," he admitted. "I was following him around," he admitted with a sheepish grin. He'd just needed to know the guy wasn't doing anything once he turned his back. "The kids alright," he asked, peeking into the house through the window, watching them sleep for a moment before going back to the deer. He knew they'd be fine, but still....he was just protective he supposed.

(Should we have Jack and Quinn grow closer and maybe sage and her kinda start pulling apart a bit? Maybe it's nearing full moon but sage doesn't want to bother her or scare the kids so he doesn't mention it? Then she freaks out when she wakes up and realizes ita the full moon and he's gone? Maybe she sends Jack out to look for him or something and helps him out bc a hunter wound up finding him while he was morphing and Jack saves him? That's when they start to get close? Idk)