I know we're supposed to want way more

Every day that went by made it clearer that they were not getting back to the Estuary, at least not anytime soon. The snow was thick, and they still had no clear idea of where exactly they had been dropped, or how far that was from home. Viorel was maybe starting to warm up to the trees a little more than he had been before, but he really missed the salty smell of the sea. It was thoughts like this that had sent the teen on an ambling wander following the closest creek he could find. This one was much nicer than the rapids where he had met Clover, this one burbled happily and the earlier today the sun had shone through the branches casting a nice warmth onto his dark coat.

It had been such a pleasant afternoon that Viorel just hadn’t stopped walking, just followed along the banks and enjoyed the sound of the water. Eventually he had grown lazy and had flopped down in a sunny spot for a rather drawn out cat nap. By the time he had woken up the sun had disappeared behind the clouds and the world was beginning to grow dim. Yawning widely the Valle boy blinked hard a few times, trying to wake himself up. It was so tempting to just stay here and keep sleeping, he was sure his cousin and his brother would find him eventually.

We may never leave this valley

I know we're supposed to want way more

Viorel had just decided that he might settle down for another hour or so for a nap, smiling softly as he snuggled his head into his paws when the sound of paws alerted him. Opening a single yellow eye he ended up with snow splattered across his face when Vayko came bounding over and flopped down beside him. Sneezing - rather dramatically - the Valle shook the flakes from his snout and gave his cousin a playful nip at the ear in retaliation. ”You’re such a delicate flower Koko, you know that?” The nickname was just an added bonus, he knew how much the childhood calling card irked the now teenager.

There wasn’t even time for Viorel to tease Vayko about the fact that his tone was practically singing, although he couldn’t completely smother the giggle building in his throat. The full blown laugh was cut short, eyes widened in surprise, ”Well where is she? Was she with anyone else?” The dark teen looked around, as if Sharlee was about to appear in thin air with the rest of the Estuary following behind her. Oh what a dream that would be.

It also brought something back to the forefront of his mind, ”Do you think we should go looking for the others? Or, and this might be crazy,” all appearance of teasing was gone from his expression as Viorel looked at his cousin. ”Or, do you think it would be easier if we settled down here, or close to here? At least until the spring. Between you, me, Andrey, Sharlee, and maybe Clover we probably have enough to start something a little more official.” That seemed crazy, they were all so young, but it might be easier to survive if they have some kind of home base.

We may never leave this valley

I know we're supposed to want way more

The teen couldn’t do anything but smirk at his cousin’s annoyance, it wasn’t as easy to get under his skin as it was to get under Vayko’s. It would take a lot more to bother him than a comment about bringing home strays, but he had to stop himself from quipping better than any of the girls you used to hang out with at the Estuary. Normally that comment would have been quick on his lips, but the thought of Sharlee being around somewhere close by was more than enough of a distraction from what would have been the sickest burn.

Grey misted eyebrows lifted high above his yellow eyes, ”Did the two legs bite you? I could have sworn they stung me, kind of like a bee.” Except bees didn’t make you fall asleep, wake up sick to your stomach in a weird place that you had never been before. That wasn’t really the point right now, it didn’t matter whether they had gotten bitten or stung, what mattered was now they had one more Valle with them. If Vayko wanted to keep Sharlee to himself right now that was fine, ”Well, when she wakes up I wanna see her, I wonder if anybody else is around…..or maybe will be soon?” It just further enforced the fact that maybe they should stick around this area.

Rolling his shoulders to get a little bit more comfortable he voiced his thoughts, ”It seems like maybe we should stay around here if this is where everyone is being dropped. If we leave here and everyone else comes, how will they find us?” The suspicious tone and scowl earned Vayko a side eye from the ever so slightly bigger cousin. Viorel didn’t know what his problem was with Clover. ”Why not Clover? You seriously think that she somehow worked with the two legs to bring us here?” The judgemental tone the teen used made it very clear that he thought this was a stupid idea, how could she have even done that?

We may never leave this valley

I know we're supposed to want way more

Vayko’s frown was contagious, and soon it was mirrored on the dark teen’s face, he hadn’t really thought about the schematics of what the two legs had done to him. It might have been too sharp to be a stinger, but it hadn’t felt like multiple punctures like a bite would have been. Was it a single long claw? Who knew. It hurt Viorel’s head a little bit trying to figure everything out, and this was just thinking about how the two legs had captured them, let alone why they had wanted to or why they had chosen them. He definitely didn’t remember being sat on, the frown morphed into a full on scowl, ”I don’t know, I don’t remember being sat on but I don’t remember a lot. Just the sharp bite or sting, and then feeling really tired, then vaguely their weird grunting sounds, and waking up here.”

The scowl faded slightly as Viorel sighed, laying his head back down at his paws. Staring ahead of them he suddenly realized that they had been snoozing near a beaver dam this whole time, but he didn’t smell the familiar musky smell of rodent. Why was he even thinking about this right now? Were beavers really important to what was currently happening? Squinting at the branches he responded, ”Obviously I want to go home too, but you and I both know we aren’t going anywhere with all this snow. And, wouldn’t it be easier to survive the winter in a pack instead of wandering around aimlessly?”

Glancing back towards Vayko as he spoke Viorel could tell this whole conversation was starting to aggravate his cousin, not that he blamed him. This whole situation was beyond aggravating. Pursing his lips slightly as he listened to the little rant he responded firmly, ”And I agree this whole situation is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard and that loner sounds suspicious, Clover has been fine and doesn’t smell weird. It’s going to be a lot easier to hunt something big if we have more paws on the ground.” The tone made it clear this wasn’t really going to be a debate, he didn’t want to fight with his family, but he was trying to be the voice of reason.

We may never leave this valley

I know we're supposed to want way more

Viorel really didn’t like thinking about the two legs, what they had done to them, or why they had done any of it. He didn’t like not having answers, and he liked it even less that realistically he may never get the answers he was looking for. Grumbling a little in frustration at the thought he asked a question he was pretty sure he knew the answer to, ”Did you understand any of their weird sounds? It seemed like they understood each other but it sounded so stupid kind of like how deer talk to each other but I didn’t know what they were saying.” Maybe if Vayko had caught even a sentence or two they could piece it together.

Vayko had some good points, but Viorel wasn’t about to back down now that he had his mind made up. ”Yeah okay, we have the Estuary if we ever find it, but if we don’t and everyone gets dropped here we’re going to have to make a pack anyways. We might as well get started.” This comment was offered with a shrug, but it made sense to him, if they were going to have to do it eventually they might as well start. Snorting a little at the children comment, they weren’t pups after all, ”I mean we’ll be adults this spring, at that point we would have to choose whether we planned on vying for the council, waiting to challenge for leader or leaving to make our own pack or join another, are you saying you haven’t put any thought into it?" It couldn’t be that hard, it was hardly any secret that their grandmother was growing more confused by the day and she was doing fine.

Grinning slightly he snorted, ”Well she’s not hard to look at,” then growing more serious he added, ”and she’s a healer, that could come in handy if one of us gets hurt.” Standing up and shaking off his pelt he offered in a forced casual tone, ”We could lead the pack together you know, we would have better odds here getting something started than both of us managing to take the Estuary.” Gesturing with his muzzle Viorel began the walk back towards their makeshift base, it was starting to grow dark.

We may never leave this valley