Serach had avoided heading south of Oak Tree Bend's territory ever since his uncle @Ruiko had found him making a fool of himself in the mud. His uncle had told him that nothing lived in the mires and swamps of this part of Relic Lore, but every once in a while, Serach found himself looking south and wondering just what lay beyond the murky mosses. So when he discovered Spieden's scent trail where she had passed through the borders and headed south, he couldn't help but let curiosity get the better of him. Was there something that she knew that he didn't about what lived down there? With only a second's glance to look around and ensure that Ruiko wasn't watching him, he decided to follow.

She didn't make it as south as he had, but he still found the bare trees eerie. Fall was supposed to be a time of brilliant autumn colors, but there was little of that here. The longer he ran, the more anxious he got, and more than once, he seriously considered turning around and just asking Spieden what she was doing when she returned. But even as he debated with himself about turning back, he continued on, the scent of his pack mate growing stronger with every step until she herself came into view.

At first, he wasn't entirely sure it was her. Her dark fur blended well into the mossy ground, but the scent in the air and on the ground didn't lie. What was she doing? "Spieden?" he called out tentatively. Slowing to a walk, he cautiously took a few steps towards her. "What are you doing?"

"Whoa!" The boy yelped and stumbled backwards as Spieden jumped to her feet in a hurry. Serach's yellow eyes grew wide and he stared at her, not sure what to do next. She had backed away from him, and while his instinct was to move closer, her alarm had set him on edge. So instead, the two pack mates stared at one another. The older wolf was the first to break the silence, her response causing Serach to tilt his head to the side in confusion. "Whaa?" he tripped over his question, his lips moving silently as he struggled to find the words. "Whaddya mean? I don't care, you can go wherever you want to. My uncle @Ruiko told me I shouldn't come here, but I think he just hates the mud." Realizing that he was babbling, the yearling shut up. Why in the world would she think she wasn't allowed to be here? Besides, pretty sure Triell would send somebody more important than me to tell her if that was the case. Shaking his head, he continued to look at her queerly.

Now he had followed Spieden here because he had found her scent trail. He had been focused on tracking her, but now that he had found her, his nose instinctively was taking in other scents around them. One in particular made his brow wrinkle. "Ya smell that?" he asked her. "I think something died." As a wolf, he had no qualms about scavenging, but this time, he was more than content to let that particular dead creature alone.

Serach's brow continued to furrow, his lips pulled back in a look of disgust. It was too late for him now, he glumly realized. That smell wasn't going to go away for quite some time. He doubted shoving his nose into a bunch of flowers would override the powerful smell, even if there were still flowers in bloom this time of year. It wasn't all in his head either, Spieden seemed equally disturbed and at the mention of the onset of a stomachache, the youth's eyes grew wide. It was bad enough that this place smelled bad, but he had no desire to want to deal with his pack mate's vomit either. "Well if you're going to be sick, don't do it on me," he half instructed, half pleaded.

Instinct was telling Serach that it was time to go home, but curiosity was nagging at him. He had smelled a skunk once, when he was younger, but this was so much worse. Frankly, he wanted to know what it was, if only so he would avoid it in the future. Gingerly, the boy lowered his head to the ground, careful not to outright stick it into the mud. Sniffing, he began to move back and forth, stopping only to ensure that he was on the right track. "What do you think it is?" he called back to his pack mate. "I want to find it, so I don't ever have to find it again."

Before he could move on, though, his senses lit up like a scoreboard. Suspiciously, he narrowed his eyes and took a cautious step towards her. He should have noticed immediately - the smell was strongest when he was close to her.

He should have known when he first found @Spieden that something wasn't quite right. She had been acting kind of cagey and suspicious and the rotten smell was impossible to ignore, especially when he was close to her. Serach was not particularly surprised that she reacted defensively, but it only made his brow furrow and his eyes narrow even further. Nothing to hide? Not likely, he thought as he took another step towards her. His packmate's irritation with him was clear, but Serach was not going to let the issue drop. So he ignored her tail thrashing and continued to move closer even as she continued to pull back from him. "What'd —" he tried to speak over her, but the older woman's own sentence was interrupted by what was possibly the most disgusting belch that he had ever heard. His refusal to backdown came back to bite him in the nose right then. The stench invaded his nose mercilessly, causing the boy to nearly trip over himself as he stumbled backwards - anything to put distance between himself and his packmate. "URGGH" he yelped, skipping backwards over the ground, batting angrily at his face as if the smell was a physical thing he could fight away.

"DISGUSTING!" he yelled, his sides heaving as he gasped for a clean breath. "What's the matter with you? Is your nose broken or something?" he accused his packmate angrily, his suspicious stare now a full on glare. He could understand being hungry, but he couldn't imagine being so desperate as to scavenge what had surely been a mostly rotten carcass. That said far more about Serach's relatively sheltered life than it did about Spieden, but in that particular moment, he wasn't aware enough to realize it and have any sympathy for her.

His lips curled back in disgust, Serach was not the kindest looking beast right that moment. That was not lost on Spieden, and with some amount of internal satisfaction, the yearling watched as she cowered. She was still defiant though, snapping and growling right back at him in turn. The foul smelling vomit she had expelled lay on the ground between them, both the visual and the smell causing Serach's own stomach to turn queasy. Even if her nose was broken, his certainly wasn't! Her sarcasm was not lost on him, and in response, he lashed his tail back and forth angrily. But there wasn't time for him to respond, and she didn't seem inclined to lash back out at him either. Instead, his packmate took to her feat and darted past him, skipping over the offending bodily excrement in the process. Too stunned at her abrupt departure to take after her immediately, the youth watched her go. Soon enough, he lost sight of her. Shaking his head in disgust, he wrinkled his nose one last time before setting off after her. Although not was he was initially expecting, he had found what he was looking for.