Swift River I still see a vision of us cooking dinner

For @Felyx This is Khalon's Halloween RE: The night is extraordinarily dark and spooky sounds can be heard outside your den. Hope you're not afraid.
After midnight/very early morning, broken clouds, 19F/-7C

from charming to alarming in seconds

Khalon was still up to his old tricks of “running away”, though he only ever lasted a night or two before he wound up back in the Backwater. It was an easy meal, and the den was a lot warmer than being alone now that the nights were dipping into the negatives. Tonight he was on another vagrant trip and had hunkered down in one of his favourite spots, an old abandoned pack den. That meant it was mostly protected from the wind outside that was making such an awful creepy sound.

Howling through the trees, branches creaking and crashing together, and generally just being a little unsettling. The yearling was mostly ignoring it, trying to settle down and sleep, though it was causing him to be restless. Rolling over once more, he groaned in frustration that dreams continued to evade him. He had barely gotten a wink all night and he was beginning to feel cranky about it. Tomorrow he would go back home, fill his belly, and sleep the day away for as long as he could before some adult came and made a pointed remark about a task that needed doing.

At least out here there were no chores to be done.

(This post was last modified: Nov 14, 2024, 03:30 PM by Viorel.)

Felyx was meant to be heading the opposite direction, but the journey seemed daunting in a boring way, and he didn't feel ready to commit to it just yet. He'd go tomorrow, he promised himself, though he'd been promising himself that for days now.

It was very dark, and if he were a lesser wolf, Felyx might think it scary, the way the trees creaked and groaned as though crying out in the night. Felyx, however, was almost enjoying himself, his paw steps covered by the sounds the forest made naturally. He was alone, well and truly, for the first time - sent on his own personal mission - but he found he liked this freedom.

Another groan - one distinctly wolf-like and certainly not made by any tree, came from nearby, and Felyx paused. Perhaps he was not as alone as he thought, he realized, abruptly changing course toward the source of the noise.

He found himself at what appeared to be a little pack den, occupied by what smelled like only one occupant. There were a few ways he could play this, but Felyx was feeling mischievous. He crept around the den, keeping to the shadows, and initiated the beginnings of a little game.

Tilting his head back, the yearling let out a quiet, "OoooooOoowooo," into the darkness, hoping to spook the stranger.

from charming to alarming in seconds

There was a distinctly different sound than what the trees had been making, causing the Valle teen’s head to whip up towards the entrance. Claws dug into the earth beneath him and yellow eyes flit from spot to spot of what he could see - which was admittedly narrow from his vantage point. Taking a steading breath the moment of panic was fleeting as his reason kicked in. There was something out there making that sound, but the odds that it was something natural was none - he didn't believe in it.

Getting to his paws, his leathery nose twitched a few times to gather more information about who or what had come to visit and make that noise. Ah. It was distinctly canine, and while this wolf might be alone right now the scent clearly spoke of others so they were not alone all of the time. Yellow eyes narrowed in annoyance that someone had come out here to mess with him and he was quick to exit the den. He looked around to try and find who had made howl and due to the darkness he came up empty but the smell was still there. This wolf had to be somewhere, Khalon just needed to find them.