Red Fern Forest the problem with your daughter

for @Ember but otherwise anyone else is totally welcome!
set on 11/6/15

For once Sahalie was not minding any business other than her own. She was not bothering her pack mates and she was not trying to figure out how to play the role of therapist —a job that would await her in the coming days. Her business though, was still quite serious. Drift had been gone for a long time. Weeks even. Everyone was quite worried, but assumed that Drift would come back. Drift was often gone for days without anyone seeing him. And this was normal for her pack mates, as well, who generally did not express concern right away. It was probably fear that kept their mouths shut, fear that someone else would disappear, fear that pronouncing the words "missing" would suddenly make it real. But Sahalie had had enough of these nervous looks and avoidant topic changes. Something was wrong.


The snow hung heavy on the limbs of the trees above her. The absence of her brother had stolen all the wonder from the powder when it had fallen days ago. Instead it was a nuisance, getting in her way as she tried to see into the distance and look under this bush or behind that rock. It covered everything, particularly tracks. She huffed.

Thump

A heap of snow landed on her head. A bark of surprise squawked from her mouth reflexively. Her neck twisted awkwardly as she looked behind her at the naked, quivering branch. There was no sign of any sort of agent. "What gives?" she huffed, turning around and pushing onward. As far as she knew... trees did not throw snow.

She threw a quick look back at her shoulder.

Or did they?

(This post was last modified: Jul 23, 2016, 01:51 AM by Sahalie.)

Whoops, sorry about this!

The girl had wandered from the borders of her home, this time surprisingly without a comrade in tow. It was unusual for her to forgo the companionship of her sister or age-mates, but not unheard of. With a streak of independence, sometimes she simply wanted to see how far she could get with her own four paws. The sea of red ferns were an adored feature of this land, and one of her favorite places to visit, regardless if the purpose be for exploration, 'business' or play. Yet with the blanketing of snow, everything was made to be different, and the girl was unsure whether she approved of this or not.

Winter had yet to silence the land. In fact, quite the opposite; with the constant migration patterns and last minute hustling for food, the liveliness of autumn lived on. Yet still, a youthful and surprised bark was not expected to join the natural cacophony. Immediately her venturing steps halted, head and ears twisting toward what she guessed to be the direction of origin, awaiting further noise. For a moment, nothing came, but then she heard the soft undertones of what must be a distant voice. She was not unaware of the danger strangers might present to her, but while she knew to be wary, such possibilities would never keep her from investigating and hoping for the best.

She pressed forward then, gliding through the snow-laden ferns. It only took a few fast strides to take her within view of the other, and her tail lifted to begin wagging as she noted that the dark coated stranger was a girl about her age. Surely she couldn't be dangerous then, right? Deeming that the situation was safe enough, she stepped forward and issued a bark to let her know she was about.

(This post was last modified: May 07, 2016, 05:14 PM by Ember.)

A short bark echoed through the open land behind her, and Sahalie turned about quite suddenly. The snowy crown atop her head fell away, disintegrating and falling back to the ground. For a moment she thought she would weep with joy at the pale face that looked so much like her brother. But the eyes were not right: too bright. The girl was too clean, too big to be her brother. Sahalie swallowed the sigh that begged to be released from her body and managed to force herself to smile. The unfamiliar girl's tail was wagging, the Tainn would have felt bad for being rude just because the girl was a stranger instead of her brother.

"Did you....uhhh," She looked hesitantly back up at the trees, impassive as always. Her ear flicked away any remnants of snow that might have been clinging to the back of her head. "You weren't throwing snow at me, were you?" Usually Sahalie wouldn't have accused someone of something like that, but she was at a loss to explain the dearth of snow that had landed on her head. How could trees have such good aim. Her tail wagged slightly, to show that she meant no harm.

Ember continued to plod through the snow, bringing herself slowly but surely closer to the other girl. Her steps were high and her tail already wriggled with excitement as her mind began to go over all the possibilities this encounter could bring. A new friend, a girl like her that hopefully wouldn't be snooty like @Nalda. Out this far, maybe she liked adventure too? Maybe they could meet up to go exploring together, maybe she already knew of cool other places to go that she could show Ember? @Bracken would love it too, and @Arion... maybe Ember had just found a new friend for all of them! But, she'd have to learn her name first.

The acute interest that this girl looked at her with was noted by Ember, but she didn't think much of it until it abated. Uh oh, had she already done something wrong? The Renier girl mirrored the smile that took its place, even when an odd question was asked of her by this foreign child.

It caught her by surprise, and a roiling giggle filtered through her now grinning teeth as she shook her head and bubbled out "no."

Her gold eyes jumped around; someone was throwing snow? Maybe Arion was around after all.

"Is someone there?" she called out, but only the ambient sounds of the forest answered her back. She giggled again, eyes upon Sahalie once more. "I dunno, maybe they're really good at hiding."

@Ember

Was the pale girl giggling because she had done it? That was the sort of thing Drift would have done. But since Sahalie didn't know the girl at all she just had to take it at face value. Besides, her eyes searched their surroundings with such genuine curiosity and confusion that she would have to be a supreme actress to pull such an act off. Sahalie decided she liked her, suspicious giggle and all, and she herself laughed.

"Should we look for them?" the dark girl asked her new friend. "Maybe it's my brother, Drift. I haven't seen him in a few days and this is just the sort of shenanigans he'd get up to." Sahalie assumed that this girl had siblings and wound understand. She was also hoping her big word would impress her just a little. Shenanigans. It was a good word, she couldn't remember where she'd heard it. "He's like annoying"

She looked up, though, wondering if he could climb. The snow had come from above, but maybe that had just been her imagination playing tricks on her. She had no idea where to begin their search. Expectantly, she looked to the other girl hoping that she would offer some direction or even conversation.

Should we look for them she asked, and Ember's tail jumped a few inches higher in the air, swishing back and forth in jubilation. Hell yeah they should! She loved hide and seek, and maybe she'd make another friend once they'd been found! A snort of laughter escaped her as the girl went on to suggest it might be her annoying brother, Ember's thoughts turning to her own 'brother' again as well as Nalda; that was her annoying 'sibling,' but this Drift couldn't be that bad if he had enough fun in him to start a snow fight.

"Totally," she agreed, prancing closer to Sahalie. When the girl turned those gold eyes toward her expectantly, Ember did not hesitate to take the hint and grab hold the reins. She was far used to pulling lead given her relationship with @Bracken in which the barely-younger girl followed her like a shadow.

"Let's check out over here first," she suggested, creamy paws already on the move to take her toward a particularly shadowy cluster of tree trunks and snow drifts. The snow was fun, but man she missed the ferns.

"What's Drift look like? Oh, and I'm Ember, by the way!"

(This post was last modified: Jun 19, 2016, 11:27 PM by Ember.)

ahhh sorry for the wait :CCC lol how old are they even at this point? 6 months?

The two girls' tails swept the snow in unison. Sahalie decided that she liked this Ember girl because she was easy to get along with and the burden of decisions had not been left entirely up to the dark Tainn who seemed to always be in charge of most interactions whether she liked it or not. Eagerly the small child followed her new friend, bouncing through the snow where the pale girl waded through without trouble, as if it were just normal ground. "I'm Sahalie!" she chirped from behind the other girl.

"Well, he looks a lot like you, actually!" funny how that worked, "Except like. Dirtier. A lot dirtier. He's small like me and he likes to roll in mud puddles." Ember's coat had some cream in it, but Drift had taken the whole "cream" thing to an entirely new level. Sahalie wondered if she'd ever get the chance to ask him about that. "Boy are weird, aren't they?" she giggled, her ears backwards as if she was embarrassed for the whole confusing gender. "Though I guess there's not much mud now a days..." Wouldn't have stopped him from making it on his own, she was sure.

"Do you got a brother?"

Ember listened happily to Sahalie's answers as they walked, eyes ahead for the most part to scan for the mystery snow-lobber. Looks like her, eh? A pale coat would just make this harder, but not if this Drift was looking how he normally did, which was apparently muddy. A snort of laughter escaped her as she turned her head to grin at her new friend.

"Whaaat, really?" Ember herself didnt shy away from dirt, but she certainly didnt go out of her way to coat herself in it either. When the other girl went on to comment how strange the entire gender was, she was happy to give an enthusiastic nod of her head to agree. Were she older, the comment would have given her mind plenty to fletcherize over as males, specifically men, would fail her and those she loved repeatedly. For now, the girl was blessedly naive.

Though I guess there's not much mud now a days... Oh! Right! Back to lookin for white. They reached the shadow patch with nothing to show for it, and Ember gave the area a good sniffdown before lifting her eyes to see where it would be smartest to look next. Sahalie asked her a question, and the answer came easily as Ember led the way once more.

"Yeah. Well, kinda. He's basically my brother. See there's me n @Bracken, she's my one hundred percent sister. Then there's @Arion and @Nalda. They each have different parents but we've all been together pretty much forever. R is awesome. Nalda's... well, she's kind of hard to get along with sometimes, but she's still a part of the fam anyways."

At least, as far as Ember was concerned.

"Is it just you and Drift, or is there someone else we should be keeping an eye out for too?"

(This post was last modified: Aug 03, 2016, 02:59 PM by Ember.)

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

don't think we can get LP anymore unless I post once more after you (and it doesn't get archived again in between any of that LOL), but otherwise hoping I can wrap this up. also according to my threadlog I guess she would have met nalda before this woah

It sounded like this girl had an interesting living situation going on back home. They had a lot of puppies over there: a whole four of them, which was all a wonder to Sahalie who didn't understand where puppies came from and why they were all spread out randomly. If it were up to her they'd all be together and it would be more fun that way. But then it dawned on her: she actually knew one of these names. "Nalda!" she exclaimed suddenly, cutting the girl off so suddenly that her face bloomed with hot embarrassment and her mouth snapped shut again. She would wait for Ember to finish.

"Yeah, just me and Drift," she said, "But it doesn't bother me much cause I can always find other pups to hang out with. Like Nalda! I just met her a few days ago actually!" Her tail wagged heartily behind her, "I also know a Sven and a Kyna. And I'm sure there's lots more out there to meet. It's fun!" Even if Ember claimed that Nalda was hard to get along with, Sahalie didn't really see it. The girl had been hesitant and generally uncomfortable, but so was any of the other adults the dark Tainn saw on a daily basis. Nothing new.

She sighed though, unable to see anything or any tracks "Maybe Drift has already run off home. I should probably go...back home and check for him. But it was really nice meeting you." The girls said their goodbyes and turned away towards their respective homes.

(This post was last modified: Jan 07, 2017, 09:09 PM by Sahalie. Edit Reason: edit for fade )