Shallows Edge Second step to somewhere

@Solas,  continues on from this

I don't care if heaven won't take me back

So here they were. Askan had no intentions of leading him any further, or allowing the stranger to take refuge in the Shallows. Other packs were willing to let loners crash on their proverbial sofas, but that didn't fly here. He wasn't against the idea of helping out others from time to time, but there was a fine line between being a good Samaritan and being a complete push over. Askan had no interest in being the latter, he'd much rather be a hardass, at least then folk would take him seriously.

He breathed in deep, relishing in the familiar scent of home that settled in his nostrils. They were close to his border, in sight but more than a few paces away. The forest that surrounded them was thick and overgrown, a shady entanglement of trees,  fallen branches and foliage. Askan wouldn't be surprised if someone was watching them, it was so easy to hide around here, but he didn't care. Askan would speak regardless of whether anyone was watching, he was far from cunning or sneaky.

"You said you were from...a cove before." Askan began, allowing his gaze to settle on the stranger once more. "That name sounds familiar."

Solas had followed in silence as the stranger lead them away from the coyotes and what appeared to be the borders of the paack they came from. He had no intention of crossing that line and paused another wolf's length away from it than his earthen company had. It looked like his was a loner from every angle but he still felt that he was part of the Cove even if its scent had long since faded from his pelt. Even when he wasn't sure that was where he would end up.

A faint smile twitched on his face as the other took a deep breath before letting it out. It was always good to be home and the stormy male wouldn't interrupt his moment of enjoyment. When it seemed his companion had taken his fill he finally spoke breaking the silence between them, asking about the Cove.

Fallen Tree Cove up by Lost Lake. Solas offered before pausing as the stranger mentioned that the name sounded familiar. As far as he was aware most of the Cove wolves stayed in the mountains and didn't come down. He had gone here and there on hunting trips but he hadn't come down here before. The only way he could know about the Cove would be for him to meet one of its former members.

Maybe even Tulip.

I don't think any of the Cove wolves have come over this way but I could be wrong. Solas mused before going on and he couldn't keep the hope that spilled into his words. Did you perhaps meet Tulip? Small, black fur, yellow sunny eyes.? He could go into about her personality and more about her looks but he didn't think that they would help his companion decide if he had meet her or not, at least he didn't think it would.

I don't care if heaven won't take me back

Fallen Tree Cove. It was as he expected, the name sounded familiar. Not because he'd ever paid them a visit, rather quite the opposite. He hadn't attended the meeting, but according to Adeladye a scout from the Cove had paid the Rye Field a visit. @Kajika or something or other. There had been talk of 'communication' between the two packs, which frankly had been a damn waste of everyone's time. It was all well and good wanting to get along with your neighbours, but what was the point in playing nice with the Cove wolves?

For one, it just didn't make sense. If Askan understood the distance correctly then it must have taken the Cove scout at least a week to get to the Field. Was it time well spent?  And what about the journey back? He would have been away from his pack for at least two weeks and for what? Communication?  Please, it was a waste of time. Either the Cove was boring as fuck or the leaders were stupid. Maybe both. Askan would have probably said as much if he'd been present.

"Huh, thought so." Was all he said, for now at least.

Then the loner went onto pose another question, apparently he was looking for someone. An unremarkable woman from the sounds of it, not one he'd encountered.

"No." He shook his head."She from the Cove too?" Askan was beginning to put the pieces together.

OOC: Sorry about the wait.

It really shouldn't have surprised Solas that he wasn't completely aware of his packmates doings. He had, after all, spent most of his time in the mountains and away from the Cove's protective borders, as he had been around the time that Kajika had gone to the Rye. Which made him completely unaware that the event had even happened. So it didn't change his mindset that the Cove was secluded.

Apparently, the name was familiar but his companion didn't divulge why. But it really didn't matter why he knew about the Cove wolves Solas was more interested in who had told him the name. If there was a slim chance it was Tulip he might have something to go on. A thin wisp of a trail to follow. The strand of hope that wormed its way into him was rather brutally crushed with a simple 'No.' Solas gave a frustrated sigh as he looked to his paws, eyes closing briefly. Another dead end. Why wasn't he surprised?

Yes, she is from the Cove. Solas began his tone dull as he looked up once more. I've been looking for her since she was taken from us. A hint of anger filtered through as he emphasized the word. She hadn't just up and left. She had been forced to leave. Now he just had to find her but the trail was months old and he wasn't having any luck.

(This post was last modified: Oct 14, 2018, 04:22 AM by Solas.)

I don't care if heaven won't take me back

Askan paid little attention to the loner's huffing and puffing. It wasn't his fault that he didn't have any information to give, would it have been better if he'd lied? Made up some crazy claim that he had indeed found this missing woman? Of course not, Askan had no intention of stringing together a web of lies. For one, that just wasn't who he was and two, what would he even gain? Sure, it would get the loner off his back but he doubted he was going to hang around now that he knew that Tulip was not in these parts. To Askan's knowledge anyway.

Then he uttered some words that were a little more interesting, that she'd been taken.

The Edge Lord turned to him proper then, his gaze sharper, more focused than before. "How so? What happened?"

He had idly wondered what happened to Lenka, but it was a pretty easy conclusion to come to. She'd claimed she'd gotten lost before, what was to stop her from doing the same all over again? She was young, a yearling, so she no doubt had some wanderlust addling her brain. It was a simple but obvious conclusion, one he'd perhaps been a little too eager to come to...

Taken.

It wasn't a word anyone wanted to hear especially when it involved a packmate and Solas hated saying it. Of course it wasn't a word you wanted to hear about from any pack. It could mean that wolves would be vanishing and that there would be packs slowly dropping in members. In his search, Solas hadn't found any other pack that had missing wolves with the same scene that they had.

I don't know what happened. Solas stated Everything was fine and we probably wouldn't have noticed but one of our members smelled the blood. Off-hand he couldn't remember who had arrived on the scene first but he knew that a few members had shown up at the initial call. Unable stay still as he recounted what happened he stood up and began to pace. All we found was the remains of what looked like a fight in our borders. Fur, blood, the ground torn up. Whoever they were they knew what they were doing because they made sure to clean up their trail once they left our territory.

The stormy male paused to look at the other man controlling the flow of words that wanted to spill out his lips like a waterfall. I haven't been able to find a whiff of them or her since then and its been months. Nothing, not one peep and even though he was wide awake now and ready to continue the search he didn't know how much hope he had left in him.

I don't care if heaven won't take me back

The man didn't have much information at paw. There was little the Edge Lord could say or do in regards to this missing woman, he doubted that the disappearances of his subordinates had anything to do with the Cove wolf. He'd found nothing at all to suggest that it was all linked, no pools of blood or scuff marks. Simply trails that went in a direction he had little interest in following. Yes, he wanted to know where his scouts had wandered off to, but was he so desperate to know he'd leave his pack, his family? No, of course not. They had left of their own free will, Askan wasn't going to chase after them like a bitch and beg them to come back.

In this case though it had been months and the loner hadn't found even a single clue. To say that it was a lost cause by now...well, Askan wondered if the man was continuing his search out of habit more than anything else. As hard as it could be sometimes it was time to just call it quits. If she was in the general area he would have found her by now, which meant either she was no longer in Relic Lore or that she was dead and rotting in a ditch somewhere. Or perhaps a combination of the two.

"You've found nothing at all? Don't you think it's time to give up?" Askan asked, not feeling particularly compassionate. Though if the roles were reversed and Reyes was missing....Askan didn't even want to give that thought the time of day.

"You've found nothing at all? Don't you think it's time to give up?"

Give up? Solas felt his lips twitch up into the beginnings of a silent snarl but he couldn't quite do it or even hold it for that long. His companion had brought up a valid point and even though the stormy man hated to admit it he had also begun thinking along similar lines. Solas wanted to find her, tell her how he felt. Yet, there had been nothing for him to follow that would guide him to her so that he could bring her back home. So even if he had thought about quitting the search it didn't mean that he liked it in the slightest.

No, I haven't found anything and i'm not going to stop looking, not yet. He responded back his eyes hard on the other man. I'll stop once I find something or something stops me. And that something wasn't going to be the pack wolf in front of him. Maybe the coming Winter that was looming in the distance but not this wolf. If anything now he felt a little more determined to find her. How long that would last he didn't know but then maybe he would find something just around the corner from this place.

Fade with yours?

I don't care if heaven won't take me back

Askan's eyes narrowed at the sight of the loner's twitching lips. Why was he getting all pissy? It was a valid point, it wasn't Askan's fault that he was being all sentimental, grasping at straws. The man could try and try, but it didn't mean his effort would get him anywhere. Not to mention, getting all huffy at the Edge Lord for stating the obvious clearly wasn't going to help either, if anything he'd get some scalding words for his effort.

"Fine then, go look." Askan dismissed him with a flick of his tail. Their conversation had screeched to a standstill, Askan cared little for his rose tinted efforts, of his idea of saving the damsel and being the hero of this story. "You can go."Which was his way of saying bugger off, they were done.

It was becoming apparent that they didn't have anything more to talk about. Solas had given the information that the pack wolf had wanted to him and he had given the stormy man the information that he needed. Not that it was what he wanted to hear but he had needed the knowledge all the same. At the very least it crossed one more place off his list of areas he had searched. Now he would need to head into a new area and hope that he got a different response from someone else.

Golden eyes narrowed as he was effectively dismissed and told to go on his way. Solas hesitated he didn't really want to be told off like he was a pup that was no longer wanted in a conversation but he had no reason to stick around. Plus he didn't want to waste the energy fighting a wolf that had probably saved his hide from the coyotes. He would need it to continue his search so with a sharp nod of acknowledgement Solas turned and padded swiftly back the way that they had come, leaving the other man to stand there at the border of his pack's territory.

-Fade-