It was a strange mess of feelings, buzzing in the young lad as he moved away from his home and the familiarity of the Lowlands. He’d dreamed of adventure all his life, but never been able to slip far from the watchful eyes of the pack. But now he found himself further from the Fields than he’d ever been, yet the reasoning behind his outing put a rather heavy dampener on his excitement. He was on a trail! Or he had been, it seemed to have disappeared a little ways back, or perhaps he simply lost it, tracking was not one of his greater skills. But he kept moving regardless, hoping to pick the scent back up. He had to find her! She needed to come back home, now! Everything’s such a mess!
She was supposed to be the responsible one too. Oldest of the litter, always scoffing at him and Kas when they got rowdy. How exactly had she managed to go and get herself lost? Well it didn’t matter! He would make her unlost, and take her home to mom and dad. As soon as he found his own way out of this tangle of woods. Such a terrible mess of prickly bramble and dense thickets, it was. If all forests were like this, he was very happy to be living out in the tundra. In here, every step was a struggle, but he pressed on, doing his best to stick to the mountainside, to keep sure of his direction; Just keep heading south..! That’s what his mom had told him. Even if he lost the trail, going south until he reached the Falls and then following the river would lead him to Charred Ash Draw, where there were ‘friends’ who could help. And apparently, his older sister had once gotten lost too and ended up down here, so it seemed the best way to go.
A sudden, strange sound startled the youth, stopping him in his tracks; A rythmic knocking, interchanging with what sounded like a high pitched laugh. And then, after a few rounds of this, a gruff voice, distinctly wolf, and close enough that it made the boy jump, as he couldn’t see a thing through the overgrowth. Cursing forests for all their trees under his breath, Gale started moving slowly forward again, squeezing through another few rows of trees, before suddenly finding himself in a wide, open glen. A few leaps of snow covered the ground in front of him, before transitioning into a large lake, frozen along the edges, but seeming to be wet still in the center. And, just a short length to his right, stood a strange wolf - looking more like a bear really, than any wolf Gale had ever met - his attention seemingly fixed on something high up in a tree.
The pup followed his gaze, mouth forming a silent ‘oh’ as he caught sight of the bird; Just as it paused its knocking to give off another string of laughs. Here was the source of the ruckus then. Gale smiled slightly, amazed that a bird was able to make such a noise, though the dark wolf didn’t seem the least bit amused. “It making fun of yah?” The youth barked, cocking a brow questioningly, while his tail gave a slow wave at his hocks. Perhaps something about this guy was just too hilarious for a mockingbird to pass up.
Word count: 572
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