Sex: MaleThe youth had taken quite a few liberties when it came to searching for Vlar. He had already found her, nestled among the remains of their old den, but when they had bid each other a farewell, he had not left. Hanging back, out of sight, the youth had waited until his older sister had left. Following her, he had managed to keep her trail until she had disappeared into the depths of the mountain paths. At that point, following Vlar had become impossible, and Raigo found himself wandering about in wonder of Riddle Heights. All around him were rocks, jutting out this way and that. Nervous eyes looked to the skies, and he was pleased to find that the sun was still high in the sky, and that with some luck, he would be able to find his way out before the sun set.
Stopping to rest in the middle of the path, Raigo breathed in and out deeply a few times, trying to gather a sense of where he was. But he had never been to the Mountain before, and had never even been to the foothills before either. Everything was completely foreign to him, and while he might not admit it aloud...it was a wee bit scary. Since his return, he had done everything he could to stay close to the Grizzly Hollow territory, until his search for Vlar had led him further away. Given his situation now, he cursed his inability to both think of, and follow through with, a genius and creative plan. Originally, his idea to follow Vlar into the mountains to see where she was going and why she was not returning to the forest with him seemed like a good idea. But given the current state and situation of things, and his awful sense of direction, that plan no longer seemed so brilliant. Calling for her was always an option, he reckoned that his voice would echo for miles, but then she would know that she had been (unsuccessfully) followed. That led into a whole other debacle that Raigo wasn't quite sure he was ready to handle.
So instead, he sat there in the middle of the path, his brow creased. Unable to find any rhyme or reason among the rocks, his posture fell into a slouch, and he wrapped his tail around his his right hind leg for comfort. Shuffling his front paws uncomfortably, the creme wolf turned his head to the left. Seeing no one, he turned to the right. Alone. "Crap."
Ever since his journey up into the Mountains he knew the land inside and out, never sleeping in the same place twice and knew the best places to hide when the storms struck. A smart individual he had become but he would only get smarter with time, persuading those who needed a place that they could truly call home. Riddle Heights was certain a place that held qualities for a pack (or so he thought) but Skylah had enjoyed the Fireweed Rise and others would as well. Inkheart travelled for hours until reaching the Pass and just as he pulled around the corner he picked up a scent that was foreign but embraced nonetheless.
This being was of a pack but also naive and innocent, a mind worth developing differently. A chance to begin their adult life anew.
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It wasn't the fact that he was alone that bothered him, Raigo had dealt plenty with that particular situation when he had mistakenly wandered away from Grizzly Hollow a few months back. What bothered him is that he had no idea where he was and no real indication on how to get back to familiar territory. The mountains had always been a background fixture, not something he ever paid much attention to. Grizzly Hollow was a forest pack, and lived on the other side of Relic Lore completely. When he had followed Vlarindara, he had no idea that she would be traveling here, or else he might have second guessed his decision to try and be all sneaky-like. He would be fine if he had just followed the white female more closely, but as experience had shown, Raigo was not a particularly good tracker.
Right ear twitched and instinctively, Raigo raised to his feet. He didn't see anybody, but he could have sworn he heard something. The rocks didn't look quite so abandoned anymore, and he began to feel a tingling bit of fear run up his spine. Shuffling backwards, the youth moved until his rump hit the solid stone. At least nobody could sneak up on him...maybe. Glancing above him, he noted the ledge, but it was a ways above, it would take some daring to alight on him from above. Gulping down his fear, the Grizzly Hollow second spoke up, trying (and probably failing) to make his voice confident. "Hello? Is anybody there?"
Filled with anxiety, the youth backed into his corner, feeling the rough stone against his flanks. Golden eyes were darting back and forth, trying to take in anything and everything at once. But all he could see was stone, and the rock was not exactly a friendly sight to Raigo, who was a stranger in this land. He had traveled great distances, but almost always through forest terrain. The rock felt uncomfortable under paw, and he didn't like it. And whoever else was lurking here, if there was anybody at all, had not spoken up, which made his anxiety increase tenfold.
Breathing heavily, the Grizzly Hollow second took one last look to his left, where the path continued on uphill. He had thought he had seen somebody lurking in that direction, but surely they would have answered his call if they had been there? They would. Wolves didn't just ignore each other, and his question hadn't exactly been asked quietly. Mustering his courage, the youth took tail and sped down the trail headed to his right, back the way he had come. Whatever was lurking up the area, was not within his interest to explore.
Plowing downhill, his paws sought for traction on the slick stone, and more than once he felt himself beginning to slide. Always he threw on the brakes, digging his hind legs into the ground, forcing himself to stop. But as he approached a curve in the path, his hind paws did not do their job, and he began to slip further and further out of control. While there was no immediate danger, he wasn't going to tumble over a cliff, he did lose his balance, and Raigo rolled quickly into a rather large boulder. Dust rising up all around him, he hit the sturdy rock with a thud, coming to an immediate halt. Head still spinning, the blackness pushed at the sides of his vision, overcoming him completely for a few seconds. "Oof." It was the best he could do in his dazed state.
Ears would twitch a little though as a ruckus reached him from a bit distance down the trail. Turning tail around, he’d make his way back down to investigate. Ever weary of what may lurk around, he didn’t lower guard. Taking speed down the path was not much the good idea since traction is more easily lost going down than it is going up. Thus he took his time to come upon the scene. Stopping, the adventurous gaze would lay upon the canid who had taken the path’s curve uneasily. Hitting one’s self upon a rock on a slanted surface was not the best of ideas though the decent thing to do was to help the wolf off the slanted and slippery surface to a more suitable, level landscape that would serve any injury better.
Caution would still be needed since he didn’t know what type of canine was before him though nothing is ever gained without trying to find out or do. Stepping forward, he’d come out from being hidden behind shrubbery and trees. Parting maw, he’d stand few paces away to call out a simple question first. <b>“Are you alright?”</b> There were many steps in treating injury but one of the first things to do was to make sure that the individual was responsive. Hopefully so since he, of his own size, would not fair entirely well trying to lug another down the trail to try and find other assistance.
Raigo didn't hit the boulder with enough force to cause serious injury to himself, and the blackness that covered his eyes was only temporary. But even as he cracked his gold eyes open, he strained them against the lightness. It hit him with full force and a mumbled grunt escaped from his muzzle. Such behavior, running too quickly and running into things, was not uncommon for the yearling male, but it wasn't something he was particularly fond of doing either. So the dazed state of confusion was not an unfamiliar one, though that didn't make it much easier to distinguish the voice that called out to him.
In the fuzzy outline, Raigo could make out the average sized male, though his dark coat only added to the illusion that Raigo was looking at a shadow, rather than a real and physical being. But the words had been real enough...he thought. Nodding his head, he barely moved his bumped cranium, maybe an inch in either direction vertically. Not enough for an adequate answer, should this phantom be real. Was it worth the effort to try and spit one out? Probably. At the very least, nobody else was around to hear him talking to shadows. "I'm fine...how are you?" The question was absurd, of course, but he wasn't talking to a real living thing, so it was perfectly acceptable to ask. Stifling a giggle, Raigo pushed up on his roughed up paws, sitting up only to slip right back down again. Okay, down it was. There was plenty of time to sit, after he assessed the quality of the stranger's day.