Cedarwood Forest Honey and Dust

@Datura
Morning, Clear — Current Temperature: 21° F/-6° C

North.

Ever since the meeting with the wolf from Cut Rock River, Mercy had kept track of the direction they needed to go. He could orient himself with that direction as soon as he left the cave-like den they'd been staying in- it was slightly to the right upon exiting it- and as long as he didn't stray too far or go in too many different directions, he felt himself become more accustomed to guessing direction. He practiced this, watching the sun's rise and fall, as he set about trying to find them some food. Both he and Aponi were weakening drastically, and he knew that neither of them should be out travelling until they'd found something to eat. Even if they could find their way home, starvation had a chance of catching up with them before they got very far.

The temperature had dropped below zero again when he set out to find food. He'd left behind a sleeping Aponi, though he'd been little more than bleary-eyed and zombie-like when he set out on his own. As had become his habit, he swung his head toward the Northern horizon when he stepped out into the light and heaved a soft sigh. Every morning and every evening he called out, hoping that someone would hear his voice on the cool air. Sometimes he heard, or thought he heard, the voice of his mother- but he was so deranged by hunger that it could have been anything; the voice of another wolf, the whine of wind through trees.

He found no tracks yet again and felt weakened and discouraged. He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep doing this; the more he went out in search of food, the more he found himself draining and fading away. Aponi didn't ask him to go- she was rarely even conscious- but he had an obligation, and had made a promise to himself. He would get her back to the pack even if it meant sacrificing his own life. But for now, he wanted to get them both fed and strong enough to make the journey.

Datura was foolish if he thought he could find Grizzly Hollow all by himself after just a few days of looking.

But that's exactly what he thought.

These last few days Datura had taken to sneaking away from Taima's side and leaving her to catch a few more hours of sleep while he scoured the cedars for this legendary bear den. He was careful to be back before she awoke —he had a feeling she would not take kindly to being left behind again. The golden boy tried to use his time wisely, but he was a hopeless tracker at best and had never done anything systematically in his whole life. Afraid that he might wander too far and lose track of where he was, Datura rarely got farther than a mile before he gave up and turned back.

But every day felt like the day he wound find it.

The Aquila boy preoccupied himself with thoughts of what her reaction would be when he told her. Oh he would really be her hero then.Without realizing it, the hopeful explorer's chest began to swell and his pace turned into a casual swagger. Vaguely, his eyes trailed over the ground looking for the giant hole in the forest floor that his mate had described. Badger dens and rabbit holes caught his attention occasionally, but they were not the kind of holes he was looking for. He snorted disdainfully and moved on.

As the sun began to rise and the hour of his return was nearing, a voice came to him on the breeze. It sounded lonely. Datura couldn't help but freeze in momentary horror, certain that it was Taima waking up and cursing what she thought was his sudden but inevitable betrayal. But it was not the voice of his mate. The tone was much too deep, too masculine. Canting his head, the young man began to move towards the sound. Datura wished for nothing more than an encounter with someone else, some one besides Taima, although he hoped it would be brief —he needed to head back soon.

- - -

As the scent of the stranger began to grow strong, the golden boy made his movements louder and more obvious, hoping his approach would be anticipated and wouldn't give anyone the spooks. His eyes fell upon a starving silver boy who seemed to be focusing intently on something in the distance. Though Datura figured it was probably impolite to ask, he found his curiosity overcame him. "What'chya looking at?"

Starvation began to play tricks on Mercy's mind. Sometimes, while out looking for food, he could have sworn that he'd only been gone for a few minutes when he realized it was already dark and the entire day had passed- the fog of time clouded his vision and kept his mind vague and confused for the majority of his day. But other days, he felt insecure and afraid, and had the feeling that time was stretching on and on, that he'd been travelling in search of food for days on end when he was still within sight of the cave he and Aponi shared. This was one of those days, when fright kept his gaze trained on the North as though he feared it would shift and be lost. Paranoia did not suit the crowchild well; it left him distracted and vulnerable.

The voice that spoke caused him to stagger sideways as he spooked like a colt. He lost his balance and went down on one elbow before he recovered his position, and turned his surprised gaze to see the one who'd spoken. He looked young- probably about the same age as Gent, he figured, and there was something familiar about him- but he wasn't entirely sure about that. He didn't trust his memory, as it had become confused with the dreams he had every night when he went to sleep. He took the question out of context, having forgotten that he'd been staring straight ahead earlier, and now took the question to mean what was he looking at right now. Feebly, his answer came. "You."

Despite taking every precaution to make himself known, the poor silvered boy still floundered and bungled like a turkey that had lost it's head. Datura was vaguely embarrassed for this poor boy with turkey-nerves, and his discomfort in the situation only grew when the boy chose to muddle his answer. At a complete loss for words, the man just sort of stared back at the boy with eyebrows raised up towards his ears. What on earth was he supposed to do with this? Was this boy worth talking to? As he gaped down at the boy, he was infused with the strangest sensation of familiarity. For some reason this boy looked, acted, and ultimately reminded Datura of a brother he had once had that had disappeared many seasons ago. He shook his head: this was too young to be Adonis.

Somehow, he found himself speaking to this boy as he had spoken to Adonis on more occasions than he could recall. "Well, you shouldn't stare. It's rude." Pointedly, he bobbed his head and looked away, as if his statement needed no other explanation. For a moment he considered asking if the boy had any family around here but he decided against it. The boy, who looked like he was not quite yet a yearling, looked underfed and perhaps a bit unloved. Definitely a loner. Instead, he quipped, "You seen any bear den around here, a big abandoned one?" Might as well make some use of him if there was any to be had.

Any memory Mercy might have had of Datura had long since faded away; he'd been too young when he and Taima had been a part of the pack, and those earliest memories had faded as he'd grown. He remembered enough of Nomad's Pass, naturally, but very little of his earliest months while living there. Several wolves had been fixtures in his life when he'd been very young- but most of them were still a part of the pack. And even had he had a vague memory of Datura, it was fogged by the cloud that starvation had caused, which made him confused and somewhat simple-minded. Even his memories of his mother, Naira and Mapplethorpe were far from the forefront of his mind; all he wanted to do was find food, take care of Aponi and find Hollowheart Keep. Any other tasks and memories had to wait to be noticed and taken care of.

He frowned slightly when Datura spoke to him, and he felt as though he was being patronized- even though what the beige and cream male said was the truth. Mercy should have known better and he looked away drearily, releasing a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. At least Datura hadn't pounded his sorry arse in the ground for being rude, but he wasn't even conscious of himself enough to have recognized that he could have potentially started a fight- a fight that would have been over in a mere matter of seconds.

A bear den? He forgot himself and looked back up at the male, ears pricking forward. For a moment, he regained some of his former alertness, before he faded back into himself and averted his dull gaze. He shook his head softly, and then he stiffened; the cave. He and Aponi were staying in something of a cave- something which might have, at some point or another, been a bear's cave. It didn't smell like bear anymore, but a smaller bear- a black bear, perhaps- could have fit into it. He couldn't have this male discover their hideout. "No." He said, clearly. "Why?"

Where his brother would have objected with some sort of brilliant argument beyond Datura's comprehension, this boy only frowned and swallowed the lesson like bad tasting medicine. Inwardly, the golden boy was nodding. As it should be. He couldn't think how many times his attempts to civilize others had gone sour for the silliest of reasons. These loners wandering out here in the realm were little better than barbarians. Now that a petty altercation — that Datura suspected would favor him — had been avoided, he too found himself breathing easier and releasing the tension from his muscles.

His deep ginger ears fell back against his head, he had hoped that the starving child might have seen the bear den. His and Taima's lives would have been a whole lot easier if this extended, painful game of hide and seek saw a swift conclusion. Datura shrugged, "Me and my mate have been looking for it. It's the site of her family's old den," he leaned in to give his next words more weight, "A place known as Grizzly Hollow." Though he had already gone well and above the call of duty when it came to answering the lonely child's question, Datura's tongue would not lie still in his mouth. "It was the site of a very powerful pack. You head of it?" Though the golden prince actually knew next to nothing of the land he was looking for or it's history, he couldn't resist a little story telling. It's not like there was anyone here to correct him.

Datura was obviously somewhat let down by his answer, which he figured was a good thing and a bad thing. It meant that he cared about where this bear den, and that he would likely continue searching for it- but it also meant that he might try looking somewhere else, now that Mercy had said that he hadn't seen it. He needed to protect Aponi at all costs- though it probably would have benefited them both if he'd known that he was talking to her brother. Unfortunately, the two looking nothing alike- not in build, features, coat or eye colour, so he was unable to make any connection between them. His lack of trust had perhaps jeopardized them once already- when he'd met Aeolus, who'd claimed that he knew Karpos. He potentially could have led them back to their homelands...But then again, he might've been lying, and might have been searching for Karpos for some more sinister purpose than a simple family reunion.

He was somewhat relieved to find that the golden-eyed male was looking for it simply to revisit an old pack's former stomping grounds which had once belonged to his mate. Mercy looked up at him again, to better gauge the male's age; he couldn't have been much more than a year older. He obviously thought quite highly of his mate, then, having said that her former pack was once quite powerful. He shrugged on shoulder, and couldn't help but think that it probably hadn't been that great of a pack, considering that it was no longer in existence. "Nope." He said, and then added: "I'm not from here."

omfg i am so srry jess e___e 1 more from you and then I can post again and we can archvie? xD I just don't like letting something so outdated sit....

The boy had so few words to give Datura. An ear swiveled back and forth as he tried to understand why this loner was making such a halfhearted attempt at being sociable. He couldn't even shrug more than one shoulder. Datura's eyebrows came together and he frowned slightly, and he found it hard to swallow his growing annoyance with this sullen teen's disinterested attitude. Sighing, he tried a different angle: "I'm not from here either, actually. I'm from the mountains. But I've gone and married a girl from these woods and I think I'll be stuck here. It's not really the same." Here, the golden boy paused and his nose drifted up towards the naked branches knitted together above him. His eyes moved cautiously back down towards the peppered stranger. "I don't like the way the trees leer at me."

Awkwardly, Datura shrugged. He hoped that even if he was sharing some personal information that no one had really asked for the boy would give him something more than a short string of syllables to work with. If he couldn't, then Datura had wasted enough time and would head back to Taima with neither food nor intelligence. His paws began to itch as he thought of her waking up alone and wondering where he had gone. Eyebrows raised, he waited.

(This post was last modified: May 26, 2014, 09:35 PM by Datura.)

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the snow. Hunt Opportunity

Sounds cool to me :)

Mercy's attention was piqued when the male said he was from the mountains. He almost wanted to ask where exactly on the mountains he was from- but he knew he shouldn't show too much interest. If he showed interest, it might lead him to believe that Mercy was in fact from that area- and he didn't want this male to know anything about him. He was tired and too wound down to be interrogated, so he did appreciate the fact that Datura shared these few anecdotes with him, rather than continuing to question him about where he was from, or asking him about his family. He'd obviously perceived that Mercy would rather be a closed book. He was a bit puzzled by the fact that Datura felt trees could leer, and he was given a slightly odd look- but in the end, Mercy ended up nodding. He preferred the mountain as well. "Fair." He said, as a sort of agreement.

He caught the look that Datura gave him and he too shrugged. He drew in a breath and heaved a sigh- he was too tired to be social. "Dunno where your mate's old pack is. Never heard of it. Sorry." He said, as a means of excusing himself, hoping that now that the other male knew he couldn't get anything from Mercy, he'd simply leave him alone. Mercy looked off in another direction pointedly, hoping to indicate that he wanted to head off in that direction- or any direction, as long as it meant he could be off on his own again.