Wild Cherry Orchard Bitter is better than hungry

(OOC: Partly Cloudy — 75° F/24° C)

Fallen berries squashed underfoot as Mataki bounded excitedly forward, propelling
herself towards the trees. She'd been in Relic Lore for two days now, and hadn't yet
seen this little orchard. She stopped at the base of a tree and looked up, her tail
wagging rapidly with the joy of a young pup. The lone wolf stretched her body up as
high as she could go and willed herself just to go a little further, but being a small
eastern timber wolf, she just couldn't make it. She brought her forepaws down off of
the rough trunk and sighed deeply, inhaling the dizzying scent of the berries
surrounding her. Mataki brought her entire dark, fluffy mass down as low as she could,
her belly just brushing the ground, and sprung up like a rabbit. She lifted her head
up and snapped hard, her teeth closing on... nothing. She whined in frustration,
stood up on her back legs, and, looking like a lost circus animal began to walk in
wobbly circles trying to catch a berry in her mouth. Finally, losing her balance,
she put her head down and lapped up a mouthful of the crushed purple cherries on the
ground. As soon as the cherries' juice dripped onto her tongue, her eyes went wide,
and the half-eaten fruit was sprayed everywhere. "You're kidding me," the Koiota
moaned to herself, "they're bitter! Of all the possible flavors they could've been,
they had to be my least favorite!" Mataki huffed and flopped down on her side, legs
sprawled out in front of her. "Well, I guess bitter is better than hungry." The
dark wolf lapped up another cherry half-heartedly from where she lay on the ground,
covered in purple juice, and grimaced as she swallowed.

This looked lonely... <3 (note to self: for timeline's sakes, Rook left S.Eden 7/14 - after talking with Bishop in "the anchor cast below" - and as of 7/20, is back near Whisper Caverns pack lands.)

Rook Lyall Since coming to Whisper Caverns, a part of Rook's worries had been put at ease. For one, he wouldn't have to worry about Bishop's well-being, hunger-wise, and he didn't have to fret over when or whether or not they would be able eat next. Secondly, he (and his sister) finally had an established home base and would not have to lose sleep about being prone to wandering bears or coyotes stumbling upon them within territory lines. Today, he was keeping true to his promise in looking for something practical to bring back to the pack. He still wanted to make up for the ergot that Titan had gathered which had unfortunately blown away in the balmy summer breeze. He had just come upon the chokecherry trees when he heard someone moaning and groaning nearby. His bear-like ears perked up and immediately he went looking for her. "Hello?" he asked, peering about towards the base and roots of each tree. Something squelched beneath his paw pads and when he stopped to look down at his paws, he was startled by the color that stained the once off-white fur between his toes. If it had not smelled tart or sour, he might have had a panic attack over the fact that he might have been bleeding... A grimace morphed the mask-like marking on his face and as he surveyed his surroundings, he saw a dark-furred form beneath the trees. She muttered something to herself and Rook came forward, somewhat eager to meet her... to ask if she knew where to find a few sprigs of lavender hyssop. He tried again, this time with a smile on his face and in the tone of his voice, "Hello there."

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

Just as she began forcing down another mouthful of bitter, purple cherries, Mataki
was startled by a sudden, unexpected voice behind her that had somehow approached
without her noticing. She let out a little yelp of surprise and twisted her thin
body clumsily around and into a standing position. Her ears were flattened tightly
against her head in fear until she saw the source of the noise, a wolf.

One sniff told her he was a male, and from a pack. She calmed slightly, he had a
smile on his face and it reached his bi-colored eyes. I've never seen a wolf
have two eye colors. The dark wolf was mystified by the two completely
different eyes, but she looked away quickly, not wanting to anger him. She focused
instead on the rest of him.

He was large, much larger than Makazi. His fur was very interesting, with an array of
colors and markings, His ears were round, he had a bushy tail and he was
sturdy and well-built. Only then did she remember he'd spoken. Uh, hello. She
hadn't before met another wolf in this new land, and it had caught her quite by
surprise.

The dark wolf relaxed more, her ears straightened out and she grinned back at the
male. I'm Mataki. Are you from the Blackberry Fields north of here? She thought
of the large fields she'd passed through to reach this orchard. She knew there was a
pack there, she'd caught their scent and maintained a respectful distance. The Koiota
looked up at the huge stranger curiously and waited for an answer.

(This post was last modified: Jul 20, 2014, 01:06 PM by Mataki.)

Rook Lyall He had surprised her, certainly not on purpose, but the yelp that she emitted made him jerk back a couple steps. His large ears came down as he apologized, "Oh, God, I... I am so sorry." A number of hot flashes snaked down the top of his head and down his spine to the very end of his black-tipped tail. The young woman stood up to turn and look at him, her amber eyes wide with shock. His whiskered brows rose in worry, thinking that he might have put himself in a compromising situation just by startling her. He wondered if he should have taken a few more steps backward, All of his assumptions were brushed aside though with hearing her say two simple words: Uh, hello. "Hi," he managed to spit out. That seemed to make her relax; to see her straighten back up and actually smile back at him made his fur smooth out and his tail slowly wag. "I'm Mataki. Are you from the Blackberry Fields north of here?" Learning her name prompted Rook to smile, but when she asked him if he was from the Blackberry Fields to the north, he shook his head. "I'm... I'm not. For a while, he wondered what difference it would have made if he had said that he did hail from the north, but he also whisked that train of thought aside, completely and figuratively derailing it. "I'm from a pack that lives south of here," he explained. "Whisper Caverns, have you heard of it?" His head tilted to one side, the amiable grin still on his face as he considered the fact that she - just like him, Namid, Klio, and Bishop - had just come to Relic Lore. Nothing specific about the potpourri in her coat stuck out to him, but just to be sure, he went ahead and introduced himself and asked, "I'm Rook. Are you... new around here?"

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

Whisper Caverns. the name sounded cool, but it rang no bells. However, before she
answered, he introduced himself as Rook, and asked her if she was new around here.
Rook. it suited him, she decided. Mataki's bushy tail began to wag casually, her
stance relaxed and comfortable. The new question was simple enough in it's own
respect, but it brought back memories of her birth pack, and the family she'd slowly
lost.

It threw the dark female off for a moment, but she smiled again, not wanting to
upset him or make him feel bad. Instead, she answered his question. "Yeah, I am.
I came from Ontario, it's a little ways away from here. My birth pack's territory was
there, but we had to leave. I separated from them a while back though, so it's just
me."

Mataki smiled. "It's really nice here." She continued, turning her head to look at the
many trees around them covered in lush leaves and bitter cherries. She pawed slightly
at the soft grass on the ground and a couple fallen cherries rolled along, following
the scraping movement of her claws. A light breeze spread the tart scent of the
berries across the orchard.

"How about you?" Mataki asked the male. "How long have you been here?" She looked up at
Rook and waited patiently for his answer. He'd probably been here for a while, but
the koiota thought of how great it would be if he'd come from outside too. If nothing
else, it would mean that the packs here are accepting to new wolves, that it's
possible for her to stay and make this place her home.

Rook Lyall Ontario. Rook had never heard of such a place, but the way it sounded in his ears was amusing to him and he wondered just how far it was from here. Most places he had known about were straightforward - Grizzly Hollow, Midnight Plateau, Renegades Reach, Willow Ridge, Enap Hollow - and were nothing mysterious compared to the likes of Awn-tare-ee-ohhh. His head tilted inquisitively as she told him that she was by herself; and, for some reason or another, he went ahead and added on a tangent, "My family isn't from here either. Well," his voice began to falter, rambling for a few seconds. "I mean, they've been here before, used to live here before, but they aren't here anymore." "How about you?" Mataki questioned. "How long have you been here?" The Lyall fell quiet, his left forepaw briefly lifting up and lowering back down to the ground in thought. "Mmmm..." he mused in a thoughtful hum. "Not very long. Maybe just long enough to finally figure out where to settle down and what to do." His eyes went up to the boughs of the cherry trees then; and, when a bird unintentionally sent a cherry to the ground, just inches shy of his nose and paws, he leveled his head. His brow quirked and he remembered why he had come up so far north from his new place within the pack. "Could I ask you something?" he pitched. "Are you familiar with plants by chance? I'm looking for a certain kind. Lavender Hiccup or something like that? Do you know what those look like?"

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

I wasn't sure if 'hiccup was an intended mistake, or a real plant, but I couldn't find anything about it, and this was the one that sounded most similar.

They've been here before, used to live here before, but they aren't here anymore.
The thought struck Mataki as odd. His family left, and yet he came back. She wondered
if she would ever consider going back to Ontario. This troubling thought was pushed
away, however, by the news that he hadn't been here long. These few words nurtured
the tiny spark of hope inside of her that whispered quietly to her of a new family in these
beautiful lands.

Just then, a bird sent a cherry falling to the ground with a soft, barely audible
thud. It derailed her train of thought and snapped the wolf back to reality just in
time to catch Rook's question. He was asking if she knew of a Lavender Hiccup plant.
Mataki couldn't help herself, and giggled.

"Yeah, I know the basics of plants, it's something I learned when I was younger,"
she began, "but I can't say I've ever heard of 'Lavender Hiccup' before. I have
heard of Lavender Hidcote, though." The dark wolf smiled, her tail wagging softly.
She thought of the pretty Lavender plants she'd found on one of her adventures. The
pack scout had told her what it was. "It grows in bushes of long stems. The tips are
covered in tiny purple-blue flowers. I can't tell you where they grow here though, sorry."

Mataki didn't know a lot about plants, just what she'd learned in her boredom early on,
but she'd never heard of a plant with such a ludicrous name, and she was pretty sure
he'd made a minor, yet humorous mistake.

Rook Lyall "Yeah, I know the basics of plants," Mataki informed him, "it's something I learned when I was younger." When giggled and she said that she had not heard of Lavender Hiccup - he was sure now that the second part was definitely wrong - his tail still continued to wag. She had given him a different name - Lavender Hidcote - which, he would soon find was probably something closer to the 'Hyssop' variety Titan had originally told him about. "Yeah!" he trilled. "That sounds about right. Hid-cote." A silly sort of smile made itself apparent on his face now, his two eye teeth peeking out from beneath his black-lined upper lip. Before Rook could even continue on down that path of their conversation (the one that would have undoubtedly sent him into asking her if she would like to join him on a search for some in the surroundings areas just beyond the Orchard), she made him aware of one thing that he had already overlooked, "I can't tell you where they grow here though, sorry." Again, his head canted to one side. Oh, right... In the stretch of quiet that crept between them, he tried to consider other things he might want to ask if she could not help him locate such a mysterious plant. Would he know it if he saw it? ...probably not. His nose wrinkled. "Purple-blue flowers... on long stems...." He dug about inside his head for anything in his memories that might have matched the description but came up short. Now, he wished he had paid attention to his Aunt Aniu, the appointed medic and botanist in the family. Come to think of it, all he could remember about helping her with herb-hunting was how strange and icky-tasting the gathered roots and stalks were on his tongue. Inwardly, his conscience let out a resounding Ick... and in response his forehead furrowed. His gaze went back to his companion though, brought back to the present when he came up with a decent question, "Would they grow in a place like this with other grasses? Or like somewhere near a swamp or running water? Somewhere dry maybe?" By now, he knew Relic Lore was vast and teeming with all sorts of wondrous (and terrible) things; after following Namid to Cedarwood Forest, however, he was sure he could possibly retrieve a few stalks of lavender if he was, at the very least, pointed in the right direction. He just wanted to make it up to Titan, to extend his gratitude to the generous prince and his accommodative family.

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

Ohhh, Hyssop, I didn't know, I can edit both posts to say hyssop if you'd like.

Mataki had been correct, the other wolf had said hidcote was, in fact, what he'd been
looking for. Rook had grinned then, and it was a big, goofy grin that had her smiling
back. However, when Mataki told her companion that she unfortunately could not tell
him where he could find them here, it got very quiet as, Mataki assumed, he thought
of a place he could go to look for them. He appeared deep in thought, and his brow
even furrowed.

During this time, Mataki thought about all of the plants she'd seen here. There were
a lot of them, so many in fact, that she could only give information on about a third
of them, and many of them she'd never seen before in Ontario. At the thought of
her old home's name, the wolf suddenly realized she had no clue what this place's
name was, or even if it had one. I'll have to ask after.

A second later, though, Rook raised his bi-colored eyes back up to her and asked her
what sort of area they might grow in. "Yes," Mataki replied, then quickly realized that
made no sense at all. "A dry place I mean. They grow on dry, grassy slopes or chalky,
parched soils with a lot of rocks. Is there a place like that here, maybe?"

It struck her that if this place was anything like her old home, it was so much
bigger than what she had seen so far. There could be any variety of areas here, each
with different terrain, flora and fauna. She suddenly felt laden with the vastness
of it, and just how little she knew. Mataki had never before had to make a home
somewhere new.

The Koiota felt a little bad she couldn't tell him exactly where it was. She hoped he
found it eventually. She wondered what he needed it for. Medicine, maybe? She didn't
know what it did, but she was pretty sure it had medicinal qualities. He could also
be bringing it back as a gift for someone, maybe his Leader?

The small, dark female Looked up at Rook and waited. She hoped what she said had
helped, but she was also a little nervous, and it showed slightly in the tiniest
parts of her stance, like her tense posture, and the long, fluffy tail that now hung
still rather than wagging. It had been really nice to talk to someone else, and she
was a little sad to know their conversation was coming to an end.

Ah, don't worry 'bout it. <3 Rook was just being a bit forgetful there, lol.

Rook Lyall Rook mentally took note that the lavender plants he was after took root on dry rolling hills and arid patches of soil. He supposed he would have to consider traveling a bit farther in some direction other than north, since he couldn't recall ever seeing any blue-purple flowers on his way to the cherry-adorned grove. Just for a good measure, he pressed his paws into the ground, brushing the leaves and cherries away to find cool, moist soil underfoot. The last place he had been that could have been considered as dry terrain was within Cedarwood Forest... when he had last seen Namid. "Maybe," he replied, righting his skull once again to continually smile at her. "I think I know just the place though." The Lyall's gaze surveyed the thin, shiny bark on the almost evenly-spaced trees, his eyes going from the bits of dark red on the ground to the verdant green leaves that made up most of its branches. Maybe when he had the time - or, maybe even a craving to try something new like the tart cherries native to this part of the Lore - he would come back here; and, maybe... he would have to bring his sister along, so that she could also see the orchard for herself. "I ought to be on my way back, I think," he quietly declared, offering a broader grin to Mataki. "My sister will be looking for me if I don't arrive home when I said I would." His paws did some kind of fancy footwork that made him circle around before walking away, his gaze being cast over his shoulder at the almost-elfin woman. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Mataki. Perhaps we'll meet again." His tail came up in a cordial wag, "Take care, and thank you for the tips." After one more good look at her and giving her an appreciative nod, he took the first steps that would lead him back to the pack lands he now called home.

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.