Cold Water Creek birds of a feather

For @Leotie - Afternoon, Partly Cloudly, 51F.

 
 

Pack life wasn’t getting any easier.  It had been weeks, or a month, or maybe something like that, he wasn’t counting, but it had been a long time, and Gilligan didn’t feel any more at home among of the wolves of Silent Moon Plateau than he did when he joined.  He hadn’t met any of the members in anything more than passing.  While it was as much fault his as it was any other wolf in the group, he truly didn’t feel at fault.  If they wanted him to feel included, than they would include him. 

 

With no remorse, the youth set out with no warning and no indications – if @Datura was curious, he should have asked, as far as the yearling was concerned.  In truth, he wasn’t planning on being away for long – but he had made a promise, and for perhaps the first time in his life, the young male wanted to keep it.  So strong was his desire that he even managed to avoid distraction as he loped slowly from the mountain off to the east, plunging into the vale he’d explored prior to reuniting with his father.

 

After a day or so, he’d entered the Red Fern Forest – Leotie’s scent was faint, but with his inexperience, not something the youth would be able to track, at least not effectively.  So he continued his trek, zigzagging through the woods and calling his friend’s name with no care for potential danger.  It came with little result, and eventually, the male was forced to come to a halt, stopping at a cool creek for a drink.  After a drink, and a rest, he would get on his task again.  He had promised Leotie.

 

In the time since Gil had left her to find his father and ask about helping to find her home Leotie had not traveled far from where she had met him.  She didn’t want to take the chance on possibly missing him when he did return for her.  She felt that he was the only chance she had in finding her way home and she wasn’t going to lose that chance.

Still as time passed she started to have many doubts about returning home or if Gil would truly come back.  She tried to push them from her mind as she tried to make it through each day.  It still hadn’t gotten any easier for her though she was starting to hate being in this new place a little less each day.  Leotie hated that she had doubts that Gil would return to help her since he had made her a promise but she also had to realize that she didn’t know anything about him or if keeping his word was important to him.

So it was a surprise when she was looking for something to eat and faintly heard the sound of her name in the forest.  She tried her best to follow the direction it had come from especially when she thought the voice that was calling her sounded familiar to her.  Then it stopped and she wondered if she had been imagining it the whole time, wishful thinking.  Still she kept in the direction she had been going till she came to the creek she had visited before to drink and there she found who she’d been waiting for.  “You came back,” she stated as she slowly approached the creek where Gil was drinking.

Sorry for the wait.

(This post was last modified: Sep 13, 2015, 04:28 PM by Leotie.)

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you

   Were he not so focused on his drink, the yearling might have been able to detect another wolf approaching him.  It would behoove him to hone his senses a bit more – after all, @Datura would not be around to protect him forever, and an adult would be expected to fend for himself.  All the same, the redhead gave a startled leap as he spun about, water dripping from his face as he rounded on the voice.  Hackles that had gone up from the momentary fright immediately settled back upon his shoulders, and the boy’s tail wagged in wide arcs as he slapped the ground with both his forelimbs.

“Leotie!” he called happily, “I was just looking for you.  Of course I cam back, yo.  I fucking promised.”  It was not a thing he did often, but once his word was given, the youth took it very seriously.  Perhaps some of his father’s values were finally rubbing off on the young man (though when the golden giant was not present, Gil was clearly hard-pressed to correct his language when he found the entire process so difficult), shaping him into the son the Aquila heir actually wanted.

Bobbing forward, he bumped into his age mate playfully, tail continuing to wiggle.  Leotie looked much in the same shape as when he found her – both good and bad, he decided.  Nothing awful had happened to her in the few weeks, but she didn’t look much improved.  Perhaps she was like he was with the pack – only instead, she was struggling as a loner.  Humming thoughtfully to himself, Gilligan spoke back up.  “My dad didn’t know.  Just…the south.  Which…is a very big place.  Sorry, man.  I tried.  I dunno what else to do.  Or who to ask.  Most wolves don’t like the humans…”

(This post was last modified: Sep 15, 2015, 04:12 PM by Gilligan.)

#R28-9

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

 

Leotie was glad to see Gil but as she stood behind him waiting for him to acknowledge her she found that she was rather nervous about the news that he had brought with him.  She hoped beyond anything that it was good news and that she might finally be going home.  Though she had learned to hunt a little she still was not as successful in this place as she would like to be especially if she was going to be spending any real length of time.  She smiled when he said her name and it seemed he was just as happy to see her as she was him.  “I thought I heard your voice,” she stated when he informed her that he had been looking for her, “And you’re right I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

She was glad to have at least one friend in this place.  It made everything a little less lonely and in the time he had been gone she had worried about what he might find out but she had also looked forward to seeing him when he did return.  Now that he was here she felt a little relieved despite the nervousness.  When he bumped into her she nudged him with her nose back to return the affection he’d shown her.

Finally he broke the news of what he had found to her which happened to be that his father didn’t know anything.  This was disappointing though she knew she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up. The chances of Gil’s father knowing something were pretty slim as it was.  “Well thanks for asking him I hope that he wasn’t too angry with you,” she said offering him a small smile.  She wasn’t really sure what she should do now but it looked like she wasn’t going to be going home.

(This post was last modified: Sep 20, 2015, 01:10 AM by Leotie.)

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you

   

“No.  No, it was okay.  Dad’s never too mad.  I just…gotta learn how to talk around him?  It’s kinda weird.  He doesn’t like when I cuss, yo…or when I say that.  Yo.  I don’t think he was even upset about the questions just…yeah,” Gilligan trailed off with a heft sigh, mouth slanted off to an angle.  As far he could tell, Datura simply answered.  A little curt, perhaps, but in no way as nearly aggressive as the woman in the red fern forest.  It seemed like the speech pattern was more offensive than any other affront, and now that it was engrained, Gil was finding it much more difficult to actually think before his words went tumbling out.

Still.  This wasn’t supposed to be about him.  He’d promised to help @Leotie and he’d failed to do that. 

Slowly, the yearling’s expression fell, his tail slowing until it hung limply behind him.  This didn’t make him a very good friend, he decided, head sinking as his mind raced.  “There’s gotta be somethin’ I can do, yo.  I mean, I mean, maybe you can make a home here?” he suggested, tipping his head to one side. “In the forest, I mean.  Me and Dad live with a pack up the mountain, but we lived on our own for a long time first.  I liked it that way.”

Was this helping?  Gilligan still wasn’t sure if he was actually being encouraging…or just off-putting.  All he knew was that he had no way to bring Leotie back to the place she’d come from, and he wasn’t sure if Silent Moon was the type of place she’d like…it wasn’t even the place he liked, honestly.  “…are…are you hungry?  We could do that.”

#R28-9

 

Leotie was glad to hear that Gil’s father wasn’t angry about the questions he’d asked for her.  The last thing that she wanted was for there to be further problems between them because of her.  Even though the news was disappointing she felt that she had tried everything she could to find her way back home and perhaps she had been a little foolish to hope that anyone in this place would be able to help her.  “I’m glad that he wasn’t angry about the questions.  I didn’t want you to get into further trouble with him on my account.  I suppose how you talk around him ill just take some time,” she said trying to sound encouraging.

With her chances of finding her way home having become non-existent she supposed that she would have to figure something else out if she were to make it in this new place.  Though she supposed it wasn’t very new anymore.  Leotie nodded at his suggestion of making a home in the forest, “I think that is what I am going to have to do,” she stated, “Maybe you can help me to learn how to live here?” She suggested.  It hadn’t escaped her at how crest fallen he seemed so perhaps he could help her to learn to survive in this place.

In her current predicament she knew that she didn’t have the abilities to do what Cornelia had suggested but perhaps with Gil’s help she might gain the abilities that she needed.  That was of course if he was willing to help her.  She nodded enthusiastically when he asked if she was hungry, “I’m always hungry anymore,” she told, “What did you have in mind?”

(This post was last modified: Sep 29, 2015, 12:11 AM by Leotie.)

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you

   

Thankfully, @Leotie did not at all seem repulsed by his offers to help, and the yearling’s shoulders sagged with a sigh of relief.  His tail began to wag again behind him as he hummed softly, considering their options as he glanced around the creek.  They would have to go for small game – if he was being honest, the ginger wasn’t a terribly practiced hunter himself.  When he was younger, @Datura did well to provide for him, and even as he grew, the golden giant often insisted they worked together.  While it vastly improved their chances of success, it left his son struggling now that he was offered the lead.

Chewing on the inside of his cheek, he bobbed his head down towards the water source.  “Well, first things, I guess.  Water is good.  Important for wolves, but everyone else, too.  So you know there are other animals around, yo.  I would pick a place to live nearby.  Up hill, a little, so it’s dry, and you’re hidden, but if you stay near the water, you don’t need to go far for a drink or for dinner,” he explained.  Of course, a densite would be entirely the woman’s choice, but he thought that a suggestion couldn’t hurt.

After a few more moments, towards a nearby tree stand.  “So…we could hunt for some squirrels.  They aren’t very big, but there are a lot of ‘em, so they’re easy to find when you’re hungry, yo.  They’re really fast, so usually I have good luck hiding and then pouncing on one.  Which can be kinda fun.  You into that?”

#R28-9

 

It was a crushing realization that she would not be finding her way home and that she would have to find a way to make it in this new life.  As much as she didn’t like the idea when she first came to this place she knew that she would have to accept it and do her best to learn what she could.  It was already clear to her that she had a lot to learn.  There was so much to remember that she hoped she would be able to and pull upon the information she’d been given in the time that she had been in the forest when she needed it most.

Gil had some more information for her which she wasn’t expecting but she was still grateful for it all the same.  “So somewhere up in the trees there would be a good place,” she said as she glanced in the direction she had been speaking of, “What sort of things make a good place to stay?” She asked curiously since she wasn’t really sure how to find such a place out in the forest.  Mostly she had just been staying wherever she ended up and hoping or the best.

At the mention of her hunger her stomach decided to remind her just how hungry she was with an audible growl.  Gil however had a thought on what could be done to perhaps take care of her hunger in the suggestion of hunting squirrels, she nodded.  “Most definitely.  Maybe you can show me how you go about catching them and then I could try?” she suggested since she thought that she would have a better chance if she watched first then gave it a try. “Are they anything like hunting rabbits?” She questioned since she had already tried hunting rabbits she thought she might be able to apply a little of what she had learned to hunting squirrels.

(This post was last modified: Oct 12, 2015, 03:40 AM by Leotie.)

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you

Well, that was a good question.  The yearling flashed a crooked smile, ears out to the side as he gave a gentle shake.  His tail wiggled behind him, pleased that Leotie was clearly thinking about what this would mean.  There was no question, only smart questions, about what she would need, and how to find it.  While Gilligan was no expert himself, he rationalized he had more of an idea that she did.  Once they had left the pack at White Goat, he and his father had spent a long time on their own, and while he perhaps hadn’t learned how to track or become an expert on hunting, one they he had figured out was how to find a good den site.

With a bob of his head, he turned, leading his friend back into the forest and among the trees.  As he trotted, he tried to explain to the other yearling what he was looking for.  “You want to find a place that’s dry, yo.  That’s why we go up here – you’re close to the water so you can drink and get food, but it ain’t gonna flood you out.  Also, sometimes you can find hollows under trees, and you can put leaves or fur down there, and it keeps it warmer, ya know?  If you like warm, anyways,” Gil thought out loud, nodding towards a smaller hollow as they passed.  She could either dig a small one out, or she could keep looking to find one that fit her a bit better.

“Anyways, we can go hunting, yeah!  Squirrels are a lot like rabbits.  ‘cept they’re smaller, yo.  And instead of going in burrows they go up trees.  So the best thing to do is to spring on one before it can run.”  With these, the ginger wolf slowed to a halt, his tail swaying behind him as he put his nose to the ground.  “You gotta smell ‘em, first.  They…well, they kind smell like rabbits.  And then you gotta hide.  Make sense, so far?”

#R28-9