Skeletal Hill see in this some higher plan

For @Sahalie only. Leaving it up to her to actually discover the bones. c:
Dated 10/26 - Patches of rain, mid-afternoon.
Halloween RE: Sven & Sahalie, someone has been collecting bones and left them in a neat pile.

SVEN ARCHER

& the night is closing in

Amidst his duties to the Ridge that Sven had taken upon himself in his yearning to more quickly become an adult, it had taken nearly a week for him to traverse the tunnels once more in search for his friend. What would she think of him, having taken so long to reunite with her? His journey had been filled with anticipative dread, but this did not delay him further. Whether he was to be met with joy or disdain, he had learned from Piety that not knowing was the worst of all options, and in this scenario, such a sentiment went both ways. Not only did he not want to allow fear of rejection to keep him from forging this friendship, but how would it be fair to Sahalie, to leave her wondering why he never came back as he said he would?

This time, he avoided the foggy hollow, despite how much he was drawn to the ghostly place, and he was rewarded for his discipline. Within the Fen he had found her, and the boy had barely been able to contain his relief when she met him with mirth rather than disappointment. It did not take long for the duo to move past the happy reunion and settle upon exploration for the main course of their play date. As happy as he was to be accepted back into the black smudge's life, Sven cared not how far their romping took him away from the tunnels, nor did he think to count the minutes it would take him to return back home. In fact, he was detached from the true movement of time, for it did not seem to take as long to reach the Red Fern Forest as it truly had. It still seemed as though their fun had just started an hour or two before.

Nothing of depth was discussed between the two. Sven did not bring up the many changes that had occurred within his life since last they met, nor did he hear of anything from Sahalie's end. Instead, they had been transfixed on what was around them, from one small discovery to the next. Everything to the pale boy was some kind of new, but nothing they stumbled across was like what awaited them within the red sea. Unknowing of what lay ahead, the boy instead was thoroughly enthralled with the peculiar fauna of this forest. It seemed as though they were swimming (through an ocean of blood, though he dared not utter such morbid things to Sahalia), and if they ducked their heads below the ferns, it was as though they disappeared into something very secret.

The idea quickly came to him to instigate a game of tag, something his mother used to play with him when he was very young. He was hesitant to initiate it however, wondering if perhaps that was only for babies as @Skoll had never tried to instigate such a thing before. Yet as the minutes ticked by, he could no longer resist the urge, and a single opal paw slithered out to bat against his friend's leg, the word "tag!" the only thing left of him as he darted off into the cover of crimson ferns.

(This post was last modified: Mar 10, 2017, 07:29 PM by Sahalie.)

Territory Discovery! Name Pending!
XXXX is not a place for those of weak constitution. The glade is soundless, as many animals choose to avoid this part of the forest. But it is clear that at some point there was someone here once, as there are warning signs posted for a mile out in the form of small animal skulls hanging from low twigs. As one nears the glade, these skulls and become more frequent. At it's heart, there is a surprisingly organized hill of bones gathered from years and years of kills and scavenges. Notably, there are several skulls of wolves. Whether it is just one wolf who accrued the bones or many over time is not clear, however it appears there is no one who claims the boneyard now. 

If Sahalie was being honest, she had been quite sure Sven was coming back. No one else ever had, anyway. When more than a week had passed, she had begun to stop watching the changes in the moon or counting the days that passed. But she still visited the edges of the Fen where she had promised to meet him, because she could not allow herself to be the one that failed. Sahalie would be the steadfast one, the trustworthy one. And maybe then she would not be left behind, maybe then others would return to her.

When one say her pale friend had suddenly appeared, a smile lit her face and she shouted his name. She longed to ask him what had taken him so long, what he had been up to after all this time, but felt it to be rude. Spieden had taught her that there were just certain things other people had to say first. Though Sahalie, on principle, disagreed with this way of living. It left too many things unsaid back home. There was no way to fix the things that were broken if she could not ask what they were. But she did not want to ruin her relationship with Sven, so the girl held her tongue and continued onward making small talk, commenting on the weather and this beetle and that fallen tree over yonder.

Without warning though, Sven thwacked her on the leg, shouted some nonsense word, and flung himself in the ether. The golden-eyed girl blinked several times, taking the situation in slowly.

What?

Drift had not played tag with her. Spieden had not played tag with her. Triell had not played tag with her. So she was simply left to wonder what this "tag" was and why her friend had taken off so suddenly. He hadn't sounded upset. "Sven?" she called cautiously, running after him. "Sven where the fox are you going?" 

(This post was last modified: Feb 06, 2016, 09:49 PM by Sahalie.)

Sven is being awkward, sorry.

SVEN ARCHER

& the night is closing in

Her following paw steps rumbled behind him, but as her voice chased after him he realized that she wasn't playing his game. Confusion laced her voice and as her question entered his ears, the boy slowed. Oh no, he thought as his mind began to fret that it had indeed been a mistake to play a child's game with her. His ears pressed back against his skull as he dismally awaited her appearance to part the crimson ferns remaining between them. What kind of look would he see, what sort of judgment would be leveled with now?

When at last she made it to his side, he found he couldn't bear to see, and turned his head away instead, pretending to be very interested in something that lay just beyond their reach. Despite how well things had gone thus far, how different she was from everyone back home, Sven couldn't help but fear that she would still be the same, deeming him not worth her time as @Niles had, or simply up and leaving him as Piety had.

"I was uh, just kidding, haha," he attempted to cover it all up. "Ya know, tag? You're it, you chase me, if you catch me, I'm it..." as though he had to remind her, because she would've grown out of it so long ago she probably barely even remembered the rules. "Dumb kids game."

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

@Sven I am so sorry for taking so long on this e_________e forgive????

She found him staring intently at the ground a little more intently than the boring dirt usually warranted, his ears twisted back uncomfortably. The girl began to chew on her lip as she was so prone to doing, wondering if she had done something wrong since he had seemed so happy and carefree just a moment ago when he had hit her. "Sve— " she teetered warily, before the boy cut in with the most insincere tone she had ever heard — and Sahalie had heard quite a lot of insincere things in her time among the Oak wolves. She wanted to press him farther, but suddenly felt quite uncomfortable at the thought of confronting him, reminding herself once again that he was not her family and that there were rules.


"Oh," she commented, tipping her head neutrally, "I've never played Tag before." Why were her cheeks getting so hot all of a sudden? It was fine that Sven played all these games and knew about all these things she didn't right? It was fine that she had reacted so poorly to some time-honored game that was a natural part of Sven's life. Her head and heart sank a little. "There's no one to really...play games with me." She hadn't initially thought her upbringing to be that strange — a part of her had always known there was something wrong with it but never known what or how much — but the surprises kept cropping up like this.


But burdening Sven like this would solve nothing. She exhaled sharply, trying to gain control of her throbbing heart and prickling feet. "It doesn't seem that dumb," a small smile on her face as she stepped nimbly towards her pale friend. "Are there any other rules?"

I am bad too isokay @_@

SVEN ARCHER

& the night is closing in

Never played tag before? The admission did wonders to transform the boy from milquetoast to alert and curious once more. His ears lifted along with his skull as his pale gaze fell upon her. Now she was the one who seemed awkward and uncertain, and he felt a pang of guilt knowing that it must have been his own social inadequacy that caused this. He wanted to rectify it, to continue with the play, to be someone fun that she would want to see a lot. Yet he couldn't help but fixate on the idea that she'd never heard of tag before. Could it really have been something that just his mother knew about, something she'd made up? He couldn't imagine the game being so novel.

"No that's uh, that's about it. It's... pretty fun, actually. I just thought..." he found himself actually wanting to admit his mistake, simply so that she would know that such an awkward moment had been his onus and not hers, but instead heard himself asking, "Your uh, your mom never taught you tag?"

He wanted to know. He wanted to know what Sahalie's mom was like, and how she was different from Piety. Was she as gracious, as warm, as joyous? Was she happier than Piety had been?

/makes waffly attempts to press thread forward. also lol since i guess this takes place after the spieden thread she knows about the mom thing now.
TIME TO FIND THE BONES

Sven seemed to be back tracking now, continuing the confusing, fumbling dance between them. She tried to ignore her frustration, but it just seemed so silly for them to dodge around like this when clearly neither of them had intended to hurt the other. Nothing had happened. Nothing was wrong. Just a simple misunderstanding. Flapping her large ears, Sahalie tried to clear her head, trying to think of ways to move passed this and change the topic to something else. A forepaw hung in the air, poised to reach out in an attempt to catalyze this game of "Tag" when Sven uttered a word she had not expected to hear — not so soon.

"I... uh.." Her cheeks puffed out. Over and over in her head she repeated that Sven didn't know, that he didn't mean to hurt her, that there was no way he could have known. The clouds parted on an overly sunny smile. A nervous laugh bubbled from her mouth, "The mother thing is a little complicated, honestly."

Her still-lingering paw flashed out suddenly and thwacked him on the shoulder just as Sven had done minutes before. "Tag" she shouted with a giggle that was ambiguously genuine. As best she could, she flung her weight backward, whirled about, and threw herself between some ferns and dashed off. He would follow her right? Those were the rules. She could only hope. Running made her feel a lot better: she still was not sure of how to release her feelings verbally, only physically.

She was a bit surprised at herself, however, when she stopped in the middle of a clearing. There was no sound here. Her head turned about slowly at first, but then when she noticed the — her head whipped faster left and right. She wasn't even sure what she was looking at.

She screamed.

(This post was last modified: Jan 29, 2016, 10:31 PM by Sahalie.)

SVEN ARCHER

& the night is closing in

She left him in the dust with no true answer and a mouthful of questions. They pressed heavily against his tongue and it took a large amount of will power to resign himself to asking them at another time, a more appropriate time. He had not the strength to keep his mind from fixating upon her words, however. Once recovered from the initial shock, the boy took after her like a shot, dodging left and right around fern and root and other debris. Normally, Sven was a competitive creature, but even if he had not been preoccupied, he would not have cared who was best at this game of tag. Effortlessly, he felt himself slipping backwards, into the whelp who still held some semblance of light inside of him.

Complicated, though. What on earth did that mean? His heart hammered in his chest as his mind became a flurry of possibilities. What he had gone through, he would not wish upon another, especially his friend. Yet what if she could understand? No one before had understood. No one had even been able to sympathize with him. The possibility of connecting with another wolf on this particular level was overwhelming for him, and he realized that it was something he needed.

And if he was wrong? If it meant nothing that could help him? He still did not want to chase Sahalie away, and so he would not press a topic that she clearly did not want to discuss.

Amidst all of his emotional thoughts, he found himself lagging behind her, to the point that he no longer saw a glimpse here or there of her tial and even when she stopped, he was far from being directly on her heels. This worried him in a harmless way; he might not feel the need to beat her, but that certainly didn't mean he would just let her win! Then her scream ricocheted throughout the forest to strike against his eardrums, and everything changed at once. Thoughts of mothers fell into the void as his worry became suddenly prickly and heavy, falling from his chest into his gut. His protective nature kicked in, and a dose of adrenaline allowed him to sprint even faster until he was at her side.

Before he could even assess the situation he found himself stepping in front of her, angled from her side to protect her bodily from whatever had frightened her. When his ghostly eyes were able to focus and take in what was before them, however, his concern began to ebb away. Morbid fascination, instead, swiftly took hold of him.

"Wow," he whispered, as his gaze panned slowly across the heapings of bones. To the child and his wild mind, there seemed to be even more than what was truly there; thousands he might later say. This was... Sahalie. His head turned suddenly as he realized that even if he found no danger here, that did not erase the scare she must've experienced to illicit such a shriek.

"It's okay," he told her, voice firm with conviction, "we're alone." He raised his nose ever so slightly and took a few deep whiffs, proof for her that he knew this for certain. That's what might frighten her, right? That whoever did this might be around, might want to add them to the collection? It was the only concern her could think of, for the rest of it was cool. Maybe Sahalie wouldn't think so, though.

Droplets of water sparkled like diamonds on the bleached bones stacked higher than her head. Her scream had faded with a lack of oxygen, but her mouth still hung open as she panted. Most of the bones appeared to be normal animal bones, like mice or rabbit. There was an antler here and there, poking out dangerously from the mound. The knocking in her chest began to pound harder as her eyes caught the artful corner of an eye socket... of a skull. Eyes bulging, she realized it was the skull of a wolf. Of something like her. And nearby, sticking out, were more bones that could have only belonged to her species: a long femur, a big hip. Her breathing quickened.

Suddenly a shape appeared that blocked out the macabre pyramid. For a moment she was tempted to assume it was the killer, the laborer of the heap. But it was only Sven. Thank god. Thoughtlessly, Sahalie bent her neck to bury her head into his shoulder, as she would have done with someone like Spieden or her dad. Touching a boy she barely knew unasked seemed a much smaller offense than looking at the bones a moment longer.

The forest girl could hardly believe her ears. He said wow?

Before she could even react, she felt his body moving. Sahalie looked up at him sheepishly, though the confidence in his voice started to coax her own pride out of hiding. She stood up a little straighter, watching as Sven tested the air, looking perfectly detached from everything. He was right though, there were no fresh or even stale scents. And it was completely silent here. Not even a bird. "What....who...who do you think did that?" her voice still rattled from the shock.

(This post was last modified: Feb 06, 2016, 10:01 PM by Sahalie.)

SVEN ARCHER

& the night is closing in

His reassurances didn't seem to help too much. Sven took back the distance between them, pressing his shoulder to her's in solidarity. They might have to leave, he supposed. He wouldn't be mad, but he certainly was already attempting to commit their path here to memory so that he may return later on his own and venture further. Hopefully, he could soothe Sahalie's nerves without departure, though.

"Had to'a been another wolf," he answered her with the same confidence as before. After all, what beast was there more cunning and capable than their species? "A really good hunter," the Archer boy then added, unable to withhold the tinge of respect within his voice.

To have amassed something as grand as this had to of taken skill, and Sven couldn't help but wonder how those he most admired would stack up against the enigma that had created this graveyard. Most certainly, he knew what to aspire too, now. Maybe not possessing a collection such as this himself, that would be weird, right? So cool, but definitely weird. Definitely not permissable. Capability was essentially quite the same, however.

"Doesn't seem like they've been back in a long time though. So," his grey eyes flitted to her once more, "no need to worry, right? 'sides, I'm right here. I wouldn't let anyone get to you."

It felt good to say that; to be a guardian for another wolf, and he hoped that she would affirm this role for him.