Cut Rock River bwp: choke on the rinds

A wild pig has appeared!  What is she doing here?  Open to anyone!

  

     

   After what felt like years of traveling (and she knew it wasn’t, truly, but you couldn’t blame a girl for a bit of drama here and there), the fledging scout found herself at the banks of a river.  It was moving swiftly, fed by recent snow and the day’s rain, but it seemed to do little to deter the young female as she waded in.  Stocky legs sunk down into the sandy bottom, but the cold water barely even nipped at her belly until she moved into the center of the flow.  Plunging her muddy muzzle into the water, she exhaled deeply before sucking water in through her mouth, taking several long, cool gulps. 

While this was satisfying, the sow found little reason to leave the stream just yet.  The weather had turned quite cold, and several invertebrates had burrowed under the stream’s bed.  Shoving her shovel-like snout back under the water, she forced it further under the gravel, rooting around for any tasty treats she could find hidden underneath the river.  That the water flowed murky and dark behind her meant nothing to the sow, for none of her siblings and cousins were here.  This river was all hers for the taking, food and water both, and there was little anything could do to stop her.

(This post was last modified: Nov 05, 2015, 08:27 PM by Spirit of Wildwood.)

By now the Ashfoot's leg had healed well enough that Kenelm hardly ever limped as he travelled, and so he had elected to wander a bit today with @Nineva for company. The unfortunate fiasco with the fermented apples had left the man feeling a little sheepish about his... inattentiveness, and since the girl had been affected even more strongly than Kenelm himself had been - both during and after the exercise - he thought it might be good to make it up to her by taking her out exploring, well away from the apple orchard. The path he picked led them southward, down towards the nearby river. He didn't know whether Nineva had ever seen a river or not, but surely they could at least have some time to play together - gently, he hoped - by the water's edge. He had always found running water soothing, and not just because Calanthe, too, had loved fish... although, perhaps he could begin to share those precious memories with Nineva, rather than hoard them greedily to himself. It might bring him some relief to revisit such happy memories-- The ashen man froze as the river - and its surprising occupant - came into view. There before them, a wild boar trudged its way through the water, turning the river brown in its wake as it shovelled along for... food, he could only assume, buried or rooted within the muck at the river's bottom. Immediately the Ashfoot stepped in front of Nineva, keeping his eyes locked on the hog. He had encountered their traces once or twice before; this beast and the rest of its filthy kind were death to the lands they encountered, carving swaths of destruction and rot wherever they went, stealing prey from careless predators, attacking any creatures who crossed them... And now there was one here, far too near to his latest home or his erstwhile ward for Kenelm's liking. Gaheris needed to know about this - immediately. Moving as quietly as he could, Kenelm began to back away, attempting as he did so to nudge Nineva along with him with his hind paws as he moved. He had little prayer against the brute, especially with Nineva so close to the action. Retreat, for now, was the wise man's option... or so he hoped.

With ash on the wind, I move forward...

Let's Cause Some Chaos

She was excited to be out of the borders, for while she had begun to memorize all of the Hollow's secrets, the Cedarwoods were far too vast for her to have rooted out everything there was to see. Out here, it was certain she would find adventure, and today she was lucky enough to have the company of her favorite Hollow wolf. She trotted beside him happily, careless with her steps for they were not hunting or scouting, merely trekking to find what they could. He'd told her they were to visit a river, which normally would have her amped for a splash fight, though the heavy chill in the air had her thinking twice. Whatever they ended up doing, she knew it would be exciting.

When they at last arrived, Kenelm spotted their company far before she had. The girl stuck her paws into the water and bent down, lapping up the cold refreshment. As the silt of it, mucked up by the beast, reached her taste buds however, she recoiled. "Yuck!" she exclaimed, and only a second later felt Kenelm's weight press against her, trying to push her back and away.

"Hey, what're you-..." her words trailed off as her mismatched gaze fell upon the other creature, its size and ugly shape striking her with awe. So enraptured was she, that the little girl did not notice the trepidation with which Kenelm was treating the situation. Always a logophile, she needed a definition for this beast.

"What is it?" She whispered as she reluctantly backed up with him.

      

The arrival of one animal did not worry the young female, and she continued about her business.  Every so often, she lifted her head for a breath of fresh air, chewing with an open mouth as she refreshed her lungs and surveyed the area.  As long as the one wolf remained where he was, she hardly saw cause for alarm, and put her snout back into the river, rooting around for something else sweet to eat.  There was still plenty to find, this time of year, as long as a pig was willing to look for it.

Another voice caught her attention, and when the forward scout lifted her head and swiveled her ear back.  There were two wolves upon the bank now, and this was enough to give the female pause.  @Kenelm stood with a much more silvery animal, no smaller in size.  Her mouth hung open for a moment, a mash of invertebrates and roots in her jaws as she thought – but they said nothing to her, and made no move to intervene with her feast.  With a chew and a swallow, she considered her options…and eventually gave a shrug of nonchalance.  If they weren’t going to bother her, which should she start trouble with them?  She’d eat and move on, and when she returned to the drift, perhaps she wouldn’t mention this place at all.

“Hush!” Kenelm muttered. Too late; the man froze in his tracks as the pig suddenly lifted its head and stared over at them, its maw crammed with the chewed pulp of its ill-gotten lunch. For one heart-racing second, Kenelm feared the worst... and then the beast seemed to shrug and turned its attention back to rooting through the riverbed. He waited a moment longer before beginning to back away again. “That thing is a boar,” he told @Nineva under his breath. “They come to destroy. They'll eat everything they can wrap their jaws around - even meat from a pack's caches - and they'll tear down or dig up whatever or whoever is in their way.” They were freakishly lucky this one hadn't decided they were a threat yet. It was too easy to imagine it goring one of them open and strewing their bowels across the forest floor. “Nin,” he murmured after another few seconds, “I want you to run back to Grizzly Hollow and tell whoever you run into first what we've found, and where. If you hear any noises, don't stop and don't come back. I'm going to stay here and make sure this thing doesn't come any closer to our pack.”

With ash on the wind, I move forward...

Let's Cause Some Chaos

Instead of simply answering her query, @Kenelm was quick to instruct her to more or less shut up, and her ears flicked back to show her offense. What the heck is up with him? she had to wonder, feel the rigidity within his body. Her dual-colored eyes regarded him, attempting to discern the thoughts within his head through willpower, before transferring unto the strange creature once more. Her breath caught in her throat as she locked eyes with it, and the odd beast seemed to be considering what to think of them as well before it dismissed them altogether, returning to its meal. Cool, she thought, even more curious to know where wolves stood with this monster's kind if it ran neither from nor at them.

At last Kenelm's voice entered the air again, however, giving her the answers she had asked for, but not necessarily telling her what she wanted to hear. Destroy? her mind echoed, unable to fully wrap around the idea. Sure, it was a pretty big animal, and those tusks didn't look like they'd be fun to tango with, but it had been so nonchalant about their presence and the charging bit she couldn't quite agree with. If it was so destructive, why was it leaving them be, happy to coexist? It did seem to have a voracious appetite though, and maybe it was only being nice because they weren't in its way. For now, there was plenty for the thing to eat, the riverbed full of thin green plants and other things, but with as big of globbing mouthfuls as it was tearing through at a time, she could imagine how swiftly it might clean out the area of such food.

Now at last uncertain of whether she liked the thing before them or not, Nineva still did not feel any urgency in leaving the area. Yet that was what Kenelm next asked of her, to leave him alone with this thing that he told her was so dangerous. A whine seeped from her throat as she stubbornly pressed herself closer to him, big doe eyes staring up at him with concern.

"No way Kenny," she argued, keeping her voice down this time. "You're not staying here alone if its so dangerous. Let's both go back, okay? Look, its gonna be busy for a while."

@Kenelm @Nineva - Note that they won't actually be able to understand her. They'll just hear grunts and squeaks.

     

Dipping her head back to her ill-gotten meal, she continued to eat. Although her jaws continued to work, teeth grinding up the roots and berries as she gobbled them up, her ears were tuned to the pair of canines. She could feel their beady eyes watching her. Neither one had moved, except maybe to move closer together, and it made the scout feel anxious. She had shrugged them off when they had originally shown up because neither one appeared particularly threatening. But she did not enjoy being watched, especially while she was eating.

Gulping down the last bite of food in her mouth, the scout lifted her mighty head once more, staring at the pair of wolves head on. There was no signs of indifference now. She was annoyed, and her face was twisted into an irritated scowl. Go away! she rumbled, her loud squeaking cutting through the silence. Pawing at the ground with her hoof, she ducked her head and tossed it. It would be the wolves last warning before she charged.

(This post was last modified: Jan 30, 2016, 06:17 PM by Spirit of Wildwood.)