Hidden Berry Hideout it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown

@Kyna
Subterritory Discovery! Name pending because I'm not sure what children would name pumpkins xD
As the ground slopes upwards to the mountains, the misty forests begin to thin out and the land under-foot begins to dry up. By some great coincidence, this has become a particularly fertile location for Relic Lore's largest —and perhaps only— pumpkin patch. In early spring these gourds begin to germinate, and come early fall there are hundreds strewn haphazardly for a quarter mile. The sizes and colors of the orange fruits vary wildly without anyone around to maintain the quality of the crop. Several large ones do, however, manage to grow every year. By the end of October this is a particularly well traveled spot by crows and other birds looking to feast on the over-ripened pumpkins. Four legged creatures, though, must be careful to watch where they step, as the network of vines is extensive and wild. In the off season, the land is just a simple stretch of lush field. Click here for a picture! Click here for location!

It was with wide eyes that Triell's daughter stumbled out of the woods and into the most bizarre place she had ever been.

Then again, her home had begun, in these last few weeks, to look progressively stranger as the world started to become less green. She was not quite sure what to make of it. Navigating became much harder for her when the landmarks did not look the same. She nearly missed the moss-carpeted rock as she wandered beyond the safety of the Bend territory, not expecting the bryophyte to look quite so brown and shriveled. Light poured in through the waxing gold and crimson canopy in ways that it had been unable to through the heavy green foliage. It was like she was seeing her home for the first time.

But this was really something different.

The first thing there was to notice was the color. In the lingering haze of the morning, the world nearly glowed with the brightness of this color that was kind of like the leaves, but also much stronger than the leaves. She wondered if they were boulders. Her eyes trailed up the sloping ground towards the mountains. The mountains were, in the absent of a sunset, quite colorless. Nervously, she approached one of the awkward colored lumps. It had uniform lumpy sections organized vertically. Rocks had lines and patterns, but not like this. Shaking with concentration, she lifted a muddy paw high in the air nearly to her shoulder.

Thwack!

A strangely hollow sound greeted her. It was definitely not a rock. For, if it had been, she certainly would be howling in pain. Grimacing, the girl took a seat beside the orange-not-boulder that was nearly half her size. "What on earth..."

(This post was last modified: Mar 10, 2017, 07:32 PM by Sahalie.)

 

The east had gotten her nothing but a new acquaintance – it was time to try the west. Kyna was not enjoying these little escapades, far away from @Phineas and the only safety she’d left, but the child was desperate to find the mother she had so loved. There were little clues given as to where the once-alpha had intended to go, but it still seemed so odd that Aponi was so willing to sacrifice the position she’d worked so hard to win right after she’d finally won it. Holding out hope that the beautiful silver sprite would return if only her daughter found her, the princess of the Silent Moon ventured over the borders once more, her heart in her throat as she ventured further and further from the only place she ever felt peace.

Oh, but tranquility was not for the fair maiden this day, for a wet rock and a slip sent her much further down the mountainside than she’d ever planned to be on her own. The more she tried to scale back up the slope, slipping and sliding in the mud further for each effort. Only once the pup was exhausted did she decide to travel laterally, looking for a trail to lead her back up to the plateau.

Instead, Kyna found one of the oddest sights she’d never imagined in her short life. There orange rocks everywhere, some near as tall as her. They had vines growing out of them, but they were such a vivid color – like her eyes! Temporarily distracted, the honeysuckle pup weaved in and out, sniffing at the smooth texture curiously when a loud, nearby thump caught her attention. The girl startled, legs locking as she lowered herself behind the nearest gourd and called out, “H-hello? Is someone…is someone there?”

A wild dissertation appears!

@Kyna 

For a moment Sahalie almost thought she caught sight of another face floating out above the vast jumble of orange not-quite-rocks, but as soon as she opened her mouth the thing disappeared. It had matched the colors of not-quite-rocks so well that she was not even quite sure if it had been a face after all. Or. She took a step back from the lump she had just been assaulting. What if it could move and it was an animal?

A disembodied voice interrupted her before this train of thought could run away with her bravery. It sounded awful lot like a wolf, considering that rocks did not talk —probably did not talk. Whatever it was, it sounded frightened. Frightened things often stuttered and hesitated with their words, as Sahalie had learned from her attempt at tugging the tail off of that loner. Sahalie herself was not frightened. Her home was at her back — somewhere. She could probably get back if she wanted to. And on top of that, she was Triell's daughter and a wolf of the Spectral Woods. It took more than a floating voice or a head to scare this girl. "Uhm... yeah?" she called out, her voice containing just a hint of sass. Of course she was here.

"Did you come to see the orange blobs too?" she said, figuring some extension of conversation would bring the voice out of hiding. Raising her front half onto the pumpkin she had been beating on, the girl's dark head stretched forward, looking down and around in an attempt to find her new friend. Her paws slipped a little on the smooth surface of the lumps. "Wanna help me with something?" An eager smile spread across her face as her tail began to whip against the lump. Thwack, twack, thwack.

 

Okay, there was someone here. The hint of cheek was not lost on the child, ears swinging backwards by a fraction. She was shy, perhaps, even a bit of a wallflower, but she was certainly not stupid and did not appreciate the implication in the other voice. The honeyspun child had half a mind to turn around and return in the direction she came – in fact, she might have, had she not actively fallen down the slope to her current destination. When the voice continued to speak, the princess poked her head around the orange rock gingerly, trying to catch the owner while remaining hidden. Unfortunately, Kyna was not particularly adept at espial, and a small peep escaped when the other pup came into view.

At least it was another wolf, she decided, and one that did not look any older than she was.

“Hello,” the girl began quietly, creeping closer as she abandoned the shelter the hollow rock provided. “I’m Kyna.” Hadn’t she been taught to introduce herself? Shuffling her weight between her paws, the blond paused for a moment, glancing once more at the strange items before shaking her head. No, she’d no idea they even existed before accidently stumbling upon them. Before she had a chance to explain, the other girl had another offer for her, and the wallflower paused for a moment, rolling over the opportunity in her mind. It was a request, she had to remind herself, and a fairly polite one. Deciding it couldn’t hurt, the child bobbed her head a second time. “Okay,” she agreed. “What…do you need help with?”

A wild dissertation appears!

@Kyna
A nose appeared with a small squeak from behind the orange blob. It was shortly followed by a whole head. In Sahalie's short life, her world had been characterized by a monochrome pallet. Wolves were either black or white or somewhere in the middle. Just as curious as the blobs, this wolf was an entirely different color — her heat beat faster as she realized the color was no so unlike the blobs all around them— from anyone she had seen. Orange and honey and gold had occurred in her life in only small amounts (mostly eyes), and it was becoming increasingly more common now: in the leaves, in the lumps and now in wolves. Her jaw hung just a little slack as she stared down at this lump-colored girl who looked like a sunset. (She reminded herself now, begrudgingly, that sunsets were this sort of color too. How silly she was to forget).

Her name was Kyna. And she had not come here to look at the lumps. The young Tainn wondered what else a girl with this kind of fur could be out here for, if not for the blobs. But she decided it wasn't so important that she had to ask now. There were other, more important things, at hand now that Kyna had agreed to help. Quickly, she chirped her own name in response, "Sahalie." 

"And I wanna name this place!" she crowed, proudly surveying the jumbled land. It was pretty clear that Sahalie thought her idea was grand and exciting. The adults had already named everything where she lived. But she had a feeling they hadn't named this. This was hers. It was special. "But I don't got any good ideas. I don't know what these things are." She got down from her perch and smacked the thing again, so that Kyna could hear the noise they made, too. She shrugged. "They're not rocks, I don't think."

Quite suddenly her neck extended out towards the orange girl, "What do you think?" 

 

“Sahalie? Okay.”

That was kind of a weird name, she thought. The other pups she’d met all had short little mouthful – Wren, Niles, Maeve…in fact, Kyna had more syllabus than of the others. She mulled over this with a quiet hum – Phineas and Aponi were like Sahalie, she thought, three sounds put together. Perhaps this new cub just had a name that was more adult? Logging the idea away to ask her father later, she puttered towards the dark female curiously, her head tipped to one side as she studied first the mysterious orange lump, and then the equally mysterious black wolf.

“…okay. That sounds…fun. I think.” Offering a hesitant wag of her tail, the princess finally began to smile, feeling a bit more comfortable as the other female continued to chatter. While she struggled to keep up with that amount of talk, it made the situation more tolerable all the same. Finally, she stepped up to one of the large pumpkins, studying the orb for several minutes before repeating one of Sahalie’s actions. Lifting a large paw, she thumped against the side, resulting in the hollow thunk. Finally, a smile began to break across her face, and her delicate tail gave another wag as she smacked the orange blob again. Reading up, she thumped it with both paws, tail swinging in a large arc before glancing at the other wolf.

“Dunno. Definitely not rocks,” she agreed, drumming one foot against the thick skin. “Wrong sound. I live on rocks,” Kyna explained, as if she needed to credit her statement. Hopping back, she considered both the other cub and the pumpkin before tipping her head. “Maybe...we open it?”

A wild dissertation appears!

She beamed to no one in particular at the idea that someone else thought her idea sounded fun. Drift didn't really share a common understanding of what fun was and some of the adults had no idea of what fun was at all. They liked to go hunting or the liked to sleep. One of which was a little too daunting to her, the other which seemed quite boring. It felt good to have someone agree with her, though. If she had had any idea of what a friend was — her utter lack of other children her own age and the fact that the adults seemed to keep to themselves were much to blame for this— Sahalie would have decided that she and Kyna could have been friends.


With sparkling eyes Sahalie watched Kyna give the not-rocks a good what-for, and nodded thoughtfully when her partner in crime came to the same conclusion. Her gaze grew wider and more intense when Kyna explained, as a second-thought, that she lived on rocks. The shape of her mouth became the neat little "o" it was so accustomed to forming. "That's so cooool," she barked, leaning in very close now with her tail wagging furiously behind her. She took a deep sniff and, sure enough, the girl smelled very different. Like a blast of cold air and things she could not quite grasp at. "I just live in trees."


But this was not really the topic they were supposed to be investigating, she was reminded when Kyna proffered a suggestion. "Yeah!" Her eyes leaped back to the orange lump that Kyna had been thumping. It was quite big — it came up nearly to Sahalie's chest— and while it did not seem as solid as a rock it did seem more solid than, say, animals. But the Tainn had only one means of opening available to her. "Let's try biting it!" And without another thought, the black girl dove towards the pumpkin with open fangs.


The intensity of her movement caused the lump to reject her teeth, and her fangs slid awkwardly against the surface. The black face darted away in shock, and she shot Kyna a puzzled look. "Imma....imma try again." This time she withheld her usual energetic force and came at the lump slowly with her jaws as wide as they could stretch. The lump did not reject her this time. With a little pressure, her fangs sank in to the skin of the lump. But not very much. "Aii-na," she garbled, "Ai-na alp. Wat ood ah doo?"

This was quite the predicament.

 

It took a great deal of effort not to shy sideways when the other girl reached out to sniff at her, ears flattening out in a straight line as she tried to force herself to stay in place. Her entire body went rigid, but Sahalie came and she went without a hair out of place. Realizing she’d held her breath, the blond sucked in a breath, realizing the other wolf carried a much different scent than she did – not only of the wolves she lived among, but she smelled less like dirt and cold air, and more like…earth. There was something musky she could not place, and something deep she could not explain. It was not unpleasant, however, and vaguely she wondered if the trees her new friend lived among were different from the sparse pine trees lingering on the side of her family’s mountainside.

“…in trees?” she wondered after a moment, the other pup’s chatter finally sinking in. For a moment, Kyna pictured a pack of wolves lingering in the branches of large trees, perching among the crows as beady, yellow eyes stared down. Immediately, she dismissed this as nonsense – there was no way for a canine to get up that high! It was much more likely that they lived in dugouts not dissimilar to the small cavern she discovered on the same day she’d met Greer. A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she remembered that day fondly, wondering what her shadowy friend was up to now. Perhaps she’d visit him, after this, and tell him about the weird orange blobs she’d found on this side of Riddle Heights.

“…wait? Bite it?” the princess questioned, ears flexing as she looked from Sahalie to the weird shape. Just because it wasn’t a rock did not qualify it as something that she should put in her mouth – it could be bad for them! Her mother had once told her that some things were bad for wolves to eat – they’d make her stomach hurt, or worse. “I don’t think we should--”

But her warning came too late – or perhaps the swarthy female simply didn’t care to hear it, for she angled her mouth open and attempt to stick sharp ivory teeth into the blob’s skin. When it rejected her first attempt, Kyna breathed a sigh of relief, opening her mouth to suggest a different alternative when her friend rallied. Apparently, the other pup wasn’t about to take this lying down. The agouti could only cringe and watch on as the fugleman of the pair struck again, this time getting her teeth lodged into thick flesh. That the weird object didn’t make a noise settled her slightly – at least it wasn’t an animal, though perhaps it was a plant, given that it was a bit squishy? Tipping her head, she came up to Sahalie’s side and sniffed gingerly. After a moment, she gave a soft snort. “I think…you pull. Could get your teeth in. Rip them back out?” she suggested. If it was a plant, it would give way. If not…

Well, she rather hoped Sahalie wouldn’t lose her teeth!

A wild dissertation appears!

#row'sfirstpumpkincarving @Kyna

Kyna seemed more than a bit alarmed, but Sahalie did not see what was so wrong. She had been warned before about certain plants being bad, but as she was not certain that this was a plant she was not sure the same understanding could be applied here. Though there had been plenty of signs before this moment, Sahalie was struck by just how different the red girl seemed from herself. So much more cautious, so soft spoken. In leiu of craning her neck to look at the mountain cub, Sahalie tuned her gold eyes, watching as Kyna sniffed and tried to sort out the situation.

Pull her teeth back out? Sahalie blinked. She should have though of this. "Ooor so smaaaht ai-na," her tail wagging behind her.

Given the angle her teeth made in her mouth, curving inwards at the tips, and the obtuse angle of her jaw embedded in the pumpkin, the Tainn could not simply just reverse the process. Maybe if she had a little more finesse and was just a little less clumsy, but then she would not have been Sahalie. Instead she as much pressure as she could behind the top row of her incisors and pulled down.

To her surprise, her teeth slid down and a chunk of orange came away. "Oh!" the Bend cub yelped in surprise. It rolled neatly to a stop near Kyna's paws. It looked like this thing was orange on the outside and the inside. On her tongue some flavor of the blob remained. It seemed weird. "Taste it, Kyna!" she urged. "What'd you think it tastes like?" With certainty Sahalie assumed that this would lead them closer to a name for the strange orange blobs field.

 

Sahalie mumbled something around her mouthful, and the blond tipped her head to one side, trying to decipher exactly what the other girl was trying to say. Whatever it was, she seemed pleased, for her tail was wagging, and the princess simply offered a hopeful (if watery) smile in return, hoping her advice had been well received.

The swarthy female seemed to take her idea and make it her own, Kyna stepping back and watching in mild awe as the other wolf forced her teeth through the thick skin of the mysterious orange blood. Teeth cut through that much easier than meat, she noted with interest – there was no way this was a rock, either. But what was so soft that a wolf could simply scrape her teeth through it?

Freeing herself, the other pup was smacking her lips and urging her on, and Kyna bent down to sniff at the flesh-like curl gingerly. It didn’t smell foul, she decided, and she flicked out tongue out to have a taste. It was like nothing she’d ever had before! Feeling a bit brave, the girl pulled the entire curl into her mouth, chewing it slowly before swallowing it down. “Weird,” she decided after a moment. “Kind of squishy? But kind of sweet. Like a berry. Do you think it’s a giant berry?” she wondered, peering back at the blob. The berries she’d had earlier in the year were also very colorful – is this what happened if you left them to grow?

I have a ridiculous amount of love for these two. Send help. <3

A wild dissertation appears!