Hush Meadow Classy girls don't kiss in bars

@Enoki

Kelp, you've discovered an orchard of apples! The ones on the ground have fermented and you start to feel a little tipsy!

They were simply going from one unfamiliar landscape to another.

It didn't matter that the weather was still mild or that neither had been hurt. They had to find to find their way back home. It seemed such an easy task: find the coast. How hard could it have possibly have been? The coast was inescapable back home, loud and pungent and stretching far out of sight. It should have been easy and every day Kelp woke up expecting to smell the surf or hear the distant crash of waves, but it never happened. No matter how much they searched there was nothing familiar and Kelp's worry was starting to grow.

He kept it hidden from Blitz. The youth already had enough to deal with and wasn't he the adult anyways? This was something he should have been able to fix, he had to! He couldn't let something happen to this family as well.

In the early dawn -while @Blitz still slept- Kelp slipped away to search farther north. What he found was not what he wanted or even expected. He looked at the first fallen fruit with skepticism. There were no wild apple trees along the coast, and despite how it might smell it certainly did not look like food. But he was hungry and it had just enough sweetly-rotten odor to tempt him. The first two were difficult to get down - he had to repeatedly remind himself it was food- but they swiftly improved. Very soon he was shuffling excitedly across the orchard, unmindful of the odor or his previous goal.

With the breaking of dawn ebony limbs moved swiftly from beneath the umbrella like canopy of the drooping willows, allowing their whip like branches to offer her two-toned pelt a parade of gentle kisses that always brought the faintest hint of a smile to her swarthy lips. Often times allowing herself to kiss them back by grasping the slim boughs between her jaws until their soft leaved vines slipped between the gaps of her canines for the last time as she ran, returning to their previous dangling state with a minor swinging motion. Today no such exchanges of affection were given to the sturdy, silent sentries of the Ridge, though, as the gallivanting vixen navigated her way over well worn and memorized paths for the hushed blades of grass that filled the meadow near by. Smoldering amber optics glistened in the early morning light, the warmth the rays warranted to her dark pelt a welcome relief in the wake of yet another chilling night. Stiffened muscles gradually awakening and loosening with the continued exercise to make Enoki's movements graceful once more instead of heavy with the sleep that clung to them.

Reaching the edge of Hush Meadow her speed decreased to an easier lope, ivory dipped tail swinging idly at her heels. There was no need for stealth in these parts now that the herds had moved on to better feeding grounds. The barricade of trees that lined its perimeters entirely shed of their autumn foliage now. Varies shades of golds and reds littering the ground in piles of the very leaves. Had one of the pups decided to join her on this exertion the piebald woman may have showed them the fun to be had with the fallen vegetation by pushing them into enormous piles only to jump into them in the next moment, sending the leaves in every which direction. A delicate smile etched itself onto her black furred lips at the memory from her childhood and the fun the Ashrelle children had their first fall. But fond memories in the woman's mind didn't last long as a quiet rustling of leaves in the distance caught her attention, superstitious upbringing instantly clinging to the idea of a barghest dwelling in the abandoned caverns just to her right. Ebony audits veered forward curiously while equally dark limbs began to creep in the direction the sound originated from slowly. "Hello..?" Soprano toned voice voiding the silence of the meadow.

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

lol, obviously Kelp is a happy drunk

Kelp wasn't sure what he'd been griping about earlier. Things were good - they were more than good actually, they were great! There was stuff to eat and it really wasn't too bad here. Who needed the... -Kelp stumbled, trying to remember the word for where he used to live- coast (THAT was the word!). The soft grass here was nice and the apples trees were nice and these mushy, tasty things on the ground were really nice. Who needed the coast when he had all this?

He wiped fermented apple juice on his leg, cleaning his face by simply smearing the mess onto a rust-hued front leg. Later he would care about the smell and the impending headache, but right now he was just searching carelessly for another apple. Enoki's footsteps weren't nearly loud enough to catch his attention, not over the sound of him snuffling over the cold ground. Her voice finally called out and his head bobbed up. "Yeurp?"

Whatever he meant by that was unknown. It could have been a greeting or it could have been a question, there was no way to tell.

Already his coordination was off, he had to widen his stance to keep his footing as he looked to the other wolf. Any other time he would have made an attempt to introduce himself, but Kelp was drunk and as it was he gave a goofy smile and an even goofier greeting: a long drawn-out and slurred, "Heeyyy."

Everyone loves a happy drunk <3

Yeurp was not what Enoki expected to hear in reply to her hesitant hello, but then again what had she expected to greet her ears? It was with a few more placed steps that the monster of the meadow came into view, mysterious appearance melting away to reveal a rather dark hued stranger. A wolf whom had the most uncanny posture to himself by the look of things. This was but another wolf in the neighborhood, not a monster. How silly of her to think such imaginations from one's childhood continued to exist during adulthood. She was nearing six years old for crying out loud!

A bemused tilt of the patchwork woman's skull followed suit of the rust tinged man's adjustment to his stance, limbs needing to sprawl out further apart than should be to keep upright. Paws narrowly missing the collection of gnawed apple cores unbeknownst to Enoki that caused his current condition that surely would have sent the man tumbling for the ground. This brute looked like a new born fawn with how wide of a gap nestled between the four points of his pads, the goofy look plastered across his maw and slurred speech doing little to help his cause at appearing normal. An entertained chuckle couldn't be suppressed any longer, the lightheartedness of her laughter reaching the smoldering amber tint of her irises to leave behind a twinkle of such emotion.

Surveying the quiet meadow around them briefly no signs of another greeted her senses, the aroma of smeared fermented apples toying with her nostrils to cause the sensory organ to twitch subtly. "Well hello there, I'm Enoki. Who may you be?" Curiosity and bemusement swirled around her words in a playful tone.

-snorts at Kelp- I don't even...

Being far too inebriated to be wary or even embarrassed, Kelp allowed his grin to stretch further. She was too pretty to put up much of a fuss, anyways. As she studied him, he studied her, brows rising good-naturedly at her chuckle. "Nice ta meet you 'Noki." He drawled back, the slur in his voice rounding out the vowels in his greeting.

He tried to dip his head politely and ended up stumbling just the slightest bit. "I've been lookin' fer the coast... and... and me name's Kelp." The near-slip didn't bother him - it might have even escaped his notice that he nearly forgot to answer Enoki's question. The sober Kelp would have been mortified by the drunk Kelp. He barreled on, rambling away on the thoughts that continued to plague his subconscious, even now. "Have you seen th' ocean? It got away from me and we can't find it near anywheres."

Perhaps she would be able to help, perhaps not. But she was very good company to keep in the meantime. "I have to say I kinda like this field and these here apples, though." As if Enoki might somehow miss the pungent things, Kelp gave one a wobbly nudge.

Her greeting was reciprocated with another drawled, slurred out speech before her question was answered with the most baffling of statements. This man, Kelp as he had informed her to be his name, was in search of something called a coast. An ocean had seemingly slipped from between the paws of himself and another to become lost in the world of Relic Lore. A small cocking of her skull to the side revealed the confusion long before her facial features contorted into such a look. From the looks of the current situation there was no we nor coast in sight. Enoki was a mountain born wolf with no knowledge of what this ocean Kelp was referring to even was. To her it could be anything from a babbling brook to a coursing river. A look of disappointment soon marred her ebony features. "I'm sorry, I don't know what this ocean of yours looks like, but I'd be willing to help you look!" Her ivory dipped tail wavering behind her good naturally.

The conversation would soon turn away from the saddened lack of knowledge about this ocean. The red toned man spoke about how he had come to quite enjoy the presence of Hush Meadow and the apples scattered around them, a nudge of his muzzle toppling said fruit toward her. Lowering her skull to allow her nostrils to inhale the once sweet fruit, a shake of her head with a snort followed suit. But curiosity would win over, canines sinking into the softened flesh of the offered apple to remove a wolfish bite from the core. Quickly the fruit was discarded into her gullet, a foudroyant flush of warmth filling her stomach despite the bitter taste that lingered in her mouth causing her tongue to feverishly attempt to rid the taste. "Interesting.." She mused aloud, amber optics focusing on the remaining portion of the apple core. This apple didn't taste like those she remembered back home although it looked the same, but these made her stomach feel different. They made her feel good.