Hot Springs brave shine

@Cernan but other wolves can pop in if they want. Takes place before otm meeting.

The afternoon sun was hot on her dark back, and Sahalie panted in spite of the blistering winds that tore through her fur but could not cool her body fast enough. The temperatures were not quite as low as they had been even a month ago, and the girl was beginning to entertain thoughts of the summer she had been born into. She and no idea that there was still another tumultuous, changeling season yet to come. Nor the kinds of behavior it would provoke from the adults. Naively she welcomed the warmer weathers, her salmon tongue lolling from her mouth as she finally came to a wide plateau on the mountain side.

The air here, while normally very different from her home, seemed still more strange in this particular spot. The atmosphere was much heavier, full of water as it was down in her valley. But it was hot. Spectral woods smelled damp, grey, and like the pleasant rotting of trees. This was sulferous, chemical, vaguely offensive. Her face scrunched up as the girl dared to wander closer. Coming around the other side of a great, worn boulder, she found the other side populated with lichen and spongey, yellowed moss. The thought of anything growing so far up here made her balk. The best was yet to come, however, and her eyes eventually found the steamy, bubbling pools beyond the moss.

"Woooooow"

OOC: Oh my goodness I love this goofball. 

He'd been to the springs at least a few times in his young life; they were hard to avoid for a curious youngster and his way-too-adventurous sister. Having water that was warm instead of cold like normal was a spectacle of its own, and a very nice thing to have so close by in the winter. It wasn't particularly hot that day, but the bored pup sort of meandered toward it anyway. It was at least fun to kick rocks into, and there was no danger of finding any swans or other big scary birds waiting to bite his tail off like there was at the lake.  

That and the water was kinda pretty looking. He picked his way over the rocky landscape, taking care not to slip and sprain an ankle or get a foot caught between some of the larger rocks. It was a little easier when you had such big paws; but less so when those big paws weren't completely under control all of the time. Maybe one day he would grow into his body and figure everything out, but today was not that day. It wasn't the girl's scent that alerted him to her presence, but the sight of her dark form against the sun-bleached rocks. He barely made out what she had said over the sound of the springs and his own nervous heart. Would he ever get good at dealing with strangers?

At least she was a kid like him and not an adult. The other pup seemed thoroughly enraptured with looking at the hot springs, and for the moment Cernan was thankful. He stepped over a little pile of rocks with a tentative paw, still staring at her with anxious curiosity. Instead of doing what paws were supposed to do though, that being move the boy from place to place without tossing him into the ground, well they did just that. The creamy appendage smacked into one of the bigger stones and he tripped; dropping his chest and neck into the gravel for an ungraceful slide. He was only down for a second or two before staggering frantically upright, but the symphony of clattering stone was not the entrance he'd wanted. 

Well, she certainly knew he was here now. The Vuesain's youngest stood rigidly almost on his tip toes, golden eyes wide and staring right at her. What do I do what do I do, his mind hollered and he opted for just holding still like a chubby, frightened deer. He wasn't good at meeting new people anyway, so he was next to useless here. The places where the rocks had scraped him started to sting, but that tiny pain was nothing compared to the paralysis of embarrassment.  

The girl had been content to stare at the water, and with the hot damp in the air she had not been able to smell or see the boy. Instead she watched the gurgling bubbles and inched closer to the water. How hot could it be? This was the first body of liquid water she had seen in quite some time, but she did not dare assume it was anything like the pond or rivers back home. It had steam rising from it. It was hot water — something she had only felt  in sun warmed puddles. Yet there was snow all around them, on the rocks that were not touched by the steam or the wind. 

The sound of a body hitting the floor almost made more sense than this weird pond in the mountains, such that the girl hardly even fidgeted as she watched the round, mousey-looking boy slam his front half into the ground. It was like a car-wreck in slow motion, and she could not tear her eyes away. All sorts of loose pebbles and shale went flying. She thought she could catch a glimpse of his chub jiggling as his fur rippled slightly. Despite the horrid fall, the boy was suddenly, nimbly back on all four legs and he staring her dead in the face. The dark girl shifted uncomfortably.

"I uh... Don't worry I didn't see that..." But the hints of a smile still plucked at the corners of her mouth for a moment. "You uhm. You come here often?" Really what she meant to ask was if the boy was alright, but felt like it was vital to his ego that she spare him any further shame. 

(This post was last modified: Feb 28, 2016, 01:36 AM by Sahalie.)

Well, she didn't jump or scream or anything like that. It was small consolation as he stood there, frozen and waiting for some sort of reaction to work with. Their impromptu staring contest dragged on for a small eternity. Somewhere under his fur his face was swelteringly hot; hotter than the hot springs maybe. Perhaps if she didn't say anything at all he would just walk past her and throw himself in the roiling water. That sounded good. Heck, he might still do it even if the strange girl did speak. Thankfully for the boy's skin, the other child did at last part her lips to talk. His pinned ears dared to shift forward and listen to the attempted condolence. 

He didn't believe her for a second, but at least the gesture was... nice. Cernan sat there a few moments more, when suddenly it dawned on him that he ought to move his own mouth, and perhaps make coherent sounds in reply. Still in awe and shocked that she wasn't going to bring his little display up any more, it took considerable effort for the Vuesain kid to unlock his jaw, along with his stiff posture. "Uh- um, sort of," his voice stammered. Very smooth. "I live right over there," the pup continued, jerking his head in the direction of home. "Do you?" He'd never seen her here before, so there was a very slim chance that that question would turn up anything other than 'no,' or be relevant in any way. Sadly Cernan realized it too late. He just wanted to say anything that didn't make him look stupid. Well, more stupid. 

Thinking about it, it could also have sounded like he was clumsily asking if she lived there too. A boiling hot water swim suddenly sounded great. 

This had to be the most uncomfortable moment of her life, next to the tag incident with @Sven. Her own eyes widened as she stared, incredulous, at the silent boy who had the most intent stare of anyone she had ever encountered. Sahalie wasn't even that bad with awkward wolves: she had been raised by @Spieden, coaxed laughter out of the wallflower @Kyna, blissfully ignored the lisp of Thendaro, made a depressed @Jessie smile, and lived with her brother, the mud puddle named @Drift. Her whole life was a series of uncomfortable moments that she had powered through. This should have been a cake walk. But not with this boy staring at her. Somehow the cogs would not turn, she could find nothing to say if the boy could not either.

At last the metaphorical clouds parted and some proverbial sunshine rained down upon the children as at last the boy spoke. Why, he lived on the mountain! Sahalie wondered, vaguely, if he had known Kyna, but at the same time figured it didn't matter anymore. Kyna was with her now in Oak Tree Bend. Besides, that topic might be too complicated for the level of conversation they were holding themselves to at the moment. Baby steps. 

"No, I came up here for some exercise," she said easily, trying to encourage him with a smile. She had not meant to discover this intriguing place, had not meant to turn this into some horrendous exploring that she was loath to do — yet somehow she always found herself out and about. "I live down the mountain in the woods."


Her eyes slid back to the bubbling water. "So have you been in the pool before? Is it really hot? Like, am I gunna hurt myself if I stick a paw in?"

Of course not, but at least the girl had understood his question correctly. That little bit of success helped to work out another small chunk of his tension, that and the way that she didn't seem to be bothered by his awkward fumbling – somehow. Maybe he could salvage this encounter. Exercise? That was interesting; he didn't really chalk up exercise as a reason to wander out beyond pack lands. Usually it was either exploration or hunting or chasing after Neha and winding up with adventure. His mouth turned upwards a little, reciprocating the muddy-colored pup's grin, albeit in characteristically shy fashion. His creamy tail even wagged once, at the tip. 

And she didn't live far from he and his dad @Vespertio 's favored hunting grounds, or at least he couldn't picture her being that far away from them – especially if she was up here. Wait... Papa had told him about the pack down in the woods, Oak Tree something was it? Ohhhhhhh. She had to be from there didn't she? And if she was, their packs were allied. This wasn't just any stranger. The realization widened Cernan's eyes a little, but he shook it off when she asked about the springs. Golden eyes followed her own amber gaze, at last catching on to what the girl had been saying. 

"Oh," he said, daring to take a few strides closer so that he could join her at the pool's edge. It was amazing how stiff his joints felt after locking up like that. They were sort of relieved to be released once more, in a tingly way. The Vuesain child stared into the cool blue colored water, knowing full well that it was not cool at all. Suddenly given the ability to talk about something he actually knew a bit about, the youth's lips seemed to have much less trouble. "You'll be fine if you stay on the edges like this, but towards the center it starts to get pretty hot," he was still looking at the steamy liquid; it was much better than staring dumbly at her like that. 

"I don't usually go in very far," he added, a tiny smirk tugging at one side of his face. With how warm it already was at the rim, he never really found himself needing to stand more than ankle deep, even in the most frigid weather. The rising steam warmed his pelt from beneath, and it was the opposite of fun to be more wet than one needed to be in the colder months. After you got out of the water any soaked fur got really cold. He learned that one the hard way. Honey colored eyes flicked to the boy's right to glimpse her reaction to his words, and an earthy, oak-y scent met his nose. Oh yeah... "Are you from the oak tree pack?" Cernan blurted out, genuine curiosity on his face. 

(This post was last modified: Feb 28, 2016, 04:53 PM by Cernan.)

There is a rabbit\'s nest nearby. +1 Health

Now that the wheels were starting to turn, the conversation began to move easier. The boy walked closer to her, though he still seemed uncertain of her. Mostly he seemed uncertain of himself. But he was certain about the pool, and she had to be content with that for now. Mouth open slightly, the girl's eyes wandered out into the center of the pool, barely visible through the thick clouds of steam wafting off of the surface. It seemed strange to her, to think of the fog as something hot. The kind of fog she was familiar with back home was always very cold. Just how unbearable could the middle of the pool be? The boy had never been interested in the science of thermodynamics, he was content with the edge.

Before she could so much as dip a paw she was stopped by his surprising question. Not many wolves were familiar with her pack, so his getting two out of three words right was astonishing in and of itself. "Yeah! I am!" she gushed excitedly, the tip of her tail wiggling behind her. She peered into his face with renewed interest, wondering if his scents were the strange ones she had caught from time to time wandering her home forest. It was a shame that it was too damp for her to say for certain. "How do you know about Oak Tree Bend? You been there?"

Her paw landed lightly on his foreleg, "Come swimming with me." A bright, encouraging smile stretched across her face.

To the boy's delight she not only confirmed his suspicions but reacted with a good amount of surprise and glee. A tentative smile broke onto his slightly parted jaws as he watched her seem to take interest in his scent as well. Well wasn't that something! He'd finally met one of their allies, and it was a girl his age! Then, the other pup started asking questions, but they were easy ones. Still, his tongue managed to give him something to trip over all by itself. "Uh- uh no," Cernan started, now faintly grinning. "My ah, my parents told me about you guys," his voice seemed to grow lighter as he explained, and his tail even started to wag again. 

"They said we're allies, which means our packs are friends." It swayed faster now, even though the sentence felt a little awkward. That was how they had explained it though. Surely there was no harm in relaying those exact words back to the girl. The sentence had not been in the air for long though, when her muddy-colored foot touched his. Surprised at the contact, Cernan's smile faded into something of shock. “Come swimming with me.” He was staring at her again, but this time she was grinning, and warmly too. The meaning of her command took much longer to fully register than her touch did, and when his mind finally freed up the space to process them, the pup stalled. 

They couldn't get too close to the center, but maybe they could go in just a ways? He really didn't want to be cold once he got out though; that was a miserable experience. Even so, Cernan had a hard time putting any of this into words with her looking at him like that. "Uh, ...okay." The lake pup stuttered out; the corners of his mouth just barely curving into a nervous smile. What else was he going to do? 

They packs were allies, friends. Somewhere in her memory she could recall some similar explanation. That had been the justification that sent Drestig, Jessie, Serach, and Fenru up to Hearthwood River to see Serach's sister and Sahalie's cousin Kisla. She felt her heart thud awkwardly, having her own perturbations about the alliance from the close association of the party's leaving and Anna's death. But she was trying to move on from that, and she didn't want to hold any grudges. Certainly, this boy was from the mountains and not Hearthwood River at any rate.

"So if our packs are friends this means we're friends!" This seemed the most logical conclusion to make. Sahalie would have considered being friends with the boy even if they hadn't been allies, but thought it would be a fun thing to say. And perhaps it would make the boy feel more at ease, not needing to come up with some other reason to call her a friend. Sahalie liked making things easier for others. It was all she wanted, really. "Which meannnsss," she drawled conspiratorially, shuffling herself a little closer "That you can call me Sahalie. Or Halie. Or you could even like, make up a nickname for me!" Perhaps it was hasty, saying that she liked making things easier, for she was still very much in the business of pushing people outside of their comfort zone. But she liked to think that her pushes were gentle, benign.

Getting up suddenly, the girl trotted over to the edge of the pool. "Come on!" Slowly, she dipped a dark paw down into the water, finding it very hot but not uncomfortably so. "Oooooo," her head turned back to the boy, "It's so nice! C'mon, C'mon!"