Spectral Woods One step this way

For @Sahalie !)

A light brown shadow moved along the eerily quiet forest, fog drifted and curled around the female’s limbs, only to dissipate with an annoying flick of a dark brown tail. Her paws trended quietly as she moved cautiously through this forbearing forest. Echo Asurn had come to the regions of Relic Lore with the intent to spread the reach of her pack’s empire, but first, she’d have to learn about the local wolves and packs. She had to trend carefully until she could take stock of the residents. Subtly and manipulation would be needed in order to win a place among one of them, that is, if any of the rabble had the potential to honed and sharpened into a weapon of the Asurn Empire.

Brown tipped ears pricked as Echo detected a faint noise, the gentle dripping of water thawing in the coming warmth. Good. was that the Asurn said. It was nothing more than an inconvenience but she needed to drink. The dark pelted canine followed the sound until she came across a small creek. She lowered her muzzle, her liquid gold gaze slowly closing in content as she lapped up the chilled liquid before glancing around, the continuous veil of fog restricted her veiw and she did not like it.

sorry for the wait! also, assuming it's day time since you didn't really specify, hope that's alright

The foggy, lowland forest could never be frightening or eerie to the Bend pup who had grown up believing the rest of the world was equally shouded in mists. It had been quite a shock to find the rest of the world so bright and open, more green than blue, but that could never change her feelings of home, where the memory-laden fog wrapped around her like a comforting hug. The heavy air might have been too cloying for Drestig or Jessie, but Sahalie could never leave it for long. She secretly prayed that that would be the case with them as well, that they would come back and everyone would forgive them and everyone could be friends again.

But it was wrong for her to wish her friends to fail.

Mindlessly her paws took her to one of the streams etched outside of the territory. She wasn't particularly thirsty, but generally liked to watch the critters big and small that made the journey to the water source. It was exciting to catch a glimpse of a deer or vole, or two other incompatible species side by side in the same place, willing to ignore the frightening presence of the other for just a moment. When she arrived, however, the creek was oddly quite save the lapping sounds to her right. Head slowly turning, she caught sight of the apex predator that had, it was likely, driven away all the lesser creatures: wolf.

"Morning!" Sahalie chirped brightly, wandering close enough to catch the scent of loneliness rolling off of the dark female. For several moments more the girl searched for something else to say, not used to encountering wolves in such an everyday manner that she was not sure how to act exactly.  "Can I help you?"

@Sahalie That’s fine! It hadn’t crossed my mind to set a time of day >.>))

Brown tipped ears perked forward as a voice spoke from up the creek. Echo raised her muzzle, water dripping down her chin and back into the creek, creating small ripples on the thawing water a honey coney gold eyes slowly took in the smaller chocolate black wolf before her. For a brief moment Echo stared in shock. No…..it shouldn’t be She had left the weakness behind long ago, there was no way that her daughter could have survived, and yet here was a wolf that could have been a spitting image of the one she had in mind.

She gained her composure quickly though, if this pup had indeed been the one she had abandoned, then surely she would have acted with aggression toward the one who had left her to die. No, it must have just been a coincidence that Sahalie was so close in description. She could probe about it later for now, here was a solution to her problem, Echo needed information on the local packs and wolves, and pups were a perfect way to get some of that information, especially if they were young and naive as this one seemed.

“Why yes.” She said with a small smile in response to the young wolf’s question as she gave a wag of her tail “I could use some help, I’ve been traveling for such a long time, and I was wondering about the local wolves, rather or not I need to fear hostility for passing through or not, would you..happen to know dear?”

The stranger's eyes flickered and widened with surprise, and Sahalie felt a twinge of guilt for coming upon the wolf so suddenly. Perhaps it was too early in the morning for the wolf to expect company. Loners in general were usually quite strange, much more wary, and Sahalie felt foolish for neglecting that fact. Instead she stared at her paws dumbly, now at a loss for words, completely unaware of the roving eyes over her body. Not that it would have felt suspicious anyways: nothing was suspicious to the open-minded youngster. 

The older woman had regained herself with ease that took the girl a moment to get used to. But she was pretty, her healthy, dark coat strangely similar to Sahalie's own pelt that for a moment she considered that this could have been—no, it wasn't her mother. Her mother would not have needed to ask questions about "the locals," for she would have already known. Would her mother have called her dear? Tipping her head, the girl's face tightened in concentration, as she tried to remember all the faces she had seen this side of the mountain, "Well no..." her brows furrowed in confusion, unsure why any wolf would ever feel concerned for their safety around other wolves in a land like this, "We're peaceful folk over here. I ain't ever seen anyone be," she opened her mouth to test out the fancy word the adult had used, "hostile, to any loner. The other packs wouldn't neither." This she could not really say for certain, but it sure did feel true when she thought of Cernan or Arion's bright, benign faces. She was sure their packs were filled with other, happy faces like theirs. Or at least good hearts.

(This post was last modified: Apr 05, 2016, 02:16 AM by Sahalie.)

Echo’s ears were angled toward the smaller female as she she spoke. A content sigh of relief escaped the Asurn as she continued this charade of being a little nervous, truthfully, Echo wasn’t all that worried about the locals, she knew she’d be able to handle them one way or another. Her mind worked quickly as she picked apart what the pup was saying. Peaceful, hm, that could mean they're also more gullible, i won’t underestimate though. After all, she only had the words of a pup to go by so far, that could interpret into a variety of ways, but for now, there was one use this young one could be beneficial for.

Echo paused for a moment as her actions were fueled by a genuine curiosity of the local wolves, all of the information she gathered would be useful “How many packs make their homes around here?” She paused for a moment, her yellow gold gaze drifted toward the trees around them “I wouldn’t want to intrude upon any of their territories if I chose to make this lovely forest my new home.” her attention returned to Sahalie as a warm, gentle grin tugged at the corners of the Asurn’s rubbery lips.

The sigh seemed so genuinely glad that Sahalie openly stared at the woman, concluding that wherever she had been the wolves had apparently been unkind. Drestig had mentioned the possibility, but Sahalie had yet to see any of these wolves. She still hadn't, she thought—no idea that one of these distrustful wolves was standing right in front of her—but the idea that a woman could be so surprised and pleased at the idea that there was a whole valley full of peace was startling and new. The other side of the valley—well, the same could not be said for them. Vaguely, Sahalie wondered how @Greer and @Sven were getting on, and if their bad-crazy uncle had succeeded or failed in his plans.

It felt good to finally be of use to someone. At last all the months of her roving around and meeting new wolves was serving a real purpose, a selfless purpose besides adventure. "Around here?" She chewed her lip. Here could mean, literally, where they stood... or the larger area that represented everything Sahalie had seen. The latter was more informative, so she went with that. "Uhm, well, there's my pack in this forest. And uhm... there are two others that I know of on this side of the mountain. They're north of here. One by a waterfall and one up even farther north than that." In the moment she had misplace the name of Arion's home as well as her cousin Kisla's lands, "Then there's Fallen Tree Cove up on the mountain. They're our allies. And then there's the other side of the mountain, there are a lotta packs over there, but I've only visited one of them: Willow Ridge." She opened her mouth again, thinking to warn this woman of the messy state that had befallen her friends' home, but then remembered what Greer had said about it being a secret. Oh, she hated this.

"But uhm. I wouldn't recommend staying in Spectral Woods, this forest too long, not if you don't plan on joining," she extended cautiously, "Idunno if my pack would like a wolf lurking so close on our hunting grounds." Her tail knocked about on her ankles, and her ears burned as she realized she was insinuating some rather rude things about the stranger. "N-not that you'd steal from us or anything. Or that we'd chase you out. We're chill. It'd be a different thing if you joined. You understand, right?" She smiled shyly.

(This post was last modified: May 03, 2016, 03:26 AM by Sahalie.)

Echo listened carefully to Sahalie’s explanation of the wolves on this side of the mountain, so far from such a brief interaction she was able to claim the names of two packs,a dn the name of the very forest she stood it. Perhaps if nothing else, this encounter would allow her to seek out one of those two in order to learn more. Her body relaxed a little as the pup paused for a moment, though at her last words,a devious plan started to form in the Asurn’s quick mind. Oh? Is her pack on edge about something? This could be very useful

Echo’s body stiffened as though she was appalled at the mere suggestion that she would steal from another pack or dare to trespass upon their land,s the hurt showed on her face as she glanced away from the pup, seemingly in sadness as she quickly thought about what to add to this performance “I don’t know what to say...I am a little hurt that you could draw such a horrendous accusation...I mean, you might not have tried to, but...it hurt..”

In all truth and honestly, Echo didn’t care what the pup thought, she seemed like the type to try and keep others happy, it was a distinct possibility that Echo could gain some useful Intel by putting the young girl in a panic.

Resources by freepik.com, table by Kydnt

@Echo if you want you can post your exit here and I'll post a wrap up and we can archive :3 or if echo has more questions we can continue.

Sahalie could sense the subtle straigtening of the wolf in front of her, realizing that her warning had been taken the wrong way. Her ears twisted: the stranger had done more than just take things the wrong way, she was going into histrionics. Sahalie felt a weird mixture of shame and discomfort. If this woman was so used to hostile packs, why did was she so upset to learn that there was a group of wolves who did not like outsiders lurking in their forest? 

"That's not--" she closed her mouth as the woman continued to lament her offense. Sahalie crouched lower to the ground, trying to remove herself as a source of insult. "That's not what I was tryin' to say lady. I don't know a thing about you... I was just tryin' to say that my pack would take you in if you wanted, we just... we don't want loners hanging in the woods... you know?" She had to know. This was common sense. God, this whole thing was such an awkward mess and Sahalie felt awful for all of it. She was only trying to be helpful and somehow she always made people feel bad or uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry."

"Is there anything else I can help you with?"

Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

The Asurn growled inwardly as she realized that the girl would be no more use to her now, the thought played across her mind to simply end the pup’s life, after all, with her small size, she wouldn’t survive long in the harshness of the world, but at the moment, with the amount of packs in the area, it would just cause a bigger headache than it was worth and Echo had no allies to lie low with if things went sour, better to play the part of a loner, -just- incase she’d need to come back through here, consistency would be needed to keep any kind of cover in tact.

So, playing the tune of an offended woman she gave a small and dissatisfied sigh as she ‘saw’ how uncomfortable the pup became and she reached down, nudging her once as she offered anymore help while shuddering inwardly at the open display of weakness “No...it’s alright little one, I can find my own way but thank you for your...help.” She said the word with barely contained disgust as she glanced around and wondered off to recollect herself, she needed much more information. Soon Relic lore would have a new plague to contend with.