Spectral Woods you otter believe it

@Marina

"Marina, c'mon, hurry up" Mako urged, roughly pulling his sister's ear with needly teeth before dashing forward on gangly, smoke colored limbs. He didn't want the adults to notice they had gone, and he didn't want what he wanted to show her to disappear before they got there. He remembered the way there, quite easily. All they had to do was follow the snaking curve of the river upstream, and find where a small copse of willows draped their long, strange branches into the water. The strange trees were what had drawn him to the place initially, he'd never seen anything like them before. But he hadn't dragged his slowpoke sister all the way out here just to show her some stupid trees.

Just the day before, he'd seen maybe half a dozen peculiar, dark creatures slip from the bank under the willows down into the water, disappearing in the deep current. What little glimpse he'd caught of them, they looked like nothing he had seen before. Not a wolf, or a deer, or a bird or a fish. He had waited for them to come up, but they didn't come back before he'd grown bored and gone home. Maybe they could breathe water like a fish? He couldn't wait to grab a hold of one and get it to reveal to him all its secrets.

"Here!" Mako barked once he saw the draping willow branches, breaking into a run.

(This post was last modified: Aug 29, 2016, 12:21 PM by Kisla.)

Gosh that table is so cool omfg.

The needles pressing against her tender ear earned an unhappy whine, the girl’s slim tail lashing behind her like a whip. All the same, it did not stop Marina from trotting after her brother – the promise of adventure was much more alluring than hanging around the pack’s territory. More importantly, if she kept whining, their kith and kin would hear them; any investigation of the puppies’ antics would lead to discovery, and currently, the young Coho wanted anything but.

With a grand sigh, she scrambled after her brother. It wasn’t just adventure Mako was promising, but weird water creatures he’d found at the banks. The girl wasn’t entirely sure if she should believe her sibling’s tall tale, but… Seemed a perfect excuse to go look, right?

“Wait!” Marina complained unhappily, large feet hindering her run as she chased after the lithe puppy. Thankfully, they were not too far from the bank (and this was not a race, for Marina sorely hated to lose), and she came to a stop a few lengths away from the water. “I dunno,” she huffed, brows furrowing over buttercup eyes. “Nothing here. I don’t see anything. You sure there was something here?” the girl demanded, glanced back over her brother. There was nothing. Nothing! Only the water.

@Marina feel free to play the otters too or whatever~

Mako wrinkled his nose in distaste at Marina's evident skepticism. "Course I'm sure. They gotta be here." He snapped, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. It wasn't like he was lying, or stupid. He had seen them just yesterday, the creatures couldn't have gone far. And even if they had, he'd find them anyways. "We just gotta look," He said with a snuff before trotting closer to the water, ducking his head down and inhaling deeply. He'd seen the adults do this when they were looking for something, sniffing all over the place. Though Mako wasn't really sure what it was he was supposed to be sniffing for, the strong, fishy musk was undeniably enticing, and before he knew it he was following his nose up and down the bank.

Too fully engrossed in his current task of trying to locate the mysterious creatures, Mako didn't notice the dark, beady eyed face that poked out from a shady little burrow concealed by foliage on the opposite bank. Others soon joined it in the little entrance, before the bevy of otters soon spilled forth onto the shore, a mischievous glint in their eyes and a menacing twitch in their whiskers.

Mako grumbled, staring between his feet at a strange little pawprints left in the muck, totally oblivious to the otters watching from just across the stream.

Marina’s ears flattened backwards by fractions at her brother’s short remark. The lack of longanimity would surely cause strife between the seal and the shark someday; but today, the girl was far more curious about the possibility of the mystery river creatures than she was arguing with Mako and his short temper. She followed the dusky wolf down to the riverbank, mirroring him as she leaned down to sniff the muck.

Truthfully, she had no idea what she was looking for, but if Mako was doing it, then Marina was going to do it, too.

But all she could smell was cool water and the particular stench of fish and she lifted her head, considering her brother thoughtfully for a moment. She opened her mouth to say something before a flash of movement across the river caught her eye and she lifted her head; there were so many! Marina’s jaw dropped as the group seemed to multiply, bobbing their heads as they chattered amongst themselves, clearly as curious about the weird critters across the water as the wolves were about the otters.

She sucked in a sharp breath and reached over to bump Mako’s flank. “Mako!” she hissed sharply. “Mako, look! Look! They’re here!”

"Look! They're here!"

Mako's head whipped around at his sister's prompting, finally spotting the brown creatures across the water. Well, at least Marina wasn't totally useless. His thin tail wagged quickly, a toothy grin pulling across his muzzle. "See! I told ya!" He said proudly, just rubbing it in a little.

"We gotta catch one!" He said, starting to wade into the water. Oh how proud mom would be when she saw him bringing home one of these big... water... squirrels? He still had no idea what they were, but he was sure she'd like one. Would they taste like squirrel? Or fish?

The crowd of otters started chattering and wriggling with increased frenzy, and as if on cue all launched into the water at once. Mako's eyes widened, they were going to get away! "Marina! Grab one!" He yelled as he started to run through the shallows after them. At least, that's what he was doing before he felt something grip his back leg. He stopped in his tracks and turned, glaring back at one of the creatures holding his ankle as it stared back at him with beady black eyes. He reached backwards, trying to bite the squirrel-fish but was thrown off balance when something else grabbed onto one of his forelimbs and tugged.

Soon a flotilla of the strange creatures had him surrounded, dozens of little paws grabbing and pushing and pulling to the net effect of slowly ferrying the boy across the water. Mako fought back every inch of the way, but they were too agile, each bite dodged as simply as ducking into the water. "Heeeeelp!" Mako squeaked as soon as he realized what they were doing.  Where the hell were they taking him!

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

…well, okay. Maybe Mako had told her so, but the girl was equally as certain she didn’t want to give her brother that satisfaction just yet. So instead, she dove into his suggestion without really thinking it through – catch one, of course! They had to bring it back to Mama and show her their amazing discovery. Maybe she had a name for the critters.

Mako was off well before she was and the seal cub gave a disappointed yip, splashing after him with entirely less grace. Even if it was shallow, the water slowed her running considerably; even at this age, Marina was considerably less svelte than her brother, and found moving quickly to be incredibly difficult.

Or perhaps that was a blessing?

A few lengths behind her brother, the young cub saw the entire event unfold; her brother turning to bite at something unseen, Mako’s sudden dunking into the stream. And then, out of nowhere, an entire armada of the strange creatures had bobbed up around her brother. Eyes nearly popping out of her head, Marina bounded towards her sibling with the fiercest barks she could muster. “Shoo! Shoo! Go away! Leave him alone!” she shouted to the creatures, only earning several pairs of beady black eyeballs and bobbing heads. Though the creatures were only curious, Marina had no way of knowing and found herself swallowing hard.

“Makoooooo! You gotta get out, quick!”

While they were looking away!