Spectral Woods The Safer Bet

Larkspur, as per usual, got up before the sun. In normal circumstances he would have prodded Snippet awake and urged them both closer to Oak Tree Bend. But circumstances weren't normal, and from the time that he woke to the time that the sun climbed into the sky, the man battled with himself. The duo had traveled out of the copse and into the Spectral Woods, but still a safe distance away from Oak Tree Bend's borders. They both had settled for the night at the base of a tree that had low hanging branches, much like his tree back home, though not as twisted. It also didn't have a nice gaping hole at the bottom, so they were forced to just sleep next to it instead of in it. It was alright, with Snippet's head resting on his back. Lark tried to think of what good this situation brought him. Snippet didn't want to be alone any more than he did (though she was young and capable of change, him... not so much).

Being more of a glass half empty than half full sort of man, Lark found himself worrying over what he would do, should the Bend not take in his granddaughter. The idea alone was making his blood boil, and although he wanted to believe that there was no way on earth that they would push away his Snippet, he didn't.

Could he burn another bridge for her? Or would he be better off kicking the girl to the curb?

He had just started to feel comfortable in his new pack. He had gotten to know the wolves, he had fallen into the routine of hunting and sleeping. Although Larkin didn't believe he would be truly happy, he felt slivers of it during his time in his new pack. Snippet, on the other hand, felt more... solid. He'd been disowned by his old pack, and somehow he didn't doubt that the same would happen with his new home. He could easily convince someone who had nothing to stick by his side. There was less of a risk with the girl.

Without bothering to wake @Parsnip up, he got onto all fours. Lark shook his pelt out and looked around at the misty forest, which wasn't so daunting now that he'd spent the past few months in it. He mostly knew his way around. It had just started to get light out, and soon the mist wouldn't be so difficult to see through. "C'mon, Snippet, we have to find a rabbit," even if that only meant that he'd have to face his issue head-on sooner.

And on the other hand, perhaps it'd all work out fine. @Sahalie had once said how chill Oak Tree Bend was. It was about high time he see if there was any truth in her words.

(This post was last modified: Oct 07, 2016, 06:35 PM by Larkspur.)

Snippet hadn't expected sleep to come easily to her. She had been almost afraid to try for fear of seeing Juniper bloodied against a backdrop of meadow grass. They hadn't even found someplace hidden away to make their bed for the night. Parsnip had felt terribly exposed, though she had crawled in between Larkspur and the tree in an effort to hide herself. Luckily, a mixture of physical and emotional exhaustion had sent her into a deep, dreamless sleep almost the instant she rested her head upon her grandfather's back. She hadn't stirred once through the whole of the night. It was unexpected, but an entirely welcome relief and respite from her current situation. 

The girl didn't wake until her grandfather rose to his feet. Her head slipped from his back and her chin dropped onto the arch of a raised root. Parsnip jolted awake with a small sound of surprise and blinked blearily in the dim, early morning light. Her grandfather was speaking, but his words didn't make sense to her yet. The fog of sleep was almost as thick as the mist around them. "Huh?" The young wolf blinked slowly once more as the words sank in. Rabbit. They had to find a rabbit for the leaders of the pack. Awareness and understanding didn't help her wake up any faster. She stretched daintily and yawned - an act accompanied by a high pitched whine - and finally stood. She shook herself and half-stumbled on still sore feet to where Larkspur stood. 

Parsnip pressed her nose into his neck and nuzzled the old man affectionately. "Good morning, Opa," she offered sleepily with a lazy wag of her tail. The girl perhaps wasn't much one for mornings, but at least she greeted the world with sleepy sweetness instead of with any sort of grouchiness. "It's so foggy," she complained lightly and lifted her nose to sniff curiously at the damp, cold air. Rabbits. It was time to hunt rabbits. She could do this. She wasn't going to get distracted this time. She was going to do good and make her Opa proud. 

"I'm ready."

✿

[ 352 ] <3

Sahalie had woken much earlier than usual this morning in the hopes of seeking Larkspur out for advice. When she had opened her eyes she had been very sure of what she wanted to ask.  She had come to the conclusion somewhere along the way that it would be better to find him in the morning when he was the most... "energetic" rather than later in the day when he just wanted to nap by his tree. But now that she was wandering aimlessly in the foggy woods and had been focusing on finding his scent in the damp air for some time now she was no longer sure what she had been prepared to ask about. Normally, this might have caused her to give up and turn around, but a flicker of curiosity stirred in her as she passed by his leafless, knotted Oak to find his scent stale. What was Larkspur up to? He seemed to hunt a lot, which was probably a skill of her own that she should be working on.

The girl resolved to seek out his help. At least it would be a useful substitution for whatever she had forgotten.

Sighing, still groggy, the girl wondered if she could ever become a morning-wolf as her search took her over the borders and into the mistier parts of the forest. The air was getting colder now and the fog would cling even more determinedly to the trees. Sahalie was thankful that she lived in such a soft, muted atmosphere in times such as this. She would not have wanted to blink the daylight out of her eyes and squint to see anything. 

Her nose twitched as her teeth pulled at her lower lip: she could smell another wolf along with Lark's scent drifting towards her. It was the smell of a young female, but not any young female that Sahalie would have known. This was exceedingly strange, since Lark did not seem like the type to A: hang out with unnecessary wolves B: enjoy little girls. The combination of A and B lead the girl to conclude that something particularly interesting and important was happening, and her feet moved a little faster.

Her bark was dampened by the thickened air, but it was loud enough for them to hear her. "What, you weren't sick enough of hanging out with young ladies that you went and found one of your own?" Her posture was neutral, but she let her tail wag quickly behind her. "Whose this?" It surprised her the most to see that this girl was just as small as Sahalie was. Smaller, even. Though the girl looked like the picture of a sweetheart, it was impossible to deny some glaring flags: the eyes, the face mask and—as Sahalie craned over to take a peak—that tell-tale zig-zag marking behind the shoulders.

"I didn't know you had family," she said lightly, blinking. Why did this make her feel so strange?

He'd decided hours ago that he would be good today. Maybe not genuinely good, but he'd be as good as any old, ragged man that hated the world could be. He almost snapped at her. Of course it was foggy. Was she complaining? His teeth clenched together tightly for a moment as he thought of his words carefully — something Larkspur was not very good at. "It's foggy here," he simply said and impatiently waited for the girl to get up. He took the lead, "When hunting for-"


Sahalie.

Lark sniffed again  to be sure. Lo and behold, the dark, yellow eyed girl appeared from the mist. He ignored her first comment, and then her second, but the third. He glanced back to @Parsnip , wondering how alike the two must have looked for Sahalie to quickly come to her conclusion. "I didn't know you got up so early," she still looked a little bit tired, and it also didn't seem like her to be away from home so soon. He wanted to ask her what she wanted, but at the moment they had more important things at hand. Well, maybe not important, but he felt it.

"We're hunting rabbit," he explained, "and after, we'll go to Spieden or Serach and see if they'll let her join," he motioned towards Snippet.

With Sahalie now all filled in, he quickly got back to task in hopes that the girl wouldn't bombard him with more questions. He'd find out what she wanted later, especially because he could only assume it was about something small and meaningless. He picked up where he'd left off. { b}"Pay attention. When hunting for rabbit,"[/b] he turned to his granddaughter. "Use your nose first, your ears second, and your eyes last. Sometimes you will see them first, but you should still use your nose. If you can't smell it, then it can smell you. It'll run away if it smells you," he'd been on many wild rabbit chases. They were all in good fun, but today he decided to stick with the basics.

"Pay attention," he told Snippet again. "Both of you," because now it was a lesson for two, rather than just one. "Close your eyes and find a rabbit."